3.5 weeks in to Alberta’s mask mandate, cases just keep right on rising, proving once again that if you keep trying something that’s already failed everywhere, unsurprisingly it will continue to fail pic.twitter.com/CJirP42wKP
— Ian Miller (@ianmSC) September 28, 2021
How would you check if mask mandates worked in schools?
I can think of only one way. Contrast kids in schools with mandates and in those without. Get them all, too; the kids, I mean. Measure something useful, like serious illness or death. Not infection, because every kid is likely to get this bug. Or has already had it.
You’d have to do this carefully, because the kids would almost surely differ class by class, or at least school by school, by all kinds of things causative of infection and illness. You’d have to count very delicately.
What you wouldn’t do is come up with some weird, derived measure, something that takes you away from the decisions you need to make. Like, “If we impose a mask mandate, are fewer kids going to get sick?” And, “Is it worth the costs, which only zealots say are non-zero?”
The new CDC report is “Pediatric COVID-19 Cases in Counties With and Without School Mask Requirements — United States, July 1–September 4, 2021” by Budzyn and a slew of others.
Before the details, look at their proof pic:
Caption is “Mean county-level change in daily number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 children and adolescents aged <18 years in counties (N = 520) with and without school mask requirements before and after the start of the 2021–22 school year — United States, July 1–September 4, 2021”.
Why not all counties? “Among the 3,142 U.S. counties included in the initial sample, 16.5% (520) were included in the final analysis after applying the selection criteria.” And that selection criteria? “Counties with conflicting school mask requirements were excluded from this analysis; only those counties with the same known mask requirements for all schools were included.”
This is the start of the problems you give yourself by counting the wrong thing. They measured counties, not kids. And, as we’ll see, they measured something not terribly interesting: “cases”.
If you, for instance, started on the east coast early in the morning and measured kids exposed to sunrise and compared these kids with kids in California, it looks bad for living on the east cost, if being exposed to sunrise worries you. But if you pondered it for a moment, you’d realized every damned kid is eventually going to get exposed. So why not measure something useful, like skin cancer?
Now, what’s this before and after the start of the school year business? They should have been looking inside schools during the school year. Not before. That’s the only valid comparison. Who in the world knows what these kids were doing in areas of more and less freedom before the school year.
They did not look at the kids wearing masks or not, just “cases” in counties with out without mandates. Cause is already suspect.
And what is a “case”, dear reader? Regular readers will—should—know the answer to this.
A “case” is a function of test quantity, test sensitivity and accuracy, and disease prevalence. A “case” does not measure previous infections. A “case” does not measure disease severity. Test quantity—here normalized by population—is a function of madness, panic, and “concern” level.
Did those counties without mandates, thinking they were necessary, have more testing, and thus possibly higher “case” numbers? Did the masked kids have higher previous infection rates. I have no idea. The CDC isn’t saying about either.
And what about prior infections? All the panic that goes into creating mandates may, and likely did, have seen differences in behavior that are causally related to the outcome. Which kids already had the bug, but which the testing doesn’t reveal?
This means, again, individual kids must be checked, both for prior infection and thus excluded, and for something real, like hospitalization for Covid, or serious illness defined in some defensible clinical way. Or death.
Ah, no deaths reported. Kids aren’t really dying of this disease—only about 500 in the entire USA in two years—so comparing that most useful number wouldn’t have been possible.
All this change in rates of change is also impossible to keep straight. What’s wanted is direct comparisons of rates between kids wearing and not wearing masks. Cumulatively, too. That is, “This many infected day 0, this many day 7, this many day 14”, and so on. Again, properly excluding those previously infected. We can’t get any solid idea of effect from these weird numbers.
CDC says “Statistical significance was defined as p<0.05 for all analyses.” P-values? Uh oh. Get ready to be flashed.
Then came the regressions—I know, I know. “To further assess the association between pediatric COVID-19 cases and school mask requirements, a multiple linear regression was constructed that adjusted for age, race and ethnicity, pediatric COVID-19 vaccination rate, COVID-19 community transmission, population density, social vulnerability index score, COVID-19 community vulnerability index score, percentage uninsured, and percentage living in poverty.”
If you can’t get a wee P out of all that, you’re just not trying.
Any study in which a researcher with pride waves his–or her!—wee p-value at you should not be trusted.
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What has “being insured” or not (this must mean “% in county insured,” surely) got to do with covid infections?
I’m guessing it’s the same in the USA but in the UK the school year starts in September. When does the annual respiratory disease season start? In Autumn! Sonot only should all children be compared but the comparison to the population as a whole should be compared for the same weeks.
DavidC
If we get rid of the mask mandate, the economy will suffer and from MSM reports, it’s pretty ill already. The economy should have had a mask mandate to protect it from Biden. Ever notice the masks get thinner and thinner? At this point, they mean nothing unless you’re in Hollywood. Then only the riff-raff near-slave labor waiters wear them so we know who’s the “famous” and not famous. 90% of the masks are washable, probaby in cold water like Ice-T tells us will save the environment, but will do exactly zip to stop the spread of an actual communicable disease. Even in the 1800’s they knew to BOIL (or burn) sheets and clothing after diseases. We are getting stupider.
The problem with Covid is it was never as straightforward as other diseases. More like fibromyalgia with a PCR test. There is reportedly a real contagion (with Covid–unknown cause but one is claimed for fibromyalgia), but few have ever seen it. Want tested for measles? Sure, they can easily find the measles virus in a blood sample. Covid? Well, maybe in about 100 tests and six months…..
This is kind of off-topic but still on Covid, why is no one studying why the entire world lost it’s freaking mind over Covid? Why do we care about masks and where the virus came from? FIND OUT WHO TOOK OVER THE MINDS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. That’s the important part. A virus is just a virus, no matter where it came from.
Briggs, we are shocked, shocked that the Center for Demonic Conspiracy would perpetrate such a flimsy deception in order to torture children. Well okay, we’re not really shocked, that’s what the Cesspit of Deranged Clowns does. We’re only surprised an enraged mob of parents doesn’t show up at their Atlanta headquarters and burn it to the ground.
About this: ”Kids aren’t really dying of this disease—only about 500 in the entire USA in two years—“
That 500 number, or whatever it is, is dubious bigly. According to Marty Makary in a WSJ piece from July 19 2021, the medical mass-murderers at Corruption Destruction Criminals have not bothered to investigate any of the reported children’s deaths. Here’s what Makary says:
” I’ve written hundreds of peer-reviewed medical studies, and I can think of no journal editor who would accept the claim that 335 deaths resulted from a virus without data to indicate if the virus was incidental or causal, and without an analysis of relevant risk factors such as obesity.
My research team at Johns Hopkins worked with the nonprofit FAIR Health to analyze approximately 48,000 children under 18 diagnosed with Covid in health-insurance data from April to August 2020. Our report found a mortality rate of zero among children without a pre-existing medical condition such as leukemia.”
So the child mortality figures for Covid are as fake as everything else the lying criminal perps are vomiting up.
Sheri: ”FIND OUT WHO TOOK OVER THE MINDS OF THE WHOLE WORLD.”
Who?
WHO?!
WHO!!!
WHO TOOK OVER THE MINDS OF THE WHOLE WORLD!!!
I don’t think the whole world has had its mind taken over. Now if you suggested that all of the “Karens” of the world had their mind taken over, I might start to agree. Most of the world is tap dancing down the path of least resistance. When we got to remove our masks in Washington, the number wearing masks dropped to < 1 in 10.
We are faced with a slight conundrum in Scouting. We follow the rules. When there is a rule that is bad we orderly get the rule changed. But now we are faced with rules that have been incrementally added over time. We have striven to make kids safe in their schools. Except there are enough people roaming the halls of a typical high school, that there is a reasonable chance you won't have met everyone in that high school by the time you get out. The right answer to this problem is for people to meet as many people as possible as they roam the halls. See someone you don't know, walk up to them, extend your hand and say "high, my name is … "
It will greatly increased the ability of people to know who is in the school, and help prevent stupid things from happening. Making people badge up at the door does not do it. As we have learned from folks like Brian Brushwood and Darren Brown, you can put a 3×5 card on a string around your neck and people will see it as a "Badge". The actual badge can be round instead of a rectangle.
I have made that mistake over and over again. It happens all the time. Kahneman might call in Fast Thinking vs Slow thinking.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221475002100161X
Probably not an approved study though. But I just got done trying to explain to a Pediatrician that 500 kids dying of covid over two years does not mean terror is on its way.
Mask Propaganda Theater of the Absurd
Given their performance over the past 18 months, I wouldn’t trust anything at all coming from CDC or FDA.
No surprise that something from the CDC is flimsy – the fact that the chart they put out only tracks alleged “cases” from cherry-picked counties, and not serious illness or death tells you everything. “Cases” are the most easily manipulated and useless stat (and as we’ve seen from Alberta, and it’s probably happening elsewhere, some places are calling things a “Covid case” if a kid stays home sick even without an actual Covid test – Yeah, that’s reliable. Hands up who’s never faked a “sick” day in school? Liars!). It’s never been clearer that all we have now is a political/media driven “casedemic.”
And are they only counting public schools in the counties they counted? According to the stated criterion above, counties with conflicting rules weren’t counted – well, where I live private schools are mask optional, while public schools are imposing them, so does that county get counted or not? The governor’s public school muzzle mandate was struck down in court, but the local school board has imposed its own “mandate” (I assume there is litigation pending against them too – I don’t know why it wasn’t joined with the case against the governor), but it only extends to public schools. But we have a lot of private elementary and high schools around as well – my nieces have been back for a month and a half with muzzles strictly optional, and I’ve heard of no mass outbreaks of “cases” or kids dropping dead from Covid.
My children’s school district tried to pull the crap on how well all of their mitigation measures were working last year. One of their mitigation efforts was forced masking, with the totality of the efforts resulting in transmission reduction that was 98% effective. So I made a data request so I could see for myself.
One of the big problems, which I saw before I even made the data request, was that they had no control group. It was *solely* based on contact tracing. And what counts as a “contact” matters greatly. If all students were masked and 6 feet apart; that’s not a contact.
However, what they didn’t realize was that they actually *did* have a control group. K-2 had greatly reduced measures that they had to follow. They did not have a mask requirement, for example. So if the district’s mitigation efforts were the *least* bit effective there should be **some** wiggle on the line denoting the infection rate, *at least* between second grade (without requirements) and third grade (with requirements).
There was *no* difference.
Sorry… I’m wrong. K-2 had the *lowest* rate of infection.
Triple the so-called close contacts, but the lowest infection rate.
Kevin: Sounds like your school district’s strategy is the typical one of: “If the data works out ok and we can present it as such, we claim victory was due to our ‘mitigation efforts,’ but if the data doesn’t work out, then we claim it was because not enough people followed the rules and we need to ‘mitigate’ harder.”
For the Covid Cultists, when it comes to policy decisions it’s always “heads we win, tails you lose.”
Dennis: pretty much. I’ve had those exact discussions.
A few months ago
Me: “If masks worked why is Texas going down but Michigan is going up?”
Friend: “They probably aren’t masking well in Michigan.”
Me: “You’re **seriously** saying that **Texans** are more compliant than those in Michigan?”
And if we were to fast forward a few months, suddenly in July Texans stopped wearing masks, and then suddenly in September they started wearing them again. I must find out where they’re exercising to prepare for mental gymnastics like that.
“suddenly in July Texans stopped wearing masks, and then suddenly in September they started wearing them again.”
Hadn’t heard that Texas re-started. That’s a shame. Has Texas gov gone on power trip and re-imposed some mandate, or is this just voluntary masking now?
No mandate in KY, though still see a lot of maskers, and depending on the business or place, may still be required, but for the most part able to go about daily business without mask, and never get bothered even in stores that say its required by store policy. Mandate ended in June (most stores stopped enforcing in May though) and I’d say masking was at about 20% most places from June until recently, then an uptick again the past month or so – probably about 30-40% now most places.
Dennis, naw, what I mean is that –in order for it to be true that masks work to reduce SARS transmission–, Texans would **have** to have started hating masks suddenly in July and then started loving them again suddenly in September. There might have been *some* change in usage, but not enough to suddenly cause positive test results shoot up in July only to have them shoot down in September.
Makary, M. (19 Jewel-Lye, 2021). The Flimsy Evidence Behind the CDC’s Push to Vaccinate Children. The agency overcounts Covid hospitalizations and deaths and won’t consider if one shot is sufficient. WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/articles/cdc-covid-19-coronavirus-vaccine-side-effects-hospitalization-kids-11626706868. “A tremendous number of government and private policies affecting kids are based on one number: 335. That is how many children under 18 have died with a Covid diagnosis code in their record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet the CDC, which has 21,000 employees, hasn’t researched each death to find out whether Covid caused it or if it involved a pre-existing medical condition.
Without these data, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices decided in May that the benefits of two-dose vaccination outweigh the risks for all kids 12 to 15. I’ve written hundreds of peer-reviewed medical studies, and I can think of no journal editor who would accept the claim that 335 deaths resulted from a virus without data to indicate if the virus was incidental or causal, and without an analysis of relevant risk factors such as obesity.
My research team at Johns Hopkins worked with the nonprofit FAIR Health to analyze approximately 48,000 children under 18 diagnosed with Covid in health-insurance data from April to August 2020. Our report found a mortality rate of zero among children without a pre-existing medical condition such as leukemia.”
@DavidC,
Here, school starts in summer (August, though late August, to be more specific). Autumn just started last week. We also have respiratory virus seasons pretty much all year. The specific viruses involved change. Corona viruses are summer viruses here. Rhinoviruses now and into next month. Influenza/parainfluenza later in autumn or winter (A in late autumn, B in late winter for influenza). It is also goldenrod season, locally, as well.
Oh, depending on the definition of obesity, wouldn’t it be special that obesity isn’t always a risk factor, either.
Re Texas, except for the most northern portion, I’d call it a subtropical area. Like my area, corona viruses should be summer viruses, not winter viruses. Then you have the immigrants, legal and illegal, bringing stuff in with them and seeding it elsewhere, at varying rates.
What this “pandemic” has shown is the myth of Western democracy and freedom of speech.
The emperor has no clothes!
The only way the “elite” have found to push people toward the jab has been cohesion through carrot and stick.
Facebook has shut down so called anti-vaxxers, all large portals censor people questioning the need for a jab and the definition of pandemic.
A contest of ideas? A reasoned argument?
Not on your life, its jackboot diplomacy!
“First, where is the data justifying inoculation for children, much less most people under forty? ”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221475002100161X
Indeed, Cookie. YouTube announced even more draconian measures against “anti-vax” content today.
There is an easy solution to this problem – and the similar problem of Amazon de-listing books by people like E. Michael Jones and Dugin. All of these platforms and monopolistic distribution channels simply need to be treated as public utilities subject to strict First Amendment criteria when censoring any content. Very simple. But the Congressional GOP and Trump missed the boat in his first two years (too many of them are owned by Big Tech as well as Big Pharma just like the Left), and the Left has no motivation to do anything because the censorship works to their advantage. It will only get worse, even if the GOP takes Congress in 2022 and/or the White House again in 2024 – don’t expect them to do any good at this point either. Mostly spineless and useless RINOs.
Calling the mRNA injections “vaccines” was part of the propaganda, “Look, it’s just like the smallpox vaccine”, and also part of the liability waiver – you can’t sue us because it’s a “vaccine”. In addition to changing the definition of “vaccine” by the CDC and others to be inclusive of the spike protein injections in order to provide legal immunity (but not virus immunity) to the manufacturers/Big Pharma.
Not to mention that the clinical trials were a joke. “Where’d your control group go?” And, oh, more people were excluded from the control group for non-compliance, or whatever. Even with those shennanigans, there was no mortality difference between the vaccinated and control groups.
Sorry, I’m just not buying it. The injections should have been withdrawn months ago, based on the appalling adverse events.
Just for comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=0u8ObojeZgo
Remember Swine Flu in 1976?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=0u8ObojeZgo
How did that dangerous anti-vax propaganda escape the YouTube censors?! I’m reporting it now!
(just kidding, in case that wasn’t obvious…I know some are humor-challenged)
Seriously though, it’s fascinating to compare that 1979 “60 Minutes” report on swine flu with mainstream media today.
Then: they were skeptical of govt and pharmaceutical co. claims & vaccine propaganda; skeptical of what Wallace calls “this so-called deadly variety of flu”; eager to ask difficult questions of Pharma execs, cdc officials, vax and flu scientists; eager to report vaccine side-effects, lack of informed consent, lack of proper vaccine testing and weighing of any benefit against side-effect risk, etc.
Now: mainstream media is basically just the PR and propaganda arm of the government and Big Pharma; buries side-effects reports; acts like Covid is the greatest medical threat ever known to man; glorifies “public health” weasels like Fauci and the new clown who runs CDC; denounces and deplatforms those who raise legitimate questions or express skepticism of the mainstream Covid story or about vaccines, etc.
Amazing the decline in basic media standards and reporting quality between then and now.
Someone send this to that schlub Chris Wallace and tell him to take notes from his old man.
Thankyou for that link philemon, I didn’t know they had run the swine flu scam in 1976, I know they tried it in 2009.
https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/reconstruction-of-a-mass-hysteria-the-swine-flu-panic-of-2009-a-682613.html
Someday the very last Mask Mandate will expire. This will be a poignant moment equal to any contained in a tear-drop scene out of James Fenimore Cooper’s – The Last Of The Mohicans. Of course our collective mask-memories will linger. Eventually footlighted-catwalks in Paris, NY, and Berlin will reprise the era – and VOGUE will publish: OUR MASK NOSTALGIA – Key Fashion Highlights from the Time of Co-V-19
It’s a thankless task trying to counter the misinformation about COVID-19 on here, so I have a new policy: If people are too stupid to get vaccinated or wear masks, I say: let ’em die.
PS: No article about the Arizona election “audit”? The one that cost $5.7m but resulted in Trump losing 261 votes and Biden gaining 99 in a hand recount? HA-ha.
Hagfish: Yes, that is the question.
Brad: The entire world shut down it’s economy for a germ. That, to me counts as insane and people went along with it. Insane. I’m trying to believe it’s not insanity or manipulation or mass stupidity, but I just can’t find the evidence. Thanks for your answer, though.
cdquarles: Illegal immigrants are a weapon to kill Americans, by virus, murder and drugs.
philemon: Agreed.
swordfish: I guess you flunked math, statistics and science. So sorry. You did pass propaganda at the advanced level, though. Congrats on that anyway.
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Ann
Ugh, I’ll try again.
What is the Mortality Risk of “COVID-19” if we happen to become infected? For a child, dying w/ Covid-19 compares to their odds of “dying from a sharp object” or .003%.
(Stanford Study – Ioannidis & Axfors)
Age 0-19 99.997% Survival Rate
1 in 37,036 odds of dying
Similar to odds of dying from sharp object
Age 20-29 99.986% Survival Rate
1 in 7,142 odds of dying
Similar to odds of dying from sunstroke
Age 30-39 99.969% Survival Rate
1 in 3,325 odds of dying
Similar to odds of dying from choking on food
Age 40-49 99.920% Survival Rate
1 in 1,219 odds of dying
Similar to odds of dying from drowning
Age 50-59 99.410% Survival Rate
1 in 369 odds of dying
Similar to odds of dying in pedestrian accident
Age 60-69 99.410% Survival Rate
1 in 168 odds of dying
Similar to odds of dying in car crash
Age 70+ 97.600% Survival Rate
I in 41 odds of dying
Similar to odds of dying of chronic respiratory disease
In other words, it makes as much sense to mask a child or vaccinate them against Covid-19, as it does to wrap them head-to-toe in Kevlar, lest they trip and fatally impale themselves while running with scissors.
On the other hand, masks worn for only one day, pick up pneumococcal and streptococcus, e-coli, and other dangerous bacterias and viruses wafting and laying about, that, unlike Covid-19, actually do sicken and kill children.
What is the risk of a child catching diseases BECAUSE of mask mandates? Think of how many times your child touches dirty doorknobs, then adjusts his mask, scratches “places”, then adjusts mask, uses restroom, forgets to wash hands (or wipes them on his pants) then adjusts mask, puts mask in dirty pocket or on dirty table, then back to the face.
Think of a mask as a fiber Petri dish, strapped to the face, moist and sticky with snot and mucus, aerosolizing and suspending the contents of our breath into the air; all while impeding our respiration, deforming our faces by excessive mouth breathing, blocking vital facial cues, and creating an environment of servile obedience and groupthink.
So when people like Swordfish insist that not wearing a mask, or not getting a Vexxine, is a death sentence, we know they are ignorant or malevolent fools, and should be treated as such; by ignoring them whenever possible, and fighting back when necessary.
The reality is, people who want children wearing masks are mostly perverts, and parents who permit it are mostly enablers. In my state, only 31% of children now read at grade level, but all of them are schooled on how to be buggered and like it, preferably while wearing a mask. If the parents wanted things to be different for their children, things would be different.
Instead, in my state, late-term abortion (infanticide) is an essential service, and “Drag Queen Story Hour” is a regular feature for toddlers in our public libraries; given the high level of child abuse in my state, forced masking is just turning up the heat a bit, and certainly falls short of cutting out their live organs, like abortionists do to babies here for the medical-industrial complex.
Yes, these masked and vexxed children should consider themselves lucky to have made it out of the womb alive. Mask up, shut up, and belly up to the counter at the What Fresh Hell Cafe, where your latest Vexxinne Booster will be served up in a fine metallic sauce, after rigorous kitchen testing and development using fresh human embryonic kidneys.
As Swordfish the Midwit warns us, if we don’t wear our Ritual Snot-Infused Masks, and receive our Vexxinne Viaticum, as periodically determined and mandated by pharma-phunded gov’t Experts™, then we deserve to die.
“suddenly in July Texans stopped wearing masks, and then suddenly in September they started wearing them again.”
“Hadn’t heard that Texas re-started. That’s a shame. Has Texas gov gone on power trip and re-imposed some mandate, or is this just voluntary masking now?”
It is illegal according to the Governor, Attorney General, and Supreme Court of Texas, for any government entity to arrogate emergency measures that are assigned to the Governor by the Constitution of Texas.
However, there has been pushback from Karens and especially urban politicians from the opposition party:
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/covid-governmental-entity-compliance
“it makes as much sense to mask a child or vaccinate them against Covid-19, as it does to wrap them head-to-toe in Kevlar, lest they trip and fatally impale themselves while running with scissors.”
I’m sure this is on the Safetyist Karen to-do list somewhere!
Swordfish know masks are purely performative Public Health Theatre and that the vaccines are a failure (and wholly unnecessary for a virus with a 99.9% survival rate), but he doesn’t care. Like all midwit lickspittles, he just wants a pat on the head for being a good Regime-compliant doggie. Who’s a good boy?…Sit, Swordy, sit.
Velly intellishtink: https://www.jpost.com/health-science/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-linked-to-rare-blood-disease-israeli-study-671694 I love the “but still take the vexxine” nonsense.
swordfishtrombone: “It’s a thankless task trying to counter the misinformation about COVID-19 on here, so I have a new policy: If people are too stupid to get vaccinated or wear masks, I say: let ’em die.” Good for you swordfishtrombone! A duel of wits. May the man with the better epistemology win.
swordfishtrombone: “PS: No article about the Arizona election “audit”? The one that cost $5.7m but resulted in Trump losing 261 votes and Biden gaining 99 in a hand recount? HA-ha.”
Here you go, swordfishtrombone:
https://joannenova.com.au/2021/09/decertify-the-arizona-election-a-million-files-deleted-280000-ballot-images-corrupted/
Ann Cherry: Thank you. My inner Actuary loves you.
Dennis: “Seriously though, it’s fascinating to compare that 1979 ’60 Minutes’ report on swine flu with mainstream media today.”
Oddly enough, they didn’t allow advertisements from pharmaceuticals back then. Tobacco companies, on the other hand…
Yes, part of the corruption of media is the fact that Pharma ad money is a huge part of what’s keeping legacy mainstream media afloat (on the rare occasion I happen to catch a glimpse of any “big three” network news show, or even cable news much of the time, it’s basically all Pharma ads all the time…“ask your doctor about Octogenero, and you too can tiptoe through flowery springtime fields like these actors during your golden years…”), Gates money now as well, so one can hardly expect unbiased coverage and deep investigative reporting on Pharma malfeasance.
Same goes for law – Pharma and lawyers never should have been allowed to advertise.
Then again, in much of the world pharmaceutical ads are still banned…yet most of their media is deep into the Covid cult and shilling for Big Pharma as well. How explain?
I think a big part of it is ideological corruption as well, after 4 more decades of the Leftist March through the institutions. Media was always largely left leaning, but saw itself as oppositional – “speaking truth to power” – vis-a-vis government and big corporations, and still had some residual respect for robust free speech (the “I don’t agree but will defend to the death your right to say it” attitude of old still largely prevailed; think also of the early “Wild West” years of the internet as compared to the heavily centralized internet-of-things now largely controlled by a handful of megacorp big tech overlords, all themselves very leftist in outlook). Few in the liberal media really believe in free speech any longer – they’d rather simply use their influence to shut down and deplatform those who disagree with them, and instead of defending to the death the free speech rights of others, the slightest criticism or opposition is called “violence,” and sends them into mental meltdown, screaming about the need for “safe spaces.” Forget robust debate or disagreement, and the free exchange of ideas – call it “Media Fragility.” And instead of seeing themselves as opposition to the Establishment, they’ve been co-opted by the Establishment (much as the Democrat party has been co-opted by Wall Street and billionaire money, and instead of being the party of “the people,” “workers,” etc, as their myth claims, is now the Party of billionaires, Wall Street bankers, Big Tech, and Big Pharma Globohomocorp America), crave it’s approval, and instead of “speaking truth to power” have become power’s PR department, because it pays better and offers better perks (and I think some delude themselves that they are really the guiding minds influencing those who truly call the shots).
I don’t know…but it all stinks to high heavens. And we are doomed if this state of things continues much longer.
Ann Cherry,
Surely those kids don’t all go to Catholic schools? But in any case, please don’t get vaccinated on my account.
philemon,
Please don’t get vaccinated on my account.
Sheri,
Please don’t get vaccinated on my account.
Dennis,
Please don’t get vaccinated on my account.
“Please don’t get vaccinated on my account.”
Believe me, Swordy, you were the least influential person imaginable when it came to making a decision not to be a Big Pharma guinea pig. Now, sit, Swordy, sit! Good boy, you’ve earned a third jab.
I didn’t think that swordfishtrombone could sink to a lazier and more obviously dimwitted level than his “I posted a link, the argument is done” phase, but here we are.
Note that he still puts in a dig against Catholicism since, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the one thing that actually motivates him to try is his hatred of God.
Masks, even in surgical settings, are useless;
https://jamesfetzer.org/2020/08/studies-of-surgical-masks-efficacy-masks-are-useless-in-preventing-the-spread-of-disease/
swordfishtrombone: “If people are too stupid to get vaccinated or wear masks…” Maybe the “stupid” people will be healthier than you?
Look, I don’t wish you ill. I sincerely hope that you and your family have no adverse events from the vexxine, either short term or ten years down the road. I do hope during the coming cold and flu season, you are supplementing with D3, zinc ionophores, zinc, and that you have some Ivermectin/Claritin available to treat early symptoms.
Rudolph Harrier: “I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the one thing that actually motivates him to try is his hatred of God.” Maybe it’s personal.
Dennis: “Yes, part of the corruption of media is the fact that Pharma ad money is a huge part of what’s keeping legacy mainstream media afloat (on the rare occasion I happen to catch a glimpse of any ‘big three’ network news show, or even cable news much of the time, it’s basically all Pharma ads all the time…’ask your doctor about Octogenero, and you too can tiptoe through flowery springtime fields like these actors during your golden years…’), Gates money now as well, so one can hardly expect unbiased coverage and deep investigative reporting on Pharma malfeasance.”
Remember Hearst? https://www.falseflag.info/uss-maine/
Yes, it was completely stupid. Press-Barons making U.S. foreign policy is not new.
Their problem now is that lots of people don’t buy their propaganda. Do you even buy their polls? How much you wanna bet less than 50% of the U.S. population is vexxinated. They’re up to 11 on the push for everyone to get vexxinated, the mandates, the censorship, and that makes people think it ain’t right.
In any case:
You, In Fact, Have ALL The Power. Use It
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=3711546
Of course I don’t buy their polls! Been obvious for a long time most are a joke, made up numbers to steer the story the way media wants (ex. It was obvious all year long last year that the claims of Biden having double digit leads in polls were a joke – as have been numerous polls showing majority support for Biden all year long. One even had him at over 65% approval!).
And, of course, as you point out with the USS Maine false flag, much media has always been corrupt (and there has always been joint govt-media collusion in corruption and deception, as well). But still, the contrast between the 1979 coverage of the aftermath of the Swine Flu scare and vax debacle and the way media has covered Covid, has been quite stark, and shows that at least as recently as 4 decades ago, some mainstream media integrity remained (even if it was rare then).
[False flags seems to be the typical basis for many US wars – that and deliberate provocation (see the Lusitania and Pearl Harbor). Even if Spain didn’t do it, they should have, and had the right to, as the US had no right to be sending warships into Spanish territorial ports in the first place at a time when the US was not even at war with Spain, even if they claimed it was simply to observe and “protect US interests” during unrest. How would the US respond if, say, China sent some warships to dock in various US ports to “observe the unrest” caused by Antifa and BLM last year, and to protect China’s interests? Yeah…no need to wonder…the world would have been blown up by now.]
“Lanikai’s skipper was Lieutenant Kep Tolley, an eager young officer, but neither he nor the Filipino volunteers who had jumped at the chance to don navy uniforms would have been so enthusiastic if they had realized that they were to become fish bait. However, because neither schooner was ready to sail until the morning that the war broke out, Kemp Tolley survived.”
Layton, [I]And I Was There[/I], p. 248.
FDR might just have been a little over-eager for war.
philemon,
Signs of normal human decency sneaking in under the Christian radar? Nor I you.
I don’t know anyone who had any adverse reaction to the vaccine, but someone in my family died from COVID-19. If you think the vaccine is more dangerous than the disease, you’re stupid.
I don’t need anything to treat symptoms of COVID-19, as I’ve been vaccinated. I’m getting my flu jab soon, and I haven’t had a cold since 2019, which I put down to mask wearing and handwashing. Ivermectin doesn’t work, and it isn’t the early symptoms of COVID-19 you need to worry about, it’s the later one where you’re unable to breathe.
Rudolph Harrier,
Just trying some reverse psychology. Or am I?
I thought I was attacking the Catholic Church, not God – unless he helps them shelter child molesters from the law?
“I don’t need anything to treat symptoms of COVID-19, as I’ve been vaccinated”
Quite the comedian, this guy.
You really aren’t paying attention are you, Swordy? Still think the jabs actually prevent either infection or illness from, or transmission of, SARS-COV-2? LOL.
Dennis: “You really aren’t paying attention are you, Swordy? Still think the jabs actually prevent either infection or illness from, or transmission of, SARS-COV-2?” It’s worse than that, he really seems to have a problem with reading comprehension.
swordfishtrombone: “I don’t know anyone who had any adverse reaction to the vaccine.” How many people do you know? Give it ten/fifteen years. Long-term studies (if any are being conducted).
Masks do not provide protection:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC2493952/
Spanish nursing home study showing early treatments work even for those most at risk:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC7833340/#!po=34.9057
Ivermectin in India worked:
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=243599
philemon,
Don’t you have any proper sources like anonymous manifestos, facebook videos, or conspiracy theories from doctors who run tattoo removal shops? Everyone knows that peer-reviewed science can’t be trusted. /sarc
“I can think of only one” only one?
way. Contrast kids in schools with mandates and in those without. Get them all, too; the kids, I mean. Measure something useful, like serious illness or death. Not infection, because every kid is likely to get this bug. Or has already had it.”
Measure something useful…
~~ Infection is directly correlated with serious illness and death from covid. You don’t have serious illness from OR with covid without infection FROM it!
~~ Serious illness and death is going to be heralded, by the antagonists brigade, as being spuriously attributed to covid.
Why not do both?
~~Children have not been dying from covid as we all know! (In the absence of other serious illness or predisposing factors, that is. )
If the information of interest is disease spread, or infection control, as it is generally known, counting serious illness and death doesn’t tell you enough about how many individuals in the group caught the disease given certain conditions.
Given that the infection can happen more than once, with or without vaccine, it is irrelevant that most or even all children in a given group have already had the illness. If the point is to learn about control of infection.
swordfishtrombone: “Don’t you have any proper sources like anonymous manifestos, facebook videos, or conspiracy theories from doctors who run tattoo removal shops? Everyone knows that peer-reviewed science can’t be trusted. /sarc”
Peer-reviewed science articles aren’t a guarantee of truth. The Journal of Irreproducible Results is a fair description of much of the literature if you care to enquire. It’s a fun read.
As for “conspiracy theory”, it’s a propaganda term used to deflect attention from criminal conspiracy (a legal term).
swordfishtrombone: “Ivermectin doesn’t work.”
That is an empirical claim. What studies in particular are you referencing that show a negative benefit from early treatment with Ivermectin? I understand that there are clinicians that have reported quite favorable results.
More interesting stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwR7natWqLk
https://rumble.com/vna7jt-my-jaw-dropped….
philemon,
Sounds like another conspiracy theory.
I got my info from a guy down the pub. He’s a real diamond geezer. Your clinicians probably have stockpiles of horse paste to flog. /sarc
How Ivermectin works (at least one way): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32871846/
swordfishtrombone: “Your clinicians probably have stockpiles of horse paste to flog.”
The mere fact that you denigrate Ivermectin as “horse paste” when it has been used on humans, cats, dogs, and horses, for over forty years with an extremely good safety profile, better than Tylenol, leads me to believe that your mind has been completely propagandized.
Indeed. Do these people really think the Ivermectin pills one can get through prescription in the US (and which in many countries are actually sold over-the-counter), are just “horse paste”?
As you point out, former Pfizer exec Mike Yeadon and others have stated that Ivermectin is even safer than Tylenol. Ivermectin has been one of the most amazingly effective and truly great drugs ever brought to market – for humans and animals. But it’s cheap and out-of-patent now, so it gets denigrated (even by its own producer!) and suppressed in favor of Big Pharma’s newer and more expensive (and rushed and more dangerous) experimental drugs.
What’s really downright criminal is that the regular human pill version of Ivermectin is made so difficult to get in the US (prescription only, and many docs won’t prescribe for Covid because of the insane political pressure and brainwashing they’ve been under as well), so people are forced to resort to the equine versions. Another victory for Big Pharma lobbyists and their FDA servants.
Veterinary medicine is commonly used across mammals with exceptions to the rule, of course
Therapies developed for humans are used later in animal treatment and vice versA!
So it’s another side show arguing about “horse pills”
The only time drugs are not used across the species is where safety of theh human or animal indicates it is inappropriate or where the condition does not occur in the given species, such as distemper in humans!!!!
Pregnancy in men!!!
Fur balls in conspiracy people?
There’s no known cure for feather spitting though…just incurable…hopeless…
“Veterinary medicine is commonly used across mammals…”
I’d trust most vets over most of the corporate health care/Big Pharma shills that pass for people doctors these days.
Dennis,
Here’s the thing, “Big Pharma” is not necessarily me friend either.
I recall many a meeting where our practice would take all the goodies from he drug companies and take the “lecture” about he latest thing. They not under any illusions though. Dr’s are as clever as you. Maybe you missed your vocation?
I still have a really cute first aid kit and mini cooling fan but actually and realistically. Sane people don’t change their minds because someone’s supplying the lunch and sandwiches to tell you all about he latest thing. On a grander scale, the same thing applies. You’re not the only person out there with a questioning mind.
I would have been a vet if I had been blessed with full sight. It’s for the best. Yes, Vets are subject to the same kinds of temptations as everybody else. Everybody is not bad and evil though.
Of course, it is a completely different thing when you’ve got student loans for medical school due, you’ve just bought a house, your wife is pregnant, and, if you step out of line, they’ll yank your medical license…
That is not “lunch and sandwiches.”
“Maybe you missed your vocation?”
Quite likely.
But medicine wasn’t it either – I get kinda queasy around needles and blood and guts. Last time I had blood drawn at a doctor’s office (granted, it was about 10 years ago), I actually did black out and nearly faint! Didn’t actually lose consciousness, just suddenly my vision went black as if someone had put a blindfold on me, and I got really sweaty and dizzy all of a sudden, and the nurse said the color drained from my face I went white as a ghost. Had to lay down for about 15 minutes with a cold towel on my forehead and drink a Coke from the staff break room to revive me. What a wuss! 🙂
Dennis,
(Sorry for late reply.)
Ivermectin is a drug which is effective against certain parasitic worms, but not against viruses.
There are effective, safe vaccines available for free. If anyone is being forced to buy ivermectin, it is only by their own stupidity and gullibility. More fool them for believing a bunch of conspiracy theories on Facebook. This is almost as pathetic as those fools who died after rushing out to get HCQ after Trump claimed it worked, which totally unsurprisingly turned out to be FAKE NEWS.
Ivermectin only worked in *some* small-scale IN VITRO studies, meaning that it had an antiviral effect IN A TEST TUBE. But lots of things have an antiviral effect in vitro – even leaving viruses in the sun for a few hours kills them. All sorts of things kill viruses in vitro, but that’s no use at all because you can’t dry out your insides or drink gallons of bleach, or ingest the huge amounts of horse paste you’d have to have for it to do anything.
LOL. Imagine continuing to be so high on your own BS like this. Ignoring the copious amount of real world data after 18 months demonstrating the effectiveness of Ivermectin protocols, HCQ as well (n.b. typically not Ivermectin alone, but in conjunction with other drugs or supplements; and it needs to be at the proper stage – some of the “deboonkers” have pointed to Ivermectin use in late stage hospital cases, then tried to claim this proves it doesn’t work at all. Totally disingenuous – as is your claim Ivermectin only showed effectiveness in a test tube, when it has been used in numerous real world cases by many individuals and doctors at this point – including Dr. Robert Malone, inventor of mRNA, who touted the effectiveness of Ivermectin in his own case of lingering Covid symptoms).
“There are effective, safe vaccines available for free.”
Hilarious stuff. Just ignore the ever-mounting evidence of vaccine failure (and absolutely preventable harms being done particularly to the young, with myocarditis and other side-effects issues – see story Philemon posted about the 4 and 5 year-olds Walgreens effectively raped with Covid vax and left with heart damage) and repeat the mantra: “safe and effective, safe and effective, Dear Leader says vax safe and effective, safe and effective…,” while inhaling the stink of your own BS.
“SAN ANTONIO — Face masks became seeded “almost instantaneously” with oral and nasopharyngeal bacteria, posing a potential risk of spread to the eyes during intravitreal injections for macular degeneration, according to a study reported here.
Masks for all 73 patients involved in the study tested positive for a variety of common organisms, as well as some uncommon microbes. Bacteria grew on both sides of masks, irrespective of mask material age.”
https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/asrs/94947
Dennis,
That’s exactly what I think when I read your disengenuous, deceitful, lying, dumb-assed, braindead, conspiracy theory rubbish. I don’t think you have a single valid opinion about anything. Mosley and horse paste indeed! If you had a brain cell, it’d die of loneliness.
LOL! Hilarious. Some people are just beyond hope. So many minds just blasted by Regime propaganda.
There is tons of info out there about the effectiveness of Ivermectin against Covid, and its discovery did not get a “Noble” prize for a horse medicine, although we do love horses. (They treat horses with antibiotics, too, does that make antibiotics “horse medicine”? What an idiotic premise.
I sent Briggs a graph showing how the entire central portion of Africa, which uses Ivermectin for parasites, has almost no Covid cases, while the northern and southern portions of the continent, which don’t use Ivermectin, have a high case rate. Perhaps Briggs will post that graph.
“In 2015, the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, in its only award for treatments of infectious diseases since six decades prior, honoured the discovery of ivermectin (IVM), a multifaceted drug deployed against some of the world’s most devastating tropical diseases. Since March 2020, when IVM was first used against a new global scourge, COVID-19, more than 20 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) have tracked such inpatient and outpatient treatments. Six of seven meta-analyses of IVM treatment RCTs reporting in 2021 found notable reductions in COVID-19 fatalities, with a mean 31% relative risk of mortality vs. controls. During mass IVM treatments in Peru, excess deaths fell by a mean of 74% over 30 days in its ten states with the most extensive treatments. Reductions in deaths correlated with the extent of IVM distributions in all 25 states with p < 0.002. Sharp reductions in morbidity using IVM were also observed in two animal models, of SARS-CoV-2 and a related betacoronavirus. The indicated biological mechanism of IVM, competitive binding with SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, is likely non-epitope specific, possibly yielding full efficacy against emerging viral mutant strains.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34466270/
What’s really funny is that, despite his protestations and insults, Swordy keeps returning to Briggs’ site to seek true Gnosis and Enlightenment. 🙂
Perhaps there is indeed a glimmer of hope left, yet! I wouldn’t bet on it, though.
“What’s really funny is that, despite his protestations and insults, Swordy keeps returning to Briggs’ site to seek true Gnosis and Enlightenment. ?”
Swordfish has been commenting here for years. At least ten.
It’s only recently, with the advent of the new incarnation of the Emperor, that Swordfish has come under the kinds of vociferous and personal, I might say untruthful, attacks that are deemed so imperative.
Both of you clearly believe you’re right and telling the truth. Both of you are acting on a different set of evidence. As Michael 2 would say, “your milage may vary”. Very little of the disagreement, in my view is actually based on a difference in moral values. Some Christians recognise this, apparently, some just can’t and never will.
Re your fainting?
That doesn’t really surprise me. I expect Briggs is exactly the same.
Next time, tell the nurse and she’ll make you lie down on the plinth rather than fall down!
Desensitisation is the way to overcome it but you’re not likely to have reason for that. You won’t feel as bad if you lie down. Just think how much more it hurts with a paper cut or a prick from the brambles.
It’s almost exclusively the male of the species, you’re not alone.
With me, it’s after the crisis or the drama when It hits home.
Things play on my the mind
Oh I didn’t fall down. Was sitting on edge of exam table, and never lost consciousness or fell, just vision went black and I got all sweaty and clammy suddenly and felt dizzy and went very pale…but the nurse got me laid down on the exam table before I fell or anything.
I got the clammy sweaty part of your story, so next time fess up before you even sit down, usually helps.
You probably had no idea you’d have that reaction.
Joy: “Swordfish has been commenting here for years. At least ten.”
Are you sure? Or did you just believe him when he said so?
Is it the same “swordfishtrombone” because I’ve been reading this site for over twenty years now and I haven’t noticed the young swordfishtrombone commenting or being so obnoxious.
Philemon, You have not because the blog did not exist as it is, twenty years ago.
There were some dodgy date changes after the “hack” though.
Briggs has written other blogposts (on the secret list, some of them, he didn’t know I know
Re knowing Swordfish’s presence here? I wouldn’t have said it if it weren’t true. There is a chance that he was also on one of the few blogs I used to read avidly and without commenting: Climate Audit and What’s Up With That? Difference was, comments used to be welcomed, all of them. If you’d actually be reading you would know the changes and I would also recognise you, except you’ve clearly been changing your name intermittently.
I have no reason to doubt his honesty. If he’s wrong he would say so. If he doesn’t believe what another believes you can’t do anything about that and neither can he, in fact, some just haven’t thought it through deeply enough.
It’s the height of rudeness to talk about someone like they’re not there. We used to do it to Briggs as a joke. He used to be more playful. Alas..old curmudgeon…
“Swordfish has been commenting here for years. At least ten.”
Must be a real masochist!
“If he’s wrong he would say so.” Swordfishtrombone?
Never.
Masks are bad:
https://anthonycolpo.com/covid-19-face-masks-are-not-only-useless-but-harmful-part-1/