Reader’s Links for November 19, 2021

Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

74 Replies to “Reader’s Links for November 19, 2021”

  1. Teachings vs Personality Cults.

    Isiah 42:
    “Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen one in whom I delight;
    I will put my Spirit on him,
    and he will bring justice to the nations.

    2 He will not shout or cry out,
    or raise his voice in the streets.

    3 A bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
    In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

    4 he will not falter or be discouraged
    till he establishes justice on earth.
    In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”

    Matthew 12 rewrites this:

    18 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
    my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
    I will put my Spirit upon him,
    and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

    19 He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
    nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;

    20 a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smoldering wick he will not quench,
    until he brings justice to victory;
    21 and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”

    This conspiracy, behind the conspiracy against the vaxx.
    https://wandaalger.me/2021/06/22/is-there-a-demonic-conspiracy-behind-the-vacc/#prettyPhoto

    • The conspiracy behind the conspiracy against the vaxx. A valid question. After all, we are awash in disinformation. So there must be some benefit for someone, somewhere, on a massive scale, involving unimaginable money and power to spread disinformation against this medicine that is saving millions of lives and saving our economy from ruin. Yes, indeed, there must be someone.

      • “…some benefit for someone, somewhere, on a massive scale, involving unimaginable money and power to spread disinformation against this medicine that is saving millions of lives and saving our economy from ruin.”

        ‘Thick runs cynicism, in this one, it does.’ Lol

        1. For the Prophetesses of Christ, A Rapturous Orgasm of Death is needed to sustain them and take them to their Mothership, in their constant battle between good and evil. To turn from picking up of the ‘teachings’ in an unrelate Isiah’s Hebrew scripture of a noble man, into the lazy hiding behind their ‘name’ of Jesus- of an idol-worshippering Cult. This was the conspiracy here, that had made anti-vaxination, (the imperfections of current scientific knowledge), their easy path to tread in trusting God.

        2. Instead Johnnyu, you have appeared to have addressed the wider question of: how do you catch a falling tree so it does the least damage?
        Clear the area and put some objects in the way to slow it down.

        The conspiracy here, to anti-vacinate, is more the valid skepticism of what medicines and procedures to use. To be aware that for governments to create huge investments needed in research they had to first remove other solutions (the competition) to get a head of steam, to write no-fault clauses, and permit truncated-tested vaccines to be rolled out. This was their and our emergency. Their forecast of impending disaster. Our personal experiences of death and illness There was no referendum to curtail liberties and livelihoods. Martial law was just enforced.

        So we try to catch some very interesting insights through a fog of bitching-for-cash, which is Social Media, to the more thoughtful and awareness that privacy and removal of civil liberties can be as easy as islam, Communism and Diversity. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

        “Attorney John Howard, along with Attorney George Wentz of the Davillier Law Group, with the support of America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) filed a Preliminary Injunction (PI) to prevent Kaiser Permanente from implementing its mandatory vaccine mandate for all employees”
        https://fatherlyadviceandrants.com/2021/11/19/dr-simone-gold-explains-the-preliminary-injunction-against-kaiser-permanente/

        • A classic enemy info op: incites both sides
          ~ vaxx vs. anti-vaxx ~
          With the most lurid doom-porn.

          To get us to tear each other apart. So the Enemy conquers us without firing a shot.

  2. NYT – F.D.A. Authorizes Coronavirus Booster Shots for All Adults

    If the C.D.C. agrees, adults who received a second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine at least six months ago could be eligible by this weekend.

    WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized booster shots of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for everyone 18 and older, opening up eligibility to tens of millions more fully vaccinated adults.

    The move simplifies eligibility, fulfills a pledge by President Biden to offer the shots to every American adult and formally allows a practice already in place in at least 10 states. Fearful that waning protection and the onset of winter will set off a wave of breakthrough infections, a growing number of governors had already offered boosters to everyone 18 and older ahead of the holidays.

    The agency said the expansion was justified by currently available clinical trial data as well as real-world evidence. In a statement, Dr. Peter Marks, who leads the F.D.A. division that regulates vaccines, added: “Streamlining the eligibility criteria and making booster doses available to all individuals 18 years of age and older will also help to eliminate confusion about who may receive a booster dose and ensure booster doses are available to all who may need one.”

    Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert, has argued relentlessly over the past month for booster shots for all adults, a position shared by most of Mr. Biden’s other health advisers. Public health experts who argue that healthy younger adults do not need them, he has said, are ignoring the risks of symptomatic Covid-19.

    “Enough is enough. Let’s get moving on here,” he said at an event Wednesday night. “We know what the data are.”

    If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees, all adults who received a second shot of either Pfizer or Moderna at least six months ago will most likely be able to get a booster shot by the weekend. The agency’s outside advisers are meeting to discuss the issue at noon Friday and will hear from Pfizer, Moderna and C.D.C. staff. A vote is scheduled for 2:45 p.m.

    At a White House briefing on Wednesday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C. director, promised that the agency would “quickly review the safety and effectiveness data and make recommendations as soon as we hear from F.D.A.”

    The F.D.A.’s action came after months of fierce debate within the administration and the scientific community about who needed booster shots, and when. As large studies showed protection from all three federally authorized vaccines holding strongly, some outside advisers to the F.D.A. and C.D.C. repeatedly expressed discomfort with how quickly the administration was moving to offer the shots.

    While the F.D.A. has been evaluating booster data for months, it granted the companies’ requests with remarkable speed. Pfizer-BioNTech filed its request roughly 10 days ago, and Moderna announced Wednesday that it had applied but did not say when.

    The agency said that it did not convene its independent vaccine advisory committee because the panel had already had discussed the use of booster shots extensively and “the requests do not raise questions that would benefit from additional discussion.” The panel’s recommendations are nonbinding.

    For Moderna, regulators said, the data showed that 149 clinical trial participants who received a booster dose had higher antibody levels compared with 1,055 study volunteers who received only two doses. They said Pfizer’s data for 200 participants in a clinical trial showed the booster shot raised antibody levels compared to one month after a second shot.

    Critics have said the administration’s booster campaign was motivated by practical or political reasons more than scientific ones. Some said that federal regulators were analyzing safety and efficacy data on the fly. Others have worried that moving to clear Pfizer and Moderna booster doses for all adults might inadvertently undermine the vaccines and suggest that two doses are not strongly protective.

    “The evidence isn’t there that a large rollout of boosters is really going to have that much impact on the epidemic,” said Ira M. Longini Jr., a vaccine expert and professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida. He said that booster doses could increase protection at least temporarily and might help a jittery public feel as if they have another tool in the pandemic, BUT WOULD DO LITTLE TO HALT THE TRANSMISSION OF THE VIRUS, WHICH IS BEING DRIVEN BY THE UNVACCINATED .

    There is near universal agreement among federal officials, state health leaders and outside scientists that persuading the tens of millions of Americans who have yet to get even their first shot should remain the top priority in trying to curb the pandemic.

    Other public health experts have argued that the government needed to act quickly to expand access to boosters both to counteract waning immunity and to eliminate confusion. Complex eligibility rules coupled with the government’s recent decision to let people choose among all three vaccines for their booster has left the public somewhat befuddled, they say.

    “This decision by F.D.A. is overdue,” said Dr. Elizabeth McNally, director of the Center for Genetic Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

    “Many people had trouble understanding whether they should or shouldn’t get boosters,” she said in a statement. “This message is much clearer — get a booster!”

    More than 182 million adults in the United States, or 71 percent, are fully vaccinated. So far, more than 32 million of them have gotten an additional shot.

    Until now, those eligible for boosters included people 65 and older, residents of long-term care facilities, people with underlying medical conditions, and those whose jobs or institutional living conditions heightened their risk.

    All recipients of Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine have already been cleared to get a booster shot at least two months after their injection.

    Jason L. Schwartz, an associate professor of health policy at the Yale School of Public Health, said the latest move was “a recognition that the current approach to booster recommendations just isn’t working.”

    “It’s so confusing that I think the public has sort of shrugged at the importance of boosters,” he said. “And the groups for whom it’s really important to get boosters — the older individuals, the long-term care residents, folks with medical conditions — aren’t getting boosters at the rates they should. It’s time for a reset.”

    The booster rollout is expanding even as public health experts continue to argue over whether young, healthy adults need added protection. The argument is stronger for recipients of Pfizer’s vaccine than for recipients of Moderna’s, whose protection has proved more durable.

    While some studies have found that the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness against infection and hospitalization drops about four months after the second dose, Moderna’s effectiveness has remained steadier.

    At the same time, regulators have been concerned by data from Nordic countries and elsewhere suggesting that young male Moderna recipients may face heightened risks of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle — a side effect that has also been tied to the Pfizer vaccine. The F.D.A. on Friday updated the vaccine’s fact sheets to note that some studies have suggested there may be an increased risk in men under 40 “relative to other authorized or approved mRNA Covid-19 vaccines.”

    Regulators said that although data was limited, evidenced suggested a lower risk of myocarditis after booster doses than after second doses of the shot. Concerns about myocarditis are behind the F.D.A.’s decision to wait to authorize the Moderna vaccine for adolescents.

    Scientists have said the absolute risk still remains very small, most cases are mild and resolve quickly and that Covid-19 can also trigger myocarditis.

    The F.D.A. said on Friday that in reviewing broader booster eligibility for Moderna’s and Pfizer’s vaccines, it had examined recent virus cases and real-world data on the risks of myocarditis and concluded that the benefits of a booster shot outweighed the risks. The F.D.A. also noted that both companies were conducting additional studies on myocarditis risk.

    At the heart of the booster debate is the question of what vaccines are supposed to do. Critics of the administration’s policy argue that despite some degree of waning protection, the vaccines are still fulfilling their mission of protecting against severe disease and hospitalization.

    Booster advocates like Dr. Fauci counter that the vaccines should also protect against symptomatic disease, especially since some patients avoid hospitalization but suffer long-term consequences.

    “I don’t know of any other vaccine that we only worry about keeping people out of the hospitals,” Dr. Fauci said at a White House briefing Wednesday. “I think an important thing is to prevent people from getting symptomatic disease,” including younger people.

    In recent weeks, state after state has moved to allow booster shots for all adults, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Vermont, Arkansas, California, Colorado and New Mexico.

    A host of other countries have taken the same approach, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Norway and Saudi Arabia. Regulators for the European Union have authorized booster doses of both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech for all adults.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/us/politics/coronavirus-boosters-fda.html

  3. the guardian – Austria plans compulsory Covid vaccination for all

    Country goes into third lockdown amid soaring cases and announces jab mandate from February 2022

    Austria is to become the first European country to make vaccinations against Covid 19 mandatory, and will go into its third nationwide lockdown for at least 10 days from Monday, the chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, has announced.

    The government said it was preparing the legal groundwork for a general vaccine mandate to come into effect from 1 February, with exemptions for those unable to receive a jab on medical grounds.

    The age from which people will be required to be vaccinated has not yet been determined, the government said.

    Those refusing to be vaccinated are likely to face administrative fines, which can be converted into a prison sentence if the fine cannot be recovered.

    “For a long time the consensus in this country was that we don’t want a vaccine mandate,” Schallenberg said after a meeting with the Alpine republic’s heads of state. “In spite of months of persuasion, we have not managed to convince enough people to be vaccinated”.

    Tightening vaccine pass controls and testing requirements had started to make a difference but it “hasn’t convinced enough”, said Schallenberg, who took over as chancellor last month from his party ally Sebastian Kurz. “We don’t want a fifth wave, we don’t want a sixth or a seventh wave.”

    Austria is weathering its most powerful wave of Covid, with authorities on Friday reporting 990 cases per 100,000 people over seven days. It recorded another 15,809 new infections on Friday.

    The country has the lowest vaccination rate in western Europe, with 66% of its population fully vaccinated. Over the past two weeks, the conservative green coalition government has tried to prevent a collapse of the health system by making it mandatory for citizens to show proof of vaccination or recovery at restaurants and bars, and then announcing a “lockdown for the unvaccinated”.

    The national lockdown is expected to last until 12 December but could be reevaluated after 10 days if the Covid situation has improved. Nurseries and schools will stay open but mask-wearing is mandatory in classrooms and pupils can choose to study remotely without a note from a doctor.

    Lockdown rules would end for vaccinated people from 12 December but stay in place for those who declined to take the jab.

    Those who have got their second jab will in the future only be considered fully immunised for seven rather than nine months, and can get their booster shot after four months.

    The former chancellor Kurz, who resigned amid a corruption inquiry in mid-October, had assured the public in July that “for everyone who is vaccinated, the pandemic is now over”.

    “No one wants a lockdown, it is a crude instrument,” said Austria’s Green health minister, Wolfgang Mückstein, on Friday. “But it is the most effective instrument that we have available”.

    In particular, the planned general vaccine mandate drew heavy criticism from the opposition benches in parliament. “From this day Austria is a dictatorship,” said Herbert Kickl of the far-right Freedom party, which has advocated scientifically unproven alternative treatments against coronavirus infections, such as the anti-parasite drug ivermectin.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/19/austria-plans-compulsory-covid-vaccination-for-all

    • AUSTRIA – Chancellor Schallenberg announces fourth lockdown and mandatory COVID vaccinations in February

    • Schallenberg: Total-Lockdown und Impfpflicht in Österreich

      Lockdown ab Montag trifft Geimpfte, Ungeimpfte und Genesene in allen Bundesländern.

      Verkündung der nächsten Schritte wie etwa der allgemeinen Impfpflicht ab Februar 2022. Impfgegner seien “unsolidarisch”.

    • Austria’s chancellor condemns anti-vaxxers: ‘An attack on our health system’

      Austria is to go into a national lockdown to contain a fourth wave of coronavirus cases, the chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, announced on Friday, as new infections hit a record high amid a pandemic surge across Europe.

      Despite all the persuasion and campaigns, too few people had decided to get vaccinated, Schallenberg said, leaving the country no other choice but to introduce mandatory vaccinations in February

    • DEUTSCHE PRAVDA – Austria announces nationwide lockdown and vaccine mandate to curb COVID cases

      Austria, a countrry of 8.99 million, is currently experiencing a severe fourth wave of the pandemic with the seven-day incidence over new cases per 100,000 inhabitants stands around 1,000 according to current data.

      Around two-thirds of Austria’s population is fully vaccinated which is among the lowest rates in western Europe.

      Demand has increased in recent days after an initial lockdown just for the unvaccinated went into effect earlier this week.

      Also earlier in the week, Vienna became the first in the EU to begin vaccinating children ages five to 11.

      Schallenberg placed the blame squarely on the unvaccinated Friday saying they were responsible for an “attack on the health system” and calling vaccines the “exit ticket” out of the pandemic.

    • Austria declares war on unvaccinated only days after a Soros visit

      Austrian Chancellor Schallenberg was the latest Austrian leader to warmly welcome a Soros family member. The Soros family has always enjoyed traveling to Austria and shaking hands with leading SPÖ and ÖVP politicians – especially these days, with those in charge of vaccine policy.

      George Soros’ son Alexander now runs the Open Society Foundation. He recently met both Austria’s Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) and the new Foreign Minister Michael Linhart (ÖVP).

      Special friends of the Soros family in recent years have included ex-Federal Chancellor Christian Kern (SPÖ), ex-Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP), ex-Mayor of the City of Vienna Michael Häupl (SPÖ) and, last but not least, the incumbent Mayor of Vienna Michael Ludwig (SPÖ). The latter even awarded George Soros the Great Decoration of Honor in Gold for Services to the State of Vienna in 2019.

      On November 8, Alexander Soros met with the Federal Chancellor and according to Soros Junior, on his Twitter profile, the two discussed the deteriorating situation in the Western Balkans and the future of the CEU– the Central European University.

      In 2017– after Hungary banned the Soros University CEU from the country due his constant destabilization intentions (he had already plunged several states into deep crises and often benefited economically) – ex-Chancellor Christian Kern (SPÖ) advocated for the relocation of CEU to Vienna.

      The contract was concluded together with ex-mayor Michael Häupl. At the expense of taxpayers, the Otto Wagner Hospital was also rebuilt for this purpose. Soros scholars now have access to a luxurious, expensive private university in Vienna.

      =========================================
      twitter @AlexanderSoros

      Great to see Austrian Chancellor a_schallenberg in Vienna and discuss the future of ceu, the importance of preserving the European perspective for the Western Balkans, and efforts to combat antisemitism. @bkagvat

      + PICS

      https://twitter.com/AlexanderSoros/status/1458440155065421835
      ===========================================
      twitter @sebastiankurz

      It was great to reconnect to my long time friend Alexander Soros.

      I was happy to learn about the progress ceu is making here in Vienna and assured him of our ongoing commitment to this important contribution to academic life in Austria.

      + PICS

      https://twitter.com/sebastiankurz/status/1458486309186646017

      =========================================

      Ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and ÖVP boss, for some time now has only been communicating in English on Twitter, regardless of whether Austrians understand him or not. It was “great” to “reconnect” with his “long-time friend” Alexander Soros. According to visuals of the meeting, the two met in a cozy hotel room. Austrians must be wondering why their “academic life” will be in English from now on, especially because their own language has already served them well for many centuries.

      While the Austrians do not know much about their new Foreign Minister Michael Linhart (ÖVP), he is also acquainted with Alexander Soros. It is “good” to meet Austria’s new foreign minister, explained Alex Soros on Instagram.

      BAD TIMING FOR A FRESH LOCKDOWN?
      Only days after the visit allegedly to discuss “border issues”, the Austrian government announced that it intended to enforce strict lockdowns for 3,1 million Austrians who are not fully vaccinated. Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg complained about the “shamefully low” jab rate. Covid-19 has indeed become the pandemic of coincidences.

      “According to the incremental plan, we actually have just days until we have to introduce the lockdown for unvaccinated people,” Schallenberg announced during a Thursday press conference. These restrictions mean “one cannot leave one’s home unless one is going to work, shopping (for essentials), stretching one’s legs – namely exactly what we all had to suffer through in 2020.”

      But Austria has a higher jab rate than the US. “With a 62,7 percent vaccination rate, Austria not only has a higher rate than the US, but most of the population has been vaccinated relatively recently, which should give those people better protection. Yet the country is experiencing its most prolific outbreak ever, as we are seeing across the globe, with a near-perfect inverse relationship between vaccination rates and Covid case rates,” Daniel Horowitz noted.

      But instead of questioning vaccination, the Austrian leaders are doubling down.

      From Monday, the government in Upper Austria is planning a lockdown for the unvaccinated which includes those people only partially vaccinated too. Upper Austria’s governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP) called the situation “dramatic”.

      Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) also demanded lockdowns for the unvaccinated in Upper Austria. The statements of Tourism Minister Elisabeth Köstinger (ÖVP) are also clear and speak for a lockdown of the unvaccinated: “The time of solidarity with those who do not want to be vaccinated for flimsy reasons has expired. We can and vaccinated people will not give up their freedoms because a minority consistently and without medical reason refuses protective measures and vaccinations. That would be unfair and also lack solidarity with everyone else.”

      EXPERIMENTAL JABS VIOLATE THE NUREMBERG CODE

      The chairman of the FPÖ, Herbert Kickl, has been increasingly critical of the Corona measures in recent weeks, in particular a lockdown for unvaccinated people. FPÖ member Michael Schnedlitz even called for an uprising against the planned measures in a video. Under the motto “Welcome to the dictatorship”, he opposed the restrictions and described the government as dictatorial. Vaccination remains a personal choice, he said.

      Critics of the government’s mandatory vaccination policy regularly state that it violates the Nuremberg Code. In August 1947, the American military tribunal listed ten items in its ruling on German Nazi doctors under the section entitled “Permitted Medical Attempts”, which later became known as the “Nuremberg Code”.

      While proponents of vaccination policy claim that the vaccines are approved preparations and therefore not an experiment, critics have pointed out that even the future German Chancellor Olaf Scholz or pro-government virologists like Alexander Kekulé have spoken of a global “experiment”.

      https://thebiblefiles.com/2021/11/16/austria-declares-war-on-unvaccinated-only-days-after-a-soros-visit/

    • BAVARIA leader expects “de facto nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people” amid 4th wave

      Markus Soder, the minister president of the state of Bavaria, painted a bleak picture of the fourth wave of the coronavirus, during a press conference in Munich, on Friday, where he described it as “overwhelming,” saying it called for a “de facto a nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people.”

      In recent weeks, Germany has been recording the highest numbers of new COVID cases since the start of the pandemic, with nearly 263,779 confirmed cases last week alone, according to Johns Hopkins University.

      SOT, Markus Soder, CSU leader and Bavarian Prime Minister (German): “The corona drama goes to the next round and has affected our region of Bavaria, but also all of Germany significantly. The situation is overwhelming and is getting worse. The fourth wave that is ravaging the country is worse and more insidious than before. The new delta variant has an increased contagious quality as we see. As a result, the incidence levels are rising and the [hospital] beds are full. Both things are the result thereof. Nonetheless, we can differentiate who is affected more by this, and these are the unvaccinated. The vaccine has an effect and protects. To be unvaccinated is really risky.”

      SOT, Markus Soder, CSU leader and Bavarian Prime Minister (German): “What is included inside our corona package? Firstly, we will evaluate the epidemiological situation. We have declared the state of catastrophe that is helping us, but we must evaluate the epidemiological situation based on the federal law, we will do that. Secondly, there will be contact restriction for unvaccinated persons. Especially in the private sphere, there are many contagions, thus contact restrictions for unvaccinated persons. [There will be a] de facto a nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people. At most five persons and two households will be allowed to meet being unvaccinated, excluding children under 12 years of age. Thirdly, the systems of 2G and 2G+ will be massively increased. 2G and 2G+ means in real terms that unvaccinated people will have no access, and the other way around should motivate to get vaccinated. 2G will remain valid where it was already put in place, but additionally there will be near-body services such as hairdressers, cosmetics, high schools, and similar activities outside regular school, areas such as music school, driving schools, or adult evening classes. Commerce will remain excluded from 2G, because people need to be able to shop, even if someone cannot or choses not to be vaccinated But in order to reduce the contacts the area will be reduced to 10 square meters for each customer, and at the gastronomy there will be a curfew starting at 22h to reduce the contacts in the evening significantly.”

      SOT, Markus Soder, CSU leader and Bavarian Prime Minister (German): “2G+ means recovered or vaccinated persons with mask, additionally with a quick test that has to be provided, and on top of that a the occupancy of maximum 25 percent of the allowed number of people for events. This applies to all cultural events, theatre, opera, etc. This applies to sport events ,i.e. football, Bundesliga. This also applies to all leisure activities and expos. We had to make a decision, whether to close the [cultural events]. And at the same time we were leaving the gastronomy open. We didn’t find this appropriate, so we decided to allow it in those areas, because we are talking of the rights of vaccinated persons, and about the possibility and freedom of the vaccinated to take part of public life, even with safety measure, especially where the vaccination coverage could be increased.”

      SOT, Markus Soder, CSU leader and Bavarian Prime Minister (German): “Is this enough? Not nationwide. We will have to expand where the contagions are the highest, or where there is a high risk of contact. That is why discos, clubs, the whole night gastronomy, and bars will be closed. This also responds to the experiences made with the Luca App which has shown clearly that there the contacts, or the contagions were the highest. Additionally, all the Annual Markets and Christmas Markets will be cancelled. We had hoped at first that the organisers would come to that same conclusion themselves. Why there? Because we believe that there are numerous contacts on site, there is no effective control. And especially when clubs and discos are closed, it is unclear where there will be gatherings and how these would be used. That is why there will be no Christmas Market.”

    • GERMANY : RKI head describes COVID situation as “like a tanker headed towards a harbour wall”

      Health Minister Spahn and Robert Koch Institute head Lothar Wieler held a press conference in Berlin on Friday on the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic.

      “It is like a tanker headed towards a harbour wall,” said Wieler as a blunt analogy for the situation. “The tanker is moving at first – if we immediately counter-steer with all our strength, then it will continue to move for a while and may still ram the harbour wall sideways, but hopefully it will not tear it down head-on. We can and must all take countermeasures now.”

      The officials recommended vaccinations as well as contact restrictions and corresponding governmental decisions on measures to contain the virus.

      “Concentrating on vaccination is not enough. I can see how in many places new resolutions and agreements on vaccination are being made again and again, and they are important, but they are not what breaks the momentum in the situation we are in now. Instead, these are contact-reducing measures taken by each individual in everyday life and corresponding measures taken by the state,” said Spahn.

      A scale of possible measures to take based on the number of local hospitalisations was outlined by the government on Thursday and approved by the Bundesrat on Friday. They range from 2G rules, where businesses only admit vaccinated and recovered individuals, to more extensive restrictions on public activities.

      SOT, Lothar Wieler, Robert Koch Institute President (German): “It is like a tanker headed towards a harbour wall. The tanker is moving at first – if we immediately counter-steer with all our strength, then it will continue to move for a while and may still ram the harbour wall sideways, but hopefully it will not tear it down head-on. We can and must all take countermeasures now. Vaccinations and the third vaccination are of course enormously important. Vaccinated people are much less likely to get symptomatic COVID-19 and they are much less likely to need hospitalisation.”

      SOT, Jens Spahn, German Health Minister (German): “In the last four weeks alone, the incidence has quintupled, within the last four weeks, the incidence of infection has quintupled with record incidences also in the last few days, and of course, as a result, we are seeing sadly high figures again in the intensive care units in the hospitals in terms of deaths.”

      SOT, Lothar Wieler, Robert Koch Institute President (German): “We have often said in advance that we assume that there will be further boosting in the future, but we do not know what the time periods are. If the first people were vaccinated last year in November, then of course we cannot say when their immunity will drop to such an extent that they will have to be boosted again.

      SOT, Jens Spahn, German Health Minister (German): “Concentrating on vaccination is not enough. I can see how in many places new resolutions and agreements on vaccination are being made again and again, and they are important, but they are not what breaks the momentum in the situation we are in now. Instead, these are contact-reducing measures taken by each individual in everyday life and corresponding measures taken by the state.”

      SOT, Lothar Wieler, Robert Koch Institute President (German): “Even if very few children become seriously ill, I still have the claim that I do not want children in our country to fall seriously ill, even if very few children have died so far, I do not want a single child to die from an infection that we could have prevented.”

  4. COVID: France to Send Police Reinforcements to Guadeloupe After Violent Protests

    PARIS (Reuters) – France will send over a further 200 police to its overseas territory of Guadeloupe, said government ministers on Friday, after violent demonstrations broke out on the island this week due to protests over COVID-19 protocols.

    French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Overseas Minister Sebastien Lecornu added in their joint statement on Friday that they “strongly condemned the violence that has taken place in the last few hours in Guadeloupe.”

    Social media users have posted pictures of cars set on fire, and roads being blocked off by protesters.

    https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-11-19/covid-france-to-send-police-reinforcements-to-guadeloupe-after-violent-protests

    =============================
    Routes bloquées pour s’opposer à la vaccination obligatoire des soignants

    … pour protester contre le pass sanitaire et l’obligation vaccinale des soignants contre la COVID-19.

    https://www.lapresse.ca/international/caraibes/2021-11-18/guadeloupe/routes-bloquees-pour-s-opposer-a-la-vaccination-obligatoire-des-soignants.php

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    https://twitter.com/Yoann_IV/status/1461601183819259906

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    • Fiery protest in Guadeloupe over COVID vaccine mandate

      Te general strike against a coronavirus vaccine mandate and health pass in Guadeloupe turned violent as buildings were destroyed by fire in the island’s largest city, Pointe-à-Pitre.

      The fire service said four of six buildings were completely destroyed by the early morning fire that was set by youths who attempted to loot businesses.

      Guadeloupe born, Regional Advisor of Île-de-France, Patrick Karam, backed up the fire service noting that residents of the city are living in fear.

      “Since 8 pm, Pointe-à-Pitre has been delivered to the thugs who set fires in the streets, break shops and terrorise the population. The fire was set by the thugs at 02:17 am in a building on Rue de Nozieres in Pointe-à-Pitre. It all started to burst into flames,” he said

      “My family, my neighbours, my friends left their houses to avoid burning. Firefighters arrived at 3 am! Nightmare! We are no longer in France! The Republic has abandoned us!”

      Several streets across Guadeloupe are currently blocked causing traffic backlogs across the French Overseas territory.

      At the Pointe-à-Pitre University Hospital, protesters prevented medical staff from accessing the facility that is already under immense pressure since unvaccinated staff were taken out of rotation.

      “They suspend staff without salary, therefore the staff are affected morally and physically. And the staff who are vaccinated will suffer by doing the work of two people. Because 50 per cent of staff are suspended,” union representative Sandro Sormain told Sharjah24 News.

      Guadeloupe is one of the islands in the region hardest hit by COVID-19.

      It has recorded 54,854 cases and 822 deaths since March 2020.

      As of 12 November 2021, a total of 262,280 vaccine doses have been administered in the territory.

      https://caribbean.loopnews.com/content/fiery-protest-guadeloupe-over-covid-vaccine-mandate-576853

    • French cops in Guadeloupe over jabs unrest

      The French government is sending support to its overseas territory of Guadeloupe due to ongoing protests against COVID-19 measures in the archipelago.

      In the next few days, 200 police officers and gendarmes are to be brought to Guadeloupe, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Twitter on Friday.

      The federation of trade unions LKP called for an indefinite general strike on Monday due to the compulsory vaccination of health workers and other measures.

      Since then, there have been protests in Guadeloupe and several streets have been blocked.

      According to media reports, some demonstrators also blocked access to a hospital.

      The broadcaster Franceinfo also reported that four houses were burnt down on Thursday night.

      As in mainland France, vaccination is compulsory in Guadeloupe for people working in the health sector and in contact with people at particular risk.

      The vaccination rates differ according to occupational group.

      According to the prefecture, however, among many professions affected by compulsory vaccination, 85 per cent have been immunised.

      In many places such as museums or restaurants, the health passport – providing proof of recovery from or vaccination against COVID-19 – or a negative test must be shown.

      A state of emergency and particularly strict coronavirus rules were imposed in Guadeloupe during the summer when numbers skyrocketed.

      At some point, there were more than 2000 new infections per 100,000 residents in one week.

      The state of emergency ended on Monday and with it also the nightly curfew.

      According to the latest figures, there were about 57 new infections per 100,000 people in one week.

      https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7518396/french-cops-in-guadeloupe-over-jabs-unrest/

    • VIOLENT COVID PROTESTS IN ROTTERDAM

      Police fire warning shots during Covid measures protest in Rotterdam

      The police in Rotterdam fired multiple warning shots during riots on the Coolsingel, a main road in the center of the city. A police riot squad was also deployed to restore order, police said on social media. It was not immediately clear if there were any injuries, though there were reports that a journalist was attacked on the street. Rijnmond said the journalist was beaten and his camera was destroyed.

      There was a demonstration against coronavirus restrictions in the area, with many voicing their concern about the 2G coronavirus access pass system. If the 2G system is implemented, it will mean that only people who have recovered from Covid-19 and those vaccinated against the disease will be allowed in to multiple locations, including bars and restaurants. Currently, the Netherlands uses the 3G system which also grants access passes to to people who tested negative for the coronavirus infection with 24 hours of the pass being used.

      “A demonstration on the Coolsingel resulted in rioting,” police said on social media. “Fires have been set in various places, fireworks are being set off, and the police have fired several (warning) shots. The police are present in large numbers and are trying to restore order.”

      During the clashes, police vehicles and other vehicles were set on fire. People at the scene also said water cannons were used to disperse the crowd. Other police cars and vans were also damaged.

      As a result of the violence, the central train station in Rotterdam was also closed. “Due to riots in Rotterdam, no trains can run to and from Rotterdam Central Station until further notice,” the NS said on Twitter. “Partly due to the situation in the city, no replacement service buses are being used.” The national railway said it would provide updates on its social media channels.

      Several Rotterdam metro stops were also shut down, including the ones at the Central Station and City Hall, and also Beurs, Leuvehaven en Eendrachtsplein. The digital signs along the A20 ring road and on local roads also called on motorists to avoid the center of Rotterdam, ANP reported.

      https://nltimes.nl/2021/11/19/police-fire-warning-shots-covid-measures-protest-rotterdam
      https://twitter.com/WesleyTweeting/status/1461795378823581702

      https://twitter.com/GuerrillaRepor1/status/1461794961448394756

    • Two people shot as rioting erupts at anti-lockdown protest in Rotterdam

      Two Wounded as Dutch Police Fire Shots at Protest Over New COVID-19 Restrictions

      AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Crowds of rioters in the port city of Rotterdam torched cars and threw rocks at police who responded with shots and water canon, as protests against COVID-19 measures turned violent on Friday night.

      “We fired warning shots and there were also direct shots fired because the situation was life-threatening,” police spokesperson Patricia Wessels told Reuters.

      “We know that at least two people were wounded, probably as a result of the warning shots, but we need to investigate the exact causes further,” she said.

      Some people on social media circulated images of someone they said had been shot by police, but the police said that while they had seen the footage they did not yet know how the man was wounded.

      Several hundred people had gathered to voice opposition to government plans to restrict access to indoor venues to people who have a “corona pass”

      The pass is also available to people who have not been vaccinated, but have proof of a negative test.

      Police issued an emergency ordinance in Rotterdam, shutting down public transportation and ordering people to go home. Water canons were deployed and police on horseback carried out charges to disperse the crowds, police said.

      The authorities also called on bystanders and people who recorded images of the riots to send the footage to police for further investigation.

      The Netherlands re-imposed some lockdown measures last weekend for an initial three weeks in an effort to slow a resurgence of coronavirus contagion, but daily infections have remained at their highest levels since the start of the pandemic.

      Video posted on social media showed burnt out police cars and rioters throwing fireworks and rocks at police.

      https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-11-19/dutch-police-fire-warning-shots-during-riots-over-covid-19-measures

  5. DEUTSCHE PRAVDA – A way out? Singapore is making the unvaccinated pay for their COVID treatments

    Singapore is experiencing its worst pandemic wave since the start of the pandemic, reporting around 2000-3000 cases a day.

    And that’s because it abandoned the “zero-covid” strategy, saying it’s not feasible in a long-term.

    To support its new “living with COVID” strategy, Singapore needs to get more people vaccinated and reduce the strain on the healthcare system. A

    Around 90 percent of Singaporeans are fully vaccinated – but that number has to get even higher to reduce the strain on the healthcare system.

    That’s why it’s making life potentially more expensive for those choose not to be vaccinated

  6. Scientists mystified, wary, as Africa avoids COVID disaster

    HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — At a busy market in a poor township outside Harare this week, Nyasha Ndou kept his mask in his pocket, as hundreds of other people, mostly unmasked, jostled to buy and sell fruit and vegetables displayed on wooden tables and plastic sheets. As in much of Zimbabwe, here the coronavirus is quickly being relegated to the past, as political rallies, concerts and home gatherings have returned.

    “COVID-19 is gone, when did you last hear of anyone who has died of COVID-19?” Ndou said. “The mask is to protect my pocket,” he said. “The police demand bribes so I lose money if I don’t move around with a mask.” Earlier this week, Zimbabwe recorded just 33 new COVID-19 cases and zero deaths, in line with a recent fall in the disease across the continent, where World Health Organization data show that infections have been dropping since July.

    When the coronavirus first emerged last year, health officials feared the pandemic would sweep across Africa, killing millions. Although it’s still unclear what COVID-19’s ultimate toll will be, that catastrophic scenario has yet to materialize in Zimbabwe or much of the continent.

    Scientists emphasize that obtaining accurate COVID-19 data, particularly in African countries with patchy surveillance, is extremely difficult, and warn that declining coronavirus trends could easily be reversed.

    But there is something “mysterious” going on in Africa that is puzzling scientists, said Wafaa El-Sadr, chair of global health at Columbia University. “Africa doesn’t have the vaccines and the resources to fight COVID-19 that they have in Europe and the U.S., but somehow they seem to be doing better,” she said.

    Fewer than 6% of people in Africa are vaccinated. For months, the WHO has described Africa as “one of the least affected regions in the world” in its weekly pandemic reports.

    Some researchers say the continent’s younger population — the average age is 20 versus about 43 in Western Europe — in addition to their lower rates of urbanization and tendency to spend time outdoors, may have spared it the more lethal effects of the virus so far. Several studies are probing whether there might be other explanations, including genetic reasons or past infection with parasitic diseases.

    On Friday, researchers working in Uganda said they found COVID-19 patients with high rates of exposure to malaria were less likely to suffer severe disease or death than people with little history of the disease.

    “We went into this project thinking we would see a higher rate of negative outcomes in people with a history of malaria infections because that’s what was seen in patients co-infected with malaria and Ebola,” said Jane Achan, a senior research advisor at the Malaria Consortium and a co-author of the study. “We were actually quite surprised to see the opposite — that malaria may have a protective effect.”

    Achan said this may suggest that past infection with malaria could “blunt” the tendency of people’s immune systems to go into overdrive when they are infected with COVID-19. The research was presented Friday at a meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

    Christian Happi, director of the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases at Redeemer’s University in Nigeria, said authorities are used to curbing outbreaks even without vaccines and credited the extensive networks of community health workers.

    “It’s not always about how much money you have or how sophisticated your hospitals are,” he said.

    Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, said African leaders haven’t gotten the credit they deserve for acting quickly, citing Mali’s decision to close its borders before COVID-19 even arrived.

    “I think there’s a different cultural approach in Africa, where these countries have approached COVID with a sense of humility because they’ve experienced things like Ebola, polio and malaria,” Sridhar said.

    In past months, the coronavirus has pummeled South Africa and is estimated to have killed more than 89,000 people there, by far the most deaths on the continent. But for now, African authorities, while acknowledging that there could be gaps, are not reporting huge numbers of unexpected fatalities that might be COVID-related. WHO data show that deaths in Africa make up just 3% of the global total. In comparison, deaths in the Americas and Europe account for 46% and 29%.

    In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, the government has recorded nearly 3,000 deaths so far among its 200 million population. The U.S. records that many deaths every two or three days.

    The low numbers have Nigerians like Opemipo Are, a 23-year-old in Abuja, feeling relieved. “They said there will be dead bodies on the streets and all that, but nothing like that happened,” she said.

    On Friday, Nigerian authorities began a campaign to significantly expand the West African nation’s coronavirus immunization. Officials are aiming to inoculate half the population before February, a target they think will help them achieve herd immunity.

    Oyewale Tomori, a Nigerian virologist who sits on several WHO advisory groups, suggested Africa might not even need as many vaccines as the West. It’s an idea that, while controversial, he says is being seriously discussed among African scientists — and is reminiscent of the proposal British officials made last March to let COVID-19 freely infect the population to build up immunity.

    That doesn’t mean, however, that vaccines aren’t needed in Africa.

    “We need to be vaccinating all out to prepare for the next wave,” said Salim Abdool Karim, an epidemiologist at South Africa’s University of KwaZulu-Natal, who previously advised the South African government on COVID-19. “Looking at what’s happening in Europe, the likelihood of more cases spilling over here is very high.”

    The impact of the coronavirus has also been relatively muted beyond Africa in poor countries like Afghanistan, where experts predicted outbreaks amid ongoing conflict would prove disastrous.

    Hashmat Arifi, a 23-year-old student in Kabul, said he hadn’t seen anyone wearing a mask in months, including at a recent wedding he attended alongside hundreds of guests. In his university classes, more than 20 students routinely sit unmasked in close quarters.

    “I haven’t seen any cases of corona lately,” Arifi said. So far, Afghanistan has recorded about 7,200 deaths among its 39 million people, although little testing was done amid the conflict and the actual numbers of cases and deaths are unknown.

    Back in Zimbabwe, doctors were grateful for the respite from COVID-19 — but feared it was only temporary.

    “People should remain very vigilant,” warned Dr. Johannes Marisa, president of the Medical and Dental Private Practitioners of Zimbabwe Association. He fears that another coronavirus wave would hit Zimbabwe next month. “Complacency is what is going to destroy us because we may be caught unaware.”

    https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-pandemics-united-nations-fcf28a83c9352a67e50aa2172eb01a2f

  7. Canada has thrown away at least one million COVID-19 vaccine doses: informal survey

    An informal survey shows that at least one million doses of Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine supply have gone to waste.

    The Canadian Press asked health ministries across the country to provide how many doses had to be disposed of because they had expired or for other reasons.

    Not all were able to reply by deadline. Some jurisdictions — including Yukon and Prince Edward Island — only provided the number of expired doses. Ontario refused to provide any information.

    The survey suggests at least 1,016,669 doses have been rejected since vaccines first arrived last December. That’s about 2.6 per cent of the entire supply delivered to the provinces and territories that provided their numbers.

    Unused doses vary wildly across Canada. Alberta reported disposing of 10 per cent of its doses; Nova Scotia 0.3 per cent.

    Some waste is to be expected, but Canada should be striving for the lowest amount possible, said Dr. Ross Upshur of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health and co-chair of the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 ethics working group.

    It’s difficult to know if Canada is meeting that goal because of poor data-sharing and a lack of transparency, said Upshur.

    “Some of that wastage might be from breaches of cold chain (some vaccines must be kept at low temperatures), but some could be not getting them into arms before the vaccine expires. It’s a complex, complex, complex issue,” Upshur said.

    Provinces gave various reasons for wasted doses. They included dropped vials or syringes, defective syringes or damaged vials, poor dose managementand expired doses. Many could not provide a full breakdown.

    Without complete data it’s hard to know whether Canada’s vaccine supply is being managed effectively, said Upshur. For example, only some provinces could provide the number of doses that expired.

    In those provinces and territories, about 0.45 per cent of their vaccines had to be tossed because of an expiry date– about 120,578 doses.

    “From a basic ethics principle, you want to be efficient — waste not want not,” said Upshur. “But also we know from decades and decades of vaccine program delivery that wastage is a reality.

    “A million doses sounds like a lot … but then you have to ask the questions of what were the factors when you break down (what) led to the wastage of the vaccines.”

    A spokesperson for Nunavut’s Department of Health explained that with smaller populations in some communities there are sometimes doses left over in vials that can’t be saved.

    Alberta’s Ministry of Health said wastage has become unavoidable because fewer people are coming in for shots.

    As provinces begin rolling out their booster programs to fend off new waves of COVID-19, vaccine eligibility could lead to more waste, said Dr. Leyla Asadi, an Edmonton-based infectious diseases doctor.

    “If doses are being discarded because of a lack of eligibility or strict criteria, then that’s inappropriate, because we know globally there is a gross shortage of vaccines. Any dose wasted is really quite sad,” Asadi said.

    Alberta continues to have hundreds of thousands of doses stockpiled, she said, yet pharmacists she’s spoken to say they’ve been told to discard doses rather than give boosters to non-eligible people. Asadi said provinces can prevent waste by offering booster shots to anyone 18 or older, similarly to what Manitoba has done.

    “It’s a bizarre situation we are in, because there are people in Alberta and other provinces who want that third dose.”

    Adam Houston, who works on medical policy for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said Canada’s vaccine waste is concerning when 47 per cent of the world’s eligible population — the majority in sub-Saharan Africa — has yet to receive a first dose.

    Canada has a stockpile of 6.5 million doses and has donated 6.4 million doses to COVAX, an organization working to provide COVID-19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries.

    “A dose sitting in a freezer somewhere not going into anybody’s arm and ticking towards expiry, that’s not something we want to see at all,” Houston said. “An expired dose is the worst scenario in a pandemic where many people don’t have access to a first dose.

    “That certainly suggests Canada could be doing more in this regard.”

    https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/canada-has-thrown-away-at-least-one-million-covid-19-vaccine-doses-informal-survey-1.5672817

  8. paul j watson – Jordan Peterson: Government Adviser Told Me COVID Rules Based on Opinion Polls, Not Science

    Elicit fear then use calls for lockdown as justification for lockdown.

    Jordan Peterson says he spoke to a senior government adviser who told him Canada’s COVID restriction policies are completely driven by opinion polls and not science.

    “In relation to the COVID restrictions, I talked to a senior adviser to one of the provincial governments a couple of weeks ago,” said Peterson.

    “He told me flat out that the COVID policy here is driven by nothing but opinion polls related to the popularity of the government,” he added.

    “No science, no endgame in sight, no real plan, and so what that means is that the part of the population that is most afraid of COVID,” are driving the policy.

    Peterson pointed to figures that prove people vastly exaggerate the risk of being hospitalized by COVID due to relentless government fearmongering campaigns.

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    https://twitter.com/howisthismylif/status/1461246958258032640
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    The author said he found the conversation “extremely disheartening” because he had hoped lockdown policies were “at least driven by something remotely resembling a scientifically informed plan.”

    Peterson said the government adviser was “irate at what had been happening, enough to consider resigning.”

    As we have previously highlighted, populations in virtually every major country believe COVID to be an exponentially greater threat than it actually is.

    A poll in France showed that the average person thinks the infection to fatality ratio is over 16 per cent, when it is actually 0.1-0.3 per cent.

    As we previously highlighted, a poll conducted in summer 2020 found that the average American believed 9 per cent of the population, around 30 million people, had died from coronavirus when the actual figure at the time was less than 155,000.

    People in the U.S. also believed that 20% of Americans had caught coronavirus, 20 times higher than the number of confirmed cases.

    In Sweden and the UK in particular, people also vastly overestimated the number of lives COVID-19 had claimed, with the average Brit thinking coronavirus had killed 100 times more people than the actual figure.

    Governments scare the living hell out of citizens to elicit a fear reaction, then point to poll numbers calling for more lockdown measures in order to justify more lockdown measures.

    It would be funny if it were not so sinisterly Machiavellian.

    https://summit.news/2021/11/18/jordan-peterson-government-adviser-told-me-covid-rules-based-on-opinion-polls-not-science/