Biased Media

The President Is Making An Enemy of the People (Division)

Published by Papa Giorgio

“What’s More Authoritarianism Than a No Fly List for People Who Disagree With You?” Dr. Paul on Fox

Here is some commentary regarding the ATLANTIC JOURNAL article Senator Paul references via the DAILY EXPOSE:

…..Juliette Kayyem, former assistant secretary for homeland security under President Obama, wrote in an article for The Atlantic titled “Unvaccinated People Belong on the No-Fly List”: “But at this stage of the pandemic, tougher universal restrictions are not the solution to continuing viral spread. While flying, vaccinated people should no longer carry the burden for unvaccinated people.

“The White House has rejected a nationwide vaccine mandate—a sweeping suggestion that the Biden administration could not easily enact if it wanted to—but a no-fly list for unvaccinated adults is an obvious step that the federal government should take.

“It will help limit the risk of transmission at destinations where unvaccinated people travel—and, by setting norms that restrict certain privileges to vaccinated people, will also help raise the stagnant vaccination rates that are keeping both the economy and society from fully recovering.”

These comments are essentially a form of left-wing extremism, comparing the unvaccinated to terrorists. Of course, the mainstream media won’t report on the quietly introduced legislation, instead opting to promote the vaccine agenda and encourage more Americans to roll up their sleeves and submit to the jab.

JACK PROBIEC notes that The Atlantic changed the title of the story. Here is first the changed headline followed by the archived headline (linked accordingly):

BREITBART notes that “Kayyem champions shaming the unvaccinated, who should ‘face scorn among their peer group’ and ‘may even be happy to have an excuse to protect themselves,’ along with celebrating Broadway, Disney, and Walmart for forcing the unvaccinated to give up ‘certain societal benefits’ to practice their their individuality and freedom of choice.”

Yet another site — which I do not recommend since they the author is a Nation of Islam apologist — still, I feel compelled to share. To be clear however, even in this post I linked to, I disagree with some positions, but I must hat-tip. And if you are not aware of the “Pegasus” software issue, NPR will allow you some understanding to the issue.

….Journalist Max Blumenthal noted on Twitter that other politicians are pushing for vaccine mandates and seem to be backing the no-fly list for the unvaccinated. Blumenthal tweeted, “Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres introduces bill to direct the Department of Homeland Security to place all unvaccinated people on the no fly list”.

Blumenthal is the editor of The Grayzone, an independent news website dedicated to original investigative journalism and analysis on politics and empire. He also co-hosts the “Moderate Rebels” podcast.

“Rep. Torres’ bill appears to have been inspired by this op-ed by Juliette Kayyem,” Blumethal tweeted. “Kayyem is a former DHS official who lobbied for the Israeli NSO Group behind the notorious Pegasus tech used to spy on journalists & world leaders. What could go wrong?”

There is a reason people like Juliette Kayyem wanted [actively] “Pegasus type” spyware. because the administration kept getting caught via Freedom of Information Acts and other methods promoting transparency.

The Obama administration, much to the surprise of the current ethos of the politically maligned, was the leader in violating the press’ rights. Even far Left orgs at the time “got it” — DAILY BEAST:

The press-punishing, speech-chilling, and unabashedly overreaching actions by the Obama administration against the Associated Press and Fox News Channel’s James Rosen lay bare the essential dynamic between any president and a press that is always more prone to being lapdogs than watchdogs: the president feeds or punishes them as he sees fit, while chanting a bogus rosary about “national security.”

In the case of the AP, the Obama administration secretly subpoenaed phone-call logs and other information from an office where over 100 journalists worked. Officials were on the hunt for the sources that cooperated with the AP on a story about a failed terrorist plot in Yemen. As AP head Gary Pruitt has put it, the administration’s subpoena was “so secretly, so abusively and harassingly and over-broad … that it is an unconstitutional act.” As important, Pruitt says that the subpoena revelation has already chilled even routine news gathering, as government officials have become paranoid—with reason, perhaps—about sharing even banal sorts of information.

To make matters worse in terms of press freedom, there are many reasons to assume the Obama administration is secretly spying on many other journalists and organizations. With Fox’s Rosen, the administration got an actual warrant to read his email and contends that he has committed crimes by pursuing and publishing a story about North Korea, even though the story apparently doesn’t include any classified information per se. Rosen hasn’t been legally charged as of yet, but as Glenn Greenwald notes, the accusations against Rosen parallel government charges against WikiLeaks honcho Julian Assange. “Under U.S. law,” writes Greenwald, “it’s not illegal to publish classified information,” so the Obama administration is claiming that it’s illegal for journalists and publishers to “solicit” such information. That doesn’t simply fly in the face of the First Amendment and Vietnam-era rulings guaranteeing press freedoms, it declares “war on journalism” by essentially criminalizing the very act of investigative reporting…..

Some Reminders:

Here’s All the Times Obama Ejected the Media (POLITICAL INSIDER)

  • And that’s not all! Not long after taking office, the Secret Service literally dragged away a black female reporter. Imagine the optics if an African-American woman were dragged away by Trump’s Secret Service.

If Donald Trump Targets Journalists, Thank Obama (NEW YORK TIMES | unlocked article @ INVESTIGATINBG TRUMP)

  • Over the past eight years, the Obama Administration has prosecuted nine cases involving whistle-blowers and leakers, compared with only three by all previous administrations combined. It has repeatedly used the Espionage Act, a relic of World War I-era red-baiting, not to prosecute spies but to go after government officials who talked to journalists. Under President Obama, the Justice Department and the FBI have spied on reporters by monitoring their phone records, labeled one journalist an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal case for simply doing reporting and issued subpoenas to other reporters to try to force them to reveal their sources and testify in criminal cases.

PROSECUTED and JAILED!

Here’s the Proof: Obama Treated Journalists WAY Worse than Trump (DAN BONGINO):

…Obama prosecuted more journalists under the Espionage Act than all other Presidents combined. While many certainly deserved it (such as Chelsea Manning), are we to believe there were more acts of espionage from 2009-2016 than the rest of American history?

In total, 13 people have been prosecuted under the Espionage Act for sharing classified information with journalists since 1945. Of those 13, eight were arrested while Obama was president. Only one person has been prosecuted under the Espionage Act under Trump’s presidency (a woman bizarrely named “Reality Winner’), which is entirely justified for the same reasons that Manning’s charges were justified.

As one writer put it, “Trump rages about leakers. Obama quietly prosecuted them.”…

Trump Rages About Leakers. Obama Quietly Prosecuted Them (WASHINGTON POST)

….Experts on executive-branch leaks say it’s too early to gauge Trump’s legacy. But much has been made about the Obama administration’s hunt for leakers. Of the 13 people who have been prosecuted under the Espionage Act for leaking secrets, eight were arrested under Obama’s administration, according to Alexandra Ellerbeck, senior Americas and U.S. researcher with the Committee to Protect Journalists.

And prosecutors under Obama have spied on journalists and named a journalist an “unindicted co-conspirator,” according to the New York Times. Ellerbeck said that’s just a step away from arresting a reporter for writing a story — and raises dangerous constitutional issues about freedom of the press.

“Obama was furious over leaks, but his fury was directed internally,” said David Pozen, a constitutional law professor at Columbia University who specializes in national security law.
 
“What distinguishes Trump is that he is directing his [anger] to the public. What is the point of complaining about leaks in a public tweet? He can call up the attorney general at any moment of the day or night. … He’s the chief executive and he has powerful investigative tools at his disposal. Twitter is not one of the tools.”

[….]

Mark Mazzetti, an investigative reporter who covers national security for the New York Times, talked to The Post’s Greg Sargent about the effect of Obama’s leak investigations.

“There’s no question that this has a chilling effect,” Mazzetti told Sargent in 2013. “People who have talked in the past are less willing to talk now. Everyone is worried about communication and how to communicate, and is there any method of communication that is not being monitored. It’s got people on both sides — the reporter and source side — pretty concerned.

“It certainly seems like they’re being very serious about hunting down people talking to reporters.”

Trump’s approach to leaks has had the opposite effect, experts say….

DESTROYED BY THE ESPIONAGE ACT: Stephen Kim Spoke to a Reporter. Now He’s in Jail. This Is His Story. (INTERCEPT)

….Rosen’s email helps explain the part of the case that has received the most media attention: In 2013, the court unsealed a prosecution document that described Rosen as a potential “co-conspirator.” The document, an affidavit in support of a search warrant to Google demanding access to Rosen’s Gmail account, revealed that the government had tracked Rosen’s movements on June 11 and had obtained records of his phone calls and some emails. There was widespread condemnation from the media about what seemed to be a profound violation of First Amendment protections for a free press. This came as the Department of Justice was continuing to threaten the New York Times reporter James Risen with a jail sentence if he refused to identify one of his sources (last month, the Justice Department announced it would not prosecute Risen), and it came just a few days after news broke that the government secretly had obtained the records of more than 20 Associated Press phone lines as part of an investigation into the source of an AP terrorism story. The government responded to the outcry by promising that Rosen would not be prosecuted, and that the seizure of reporters’ emails and phone records would be done with greater care in the future.

[….]

after years of fighting to stay out of jail, wanted to go to prison as soon as possible, so that he could get on with his life.

When I visited him in April and May, there were surprisingly few things in the small apartment he was renting in Reston, Virginia. Clothes, dishes, sheets, books — everything was being sold, given away, or put into storage as his incarceration neared. He mentioned that he had a picture from the day he briefed Cheney. I asked if I could see it, and he brought it up from the basement. I looked at it for a while, Kim and the vice president going over documents about North Korea. When I asked whether I could make a copy, he waved at the picture abruptly.

“Take it,” he said. “Take whatever you want.”

Kim’s pain emerged in flashes like this. Most of the time he was adept at hiding behind a self-protective dry humor. At lunch with a few of his supporters after he was sentenced, he joked that he could write a memoir titled From Yale to Jail. When someone asked what he would do after getting out, he wisecracked, “Welcome to McDonald’s. Would you like to supersize your order?” This wasn’t too far from the truth. To improve his odds for early release, he lined up two job commitments once he got out of prison — one was working in a Catholic church, the other was a job in a women’s beauty shop….

…..AND….

Obama Used The Espionage Act To Put A Record Number Of Reporters’ Sources In Jail, And Trump Could Be Even Worse [HINT: Trump Wasn’t] (PRESS FREEDOM TRACKER)

…For much of the law’s existence, while it was used perniciously against anti-war demonstrators, it was not applied to journalists or their sources. It was not until 1971 that a person was indicted under the Espionage Act for providing classified information to a journalist. Between 1917 and 2009, only one person was convicted under the Espionage Act for leaking to a news organization.

But the Obama administration was determined to change that. Under pressure from Congress and intelligence agencies, Attorney General Eric Holder directed the Department of Justice to aggressively prosecute government employees who discussed classified information with reporters. In 2012, after news organizations reported on U.S. drone strikes and attempts to disable Iranian nuclear reactors, Holder assigned two U.S. attorneys to track down the journalists’ sources.

President Barack Obama strongly supported Holder’s war against journalists’ sources, despite once promising to protect whistleblowers when in office and running for president on the national security scandals of the Bush administration — misdeeds that became public only because of leaks.

“Since I’ve been in office, my attitude has been zero tolerance for these kinds of leaks and speculation,” Obama said in June 2012. “Now we have mechanisms in place where, if we can root out folks who have leaked, they will suffer consequences. In some case, it’s criminal. These are criminal acts when they release information like this. And we will conduct thorough investigations, as we have in the past.”

Obama’s Justice Department succeeded in putting a number of people in jail for daring to help national security journalists report on classified government programs.

During the Obama administration, the Department of Justice brought charges under the Espionage Act against eight people accused of leaking to the media — Thomas Drake, Shamai Leibowitz, Stephen Kim, Chelsea Manning, Donald Sachtleben, Jeffrey Sterling, John Kiriakou and Edward Snowden.

Two other high ranking Obama officials, General David Petraeus and General James Cartwright, were also prosecuted as part of leak investigations. They both ultimately pled to lesser charges and were never indicted under the Espionage Act. Cartwright was also later pardoned. Including their cases, the total number of leak case prosecutions under the Obama administration was 10….

 

RSV Cases On The Rise (Catalogued as Covid) | “Fully Vaxed” Update

Published by Papa Giorgio

Okay, to follow are two stories that are “in-additions” to these to show just how manipulated and wrong the press has bee and has already had to backtrack on… but it doesn’t matter because people only remember the headlines, not the retractions or challenges. Again, the two new additions will follow the links:

The RSV story has a lot to do with hospitalizations and ICU beds. I will MAROOON the related stories:

Okay, from the CDC having to retract Florida numbers to CNN using numbers from a leftie paper that were 4,100% wrong to this RDV thing being glommed on to by the media as Covid admissions… the facts TRUMP the rhetoric of the Left.

This first story deals with the RSV topic via RIGHT SCOOP! (Apologies to RS for gabbing most of the post) — I AM ADDING THE BULLET POINTS:

I mean, your instinct is probably to answer “of course they are!” But there is misleading and then there’s MISLEADING. And in the second misleading, I’m talking about downright, outright, deliberately stating things in a way specifically to make it seem like you are saying ONE thing when actually you’re avoiding saying that ONE THING.

You know, it’s misleading to say that “most people hated that song” if only 51% of people hated that song. It’s sort of true but you’re leading people to believe it’s a bigger number.

But it’s MISLEADING to report “Hospital beds are filling up as Covid cases increase in Texas”, when your article is about how multiple factors are contributing to a bed shortage. You are deliberately giving the ILLUSION that you’ve said Covid cases are filling up the beds. But you actually aren’t saying that. You just want people to THINK you said it and not check further.

It was misleading of Anthony Fauci to say “masks are the most effective barrier to infection” when what he MEANT was “don’t buy too many masks we want them for other stuff.” (By the way, it’s quite an accomplishment on Fauci’s part that he was for AND against masks and was lying about their effectiveness in BOTH cases.)

Anyway, here’s what brought this up. [Link to ALLIE, link to AMANDA]

Those anecdotal tweets are interesting and telling. This is even more so:

This is damning:

  • The United States is not the only country experiencing a spike in RSV cases. New Zealand has also reported an increase in children falling ill with the respiratory virus. The country has reported nearly 1,000 RSV cases in the past five weeks, according to the Institute of Environmental Science and Research. In infants younger than six months, RSV can cause symptoms like irritability, poor feeding, and apnea. Older infants and young children can experience a decreased appetite before having a cough, fever, and wheezing. In the health advisory, the CDC said the RSV spike deviated from a typical circulation pattern for the virus, so it was not possible for the agency to anticipate the spread, peak, or duration of viral activity. (INDEPENDENT)

  • New Zealand hospitals are experiencing the payoff of “immunity debt” created by Covid-19 lockdowns, with wards flooded by babies with a potentially-deadly respiratory virus, doctors have warned. Wellington has 46 children currently hospitalised for respiratory illnesses including respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. A number are infants, and many are on oxygen. Other hospitals are also experiencing a rise in cases that are straining their resources – with some delaying surgeries or converting playrooms into clinical space. RSV is a common respiratory illness. In adults, it generally only produces very mild symptoms – but it can make young children extremely ill, or even be fatal. The size and seriousness of New Zealand’s outbreak is likely being fed by what some paediatric doctors have called an “immunity debt” – where people don’t develop immunity to other viruses suppressed by Covid lockdowns, causing cases to explode down the line. (GUARDIAN)

And this on CDC is devastating.

  • TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory after seeing an increase in Respiratory Syncytial Virus, more commonly known as RSV, across the southern United States. “Due to reduced circulation of RSV during the winter months of 2020–2021, older infants and toddlers might now be at increased risk of severe RSV-associated illness since they have likely not had typical levels of exposure to RSV during the past 15 months,” a release from the CDC said. Doctors across Tampa Bay say RSV typically spreads in the winter months, like the common cold. However, they have been seeing an increase in cases in the last few months, as temperatures warm, which is unusual. “It is the predominant thing we are seeing in the emergency department right now,” said Dr. Joseph Perno, the chief medical officer for John’s Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. (ABC 27 NEWS TAMPA)

Breaking away from RIGHT SCOOP, I will continue the graphics with links to their Twitter — which you can then link to the articles from:

  • Mathematical models by researchers at Princeton University suggest that substantial outbreaks of the RS virus and possibly seasonal flu may occur in future years (link is external), with peak outbreaks likely occurring in the 2021-2022 winter season in the U.S. (PRINCETON)

That linked to a WALL STREET JOURNAL Article, which follows:

Post-Covid-19, World Risks Having to Pay Off the ‘Immunity Debt’

Many people had little exposure to common viruses during social distancing, meaning bugs could spread more quickly once countries reopen

Doctors in France are calling it the immunity debt: When people avoided each other during the pandemic, they failed to build up the immunity against viruses that comes from normal contact.

As regular life resumes, society may find payments on that debt coming due, in the form of worse-than-normal viral disease outbreaks.

In early June, 16-month-old Toranosuke Tsukidate came down with a common virus that caused a fever topping 106 degrees Fahrenheit.

The bug was spreading rapidly through his Tokyo daycare, said his mother, Miwako Tsukidate, 27, and the boy was hospitalized for oxygen treatment for a week.

By the time Toranosuke was discharged, his mother observed the beds around him filling up with children suffering the same ailment, which is usually more common in the fall.

“I was surprised to see how it took off so quickly, and I was also surprised to see it spreading at this time of the year,” Ms. Tsukidate said.

At Perth Children’s Hospital in Australia, infectious diseases researcher David Foley isn’t surprised.

His country experienced a similar out-of-season flare-up of the virus that infected Toranosuke — respiratory syncytial virus or RS virus — during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer months following an unusually quiet winter.

There was “an increased population that was susceptible, helping the virus to spread more easily,” Dr. Foley said. “Similar to starting a fire, the more kindling present, the easier it is for a spark to take hold and burn brightly.”

Doctors around the world who treat infections are getting ready for another year or two full of such anomalies.

As people strove to avoid the virus that causes Covid-19, they ended up staying away from many other viruses and bacteria that cause common ailments — influenza, chickenpox, strep throat, RS virus and more. Now as normal life resumes in many countries, exposure to those bugs is returning, too.

RS virus, transmissible by droplets and contact with contaminated surfaces, is usually minor in children but occasionally leads to hospitalization. Because it can cause inflammation of small airways in the lungs, it is also a significant cause of death in the elderly.

At Maimonides Children’s Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., Rabia Agha, director of the pediatric infectious diseases division, encountered an RS virus wave this spring.

She found the median age of infants treated was just 6 months, down from 17 months the previous season. The immune system of small babies tends to be weaker, so more of this year’s patients ended up in intensive care.

Dr. Agha thinks the difference had to do with mothers not being exposed to the virus while pregnant.

Mothers pass on RS virus antibodies to their babies but only when they have had a recent infection, she said.

Since May, the number of cases has eased, but “RSV will definitely come back and attack a larger population because last season few children got infected,” Dr. Agha said.

Toranosuke’s pediatrician, Akifumi Tokita, said older toddlers, age 3 or 4, were also turning up with high fevers because of RS virus.

He attributed this to their lack of normal exposure to the virus, which in turn meant they couldn’t build up immunity little by little.

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning in early June about increased cases of the virus in the South after a year of low activity. The U.K., France and Japan have also seen a return of RS virus.

Figures recently released in Japan show the profound effect exposure to viruses such as flu and RSV can have on a nation’s health.

Deaths caused by pneumonia — a common complication of viral infections — last year in Japan fell by more than 17,000, far outweighing the 3,466 deaths attributed to Covid-19. As a result, Japan’s overall mortality fell for the first time in more than a decade.

It may have been borrowing from the future by creating greater room for viruses to run rampant later.

Robert Cohen, a professor at a pediatric research center near Paris called Activ, calls this “immunity debt.”

Dr. Cohen said the hygiene measures adopted during the pandemic bring “an immediate and indisputable benefit” because common illnesses have been suppressed.

But at some point almost all children are going to get RS virus, chickenpox and viruses that cause colds, which could mean larger outbreaks when the bugs make up for lost time, he said.

Mathematical models by researchers at Princeton University suggest that substantial outbreaks of the RS virus and possibly seasonal flu may occur in future years, with peak outbreaks likely occurring in the 2021-2022 winter season in the U.S.

Dr. Cohen said another long-term concern involves the hygienist theory, which suggests that modern cleanliness contributed to the rise in allergies in wealthier countries by hindering the development of children’s immune systems.

With Covid-19 lockdowns, “We may see more children with allergic asthma,” he said.

Other doctors said they considered such an effect unlikely after only a year of social distancing.

Stopping a resurgence of infections during post-Covid-19 times depends in part on vaccinations.

Common viral diseases including chickenpox, rotavirus or stomach flu and regular flu can be prevented through vaccines. However, no vaccine for RS virus is available. The World Health Organization has said developing one is a priority.

Dr. Foley, the researcher in Perth, said he hoped the new technologies behind the Covid-19 vaccines “will spill over and help us develop more effective RSV vaccines.”

For now, people have one powerful tool that doesn’t depend on a medical breakthrough. “You can get rid of a lot of viruses by good hand-washing,” said Brooklyn’s Dr. Agha.

That is the hospitalization of kids issue. Next is an update the fully vaccinated in Israel. However — FIRST — just a quick convo I had with a friend via MESSANGER:

QUICK CONVO

RT: Of course this is a “Pandemic of the Unvaccinated.” Numbers are impossible to refute. Feel sorry for the little kids that are getting beat up by this thing, even though those numbers are small. You always find that “one doctor.” Usually the oddballs.

ME: I refute em all day long on my site. CDC had to retract Florida numbers. CNN used numbers from a leftie paper, and retracted because the # was in the 700s, and not 5,800. RSV is blowing up in kids, media is saying Covid. Don’t be silly

RT: I’ll agree with you and we can both be wrong. ICU beds tell EVERYTHING. Louisiana in big trouble. Florida and Texas big cities already in trouble.

ME: ICU beds not due to covid. Sorry. Also, not anywhere near a pandemic, at all. The flu season of 2017-2018 much worse. Also ……

STILL ME: Not only that, but if you catalogued that flu season (2017-2018) with the new definitions per the CDC (April of 2020) that flu season would have tripled to quadrupled in deaths attributed to it.

(AFTER THOUGHT): What my friend is doing is combining all the stats in his head from the start of this in September of 2019. Instead, he should be looking at this as two separate seasons and working with those numbers to compare with: 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.

END

Okay, moving on. Again, this is only half of a post via ALEX BERENSON, who, like the WSJ is behind a partial pay wall. But his posts have been key — for quite some time now. Enjoy the deep thought/work of Alex:

Yesterday Naftali Bennett, the prime minister of Israel, issued an stark (if unintentionally) revealing warning to his country about the failure of the mRNA vaccines.

As you know if you are a regular reader, Israel is the canary in the world’s coalmine for Covid and the vaccines. It vaccinated more of its citizens with the Pfizer shot more quickly than almost anywhere else.

This spring, Israel’s experience seemed to validate the success of the vaccines. Now it’s a cautionary tale, as I explained in a Substack almost two weeks ago (time flies when nations are falling).

Unfortunately since then the data has gotten much worse.

The number of serious cases has risen almost 30-fold since late June. Roughly 60 percent of those people are fully vaccinated.

Yet the vaccine fanatics refuse to admit the depth of Israeli the crisis. Instead they continue to point out that per-person rates of serious illness are higher in the unvaccinated elderly.

They are correct, but they’re leaving out a key fact. Over 90 percent of Israelis over 70 have been vaccinated, suggesting that many of the remainder have not received vaccinations because they are too frail to do so. (One datapoint supporting this fact: Vaccination rates actually peak among people in their seventies and then decline as people get older, even though the oldest people are at the highest risk and should be the most likely to be vaccinated.)

Thus the relative numbers matter much less than the absolute numbers and trend. And the absolute trend is awful.

—

Which brings us to what Naftali Bennett tweeted yesterday.

“Non-immunization for a third time leaves senior citizens in mortal danger. Get vaccinated now.”

Mortal danger?

Get vaccinated now?

These older Israelis are already vaccinated. Yet as Israel’s Covid wards, fill their prime minister is now more or less admitting that they are unprotected against the virus.

A major preprint out of Japan from July 30 explains why.

The researchers examined Pfizer vaccine-generated antibodies in more than 200 people and found that on average they fell to undetectable levels about 6.5 months after the first shot – or roughly five after they reach full vaccination.

In other words, the Israel failure is happening right on schedule. Vaccine protection lasts months, not years. (Four months, give or take, since protection is limited the first month and likely negative the first week or two.)

Thus Bennett’s desperate call for a third shot. But although the booster does seem to produce new antibodies, neither the Israeli government nor Pfizer nor anyone else can know whether it will reduce infections or deaths, either temporarily or permanently. NO ONE HAS CONDUCTED ANY CLINICAL TRIALS TO DETECT THESE ENDPOINTS OR TO EXAMINE THIRD SHOT SIDE-EFFECTS IN ANY DETAIL. (I looked at this issue last week in a different Substack.)…………….

Anyways, I am sure more will be available for review in the days to come.

Dr. Robert Malone’s Challenges to Re-Written History

Published by Papa Giorgio

Here is an excerpt from THE ATLANTIC:

….The abridged version is that when Malone was a graduate student in biology in the late 1980s at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, he injected genetic material—DNA and RNA—into the cells of mice in hopes of creating a new kind of vaccine. He was the first author on a 1989 paper demonstrating how RNA could be delivered into cells using lipids, which are basically tiny globules of fat, and a co-author on a 1990 Science paper showing that if you inject pure RNA or DNA into mouse muscle cells, it can lead to the transcription of new proteins. If the same approach worked for human cells, the latter paper said in its conclusion, this technology “may provide alternative approaches to vaccine development.”

These two studies do indeed represent seminal work in the field of gene transfer, according to Rein Verbeke, a postdoctoral fellow at Ghent University, in Belgium, and the lead author of a 2019 history of mRNA-vaccine development. (Indeed, Malone’s studies are the first two references in Verbeke’s paper, out of 224 in total.) Verbeke told me he believes that Malone and his co-authors “sparked for the first time the hope that mRNA could have potential as a new drug class,” though he also notes that “the achievement of the mRNA vaccines of today is the accomplishment of a lot of collaborative efforts.”

Malone says he deserves credit for more than just sparking hope. He dropped out of graduate school in 1988, just short of his Ph.D., and went to work at a pharmaceutical company called Vical. Now he claims that both the Salk Institute and Vical profited from his work and essentially prevented him from further pursuing his research. (A Salk Institute spokesperson said that nothing in the institute’s records substantiates Malone’s allegations. The biotech company into which Vical was merged, Brickell, did not respond to requests for comment.) To say that Malone remains bitter over this perceived mistreatment doesn’t do justice to his sense of aggrievement. He calls what happened to him “intellectual rape.”

One target of Malone’s ire, the biochemist Katalin Karikó, has been featured in multiple news stories as an mRNA-vaccine pioneer. CNN called her work “the basis of the Covid-19 vaccine” while a New York Times headline said she had “helped shield the world from the coronavirus.” None of those stories mentioned Malone. “I’ve been written out of the history,” he has said. “It’s all about Kati.” Karikó shared with me an email that Malone sent her in June, accusing her of feeding reporters bogus information and inflating her own accomplishments. “This is not going to end well,” Malone’s message says.

Karikó replied that she hadn’t told anyone that she is the inventor of mRNA vaccines and that “many many scientists” contributed to their success. “I have never claimed more than discovering a way to make RNA less inflammatory,” she wrote to him. She told me that Malone referred to himself in an email as her “mentor” and “coach,” though she says they’ve met in person only once, in 1997, when he invited her to give a talk. It’s Malone, according to Karikó, who has been overstating his accomplishments. There are “hundreds of scientists who contributed more to mRNA vaccines than he did.”

Malone insists that his warning to Karikó that “this is not going to end well” was not intended as a threat. Instead, he says, he was suggesting that her exaggerations would soon be exposed. Malone views Karikó as yet another scientist standing on his shoulders and collecting plaudits that should go to him. Others have been rewarded handsomely for their work on mRNA vaccines, he says. (Karikó is a senior vice president at BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer to create the first COVID-19 vaccine to be authorized for use last year.) Malone was once forced to declare bankruptcy, though he’s not exactly living on the streets: In addition to being a medical doctor, he has served as a vaccine consultant for pharmaceutical companies.

In any case, it’s clear enough that Malone isn’t singularly responsible for mRNA vaccines. The process of achieving major scientific advancements tends to be more cumulative and complex than the apple-to-the-head stories we usually tell, but this much can be said for sure: Malone was involved in groundbreaking work related to mRNA vaccines before it was cool or profitable; and he and others who believed in the potential of RNA-based vaccines in the 1980s turned out to be world-savingly correct……

Here is an interesting commentary on an ATLANTIC article:

This afternoon, The Atlantic wrote a fair piece titled, “The Vaccine Scientist Spreading Vaccine Misinformation.” The article started out with the author, Tom Bartlett, asking: “Robert Malone claims to have invented mRNA technology. Why is he trying so hard to undermine its use?”

Again, we think the article is fair and objective. Unlike Logically.AI, which categorically said Dr. Malone was not the original inventor of the vaccine, Mr. Bartlett credited Dr. Malone for being the first person to “demonstrate how RNA could be delivered into cells using lipids.”

Below is how Mr. Bartlett describes Dr. Malone’s body of work:

“The abridged version is that when Malone was a graduate student in biology in the late 1980s at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, he injected genetic material—DNA and RNA—into the cells of mice in hopes of creating a new kind of vaccine. He was the first author on a 1989 paper demonstrating how RNA could be delivered into cells using lipids, which are basically tiny globules of fat, and a co-author on a 1990 Science paper showing that if you inject pure RNA or DNA into mouse muscle cells, it can lead to the transcription of new proteins. If the same approach worked for human cells, the latter paper said in its conclusion, this technology ‘may provide alternative approaches to vaccine development.’”

Mr. Bartlett’s piece is not really the purpose of this article. The question is, what did Dr. Malone say or do to jeopardize his chances of winning a Nobel Prize? To answer this question, we need to go back to his TV appearance on June 23. During the interview, Dr. Malone stated that he was not discouraging the use of the vaccine that the government is not being transparent with us about what those risks are.

“[O]ne of my concerns are that the government is not being transparent with us about what those risks are. And so, I’m of the opinion that people have the right to decide whether to accept a vaccine or not, especially since these are experimental vaccines,” Dr. Malone said, pointing to the fact the vaccines are not formally approved but instead being administered under Emergency Use Authorization.

Dr. Malone added: “This is a fundamental right having to do with clinical research ethics,” he said. “And so, my concern is that I know that there are risks. But we don’t have access to the data, and the data haven’t been captured rigorously enough so that we can accurately assess those risks — and therefore … we don’t really have the information that we need to make a reasonable decision.”

Immediately after the interview, the news about what he said quickly travel across the mainstream media, News York Times, Washington Post, and now, The Atlantic. Since then, Dr. Malone has been under attack.

About a month later, Logically.Ai wrote a piece claiming that Dr. Robert Malone did NOT invent mRNA vaccines. Instead, Logically said: “It is Dr. Katalin Karikó and her collaborator Dr. Drew Weissman who are more commonly credited with laying the groundwork for mRNA vaccines.” Logically is a UK-registered startup founded in 2017 by Lyric Jain. The company provides an all-in-one threat intelligence platform.

Just as Mr. Bartlett said in the Atlantic story, “Whether Malone really came up with mRNA vaccines is a question probably best left to Swedish prize committees, but you could make a case for his involvement.” Which leads us to Dr. Malone’s chances of getting a Nobel prize.

In a tweet this afternoon, Dr. Malone shared a statement from a cellular immunologist Stan Gromkowski who did work on mRNA vaccines in the early 1990s. According to the tweet, Gromkowski said this about Dr. Malone: “He’s fucking up his chances for a Nobel Prize.”

In the same tweet, Dr. Malone added that he was well aware of the potential impact on a possible Nobel. “I made a choice,” he wrote…..

[….]

In the meantime, below are web links from other reliable sources including Wikipedia and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) patent website that show Dr. Malone to be one of the inventors of the mRNA vaccine.

(TECH STARTUPS)

From Malone’s own bio:

…This body of work resulted in over 10 patents and numerous publications, yielding about 7000 citations for this work. The paper was the first showing data for DNA and RNA side by side for in-vivo (the first paper for in-vivo DNA):

Direct gene transfer into mouse muscle in vivo. Wolff JA, Malone RW, et al. Science. 1990;247(4949 Pt 1):1465-8. Cited in 4,750 articles, is the result of that work.

In 1989, research was performed that gave rise to the 10+ groundbreaking patents on mRNA vaccination, all with a priority date of March 3, 1989. This is the same priority date as the Salk Patent application, showing that the two institutions were working together (without Robert’s knowledge). These patents are the first published research on mRNA vaccination. The titles and links to the patents are listed in the documents below. These patents have proof of principle experiments on mRNA vaccines – that clearly document that the invention worked and that these are the first experiments showing this.

Vical was to license the Salk Technology. Instead, they hired Robert’s thesis advisor from the Salk and soon after, the Salk dropped the patent and Vical never pursued a license from the Salk. Due to an employee contract with Vical, this stopped Robert from working in the field commercially for a decade. Vical claimed all the Salk research happened at Vical and sent a cease and desist letter.

Dr. Malone carried on his research into mRNA vaccination during the 1990s, culminating in a mucosal patent that was issued in 2000. He also helped revolutionized the field of cationic liposomes for the use in RNA vaccinations. This work was so far ahead of its time, that only now is the world turning to mucosal mRNA vaccination as a method of immunization. For a listing of some of his work, see the publications at the end of this page.

Scientifically trained at UC Davis, UC San Diego, and at the Salk Institute Molecular Biology and Virology laboratories, Dr. Malone received his medical training at Northwestern University (MD) and Harvard University Medical School (Clinical Research Post Graduate) , and in Pathology at UC Davis, He has almost 100 peer-reviewed publications, and has been an invited speaker at about 50 conferences…..

LIFE SITE notes the removing of Dr. Malone’s bio [contribution] to the mRNA Vaccines:

Dr. Robert Malone, M.D., M.S., discovered RNA transfection and, while he was at the Salk Institute in San Diego in 1988, invented mRNA vaccines. His research was continued the next year at Vical, and between 1988 and 1989, Malone wrote the patent disclosures for mRNA vaccines.  

On June 10, 2021, Dr. Malone joined biologist Bret Weinstein, Ph.D, on the Dark Horse Podcast, where Malone raised numerous safety concerns about the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, both of which use mRNA technology. He warned about future autoimmune issues caused by the spike proteins within the mRNA injections. 

Malone also stated that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was aware that the spike proteins were “biologically active and could travel from the injection site and cause adverse events, and that the spike protein, if biologically active, is very dangerous.”

YouTube swiftly moved to censor clips from the three-hour podcast interview. 

Then, appearing on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight some days later, Dr. Malone issued further warnings about the vaccines, the content of which is contrary to the mainstream media’s promotion of the injections. The mRNA inventor declared that there was still insufficient data for anyone to make an informed decision about receiving the vaccines.  

Malone also warned against the injections being given to young people: “I have a bias that the benefits probably don’t outweigh the risks in that cohort. But, unfortunately, the risk-benefit analysis is not being done.” 

Carlson described Malone as being perhaps “the single most qualified person on planet earth to discuss this subject” given his status as the inventor of the technology behind the injections now being rolled out, and in some cases mandated, to people across the globe.  

However, Malone was not targeted merely by YouTube. Just days after the Dark Horse Podcast was released, the Wikipedia entry for “RNA vaccine” was changed, removing him and his role from the article, and thus potentially removing the weight that his warnings about the technology might convey.  

[…more changes shown at Life Site]

 

MORE Media Retractions… and Fact-Checks by NPR??

Published by Papa Giorgio

This first story deals with a story run by CNN via RED STATE… hold for the hilarity of DDS (DeSantis Derangement Syndrome):

I wrote earlier about a story that spread far and wide, helped by a CNN report, that four teachers died from COVID within 24 hours in Broward County.

CNN then tried to hook it up to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his ban on mandating masks, leaving it up to the parents to decide for their own children.

But as I noted, school hasn’t even started in Broward County, and doesn’t start until August 18. So any teachers who got sick did so while on vacation, on summer break, and it had nothing at all to do with mask mandates, no mask mandates, or the schools.

[….]

The story originally claimed three teachers and a teacher’s assistant had died within 24 hours of COVID.

Now the media is walking back that statement.

Even now, even with this correction, they’re still only citing the teacher’s union president. How do they even know this correction is accurate? How do they know that whole 24 hours thing was accurate? Or that it was “from COVID” and not “with” COVID?….

And in this story from REASON, they note NPR getting in on a correction of the CDC (hat-tip RIGHT SCOOP):

Another CDC data flub distorts delta variant contagiousness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claimed the delta variant of COVID-19 is “as transmissible as” chickenpox. It’s not true.

Chickenpox, caused by the varicella-zoster virus, is one of the most contagious diseases we know of. “If one person has it, up to 90% of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected,” states the CDC website.

One person infected with chickenpox will infect an average of 10 people when everyone in a population is vulnerable to catching it. (This transmissibility number—referred to as R0—goes down when people have immunity to the disease.)

“The initial COVID-19 strain had an R0 between two and three,” computational biologist Karthik Gangavarapu told NPR. The delta variant has an R0 between six and seven. For chickenpox, the R0 is nine or 10.

How did the CDC conclude that these were equivalent?

For one, the leaked document underestimated the R0 for chickenpox and overestimated the R0 for the delta variant. “The R0 values for delta were preliminary and calculated from data taken from a rather small sample size,” a federal official told NPR. The value for the chickenpox (and other R0s in the slideshow) came from a graphic from The New York Times, which wasn’t completely accurate.

Apparently, the federal agency charged with disseminating COVID-19 data and setting public health policy is taking its cues from a newspaper infographic. Oh my…..

The Texas Tribune Makes Glaring Hospitalization Mistake

Published by Papa Giorgio

This comes via INDEPENDENT CHRONICLE:

The Texas Tribune published an article on Thursday attributing the total number of children hospitalized since the beginning of the pandemic to a period of the last 7 days, and then quickly backtracking when the fallacy was brought to light – a reporting error of over 5,000 cases.

“That’s one heck of a correction,” reporter Steven Dennis tweeted.

[….]

The Tribune stated that the number of children hospitalized during the past week in Texas was over 5,800, when in fact that is the total number of children hospitalized with Covid since the onset of the pandemic.

“And yet that’s still misleading! He first said 5800 in a 7-day period, then said, sorry, it was 783 in a *40 day* period! But he didn’t actually say 40, so it’s easy to skim and think he’s talking about the same length of time,” tweeted one person.

[….]

The Tribune article discusses how more children are flooding into Texas hospitals than ever before, originally saying that Texas had seen over 5,800 children hospitalized with Covid in the past week. 

It turns out that the actual number of children admitted with Covid between July 1 and August 9 – a 40-day period, not a 7-day period as originally stated in the article – in Texas is 783. That gives us about 137 hospitalizations per week if divided evenly between the 40 days. So the number that the Tribune originally reported is 4,100% higher than the correct statistic.  

UPDATE

NEWSBUSTERS notes how wide the lie made it:

….So over five weeks there were 783 children, not 5,800 over one week. Brent Scher, executive editor of the Washington Free Beacon, tweeted on the bad math: “I did the math here. The claim: 828 hospitalizations a day Reality: 19 a day. Only off by about 43x.” No wonder Jen Rubin deleted her tweet!

Skeptics pointed out the slippery language of the Tribune correction. Not “hospitalized with COVID,” but “admitted to Texas hospitals with COVID.” So they was no measurement of how serious their admissions were, for how many days they stayed.

Once again, the people who think they represent Science have bungled the actual numbers and massively exaggerated the problem. Creating a viral tweet seems to get ahead of doing basic math.

PS: Rubin wrote an editorial hammering on the same point on the same day that the “MAGA governors” are endangering lives:

The worst perpetrators of this avoidable tragedy are not a few stray crackpots such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.); they are, in fact, among the top contenders for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Not all Republicans are prohibiting mask or vaccine mandates, but all governors who do so — in Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Utah — are Republican.

This is certainly not a “pro-life” party. Around the country, Americans in large numbers have figured out what these political hacks are up to: sacrificing the health and lives of Americans at the altar of their political ambition.

Hospitals Overwhelmed (Bonus: Florida Follies)

Published by Papa Giorgio

Here is the TWITER THREAD: (it is “UNROLLED” HERE)

  1. These are actual quotes from pieces I’ve just read. I don’t know why I’ve been ignoring this. Let me say that I’m serious about my respect for frontline workers. I’m confident THEY are NOT the ones calling for us to lose our jobs so they can do theirs. Politicians did that. 2/
  2. “Tallia says his hospital is ‘managing, but just barely,’ at keeping up with the increased number of sick patients in the last three weeks. The hospital’s urgent-care centers have also been inundated, and its outpatient clinics have no appointments available.” 3/
  3. “Dr. Bernard Camins, associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says that UAB Hospital cancelled elective surgeries scheduled for Thursday and Friday of last week to make more beds available” 4/
  4. “We had to treat patients in places where we normally wouldn’t, like in recovery rooms,” says Camins. “The emergency room was very crowded, both with sick patients who needed to be admitted” 5/
  5. “In CA… several hospitals have set up large ‘surge tents’ outside their emergency departments to accommodate and treat … patients. Even then, the LA Times reported this week, emergency departments had standing-room only, and some patients had to be treated in hallways.” 6/
  6. “In Fenton, Missouri, SSM Health St. Clare Hospital has opened its emergency overflow wing, as well as all outpatient centers and surgical holding centers, to make more beds available to patients who need them. Nurses are being “pulled from all floors to care for them,” 7/
  7. “it’s making their pre-existing conditions worse,” she says. “More and more patients are needing mechanical ventilation due to respiratory failure” 8/
  8. “From Laguna Beach to Long Beach, emergency rooms were struggling to cope with the overwhelming cases… and had gone into ‘diversion mode,’ during which ambulances are sent to other hospitals.” 9/
  9. “Hospitals across the state are sending away ambulances, flying in nurses from out of state and not letting children visit their loved ones for fear they’ll spread… Others are canceling surgeries and erecting tents in their parking lots to triage the hordes of… patients.” 10/
  10. “There’s a little bit of a feeling of being in the trenches. We’re really battling these infections to try to get them under control,” McKinnell said. “We’re still not sure if this is going to continue … “ 11/
  11. “At Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, waiting rooms turned into exam areas as a medical tent was built in order to deal with the surge of patients. A Houston doctor said local hospital beds were at capacity” 12/
  12. “Dr. Anthony Marinelli says they’ve seen a major spike in… cases. It’s so overwhelmed the community hospital that they’ve gone on bypass at times — that means they tell ambulances to bypass this ER and find another.” 13/
  13. “Dr. Atallah, the chief of emergency medicine at Grady, says the hospital called on a mobile emergency department based nearly 250 miles away to help tackle the increasing patient demand. “At 500-plus patients a day you physically just need the space to put a patient in. “ 14/
  14. “We’ve never had so many patients,” said Adrian Cotton, chief of medical operations at Loma Linda University Health in San Bernardino County.” 15/
  15. “…at least one hospital has set up an outdoor triage tent to handle the overflow of people” “In Long Beach, hospitals have started visitor restrictions. In the South Bay, a conference center has been transformed into an ambulatory clinic.” 16/
  16. We have signage set up all over the hospital to inform patients that, if they have any family members with even signs of symptoms, not to visit” “Loma Linda emergency physicians are seeing about 60 more patients a day than usual, Cotton said.” 17/
  17. “About 150 patients have so far been treated in the tent, which is staffed according to the number of people inside. It’s expected to be up [for months].” 18/
  18. “As the main emergency room gets full, patients are moved to the tent. For example, a patient who comes in with a broken arm is likely to be treated inside the tent, he said. Visitor restrictions have also been implemented.” “The county saw a 300-percent increase” 19/
  19. “Overflow tents also have emerged in San Diego County hospitals. Though they haven’t pitched tents, most hospitals across Southern California have set up overflow areas inside their facilities.” 20/
  20. Our workers are incredible and I know they’ve been trained to deal with this. But maybe the lockdown folks are correct. Maybe we opened up too quickly. Maybe we should stay in shutdown mode. I mean nothing like this has ever happened to our hospitals before?!

I recently discussed this flu outbreak on my site’s Facebook page:

(OP – Original Post) Good presentation. This rant is not related to the video, but I was thinking about this today. Whenever there is a bad flu year, we always deal with the variants in years to come, and, typically they aren’t as deadly. Like Delta. So deaths, and hospitalization are typically lower than the Alpha strain. So tent triages and the like were set up for the 2017-2018 flu season — (the CDC estimates that between 46,000 and 95,000 Americans died due to influenza during the 2017-18 flu season. This resulted in an estimated 959,000 hospitalizations and a middle-ground of 61,099 deaths) and the subsequent variants were less deadly, but they are still floating around. But this seasons Delta Variant is less of a bugger than 2017-18, maybe even the 2012-2013 flu season — (56,000 deaths is the CDC estimate. 571,000 influenza-related hospitalizations). But people still want to live in fear, rather than live. Its sad.

(KRIS W. — a thoughtfully minded conservative) This doctor was great! I hope you are right about the numbers. I refuse to live in fear.

(ME) Kris W., So, the Alpha Covid strain was here in September of 2019. So the Covid season “A” was 2019-2020. We are now in a 2020-2021 season. The numbers from this season need to be separated from the previous. I bet we are closer to bad seasons from previous years. And next year will be better. But like other flu strains, we will have Covid with us forever. (Flu shots are a hodgepodge mixture of various strains, and people who get it hope one of the many strains in the shot get close to the actual, and so lessons the symptoms if they get the flu. Same here. These Covid strains may be in a cocktail mix in the future.)

What follows is some #FANEWS via the CDC and others regrading Florida.

FLORIDA FOLLIES

NATIONAL REVIEW starts us out:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is misrepresenting Florida’s coronavirus case counts from this past weekend, according to the state’s Department of Health (DOH).

On Monday, the CDC announced that Florida had reported new 28,317 cases for Sunday, August 8 — a figure that would have set a new record in the Sunshine State. It also reported 28,316 new cases for the day prior, and 23,903 for last Friday.

State officials dispute those numbers. On Monday night, the DOH’s official Twitter account stated that the number of newly recorded cases for all three days was substantially lower than what the CDC is claiming, coming in at 21,500 on Friday, 19,567 on Saturday, and 15,319 on Sunday.

CNS NEWS chimes in with this:

The 28,317 Sunday cases originally claimed by the CDC is 12,998 higher than, and 184.5% of, the 15,319 new cases reported by Florida.

On Tuesday, CDC lowered its Sunday count for Florida by 8,733, from 28,317 to 19,584 – a number that’s still 4,265 higher than the number reported by the state’s health department. CDC’s new number is 69.2% of its original claim.

“Accurate data was provided to the CDC, but the incorrect number for Friday, Saturday and Sunday was displayed on the website,” Florida Deputy Secretary for Health Dr. Shamarial Roberson told National Review.

UPDATE!

  • Today, the CDC basically admitted that the numbers they put up were wrong by quietly adjusting the numbers down. They updated Florida’s new cases to 23,958 for Friday, 21,487 on Saturday, and 19,584 on Sunday. But the numbers still were more than Florida’s numbers. According to the Florida Department of Health, the numbers were 21,500 on Friday, 19,567 on Saturday, and 15,319 on Sunday. The numbers were actually decreasing over the three days. (Via RED STATE)

And there was an excellent article by THE DAILY SIGNAL that goes over four of the medias FLORIDA FOLLIES and EXAGERATIONS (Hat-tip to Shannon H. for this) Here they are:

1. Florida Is Experiencing a Spike in Cases: True.

Florida is experiencing a surge in new confirmed cases. The seven-day rolling average of new infections topped 18,000 on Aug. 5, more than the state logged in January.

Florida accounts for roughly 6% of the U.S. population but 18% of the seven-day moving average of daily new cases nationwide.

Those are concerning figures, but they should be understood in context. Most states are experiencing increases in cases, although Florida is unique in exceeding previous highs. 

Florida’s increase resembles the U.K.’s, which only recently has begun to subside. The country’s mask mandates and other restrictions didn’t prevent a spike in cases, any more than such restrictions prevented recent or ongoing surges in Spain, Israel, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands

Florida’s spike in cases is consistent with a broader global pattern and isn’t easily attributable to the state’s refusal to implement mask mandates or adopt vaccine passports. Nor does a spike in cases necessarily produce a surge of severe illness or death, but more on that below.

2. Florida’s Increase in New Cases Is Due to Low Vaccination Rates: False.

“Seven states with the lowest vaccination rates represent just about 8.5% of the U.S. population, but account for more than 17% of cases,” Jeff Zients, White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said earlier this week. “And 1 in 3 cases nationwide occurred in Florida and Texas.”

Florida is not one of the seven states with the lowest vaccination rates. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data available on Aug. 5, 49.8% of Americans were fully vaccinated. That compares with 49.2% of Floridians. The vaccination rates among the elderly also are comparable—80.3% of Floridians over age 65 are fully vaccinated, compared with 80.2% of all Americans in that age group.

And while Florida’s vaccination rates vary by county, those rates don’t correlate with newly confirmed cases per 100,000 residents.

The data come from the most recent weekly report prepared by the Florida Department of Health. They show that even counties with high vaccination rates reported high new case rates for the week ending July 29.

Nearly 80% of the residents over the age of 12 living in Dade County (home to Miami), the state’s most populous, were fully vaccinated. But the county reported 532 new cases per 100,000 residents, exceeding the state’s elevated average of 503 new cases per 100,000.

Ten of the 17 counties that reported vaccination rates of 40% or less had lower rates of new infections than did Dade County. A similar pattern held in other populous counties with high vaccination rates, including St. Johns County (Jacksonville/St. Augustine) and Orange County (Orlando).

It is, of course, possible that most or all these new cases are occurring among the unvaccinated, but there may be a significant number of breakthrough cases. Unfortunately, neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the Florida Department of Health provides that information.

3. Florida Hospitals Are Overwhelmed: Mostly False.

President Joe Biden’s chief spokesperson, Jen Psaki, recently tweeted: “23% of new COVID hospitalizations in the U.S are in Florida, and their hospitals are being overwhelmed again.”

Let’s start with the word “again.” Among the media’s favorite stories to report last summer was that a run-up in COVID-19 cases had pushed Florida hospitals beyond their limits. As I’ve written (here, here, here, and here), that was not the case then.

And it isn’t the case now. It is true that Florida hospitals are treating a more significant share of COVID-19 patients than most other states and that hospitals are facing staffing challenges. Here is the breakdown, updated Aug. 6, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

  • U.S.: 76.2% of inpatient beds are occupied, 7.9% by COVID-19 patients.
  • Florida: 84.2% of inpatient beds are occupied, 22% by COVID-19 patients.

Those figures are at once disturbing and reassuring—disturbing because nearly 13,000 Floridians are hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, but reassuring because the state’s hospital systems still have plenty of unused capacity (roughly 9,400 empty beds). More than 11% of the state’s adult ICU beds are vacant.

Psaki’s allegation that Florida hospitals are “overwhelmed” is thus false, although the situation certainly bears watching.

More encouraging is that deaths associated with COVID-19 remain far below levels reached last summer and during January. The seven-day moving average of COVID-19-related deaths stood at 72 on Aug. 5, compared with 184 on Aug. 5, 2020, and 185 in late January.

While not conclusive—deaths generally lag new cases by a few weeks, and reporting is sometimes delayed—this resembles the pattern in the U.K., where a spike in infections did not result in a comparable rise in deaths.

4. Florida’s Spike in Cases Is DeSantis’ Fault: False.

Critics of DeSantis hold him responsible for the state’s spike in cases. Biden, for example, called on DeSantis to “get out of the way,” arguing that rising case counts were the direct result of the Florida governor’s policies.

A recent news analysis piece in The Hill is among the many publications touting this theme. “Conservative Republicans—notably Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott—have adopted a permissive approach,” the article asserted. “The result of their purported dedication to ‘freedom’ has been an explosion of coronavirus cases in their states.”

The article goes on to quote Georgetown law professor Lawrence Gostin as saying, “If you are against masks and vaccines, you might have a short-term win with people who don’t want to mask and vaccinate, but overall the population in your state doesn’t have the freedom to safely and securely go to do the things they love.”

The argument that Florida’s case rate has risen because its governor embraces freedom and opposes masks and vaccines doesn’t hold up.

First, DeSantis isn’t “against masks and vaccines.” Although he has shunned mask mandates, his state’s health department promotes mask-wearing and social distancing. His administration lets individuals and businesses respond to this advice instead of subjecting them to government mandates.

Similarly, although opposed to vaccine passports and mandates, the DeSantis administration promotes immunizations. Florida’s immunization rate is quite close to the national average. Its rise in cases is not due to low vaccination rates.

Second, despite the current uptick in cases, Florida has done an exceptional job preserving freedom and advancing public health throughout the pandemic. Florida’s COVID-19-related deaths per 100,000 population remain below the national average.

That is more remarkable considering that more than 1 in 5 residents is over age 65, the nation’s second-highest proportion of elderly. That demographic accounts for nearly 80% of COVID-related mortality nationally. Yet, Florida has outperformed numerous states with smaller proportions of elderly people that have adopted less “permissive” policies, including New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and Delaware.

Florida’s increase in COVID-19 cases is troubling and not easily explained. Its vaccination rate is nearly identical to the national rate, and counties with very high vaccination rates are among those reporting big increases in cases. Allegations that the state’s hospitals are overwhelmed are exaggerated, although future capacity strains can’t yet be ruled out. That’s also true of COVID-19-related deaths, which have so far remained far below previous highs.

The president and his allies can’t resist politicizing the Florida case increases. Demonizing a governor of a rival party deflects from the national surge in cases, the administration’s frustration with lagging demand for vaccines (particularly among young adults and racial minorities), and the CDC’s confusing and conflicting advice on whether vaccinated people should wear masks.  …………

Most important in this post is this, WHERE CAN I GET Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin? AMERICA’S FRONTLINE DOCTORS has a consultation sign up HERE! See also FLCCC ALLIANCE (Click Pic)

Is The Delta Variant Bad? Should We Mask Up For It?

Published by Papa Giorgio

JUMP TO DEVEN “STRONG” FUTCH

This is a comment by a close friend…

….and while this is using her comment, it is not being used to zero in on her — it is merely indicative of a wider position held by many. It is a raw expression of ultimately the failure of leadership in various levels of our government (federal, state, and local). Not giving us the real info, stirring people up by fear that is not warranted in order to cover-up administrative failures.

It is almost comical, but the next “we are all gonna die” moment is already here… Delta is soo last week, cue hysteria:

It’s a never ending political power-grab opportunity.

First however, a quote to set the mood:

  • “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – CS Lewis, God in the Dock.

So, let us first deal with the real numbers and why the individual should be concerned about themselves — coming from a person who got the J&J, but who’s wife refuses to get the jab.

(Graphic and more found at RIGHT SCOOP)

BEN SHAPIRO

Ben Shapiro has been hitting these out of the park! Here is a good-sized excerpt of him speaking “truth to power-grabs.” (A truncated one also at his site is worth watching and passing on — also, the Fuller Show)

One of the most important aspects of this is that the Delta Variant is LESS DEADLY than the original variants. Here is Rand Paul to kick off the next part:

  • “So, the Delta variant is more transmissible but less deadly,” Sen. Paul said. “But if you say that, Facebook will take you down; they’ll chastise you, take away your birthday, and say you’re spreading mistruth. But it’s absolutely factual.”

Yes, it is waaay less deadly! Here are some UK stats via an excellent post over at PJ-MEDIA: (all graphs to follow are enlargeable on clicking):

UNITED STATES

CASES
DEATHS

See more at THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

UNITED KINGDOM

CASES
DEATHS

DEATHS COMPARED

And of course, common sense tells you that the Biden Admin knows it’s full  of crap:

  • If New COVID-19 Variants Need to Be Taken Very Seriously, Why Isn’t Biden Closing the Border? (PJ-MEDIA)

Here is a recent story about another case most likely linked to an mRNA vaccine:

DEVEN STRONG

Here is a recent story of a drill Sgt. who is now rumored to be part of a large study on the possible effects of the mRNA vaccines — why? — because he was said to be a couple of weeks past his 2nd shot. Here is his story via Deven Strong’s “PERSONAL BLOG” on Facebook:

(June 29th) On Wednesday June 23rd around noon, Staff Sergeant Deven Futch had a major heart attack affecting his major artery. He just finished a big run at work for Family Day. He was down for 52 minutes before they were finally able to find a light pulse on him. He was rushed back where they found his main artery was 100% blocked. They Inserted a stint in his heart to clear the blockage and placed him on the respirator.

Deven was transported that day to a bigger hospital that specializes in Cardiology. He was placed on life support a machine called ECMO that pumps and oxygenates his blood outside the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest and placed on a lot of meds. He was also placed on dialysis because his kidneys also took a big hit.

On June 26th Deven had a small seizure they sent him for a CT scan that showed slight brain swelling, and fluid in his lungs. Dr’s suspected this with his condition. He also has broken ribs and collapse lungs from the prolong CPR. They placed him on seizure meds and neurology watched very closely.

On June 27th they eased up on Devens sedation medicine and he was able to follow the DR’s commands. I was able to let him know I was not going to leave his side and he nodded his head at me. I walked away for a moment to go to the cafe to grab a coffee and Deven Took it upon himself to pull out his breathing tube while tied up. When his Nurse looked at him and asked why he did that, he gave a little Grin. That’s our Deven lol We watched closely to monitor Devens breathing, his lungs still need more time to heal. He did pretty good for about an hour until his oxygen levels were dropping and he was struggling to breath. After talking with the Drs and seeing things differently we could do we finally told Deven the best thing would be to sedate him for a couple more days and place another breathing tube in. He tried so hard to push through to be able to stay awake with us, but finally agreed to another breathing tube. I asked if he wanted me to stay and he shook his head yes, I stayed by his side while they inserted another breathing tube and he said he loved me and blew me a kiss.

His parents and I were able to talk to him and let him know how much we love him. He understood where he was at and what happened. We let him know how much love and support he has and he needs to continue to fight for his beautiful children.

Today on June 29th he will have a procedure to remove him from life support the ECMO machine. We ask for prayers for our sweet Deven and ask that God watches over the Dr’s and Nurses while they do their job and work on him.

We are all so greatful for his Marine friends starting CPR as soon as they did and acted the way they did because of them and the good CPR that he got he is where he is right now!! He is here able to still fight. Deven is strong 💪🏼 I know he will get through this. He’s Deven Strong.

He is recovering, and his family has time to spend with their husband/father.

BONUS: MASKS

(UPDATED 8-4-2021) This comes by way of REASON.COM discussing a recent study on masks:

…The research has not yet been peer-reviewed, and may still prove to be flawed. But it does line up with some other data points on mask mandates. For instance, Texas saw no case spike when it lifted its mandate in early March. And an April 2021 analysis saw states with stricter rules about face coverings and indoor dining faring worse than states that did not.

This goes against many people’s assumptions—including those of this study’s authors.

Contrary to our hypothesis, early mandates were not associated with lower minimum case growth. Maximum case growth was the same among states with early, late, and no mandates. This indicates that mask mandates were not predictive of slower COVID-19 spread when community transmission rates were low or high.

We wondered if mask mandates were associated with smaller or slower surges in case growth. Differences between minimum and maximum case growth were similar among early, late, and no mandate states, and surges from minimum to maximum growth occurred at similar rates. These findings suggest that mask mandates are not predictive of smaller or slower shifts from low to high case growth.

The authors also “speculated that statewide mask use, rather than mask mandates per se, may predict COVID-19 case growth.” This hypothesis fared slightly better, but still didn’t hold up for situations when case growth was high.

“Data suggest that mask use is a poor predicter of COVID-19 growth at the state level,” they conclude. “Our findings do not support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates decrease with greater public mask use.”…

Most important in this post is this, WHERE CAN I GET Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin? AMERICA’S FRONTLINE DOCTORS has a consultation sign up HERE! See also FLCCC ALLIANCE (Click Pic)

PolitiFact Covers Up For Their Dear Leaders

Published by Papa Giorgio

Well, POLITIFACT has circled the wagons for their Party’s Dear Leader… hat-tip to TWITCHY…

Before getting to the response to the above… here is a bit from a somewhat related topic — that is — the distrust of the vaccines in the Black and Latino communities via PJ-MEDIA:

….A study called “Coronavirus Vaccine Hesitancy in Black and Latinx Communities” shows that a mere 14% of black people believe the vaccines are safe. Duly elected communists Bill de Blasio and Andrew Cuomo are struggling to get minority New Yorkers to vaccinate. Here’s a hint: Stop using the word “Latinx.” Latinos (for you white libs, that means people of Latin American descent) hate the word. Even more, they hate white people making up words for them. Stop it.

[….]

How does the left get black folks to get the vax shots? I’m no marketing wizard, but perhaps they should stop pandering. Whatever they do, I hope they don’t use stupid, urban marketing rhymes.

Oops, too late. …..

Free tickets to Lincoln Center?…

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens?…

Come on komrade de Blasio, know your crowd!Look at what Andrew “Pander” Cuomo came up with exactly two weeks later:…

a free scratch-off ticket with every shot, and another ridiculous rhyme…

offers of not only scratch-off tickets but greasy food, booze, money, and weed. Bugs Bunny cartoons have been canceled for less offensive cliches….

The New England Journal of Medicine (that would be science) suggests marketing over pandering, lotteries, free beer, or fishing licenses,

[Editor’s Note: LOL]

ALDOUS HUXLEY’S GHOST has a great response to the idea of PolitiFact denying the truth:

Again, who is not vaxxing…

 

The Effectiveness of Ivermectin via The Wall Street Journal

Published by Papa Giorgio

If Ivermectin is effective against Covid and all indications suggest that it is, why aren’t we making it more accessible? Why does the medical establishment dismiss it and even suggest that it’s harmful? Dennis Prager discusses two articles in his monologue. One from The Wall Street Journal, the other from Slate:

  • Why Is the FDA Attacking a Safe, Effective Drug? (WSJ)
  • The Noble Lies of COVID-19 (SLATE)

The Slate article deals more with masks.

Via THE WALL STREET JOURNAL’s article, “Why Is the FDA Attacking a Safe, Effective Drug?” (via The Burning Platform)

Ivermectin is a promising Covid treatment and prophylaxis, but the agency is denigrating it.

The Food and Drug Administration claims to follow the science. So why is it attacking ivermectin, a medication it certified in 1996?

Earlier this year the agency put out a special warning that “you should not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19.” The FDA’s statement included words and phrases such as “serious harm,” “hospitalized,” “dangerous,” “very dangerous,” “seizures,” “coma and even death” and “highly toxic.” Any reader would think the FDA was warning against poison pills. In fact, the drug is FDA-approved as a safe and effective antiparasitic.

Ivermectin was developed and marketed by Merck & Co. while one of us (Mr. Hooper) worked there years ago. William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering and developing avermectin, which Mr. Campbell and associates modified to create ivermectin.

Ivermectin is on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines. Merck has donated four billion doses to prevent river blindness and other diseases in Africa and other places where parasites are common. A group of 10 doctors who call themselves the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance have said ivermectin is “one of the safest, low-cost, and widely available drugs in the history of medicine.”

Ivermectin fights 21 viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the cause of Covid-19. A single dose reduced the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in cells by 99.8% in 24 hours and 99.98% in 48 hours, according to a June 2020 study published in the journal Antiviral Research.

Some 70 clinical trials are evaluating the use of ivermectin for treating Covid-19. The statistically significant evidence suggests that it is safe and works for both treating and preventing the disease.

In 115 patients with Covid-19 who received a single dose of ivermectin, none developed pneumonia or cardiovascular complications, while 11.4% of those in the control group did. Fewer ivermectin patients developed respiratory distress (2.6% vs. 15.8%); fewer required oxygen (9.6% vs. 45.9%); fewer required antibiotics (15.7% vs. 60.2%); and fewer entered intensive care (0.1% vs. 8.3%). Ivermectin-treated patients tested negative faster, in four days instead of 15, and stayed in the hospital nine days on average instead of 15. Ivermectin patients experienced 13.3% mortality compared with 24.5% in the control group.

Moreover, the drug can help prevent Covid-19. One 2020 article in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications looked at what happened after the drug was given to family members of confirmed Covid-19 patients. Less than 8% became infected, versus 58.4% of those untreated. Among 200 healthcare workers and others at high risk of exposure, only 2% of those given ivermectin developed Covid-19. But 10% of the control group did.

Despite the FDA’s claims, ivermectin is safe at approved doses. Out of four billion doses administered since 1998, there have been only 28 cases of serious neurological adverse events, according to an article published this year in the American Journal of Therapeutics. The same study found that ivermectin has been used safely in pregnant women, children and infants.

If the FDA were driven by science and evidence, it would give an emergency-use authorization for ivermectin for Covid-19. Instead, the FDA asserts without evidence that ivermectin is dangerous.

At the bottom of the FDA’s warning against ivermectin is this statement: “Meanwhile, effective ways to limit the spread of COVID-19 continue to be to wear your mask, stay at least 6 feet from others who don’t live with you, wash hands frequently, and avoid crowds.” Is this based on the kinds of double-blind studies that the FDA requires for drug approvals? No.

Mr. Henderson, a research fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, was senior health economist with President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers. Mr. Hooper is president of Objective Insights, a firm that consults with pharmaceutical clients.

Most important in this post is this, WHERE CAN I GET Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin? AMERICA’S FRONTLINE DOCTORS has a consultation sign up HERE! See also FLCCC ALLIANCE (Click Pic)

(Click to Enlarge)

Republicans Not Getting Vaccinated | Delta Variant Dangers

Published by Papa Giorgio

The Left is making Trump supporters the Boogeyman. Here are the stats of those not getting vaccinated

Ben Shapiro runs through some of the real numbers… instead of percentages of those sick with Delta.

GRAPHIC I ADDED

Why So Many Have Questions About The 2020 Election

Published by Papa Giorgio

Tucker Carlson Reading @martyrmade’s Viral Thread On Why So Many Trump Supporters Have Questions About The 2020 Election & Their Distrust Of The Mainstream Media (@TheColumbiaBugle) See also RED STATE; 100% FED-UP; RIGHT SCOOP (where the video came from!); CONSERVATIVE TREE HOUSE.