Adverse effects of covid policies, including anxiety, depression, and an accompanying rise in drug overdose deaths, are being widely reported throughout the media.
Millions of Americans slip into poverty amid lockdowns to the point where even the World Health Organization warns against colossal lockdown-induced economic damage.
Amnesty International issues a harrowing 50-page report uncovering mass neglect of patients in UK nursing homes. These patients have been abandoned and are dying simply from being forced to live in isolation and intense loneliness.
UK data shows the average age of death from “coronavirus” is 82.4 years, higher than the 81.5 average age of people who are recorded as dying from all other causes.
Mask mania rages on in the US, thanks to NIAID Director Anthony Fauci, who serves as spokesman for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, calling for a widespread mask mandate. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom advises restaurant-goers to wear their face masks in between bites of food. Meanwhile, in Italy a mask mandate is imposed both outside and inside.
The US reports a major “uptick” in Covid-19 “cases” as testing for the disease increases. Mostly, though, these positive “cases” turn out to be “patients with no symptoms.”
Fauci and other pro-lockdown zealots in government and media urge Americans to prepare to “hunker down” for the winter.
Coronavirus vaccine trial participants report day-long exhaustion, fever, and headaches. New polls show more Americans are growing more distrustful and fearful of the Covid-19 vaccines, which has led to their decreasing willingness to take the shot.
Johnson & Johnson halts Phase III clinical covid vaccine trials so that investigators can probe the reason for one trial participant’s stroke.
It is becoming clear that a vaccine will not be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before the November 3rd election. Worried public health bureaucrats, government officials, and the media discuss how to increase uptake amongst a reluctant public.
Only 24% of Trump supporters view the coronavirus outbreak as a “very important” voting issue. The ever-candid Trump calls Fauci a “disaster,” declares Americans “are tired of Covid,” and claims doctors are inflating coronavirus death counts for money.
Presidential candidate Joe Biden lays out his detailed plan to fight coronavirus. It includes mass mask mandates, mass testing, and mass vaccination.
EU countries Italy, Germany, France, and Spain impose new restrictions and lockdowns.
Wall Street profits climb 82% in the first half of 2020, aided in part by a $2.4 trillion federal stimulus package. Main Street’s financial picture, meanwhile, is far less rosy.
October 1, 2020 — Study released by PeerJ Publishing: “Positive association between COVID-19 deaths and influenza vaccination rates in elderly people worldwide”
“The aim of this study was therefore to analyze the association between COVID-19 related deaths and influenza vaccination rate (IVR) in elderly people worldwide.
“The study found ‘a positive association between COVID-19 deaths and influenza vaccination rates in elderly people worldwide. Areas with the highest vaccination rates also had the highest COVID-19 death rates.’”
October 1, 2020 — CNBC: “Coronavirus vaccine trial participants report day-long exhaustion, fever and headaches — but say it’s worth it”
“Luke Hutchison woke up in the middle of the night with chills and a fever after taking the Covid-19 booster shot in Moderna’s vaccine trial. Another coronavirus vaccine trial participant, testing Pfizer’s candidate, similarly woke up with chills, shaking so hard he cracked a tooth after taking the second dose.
“High fever, body aches, bad headaches and exhaustion are just some of the symptoms five participants in two of the leading coronavirus vaccine trials say they felt after receiving the shots.”
October 1, 2020 — A new study from Cornell University, “CORONAVIRUS MISINFORMATION: Quantifying sources and themes in the COVID-19 ‘infodemic,’” labels President Donald Trump as the world’s biggest spreader of coronavirus misinformation.
NOTE: The study is produced by Cornell’s Alliance for Science, a global communications initiative whose main source of financial support is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
October 1, 2020 — CNN: [US] “Army sees sharp increase in suicides during coronavirus pandemic”
“The US Army has seen a worrisome increase in soldier deaths by suicide since March, raising questions about whether troops feeling isolated due to the coronavirus pandemic may be a contributing factor.”
October 1, 2020 — CNBC: New York launches coronavirus contact tracing app
“New York [launches] a new app to trace coronavirus infections that alerts users when they’ve come into close contact with someone who tests positive for Covid-19, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced.
“The app is called ‘Covid Alert NY.’
“New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced [. . .] the launch of Covid Alert NJ.”
October 1, 2020 — CNBC: Fauci says that Americans should prepare to ‘hunker down’ again to brace for fall and winter, when the coronavirus is expected to surge due to cold weather and increased time spent indoors.
“‘We need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter because it’s not going to be easy,’ Fauci told Harvard Medical School.”
October 1, 2020 — Axios: Hope Hicks, one of the president’s closest aides, tests positive
“President Trump tweeted that he and First Lady Melania Trump ‘will begin our quarantine process.’”
October 1, 2020 — Totality of Evidence: “US begins reporting high ‘uptick’ in COVID-19 cases mostly by ‘patients with no symptoms’”
“From early October 2020 the US health officials and the mainstream media began promoting the ‘uptick’ in COVID-19 cases and the ‘alarming spread’ of the virus. This promoted more fear in the population.”
October 2, 2020 — CNN: Trump Has the Coronavirus
“President Donald Trump has had a fever since Friday morning after testing positive for coronavirus, according to a person familiar with the matter, a stunning development that threw a country already unnerved by a devastating health catastrophe and a turbulent political season into fresh upheaval on Friday.”
NOTE: President Trump tests positive.
October 2, 2020 — A German article reveals that Christian Drosten, the virologist responsible for the World Health Organization’s PCR test parameters, has known since 2014 of the inherent limitations of the PCR test for “diagnosing an infection.”
October 2, 2020 — Natural News: “Most Americans distrust covid-19 vaccines”
“And to think that all of this is taking place in response to an alleged ‘pandemic’ that is, quite frankly, already over, according to a former executive at Pfizer who says that the only ‘second wave’ to strike will be the one based on false positives and phony data.
“Even so, some people continue to line right up to get jabbed, believing that by doing so they are protecting themselves and others from a dreaded contagion that is barely affecting anyone, except for those whose lives and livelihoods are being destroyed by having their businesses shut down and their social lives decimated due to continued restrictions.
“The good news is that nearly half of all Americans are questioning the safety of such vaccines, and will more than likely not take any of them once they become available. This has led the drug industry to scramble for a public relations solution to quell their fears and encourage them to ‘stand with science.’”
October 3, 2020 — Reuters: “Police set up traffic controls as Madrid heads back into lockdown”
“Police set up controls and stopped cars on major roads into and out of Madrid on Saturday as the city went back into lockdown due to surging coronavirus cases.
“Some 4.8 million people are barred from leaving the capital area, while restaurants and bars must shut early and reduce capacity by half."
October 3, 2020 — Politico: New York City to shut down nine neighborhoods
“New York City is moving to impose new shutdowns in parts of the city in response to growing outbreaks of the coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday.
“The city will reverse its reopening in nine neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens beginning Wednesday morning if it receives approval from the state. Nonessential businesses would be shut down in those areas, restaurants would close except for takeout and delivery, and schools in the areas will be returned to remote-only instruction.”
“In 11 other neighborhoods where infection rates have been rising, the city is proposing more limited restrictions: closing indoor dining, gyms and pools.”
October 4, 2020 — Amnesty International: “UK: Older people in care homes abandoned to die amid government failures during COVID-19 pandemic”
“A series of ‘shockingly irresponsible’ government decisions put tens of thousands of older people’s lives at risk and led to multiple violations of care home residents’ human rights, said Amnesty International today following an investigation by the human rights group’s Crisis Response team.
“Amnesty’s 50-page report — ‘As If Expendable: The UK Government’s Failure to Protect Older People in Care Homes during the COVID-19 Pandemic’ — shows that care home residents were effectively abandoned in the early stages of the pandemic and subjected to ‘inhuman and degrading’ treatment.”
October 4, 2020 — The Great Barrington Declaration is released. It is authored by leading infectious disease specialists Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Dr. Sunetra Gupta, and Dr. Martin Kulldorff.
The declaration, co-signed by forty-three independent experts worldwide, calls for an end to the lockdowns for healthy populations as well as for “focused protection” for the most vulnerable.
October 5, 2020 — NPR: “‘Don’t Be Afraid Of It’: Trump Dismisses Virus Threat As He Returns To White House”
“President Trump walked out of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday evening, planning on receiving the remainder of his treatment for COVID-19 at the White House.”
“After he returned, he tweeted a video telling Americans to not be afraid of the coronavirus. ‘One thing that’s for certain: don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it,’ he said.”
October 5, 2020 — The Nation: “While the Poor Get Sick, Bill Gates Just Gets Richer”
“The billionaire’s pandemic investments, like much of his work, remain a secret.”
“Revelations of the Gates Foundation’s financial stake in Covid-19, which Bill Gates does not appear to have publicly disclosed in dozens of recent media appearances, speak to broader criticisms about the lack of transparency in the foundation’s increasingly central role in the pandemic.”
NOTE: Jörg Schaaber, executive director of the German advocacy group BUKO Pharma-Kampagne, sees the Gates Foundation as having an ideological investment in this business model, pointing to many of the foundation’s senior staff who come from the pharmaceutical industry, including the president of Gates’s global health program.
NOTE: According to “The Real-Time Billionaires List” in Forbes, Bill Gates’s private wealth is estimated at around $115 billion and has increased by more than $10 billion during the pandemic. It is unknown if the Gateses have personal investments in companies working on Covid.
October 6, 2020 — Global Research: “The Covid-19 Roadmap: Towards Global Economic Chaos and Societal Destruction”
“Because the PCR test is faulty as a means of identifying the spread of the virus, major decisions taken by the WHO and national governments since late January 2020 (supported by faulty statistics) are potentially invalid. Moreover, official reports, including [from] the WHO, confirm that Covid-19 is not a killer virus [but rather] has features similar to seasonal influenza.
“The purpose of this article is to examine how these far-reaching decisions, invariably based on invalid concepts and faulty statistics, have contributed to a state of economic, social and political chaos worldwide, leading up to the March 11, 2020, lockdown and closure of 190 national economies of UN member states. Only three countries— Belarus, Nicaragua, and Sweden—refused to close down their national economy.
“What strikes us in this analysis is the fact that major decisions from the very outset on January 30, 2020, were taken when the number of recorded positive cases was exceedingly low.”
October 6, 2020 — CNN: Facebook removes a post from President Trump in which he claimed that Covid-19 is less deadly than the seasonal flu.
“Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed the company removed the post for breaking its rules on Covid-19 misinformation.”
October 6, 2020 — Money Control: “World economy faces long, hard climb out of pandemic, says IMF Chief Kristalina Georgieva”
Georgieva told attendees of an online London School of Economics event:
“The global economy is in ‘less dire’ shape than it was in June but risks crashing again if governments end fiscal and monetary support too soon, fail to control the coronavirus and ignore emerging market debt problems.”
October 6, 2020 — Reuters: “U.S. FDA safety guidelines likely to push COVID-19 vaccine authorization past election”
“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration told coronavirus vaccine developers on Tuesday it wants at least two months of safety data before authorizing emergency use, a requirement that would likely push any U.S. vaccine availability past the Nov. 3 presidential election.
“A senior administration official confirmed the White House had approved the plan, which undercuts President Donald Trump’s hopes of getting a vaccine before voters go to polls.”
October 6, 2020 — NBC News: Barack Obama’s ‘homeland security adviser’ John O. Brennan calls coronavirus a ‘homeland security challenge’
Brennan writes the following in an opinion piece he penned for NBC News’ “THOUGHT EXPERIMENT” section:
“As I watch events unfold, I am deeply grateful for all the selfless work done by individuals nationwide across so many disciplines. Once again, I am very glad that Dr. Tony Fauci, an individual of exceptional medical acumen and dedication to his fellow citizens, is playing a prominent public role in explaining the seriousness of the threat posed by Covid-19 and the important actions to help mitigate its impact.”
October 6, 2020 — CBS News: California governor’s office tells restaurant-goers keep their masks on ‘in between bites’
“Going out to eat with members of your household this weekend?” the tweet reads. “Don’t forget to keep your mask on in between bites. Do your part to keep those around you healthy.”
“‘I’m very confused by this tweet. The image suggests you should only take your mask off once when you begin a meal but the text suggests you should put it back on between bites,’ journalist Matthew Fuhrman wrote, referring to the graphic shared in the tweet.
“‘Should we wash our hands after touching our mask each time we remove it between bites? What if I’m eating chips and salsa and I go for a double dip? Is that technically two bites since it’s the same chip?’ another person asked.”
October 6, 2020 — CNBC: WHO warns of rising levels of ‘pandemic fatigue’ in Europe
“‘Based on aggregated survey data from countries across the region, we can see, not surprisingly, that fatigue among those surveyed is increasing. Although fatigue is measured in different ways, and levels vary per country, it is now estimated to have reached over 60% in some cases,’ said [the Europe-based regional director of the WHO, Hans] Kluge.
“While such levels of fatigue were to be expected after months of lockdowns, uncertainty and disruption to normal life, Kluge said it was possible, and necessary, to ‘reinvigorate and revive efforts to tackle the evolving Covid-19 challenges that we face.’”
October 6, 2020 — Wolf Street: “Chapter 11 Bankruptcies Surged, But Commercial Chapter 13 Bankruptcies Plunged. 420,000 Small Businesses Closed Quietly, Highest Rate Ever”
October 7, 2020 — Kansas Department of Health publishes “PCR Ct cutoff values,” revealing the agency uses a PCR cycle threshold cutoff of 42
October 7, 2020 — The World Bank update on the impact of COVID-19 on global poverty estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to push between 88 million and 115 million people into extreme poverty in 2020, setting back poverty reduction by around three years.
October 7, 2020 — NBC News (by The Associated Press): Italy imposes mask mandate outside and inside
“Italy imposed a nationwide outdoor mask mandate Wednesday with fines of up to 1,000 euros ($1,163) for violators, as the European country where Covid-19 first hit hard scrambles to keep rebounding infections from spiraling.
“The government passed the decree even though Italy’s overall per capita infection rate is among the lowest in Europe.”
October 7, 2020 — NBC News: President Trump declares himself cured of coronavirus
“Despite testing positive for the coronavirus less than a week ago, President Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon and released a video where he declared himself cured as a result of the experimental antibody drug cocktail he’d been administered.
“‘To me, it wasn’t a therapeutic. It just made me better. I call that a cure,’ Trump said in a five-minute video he tweeted out of himself standing in front of the Oval.”
October 8, 2020 — Daily Mail: “Data shows the average age of death from coronavirus is 82.4 years”
“The average age of people who died from Covid-19 in England and Wales since the pandemic began is 82.4.
“That figure — computed from Office of National Statistics data by experts at Oxford University — is significantly higher than the average age reached by people recorded as dying from all other causes, which is 81.5.”
October 8, 2020 — The Sydney Morning Herald: Australia gives vaccine suppliers indemnity for ‘inevitable’ side effects from the covid vaccines
“The Morrison government has given the suppliers of two COVID-19 vaccines indemnity against liability for rare side effects that experts say are ‘inevitable’ when a vaccine is rolled out.
“But the government will not set up a statutory compensation scheme, which the president of the Australian Medical Association, Omar Khorshid, said meant Australians who suffered ‘extremely rare’ side effects from the vaccines would face a tough battle to seek compensation.”
October 8, 2020 — Brookings: Covid-19 said to be impacting ‘red’ states more as election nears
“This analysis extends my earlier tracking of COVID-19’s spread into red states and counties across the country. It shows that while the overall rate of the spread has diminished somewhat from mid-summer, the disparity in cases between red and blue areas has continued, and is now widening in parts of the Midwest and in smaller communities.”
October 9, 2020 — CDPH: California issues mandatory guidance for private gatherings
“All persons planning to host or participate in a private gathering . . . must comply with the following requirements. Local health jurisdictions may be more restrictive than this guidance. Refer to your local guidance for what is allowed in your area.
“1. Attendance:
Gatherings that include more than 3 households are prohibited. This includes everyone present, including hosts and guests. Remember, the smaller the number of people, the safer.
Keep the households that you interact with stable over time. Participating in multiple gatherings with different households or groups is strongly discouraged.
The host should collect names of all attendees and contact information in case contact tracing is needed later.”
October 9, 2020 — FIAR — News: “Attorney Dr. Reiner Fuellmich: The Corona Fraud Scandal Must Be Criminally Prosecuted For Crimes Against Humanity”
“I’m one of four members of the German Corona Investigative Committee. Since July 10, 2020, this Committee has been listening to a large number of international scientists’ and experts’ testimony to find answers to questions about the corona crisis, which more and more people worldwide are asking. All the above-mentioned cases of corruption and fraud committed by the German corporations pale in comparison in view of the extent of the damage that the corona crisis has caused and continues to cause.
“This corona crisis, according to all we know today, must be renamed a ‘Corona Scandal’ and those responsible for it must be criminally prosecuted and sued for civil damages. On a political level, everything must be done to make sure that no one will ever again be in a position of such power as to be able to defraud humanity or to attempt to manipulate us with their corrupt agendas.”
October 9, 2020 — KFF: “One in Four Older Adults Report Anxiety or Depression Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic”
“Older adults have been especially impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, as they are at higher risk of serious illness if infected and account for 80 percent of all COVID-related deaths.
“Not surprisingly, the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic downturn have taken a toll on the mental health of adults of all ages in the U.S. In July, a majority of U.S. adults 18 and older (53%) said that worry and stress related to coronavirus has had a negative impact on their mental health, up from 39% in May, according to a recent KFF tracking poll.”
October 10, 2020 — USA TODAY: Experts say we need to change our thought patterns in this new normal
“‘Our brains really are very eager to get back to normal, to get back to January 2020,’ Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts and author of a book about adapting to ‘the new abnormal’ of COVID-19, told USA TODAY.
“‘Social connection can be found in virtual visits with long-lost friends. Relaxation can be found in a quiet walk by a nearby river.
“‘Letting go of your fantasies about a pre-pandemic life isn’t only good for your mental health — it’s good for your physical health,’ Tsipursky said.
“‘There are so many people who have not changed their thought patterns,’ he said.”
October 11, 2020 — CNN: Johns Hopkins dashboard of death estimates nearly 400K coronavirus deaths by February
“CNN’s John King breaks down the latest numbers of coronavirus cases, which show an increase in many states in the US.”
October 11, 2020 — The Washington Post: “Another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic: Trust in government science”
“Millions of Americans have embraced some version of a conspiracy theory that imagines the pandemic as a wildly exaggerated threat, or even an outright hoax, pushed by politically motivated scientists and the mainstream media to undermine the president. This is a form of science denial that leads many people to refuse to wear masks or engage in social distancing.
“Scientists, meanwhile, worry that the politicization of the regulatory process could undermine the rollout of a vaccine even if it is approved by career professionals at the FDA.
“‘If the public health professionals, if Dr. Fauci, if the doctors tell us that we should take it, I’ll be the first in line to take it. Absolutely,’ Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), the Democratic nominee for vice president, said in Wednesday’s debate with Vice President Pence. “But if Donald Trump tells us that we should take it, I’m not taking it.”
October 11, 2020 — New York Post: “WHO warns against COVID-19 lockdowns due to economic damage”
“The World Health Organization has warned leaders against relying on COVID-19 lockdowns to tackle outbreaks — after previously saying countries should be careful how quickly they reopen.
“WHO envoy Dr. David Nabarro said such restrictive measures should only be treated as a last resort, the British magazine The Spectator reported in a video interview.
“‘We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus,’ Nabarro said.”
October 12, 2020 — Gallup News: “Americans’ Readiness to Get COVID-19 Vaccine Falls to 50%”
Story Highlights:
Those in U.S. willing to get an FDA-backed COVID-19 vaccine falls to 50%
Willingness down among Democrats and independents, up among Republicans
New high of 26% waiting for a vaccine before getting back to normal
October 12, 2020 —CNBC: Fauci warns the U.S. faces ‘a whole lot of trouble’ as coronavirus cases continue to surge
“The U.S. reported more than 44,600 new cases on Sunday and the seven-day average rose to over 49,200 new cases per day, up more than 14% compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.”
“The number of people currently hospitalized with Covid-19 rose by at least 5% in 36 states, according to CNBC’s analysis of data from the Covid Tracking Project, a volunteer project founded by journalists at The Atlantic magazine.
“‘That’s a bad place to be when you’re going into the cooler weather of the fall and the colder weather of the winter,’ Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview on The News with Shepard Smith. ‘We’re in a bad place now. We’ve got to turn this around.’”
October 12, 2020 — “COVID-19 Data Collection, Comorbidity & Federal Law: A Historical Retrospective” is published by the online journal Science, Public Health Policy, and The Law.
Nick Pineault’s “X” post shares from that article the CDC’s graph of COVID-19:
“Total COVID fatalities based on CDC guidelines of March 24, 2020 = 161,392
“Total COVID fatalities based on CDC guidelines in use for 17 years prior to March 24, 2020 = 9,684“Why would the CDC decide against using a system of data collection and reporting they authored, and which has been in use nationwide for 17 years without incident, in favor of an untested and unproven system exclusively for COVID-19 without discussion and peer-review?
“Did the CDC’s decision to abandon a known and proven effective system also breach several federal laws that ensure data accuracy and integrity?
“Did the CDC knowingly alter rules for reporting cause of death in the presence of comorbidity exclusively for COVID-19? If so, why?
“Had the CDC used the 2003 guidelines, the total ‘COVID-19 deaths’ would be approximately 16.7 times lower than is currently being reported.”
October 13, 2020 — The Washington Post: Johnson & Johnson halts Phase III clinical trials while investigators probe whether a participant’s stroke may be linked to the vaccine
“Experts say the halts demonstrate that monitoring systems to protect patient safety are working as intended. But some worry the lack of information about potential adverse effects may foster distrust.”
October 13, 2020 — NPR: “Pfizer To Expand Trial To Ages 12 And Up”
“Pfizer announced this week that it has received FDA approval to enroll children as young as 12 years old in its COVID-19 vaccine trial. The expansion is aimed at understanding whether the vaccine would be safe and effective for adolescents.
“Until now, children under 16 have not been included in any of the COVID-19 vaccine trials in the U.S., and the average age of participants has skewed much older.”
October 13, 2020 — CBS News: “Coronavirus pandemic to cost Americans $16 trillion, study finds”
“The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was co-authored by former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Harvard University economist David Cutler. Summers was also a top economic adviser to Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and is a former president of Harvard.”
“If the study is correct, the coronavirus’ eventual impact could be four times the size of the damage done by the 2008 housing bust and subsequent Great Recession. The total cost of the pandemic — including more than 10 weeks of near total lockdown across most of the country, which caused the GDP in second quarter to drop by more than a third — will eclipse the money the U.S. has spent on every war since September 11, 2001, including those in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, the study says.”
October 13, 2020 — Pew Research: “Mail-in voting becomes much more common in 2020 primaries due to Covid-19”
Mail-in ballots accounted for just over half of this year’s primary votes cast in the 37 states (plus the District of Columbia) for which data is available. That was roughly double the mail-in share of the vote in those same jurisdictions in the 2018 and 2016 general elections.
October 14, 2020 — AP News: A new poll suggests vaccine fears are growing
“With this week’s pause of a second major vaccine study because of an unexplained illness — and repeated tweets from President Donald Trump that raise the specter of politics overriding science — a quarter of Americans say they won’t get vaccinated. That’s a slight increase from 1 in 5 in May.
“The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found only 46% of Americans want a COVID-19 vaccine and another 29% are unsure.
“More striking, while Black Americans have been especially hard-hit by COVID-19, just 22% say they plan to get vaccinated compared with 48% of white Americans, the AP-NORC poll found.”
October 14, 2020 — The WHO updates their COVID-19 infection Mortality Rate (IFR) to 0.27% — much lower than the WHO’s earlier estimates of 3.4%
“The Bulletin of the World Health Organisation published Professor John Ioannidis’ paper looking at the infection fatality rate (IFR) for COVID-19 based on how many people already had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 (seroprevalence data), which revealed that the median COVID-19 IFR was 0.27%.”
NOTE: When m_palmer uploaded this bulletin to archive.org on February 23, 2020, he wrote: “Originally published in the Bulletin of the WHO as follows: Ioannidis, J.P.A. (2020) Infection fatality rate of COVID-19 inferred from seroprevalence data. However, the WHO has apparently memory-holed this paper, which predated the COVID vaccine rollout and proved that no emergency existed that could justify the emergency approval of those vaccines.”
October 14, 2020 — BBC: YouTube bans covid vaccine ‘misinformation’
“YouTube has pledged to delete misleading claims about coronavirus vaccines as part of a fresh effort to tackle Covid-19 misinformation.
“It said any videos that contradict expert consensus from local health authorities, such as the NHS or World Health Organization, will be removed.
“It follows an announcement by Facebook that it would ban ads that discourage people from getting vaccinated.”
October 14, 2020 — CNBC: “Bill Gates: Vaccine conspiracies targeting Dr. Fauci and me are ‘unfortunate’ and hurt public trust”
“In an interview . . . on Squawk Box, Gates said the false claims about him and Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, may have implications in getting the public to adopt measures such as vaccines and face coverings that can help slow transmission of the virus.
“‘The whole digital media space where people are dealing with the bad news, the pandemic, has spun up a lot of conspiracy theories,’ the billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder said. ‘And the two people who are most targeted in those are Dr. Fauci and myself, in terms of, “Do we have some sort of maligned reason to think vaccines are important in general?”’”
October 14, 2020 — NPR: “Sharp Rise In Drug Overdose Deaths Seen During 1st Few Months Of Pandemic”
“Drug overdose deaths rose in the first three months of this year, according to preliminary numbers released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The data, showing a roughly 10% increase in fatalities, offer a first official snapshot of the pandemic’s impact on Americans suffering addiction. If this trend continues, the CDC estimates the U.S. will suffer more than 75,500 drug-related deaths in 2020, setting a bleak record for a second year in a row.”
October 14, 2020 — The Conversation: “279,700 extra deaths reported in the US so far in this pandemic year”
“The number of deaths in the United States through September 2020 is at least 10% and likely 13% higher than it would have been if the coronavirus pandemic had never happened, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.”
October 15, 2020 — Sky News: “Coronavirus: Test and Trace consultants paid equivalent of £1.5m salary”
“The [UK] government is paying individual private sector consultants million-pound wages to work on its test and trace system, according to documents seen by Sky News.
“Some executives from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) helping the government set up and run its testing system are being paid day rates of around £7,000 — equivalent to an annual salary of around £1.5m.”
“Sky News has now been shown separate documents revealing that the government has since recruited many more private sector consultants to work on its Moonshot testing programme, which aims to introduce mass COVID-19 testing for the UK.”
“None of these appointments has been announced publicly, no costings have been published and there is no information about how DHSC will secure value for money from the consultants.
“According to data collected by information group Tussell, the total value of contracts awarded by the government in response to COVID-19 is running at £12.2bn.”
October 15, 2020 — Military.com: U.S. Military Study Suggests It’s Almost Impossible to Get COVID-19 on an Airplane
“A new military-led study unveiled Thursday shows there is a low risk for passengers traveling aboard large commercial aircraft to contract an airborne virus such as COVID-19 — and it doesn't matter where they sit on the airplane.
“Researchers concluded that because of sophisticated air particle filtration and ventilation systems on board the Boeing 767-300 and 777-200 aircraft — the planes tested for the study — airborne particles within the cabin have a very short lifespan, according to defense officials with U.S. Transportation Command, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) and Air Mobility Command, which spearheaded the study.”
“Mandatory masking of all passengers on all flights are not lifted until April 18, 2022.”
October 16, 2020 — medRxiv: Massive WHO remdesivir study suggests no Covid-19 benefit
CONCLUSIONS:
“These Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir and Interferon regimens appeared to have little or no effect on hospitalized COVID-19, as indicated by overall mortality, initiation of ventilation and duration of hospital stay. The mortality findings contain most of the randomized evidence on Remdesivir and Interferon, and are consistent with meta-analyses of mortality in all major trials.”
October 16, 2020 — CNN: 12 residents at a northern California nursing home have died from Covid-19
“The Gilroy Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center said in a news release Thursday 75 residents and 54 employees have tested positive for the virus throughout the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sixty-three residents and 53 employees have since recovered, it said.”
Reporting on the same nursing home, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote:
“When the infections and deaths occurred at the center is unclear. The state only reports the cumulative number of cases since the start of the pandemic and does not specify when those cases happened.”
October 16, 2020 — “How many COVID-19 cases in N.C. were actually even cases?”
The Carolina Journal explains in depth how false positives often result from faulty PCR testing. It then goes on to say:
“But the problem doesn’t even stop there. Gov. Roy Cooper uses positive test results (‘cases’) to dictate widespread restrictions against people and businesses and even threatens to tighten them at any time. The full scope of the economic, financial, personal, and mental health damages from these unprecedented restrictions is yet to be fully realized.
“Top scientists around the world have recently spoken out against lockdowns for those reasons — see the Great Barrington Declaration and the World Health Organization, among others.
“Here is what we know:
The PCR test cycle threshold in North Carolina is far too high
Doctors aren’t told how many cycles were used to arrive at a positive test result
A positive test result can’t tell how much or even how viable the viral material it detected is
Using the cycle threshold limit supported by research consensus (30 cycles) would have prevented up to 90% of ‘positive’ test results in several other states from being considered positive
“Given all that, this question is inescapable:
“How many of North Carolina’s ‘positive’ cases would have been negative if the state’s cycle threshold was more in line with what experts recommend?
“The answer would have to be a fraction of what we’ve been told.”
October 16, 2020 — CPR News: “New Hospital Data Shows Ventilator Use Fell Over Time And Coronavirus Patient Stays Grew Shorter”
“COVID-19 patients in Colorado are less likely to go on a ventilator and spend less time on one than they did at the start of the pandemic, according to new data from Colorado’s hospitals.
“Another analysis found profound impacts on the number of people seeking medical care, including a longer drop-off in doctor visits than initially hoped for.
“The use of ventilators for all hospitalized Colorado COVID-19 patients dropped from nearly 30 percent in March to 11 percent in July.”
“Hospitals saw dramatic drops of patient visits after COVID-19 hit Colorado. Compared to last year, outpatient visits were down 20 percent. Emergency department visits dropped 25 percent and ambulatory surgeries declined 27 percent.”
“[CHA spokeswoman Julia] Lonborg said federal relief funds in the hundreds of millions of dollars likely saved some hospitals from closure.”
October 16, 2020 — NBC News: “8 million Americans slipped into poverty amid coronavirus pandemic, new study says”
“Researchers looked at the devastating financial effect the pandemic has had on Americans, with Blacks, Latinos and children faring the worst.”
“The number of Americans living in poverty grew by 8 million since May, according to a Columbia University study, which found an increase in poverty rates after early coronavirus relief ended without more to follow.”
October 16, 2020 — CNBC: “In open letter, Pfizer CEO promises ‘high’ safety standards for vaccine”
“Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the pharmaceutical company’s safety standards for its potential coronavirus vaccine are ‘set high’ as it approaches a regulatory filing with the Food and Drug Administration.
“Shares of Pfizer were up nearly 2% in mid-morning trading after Bourla said in an open letter that the company would not apply for emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine until late November as it continues to gather crucial safety data.
“‘Safety is, and will remain, our number one priority, and we will continue monitoring and reporting safety data for all trial participants for two years,’ Bourla wrote.”
October 16, 2020 — NPR: “$3.1 Trillion: Pandemic Spending Drives The Federal Budget Deficit To A Record”
“The U.S. budget deficit soared to a record $3.1 trillion, following a massive surge in government spending aimed at containing the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic.
“The deficit for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 was more than triple that of fiscal 2019 and easily eclipsed the previous record of $1.4 trillion recorded in 2009.”
October 16, 2020 — Retail pharmacy chains CVS Health and Walgreens reach a deal with the Trump administration to quickly provide and administer COVID-19 vaccines directly to nursing homes, according to the HHS.
“To meet the Trump Administration’s Operation Warp Speed (OWS) goals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Defense (DOD) today announced agreements with CVS and Walgreens to provide and administer COVID-19 vaccines to residents of long-term care facilities (LTCF) nationwide with no out-of-pocket costs.”
NOTE: Accessing the press release to the above announcement after September 5, 2025, brings us to the website of the newly renamed US Department of War, even though the official name of this cabinet office is the US Department of Defense.
October 17, 2020 — CNN: “US government wants to deliver vaccine shots within a day or two of FDA approval”
“The federal government hopes to start vaccinating people against coronavirus within a day or two of Food and Drug Administration emergency authorization, officials said Friday.
“‘We fully anticipate that both Pfizer and Moderna will have data of both safety and effectiveness of their vaccines very shortly. We are very encouraged because their clinical trials are going extraordinarily well,’ Paul Mango, deputy chief of staff for policy at the Health and Human Services Department, told reporters in a telephone briefing.”
October 18, 2020 — The New York Times: The Indianapolis Colts Report False Positives
“After the Colts said they were closing their practice facility, the New England Patriots — who had just emerged from a virus-inflicted week off — canceled their Friday practice session after recording one new positive. A second New England player initially tested positive as well on Friday, but the follow-up screening yielded a negative result.
“The confusion in Indianapolis mirrored a similar series of events last Friday involving the Jets, who closed and then quickly reopened their training facility after an initial positive result was not confirmed in a second test. The uncertainty and disruption also cast new doubt on the reliance on rapid testing to spot, and prevent, virus outbreaks as the league plows ahead with its schedule.
“Indianapolis announced four positives, then said that re-testing produced different results. The Colts and Patriots plan to play on Sunday.”
October 18, 2020 — AP News: Twitter removes tweet from Trump coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas that questions the use of masks
“Twitter blocked a post Sunday from an adviser to President Donald Trump who suggested that masks do not work to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“Scott Atlas, who joined the White House in August as a science adviser, had tweeted ‘Masks work? NO,’ and said widespread use of masks is not supported.”
October 19, 2020 — CNBC: “Trump calls Dr. Anthony Fauci a ‘disaster,’ says Americans ‘are tired of Covid’”
“President Donald Trump on Monday said the government’s top pandemic fighter, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is a ‘disaster’ — and possibly an ‘idiot’ — as he claimed that Americans are ‘tired of’ Covid-19.
“‘People are tired of Covid,’ Trump said in a call with the staff of his reelection campaign against former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee.
“‘People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots, all these idiots who got it wrong,’ Trump said on the call.”
“‘He’s been here for 500 years,’ Trump said of Fauci, who is 79 years old.
“Fauci is a civil servant who, under the law, cannot be directly fired by the president. And Fauci could appeal any dismissal ordered by the president through the political appointees who oversee him.”
October 20, 2020 — The World Economic Forum publishes “The Future of Jobs Report 2020”
The pandemic is speeding up automation, and 85 million jobs are on the line.
“Automation, in tandem with the Covid-19 recession, is creating a ‘double disruption’ scenario for workers,” said the report, which warns that inequality is likely to increase unless displaced workers can be retrained to enter new professions.
“Although in 2018 we proposed that the labour market impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution can be managed while maintaining stable levels of employment, the current 2020 global recession has created a ‘new normal’ in which short term and long-term disruptions are intertwined.
“It appears increasingly likely that changes to business practice brought about by this pandemic are likely to further entrench wholly new ways of working, and that the second half of 2020 will not see a return ‘back to normal’ but will instead see a return to ‘the new normal.’”
October 20, 2020 — The World Bank publishes “How to End the Covid-19 pandemic by March 2022”
“How can the world reach herd immunity against COVID19 before the second anniversary of the pandemic, or March 2022? A study of vaccine demand and supply answers this question. A target of vaccinating 60 percent of the population in each country by March 2022 is likely sufficient to achieve worldwide herd immunity under a baseline scenario with limited mutation.”
October 20, 2020 — CNN: “Nevada Governor warns against ‘Covid fatigue’”
“Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak is warning residents that more restrictions could be needed if people aren’t more careful about stopping the spread of Covid-19.
“‘Covid wasn’t supposed to last this long. We all feel Covid fatigue,’ Sisolak said at a news conference Tuesday. ‘Unfortunately, this virus doesn’t get fatigued.’”
October 20, 2020 — The Spokesman-Review: Washington state governor puts new restrictions on colleges in response to Covid-19 outbreaks
“The new proclamation for colleges and universities requires students to wear masks at all times except in their dorm or sleeping rooms. No more than two people can sleep in a room together in the new guidance, and visitors are limited to one per room, with masking and distancing.
“‘We have certainly learned some lessons regarding the return to campus instruction and off-site instruction, and we’ve seen a significant increase in the COVID infections around congregate living quarters and social gatherings, particularly around sororities and fraternities,’ Inslee told reporters Tuesday.
“The governor’s new guidance restricts gatherings on college campuses to five people, including in common areas on campus.”
October 20, 2020 — CNN: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker says four regions will be operating under the standard resurgence mitigations by the end of this week, including no indoor dining or indoor bar service and limiting in-person gatherings to no more than 25 people.
“‘Today marks the third day in a row for regions 7 and 8 to report a rolling positivity average of 8% or above. That means that starting on Friday, four counties: Will, Kankakee, DuPage, and Kane will all see the heightened resurgence mitigations already in place in region 1,’ [Gov. Pritzker] said.
“‘New restrictions were announced yesterday for region 5, Southern Illinois, so that means four of our 11 regions have triggered our fail-safe state action metric,’ Pritzker added.”
October 20, 2020 — CNN: “Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb predicts US is a week away from ‘rapid acceleration’ in Covid-19 cases”
“‘It’s going to be a difficult fall and winter. I think we’re about two or three weeks behind Europe — so we’re about a week away from starting to enter a period where we’re going to see a rapid acceleration in cases,’ Gottlieb told CNBC’s Shepard Smith.
“‘We’re seeing hospitalizations go up in 42 states right now, cases are going up in 45 states, and there really is no backstop,’ Gottlieb said. ‘The summer was a backstop of sorts to the spring surge and we have no therapeutic backstop and this season, the fall and winter season, is when this coronavirus is going to want to spread.’”
NOTE: Gottlieb was elected to Pfizer’s Board of Directors in June 2019.
October 20, 2020 — Newsmax: 40 states and territories are now on New York’s travel advisory list
“Under a New York directive, anyone coming to New York from an area with a positive test rate of more than 10 for every 100,000 residents over seven days or a state with a positive test rate of at least 10% over seven days must self-quarantine for 14 days upon arriving. Violators can be fined.”
October 20, 2020 — KQED: “CDC Reports Nearly 300,000 ‘Excess Deaths’ in the U.S. Amid Pandemic”
In its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on this date, which included mortality data from January 26, 2020, to October 3, 2020, the CDC wrote:
“‘Although more excess deaths have occurred among older age groups, relative to past years, adults aged 25–44 years have experienced the largest average percentage increase in the number of deaths from all causes from late January through October 3,’ the researchers wrote. Among racial and ethnic groups, the smallest average percentage increase in numbers of deaths compared with previous years occurred among White persons (11.9%) and the largest for Hispanic persons (53.6%).”
“The 300,000 number also includes people who died because they were scared to seek out medical care because of the pandemic or had their care interrupted, and because of other causes.”
October 21, 2020 — Daily Freeman: Gloria and Paul Barton are arrested at Mother Earth’s Storehouse in the Town of Ulster, New York, for refusing to wear masks while shopping
“The defendants, Joseph Barton and Paula Gloria Barton, believe the case hinges on a public health mandate requiring face coverings to prevent the spread of COVID-19. They believe the mask order issued by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is illegal and morally wrong.
“The Bartons, who were joined during Tuesday’s proceeding on the grounds of the Ulster Town Hall by about 30 maskless supporters, were charged by town police on Oct. 21 after they entered Mother Earth’s, in Kings Mall, without masks and refused to leave when asked.”
October 21, 2020 — The British Medical Journal publishes “Will covid-19 vaccines save lives? Current trials aren’t designed to tell us” by associate editor Peter Doshi.
Doshi makes this important point:
“None of the [COVID-19 vaccine] trials currently under way are designed to detect a reduction in any serious outcome such as hospital admissions, use of intensive care, or deaths. Nor are the vaccines being studied to determine whether they can interrupt transmission of the virus.”
October 21, 2020 — Pew Research: “Only 24% of Trump supporters view the coronavirus outbreak as a ‘very important’ voting issue”
“About eight-in-ten Biden supporters (82%) say the coronavirus will be very important to their vote, compared with just 24% of Trump supporters. Since August, the share of Trump supporters who view the coronavirus as very important has declined 15 percentage points. There has been no change among Biden supporters.”
October 21, 2020 — The Lancet publishes “COVID-19 Vaccines A Global Common Good”
“Scientific consensus is that the only way this pandemic will be eradicated is through the vaccination of all people worldwide. It is, therefore, important to recognise this in our policy actions to avoid the tragedy of the commons, in which selfish behaviour leads to adverse communal outcomes.”
“As the virus knows no geographic boundaries, we have to act to help each other. Otherwise, we might never be able to return to the previous extent of cross-border collaborations for economic and social progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.”
“The second pillar is an operator to establish and enforce allocation and pricing rules. This requires a not-for-profit operator with such capacity to interface between the international community, the health systems of the different countries for implementing mass vaccination, and the pharmaceutical industry for manufacturing vaccines at a given price. This entity would also be required to mobilise contributions from WHO member states, multilateral organisations (e.g., World Bank and European Investment Bank) and major foundations.
“The Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization (GAVI) presents a ready-made model.”
October 22, 2020 — CNN: “Data shows Covid-19 treatment remdesivir isn’t a ‘home run,’ says former vaccine director”
“Data on the Covid-19 drug remdesivir show that it has only modest benefits and isn’t a ‘home run,’ former US Health and Human Services official-turned whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright said Thursday.”
“‘It’s important to note that even the data that we saw in the United States from that drug show that the benefit was modest,’ Bright told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. ‘It wasn’t a home run. It wasn’t a remarkable improvement in terms of mortality, or even the lengthening or shortening of the length of hospital stay, but it did show some marginal benefit.’”
NOTE: A World Health Organization-sponsored global study found that remdesivir did not help Covid-19 patients survive or recover faster.
October 22, 2020 — FDA News Release: Remdesivir receives FDA approval to treat hospitalized Covid-19 patients
“Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the antiviral drug Veklury (remdesivir) for use in adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older and weighing at least 40 kilograms (about 88 pounds) for the treatment of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization. Veklury should only be administered in a hospital or in a healthcare setting capable of providing acute care comparable to inpatient hospital care. Veklury is the first treatment for COVID-19 to receive FDA approval.”
October 22, 2020 — ITV: UK will roll out millions of Covid-19 tests that deliver results in ‘minutes’ to schools and universities
“Tests for coronavirus which give positive or negative results in minutes are to be rolled out to schools, the Health Secretary said. Speaking in the House of Commons, Matt Hancock said that lateral flow tests — which don't require a lab or a machine — will be rolled out to schools and universities.”
“Mr Hancock said: ‘I’m delighted to be able to tell the House that yesterday we began the roll-out of lateral flow tests to schools and universities.'
“‘Lateral flow tests don’t require a lab or a machine — the kit gives you the result within minutes.’
“‘We’ve successfully purchased many millions of these tests and they’ll allow us to both find the virus where it spreads and to reduce the disruption that virus control measures inevitably create.’”
October 22, 2020 — The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) holds meeting to discuss Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) pathway for covid vaccines to bypass “informed consent”
At the meeting, Dr Doran Fink explains:
“‘The differences between expanded access use and Emergency Use Authorization are that expanded access use is done — or is carried out under FDA’s investigational new drug regulations. So among many other things, those regulations require use of an institutional review board and also obtaining informed consent from recipients of the investigational vaccine according to regulations for clinical investigations — research use of investigational vaccines. And so operationally speaking, an expanded access protocol would add some complexity, and that is why Emergency Use Authorization is being considered primarily as the mechanism for addressing the public health emergency that has been declared.’”
“Dr Fink went on to work for Moderna, heading the translational medicine and early clinical development program in infectious diseases.”
October 22, 2020 — TIME magazine dedicates its weekly edition to the World Economic Forum’s The Great Reset.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to think about the kind of future we want. TIME partnered with the World Economic Forum to ask leading thinkers to share ideas for how to transform the way we live and work.”
October 22, 2020 — State of Politics: “Wall Street Profits Up 82% in First Half of 2020”
“Profits on Wall Street reached $27.6 billion in the first six months of the year, an 82% increase over the same period in 2019, a report released on Thursday found.
“The profits of the first half of the year are nearly equal to all of 2019's pre-tax earnings of $28.1 billion, according to the report released by [New York State] Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's office.
“Wall Street was aided in part by a $2.4 trillion stimulus and historically low interest rates of near zero that wiped out borrowing costs.
“Main Street's financial picture, meanwhile, is far less rosy.
“The report, examining the financial industry's performance in New York, comes as a devastating pandemic has shuttered small businesses, some never to reopen, and created unemployment spikes not seen since the Great Depression. The jobless rate in New York last month fell 10% for the first time since April.
“‘An injection of federal stimulus money, plummeting interest rates and rising volume in trading drove profits dramatically upward to a level hard to imagine in March,’ DiNapoli said.”
October 23, 2020 — Johnson & Johnson announces it will resume its clinical trials
“Johnson & Johnson announced today that it is preparing to resume recruitment in the pivotal Phase 3 ENSEMBLE trial of its investigational Janssen COVID-19 vaccine in the United States after a temporary pause.
“The independent Data Safety and Monitoring Board (DSMB) overseeing the ENSEMBLE study has recommended resuming trial recruitment. Following consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), preparations to resume the trial in the United States, including submissions for approval by the Institutional Review Boards, are now underway. Discussions with other regulators around the world to resume the clinical trial program are progressing.
“After a thorough evaluation of a serious medical event experienced by one study participant, no clear cause has been identified. There are many possible factors that could have caused the event. Based on the information gathered to date and the input of independent experts, the Company has found no evidence that the vaccine candidate caused the event.”
October 23, 2020 — NPR: “FDA COVID-19 Vaccine Process Is ‘Thoughtful And Deliberate,’ Says Former FDA Head”
“The Food and Drug Administration’s sprint toward approving a COVID-19 vaccine does not mean the government is ‘cutting corners’ or shorting safety, said Dr. Mark McClellan, former FDA commissioner under George W. Bush.
“McClellan observed Thursday's FDA advisory panel on COVID-19 vaccine research, where independent experts offered advice on the way forward. Later that day, President Trump fueled fears that a vaccine is being rushed when he promised at a presidential debate to have ‘a vaccine that’s coming, it’s ready, it’s going to be announced within weeks.’”
“McClellan predicted that early availability for a vaccine might come later this year with large-scale access in the spring or summer. He is on the board of Johnson & Johnson, which is working on a COVID-19 vaccine.”
October 23, 2020 — CNBC: “Joe Biden lays out a detailed plan to fight coronavirus”
Here’s how Biden described three of the five steps of his plan:
Masking: Biden said he would go to every governor and ask them to impose a mask mandate. He also said he will mandate masks in all federal buildings and on all interstate transportation.
Testing: The former vice president said he would launch a national testing plan aimed at conducting as many tests each day as the U.S. currently performs each week, which would amount to approximately 7 million tests a day.
Treatments and vaccines: Biden’s plan would put an emphasis on equitable and widespread delivery of therapeutics in the near term and eventually a free coronavirus vaccine, he said. But Biden acknowledged that even if a vaccine is found to be effective, "It will still be many months before any vaccine is widely available.”
The other two steps involve personal protective equipment and uniform, scientific reopening guidelines.
October 24, 2020 — NPR: “A Federal Coronavirus Vaccine Contract Released But Redactions Obscure Terms”
“The Department of Health and Human Services released its August contract with Moderna. When announcing the deal, HHS said it was worth $1.5 billion and would secure the first 100 million doses of the company’s vaccine and the option to buy up to 400 million more.
“Overall, there is a lack of disclosure around the terms of the federal contracts with companies involved in the crash program to make COVID-19 vaccines. Most of the contracts haven’t been released.
“While the publicly posted Moderna contract includes previously unknown details, extensive redactions leave the public in the dark about some of the company’s obligations as well as the extent of protections for taxpayers.
“It’s 53 pages long, but only 14 of them are free of redactions.”
October 24, 2020 — Boston Globe: Fauci calls for widespread mask mandate
“Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it is a ‘great idea’ for there to be a uniform mask mandate, as US coronavirus cases surged on Friday.
“Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told CNN’s Erin Burnett, ‘If people are not wearing masks, well then maybe we should be mandating it.’
“During the interview, Fauci acknowledged some might say it would be hard to enforce the mandate.
“‘But if everyone agrees that this is something that’s important and they mandated it and everybody pulls together and say, “We’re going to mandate it but let’s just do it,” I think that it would be a great idea to have everybody do it uniformly.’”
October 25, 2020 — CBC: “Spanish Prime Minister declares national state of emergency over COVID-19”
“Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has declared a second nationwide state of emergency in hopes of stemming a resurgence in coronavirus infections.”
“Sanchez said his government will use the state of emergency to impose an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. nationwide curfew, except in the Canary Islands.
“The prime minister said Spain's 19 regional leaders will have authority to set different hours for the curfew as long as they are stricter, close regional borders to travel, and limit gatherings to six people who don't live together.”
“The leader added that he will seek the endorsement of the parliament this week to extend the state of alarm for six months, until May.”
October 25, 2020 — ABC News: “Delta adds 460 people to no-fly list for refusing to wear masks”
“Usually reserved for suspected terrorists, Delta Airlines has added the names of 460 people to its no-fly lists for refusing to comply with a requirement to wear masks during flights, according to a memo to employees from the company's CEO.
“Delta CEO Ed Bastian revealed the number in an internal memo about breast cancer awareness month. He encouraged employees to participate in helping to raise money to fight the disease.”
October 25, 2020 — CBS News: “Italy imposes early curfew for eateries and closing gyms, pools and movie theaters as COVID-19 ‘cases’ rise”
“Italy’s leader imposed at least a month of new restrictions across the country Sunday to fight rising coronavirus infections, shutting down gyms, pools and movie theaters, putting an early curfew on cafes and restaurants and mandating that people keep wearing masks outdoors.
“Worried about crippling Italy’s stagnant economy, especially after 10 weeks of a severe lockdown earlier in the pandemic, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte opted against another heavy nationwide lockdown. The new decree goes into effect Monday and lasts until November 24.”
October 26, 2020 — Yahoo Finance: “Bill Gates slams Trump COVID-19 adviser Scott Atlas as ‘pseudo-expert’ who’s ‘off-the-rails’”
“In a new interview, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates sharply criticized the Trump administration for muzzling experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) while instead listening to White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Scott Atlas, whom Gates calls a ‘pseudo-expert’ who’s ‘off-the-rails.’”
“‘We now have a pseudo-expert advising the president,’ Gates, the former Microsoft (MSFT) CEO and a leading backer of global public health initiatives, told Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer in an interview that aired on Monday as part of the news organization’s All Markets Summit.”
October 26, 2020 — CNBC: Trump claims the U.S. coronavirus outbreak is a ‘Fake News Media Conspiracy’
“President Donald Trump on Monday claimed the worsening coronavirus outbreak in the United States is a ‘Fake News Media Conspiracy,’ saying the nation has the most cases in the world only because ‘we TEST, TEST, TEST.’
“‘Corrupt Media conspiracy at all-time high,’ Trump said in a tweet Monday morning. ‘On November 4th, topic will totally change,’ he added, referring to the day after the presidential election."
October 26, 2020 — Politico: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka imposes new Covid restrictions
“New Jersey’s largest city is starting to wind back the clock on its economic reopening, the clearest indication yet the Garden State’s recovery from the pandemic’s first wave is at risk of regressing.”
“With coronavirus cases spiking statewide, Baraka on Monday morning ordered non-essential businesses and restaurants in Newark to close their doors at 8 p.m., effective Tuesday. Beauty salons, nail salons and barbershops will only be able to offer their services by appointment and gyms and health clubs have been ordered to close for at least 30 minutes each day for sanitization.
“Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration is assisting Baraka’s directive by bolstering contact tracing and testing capacity in the majority-minority city, which was once squarely at the epicenter of the global pandemic.”
October 27, 2020 — The Diplomat: “Amid Rising Panic Over Deaths, South Korean Government Urges People to Get Flu Shots”
“As more than 59 deaths were reported soon after a shot, the South Korean government is asking people to trust its health officials that the vaccine is safe.”
“In late September . . . about 5 million doses — which should have been refrigerated — had been exposed to room temperature while being transported to medical institutions.”
The number of deaths following a flu vaccination has been rising consistently since early October, South Korean President Moon Jae-in told a meeting on Monday. He asserted there is no link between the flu vaccines and deaths.
“‘Please trust the health authorities’ conclusion and announcement that are reached [after] review with experts,’ Moon said.
“In the wake of Moon’s remarks, Jung Eun-kyeong, commissioner of Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, told a briefing on Monday that 59 deaths within a week of getting flu shots have been reported and 13 of them are being investigated. Jung also said that “more than 1,500 elderly people died within a week of being inoculated last year but their deaths were not linked to the vaccinations.”
October 27, 2020 — Al Jazeera: Long-term exposure to air pollution may be linked to 15 percent of COVID-19 deaths globally, according to a new study
“Published in the journal Cardiovascular Research on Tuesday, the research from German and Cypriot experts analysed health and disease data from the United States and China relating to air pollution, COVID-19 and SARS — a respiratory illness similar to the new coronavirus disease.”
“In East Asia, which has some of the highest levels of harmful pollution on the planet, the authors found that 27 percent of COVID-19 deaths could be attributed to the health effects of poor air quality.
“The proportion was 19 percent in Europe, and 17 percent in North America.”
October 27, 2020 —The Guardian: Former British Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption says that the UK government has deliberately stoked fear over coronavirus while behaving like an authoritarian regime relying on police state tactics
“In his most forceful critique to date of the government’s handling of the pandemic, the outspoken lawyer condemned the way ‘the British state exercised coercive powers over its citizens on a scale never previously attempted.’
“Delivering the Cambridge Freshfields annual law lecture, Lord Sumption said: ‘The ease with which people could be terrorised into surrendering basic freedoms which are fundamental to our existence . . . came as a shock to me in March 2020.’”
October 27, 2020 — NBC News: “The hidden Covid-19 health crisis: Elderly people are dying from isolation”
“Chester Peske, 98, loved to sit in the lunchroom at Copperfield Hill and talk to the other memory care residents about everything from the weather to the history of the highway that connected his hometown to downtown Minneapolis, six miles away. While he had Alzheimer’s disease, Peske still recognized his children when they came to the Robbinsdale, Minnesota, facility for weekly visits.
“‘He would talk and talk and talk,’ [his daughter Tammy] Roberg said with a laugh.
“Then, in March, there was almost no one that Peske could talk to.
“Roberg later learned that her father, who’d always had a healthy appetite, had been losing weight. Even more isolated in quarantine after his Covid-19 diagnosis, he was becoming quiet and disengaged, even with the staff members who tended to him, a nurse later told her.
“He still had no coronavirus symptoms — he was just withdrawn, according to Roberg and an administrator at Copperfield Hill. Roberg was hopeful that he would bounce back with more hands-on attention from the facility. But four days later, on June 2, she got another call: She should come right away. Her father was dying.”
October 28, 2020 — Off-Guardian: “Anthony Fauci: 40 Years of Lies From AZT to Remdesivir”
Co-authors Torsten Engelbrecht & Konstantin Demeter write:
“Such behavior, which smells of misconduct, runs like a golden thread through Fauci’s 36-year history as director of the NIAID.
“A particularly blatant example is the approval of azidothymidine — commonly known as AZT — that became the first authorized AIDS medication. The basis for this was the so-called Fischl study, which was published in July 1987 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) — and already then Fauci was in charge of federal AIDS funding.
“John Lauritsen, journalist, Harvard analyst and active in the Gay Rights Movement since the 1970s, had viewed the FDA documents on the Fischl study and came to the conclusion that the study was ‘fraud’; the Swiss newspaper Weltwoche termed the experiment a ‘gigantic botch-up’ and NBC News in New York branded the experiments, conducted across the US, as ‘seriously flawed.’
“The Fischl experiments were, in fact, stopped after only four months, after 19 trial subjects in the placebo group (those who did not receive AZT, but rather an inactive placebo) and only one participant from the so-called verum group (those who were officially taking AZT) had died. Through this, according to the AIDS establishment, the efficacy of AZT appeared to be proven.
“But the Fischl study was not even worth the paper it was printed on. Not only was it financed by AZT manufacturer Wellcome (today GlaxoSmithKline), which is clearly a conflict of interest, but it was ‘clear that Fauci’s NIH and the FDA had far too ‘cozy’ a relationship with Burroughs-Wellcome,’ as Lauritsen writes.”
“Furthermore, the FDA documents show that the study results were distorted. For example, sicker patients were placed in the placebo group or because the group that swallowed AZT (and therefore had to cope with the severe side effects) received more supportive medical services than the placebo subjects.
“NBC reported that there was widespread tampering with the rules of the Fischl trial. The rules had been violated coast to coast, and if all patients with protocol violations were dropped, there wouldn’t be enough to be able to continue the study.”
“By the way, the inventor of AZT himself, Jerome Horwitz, said he was so cloyed with the drug that he ‘dumped it on the junk pile,’ he ‘didn’t [even] keep the notebooks.’
“His invention AZT was a chemotherapy-like drug of extreme, not to say fatal, toxicity and ‘so worthless’ to him that he ‘didn’t think it was worth patenting,’ as former BusinessWeek journalist Bruce Nussbaum writes in his book Good Intentions: How Big Business and the Medical Establishment are Corrupting the Fight against AIDS, Alzheimer’s, Cancer and More.”
October 28, 2020 — AP News: France and Germany ordered back under lockdown due to PCR positives
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered their countries back into lockdown.
“France announced a full nationwide lockdown for the second time this year, and German officials imposed a partial four-week lockdown Wednesday, as governments across Europe sought to stop a fast-rising tide of coronavirus cases.
“The World Health Organization says the European region — which includes Russia, Turkey, Israel and Central Asia, according to its definition — accounted for almost half of the 2.8 million new coronavirus cases reported globally last week. The U.N. health agency said virus-related deaths were also on the rise in Europe, with about a 35% spike since the previous week, as well as hospitalizations due to COVID-19.
“‘We are deep in the second wave,’ European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels. ‘I think that this year’s Christmas will be a different Christmas.’”
October 28, 2020 — RT: German COVID-19 lab produces run of false positive tests
“Germany’s government defended the accuracy of its coronavirus testing procedures on Wednesday, after a Bavarian laboratory delivered a run of false positives that it blamed on pressure of work and a shortage of reagents. The MVZ Laboratory in Augsburg made wrong diagnoses in 58 of 60 tests it identified as positives over a one-week period — an anomaly that came to light after a hospital become suspicious of the results and retested the patients.
“‘It was not always possible to double check the positive results in a timely manner due to the high number of samples and the lack of equipment,’ the lab’s Managing Director, Gabriele Schoen, told Munich daily Muenchner Merkur.”
October 28, 2020 — CNBC: European drugmakers Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline pledge 200 million doses of their Covid-19 vaccine to the World Health Organization’s global immunization partnership Covax
“Global health organizations including the GAVI vaccine alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the WHO are leading the Covax effort, which is focused on first vaccinating the most high-risk people in every country. The deal is contingent on the vaccine winning regulatory approval, the companies said in a statement.
“The initiative aims to deliver 2 billion doses of the vaccine by the end of 2021.”
October 29, 2020 — MIT claims to have a voice test for covid: “Artificial intelligence model detects asymptomatic Covid-19 infections through cellphone-recorded coughs”
“Asymptomatic people who are infected with Covid-19 exhibit, by definition, no discernible physical symptoms of the disease. They are thus less likely to seek out testing for the virus, and could unknowingly spread the infection to others.
“But it seems those who are asymptomatic may not be entirely free of changes wrought by the virus. MIT researchers have now found that people who are asymptomatic may differ from healthy individuals in the way that they cough. These differences are not decipherable to the human ear. But it turns out that they can be picked up by artificial intelligence.”
October 29, 2020 — CNBC: New coronavirus variant claimed to have emerged in Spain
“A variant of the coronavirus that is believed to have originated in Spain has spread across Europe and now accounts for most of the new cases reported in several countries in the region, according to the findings of a new study.
“The research, which is due to be published on Thursday and has not been peer reviewed, details how an international team of scientists has closely monitored the coronavirus through its genetic mutations.”
October 29, 2020 — The New York Times: Gilead Sciences says that remdesivir has brought in $873 million in revenues so far this year
“The United States reached a milestone, of sorts, when last week the Food and Drug Administration approved the first treatment for Covid-19. The drug is called Veklury, although most people know it by its scientific name, remdesivir.
“On Wednesday, its manufacturer, Gilead Sciences, said that remdesivir, which has been authorized for emergency use since the spring, had brought in $873 million in revenues so far this year and that it was the company’s second-best-selling drug in the third quarter, behind its H.I.V. drug, Biktarvy.
“But the F.D.A.’s decision to grant the drug full approval — which means the company can now begin broadly marketing it to doctors and patients — has puzzled several outside experts, who say that it may not deserve the agency’s stamp of approval because it is, at best, a mediocre treatment for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. And they have questioned whether Gilead deserves to pocket potential billions from the drug when the federal government has played a significant role in its development.”
October 29, 2020 — TODAY: Covid toes becomes a clinical condition
“A new analysis shows that ‘long-hauler’ COVID-19 patients may experience prolonged skin symptoms, with one patient reporting having ‘COVID toes’ for nearly six months.
“The analysis was conducted on patients listed on the International COVID-19 Dermatology Registry, the world’s largest registry of coronavirus patients with dermatological symptoms. Nearly 1,000 cases are registered from patients in 39 countries.”
October 30, 2020 — New York Post: Study finds 20% of grocery store workers had Covid-19 and most didn’t have symptoms
“The study found that 20 percent of 104 grocery store workers tested at a Boston store in May had positive nasal swab results, according to the network.”
“Employees who dealt with customers were five times as likely to test positive as workers in other positions — but three out of four of those who tested positive had no symptoms, the report said.
“‘We were definitely surprised to see that there were that many people that were asymptomatic,’ said Dr. Justin Yang, an assistant professor at Boston University School of Medicine and a researcher at Harvard School of Public Health who worked on the study.”
“Almost all of them, 91 percent, said they wore a face mask at work.”
October 30, 2020 — NPR: Internal Documents Reveal Hidden COVID-19 Hospitalization Data
Says NPR:
“For instance, the most recent report obtained by NPR, dated Oct 27, lists cities where hospitals are filling up, including the metro areas of Atlanta, Minneapolis and Baltimore, where in-patient hospital beds are over 80% full. It also lists specific hospitals reaching max capacity, including facilities in Tampa, Birmingham and New York that are at over 95% ICU capacity and at risk of running out of intensive care beds.”
NOTE: NPR failed to report that, as Nurse Erin wrote on X: “It’s not unusual for hospitals to sit at max or near max capacity on any given day. The media would like you to think this is a new thing, but it’s not.”
October 31, 2020 — CBS News: “Boris Johnson puts U.K. on 2nd coronavirus lockdown”
“Britain is going on a roughly monthlong lockdown as coronavirus cases to surge, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Saturday, just three months after telling The Telegraph that he didn’t want to mandate a national lockdown and likened the measure to a ‘nuclear deterrent.’
“From November 5 to December 2, people will only be permitted to leave their homes for a short list of reasons, such as childcare, work, exercise, medical issues, or shopping for basic needs. Bars and restaurants will only be allowed to provide take-out options and non-essential stores will have to close. Johnson said the country is extending its furlough system through December to help businesses.”
October 31, 2020 — Politico: Study claims Trump rallies caused more than 700 Covid deaths
“President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies between June and September may have caused some 30,000 coronavirus infections and more than 700 deaths, according to a new study by Stanford University economists.
“The working paper, released late Friday, examined the impact of 18 rallies held between June 20 and Sept. 30 by comparing spread of the virus after each event to parts of the country that didn’t host rallies. The findings illustrate the risks of not heeding public health warnings to wear masks and avoid large gatherings to mitigate the risks of Covid-19, the authors — including B. Douglas Bernheim, the chair of Stanford’s economics department — wrote.”
From the study:
“‘Extrapolating this figure to the entire sample, we conclude that these eighteen rallies ultimately resulted in more than 30,000 incremental confirmed cases of COVID-19. Applying county-specific post-event death rates, we conclude that the rallies likely led to more than 700 deaths (not necessarily among attendees).’”
October 31, 2020 — The Hill: Trump claims doctors are inflating coronavirus death counts for money
“‘Our doctors get more money if somebody dies from COVID. You know that, right? I mean our doctors are very smart people. So what they do is they say, ‘I’m sorry, but everybody dies of COVID,’ [Trump] said.”
“Trump argued that other countries put less of an emphasis on COVID-19 as a cause of death than the U.S. does, adding, ‘With us, when in doubt, choose COVID. It’s true.’”
October 31, 2020 — ABC News: “New York City Marathon goes virtual during coronavirus pandemic”
“The virtual race includes augmented reality and the sound of crowds.”
“The New York City Marathon is one of the city’s biggest events of the year, attracting tens of thousands of runners from more than 100 countries around the world to the Big Apple to try to complete a daunting 26.2-mile run.”
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable.” — H. L. Mencken
From a political perspective, a notable feature of debate in the Western sphere has been a tendency to, rightly or wrongly, associate the suppression/elimination strategy with liberal or left-wing politics and a like tendency to link the herd/community immunity approach to conservative or right-wing politics.
In this traditional context, today’s "politics of covid" represents an inverse reaction to what would typically be expected. In the past, it was the liberal class who were, at least on the surface, suspicious of the intentions of the government, especially when it came to large-scale corporate agendas. Liberals, aka progressives, have historically recognized that such schemes usually result in negative consequences for the working class. Similarly, these liberals once claimed to be aware that mainstream media is a propaganda tool deployed to manipulate public sentiment.
However, in the current political climate, these very same lib/progs are not just silent about the devastating covid policies but they have been the most aggressive on-the-ground enforcers and loudest cheerleaders for these totalitarian government edicts.
Instead of being suspicious of government’s advancement of widespread draconian measures, the liberal class, at least in the US, has mocked the free thinkers—the active resisters of mandates—and has accepted the government’s narrative like docile, well-trained poodles. Yet those very liberals have acted like vicious, well-trained guard dogs when they censor and threaten anyone who rejects the official narrative.
It has been only through this “liberal consensus”—along with the cooperation of thoroughly bought-off academic institutions—that the government has been able to achieve the current intolerable level of economic and civil rights restrictions.
Having paid lip service to the plight of the poor for decades, the liberals of the covid era are ruthlessly exposing what they actually believe in—namely, a bubbling-to-the-surface totalitarianism and a shocking disregard for life. These immoral ideologies lurk within many of the “educated” elitists who are turning a blind eye to the immense human suffering happening all around them.
"Covid mania" has given these "respected servants of society" a warped sense of purpose as they have become the modern foot soldiers of the misanthropic, callous cult of the New Normal.
This scenario is not a small thing to consider with the 2020 presidential election at our doorstep.
This is a series. Click to read the previous installment. Next installment coming soon.
