Even public health bureaucracies are fallib.e. Crises are stress tests. They invite scrutiny in places that might otherwise go unexamined. For decades money meant for pandemic preparation was used “the removal of office furniture, administrative expenses, news subscriptions, legal services and the salaries of other department employees.” Nobody ever really saw the pandemic coming. Institutions …
Continue reading “You gotta tell ’em! Bureacracies are made of people!”
Do those who dismiss the lab accident origin theory of Covid 19 have a problem with the alternative pushed by the Chinese government itself? That theory is that the virus was imported into China. Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said on Monday (Jan. 18) at a press conference that the US should …
Continue reading “China Abandons Its Own Wildlife Market Virus Origin Theory”
The “gain of function” research to engineer nightmare viruses may have been the other half of the quest to create flexible vaccine platforms that could create “24 hour bug to drug” preventives as powerful defenses against pandemics. But it was not exempt from the risk of lab accidents. The vaccines are in some sense the …
Continue reading “Wuhan Lab Origin of Virus Goes Mainstream: Questions for Fauci”
Now it can be told because “because President Biden is very smart and strategic and he understands that American power and American strength doesn’t rest on bluster, it rests on principles, it rests on partnerships, and alliances and accountability.” One year after the pandemic started, World Health Organization advisor Jamie Metzl wants China to come …
Continue reading “WHO advisor: COVID-19 pandemic likely China lab leak says ex-Biden expert”
Navigating on falsified position reports. The stars are where we want them to be. New at the Belmont Club
The world order would have been in real trouble without vaccines to fight over. For decades politics has been premised on the theory that scarcity was a thing of the past; that the only problems left to solve involved redistribution. The pandemic showed real scarcity can still exist and demonstrated how dependent the world is …
No this is not about journalists learning how to code. It’s about whether half of America has been taken over by cult. In the words of a Bob Hope movie: “It’s worse than horrible because a zombie has no will of his own. You see them sometimes walking around blindly with dead eyes, following orders, …
Continue reading “Are You a Zombie? The Deprogramming Debate”
The EU was months late in reaching an agreement with vaccine manufacturers because of procedural reasons. Now faced with embarrassing shortfalls the search for a fall guy begins. Analysis by Airfinity, a UK-based analytics company working for the life sciences industry, suggests the UK will have achieved effective “herd immunity” by vaccinating 75% of the …
Continue reading “The Dead Hand of Bureaucracy and the Vaccine”
Vaccine nationalism, economic woes build a perfect storm Italy threatens legal action against Pfizer over vaccine supply; Israel to close all airports to most flights
Public discourse is now a “conflict space” with social media serving as an “information warzone,” the public intellectual Peter W. Singer declared in an essay published a few days after the alternately scary and farcical Trump riot on Capitol Hill, seamlessly adapting a framework of state-level physical violence to a discussion of constitutionally protected speech. …
In every war there is a constant contest of upgrades between the combatants. Nature is a tenacious and resourceful adversary. It isn’t two weeks to anything. (Reuters) – AstraZeneca denied on Monday its COVID-19 vaccine is not very effective for people over 65, after German media reports said officials fear the vaccine may not be …
Joe Biden has only been in the Oval Office for days, but China is making it clear if he doesn’t change Trump’s course, there will be consequences. Maybe China’s a bigger problem than Parler.
Looks like the status quo is having a rough time of it all over the world. “Chatsworth, there’s something wrong with our bloody global world to-day!” In retrospect the pandemic turned out to be a poisoned pawn for political opportunists. What they greedily pounced on as an opportunity to grab power has unleashed furies. Prior …
The European Union’s Health Commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, tonight slammed the cut, warning it was ‘not acceptable’. It comes after Eindhoven in the Netherlands saw its worst riots in nearly 40 years over the weekend, with Mayor John Jorritsma warning the country was ‘on our way to civil war,’ amid outcry over a new nationwide curfew. …
Continue reading “Riots as AstraZeneca Says It Can’t Fill Orders”
Polls show that 56% of Americans agree with the statement that “Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.” 58% think that “most news organizations are more concerned with supporting an ideology or political position than with informing the public.” When Edelman re-polled Americans after the election, …
Note: Behind paywall. “But none of that can or will happen if the president fuels the culture war this aggressively, this crudely, and this soon. You don’t get to unite the country by dividing it along these deep and inflammatory issues of identity.” I was not surprised. Biden couldn’t be a healer. He sold his …
Continue reading “Biden’s Not Healing the Nation: Andrew Sullivan”
The places where anything goes, including kidnapping and blackmarket coronavirus vaccinations. Your mileage may vary. Dozens of scantily dressed Filipina croupiers stand in booths shuffling cards in front of a webcam, their faces softly illuminated by professional lighting.Nearby, rows of Chinese nationals sit at desks chatting on cellphones with potential clients back in China.This is …
Continue reading “The Online Chinese Gambling Casino or POGO”
The Keystone pipeline cancellation will force Canadians to find overseas markets for oil. Mr. Biden revoked the Keystone XL permit on Wednesday, hours after taking office, effectively shutting down a 12-year, cross-border project that would have carried 830,000 barrels a day from Alberta to Nebraska and eventually to refiners on the Gulf Coast. His executive …
