Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby conniption » Thu Aug 06, 2020 8:34 pm

AIER

Madness in Melbourne

Jeffrey A. Tucker
– August 4, 2020


Melbourne, that glorious city in the state of Victoria in Australia, granted me some of the best travel days of my life during two separate trips each lasting a full week.

A happy, civilized, highly educated people are here living amidst modern architecture, inspiring bridges, and natural beauty, a place where even the police are kind, and when you ask them for directions they reply with a smile, and when you say thank you, they say “No worries.”

Now there are big worries in Melbourne.

The Premier has imposed a vicious police state without precedent in this country’s history. His name is Dan Andrews (a sweet-sounding name that masks the tyrant he has become), and he tweets out pictures of empty streets to brag about what he has achieved in the name of suppressing a virus.

Tacitus’s line about the Roman empire comes to mind: “Where they make a desert, they call it peace.”

Australia is the only country in the world that has a law that people can’t be mean to each other. Now it is host to one of the world’s meanest governments.

The catastrophe began with a spring lockdown before there were any cases of C-19 much less deaths. The ethos in Australia was one of extreme exclusion and suppression of the virus, not as bad as New Zealand but pretty bad. The rest of the world can catch this disease, but Australia would use its geographical isolation and political intelligence to ban the virus. The virus will be in awe and know to stay away forever.

It’s not a good theory because that’s not how viruses work.

Still, it seemed to work, at first. That’s because the virus had yet to arrive.

When the virus did arrive, the futility of the suppression strategy was revealed.

Melbourne had set up quarantine hotels for people arriving from abroad or returning from cruises. They would spend 14 days in isolation to purge themselves of possible infection. Then all would be okay. There was a problem: the wiley virus escaped.

As a result, a nation’s pride in having suppressed the virus turned to panic and full lockdown. Internal borders are sealed. And Melbourne has become a living hell, not because of the virus (which is still mild) but because of the unleashing of a hellish police state.

A friend summarized the situation for me:

Police may now enter anyone’s home without a warrant.

Curfew 8:00pm.

$1,652 fine if outside without “a valid reason” – an amount being raised by the day

Can’t visit any family or friends.

$200 fine for no mask (mandatory masks at all times).

Can only exercise once per day, for up to 1 hour.

Only one person per household, per day can leave the house (including for groceries).

Can’t go more than 3 miles from your home.

Weddings are illegal.

No gatherings of any size.

Army is on the streets fining/arresting people.

“Since March 21, a total of 193,740 spot checks have been conducted by police across Victoria.”

Protests/activism is illegal; people have already been arrested for peaceful gatherings.

Media is EXTREMELY biased, calls protesters “right wing conspiracy nutjobs” and won’t allow discussion of whether these lockdowns are right or not.

Several thousand people were placed under house arrest and unable to leave for ANY reason, with food rations delivered by the army, leading to appalling levels of personal trauma.

Australia won’t release how many fines they’ve given out, but an ABC news report says it’s over $5.2 million so far.

Streets of Melbourne are empty, even in a city of 5 million+ people. People are HATEFUL to each other, everyone is cannibalising their neighbours (calling police to report any little infraction of the rules and turning on each other like some socialist hellhole).

Billboards outside on the street that say in capital letters: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STAY HOME.” They feel extremely oppressive, like we’re being yelled at by a very oppressive government.

The Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews shows complete and utter disdain for us, constantly blaming us. He’s blamed children (yes, really) for not taking this seriously enough. Every chance he gets, he tells us it’s OUR fault the virus is spreading (even though that’s what viruses do – they spread).

It’s not just the Victorian Premier – the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is just as terrible. He’s encouraged all of this, and he was responsible for the first lockdown.

1984 dystopian language: billboards everywhere saying “Staying apart keeps us together.” Have they gone mad?

There’s probably more but at this point I honestly lost track of all the insanity that’s happened.
All because 147 people died in the state of Victoria (total population is 6.359 million), almost all of the deaths are over 70 with comorbidities, same as everywhere else in the world.

This is lockdown ideology at work. It is tyranny without limit, at the expense of all human dignity, decency, and rights. The politicians make a desert and call it health.

Like everywhere else on the planet, Melbourne will have to reach herd immunity from C-19 at some point. Those who deny that are risking not only liberty and health but civilization itself.

Perhaps the other states in Australia will observe the destruction in Victoria and learn to take another path when the virus first arrives in their territory, as it surely will. Lockdowns are not science; they are brutality.

I cry for the once-great city of Melbourne this day. May there be justice. And may its future political leadership be granted some modicum of decency and wisdom.

Jeffrey A. Tucker

Jeffrey A. Tucker is Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research. He is the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and eight books in 5 languages, most recently The Market Loves You. He is also the editor of The Best of Mises. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture. Jeffrey is available for speaking and interviews via his email. Tw | FB | LinkedIn

https://www.aier.org/article/madness-in-melbourne/


-------------------


BGPuppetShot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQcvuftqXFY

•May 12, 2020
Willy G.'s Dystopian Future

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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby Monk » Sat Aug 08, 2020 7:45 am

"Italy’s earliest coronavirus strains did not arrive from China, study suggests"

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science ... hina-study
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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby cptmarginal » Sun Aug 09, 2020 1:52 am

DrEvil » Tue Jul 28, 2020 1:57 pm wrote:
AstraZeneca, which is partnering with the University of Oxford, has begun a trial designed to blend the Phase II and Phase III stages at sites in the UK, South Africa, and Brazil, and the company is expected to start at US sites shortly.


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-astr ... SKCN24V2EN

U.S. LEGAL NEWS

JULY 30, 2020 / 9:19 AM / 10 DAYS AGO

AstraZeneca to be exempt from coronavirus vaccine liability claims in most countries

Ludwig Burger, Pushkala Aripaka
3 MIN READ

(Reuters) - AstraZeneca has been granted protection from future product liability claims related to its COVID-19 vaccine hopeful by most of the countries with which it has struck supply agreements, a senior executive told Reuters.

With 25 companies testing their vaccine candidates on humans and getting ready to immunise hundred millions of people once the products are shown to work, the question of who pays for any claims for damages in case of side effects has been a tricky point in supply negotiations.

“This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in ... four years the vaccine is showing side effects,” Ruud Dobber, a member of Astra’s senior executive team, told Reuters.

“In the contracts we have in place, we are asking for indemnification. For most countries it is acceptable to take that risk on their shoulders because it is in their national interest,” he said, adding that Astra and regulators were making safety and tolerability a top priority.

Dobber would not name the countries.

EU officials told Reuters this week product liability was among contentious points in European efforts to secure supply deals for potential COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson.

The United States, however, already has a law to exclude tort claims from products that help control a public-health crises in the form of the 2005 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness, or PREP Act.

AstraZeneca, Britain’s second-largest drugmaker, has pledged to supply a total of more than 2 billion doses at no profit in agreements with the United States, Britain and European countries, among other nations and organisations.

Astra’s deals differ from most rivals because it has secured government backing for production and development efforts, while competitors such as GlaxoSmithKline are looking to negotiate a price for a finished product, contingent on approval.

To back its claim to forgo profits from the $1.2 billion collaboration in the United States, Astra has even granted the government access to financial accounts related to the venture, according to Dobber.

“There are very clear milestones before they are going to pay. Because we made the promise to manufacture the vaccine at no profit, auditors of the U.S. administration will get free access to our accounting books,” he said.


viewtopic.php?f=8&t=35572&p=542287#p542287

Let’s take a look at the trustees of Jimmy Savile’s charities, namely the Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust and the Jimmy Savile Stoke Mandeville Charitable Trust.

Both charities now have the same group of three trustees, namely:

[...]

Lady Gabrielle Greenbury (replaced James Collier at the JSSMCT in March 2012)

She’s married to Richard Greenbury, who was CEO at Marks and Spencer from 1988 to 1999, chairman of the pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca (giving his wife an obvious conflict of interest in her role as trustee of the said charities), and a director of Lloyds TSB. Gabrielle Greenbury was also a director of the dodgy security company Sabrewatch.


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... tein-links

Companies Move Away From Prince Andrew Over Epstein Links

November 20, 2019, 9:11 AM EST

-BT reviewing relationship with organization linked to royal
-AON, AstraZeneca also clarify partnership with prince


Overview of their previous corruption and malfeasance lawsuits:

https://www.corp-research.org/astrazeneca

Pay-to-Play Seroquel Research Scheme - RI thread

Crestor, not in the water but close to it! - RI thread

The Deadly Corruption of Clinical Trials - Mother Jones
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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby cptmarginal » Sun Aug 09, 2020 9:08 am

Brazil's Bolsonaro Orders $360 Million to Be Set Aside for AstraZeneca Coronavirus Vaccine - Aug. 6, 2020

BRASILIA — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro issued a decree on Thursday that will set aside 1.9 billion reais ($356 million) in funds to purchase and eventually produce the potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca PLC and Oxford University researchers.

Brazil's Acting Health Minister General Eduardo Pazuello said the vaccine could be available for Brazilians by December or January.

He called the vaccine "the most promising in the world" to fight the virus.

"January is the best bet. The vaccine is the solution to end the pandemic," Pazuello said during Bolsonaro's weekly live chat on Facebook.

AstraZeneca's candidate is seen as the frontrunner in the global race to deliver an effective vaccine. On Thursday, the British drugmaker struck a deal to produce the vaccine in China.
The new way of thinking is precisely delineated by what it is not.
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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby Nordic » Sun Aug 09, 2020 3:20 pm

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/nev ... o-oversold

“In a recent Kekst CNC poll, British respondents estimated that nearly 7 per cent of the UK population has died from the coronavirus. That would be 4.5 million people. Scots supposed that more than 10 per cent of the UK population has died. That would be seven million people. Astonishingly, Americans believed that Covid has killed 9 per cent of their compatriots, or almost 30 million people! The real US total has indeed crossed the milestone of 150,000, but for pity’s sake, ‘only’ 20 million people died in the first world war.

True, your average everyman and woman are not dab hands at statistics. Nevertheless, broadcast news has bludgeoned audiences daily with Covid death totals. And a citizenry ought to have some vague notion of their country’s population. So folks convinced that in five meagre months they’ve lost a tenth of their fellows — the literal meaning of the word ‘decimate’ — need only drop a digit to realise how absurdly their bloated estimate compares with familiar figures on the news. But then, the public is never good with zeroes — a failing which treasuries in deficit count on.“
"He who wounds the ecosphere literally wounds God" -- Philip K. Dick
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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby liminalOyster » Sun Aug 09, 2020 6:05 pm

PEW:
Image
"It's not rocket surgery." - Elvis
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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby Elvis » Sun Aug 09, 2020 9:28 pm

Nordic wrote: the public is never good with zeroes — a failing which treasuries in deficit count on.“


The public is never good at understanding how modern government finance works.

As Covid-19 circumstances bring unprecedented federal outlays, it's critical for people to grasp this very simple equation:


Government budget deficit = Private sector financial surplus

To the penny. It's an accounting fact. Every dollar the government creates & spends but does not tax back becomes our private (non-govt) savings. In fact, government deficit spending is the only source of net private savings in our economy.

Federal spending adds money to the economy. Now look at the reverse:


Government budget surplus = Private sector financial deficit

A federal budget surplus means the government taxes back more than it spends. Now that is unsustainable — as the contrived shortage of dollars drives people into private debt, taking out loans and racking up credit card debt to make ends meet. The finance industry would happy for you to just take out more loans to pay off the earlier ones. That's why they vigorously oppose government deficit spending for social programs—it threatens the profits guaranteed by austerity.
“The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.” ― Joan Robinson
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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby thrulookingglass » Mon Aug 10, 2020 11:49 am

A recent study examining the use of cannabis terpene formulation - NT-VRL on inflammatory conditions has had some promising results in treating cytokine storm syndrome caused by COVID-19.
Cytokine storm syndrome is a form of inflammatory response where white blood cells are activated and release inflammatory cytokines, which the activate more white blood cells. The syndrome can cause symptoms like fever, fatigue, and vomiting, but can advance to a point where a patient might need a ventilator to stay alive or might die.
Early results from the study, which took place in Israel, show that the terpene formulation combined with CBD is twice as effective at using CBD on its own as well as twice as effective as Dexamethasone, a common corticosteroids treatment for inflammation, Health Europa reports.
The study was carried out by Eybna and Cannasoul, which announced they were working on the project together in April.
NT-VRL is a patented formulation of terpenes created by Eybna. The terpenes used in the formulation were selected specifically for their ant-viral and anti-inflammatory properties.
The formulation is designed specifically to be used via inhalation rather than in a tablet or edible form.
"This type of delivery method is a game-changer enabling us to achieve therapeutic qualities from these unique phytochemicals like never before," Eybna's CEO Nadav Eya said in a prepared statement.
For the study, CBD and NT-VRL were each tested both on their own and used together, with the combo proving to be the most effective in those initial tests. The study not only shows the effect of Eybna’s specific terpene, but also that terpenes in general can have an effect on more than just flavor and taste.
The Israeli study isn’t the only one looking into the potential use of cannabis to help ease COVID-19 symptoms as well as potentially prevent someone from getting the virus in the first place.
In June, two Canadian researchers said that they thought a specific strain of cannabis could be helpful inn the fight against COVID-19 thanks to its ability to block the virus from entering the body through ACE2 receptors.
“Similar to other respiratory pathogens, SARS-CoV2 is transmitted through respiratory droplets, with potential for aerosol and contact spread. It uses receptor-mediated entry into the human host via angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2) that is expressed in lung tissue, as well as oral and nasal mucosa, kidney, testes, and the gastrointestinal tract,” reads the study. “Modulation of ACE2 levels in these gateway tissues may prove a plausible strategy for decreasing disease susceptibility.”
The researchers, Olga and Igor Kovalchuck have reportedly been developing and testing a novel cannabis strain for years, except with the goal of creating a strain that helps to combat cancer and inflammation. When the pandemic hit, the duo started to focus their efforts on how the strain might be used to help fight COVID-19.
The duo’s work was published in an April issue of the online medical journal Preprints.
“Cannabis sativa, especially one high in the anti-inflammatory cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD), has been proposed to modulate gene expression and inflammation and harbour anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties,” the study says. “Working under the Health Canada research license, we have developed over 800 new Cannabis sativa lines and extracts and hypothesized that high-CBD C. sativa extracts may be used to modulate ACE2 expression in COVID-19 target tissues.”
At that time of publication, the duo’s work was still a theory rather than a confirmed fact; however, both studies point to cannabis potentially being a valuable resource as the world works towards finding new treatments and potentially prevention techniques for the Virus going forward. - Emily Price / Forbes
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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby chump » Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:58 am

via my faavorite aangiry fanatic...fwiw:

Spanish Flu Did Not Kill 50,000,000 Vaccines Did and They Are Repeating the Same Pattern Again Now.
38,530 views
•Apr 23, 2020
YumNaturals Emporium
21.6K subscribers
Mirror - thanks to krizzee22
https://crazzfiles.com/the-vaccine-that ... -50000000/
The 1918 Influenza

VERY FEW PEOPLE realize that the worst epidemic ever to hit America, the Spanish Influenza of 1918 was the after effect of the massive nation-wide vaccine campaign. Viruses were not known at that time so the doctors told the people that the disease was caused by germs. Germs, bacteria and viruses, along with bacilli and a few other invisible organisms are the scapegoats, which the doctors like to blame for the things they do not understand.

If we check back in history to that 1918 flu period, we will see that it suddenly struck just after the end of World War I when American soldiers were returning home from overseas, although there was a suggestion that the virus strain originated at Fort Riley, Kansas, in viruses in poultry and pigs which the fort bred for food; the soldiers were then sent from Fort Riley around the world, where they spread the disease. WWI was the first war in which multiple vaccines were forced on all U.S. servicemen.

“It was a common expression during the war that more soldiers were killed by vaccine shots than by shots from enemy guns.”—E. McBean

This concoction of poisonous drugs and putrid proteins of which the vaccines were composed, caused such widespread disease & death among the soldiers that it was the common talk of the day, that more of our men were being killed by medical shots than by enemy gunfire.

The Spanish Flu was worsened by aspirin abuse leading to wet lung.

Aspirin Misuse May Have Made 1918 Flu Pandemic Worse
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 132346.htm
Death by aspirin
In another example, researcher Dr. Tsunetoshi Shimazu, in a letter in the British Medical Journal, noted this observation:
Aspirin may have enhanced the virulence of the flu virus in the 1918 pandemic, which has implications for A/H1N1 flu.
Letters A/H1N1 flu. Aspirin in the 1918 pandemic. British Medical Journal. 15 June 2009;338:b2398. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b2398

In addition to aspirin use, medical treatment consisted of cough syrup to suppress cough. This resulted in an inability to clear the lungs and bronchi.

An article in the journal Pharmacotherapy reveals that taking aspirin or Tylenol™ for the flu (both fever reducers) could prolong one’s illness by up to 3½ days!
Plaisance KI et al. Effect of antipyretic therapy on the duration of illness in experimental influenza A, Shigella connei, and Rickettsia rickettsii infections. Pharmacotherapy. 2000;20(12):1417-1433.

There is one drug which directly or indirectly was the cause of the loss of more lives than was influenza itself: aspirin. Aspirin was taken until prostration resulted & the patient developed pneumonia. – Frank L. Newton, MD
Winston J. Influenza-1918: homeopathy to the rescue. The New England Journal of Homeopathy. Spring/Summer 1998;7(1):112-115.

https://korenwellness.com/blog/1918-flu ... r-aspirin/
Salicylates and Pandemic Influenza Mortality, 1918–1919 Pharmacology, Pathology, and Historic Evidence by Karen M. Starko
Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 49, Issue 9, 15 November 2009, Pages 1405–1410, https://doi.org/10.1086/606060
Published: 15 November 2009
Abstract
The high case-fatality rate—especially among young adults—during the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic is incompletely understood. Although late deaths showed bacterial pneumonia, early deaths exhibited extremely “wet,” sometimes hemorrhagic lungs. The hypothesis presented herein is that aspirin contributed to the incidence and severity of viral pathology, bacterial infection, and death, because physicians of the day were unaware that the regimens (8.0–31.2 g per day) produce levels associated with hyperventilation and pulmonary edema in 33% and 3% of recipients, respectively. Recently, pulmonary edema was found at autopsy in 46% of 26 salicylate-intoxicated adults.
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/9/1405/301441

There was another factor that could have been contributory, that was the use of transcontinental or long distance calling creating EM fields in the ether. Read this book:

Arthur Firstenberg: The Invisible Rainbow – A History of Electricity and Life (Radiation Sickness Explains All Past and Present Flu Outbreaks Including Wuhan Virus and Radiation Sickness on Cruise Ships)
http://stateofthenation.co/?p=7400

Summary: https://www.5gexposed.com/wp-content/...

Wired & wireless technologies of 1916 & in the war: https://eandt.theiet.org/content/arti...

The germ theory is FALSE, we do not catch diseases, we earn them. In knowing this we need to create a new body of proper science that is in alignment with truth & reality, getting out from under the thumb of the toxic chemical medicine allopathic cartel.
http://yummymummyemporium.org/


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https://www.theamericanconservative.com ... communism/
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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby Grizzly » Tue Aug 11, 2020 5:28 am



How to Stop an Epidemic
This is pretty damn interesting, if watched all the way through by disregarding the first 15/20 seconds of commercial. I can't seem to find a way to block it out, but it's super short, and worth it to see the rest. Lastly, of course we have moved into Pandemic, but the unfolding of this info's Epidemic, is very edifying.
“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

― Joseph mengele
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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby conniption » Tue Aug 11, 2020 8:59 pm


RT


As Russia announces coronavirus vaccine, mainstream media suddenly discovers the meaning of skepticism

Graham Dockery
is an Irish journalist, commentator, and writer at RT. Previously based in Amsterdam, he wrote for DutchNews and a scatter of local and national newspapers.
11 Aug, 2020

As Russia rolls out its new coronavirus inoculation ahead of complete clinical tests, the western media has suddenly come full circle on vaccines. Russia, it seems, could cure cancer and the media would find a way to blame Putin.

Russia has registered the world’s first vaccine against the Covid-19 coronavirus. Russian President Vladmir Putin announced the breakthrough on Tuesday, telling reporters that his own daughter has taken the jab. Doctors and teachers will be the first to receive the shot, with a general rollout expected in January 2021.

The vaccine is still undergoing testing, though Russian scientists say they’ve had decades of experience fighting similar viruses. It’s passed the first two trial phases - on monkeys and humans, yet the third and final placebo test is still pending, and will be conducted alongside the voluntary rollout of the vaccine.

Armed with that fact, the Western media set about ringing the alarm. The New York Times accused the Kremlin of “cutting corners on testing to score propaganda points,” and warned of the dangers of new and partially tested drugs. The Guardian too warned of this rushed effort, but added that “vaccines may only be partially effective,” even after rigorous testing. Likewise the Washington Post cautioned that “shots could be harmful or give people a false sense of security about their immunity.”

Across multiple outlets, the messaging was the same. The Russian vaccine is not to be trusted, is little more than propaganda fodder, and could even be a nefarious Kremlin plot to goad the West into pushing out its own, untested, vaccine ahead of schedule.

It’s undoubtedly true that the race to a vaccine is a matter of national pride for Russia. Even the drug’s name - Sputnik V - references the first satellite launched into space, a massive space-race propaganda coup for the Soviet Union. Likewise the papers have a point when they raise concerns about the efficacy of vaccines. As the Guardian pointed out, even the most thoroughly tested shots may be at best ineffective or at worst come with horrible side-effects.

Yet, before the Russian breakthrough, these same outlets were bonafide vaccine evangelists. “Vaccinations save lives, protect our children and are one of our greatest public health achievements,” read an op-ed in the New York Times last March. The writers - which included the US Surgeon General, rubbished fears of side-effects, and urged the public to unite behind government inoculation drives. “Mistrust of a Coronavirus vaccine,” the paper wrote in July, “could imperil widespread immunity.”

To be fair, the latter article raised concerns about the speedy development of vaccines - this time bashing President Donald Trump and his ‘Operation Warp Speed’ research project instead of Putin, but just two months earlier the Times described the (Western) effort to roll out a vaccine “in record time” as a sign of “hope” amid the pandemic.

Ditto for the Guardian, whose journalists last week mocked“the white, middle-class Pinterest moms” who believe conspiracy theories about vaccines, and a month earlier featured experts who declared that even an imperfect vaccine would be “considered a success.”

Just like the Oxford professor who lamented the fact that a successful British vaccine might lead to a dangerous rise in national pride, it seems the Westen media couldn’t stand to see a Russian-made jab turn the tide against the Coronavirus. Imagine that? Putin’s Russia - the election-meddling, spy-poisoning, Trump-enabling thorn in the side of the liberal order - delivering the life-saving shot that rids the world of the dreaded plague?

Needless to say, there’d be a lot of words swallowed on Fleet Street and Eighth Avenue.

Of course, these are early days. Any potential vaccine is always going to be a gamble, and as trials continue alongside its limited deployment, the effectiveness of Sputnik V has yet to be proven. The Russian effort may in the end come to naught, and if it does, at least the commentariat in London and New York will have something to gloat about - pandemic be damned.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/497725-russia- ... a-skeptic/
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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby DrEvil » Tue Aug 11, 2020 9:46 pm

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08 ... sputnik-v/

Russia skips COVID-19 vaccine trial, says millions to be vaccinated this month

Despite lack of data, design pitfall, Putin said his daughter was already given a dose.

Beth Mole - 8/11/2020, 7:07 PM

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that Russia is the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval for a COVID-19 vaccine—dubbed “Sputnik V.”

Putin claimed that one of his own daughters has already received a dose of the vaccine, according to reports from Moscow—though he didn’t note which daughter. Russian officials pledged to vaccinate millions within the month, starting with healthcare workers and teachers.

Little is known about Sputnik V, which was developed by researchers at the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow. There is no public data on the vaccine, let alone any published, peer-reviewed scientific studies. Public registration of two small clinical trials notes that Sputnik V uses a viral-vector-based design, but they suggest that it has only been tested in a small number of people. The trials, which began less than two months ago, each enrolled 38 healthy volunteers and have an estimated study completion date of August 15.

The World Health Organization, which tracks international COVID-19 vaccine development efforts, lists Sputnik V as being only in the first of three main clinical trial phases. Generally, Phase I clinical trials for vaccines are small—typically only involving dozens of people—and only assess the safety of the candidate. Phase II trials may involve hundreds of people and look further at safety, dosing, and the immune responses that the vaccine triggers, which may hint at the vaccine’s possible efficacy. Then there is the Phase III trial, which often involves tens of thousands of people and looks at whether the vaccine protects against infection and disease.

It appears that Russia has skipped Phase III—and possibly has not finished Phase II yet.

In a meeting Tuesday, Putin reportedly said that “of course, what counts most is for us to be able to ensure the unconditional safety of the use of this vaccine and its efficiency in the future. I hope that this will be accomplished.”

Dubious design

There may already be reason to doubt the efficacy of Sputnik V. The vaccine is a viral vector-based vaccine. That is, it uses two harmless adenoviruses to deliver parts of the pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, to the immune system. This is a common design, but it's one that has a notable pitfall.

Adenoviruses in humans tend to cause mild infections and common colds. For vaccine delivery, they’re usually engineered so they can’t replicate, making them even more harmless. Russian researchers further tinkered with the adenovirus so that it carries the genetic coding for SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein.

The aptly named spike protein is a barb-like structure that juts out from the viral particle and is critical for infection. The spike protein grabs ahold of a receptor on human cells called ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme 2), which allows the virus to get into the cell, take over, and churn out more viral particles. By delivering the spike protein in the adenovirus, researchers are hoping it trains antibodies and defensive immune cells to seek and destroy SARS-CoV-2 by recognizing the spike proteins.

Several other high-profile COVID-19 vaccine candidates use this basic strategy—but there’s a catch. Sputnik uses adenoviruses that commonly infect humans. In people who have already been infected with these common viruses, the vaccine may not prompt a strong immune response against the spike protein if immune cells recognize the adenovirus packaging and respond to it instead.

Crazy Russians

This appeared to be the case for a Chinese vaccine candidate developed in part by biotechnology company CanSino. The company’s human adenovirus-based vaccine prompted weaker immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 in people with existing adenovirus immune responses. And in some populations, up to 80 percent of people have had exposure to the human adenovirus the researchers used in the vaccine. Nevertheless, China is pushing ahead with the vaccine, which is now moving to Phase III trials and is already approved for use by the Chinese military.

Another high-profile vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the international pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca also uses an adenovirus-based delivery. But they dodged the problem of adenovirus immunity by using an adenovirus that primarily infects chimpanzees. The vaccine candidate, which is largely considered more promising by experts, is already in Phase III clinical trials.

As for Sputnik V, Phase III trials are going to start soon, according to Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which financially backed the vaccine’s development. Dmitriev, who spoke with a Moscow-based Washington Post reporter, also said that data from Phase I and Phase II trials will be published later this month—as the vaccine is being distributed to citizens.

He defended the country’s decision to distribute the vaccine before critical clinical trials, saying, “It’s not some crazy Russians using some crazy not proven stuff. Adenovirus existed with humans for thousands of years, and we made a bet on this proven platform because we understand that it takes very little time to develop, given the challenges.”

Last month, officials in the US, UK, and Canada accused hackers linked to Russian intelligence services of trying to steal information about candidate COVID-19 vaccines from academic researchers and pharmaceutical companies. It is “completely unacceptable that the Russian intelligence services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic," Dominic Raab, UK foreign secretary, said at the time. A spokesperson for Putin denied the allegations.
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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby chump » Tue Aug 11, 2020 11:01 pm

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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby Joe Hillshoist » Wed Aug 12, 2020 12:19 am

conniption » 07 Aug 2020 10:34 wrote:
AIER

Madness in Melbourne

Jeffrey A. Tucker
– August 4, 2020


Melbourne, that glorious city in the state of Victoria in Australia, granted me some of the best travel days of my life during two separate trips each lasting a full week.

A happy, civilized, highly educated people are here living amidst modern architecture, inspiring bridges, and natural beauty, a place where even the police are kind, and when you ask them for directions they reply with a smile, and when you say thank you, they say “No worries.”

Now there are big worries in Melbourne.

The Premier has imposed a vicious police state without precedent in this country’s history. His name is Dan Andrews (a sweet-sounding name that masks the tyrant he has become), and he tweets out pictures of empty streets to brag about what he has achieved in the name of suppressing a virus.

Tacitus’s line about the Roman empire comes to mind: “Where they make a desert, they call it peace.”

Australia is the only country in the world that has a law that people can’t be mean to each other. Now it is host to one of the world’s meanest governments.

The catastrophe began with a spring lockdown before there were any cases of C-19 much less deaths. The ethos in Australia was one of extreme exclusion and suppression of the virus, not as bad as New Zealand but pretty bad. The rest of the world can catch this disease, but Australia would use its geographical isolation and political intelligence to ban the virus. The virus will be in awe and know to stay away forever.

It’s not a good theory because that’s not how viruses work.

Still, it seemed to work, at first. That’s because the virus had yet to arrive.

When the virus did arrive, the futility of the suppression strategy was revealed.

Melbourne had set up quarantine hotels for people arriving from abroad or returning from cruises. They would spend 14 days in isolation to purge themselves of possible infection. Then all would be okay. There was a problem: the wiley virus escaped.

As a result, a nation’s pride in having suppressed the virus turned to panic and full lockdown. Internal borders are sealed. And Melbourne has become a living hell, not because of the virus (which is still mild) but because of the unleashing of a hellish police state.

A friend summarized the situation for me:

Police may now enter anyone’s home without a warrant.

Curfew 8:00pm.

$1,652 fine if outside without “a valid reason” – an amount being raised by the day

Can’t visit any family or friends.

$200 fine for no mask (mandatory masks at all times).

Can only exercise once per day, for up to 1 hour.

Only one person per household, per day can leave the house (including for groceries).

Can’t go more than 3 miles from your home.

Weddings are illegal.

No gatherings of any size.

Army is on the streets fining/arresting people.

“Since March 21, a total of 193,740 spot checks have been conducted by police across Victoria.”

Protests/activism is illegal; people have already been arrested for peaceful gatherings.

Media is EXTREMELY biased, calls protesters “right wing conspiracy nutjobs” and won’t allow discussion of whether these lockdowns are right or not.

Several thousand people were placed under house arrest and unable to leave for ANY reason, with food rations delivered by the army, leading to appalling levels of personal trauma.

Australia won’t release how many fines they’ve given out, but an ABC news report says it’s over $5.2 million so far.

Streets of Melbourne are empty, even in a city of 5 million+ people. People are HATEFUL to each other, everyone is cannibalising their neighbours (calling police to report any little infraction of the rules and turning on each other like some socialist hellhole).

Billboards outside on the street that say in capital letters: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STAY HOME.” They feel extremely oppressive, like we’re being yelled at by a very oppressive government.

The Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews shows complete and utter disdain for us, constantly blaming us. He’s blamed children (yes, really) for not taking this seriously enough. Every chance he gets, he tells us it’s OUR fault the virus is spreading (even though that’s what viruses do – they spread).

It’s not just the Victorian Premier – the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is just as terrible. He’s encouraged all of this, and he was responsible for the first lockdown.

1984 dystopian language: billboards everywhere saying “Staying apart keeps us together.” Have they gone mad?

There’s probably more but at this point I honestly lost track of all the insanity that’s happened.
All because 147 people died in the state of Victoria (total population is 6.359 million), almost all of the deaths are over 70 with comorbidities, same as everywhere else in the world.

This is lockdown ideology at work. It is tyranny without limit, at the expense of all human dignity, decency, and rights. The politicians make a desert and call it health.

Like everywhere else on the planet, Melbourne will have to reach herd immunity from C-19 at some point. Those who deny that are risking not only liberty and health but civilization itself.

Perhaps the other states in Australia will observe the destruction in Victoria and learn to take another path when the virus first arrives in their territory, as it surely will. Lockdowns are not science; they are brutality.

I cry for the once-great city of Melbourne this day. May there be justice. And may its future political leadership be granted some modicum of decency and wisdom.

Jeffrey A. Tucker

Jeffrey A. Tucker is Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research. He is the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and eight books in 5 languages, most recently The Market Loves You. He is also the editor of The Best of Mises. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture. Jeffrey is available for speaking and interviews via his email. Tw | FB | LinkedIn

https://www.aier.org/article/madness-in-melbourne/


-------------------


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•May 12, 2020
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There is a lot wrong with that article. A fair bit of the gist of it is true, but after suppressing the virus Melbourne had a major outbreak, spreading among vulnerable and working class populations. The outbreak happened because the government applied the sort of free market solutions to managing the crisis that people like our man Jeffry live to advocate for.

There are some really specific details that are wrong and that suggests to me that he can't be arsed getting his facts right or doing research. Like the fact that outbreak was originally in Autumn and this current outbreak is happening in the middle of winter during a bad flu season. It wasn't in Spring and the first lockdown was in response to exponential rates of infection and the first deaths. In Victoria that first lockdown resulted in the complete retooling of the states medical set up specifically to deal with COVID ... That's what was done while everything was shut down.

Jeffery said there were no deaths or even cases and it happened in Spring. Flat out wrong.

The virus was here, we suppressed it enough that elimination was a possibility but poor quarantine control by privately contracted companies meant it escaped. Thanks Neo liberal lazy unfair capitalism and the free market. Nice work. :thumbsup

It's a fundamental point aand he completely ignores it. If he is typing that sort of bullshit what other lies does this campaigner come up with.

Like the fact that the cops are friendly and kind or that the media called the BLM protests that happened last month "right wing nut jobs". There are some protests by right wing nut jobs but fuck them. Some of them are nut jobs.

Viscous police state without precedent... Lol we are a penal colony. Try living in certain indigenous communities Jeff...

Etc etc
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Re: Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

Postby lucky » Wed Aug 12, 2020 4:42 am

@Joe - I was goin to ask what you thought of Max Igan, but after reading your post I think I can guess !
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