Clifton Duncan on X - "No one wants to hear about "threats to democracy" from people who thought the best treatment for a cold was fascism."
Meme - Priest: "When you criticize me, you're actually criticizing God because I represent God."
Soyjak: "That's ridiculous. Fuck off, God boy!"
Fauci: "When you criticize me, you're actually criticizing science because I represent science."
Masked Soyjak: *vigorous jacking off noises*
Covid-19 lab leak 'most likely' cause of the pandemic, new study shows - "scientists in Australia suggest that Covid-19 is more likely to have had an ‘unnatural’ origin than a ‘natural’ one. A research team used an established risk analysis tool called the Grunow-Finke assessment to create a likelihood scale for possible pandemic causes. Results from the assessment pointed to the virus having an ‘unnatural’ origin – with the fact that the first infections were in the vicinity of laboratories studying coronaviruses noted as one of the strongest indications. The study highlights that the first cases of Covid-19 were reported in Wuhan, China, on 30 December 2019 – all within close proximity of both the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (WHCDC). Dr Xin Chen, a researcher at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia, said: ‘The WIV had been conducting experiments involving SARS-like coronavirus in bats since 2010. ‘One of the bat viruses being studied at the WIV shares a 96.1% homology [match] with SARS-CoV-2, something which was only revealed after the pandemic began. ‘The WIV was only eight miles away from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where some of the initial cases were linked to. ‘The WHCDC was also studying coronaviruses, and on December 2, 2019, less than a month before the first infections, it moved to a location 280m from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. ‘A move may have increased the chance of a laboratory accident.’ Dr Chen added that although some scientists use the outbreak at the wet market as an indication of a ‘natural’ or zoonotic origin, several of the first infected people had not visited Huanan. ‘This points to the possibility that Huanan was a source of an amplification event, rather than the origin of SARS-CoV-2,’ he said. ‘It is also worth noting that evidence of an intermediary animal host – necessary for this theory – is lacking.’ The team also highlighted ‘unusual’ actions by scientists working at the WIV as a factor pointing to a lab leak origin of Covid-19. Dr Abrar Chughtai, an epidemiologist at the University of New South Wales, explained: ‘In September 2019, control of the WIV lab was handed over from civilian to military command and control, and a contractor was hired to renovate the ventilation system within the facility. ‘Simultaneously, for reasons unknown, the WIV removed a large virus database containing approximately 20,000 specimens from bats and mice that had previously been accessible to the public. ‘It is unclear whether the database included sequences that could be relevant to the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and whether any attempt was made to cover it up.’ He added that ‘not all requested information’, such as laboratory records, was made available to the team from the World Health Organisation tasked with investigating the origins of Covid-19 in 2021. Dr Chughtai also pointed to instances of ‘poor’ biosecurity procedures at the WIV. ‘Some scientists did not follow proper protective equipment protocols while handling bats and were bitten by them,’ he said. ‘And, in early November 2019, some staff members from the institute were hospitalised with Covid-19-like symptoms.’ Dr Chandini Raina Macintyre, another epidemiologist at UNSW, also highlighted inconsistencies in remarks from scientists who initially advocated for the likelihood of a ‘natural’ Covid-19 origin. ‘Freedom of Information requests in the US revealed that virologists who publicly stated that SARS-COV-2 had a natural origin simultaneously privately communicated doubts about this to each other, discussing the fact that research at WIV could have led to the creation of SARS-COV-2,’ she said. ‘It is possible that US funding of some of the research at WIV was a motivation for the public messaging about natural origins to be promoted and discussion of a lab accident to be suppressed.’"
Damn "misinformation", "disinformation" and "conspiracy theories"!
Covid-19 lab leak 'most likely' cause of the global pandemic, new study shows : Canada_sub - "There was literally a wuhan labs employee that ran to America seeking asylum who admitted it was created in and came from the Wuhan lab and it was an accidental leak. It was on the news and everything. For like a day, maybe two. Now? Good luck finding it"
"I do 'love' the summary given at the start of my search...
Dr. Li-Meng Yan is a Chinese virologist known for her publications and interviews alleging that SARS-CoV-2 was made in a Chinese government laboratory. Her claims have been widely dismissed as flawed by the scientific community.
That got pulled in from wikipedia. Checked the sources given,
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
MIT Press
Washington Post
Snopes
Just wanted to take a moment to point out who all got it all so fucking wrong."
"Don’t forget Reddit they were banning people permanently for saying it came from a lab"
"The experts were all sooo fuckin wrong again…."
"If you read the Wikipedia article on that doctor, you'll find that it talks about that whistle blower being tied to Bannon and Trump and suggesting that the lab leak theory is a conspiracy to nourish Chinese hatred. It's just the exact opposite argument that you're trying to mock. Except that the lab leak theory has since become the mainstream view"
One year on, frontliner family still getting soapy water splashed outside door, sprayed with disinfectant by neighbours - "Imagine opening your door to see your neighbour splashing pails of soapy water outside your flat, or spraying disinfectant at you and your children when entering or leaving your home. For about a year or so, that has been the reality of a family consisting of a nurse and his wife who works in the essential service line and their two young children... As Singapore saw its first hospital Covid-19 cluster and a rise in community infections, healthcare workers from Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) said they're facing discrimination from some members of the public. Staff shared that taxis refused to ferry them, landlords and hotels turned them away over coronavirus fears."
From 2021. Covid hysteria has very real costs
Meme - Sai Medi @Saikmedi: "Oh god, we are definitely going to war."
Benny Johnson @benn...: "New US Army recruitment strategy just dropped"
"US ARMY. Covid Vaccine NOT REQUIRED"
No such thing as ‘long COVID,’ health agency says in shocking claim: ‘Unnecessary fear’ - "Follow the science — right out the door. The term “long COVID” should be tossed aside like a stack of expired N95 masks — that’s according to health experts in one country, who found that symptoms of those reportedly suffering a year on weren’t any different than your typical virus, such as the flu. Government-backed medical researchers in Australia say it’s time to stop using the fear-inducing phrase, which became popular after high volumes of people testing positive for COVID-19 led to a surge in generally non-severe “virus fatigue symptoms” that would normally have gone unnoticed... “We believe it is time to stop using terms like ‘long COVID,’” said Dr. John Gerrard, Queensland’s chief health officer, who oversaw the newly released study. “They wrongly imply there is something unique and exceptional about longer-term symptoms associated with this virus,” he explained. “This terminology can cause unnecessary fear, and in some cases, hyper-vigilance to longer symptoms that can impede recovery,” Gerrard warned... No evidence was found that adults who tested positive in 2022 were experiencing this increased level of impairment at a higher rate than those who tested negative, or those who simply had the flu... “we found that the rates of ongoing symptoms and functional impairment are indistinguishable from other post-viral illnesses,” he continued. “These findings underscore the importance of comparing post-COVID-19 outcomes with those following other respiratory infections, and of further research into post-viral syndromes.”"
The covid hystericists are going to be very upset
General Buttnaked (Stalinist Center) 🦍☀️ on X - "People have to be strong to protect the people with made up disabilities like long covid as they sit in the back and do nothing but complain about pronouns or whatever while a revolution is happening"
Surviving the Pandemic as a Kid With Chronic Illness - The Atlantic - "the coronavirus crash-landed in New York, relegating Diana and her parents to their three-bedroom home in the Bronx. Last March, her classes went entirely virtual, lashing her to a computer for most of her day. By the beginning of April, Diana was dealing with a trio of new symptoms. Within minutes of turning on a screen, she’d be flooded with a wave of nausea—rocking, jolting sensations that made her feel like she was trapped in a zigzagging car. Pain would intermittently grip the sides of her head. And for about 80 percent of her day, she told me, her eyes ached as though “someone had been holding them open for a really long time,” making it nearly impossible to find and focus on the words and numbers that flashed in front of her. She’s had little respite in the year since, as her doctors have struggled to diagnose her symptoms and rein them in. It’s a bad spot to be in, Diana told me, while her classes are still taught mostly on Zoom, and her social relationships are tethered by virtual lifelines. Early last fall, she decided to permanently log out of the Discord platform that her friends have been using to exchange messages, despite knowing how severely it would deepen her isolation. “I’ve missed half a year of inside jokes,” she told me. “It’s hell.” The triad of neurological symptoms has been so consuming that the threat of the coronavirus itself blipped almost entirely off Diana’s radar. Despite following all precautions, she got a mild case of COVID-19 a couple of months ago—likely during a trip to the optometrist, and within days of both her parents’ second shots. She took the virus seriously, holing up in her room and leaving only to make masked trips to the bathroom. A year into battling her mystery illness, getting COVID-19 was “almost a relief,” she said. This time, at least, “I knew exactly what was wrong with me.”"
A good example of how long covid is not caused by the virus
Justice Centre condemns College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta over ‘coercive’ vaccine mandate - "The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms expressed concerns over a September letter to medical professionals issued by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA). The letter states the CPSA Council met on September 20 to unanimously vote in favour of a vaccine mandate for all physicians in the province against COVID-19. Concerningly, the CPSA also confirmed it would not tolerate dissenting views from physicians or their participation in public dialogue regarding the efficacy or safety of COVID-19 vaccines. The CPSA letter claims that physicians who review the latest studies and data and express a different scientific opinion are spreading "misinformation."... Dr. Eric Payne, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at the University of Calgary and pediatric neurocritical care physician at the Alberta Children's Hospital, sent a September 14, 2021 letter to the CPSA expressing his objections to taking a "novel experimental mRNA therapy," with "no long-term data." "The medical evidence demonstrates that the effectiveness of the mRNA vaccines has decreased significantly, they do not prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission or symptomatic disease, and while evidence for protection against serious illness continues to exist in Calgary, that too is dissipating globally," said Payne. According to the Justice Centre, Alberta physicians are also "unable to provide informed consent to the 'experimental COVID-19 shots,'" despite their knowledge of medical and scientific studies and the latest data."
From 2021. If the "science" changes so quickly and dramatically, then making policy based on it is ludicrous
Hajdu says Vitamin-D COVID-19 protection is “fake news” (2021) - "Liberal Health Minister Patty Hajdu claimed in the House of Commons on Thursday that Vitamin D supplementation as an additional preventive measure against COVID-19 infection was “fake news.” "
Israeli study offers strongest proof yet of vitamin D’s power to fight COVID (2022)
capitalismandfriedman on X - "13.7% of the country is compliant with CDC-recommended boosters. The far majority of the country thinks the CDC is wrong about covid. It’s not a fring far right thing."
Meme - Alexandros Marinos 🏴☠️ @alexandrosM: "To coin a term, this FDA tweet was a "narrative scaffold". After the narrative solidifies, it doesn't matter if the scaffold is taken down. Nobody will remember how things started anyway. It's a synchronization signal for the elites to line up and promote the approved narrative. Once all the relevant people are committed, opponents' reputations destroyed, the original signal can go away, and the hive mind will continue singing to the same tune."
"Taking a screenshot of the tweet FDA now has to delete after being taken to court. Not much consolation, the damage is already done, but a symbolic win nonetheless. FDA is not allowed to give medical advice and never was. They're not allowed to substitute your doctor."
U.S. FDA @US_FDA: "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it.
Why You Should Not Use lvermectin to Treat or Prevent ..."
The impact of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation on job search and vacancy creation - "During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) increased US unemployment benefits by $600 a week. Theory predicts that FPUC should decrease job applications, while the effect on vacancy creation is ambiguous. We estimate the effect of FPUC on job applications and vacancy creation week by week, from March to July 2020, using granular data from the online jobs platform Glassdoor. We exploit variation in the proportional increase in benefits across local labor markets. To isolate the effect of FPUC, we flexibly allow for different trends in local labor markets differentially exposed to the COVID-19 crisis. We verify that trends in outcomes prior to the FPUC do not correlate with future increases in benefits, which supports our identification assumption. First, we find that a 10% increase in unemployment benefits caused a 3.6% decline in applications, but did not decrease vacancy creation; hence, FPUC increased labor market tightness (vacancies/applications). Second, we document that tightness was unusually depressed during the FPUC period. Altogether, our results imply that the positive effect of FPUC on tightness was likely welfare improving: FPUC decreased competition among applicants at a time when jobs were unusually scarce. Our results also help explain prior findings that FPUC did not decrease employment."
Of course, left wingers think people don't respond to incentives, and that welfare doesn't reduce labour force participation (when they're not saying people shouldn't work but pursue self flourishing instead)
Maryland Restaurant Owner Can't Get Employees to Return Because They Make More in Unemployment
From 2020
Meme - Emily Johnson (is on Mastadon and Bsky) @emily_tj: "Anyway disabled folks were right, y'all leftists defending health supremacy fascism in this thread got played, listen to us next time"
Toronto Against Fascism @TorontoAgainst: "we don't know everything that happens in this city, but at least between us, we've never seen this woman back up any of those self defence skills she's bragging about - and there's no shortage of opportunities around here"
kiran We'll Remember Your Silence @kiranfatimaopal: "If you're a leftist, you need to be working out 4-5 days a week and learning self defense, along with organizing with neighbors & in your local community for defense, food sovereignty, & community defense. There's no excuse not to do something to strengthen your body daily."
Ah yes, the circular firing squad of the left. This is why their revolution will never succeed
Meme - Emily Johnson (is on Mastadon and Bsky) @emily_rj: "Four of the main conditions in Long Covid, which 25-50% of the population now has depending on where folks live, cause exercise intolerance, exercise induced anaphylaxis and developmental genetic energy processing disabilities where folks are not to exercise as it's dangerous. These conditions exist in dozens of post-viral and post-infectious syndromes and connective tissue disorders, not just LC. With these alone, you expect 1-2 billion impacted people to fit your impossible expectations - not counting other disabilities and age barring exercise. If you're a leftist, you should've already built your praxis around common disabilities severely limiting or impeding exercise, as you'd want to prioritize learning about different disabilities - especially before making grand sweeping false assumptions like you've done here"
From February 2024
Rule by Emergency Decree is Not the Rule of Law - "The rule of law is the bedrock principle of liberal democracy that says no one in society – neither governments nor citizens – is above the law but all are governed under the law, and under the same rules, regardless of personal characteristics like wealth, connections, political power, race, or religious creed. It means that the rules that govern everyone are stable and predictable. From the perspective of the rule of law, citizens ought to know in advance the legal rules they could be held responsible for following. Legal rules should not be changed on an arbitrary whim or applied retroactively, and certain constitutional obligations are binding upon everyone. Unfortunately, the requirements of wide-scale emergencies like pandemics have an observable tendency to hollow out the adherence to the rule of law, on the basis that flexibility, responsiveness, and swift action are more important in the moment than the higher-level importance of the rule of law. This sentiment is sometimes expressed by the maxims “necessity knows no law,” or, in Cicero’s words, salus populisuprema lex (the welfare of the people is the supreme law). However, these sentiments do not form part of our constitutional tradition and would seem to severely undermine the authority of our claim to be a constitutional polity at all. During the pandemic we saw that departures from the basic requirements of the rule of law and democratic accountability in the name of public safety were sadly the rule and not the exception. Consider Ontario’s third-wave lockdown measures, likely enacted with the knowledge that they were unconstitutional... The notorious Ontario “carding” measures were, sadly, just one colourful episode in an array of pandemic measures that flouted the ordinary operation of the rule of law. Another example was legislatures granting themselves infinitely expanded states of emergency."
Meme - Richard Hanania @RichardHanania: "That paper about making covid 100% lethal to "humanized" mice includes an ethics statement. It assures us that the animals were treated humanely as the experiment was approved by the General Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Nothing on endangering all humanity."
Meme - CedarGroveWeatherHub @CGWeatherHub: "Canadian: Hey. Can I visit the Museum of Human Rights?
Courts: No. You didn't take 2 doses of this vaccine.
Canadian: But it doesn't work. Everyone is catching covid.
Courts: Doesn't matter.
Canadian: OK. Can I inject myself w. heroin under the slide?
Courts: Yes."
"Why B.C. ruled that doing drugs in playgrounds is Constitutionally protected"
Are Anti-vaxxers to Blame for the Pandemic's Resurgence? - The Atlantic (Vaccinated America Has Had Enough) - "In the United States, this pandemic could’ve been over by now, and certainly would’ve been by Labor Day. If the pace of vaccination through the summer had been anything like the pace in April and May, the country would be nearing herd immunity. With most adults immunized, new and more infectious coronavirus variants would have nowhere to spread. Life could return nearly to normal."
Vaccine Refusers Don't Get to Dictate Terms Anymore - The Atlantic - "the specific feelings and concerns of vaccine refusers should be largely irrelevant to vaccinated people who are eager to move on with their lives. Americans are entitled to make their own decisions, but their employers, health insurers, and fellow citizens are not required to accommodate them. The vaccinated have for too long carried the burden of the pandemic."
From July/August 2021. Articles that didn't age well and show the petulance and hatred of covid hystericists, and how the political ploy to blame and stigmatise the non-vaccinated worked (when it was really politicians who were not letting the world move on). Not to mention how "the science" was not settled after all and they were ignorant of the science of natural immunity. Ironically, by this time Israel had already shown the folly of vaxholes
4 Principles for Reopening the Economy - The Atlantic - "1. Restricting Fundamental Rights Requires Extraordinary Reasons
2. Resist the Status-Quo Bias
3. Focus on What You Can Achieve Without Restricting Fundamental Rights
4. Trust Your Citizens"
From April 2021. Naturally, none of these were followed. Ahh, political incentives!
Three Ways the Pandemic Has Made the World Better - The Atlantic - "1. We Now Know How to Code for Our Vaccines
2. We Actually Learned How to Use Our Digital Infrastructure
3. We’ve Unleashed the True Spirit of Peer Review and Open Science"