If Kids and Teens Keep Getting COVID Boosters, What Will Happen in 10 Years?

By  Dr. Joseph Mercola

The COVID-19 vaccine inhibits the type-1 interferon pathway — an immune molecule that protects cells against invading pathogens — so mass injecting young children may erase natural herd immunity that would develop if children remained unjabbed.

Story at a glance:

• So far, children have been largely unfazed by COVID-19 because their interferon pathway works really well. Interferon is an immune molecule that protects cells against invading pathogens.
• The COVID-19 jab inhibits the type-1 interferon pathway, so mass injecting young children may actually erase the natural herd immunity against COVID-19 that would develop if all children remained unjabbed.
• Aggressive cancers have exploded among adults who got the shots, even though it’s only been a little over two years since their rollout.
• Analysis of U.S. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report data suggests the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is redesignating cancer deaths as COVID-19 deaths to eliminate the cancer signal, and has been doing so since April 2021.
• We’ve also seen massive increases in excess mortality from abnormal clotting issues and heart problems since the COVID-19 shots rolled out. If side effects such as cancer, heart disease and stroke are killing working-age adults in unprecedented numbers already, what will the excess mortality be, say, 10 years from now if children and teens keep getting mRNA boosters every year?

What will the future hold for people whose exposure to COVID-19 occurs during the first years of life? That question was recently asked by Katherine J. Wu, a staff writer at The Atlantic.

Wu writes:

“To be a newborn in the year 2023 — and, almost certainly, every year that follows — means emerging into a world where the coronavirus is ubiquitous … Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this virus will be one of the very first serious pathogens that today’s infants — and all future infants — meet. . .”

[…]

COVID jab prevents natural herd immunity

Wu praises the COVID-19 jab as being part of why we can be hopeful for future generations that have to live with this new virus, but is that really realistic?

Right now, everything points to the COVID-19 shot being a disaster, and no one actually knows what the long-term effect will be on children who get it.

Wu highlights the fact that children’s immune systems have the advantage of “marshaling hordes of interferon — an immune molecule that armors cells against viruses.” This is thought to be a primary reason why COVID-19 isn’t nearly as lethal in young children as in older adults.

The problem that Wu completely misses is that the COVID-19 jab inhibits the type-1 interferon pathway, so mass injecting young children may actually erase the natural herd immunity against COVID-19 that would develop if all children remained unjabbed. The shots will NOT, as Wu suggests, help us achieve herd immunity at all.

Cancer rates in young people will likely rise

Mass injecting children with a drug that impairs their immune system may also (rather predictably) result in exploding cancer rates. Already, aggressive cancers have exploded among adults who got the shots, even though it’s only been a little over two years since their rollout.

For example, data from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database — historically one of the most well-kept and most heavily relied-upon medical databases in the world — showed that, compared to the previous five-year averages, cancer among U.S. Department of Defense personnel in 2021 skyrocketed.

Overall, cancers tripled among servicemen and their family members after the rollout of the COVID-19 shots. Breast cancer went up 487%. Exploding cancer rates are also seen elsewhere.

Indeed, the explosion of cases is so bad that cancer is now one of the top three leading causes of premature death among young working-age adults — a trend that in turn has driven down U.S. life expectancy by three years.

Cancer relapses and metastasis rates are exploding

On Nov. 26, 2022, The Daily Sceptic published a letter to the editor of The BMJ, written by Dr. Angus Dalgleish, professor of oncology at St. George’s University of London, warning that COVID-19 boosters may be causing aggressive metastatic cancers:

“COVID no longer needs a vaccine programme given the average age of death of COVID in the U.K. is 82 and from all other causes is 81 and falling.

“The link with clots, myocarditis, heart attacks and strokes is now well accepted, as is the link with myelitis and neuropathy …

“However, there is now another reason to halt all vaccine programmes. As a practicing oncologist I am seeing people with stable disease rapidly progress after being forced to have a booster, usually so they can travel. Even within my own personal contacts I am seeing B cell-based disease after the boosters.

“They describe being distinctly unwell a few days to weeks after the booster — one developing leukemia, two work colleagues Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and an old friend who has felt like he has had Long COVID-19 since receiving his booster and who, after getting severe bone pain, has been diagnosed as having multiple metastases from a rare B cell disorder.

“I am experienced enough to know that these are not coincidental anecdotes … The reports of innate immune suppression after mRNA for several weeks would fit, as all these patients to date have melanoma or B cell-based cancers, which are very susceptible to immune control — and that is before the reports of suppressor gene suppression by mRNA in laboratory experiments. This must be aired and debated immediately.”

In a Dec. 19, 2022, article in Conservative Woman, Dalgleish continued discussing the phenomenon of rapidly spreading cancers in patients who were in stable remission for years before receiving their COVID-19 boosters.

He noted that after his letter to The BMJ was published, several oncologists contacted him to say they’re seeing the same thing in their own practices.

[…]

Cancer deaths are being intentionally hidden

Disturbingly, as detailed in “How Cancer Deaths From the COVID Jabs Are Being Hidden,” analysis of U.S. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report data suggests the CDC is filtering out and redesignating cancer deaths as COVID-19 deaths to eliminate the cancer signal, and has been doing so since April 2021.

The signal is being hidden by swapping the underlying cause of death with main cause of death. As many as 20% of the weekly so-called COVID-19 deaths are actually cancer deaths.

An unconscionable experiment on humanity

Absolutely no one knows what the long-term ramifications of giving these injections to infants and young children will be. It’s a public health experiment unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. So far, we’ve not seen cancer rates among children skyrocket, but the uptake among young children has also been low.

Since their immune systems are also more robust, children may be protected from cancer for a time even if they do get the jab. The question is how long?

The U.S. childhood vaccination schedule now includes the initial series plus an annual COVID-19 booster. How many boosters will it take before a child’s immune system breaks and cancer starts to proliferate?

Excess mortality skyrocketing

We’ve also seen massive increases in excess mortality from abnormal clotting issues and heart problems since the COVID-19 shots rolled out.

If side effects such as cancer, heart disease and stroke are killing working-age adults in unprecedented numbers already, what will the excess mortality be, say, 10 years from now if children and teens keep getting mRNA boosters every year?

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/kids-teens-covid-boosters-cola/

Putin blasts UK move to send ammo with depleted uranium to Ukraine

(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday condemned British plans to send tank ammunition that contains depleted uranium to Ukraine, saying Moscow would be forced to respond accordingly.

Speaking in London on Monday, Minister of State for Defence Annabel Goldie said some of the ammunition for the Challenger 2 battle tanks that Britain is sending to Ukraine includes armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium.

“If all this happens, Russian will have to respond accordingly, given that the West collectively is already beginning to use weapons with a nuclear component,” Putin said in remarks after a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He did not elaborate.

Russian politicians and commentators have made a series of combative remarks since the invasion of Ukraine last year, suggesting Moscow would – if necessary – be prepared to deploy its vast nuclear arsenal.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the British decision left fewer and fewer steps before a potential “nuclear collision” between Russia and the West.

“Another step has been taken, and there are fewer and fewer left,” he told reporters in remarks cited by domestic agencies.

Depleted uranium is used in weapons because it can penetrate tanks and armour more easily due to its density and other physical properties, a point that Goldie made.

It is a particular health risk around impact sites, where dust can get into people’s lungs and vital organs.

“Naturally, Russia has something to answer this with,” Shoigu told reporters when asked about the ammunition.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the plan the “Yugoslavia scenario”, saying the ammunition caused cancer and infected the environment.

Via https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-blasts-uk-move-send-ammo-with-depleted-uranium-ukraine-2023-03-21/

Chris Rock Tells DC Politicians That Arresting Trump Would Only Make Him “More Popular”

Kingjester

Comedian Chris Rock warned U.S. lawmakers on Sunday that arresting former President Trump would only make him “more popular.”

Rock made the comments while in Washington, D.C., for an event honoring Adam Sandler. He began poking fun at the well-connected capital crowd, which included former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of President Biden’s administration.

“Are you guys really going to arrest Trump?” Rock asked.

“Do you know this is only going to make him more popular. It’s like arresting Tupac. He’s just gonna sell more records. Are you stupid?” he said as the room laughed.” (Courtesy FoxNews.com)

Chris Rock is exactly right.

The reason for that is simple: Average Americans view Trump as “one of us.”

Those on Capitol Hill, who American Voters keep sending up there to speak for THEM, stopped caring about them long ago.

The Professional Politicians in Washington have purposefully become tone-deaf and utterly removed as to the payers, hopes, and dreams of average Americans, which are born out being raised in families who believed in America’s Traditional System of Faith and Values which have made this country both great and admired around the world.

Instead, the Washington Elite have embraced a hedonistic lifestyle, surrounded by special interest groups and lobbyists, who as Rep. Swalwell and Joe and Hunter Biden found out, include our representatives of our enemies, Red China.

Americans from all over the country support former President Trump.

They will view a Trump Indictment as an attack on the only man who can keep our country from becoming another Venezuela.

Trump actually cares more about preserving our Sovereign Nation than those in Washington who are supposed to be working for US and who are instead up there for themselves.

The Far Left Democrats and the Vichy Republicans look down their nose at average Americans because we have sat back and allowed them to run over us for decades.

And then, we elected Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States of America and turned the Washington Status Quo on its collective head.

The coming together of the Far Left Democrats and the Vichy Republicans, in support of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s Witch Hunt, is an act of self-preservation.

They would rather turn America into a Third World “Democratic Socialist” country than to allow a “rank outsider” like Donald J. Trump to become President in 2024 and “Make America Great Again”.

And, that is why we are witnessing this attempt by Bragg to invent a charge on which to indict a former President.

And, in return, that is why Chris Rock is right.

Average Americans’ sense of fair play will generate a backlash, which will culminate in the second term of President Donald J Trump.

Via https://kingsjestersblog.com/2023/03/21/chris-rock-tells-dc-politicians-that-arresting-trump-would-only-make-him-more-popular-hes-right/

New Zealand Health System In Crisis

Homepaddock

It is more than 30 years since I first had a lot to do with the health system as the mother of sons with profound disabilities.

The pressures on staff and resources then were a small taste of what’s happening now with the whole system in crisis as Sir Ray Avery wrote on Linked In:

Chris Hipkins There is a Crisis in New Zealand’s Hospital System

Chris Hipkins, there is crisis in New Zealand’s Hospital system and the health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders is at risk and you have to act NOW and declare a state or emergency.

Numerous frontline healthcare workers and associated hospital support staff have publicly stated that they can no longer provide the level of care needed to administer safe and timely clinical treatment for their patients.

In this Newstalk Interview a top surgeon and a paramedic state that our health system is “imploding” and are calling for rapid action and are condemning the Government for “The crap that comes out of mouths of politicians “with regard to their failure to acknowledge that our hospitals are in crisis.

 

Professor Frank Frizelle says that surgeons are being asked to make life and death decisions [ie choose which patients are denied life saving treatments] because the Hospital HR resources are approaching only 50% of that needed to provide safe and timely medical treatment of patients.

A frontline paramedic say’s that because there are no hospital beds available that ambulances have to wait outside A&E for between two and 5 hours and that one patient was left in a corridor and died and no one noticed for more than two hours.

Prof Frizelle is critical of Health NZ who he says have not put in place adequate planning and resources to prevent the potential complete collapse of our hospital system.

And he is right.

The latest published board minutes for Health NZ are silent on any plan to try to resolve the current crisis in our hospital system.

Chris Hipkins preventable deaths are occurring on your watch and more than 30,000 patients are waiting more than five months for knee replacement, hip replacement, hernia surgery, colonoscopy, and laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgeries.

Some people on the waiting list may die before they get treated and preventable cancer deaths will occur because of the lack of oncologists and MRI, CT technicians and laboratory technicians.

Chris Hipkins, I urge you to declare a state of emergency which would put in place strategies to provide immediate critical support for our hospital and frontline medical staff and prevent a complete collapse of our hospital system.

And my fellow New Zealanders on behalf of all our frontline medical staff who are working with little resources but still trying to provide the best care they can for their patients in what has become an A&E warzone, show them your support.

Like this post ,and share this post, because unlike the visible devastation of the recent flooding the collapse of our healthcare system is like a malignant cancer often not detectable until it’s too late.

If we make enough noise just maybe Chris Hipkins will act.

Sir Ray

It is not fair to blame all the problems on the current government. Some have been gestating for a long time and some have been aggravated by the Covid 19 pandemic.

But the government is responsible for the folly of expensively restructuring the system during a pandemic.

It’s responsible for wasting money on what it considers nice-to-haves while neglecting necessities, one of which is health.

It is also responsible for poor decisions that will have a long-lasting impact including the refusal to fund more places in the country’s two medical schools.

It’s not just more doctors we need, the health workforce is understaffed across the board.

The government keeps saying we need to do our bit to combat climate change about which our efforts will have little if any impact.

It is far more important that we do something about a world-wide shortage of medical professionals by training more of our own rather than relying on immigrants, especially when we’re competing with other countries which offer them better pay and conditions.

Sir Ray is not exaggerating, the health system is at breaking-point with impacts on wellbeing in every sector from ante and post-natal services to end-of-life care.

Rebuilding the health workforce and better funding of frontline health services must be an urgent priority.

Via https://homepaddock.wordpress.com/2023/03/22/health-system-is-in-crisis/

Dutch Farmers Rebel, Win Enough Senate Seats To Block Technocrats

Robin van Lonkhuijsen, Dutch news agency Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANP)

 

Posted By: Jack Montgomery via Breitbart March 20, 2023

When you are backed into a corner and there is no escape except certain destruction, then you fight like crazy to claw your way out. Normally mild-mannered farmers in Netherlands took to the streets and then to the ballot box to get their voices heard, basically neutering the globalist coalition government. This should be a “shot heard around the world” that the Great Reset is not yet a fait accompli. ⁃ TN Editor

The anti-Great Reset, pro-farmer BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) movement appears to have won even more seats in the Dutch senate than expected, with the globalist coalition government losing heavily.

The BoerBurgerBeweging (Farmer-Citizen Movement) was founded to represent the interests of Dutch farmers facing severe difficulties or being closed down altogether as a result of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s efforts to implement European Union-mandated curbs on the use of nitrogen fertilisers, in order to serve the bloc’s climate change green agenda.

Initially a protest movement, the BBB has been involved in many major demonstrations, often involving tractors, in the Netherlands — but it arrived as a political force in the country’s recent regional government elections for the first time, which also determine the make-up of the First Chamber of the States General — the upper house or senate of the Dutch legislature.

As the results of the election become clearer, it now appears to scale of the Farmer-Citizen Movement’s success was greater than polls initially suggested, with it being due to claim 17 seats in the Senate and become by far the largest party there, according to pro-farmer campaigner Eva Vlaardingerbroek.

The precarious four-party coalition government of the supposedly “centre-right” Prime Minister Mark Rutte, meanwhile, appears to have suffered somewhat worse losses than expected, with Vlaardingerbroek suggesting they will be unable to achieve a majority even with the support of the Labour Party and the Greens.

🇳🇱 UPDATE on the Dutch elections!

The final votes have been counted. The BBB (farmers citizens movement) gained a staggering 17 seats and the ruling parties have suffered severe losses and won’t reach a majority – not even with the help of the Green Party + Labour. #DutchFarmers pic.twitter.com/ZQTtB48Riw

— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) March 19, 2023

Vlaardingerbroek has previously alleged that her country is being used as a “pilot” for a broader agenda, with Prime Minister Rutte “very deeply involved in the World Economic Forum [and] a great proponent of all the ideas laid out in the 2030 Agenda and the Great Reset.”

“It’s all related, all these policies are out of those institutions and they are being implemented in our country first, we are sort of the pilot country together with Canada for this agenda,” she added, lamenting the impact of the scheme on farmers targeted by the EU’s Natura 2000 scheme who have in many cases been tending their land and livestock for generations, but now face being forced out of business by state power.

Via https://www.technocracy.news/dutch-farmers-rebel-win-enough-senate-seats-to-block-technocrats/

Older Americans reject more vaccines, opt instead for ‘natural healing’

By Melissa Rudy | Fox News

Majority of unvaccinated adults 40 and over would refuse immunization — ‘trust’ has eroded, said one doctor

Many adults age 40 and older are opting to skip vaccine immunizations despite their general concerns about virus infections, as revealed in research that AARP has just published.

Among all adults who had not received a flu vaccine, only 32% said they would get the vaccination even if their doctor advised them to do so.

Among those who had not gotten the pneumonia vaccine, only 49% would get it if their doctor recommended it.

For the shingles vaccine, 56% of unvaccinated older adults would get the jab on their doctor’s advice.

The study, conducted on AARP’s behalf by Alan Newman Market Research Consultants (ANR), collected data from an online survey sent to 1,546 older U.S. adults between Oct. 3, 2022, and Oct. 12, 2022.

It also found that less than half of unvaccinated older adults would get vaccines for pertussis, hepatitis, monkeypox, tetanus, smallpox and diphtheria if recommended by a health care provider.

Black adults showed more willingness to get vaccines

The survey found that 46% of Black adults over age 40 would get a flu vaccine if their doctor recommended it.

The share rose to 63% for pneumonia and 66% for shingles.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION COULD REDUCE VACCINE ANTIBODIES, NEW STUDY FOUND

More than half of unvaccinated Black respondents would get vaccines for pertussis, hepatitis, monkeypox, tetanus, smallpox and diphtheria if recommended by a health care provider, the study also found.

Many fear getting sick from vaccines

The survey found that among midlife and older adults, the most common reason for not getting a flu vaccine was fear of getting sick from the shot, cited by 34% of respondents.

Another 29% of people simply said they don’t believe the vaccine is necessary.

Among those who don’t plan to get the pneumonia vaccine, 26% said they don’t need it and 25% are concerned about getting sick.

 For those not getting the shingles vaccine, 27% said it’s not needed and 22% don’t think they would get the infection.

“I believe in natural healing and homeopathic treatments and trust that my immune system, with the support of these treatments, will keep me healthy, and I will not take pharmaceutical drugs,” said one 57-year-old female cited in the AARP report.

“I trust that my immune system will keep me healthy, and I will not take pharmaceutical drugs.”

However, older adults’ vaccine hesitancy doesn’t mean they’re not worried about getting sick.

Fifty-eight percent of survey respondents said they’re concerned about the flu, 53% are worried about contracting pneumonia, 49% are concerned about shingles and 43% expressed concern about monkeypox.

Fear of side effects, eroding trust are factors

Dr. Dung Trinh, an internal medicine specialist and owner and founder of the Healthy Brain Clinic in Long Beach, California, was not involved in the new study but outlined several key reasons patients refuse vaccines.

 “Older adults may fear side effects or adverse reactions from the vaccine due to their age and health status,” he told Fox News Digital in an email.

“They may be more susceptible to developing complications such as fever, muscle aches and dizziness after receiving a vaccination,” he said as well. “In addition, they may have pre-existing conditions that can make them more vulnerable to serious side effects.”

“Older adults may fear side effects or adverse reactions from the vaccine.”

They may also feel they don’t need to get a vaccine because they have already received it in the past or because they’ve been exposed to the virus and built up an immunity, the doctor added.

[…]

Via https://www.foxnews.com/health/older-americans-reject-more-vaccines-opt-instead-natural-healing-says-report

 

Washington prepares for war with Amazon

By Josh Sisco

Politico

A multi-pronged investigation of the online giant is approaching the action phase — on mergers, antitrust, privacy and more. Any suit against Amazon would be a high-profile move by the FTC under chair Lina Khan, a Big Tech skeptic. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The Biden administration is planning to take action soon on at least three of its half-dozen investigations of Amazon — moves that could lead to a blitz of litigation to rein in the iconic tech-industry giant.

The FTC has been investigating the internet titan on multiple fronts dating at least back to 2019, looking into its abuse of power within its online marketplace, as well as potential consumer-privacy violations connected to its Ring cameras and Alexa digital assistant.

The agency is also reviewing Amazon’s purchase of robot vacuum maker iRobot.

Any suit against Amazon would be a high-profile move by the agency under chair Lina Khan, a Big Tech skeptic who rose to prominence with a 2017 academic paper specifically identifying Amazon as a modern monopolist needing to be reined in.

Although Amazon has already been hit by local antitrust suits in Washington, D.C. and California, the coming federal cases would be the most significant challenges to the global company yet. The exact timing of any cases or settlements is unknown.

POLITICO spoke to more than 10 people with direct knowledge of the investigations by the FTC’s competition and consumer protection teams to put together a comprehensive picture of how the agency is now pursuing Amazon, why it didn’t take action on the company’s most recent major acquisition of One Medical and what is likely to happen in the coming months. According to those people, who were granted anonymity to discuss confidential investigations:

• The FTC is currently weighing whether to challenge Amazon’s $1.7 billion acquisition of robot vacuum maker iRobot, with the agency’s staff attorneys leaning toward suing to stop the deal according to three people with knowledge of that investigation. That case could come in the next few months.

• It has at least two open privacy investigations, one into Amazon’s Ring camera and security system business, and the other into its Alexa voice assistant over potential violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, according to four people with knowledge of those cases. The result of at least one of the FTC’s privacy investigations could come in the next couple of months, one of the people said. FTC staff previously recommended filing a lawsuit over alleged privacy and data security violations at Ring before Khan started.

• Also potentially coming in the next few months is a wide-ranging antitrust case targeting Amazon’s retail operations, multiple people with knowledge of the probe said. Though the details of a complaint are not known, it could include the bundling of services through its Prime subscription business and its use of competitor data to out-muscle rival retailers on its platform, according to some of those people. The FTC has been investigating nearly every aspect of the company’s business since 2019, and a lawsuit has long been expected. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that an antitrust case could be filed against Amazon in the coming months.

• The FTC is pursuing a so-called “dark pattern” probe into the difficulty customers have unsubscribing from Prime and other services. Dark patterns are deceptive tactics used by websites to trick users into doing things like subscribing to a more expensive service than they intended.

• It is also conducting a deceptive advertising probe into the “Amazon Choice” label the company gives certain products on its marketplace. The FTC is investigating how that label is used to promote products that appear in search results, including whether it is pay-to-play. Amazon maintains it is not.

Representatives for the FTC and Amazon both declined to comment on the investigations.

The lack of action so far shows the difficulties facing the agency in taking on a company as multifaceted as Amazon — and suggests the FTC is picking its cases with caution, according to some of the people, who are familiar with the agency’s strategy.

The FTC has sued Amazon before, accusing it of illegally withholding tips from some delivery drivers. The company settled the case and paid almost $60 million to reimburse drivers.

Top enforcement officials in the Biden administration have aggressively gone after corporate mergers and tech firms in the past year. The FTC last year sued to block Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision, and the Justice Department has two separate lawsuits against Google over its search and advertising businesses in addition to preparing an antitrust case against Apple.

The FTC is also coming off a loss in its case to block Meta’s acquisition of a popular virtual reality app. While the judge in the case validated the FTC’s novel theory that it could be illegal for companies to acquire, rather than build, a product, he also said the agency did not have the facts to support its claims.

In that environment, the FTC is under immense pressure to bring a successful antitrust case against Amazon — particularly after letting two of the company’s largest deals through without opposition in the past year, according to agency insiders and observers.

Amazon closed its $8.5 billion purchase of MGM Studios in March 2022, with the agency’s hands tied as its four commissioners at the time deadlocked along partisan lines on whether to intervene. Then last month, the agency elected to pass on challenging the company’s $3.9 billion purchase of the primary care provider One Medical despite agency officials’ belief that the deal was anticompetitive, according to three people with knowledge of the agency’s decision.

The rumble over Roombas

Most of the FTC’s Amazon investigations were launched during the Trump administration, when Republican chair Joe Simons began a broad oversight push on tech giants.

One exception is the $1.7 billion iRobot deal — along with One Medical — which was announced in August 2022.

The agency has not yet concluded its investigation of the deal, and is continuing to collect documents and testimony from third parties, five of the people with knowledge of the review said.

FTC staff do not believe that Amazon, the leading online retailer in the U.S., should be allowed to buy the largest maker of a popular product sold on its platform, the people said.

Among its issues, those people said, the agency is concerned that Amazon will favor iRobot’s Roombas over competing brands of automated vacuums such as Samsung. The FTC is also concerned about how the addition of iRobot will add to the control Amazon has in the broader market for connected home devices. Amazon also owns the home security company Ring, and makes the popular voice assistant Alexa and Echo smart speaker. And the FTC is asking whether Amazon would withhold Roombas from competing retailers altogether.

[…]

Via https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/20/ftc-amazon-irobot-antitrust-00087711

‘The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine’: Stanford University Project Colluded With Feds, Social Media to Censor ‘Misinformation’

By  Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

A project run by Stanford University served as a “dry run” for President Biden’s “disinformation” board, according to journalist Matt Taibbi’s latest “Twitter files” release, which he dubbed, “The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine: Stanford, the Virality Project, and the Censorship of ‘True Stories.’”

 A project run by Stanford University served as a “dry run” for President Biden’s “disinformation” board, according to journalist Matt Taibbi’s latest “Twitter files” release, which he dubbed, “The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine: Stanford, the Virality Project, and the Censorship of ‘True Stories.’”

According to Taibbi, the Virality Project, an initiative of the Stanford Internet Observatory, called for the creation of a disinformation board just one day before Biden announced plans to launch his government-run Disinformation Governance Board.

Taibbi discussed the two main takeaways from his March 17 “Twitter files” release during the “America This Week” podcast, co-hosted by novelist Walter Kirn.

According to Taibbi:

“Stanford, with the backing of a number of partners and some government agencies, had created a cross-platform single digital ticketing system that was processing censorship requests for all of them: Facebook, Google, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Medium, Twitter.”

Also, Taibbi said, the Virality Project was “defining true things as disinformation or misinformation or malformation,” which he said signifies “a new evolution of the disinformation process away from trying to figure out what’s true and what’s not and just going directly to political narrative.”

Taibbi, along with author Michael Shellenberger, who contributed to prior “Twitter files” releases, testified March 9 at the U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, revealing some of what he had discovered about the Virality Project.

Taibbi and his team of researchers discovered a tranche of Virality Project emails just an hour before his scheduled House testimony March 9, revealing the monitoring of “billions of social media posts by Stanford University, federal agencies, and a slew of (often state-funded) NGOs [non-governmental organizations].”

5.Just before @ShellenbergerMD and I testified in the House last week, Virality Project emails were found in the #TwitterFiles describing “stories of true vaccine side effects” as actionable content. pic.twitter.com/dKxTnxDc3a

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

Calls for a government-run ‘rumor control’ mechanism

As previously reported by The Defender, the Virality Project claimed its objective “is to detect, analyze, and respond to incidents of false and misleading narratives related to COVID-19 vaccines across online ecosystems.”

Formerly known as the Election Integrity Partnership, it was directed by Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and a “cybersecurity expert” who once served as Facebook’s chief security officer.

The project says it provides “actionable situational awareness and response capabilities for public health officials and other partners on the front lines of providing accurate vaccine-related information to the public.”

But behind this rhetoric lay a vast network of high-level interactions with the federal government and social media platforms — which included proposals, ultimately adopted, for the U.S. government to establish its own “disinformation” board.

According to Taibbi, the partnership between the Virality Project and the government began in earnest in February 2021, days after Biden took office.

The relationship blossomed quickly. Within a year, on April 26, 2022, the Virality Project proposed a “rumor-control mechanism” and a “Misinformation and Disinformation Center of Excellence” be established at the federal level.

https://t.co/ZJFh45HlyD a chilling irony, the VP ran searches for the term “surveillance state.” As an unaccountable state-partnered bureaucracy secretly searched it out, the idea that “vaccines are part of a surveillance state” won its own thoughtcrime bucket: “conspiracy.” pic.twitter.com/KTJpzIBspx

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

The next day, Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the formation of the “Disinformation Governance Board.”

Taibbi tweeted:

28.After about a year, on April 26, 2022, the VP issued a report calling for a “rumor-control mechanism to address nationally trending narratives,” and a “Misinformation and Disinformation Center of Excellence” to be housed within CISA, at the Department of Homeland Security. pic.twitter.com/YmWQtZmoL3

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

The “Center of Excellence” proposal, which remains on the Virality Project’s website, states:

“Because of the dynamic threat that mis- and disinformation poses to national security, we recommend the creation of a federal Center of Excellence for mis- and disinformation housed in the Department of Homeland Security’s CISA [Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency].”

The center would be charged with pursuing “three main goals”:

1. To serve as a single federal center for the expertise and capabilities necessary lead mis- and disinformation resilience and countering efforts;
2. To coordinate mis- and disinformation countering efforts at the federal level and in support of state and local government efforts as well as the private sector; and
3. To play a leading role in building capacity inside government, as well as in civil society and the private sector, to increase resilience to mis- and disinformation.

According to the proposal, “The evolution of mis- and disinformation demonstrates that further coordinated and decisive action must be taken by all levels of government in partnership with academia, nonprofits and the private sector to build resilience among the American people against weaponized falsehoods online.”

The Virality Project’s final report, published Feb. 18, 2022, also contained a proposal for a “Center of Excellence.” There, it recommends the federal government “Implement a Misinformation and Disinformation Center of Excellence housed within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.”

Contained within the same final report is a proposal for the government to “Establish a rumor-control mechanism to address nationally trending narratives.”

A separate Feb. 18, 2022, document — “White House COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Plan: Analysis and Recommendations” — also detailed plans for a center of excellence and a “centralized rumor control page.”

The project’s proposal drew from lessons apparently learned from the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and called for pro-vaccine narratives to be tailored for specific communities:

“In the 2020 election, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) demonstrated that a centralized rumor control page could counter online misinformation. That page can be replicated for vaccine misinformation.

“Local health communicators can then adapt this centralized public messaging to the needs of their specific communities.”

At least one U.S. government agency appears to have adopted the Virality Project’s recommendation regarding the establishment of a “rumor control” initiative.

As previously reported by The Defender, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inaugurated its own “Rumor Control” initiative Aug. 5, 2022, as part of its broader efforts to counter “misinformation” and “disinformation.”

“The growing spread of rumors, misinformation and disinformation about science, medicine, and the FDA, is putting patients and consumers at risk,” according to the FDA’s Rumor Control webpage. “We’re here to provide the facts.”

On the Virality Project’s website, a dedicated page on “Rumor Control” states:

“This approach to debunking misinformation draws on literature suggesting that debunking messages coming from rumor control centers can help prevent rumor spread.

“Psychologists have concluded that messengers that are perceived as having high trustworthiness and expertise are most effective at debunking falsehoods, meaning a debunking approach that aggregates facts from trusted subject matter experts could be ideal.”

The Virality Project also states that, “Strong partnerships with community-specific subject matter experts and liaisons are critical to this workflow. Partners can include state and local government offices, civil society members, NGOs, and individual organizers” who “will also be the core amplifiers of Rumor Control postings to each target audiences.”

Targeting vaccine narratives to specific communities closely mirrors the efforts of a Rockefeller and National Science Foundation initiative, the Mercury Project.

This initiative will issue three-year research grants to estimate “the causal impacts of mis- and disinformation on online and offline outcomes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic,” including “differential impacts across socio-demographic groups.”

The Virality Project also focused on targeting specific groups. It recommended strategies to public health communicators for overcoming vaccine hesitancy, including “working with community leaders in minority and immigrant communities to increase awareness of how to get the vaccine and why.”

The coordinated reporting of ‘misinformation’ across multiple platforms

Friday’s “Twitter files” release also focused on how the Virality Project helped bring multiple social media sites into a common ticketing system, where content and users could be reported and those reports shared across multiple platforms.

According to Taibbi, the Virality Project “encouraged platforms to target people, not posts, using “Minority Report”-style “pre-crime logic,” and described “repeat offenders” such as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., chairman and chief litigation counsel of Children’s Health Defense (CHD), who post a “large volume of content that is almost always reportable.”

21.VP warned against people “just asking questions,” implying it was a tactic “commonly used by spreaders of misinformation." It also described a "Worldwide Rally for Freedom planned over Telegram" as a disinformation event. pic.twitter.com/VgOJpTN2Ey

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/twitter-files-virality-project-covid-misinformation/

 

Homeless Immune to Severe Covid Effects

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH

Toronto Study Indicates Homeless Managed Just Fine Through Pandemic

It is well known that homeless populations have much higher rates of hospitalization for a variety of reasons including drug abuse, alcoholism, aspiration, pneumonia, and neuropsychiatric reasons. I have always wondered how they fared during COVID-19 having heard little about severe outcomes among those who live outside.

Richard and coworkers reported on 736 homeless individuals in Toronto, Ontario during 2021 and 2022. The majority managed through the illness with no reported difficulty over the time period, most with the Omicron variants. There were no reported severe cases, hospitalizations, or deaths.

Despite approximately two thirds taking a COVID-19 vaccine, the shots appeared to be useless in this population with no statistically significant vaccine efficacy. While the public has watched the relentless pursuit of well-employed adults, college age students, and children down to 6 months of age, the most economically deprived and vulnerable in society appear to be of little interest to the Biopharmaceutical Complex, and like the other groups, have no theoretical benefit from vaccination. As a general rule if the highest risk derive no reduction in hospitalization or death, then even lower risk individuals are not worth the effort for public health interventions such as vaccines.

Richard L, Nisenbaum R, Brown M, et al. Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among People Experiencing Homelessness in Toronto, Canada. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(3):e232774. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.2774

Via https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/homelessness-and-hardiness-to-covid

October Surprise: Reagan Ally Worked to Prolong Iran Hostage Crisis

Barnes (left) and Connally with Egypt’s President Anwar el-Sadat (Ben Barnes via New York Times)

Zero Hedge

As former President Jimmy Carter nears death, an aging Texas politician has come forward to get something big off his chest — claiming that, in 1980, he accompanied former Texas governor John Connally on a whirlwind Middle East tour aimed at keeping Americans hostage of Iran until after the presidential election that elevated Ronald Reagan to power.

“History needs to know that this happened,” 85-year-old Ben Barnes tells the New York Times. “I think it’s so significant and I guess knowing that the end is near for President Carter put it on my mind more and more and more. I just feel like we’ve got to get it down some way.” Barnes is a former Democratic speaker of the Texas House and lieutenant governor.

The claims that Reagan cronies worked to prolong the Iran hostage crisis and torpedo President Carter’s reelection bid aren’t new, but Barnes is by far the most prominent figure to step forward and claim to have been a witness to such a conspiracy. 

In the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution, college students sympathetic with the revolution overran the US embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage. The long crisis that ensured dominated the presidency of Carter, who ordered an April 1980 military rescue mission that itself turned into a disaster, killing eight service-members and an Iranian civilian.

Reagan routed Carter by a 489-49 electoral-college margin. The hostages were released just minutes after President Reagan’s January 1981 inauguration — and after 444 days in captivity. Days later, the US government began facilitating the flow of weapons to Iran via Israel.

Barnes tells the Times that Connally, who’d been famously wounded in the JFK assassination, invited him on a multi-country Middle East trip in the summer of 1980. He says that it was only after the trip was underway that he realized its purpose: to ask various regional officials to pass on a message to Iran. 

Here’s how Barnes paraphrases the pitch:

“‘Look, Ronald Reagan’s going to be elected president and you need to get the word to Iran that they’re going to make a better deal with Reagan than they are Carter,’ “[Connally] said, ‘It would be very smart for you to pass the word to the Iranians to wait until after this general election is over’.”

Records at the LBJ museum reflect Connally and Barnes leaving Houston on July 18, 1980 and returned Aug. 11 after visiting Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the Times reports. News accounts at the time characterized Conally’s trip as “strictly private.” 

Barnes says he next joined Connally in an early-September meeting to brief William J. Casey — chairman of the Reagan presidential campaign and future CIA director — about the Middle East trip. He says the session at the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport spanned three hours.

CIA Director William Casey and President Reagan (Getty via The Intercept)

“I’ll go to my grave believing that it was the purpose of the trip,” Barnes says. “It wasn’t freelancing because Casey was so interested in hearing as soon as we got back to the United States.” He says Casey wanted to know whether “they were going to hold the hostages.”

Although previous Congressional investigations debunked the claim of Reagan campaign efforts to interfere in the hostage crisis, a possible Connally role wasn’t examined. Barnes doesn’t venture to establish that Reagan had knowledge of the undertaking.

Barnes identified four living people with whom he’d previously shared his account. The Times says all four confirmed that Barnes had done so years before.

In 1991, former Carter national security aide Gary Slick fleshed out the theory of Reagan-crony meddling in the hostage situation, first with a Times essay and then a book, October Surprise. That term first came to prominence via Reagan-Bush campaign warnings that Carter might exploit the crisis by achieving the hostages’ release in the final run-up to the election. The term has been attributed to Casey himself.

[…]

Via https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/reagan-ally-worked-prolong-iran-hostage-crisis-aging-witness