CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

marsh

On TB every waking moment
(Switzerland)


62% Of Swiss Citizens Vote To Keep Covid Vaccine Passports

MONDAY, NOV 29, 2021 - 04:15 AM

In a world where millions protest daily against the creeping tyranny of a big government which is abusing the neverending covid tragicomedy to get so much bigger it would make even George Orwell cringe, one country actually had a opportunity to put an end to "vaccine passports" and totally blew it: despite months of protests, Swiss citizens overwhelmingly voted to keep the country’s system of Covid vaccination certificates in place (not surprisingly, the deal was sweetened by the promise of financial assistance for voters).

According to RT, Sunday just over some 62% of voters chose to maintain the country’s coronavirus measures which include a controversial system of Covid vaccination certificates, required since September to enter bars, restaurants, theaters and other public spaces.

Majorities in 24 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons backed the law, with only the tiny cantons of Schwyz and Appenzell Innerrhoden rejecting the measures.



And since covid has emerged as every politician's best friend, all Swiss political parties with the exception of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party supported the law, which was brought to a vote after anti-lockdown groups gathered nearly 200,000 signatures to challenge it earlier this year. Under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, any initiative can be brought to a vote with 100,000 signatures.

Curiously, while voters in June backed the introduction of the measures by 60%, recent months have seen protests break out in Swiss cities over the introduction of vaccine certificates. Police in October used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds of people who broke through barriers outside the parliament building in Bern. And yet, almost six months later, the support for the controversial measures appears to be even higher than when they were first introduced - one almost wonder if the entire referendum was by mail...
Alas, we will never know the answer.

“The democratic process has been respected but the law is still unconstitutional,” Michelle Cailler of the ‘Friends of the Constitution’ group said after the vote on Sunday. Cailler’s group was one of several who campaigned against the law.

Céline Amaudruz of the Swiss People’s Party, which is currently topping opinion polls in Switzerland, called on the government to take “coherent and measured” action, rather than treating the result as a “blank cheque” to impose whatever coronavirus-related policies it wishes.

The law voted on provides for more than just vaccine passports. It also expands financial support for citizens and businesses affected by the pandemic, a provision that may have won over some reluctant voters.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKT7fGL_Uh0
17:39 min

Omicron: New COVID Variant (Coronavirus Update 138)
Nov 29, 2021


MedCram - Medical Lectures Explained CLEARLY


Roger Seheult, MD of MedCram discusses the new omicron COVID variant. View all Dr. Seheult's videos at: https://www.medcram.com (This video is MedCram COVID 19 update 138 and was recorded on November 29, 2021)

Roger Seheult, MD is the co-founder and lead professor at https://www.medcram.com He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine and an Associate Professor at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine.

LINKS / REFERENCES: Coronavirus Cases (Worldometer) | https://www.worldometers.info/coronav... All coronavirus updates are at MedCram.com (including more discussion on new COVID variants, Omicron Africa, and more).
 

Pinecone

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Once you were a believer. You got the vaxx. You got the 27 boosters. You vaxxed your kids and pets won't see your parents because they refused. Then one day, you vote incorrectly. You go to the gas station where you are allowed extra gas rations because of your social score, and flash your passport. Opps, you find a big red X on your phone. Realization dawns on you. They own you. Slow learner.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

In brushback to Biden, federal judge blocks vaccine mandate in Medicare, Medicaid facilities

In issuing preliminary injunction, judge concludes government 'significantly understates the burden that its mandate would impose on the ability of healthcare facilities to provide proper care.'

By Joe Mueller
Updated: November 29, 2021 - 6:36pm

U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Monday ordered a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccination mandates for health care workers in facilities in 10 states that accept Medicare and Medicaid funding.

The court concluded that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) did not properly consider the impact on health care the mandates would impose on the facilities.

“Because it is evident CMS significantly understates the burden that its mandate would impose on the ability of healthcare facilities to provide proper care, and thus, save lives, the public has an interest in maintaining the ‘status quo’ while the merits of the case are determined,” Schelp wrote in a 32-page memorandum and order in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri.

Missouri Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt led a 10-state coalition filing the lawsuit on Nov. 5 to stop the CMS vaccine mandate. On the courthouse steps in St. Louis, Schmitt, a candidate for the seat of retiring Republican U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, stated many will benefit from the ruling.

“This is a significant ruling and the first of its kind in the country,” Schmitt told reporters. “What the court said today was CMS and the Biden administration has no statutory authority to do this, none whatsoever.”

Starting in late October, Schmitt led coalitions of states in filing three lawsuits against federal vaccine mandates – for federal contractors and federally contracted employees, for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s mandate on private employers with 100 or more employees, and CMS.

The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans blocked the private-sector OSHA mandate earlier this month.

Schmitt said Monday's ruling will help all Missourians and all served in CMS facilities.

“Our office may have led the charge on this, but it is the health care workers in Missouri and across the country, it’s the rural hospitals here and elsewhere facing certain collapse due to this mandate, and it’s the patients of those hospitals who are the real winners today,” Schmitt said.

Judge Schelp stated five times in the ruling that it's likely Schmitt and the coalition will ultimately succeed if the ruling is appealed. The ruling only applies to the 10 states in the lawsuit – Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

“I would expect this to be appealed and I would expect this to go all of the way to the Supreme Court,” Schmitt said. “But the fact is we won.”

The ruling stated CMS lacked clear authorization from Congress to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine. Currently, CMS doesn’t require any vaccinations for health care workers.

“CMS failed to adequately explain its contradiction to its long-standing practice of encouraging rather than forcing – by governmental mandate – vaccination,” Schelp wrote. “For years, CMS has promulgated regulations setting the conditions for Medicare and Medicaid participation; never has it required any vaccine for covered facilities’ employees – despite concerns over other illnesses and their corresponding low vaccination rates.”

Schelp also stated CMS violated its own regulations by not accepting comments on policies.

“Moreover, the failure to take and respond to comments feeds into the very vaccine hesitancy CMS acknowledges is so daunting,” Schelp wrote.

Schelp highlighted the vaccine mandate’s negative impact on staffing at rural hospitals.

“As an example, for a general hospital located in North Platte, Nebraska, implementation of the mandate would result in the loss of the only remaining anesthesiologist,” Schelp wrote.

“Understandably, without an anesthesiologist, there could be no surgeries – at all. Thus, such a loss irreparably causes a cascading effect on the entire facility and a wide range of patients.

Other examples show the mandate’s far-reaching implications not just on the administration of health care itself, but the functioning of the facilities in general.”

Schmitt said the virus will always be present and the federal government needs to understand citizens and their rights.

“The truth is COVID is with us and there is always going to be a variant,” Schmitt said. “But I think the people have had enough of the government locking people down. They have had enough of government instituting mask mandates and vaccine mandates. Every time there’s an overreach, we’re going to push back.”

Bureaucrats who have never driven the back roads of Missouri or visited its rural hospitals have no idea of the effects of the vaccine mandate, Schmitt said.

“Here in flyover country, we’ve had enough and we’re going to fight back every single time they try to take our freedoms away,” Schmitt said.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Trump-Appointed Judge Blocks Biden’s Vaccine Mandate For Healthcare Workers in 10 States

By Cristina Laila
Published November 29, 2021 at 4:33pm
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A Trump-appointed judge on Monday blocked Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in 10 states.

US District Judge Matthew Schelp in the Eastern District of Missouri blocked the federal government from mandating Covid jabs for healthcare workers in Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota and New Hampshire.

Republican Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt led the way and sued the Biden Regime alongside 9 other states.

Judge Schelp said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has no right to hand down rules because they never got approval from Congress.

“Truly, the impact of this mandate reaches far beyond COVID,” Schelp wrote. “CMS seeks to overtake an area of traditional state authority by imposing an unprecedented demand to federally dictate the private medical decisions of millions of Americans. Such action challenges traditional notions of federalism.”

Schelp also said argued CMS did not produce evidence that shows vaccination status has “a direct impact on spreading Covid.”

“No one questions that protecting patients and health care workers from contracting COVID is a laudable objective,” he wrote. “But the court cannot, in good faith, allow CMS to enact an unprecedented mandate that lacks a ‘rational connection between the facts found and the choice made.'”

Attorney General Schmitt celebrated after Judge Schelp issued a preliminary injunction in response to his lawsuit.

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marsh

On TB every waking moment

NEW: US Supreme Court Refuses to Block Vaccine Mandate For Massachusetts Hospital Workers

By Cristina Laila
Published November 29, 2021 at 7:20pm
supreme-court.jpg


The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant relief to hospital workers at Mass General Brigham, a Boston-based healthcare facility.

Far-left Justice Breyer, who oversees complaints for the First Circuit, rejected the request for an emergency injunction with no explanation.

NBC News reported:
The Supreme Court on Monday brushed aside an appeal from a group of Massachusetts health care workers who said their hospital’s Covid vaccine requirement violated their religious freedom or would present a risk to their health.

The application for an emergency stay was filed by employees of Mass General Brigham who refused to be vaccinated and were fired or placed on unpaid leave. The workers sought religious or medical exemptions but were turned down. They later sued, arguing the hospital had violated federal laws prohibiting discrimination.

The hospital announced in June that it would require employees to be vaccinated, and it set up committees to review individual requests for exemptions based on medical or religious objections. About half of those objecting were given exemptions, according to court documents.

The fact that the hospital “is already accommodating hundreds of other employees conclusively refutes respondent’s mere assertions that it would cause an undue hardship to accommodate ‘further exemptions’ or ‘additional unvaccinated employees,'” the workers said in their emergency appeal to the Supreme Court.
Recall, Justice Breyer declined to hear an emergency appeal attempting to stop a Covid vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in Maine last month.

[COMMENT: SCOTUS - doing its best to destroy trust and confidence in the integrity of the institution and its willingness and ability to serve as the firewall between the other two branches and the fundamental liberties of the people.]
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Republican Massachusetts Governor Considering Implementing Vaccine Passports

By Cassandra Fairbanks
Published November 29, 2021 at 8:20pm
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Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is considering mandating vaccine passports for residents of the state.


Speaking to GBH News Boston Public Radio on Monday, Governor Baker said that he wants to work with other states and give people QR codes to prove they are vaccinated.

“It’s a universal standard and we’ve been working with a bunch of other states, there’s probably 15 or 20 of them, to try to create a single QR code that can be used for all sorts of things where people may choose to require a vaccine,” Baker said.

The governor added that he already has a code for himself. “It’s my proof that I’ve been vaccinated,” he said.

Baker also said that booster shots are so in “demand” that people have to schedule them a week or two in advance.

“Now, they may not be in the place somebody wants to go to get one. And it may be a week or 10 days out or two weeks out before they can get one. But given the fact that we have far more demand now that we had a couple of weeks ago, we’re going to see if we can increase our capacity to do more,” Baker told the hosts.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

CDC Recommends All US Adults Get Covid Vaccine Booster as Media Hypes Up Omicron Variant

By Cristina Laila
Published November 29, 2021 at 8:48pm
22A60C74-7289-4C8C-8445-2E8FE59E0E3A.jpeg

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky

The CDC on Monday recommended every US adult over 18 get the Covid booster shot as the media hypes up the new ‘Omicron’ variant.

How convenient.

Joe Biden on Monday delivered remarks on the new Covid ‘Omicron’ variant.

Joe Biden used the media-induced panic over the new variant to push vaccines and booster shots as Big Pharma conveniently has booster shots waiting in the wings.

Joe Biden failed to mention the Omicron-infected individuals identified in Africa and Australia are fully vaccinated.

Shortly after Biden’s speech, the CDC recommended all US adults get boosted.

“Today, CDC is strengthening its recommendation on booster doses for individuals who are 18 years and older,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.

“The recent emergence of the Omicron variant further emphasizes the importance of vaccination, boosters, and prevention efforts needed to protect against COVID-19,” she said.

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marsh

On TB every waking moment

US Navy Shipyard Turns the Tide on Biden, Says “No” To Vaccine Mandate

submarine-95610-scaled.jpg

POSTED BY: FED UP TEXAS CHICK 11/28/2021

by Fed Up Texas Chick

On, Monday November 22, Joe Biden’s initial mandate was issued for all federal employees to get the COVID vaccine. On November 16, the US Navy backed down.

The Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia repairs and modernizes the US Navy’s warships. On their home page, they talk about their amazing team of people who “exemplify integrity, discipline, accountability, responsibility, and initiative in order to achieve toughness in all aspects of our duties.” They also talk about maintaining and strengthening the bonds of trust and confidence within that team.

In October, Norfolk Naval Shipyard Commander Captain Dianna Wolfson told her team that all shipyard employees needed to be fully COVID-vaccinated. The order was in line with President Biden’s Executive Order 14043 requiring all federal workers to “protect themselves and the public with whom they interact” against COVID-19.

Wolfson urged shipyard workers to stay united and focus on their mission. This was a subtle message to get vaccinated. Wolfson reasoned that US adversaries are only growing stronger and working together to undermine American naval dominance, seeming to imply that the unvaccinated would further weaken the Navy. However, Wolfson also said she respected each individual’s choice to leave the shipyard instead of getting the jab.

Wolfson’s team comprises 25,000 employees from Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), the largest industrial employer in Virginia. NNS is a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries. The company holds a federal contract to be the sole designer, builder, and refueler of US Navy aircraft carriers. NNS also holds one of two contracts that do the same for US Navy submarines.

The company has a 550-acre facility in Newport News and has built more than 800 naval and commercial ships. The company was originally founded in 1886 as the Chesapeake Dry Dock and Construction Company. The Norfolk Naval Shipyard is one of America’s oldest institutions.

It was established as Gosport Shipyard in 1767 and was destroyed during the American Revolutionary War. It was rebuilt, served as the first drydock in the 1830s, and became a Confederate shipyard during the Civil War. After it was destroyed again in 1862 during the war, it was rebuilt, given its current name, and has continued operations to the present day.

In October, shortly after Wolfson’s mandate edict, shipyard employees protested the government’s order to be vaccinated or else. Many had already left their jobs, citing religious or health exemptions. Many more remained on the job but were making preparations to quit, willing to lose their jobs over a mandate they felt was unconstitutional.

With the deadline just days away, the Navy backed down, telling Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) on November 16 that they will not have to comply with the mandate. The Navy is no longer requiring shipyard employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus as a “condition of continued employment.”

What changed?
Why did the Navy back down? First, the deadline kept changing. Biden’s executive order called for a November 22 deadline, but shipyard employees were given until December 8. Then the deadline was once again extended to January 4.

Second, it appears that Huntington Ingalls executives took a deep dive into their contract with the Navy. The company has very clearly clarified with the Navy that their contracts do not include a requirement to implement such a vaccine mandate. The Navy officially confirmed this, and therefore employees “don’t have to comply with a vaccine mandate at this time.” The company appeared to have reviewed all contracts to determine modifications and re-pricing needed to reflect the new requirement. A subset of the employees are on a different Technical Solutions contract and the mandate still holds for those employees.

Third, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) shifted gears. In early November, OSHA issued an emergency rule requiring all employers, federal or otherwise, with more than 100 employees to issue a vaccine mandate. A number of states and private sector entities sued. The day after OSHA’s issuance, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the mandate from nationwide implementation. A week later, on November 12, the Fifth Circuit conducted an additional judicial review and ordered the mandate to remain blocked.

Additionally, the Court directed OSHA to take “no steps to implement or enforce the Mandate until further Court Order.” Biden’s Department of Labor acknowledged the ruling. As a result, OSHA suspended their action regarding the “emergency temporary standard” issuance.

Where does this leave the shipyard employees?
Multiple lawsuits are pending, and the federal Court of Appeals could change its decision.

Representatives from Huntington Ingalls Industries communicated to their workforce that the federal mandate is a fluid situation. In a letter to employees, the company thanked employees for their patience and reiterated that it does not want to lose any employees – to the virus or to the mandate. Approximately 20 percent of the shipyard’s contractor workforce would be affected by a vaccine mandate.

Can the US Navy really afford to lose employees at this time, particularly in light of the Navy shipyard’s other troubles? In mid-November, a former steel foundry employee pled guilty to fraud, admitting that she faked steel strength test results. The tests were in place to ensure the steel would not fail during wartime scenarios. However, the metallurgist who falsified records thought the strength tests were “stupid and unrealistic”, so she falsified test records – for decades. Much of that steel ended up at the Navy Shipyard in Newport News for building submarines.

HHI and NNS are communicating to employees who have already given their retirement or resignation notices due to the mandate. They have let these employees know that they are welcome to reverse their decision. The company will also be reaching out to employees who have already left the company, not wanting to be vaccinated due to religious or medical exemptions, inviting them to come back to work.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Neil Oliver's Criticism of Covid Protocols Is Absolute Poetry

Neil Oliver’s Criticism of Covid Protocols Is Absolute Poetry
By J.D. Rucker • Nov. 29, 2021

We do our best to illuminate the truth about, well, everything that is of importance to a free society. Arguably the biggest farce we’re facing today has to do with Pandemic Panic Theater, and while we have plenty of stories we get to post on a daily basis on the topic, sometimes a particular story stands out. It’s for this reason that we’re posting the link to the story on RedState as well as the video in question. Yes, it’s that fantastic.

View: https://youtu.be/Ki-LF4Gf9Vw
9:30 min

From the video:
Here we go again. With Christmas on the horizon, a holiday that should be a time for families to put the past behind them and look towards the future, a new variant of the virus has seemingly been dispatched from poor old Africa as the gift no one asked for and no one wants. After months of messages of fear from our governments and their favored scientists here comes more of the same. We can only presume that too many of us were seen to be awakening from the toxic trance into which we had been put by propaganda from the nudge unit. Fear has been the key to nearly two years of unprecedented power for politicians and their scientists. Fear has also blinded people to the reality of manipulation and mass hypnosis used to make them and to keep them compliant. But with that fear on the wane, losing its power to do harm much like the virus was losing its power, it was plainly timed to cast another spell and here it is in the form of yet another variant. How timely.

Read more at RedState.
 
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marsh

On TB every waking moment

Here’s Why OSHA Has No Legal Power To Enforce A Vaccine Mandate
Congress did not grant OSHA the power to enforce vaccines in American workplaces.

Paul J. Larkin, Jr.

By Paul J. Larkin, Jr.
NOVEMBER 29, 2021

Where do matters stand now with President Joe Biden’s vaccination mandate? Its fate is uncertain.

On November 12, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stayed the effect of the OSHA mandate pending a final ruling on its validity. But all of the appeals have been consolidated in a different appellate court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. OSHA later announced that it has “suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the ETS pending future developments in the litigation.”

That announcement is less helpful to employers than it might seem. OSHA could ask the Sixth Circuit to vacate the stay. Plus, if the mandate is upheld, OSHA could immediately begin enforcement proceedings against anyone not then in compliance. What OSHA will do is presently unknown.

Yet one thing is perfectly clear: OSHA lacks the legal authority to force a COVID-19 vaccine on Americans who do not want it. Small wonder that more than half the states are suing to stop the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate.

Start by understanding the playing field in which this issue arises.

First, federal agencies have only the authority that Congress has granted them by statute.

Agencies cannot vest themselves with additional power by issuing rules.

Second, agencies cannot undertake unauthorized action even in an emergency. As the Supreme Court explained last summer, “our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends,” which includes “combatting the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant.”

Third, vaccinations are materially different from personal protective equipment (PPE), like goggles, gloves, or masks. PPE offers a protective external shield to fend off harmful substances, preventing them from piercing the human skin, a shell that can be shed at the end of the workday. By contrast, vaccinations are not something we wear, they are something that is injected into our bodies to spur the immune system to generate antibody responses to pathogens. T-cells cannot be tossed into the trash at 5 p.m.

Fourth, Congress limits each agency’s authority in order to focus its responsibilities. There is no Department of Making Life Better Without Leaving Anyone Behind. Just as only physicians can diagnose disease, prescribe medication, or perform surgery, health-care agencies can only make medical decisions that Congress wants made and which are constitutionally authorized.

Fifth, Congress has trusted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to regulate vaccines, yet neither agency may order the public to be vaccinated. If so, why would Congress have granted OSHA that power? If your answer is, “I can’t imagine why,” you’re on the right track.

Now, turn to the text of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (or OSH Act). It directs the labor secretary to protect employees against “toxic materials or harmful physical agents.” The act does not define those terms, so traditional principles of statutory interpretation require a reader to consult the dictionary for their meaning.

“Toxic” generally refers to “poisons,” like arsenic, while “harmful physical agents” generally does not include bacteria, which are living pathogens, or viruses, which might or might not be “living” organisms, but certainly can reproduce, unlike arsenic. In addition, pathogens like SARS-CoV-2 are “communicable” — they spread from person to person — while toxins like arsenic do not.

Moreover, a hazardous waste is a “dangerous physical agent” because it is (for example) flammable or explosive, not because it replicates inside a human. Viruses do, but they neither burn nor explode.

Moreover, the term “toxic” appears elsewhere in the OSH Act. The government must prepare a report “listing all toxic substances in industrial usage.” Viruses like SARS-CoV-2, however, are hardly “in industrial usage.” Accordingly, the most natural reading of the OSH Act does not include SARS-CoV-2 as “toxic” or a harmful physical “agent.”

Now consider how the OSH Act fits into the framework of the federal laws directly addressing viruses. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) directs the FDA to decide whether a vaccine is safe and effective for its intended use, while the Public Health Service Act empowers the CDC director to quarantine infected parties to prevent an epidemic from erupting or cabin its spread.

Neither law empowers the government to require anyone to be vaccinated or entrusts either agency with such decision-making power. That fact is important. If Congress wanted a federal agency to have that power, Congress would surely have granted it to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or Centers for Disease Control, not OSHA, which Congress designed to address workplace hazards, not epidemics, and empowered to require employees to wear safety equipment, not receive vaccines.

Congress has always treated that issue as a responsibility for medical personnel. The Biologics Control Act of 1902 designated the surgeons general of the Army, Navy, and Marine Service as a board to issue rules governing the issuance and revocation of licenses by the Treasury secretary. Congress transferred that decision-making authority from one group of medical personnel to another in the FDCA. Congress did not grant OSHA the same responsibility in the OSH Act.
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)

Moderna boss says vaccines likely no match for Omicron
November 30, 2021

Existing COVID-19 jabs will struggle against the Omicron variant and it will take months to develop a new shot that works, the head of US vaccine manufacturer Moderna has told the Financial Times.

Stephane Bancel told the newspaper in an interview published Tuesday that data would be available on the effectiveness of current vaccines in the next two weeks but scientists were not optimistic.

"All the scientists I've talked to?... are like 'this is not going to be good'," he told the newspaper.

Bancel's warning came as G7 health ministers held emergency talks on the new variant, which is spreading around the world and prompting nations to close their borders once again or impose fresh travel restrictions.

The World Health Organization has called the risk from Omicron "very high".

Bancel said researchers were concerned because 32 of 50 mutations found in the Omicron variant were on the spike protein, a part of the virus that vaccines use to bolster the immune system against COVID.

He told the FT there would be a "material drop" in the effectiveness of current jabs against Omicron.

Moderna has already said it is working on an Omicron-specific vaccine, as is US drugmaker Pfizer.

Chief executive Bancel said his company could deliver between two billion and three billion doses in 2022 but it would be dangerous to shift all production to an Omicron-specific shot with other strains of the virus still in circulation.

His more alarming tone contrasts with efforts by politicians to project calm regarding Omicron.

US President Joe Biden said Monday the strain was "not a cause for panic".
 

Tristan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
(Switzerland)


62% Of Swiss Citizens Vote To Keep Covid Vaccine Passports

MONDAY, NOV 29, 2021 - 04:15 AM

In a world where millions protest daily against the creeping tyranny of a big government which is abusing the neverending covid tragicomedy to get so much bigger it would make even George Orwell cringe, one country actually had a opportunity to put an end to "vaccine passports" and totally blew it: despite months of protests, Swiss citizens overwhelmingly voted to keep the country’s system of Covid vaccination certificates in place (not surprisingly, the deal was sweetened by the promise of financial assistance for voters).

According to RT, Sunday just over some 62% of voters chose to maintain the country’s coronavirus measures which include a controversial system of Covid vaccination certificates, required since September to enter bars, restaurants, theaters and other public spaces.

Majorities in 24 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons backed the law, with only the tiny cantons of Schwyz and Appenzell Innerrhoden rejecting the measures.



And since covid has emerged as every politician's best friend, all Swiss political parties with the exception of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party supported the law, which was brought to a vote after anti-lockdown groups gathered nearly 200,000 signatures to challenge it earlier this year. Under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, any initiative can be brought to a vote with 100,000 signatures.

Curiously, while voters in June backed the introduction of the measures by 60%, recent months have seen protests break out in Swiss cities over the introduction of vaccine certificates. Police in October used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds of people who broke through barriers outside the parliament building in Bern. And yet, almost six months later, the support for the controversial measures appears to be even higher than when they were first introduced - one almost wonder if the entire referendum was by mail...
Alas, we will never know the answer.

“The democratic process has been respected but the law is still unconstitutional,” Michelle Cailler of the ‘Friends of the Constitution’ group said after the vote on Sunday. Cailler’s group was one of several who campaigned against the law.

Céline Amaudruz of the Swiss People’s Party, which is currently topping opinion polls in Switzerland, called on the government to take “coherent and measured” action, rather than treating the result as a “blank cheque” to impose whatever coronavirus-related policies it wishes.

The law voted on provides for more than just vaccine passports. It also expands financial support for citizens and businesses affected by the pandemic, a provision that may have won over some reluctant voters.


SMDH...


Wait, do they use Dominion software as well?
 

Walrus

Veteran Member
Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfections as Compared with Primary Infections
New England Journal of Medicine -

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2108120

Qatar had a first wave of infections with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from March through June 2020, after which approximately 40% of the population had detectable antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. The country subsequently had two back-to-back waves from January through May 2021, triggered by the introduction of the B.1.1.7 (or alpha) and B.1.351 (or beta) variants.1 This created an epidemiologic opportunity to assess reinfections.

Using national, federated databases that have captured all SARS-CoV-2–related data since the onset of the pandemic (Section S1 in the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org), we investigated the risk of severe disease (leading to acute care hospitalization), critical disease (leading to hospitalization in an intensive care unit [ICU]), and fatal disease caused by reinfections as compared with primary infections in the national cohort of 353,326 persons with polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR)–confirmed infection between February 28, 2020, and April 28, 2021, after exclusion of 87,547 persons with a vaccination record. Primary infection was defined as the first PCR-positive swab. Reinfection was defined as the first PCR-positive swab obtained at least 90 days after the primary infection. Persons with reinfection were matched to those with primary infection in a 1:5 ratio according to sex, 5-year age group, nationality, and calendar week of the PCR test date (Fig. S1 and Table S1 in the Supplementary Appendix). Classification of severe, critical, and fatal Covid-19 followed World Health Organization guidelines, and assessments were made by trained medical personnel through individual chart reviews.

(See article for accompanying table)

Of 1304 identified reinfections, 413 (31.7%) were caused by the B.1.351 variant, 57 (4.4%) by the B.1.1.7 variant, 213 (16.3%) by “wild-type” virus, and 621 (47.6%) were of unknown status (Section S1 in the Supplementary Appendix). For reinfected persons, the median time between first infection and reinfection was 277 days (interquartile range, 179 to 315). The odds of severe disease at reinfection were 0.12 times (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.03 to 0.31) that at primary infection (Table 1). There were no cases of critical disease at reinfection and 28 cases at primary infection (Table S3), for an odds ratio of 0.00 (95% CI, 0.00 to 0.64). There were no cases of death from Covid-19 at reinfection and 7 cases at primary infection, resulting in an odds ratio of 0.00 (95% CI, 0.00 to 2.57). The odds of the composite outcome of severe, critical, or fatal disease at reinfection were 0.10 times (95% CI, 0.03 to 0.25) that at primary infection. Sensitivity analyses were consistent with these results (Table S2).

Reinfections had 90% lower odds of resulting in hospitalization or death than primary infections. Four reinfections were severe enough to lead to acute care hospitalization. None led to hospitalization in an ICU, and none ended in death. Reinfections were rare and were generally mild, perhaps because of the primed immune system after primary infection.

In earlier studies, we assessed the efficacy of previous natural infection as protection against reinfection with SARS-CoV-22,3 as being 85% or greater. Accordingly, for a person who has already had a primary infection, the risk of having a severe reinfection is only approximately 1% of the risk of a previously uninfected person having a severe primary infection. It needs to be determined whether such protection against severe disease at reinfection lasts for a longer period, analogous to the immunity that develops against other seasonal “common-cold” coronaviruses,4 which elicit short-term immunity against mild reinfection but longer-term immunity against more severe illness with reinfection. If this were the case with SARS-CoV-2, the virus (or at least the variants studied to date) could adopt a more benign pattern of infection when it becomes endemic.4

Laith J. Abu-Raddad, Ph.D.
Hiam Chemaitelly, M.Sc.
Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar, Doha, Qatar
lja2002@qatar-med.cornell.edu

Roberto Bertollini, M.D., M.P.H.
Ministry of Public Health, Doha, Qatar

for the National Study Group for COVID-19 Epidemiology



Supported by the Biomedical Research Program and the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Biomathematics Research Core at Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar; the Ministry of Public Health; Hamad Medical Corporation; and Sidra Medicine. The Qatar Genome Program supported the viral genome sequencing.
Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org.
 

155 arty

Veteran Member

bev

Has No Life - Lives on TB

Neil Oliver's Criticism of Covid Protocols Is Absolute Poetry's Criticism of Covid Protocols Is Absolute Poetry

Neil Oliver’s Criticism of Covid Protocols Is Absolute Poetry
By J.D. Rucker • Nov. 29, 2021

We do our best to illuminate the truth about, well, everything that is of importance to a free society. Arguably the biggest farce we’re facing today has to do with Pandemic Panic Theater, and while we have plenty of stories we get to post on a daily basis on the topic, sometimes a particular story stands out. It’s for this reason that we’re posting the link to the story on RedState as well as the video in question. Yes, it’s that fantastic.

View: https://youtu.be/Ki-LF4Gf9Vw
9:30 min

From the video:

Neil Oliver is always good, but this is outstanding! Thanks for posting it with the transcript.
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)


‘Don’t freak out’ about Omicron, says BioNTech CEO
In an interview with the WSJ, BioNTech chief Ugur Sahin said that while Omicron may infect more vaccinated people, they will likely remain protected against severe illness.
Published On 30 Nov 2021

The CEO of COVID-19 vaccine maker BioNTech has a message for those who are worried about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus: keep your cool.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal (paywall) on Tuesday, Ugur Sahin, who co-founded BioNTech and invented one of the first COVID-19 vaccines, said that while the Omicron variant could lead to more vaccinated people becoming infected, they will likely remain projected against severe illness.

“Our message is: Don’t freak out, the plan remains the same: Speed up the administration of a third booster shot,” he told the WSJ.

Sahin said that the BioNTech mRNA jab, which he and his team of researchers invented in January 2020, and then developed together with United States drugs giant Pfizer, has already proven that it can protect against severe disease from other variants of the virus that vaccinated people have contracted.

He noted that while Omicron will likely be able to evade antibodies generated by vaccines better than Delta, due to the new variant’s higher number of mutations, it is unlikely that Omicron will be able to circumnavigate the body’s T-cell immune response to an infection.

“Our belief [that the vaccines work against Omicron] is rooted in science: If a virus achieves immune escape, it achieves it against antibodies, but there is the second level of immune response that protects from severe disease—the T-cells,” he told the WSJ.

The interview with BioNTech’s chief followed on the heels of comments made by Moderna’s CEO Stephane Bancel on Tuesday. In an interview with the Financial Times (paywall), Bancel warned that current COVID-19 jabs will be far less effective against Omicron.

“There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level … we had with Delta,” he said.

“I think it’s going to be a material drop. I just don’t know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I’ve talked to … are like ‘this is not going to be good’.”

Bancel’s comments rattled European and Asian markets, sending stocks and oil prices lower.

In his interview with the WSJ, Sahin said that bringing an adjusted, Omicron-targeting jab to market would take about 100 days, but that it might not be necessary.

“We have a plan to administer a third shot to people, and we must stick to this plan and speed it up,” he told the WSJ.

“Whether or not we will need extra protection by an adapted vaccine, this remains to be seen, later.”
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
Re: the above article.

If no one so far has had serious illness from this variant - vaxxed or unvaxxed - then he's correct. Just trying to give credit to his vaccine, rather than the mild nature (potentially) of Omicron.

Keep in mind though three things: the African continent is vaccinated with vaccines that they aren't allowed to use in the USA (from what I have heard in interviews about Fauci recently, don't have links to verify) which may be ironically offering them some extra sort of protection; they use hydroxochloroquine and ivermectin on a regular basis; and most are not vaccinated. So what happens in Africa may not be what happens to the mrna vaccinated rest-of-the-world.

HD
 

bev

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Sounds like we’re going to be playing “catch-up” for the foreseeable future, with new boosters and/or vaccines pushed out - faster - for each new variant. How many will people accept before saying “enough is enough?”

I’ve had covid. It was rough, but I’ve recovered about 90%. I’m going to keep trusting God rather than man, since they really don’t seem to know what they’re doing. I mean, since when does a risk factor of 0% to 0.03% (babies and toddlers) mean you absolutely must get a vax?
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

1638309884367.png

Social distancing measures including face masks are suspected of causing young children’s cognitive development to drop by 23 percent during the COVID scamdemic, according to a new study.

Brown University scientists penned the study, in conjunction with the global consulting firm Resonance, collecting data from 1,600 children – and their caregivers – who have been enrolled in the study between the ages of 0 and 5 on a rolling basis.

The probe analyzed the cognitive development through infancy, childhood and adolescence, and looked at how average development scores in three key areas had been affected during the COVID era – with stunning results.

Full story here…


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see website for full article

Laura Ingraham discussed the Brown University study tonight
View: https://youtu.be/GQ6QUgMCUxM
2:03 min
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Florida has the lowest Covid rate in USA… And it just dropped 53 percent more…
Posted by Kane on November 30, 2021 1:14 am

Florida’s Lowest Coronavirus Case Rate in the Nation Drops Even Further

Florida is continuing to report the lowest rate of daily coronavirus cases per capita in the nation, and the figure dropped even lower over the holiday weekend. According to the New York Times coronavirus tracker, last updated November 29, Florida is reporting just three cases of the virus per 100,000 — the lowest in the nation.

Overall, the Sunshine State is reporting a daily average of 681 cases, representing a 53 percent drop over the past two weeks. Notably, hospitalizations in the state have also dropped by 11 percent in the same time frame.

This is significant, as Florida came under constant scrutiny from the establishment media and left-wing politicians over the course of the pandemic, namely for refusing to embrace extended lockdowns or even a mask mandate. Notably, Florida never once had a statewide mask mandate in place.

Illinois for comparison, is currently under another statewide mask mandate, yet it is reporting a daily average of 4,661 cases, or 37 per 100,000, representing an increase of 45 percent in the last two weeks.

Meanwhile, blue states, which were lavished with praise by the left throughout the course of the pandemic, are currently seeing some of the highest case rates in the entire nation.

Gretchen Whitmer’s Michigan leads with a daily average of 8,457 cases, or 85 per 100,000. That represents a 59 percent increase over the last two weeks alone.

Similarly, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) New York and Gov. Tom Wolf’s (D) Pennsylvania are also reporting some of the highest daily case rates in the nation, 5,809 cases (30 per capita) 5,676 cases (44 per capita), respectively.

SOURCE — BREITBART
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
(Greece)


Greece Imposes $114 Monthly Fine on Unvaccinated People Over 60 Eleni Chrepa & Paul Tugwell 03:46 PM IST, 30 Nov 2021 07:44 PM IST, 30 Nov 2021 Greece Imposes $114 Monthly Fine on Unvaccinated People Over 60 (Bloomberg) -- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced mandatory Covid-19 vaccination for all Greeks above 60 years of age before a cabinet meeting in Athens on Tuesday, in an effo
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
https://kunstler.com/cluster****-nation/the-narratives-fail/

CLUSTER**** NATION – BLOGNovember 29, 2021

The Narratives Fail

Inevitably, it will be here. The question is will we be prepared for it?”
— Dr. Fauci on Omicron
Does it finally look like Dr. Anthony Fauci is trying to carry out an assisted suicide of the United States? On the Sunday Morning TV chat circuit, the White House Covid-19 czar (a.k.a. The Science) declared that the new Omicron variant is “a clarion call” to get people vaccinated. Is that so, Dr. Fauci? Considering how well your “vaccines” work? And how many people have been maimed and killed by their side-effects? (More than all other vaccines combined over the past thirty years.) And how you knavishly outlawed effective and cheap early treatment protocols that would have put Covid-19 down by June of 2020 (and saved half-a-million lives).

The Science also called on Sunday for the general re-masking of the public and averred to the possibility of more lockdowns ahead. And just at Christmas-time, you understand. What a nose this rascal has for politics!

Senator Ted Cruz (TX) called for the Department of Justice to prosecute The Science for lying to Congress, which The Science smugly laughed off, perhaps knowing that his world-beating, maliciously incompetent leadership in the Coronavirus saga would end up incriminating and delegitimizing the entire corrupt, Pharma-captured US public health bureaucracy, with collateral damage everywhere else in government — and therefore that no authority in the land would dare to swear him under oath in a court-of-law. Or so he may think for now.

Meanwhile, Virologist Barry Schoub, Chairman of South Africa’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Vaccines, declared the new Omicron Coronavirus “mild.” Could it be that the whole hoary Covid-19 narrative is falling apart now? Could Dr. Fauci and his sleazy associates in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the WHO, the Big Pharma C-suites, the grifting university research labs, the despicable social media combine, and yet more sinister outfits such as the CIA and the WEF — might this unholy host of villains and fixers find themselves on-the-run? And might Omicron represent for them some final grasp at the last straw of narrative control?

It’s pretty clear that citizens of the liberal democracies are fed up with being pushed around, jabbed, driven out of business, lied-to, gaslighted, and deprived of their livelihoods. They increasingly can’t believe any of the bullshit issued by the medical establishment and its political hand-maidens, and why should they? The countries with the highest vaccination rates also happen to be the ones with the highest Covid cases. Countries with low vaccination rates and widespread use of early treatment with common drugs have low Covid cases. Two weeks after Japan okayed the use of Ivermectin in mid-November of this year, cases fell from a big surge down to near zero. What part of that is complicated?

The people are out in the streets all over the world now. They have only begun to express their rage at the Covid narrative-driven new fashion for tyrannical government — government not of, for, and by the people, but over, on top of, and in spite of them. In Austria, an opéra bouffe toyland suddenly inflamed with Nazi-style strong-arming of its own citizens, the cops and the army may be switching their allegiance away from the government to the folks moiling in the streets. This is exactly the kind of country and the type of situation where governments fall. And when Austria goes down, others will follow.

Next door, outgoing German health minister, Jens Spahn, issued a warning that by the end of winter “pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, recovered or dead.” Was that supposed to be reassuring? Somewhere out in the universe’s recurve of time, the spirit of Dr. Josef Mengele is doing an end-zone dance. Down in Australia two frisky teens called in a threat to behead the premier (i.e., governor) of West Australia (capital: Perth). The world is suddenly remembering the back-story behind the old political phrase heads will roll, namely, what happens to the folks-in-charge when they piss-off enough of the people whose affairs they are responsible for running.

More to the point, to understand what is happening in America, just catch a glimpse of what has happened. By 2019, a rogue faction of bureaucrats was bent on shoving President Donald Trump off the game-board at all costs. Trump had become the fixed object of every anxiety neurosis that afflicted the thinking-governing-and-chattering classes. Conveniently, China also needed to get rid of Mr. Trump, for interfering with their plans to dominate the planet.

The Trump years were the narrative-formation years, as one plot after another, with their rafts of cockamamie stories — RussiaGate, UkraineGate, TaxGate — was hatched and then elaborated by the worker bees in Cable News and the WashPo / New York Times nexus. Imagine their frustration that those gambits failed. But all that narrative-shaping prepared them for the kill-shot when China gifted the world with Covid-19 (Dr. Anthony Fauci acting as midwife in the delivery). Dr. Fauci then went straight to work turning the splendid opportunity of the pandemic into history’s all-time greatest mind****. He did everything possible to prevent public health from controlling the disease, and then foisted on the terrorized public a set of dangerous, untested, gene-therapy treatments that he enjoyed a share of the profits in. His criminal acts have been revealed and fully documented and now he will fall. Wait for it.

The Covid-19 mind**** worked to distract the country’s attention from the activities of characters like Lawfare avatar Marc Elias of the DNC’s Perkins Coie law firm and Marc Zuckerberg of Facebook, going all around the swing states in 2020 with sacks full of money, arranging election procedures such as mass mail-in voting with no voter ID to facilitate the victory of the obviously non compos mentis empty shell of “Joe Biden”. That did work. Just what the country needed, too, at this perilous moment of history: a fake head-of-state. The people mostly played along for two years until very lately, seeing at last how they have been robbed of their health, their wealth, their future, and very likely their children’s futures. Watch them now as they turn on the ones who made all that happen.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
(Australia)

New law allows for warrantless spying on Australians – where next? (Source is RT)

New law allows for warrantless spying on Australians – where next?

30 Nov, 2021 01:00

New law allows for warrantless spying on Australians – where next?

Australian Signals Directorate Logo © Wikipedia

By Kit Klarenberg,

The Australian Signals Directorate, Canberra’s equivalent of Britain’s GCHQ or the US National Security Agency, will be granted sweeping new powers to spy on Australians for the first time since its November 1947 founding.

The move allows the agency to collect signals intelligence on individuals within the country without a warrant, although allegedly only in situations where there is an “imminent risk to life.” Domestic terror suspects are cited as a key target in the Directorate’s crosshairs, and it will also collect intelligence in conjunction with the Australian Defence Force for military operations, with ministerial authorization.

Rules governing the reform and protecting citizens’ privacy will be published on the agency’s website, and subject to review and scrutiny by the Australian parliament’s security and intelligence committee. While framed as sincerely concerned with keeping Australians safe, experts have expressed grave reservations about the development. Among them is John Blaxland, Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies at the Australian National University, himself a military intelligence veteran, who warned the powers were ripe for abuse.

“I’m a former insider…I have a much greater appreciation of the need for checks and balances, because power tends to corrupt,” he cautioned. “My concern is the legislation we put forward is being drafted by insiders, it’s drafted with their own concerns in mind.”

Drafted by insiders, the legislation certainly was – it’s inspired by the findings of an extensive review by Dennis Richardson, former chief of Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the country’s FBI, conducted in close consultation with Australia’s assorted intelligence services, in a manner akin to foxes being quizzed on how best to guard a henhouse.

Published in December 2020, his appraisal’s discussion of “authorisations” noted that these agencies can already conduct warrantless intelligence-gathering if they believe it to be “necessary, proportionate, reasonable and justified” in certain circumstances, and “would like the ability” to not only use various investigative techniques without official permission, but also with “protection from criminal liability” when doing so.

Leaked documents exposed by journalist Annika Smethurst in April 2018 showed that high-level plans for untrammeled domestic spying by the Australian Signals Directorate date back even further. They revealed how the respective heads of Australia’s Defence and Home Affairs ministries had discussed allowing the agency to access citizens’ emails, bank records and text messages without approval, or trace. A government source told Smethurst they were “horrified” by the proposals, given “there is no actual national security gap this is aiming to fill.”

Australian Federal Police raided both the alleged leaker of the files and Smethurst the next year.

In a perverse irony, the charges against her were dropped in May 2020, as Australian High Court judges unanimously ruled that the warrant secured from a magistrate in relation to the raid was invalid, because it not only “misstated the terms of the offence” but was also ambiguous if not outright absurd.

“[The warrant] lacked the clarity required to fulfil its basic purposes of adequately informing Smethurst why the search was being conducted and providing the executing officer and those assisting in the execution of the warrant with reasonable guidance to decide which things came within the scope of the warrant,” the High Court damningly concluded.

In other words, it was impossible to know from the warrant’s wording what the investigation actually concerned, what evidence or information was sought, and what, if any, crime she may or may not have committed. That this baseless and broad investigative authorization was formally granted at all renders the Directorate’s newfound power to conduct warrantless surveillance all the more disquieting. If such procedural perversion can occur even with putative oversight, what abuses will be engaged-in without any meaningful supervision?

Misuse of these capabilities is almost inevitable. In 1973, the US Supreme Court ruled warrants were mandatory for domestic intelligence gathering. Two years later, a Senate investigation found that the NSA and other US intelligence agencies had nonetheless been engaged in unauthorized spying on American citizens, including anti-war protesters, civil rights activists, and political dissidents, monitoring all their private communications from telephone conversations to telegrams. This led to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which made it a dedicated criminal offense to eavesdrop on American citizens without judicial oversight.

Yet,it was revealed in late 2005 that the NSA had all along continued illegally intercepting the phone calls and digital communications of US citizens, with the witting help of major telecoms giants, which passed copies of all emails, web browsing and other internet traffic to and from its customers at home and abroad to the agency, and its British counterpart GCHQ. Files disclosed in 2013 by whistleblower Edward Snowden confirmed this criminal dragnet was truly global in scale, and very much ongoing.

Key components of this international spying network, known as ‘Five Eyes,’ are situated in Australia, at the Pine Gap and Kojarena satellite surveillance bases. According to investigative legend Duncan Campbell, around 80% of the messages intercepted by the latter – which employs US and British staff in key posts – are sent automatically to GCHQ and the NSA. While every Five Eyes member can theoretically veto requests for such material, “when you’re a junior ally” like Canberra, “you never refuse,” Campbell records.

One can’t help but wonder if the Directorate’s new domestic purview is an experiment, gauging levels of backlash and controversy among the Australian public, before similar measures – provably or potentially already in operation – are openly codified across all Five Eyes member states. Ongoing legal battles against mass data collection in various jurisdictions clearly necessitate the practice being legalized and legitimized. If Canberra’s American and/or British friends politely requested they run such a pilot scheme, would or even could they decline?

Reinforcing this interpretation, mere days after the Directorate’s remit was expanded, the Australian government pledged to introduce new laws forcing social media giants to “unmask” anonymous users who post offensive comments, with hefty fines doled out to those companies which are unwilling or unable to do so. The reasons for Canberra’s haste are unclear, although it’s surely no coincidence that London and Washington have battled for many years to end online anonymity for good – it’s only due to intense domestic opposition that these efforts have so far failed.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

marsh

On TB every waking moment
via Clif H

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P.S. Constitutional attorney KrisAnne Hall has an excellent article covering many aspects of this issue:

Krisannehall (OSHA And The Power to Mandate Vaccines)
OSHA And The Power to Mandate Vaccines
Online Presence of
Constitutional Educator, Speaker, Author - KrisAnne Hall

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
OSHA And The Power to Mandate Vaccines
OSHA And The Power to Mandate Vaccinesby KrisAnne Hall, JDKrisAnneHall.com
biden vacc art


Recently the United States Federal Court for the 5th Circuit held that the federal agency, Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA), cannot lawfully mandate vaccines on American businesses while a trial concerning the matter is pending. The majority opinion establishes that this mandate is “staggeringly overbroad” and the “loss of constitutional freedoms ‘for even minimal periods of time…unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.’”

What The Court’s Opinion Means for The Rest of America?

During the Trump Administration, the Senate confirmed federal judges for the 5th Circuit making that circuit one of the most “conservative” courts in the federal court system. The 5th Circuit was the perfect court, from a constitutional perspective, to hear this issue. Other circuits, namely the 9th Circuit, would likely find, under the same conditions, a completely different result.

The federal court system is divided into twelve circuits that divide the States into twelve legal districts. Each federal district court holds a binding authority in federal issues over the lower federal courts of that district. Under normal circumstances, the 5th Circuit opinion would put a halt to OSHA enforcing the mandate in every district, so as to act in the abundance of caution; but, we are not operating under normal circumstances. Since this presidential administration is already refusing to comply with court orders it doesn’t agree with, there should be no surprise when they treat this order with the same contempt. Additionally, the main objective of this administration has not been to uphold the Constitution, but to force this vaccine on as many people as they can convince or bully into taking before the Supreme Court legal hammer falls.

Because the 5th Circuit opinion is only legally binding in the 5th Circuit courts, OSHA could legally continue to enforce the mandate within the States located in the other districts.

The Supreme Court Will Have to Settle The Issue

Now that the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has been assigned the task of resolving the other suits against OSHA, the Supreme Court will ultimately be tasked with settling any disputes or hearing any appeals. The OSHA vaccine mandate question will have to be answered by the Supreme Court to have finality and possibly the respect of this administration. The question then becomes, “How will this particular Supreme Court decide this case?”

The issue of an OSHA vaccine mandate will definitely test the so called “conservative” justices; this will likely be a 5-4 split opinion -- the only question being, in which direction? In my opinion we can almost guarantee which way several of the justices will cast their vote. If past opinions dictate future trends, we can be guaranteed that Sotomayor, Kagan, and Breyer will cast their vote in favor of any government mandate issued by the Biden Administration. If past opinions dictate future trends, I believe we can be equally guaranteed that Neil Gorsuch will vote against this mandate. That leaves the justices that many believe to be “conservatives:” Roberts, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Thomas, and Alito.

If I had to make a prediction based upon experience, I would say that Roberts is more likely to side with the liberals than with Gorsuch. Not necessarily because he is a liberal in disguise (and he is), but because Roberts is a corporate courtier; he almost always sides with the big money. I also believe, in spite of Thomas’s occasional tendency toward the police powers of government, that Thomas will side with Gorsuch. I believe that Thomas will feel a greater pull to his Constitutional tendencies than his “security over liberty” leanings. Justice Alito’s tendency is to follow either Thomas or Gorsuch. Since I am predicting that Thomas and Gorsuch will be on the same side, I will put Alito in the group that will vote against the mandate. That leaves just Kavanaugh and Barrett. What made be unknown to many conservatives in America, unless they were watching my podcast during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, Kavanaugh is NOT a consistent constitutionalist. During the confirmation hearings I warned that Kavanaugh is most aptly described as “Kennedy 2.0” and he has lived up to that title so far. He is a moderate at best who leans conservative on some issues and liberal on others. In this case I will, with hesitancy, predict that Kavanaugh will lean conservative. With these predictions we now have a 4-4 court that leaves only Barrett to break the tie.

Many conservatives would be overjoyed with that conclusion, believing that Barrett is not only a conservative, but someone who would choose the Constitutional and Religious Liberty option to deny the mandate. Unfortunately, nothing in Barrett’s term of service in the Supreme Court or her previous legal experience supports that conclusion. During Barrett’s confirmation hearing, the American people were told that Barrett was a constitutional, religious liberty nominee. Other than being a devout educated Catholic, nothing in Barrett’s history establishes that she is either constitutional or religious liberty minded. Barrett is a slave to precedent. She will mindlessly adhere to whatever the court has established in the past, right or wrong. Since she has become a Supreme Court Justice, Barrett has sided with the liberal justices on some of the most important cases. I am not comfortable with Barrett being the tie breaker on what could be the most important Supreme Court issue of my lifetime. Will she side with the errantly portrayed precedent of Jacobsen? Or will she side with the Constitution and the rights of the people?

What Is the Most Certain Solution To This OSHA Overreach?

The uncertainty and the tendency of the courts to be personally biased in their opinions is the reason why the courts are not the ultimate or final check and balance of federal gourmandizing of power. Those who ratified our Constitution and designed our Constitutional Republic were repulsed by the notion that the federal government itself would be its only check and balance.

The designed ultimate and final check on the federal government exercise of authority is and always has been the people through their States. Thomas Jefferson (18120 explained it this way:

…when all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another…If the States look with apathy on this silent descent of their government into the gulf which is to swallow all, we have only to weep over the human character formed uncontrollable but by a rod of iron…

The design of our Constitutional Republic created a most powerful check on the federal authority through the power of the State to refuse to comply with unlawful federal laws, regulations, and executive orders. Proponents of the Constitution made multiple arguments regarding the authority of the States to be the ultimate limit upon the federal government when that government steps outside the specifically enumerated and delegated powers of the Constitution. Hamilton’s explanation may have been one of the most influential since he was the one arguing for federal power, yet explaining that even the power he proposed was limited by the Constitution to be enforced by the States. Alexander Hamilton expressed the basis for this check by the States in Federalist 78:

There is no position which depends on clearer principles, than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.

Hamilton’s explanation is a direct reference to Article 6 clause 2 of the Constitution that declares that when the federal government makes laws that are inconsistent with the Constitution, “the judges of the State” are not bound to them. When the judges of the States are not bound, no one in the State is bound; those laws, regulations, and executive orders are “null and void.” There is no authority delegated to the federal government to exercise an Occupational Safety and Health Association within the boundaries of the States. Without a specifically enumerated delegation of power to do so, the federal government’s assertion of power is invalid.

Florida is exercising this State authority to check and balance unconstitutional federal power as it begins to separate the State from federal OSHA authority altogether. Florida is making moves to refuse OSHA authority and regulations and create their own State agency that will fill that gap. There are some in the federal government who profess, like political activist lawyer Ron Coleman, that it is outside Florida’s authority to deny OSHA in their State. For people like Coleman, that errant understanding of State authority and professed unlimited power of the federal government is the product of one hundred eighty-eight years of bad education sparked by federal supremacists and certain political activist Supreme Court Justices. People like Coleman have decided to set aside the true design of the Constitution and the facts regarding its proper application as dictated by those who actually wrote the document, in favor of an ideology that the federal government itself is its only limit to power, and the courts can alter and expand federal power through judicial opinions contrary to Article V of the Constitution.

This progressive ideology flies in the face of every agreement made to ratify the Constitution, every limit to power designed by the Constitution, and the very principles of separation of powers instituted to ensure that the people are the governors over government and not subjects to rogue federal agencies. Coleman’s assertion, and those who agree with him, that the “commerce clause” is some kind of boilerplate phrase that endows upon the federal government the authority to create for itself unlimited authority over every aspect of life as long as they can somehow bootstrap a “money” argument to it cannot find any justification in the Constitution or the writings of those who created that Compact. No to mention Coleman’s argument was brilliantly defeated by James Madison in 1792 (see the Cod Fisher Debate, also see Federalist #45).

The only sure solution to ending federal vaccine mandates will be when the States decide to exercise the powers reserved to them as enshrined in the Tenth Amendment. That will mean that the people in the States must get educated and demand that our States start behaving more like the “independent sovereign governments” the Supreme Court in NFIB v. Sebelius recognized them to be and less like the subservient colonies that Coleman and his political and educational aristocrats want them to be.
.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Pfizer CEO Says “Most Likely Scenario” is “Annual Revaccination” Against Covid (VIDEO)

By Cristina Laila
Published November 29, 2021 at 9:33pm
IMG_7776-1.jpg


Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Monday said the most likely scenario is an annual revaccination against Covid.

“I made a projection months ago that the most likely scenario is that we would need after the third dose, annual revaccination against Covid,” Albert Bourla said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”
on Monday morning hours before the CDC recommended booster shots for all adults. “I think we’re going to have an annual revaccination and that should be able to keep us really safe.”

VIDEO:

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1465311866931056645
1:41 min

Earlier this month Bourla said people who circulate misinformation about Covid jabs and dare speak ill of his product are “criminals.”

“Those people are criminals,” Bourla told Atlantic Council CEO Frederick Kempe a few weeks ago. “They’re not bad people. They’re criminals because they have literally cost millions of lives.”

Bourla said life won’t go back to normal until the vaccine holdouts take the jab.

“The only thing that stands between the new way of life and the current way of life is, frankly, hesitancy to vaccinations,” he said.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
(Sweden)


Sweden: Get Your Covid Vaccine Passport in a Chip in Your Hand (VIDEO)

By Cristina Laila
Published November 30, 2021 at 11:55am
IMG_7796-1.jpg

Over the last few years some Swedish workers have volunteered to have microchips implanted in their hands so they no longer have to carry cash, ID, keys, gym passes etc.

Microchips are gaining popularity in Sweden and now Swedes are getting Covid vaccine passports implanted in their hands or elsewhere under their skin.

“Get your Covid certificate in a chip in your hand or elsewhere under the skin. It is increasingly popular to insert a chip into the body with different types of information and now you can also insert your Covid certificate in the chip.” – Aftonbladet, Sweden’s daily newspaper reported.

The Swedish Public Health Agency recently announced it is introducing vaccine passports for events over 100 people.

Beginning December 1, Swedes will need a vaccine passport to go to theaters, concerts and other larger indoor events.

Microchipping is voluntary… for now, but give it some time and the Covid tyrants will make it mandatory in order for people to participate in society.

VIDEO:

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1465327182826332163
2:20 min
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

CNBC Host Jim Cramer Goes on Insane Rant, Demands Joe Biden Impose Universal Vaccine Mandate Enforced by the Military (VIDEO)

By Cristina Laila
Published November 30, 2021 at 2:46pm
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CNBC host and self-described germaphobe Jim Cramer on Monday evening went on an insane rant and called on Joe Biden to impose a universal vaccine mandate enforced by the military.

Cramer is so paranoid about germs that he wouldn’t even bring FedEx boxes into his home unless they sat outside for 48 hours to “degerm” during the height of Covid.

Now Cramer is projecting his neurosis onto the American people.

Cramer said it’s “psychotic” to allow people to “lawfully walk around unvaccinated.”

His solution?

Impose a universal vaccine mandate and use the military to enforce the order.

“It’s time to admit we have to go to war against Covid. Require vaccination universally. Have the military run it. If you don’t want to get vaccinated, you better to be ready to prove your conscientious objector status in court, and even then you need to help in the war effort by staying home until we finally beat this thing,” Cramer said on Monday night’s edition of Mad Money.

Quick recap of Cramer’s demands:
  • No state’s rights
  • Use military against US citizens
  • House arrest for unvaccinated without due process
  • Screw the 1st Amendment and to hell with the 4th Amendment
VIDEO:

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1465760204461588483
.55 min
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Eric Swalwell Loses His ‘Covid Patience’, Accuses Unvaccinated of Threatening His Young Children in Twitter Tirade

By Kristinn Taylor
Published November 30, 2021 at 3:24pm

Alleged Chinese spy Fang Fang’s former boy-toy Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) went off on a Twitter tirade late Monday night, saying he has lost his “Covid patience” with unvaccinated people, accusing them of threatening his young children and demanding they stay home and be barred from traveling on planes.'

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Swalwell posted in three parts:
I’m losing my Covid patience. I’ve tried to reason with the unvaxxed. I’ve directed some to medical pros. I don’t judge but hear them out and steer them to facts. The unvaxxed love to say it’s about choice. But you know who doesn’t have a choice? My 3 kids under 5. (1/3)

Blah blah blah you have a right to not get vaxxed. Fine. Then business and government have a right to tell you that you’re not welcome to patronize or you can’t get on a plane. Because what right do you think you have to expose my kids to your Covid? As parents, let’s own (2/3)

the outrage. The looney carnival barkers at the school board meetings DO NOT reflect where most parents are. Your unvaxxed status is creating new variants. So get your damn shot. Or, stay inside your house. But don’t mess with my kids.
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Swalwell posted a post-Thanksgiving photo of him cuddling two of his children while unmasked even though vaccinated people can spread COVID.

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On Saturday Swalwell demanded a travel ban for the unvaccinated, “We can’t take Covid chances going into Winter and with new variants forming. Air travelers should be required to show proof of vaccination. #NoShotNoSpot”

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On Tuesday, Swalwell retweeted MSNBC’s Joy Reid’s approval of his tirade, “his thread right here. The reason we have so many new variants is low vaccination rates — in poorer countries, by circumstance; in ours, by choice. The U.S. ranks 58th in vaccinations. 58th!! And people are profiting off of spreading ignorance. Anti-vaxxism is the variant.”

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TorahTips

Membership Revoked
getting awfully damn close.after the chip in the hand all you have to do now is renounce Jesus Christ and we can all go back to normal
Specific criteria must be met. That criteria has not been met and will not be met with implanting of a chip. To me, the chip is really not a good idea. it's movement in the wrong direction. But you need a "beast" who commands that all receive the mark, that he performs awe-striking signs and wonders, that the "whole world" is struck with wonder over him and the world worships him. The mark in the hand is one thing, but all the other features must be met before it is classified as the mark.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

FDA Advisory Committee Narrowly Votes To Approve Merck's COVID 'Miracle Drug'

TUESDAY, NOV 30, 2021 - 06:45 PM

During a week that has seen a new COVID variant emerge and suddenly throw the efficacy of American vaccines and remedies into question, the FDA's outside advisors have only narrowly approved of Merck's molnupiravir, opening the door for the agency to approve the drug for use among high-risk patients only.

The Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee, as the panel is known, voted 13 to 10 in support of the FDA approving the drug, which was first introduced to the public a couple of months ago with "blockbuster" experimental results from a very limited trial that, according to some critics, glossed over safety risks presented by the drug.



By granting its blessing to the drug, the committee will allow Merck to start selling it widely in the US by the end of the year.

As far as omicron is concerned, Merck plans to study whether molnupiravir is effective against the new variant panic of the moment. The company is working to collect samples of the new strain to do so. Nick Kartsonis, who oversees Merck’s vaccine clinical research, confirmed as much to the panel.
"We expect, based on what we know about the Omicron variant, that molnupiravir would be effective against this particular variant," he said.
Evaluating molnupiravir against omicron, Kartsonis said, will take longer than assessing COVID-19 antibody drugs because Merck needs to collect a broader set of data covering the entire genome of the virus, rather than select pieces.

As we have explained, molnupiravir targets the machinery the virus uses to replicate, rather than the spike protein, the structure that helps the virus infiltrate cells. Omicron has mutations to the spike protein, which researchers say could help it evade protections provided by vaccines and drugs trained to target the virus's spike protein.

Just last week, the company said that a final analysis had found the drug to be about 30% effective at reducing the risk of hospitalization and death in high-risk people, lower than the 50% efficacy first announced in October after a preliminary look at the data.

While the FDA isn't obligated to follow the ADAC's recommendation, it typically does.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Los Angeles Now Enforcing Vaccine Mandates For Indoor Businesses

TUESDAY, NOV 30, 2021 - 06:25 PM
Authored by Li Hai via The Epoch Times,

The City of Los Angeles has started enforcement of its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for indoor businesses.



The mandate, also named SafePassLA, requires all people eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, including kids 12 and above, to show photo ID and proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 when entering indoor restaurants, gyms, entertainment facilities, personal care establishments, and some city buildings.

From Monday, inspectors from the Department of Building and Safety, and authorized agents, started enforcing the ordinance.

Business owners who violate the mandate will receive a warning for the first violation, a $1,000 fine for a second violation, and a $2,000 fine for a third violation. Fines are capped at $5,000 for four or more violations.

The city said the measure would help stop the spread of COVID-19, a disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, or the novel coronavirus.

The mandate comes from an ordinance (pdf) which was adopted by the city in October. The ordinance became effective on Nov. 8.

The mandate allows for medical or religious exemptions.
“A patron must provide the covered location with a verbal self-attestation to qualify for the exemption,” the city said on its website. The patrons should be directed to use an outdoor area.
“If an outdoor area is not available, the patron may be permitted to use an indoor area by providing proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours before entry and photo identification.”
The mandate doesn’t apply to business employees.

Patrons are required to wear masks when they’re not actively eating or drinking, even they’re fully vaccinated. The city said that’s because the mandate does not modify any health orders issued by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Some business owners have expressed concerned that the mandate will affect their businesses.

Restaurateurs in New York City told The Epoch Times last month that business went down 40 to 60 percent due to the city’s vaccine mandate. New York City enacted a similar requirement in August and started enforcing the rule on Sept. 13.

Milbet Del Cid, owner of Amalia’s, a Guatemalan restaurant in Los Angeles, told Los Angeles Times that criticism poured in on social media earlier this month when she alerted her clients that she would soon be asking them to show proof of vaccination.
“If you’re obligated to ask,” one customer wrote in response, “then we won’t eat there anymore, so there.”
Beginning Nov. 4, Los Angeles County, where the City of Los Angeles is located, also issued a similar but less expansive mandate, mainly focused on adult-oriented businesses providing alcohol.

The city is also requiring proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID test within 72 hours to participate in outdoor events with 5,000 more people. This is stricter than the county mandate, which applies to outdoor events with 10,000 or more people.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Over 7,000 Marines Unvaccinated As COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Deadline Hits

TUESDAY, NOV 30, 2021 - 05:45 PM
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Five percent of active-duty Marines have not gotten a COVID-19 vaccine, the military branch says.


The COVID-19 vaccine mandate was Nov. 28.

Some 95 percent of active-duty Marines had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose by the deadline but that leaves nearly 7,400 who have not gotten a jab.
“I have great appreciation for all those who made these vaccinations possible, including the civilian and Navy medical personnel who worked tirelessly over the past months to protect our Marines and families,” said Gen. David Berger, commandant of the Marines, in a statement.
Of the unvaccinated, 452 have been granted a temporary administrative exemption, 316 have been granted a temporary medical exemption, and 14 have been granted a permanent medical exemption, according to the Marines.

The remaining members without a jab face being discharged if they aren’t granted an exemption. Sean Timmons, a managing partner at Tully Rinckey, says none of his clients are yet to face an initiation of separation, though they are being threatened with it verbally.

Like every other military branch to date, the Marines have approved zero religious accommodation requests. Some 2,441 such requests have been lodged, and
Zero religious accommodation requests have been approved. Over three-quarters of the 2,441 requests have been rejected.
“It looks extremely concerning. It’s also problematic,” Timmons told The Epoch Times, adding that members who are separated after their religious exemption requests are turned down will likely have a strong case in court.
Lawyers representing military members fighting the mandates say the Religious Freedom Restoration Act requires military branches to provide accommodation for religious practices, including, generally, from vaccine requirements.

But military branches informed a court earlier this month that no exemptions have been granted and none have yet signaled that’s changed.

Some chaplains in Camp Pendleton cleared some of the applications as legitimate but those applications are sitting in Washington without being acted on, Timmons said.

He described Marines and other military members who are refusing the order to get vaccinated as a cross-section that includes all races and socioeconomic backgrounds.

A Marines spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Marines have said the religious exemption process starts with an interview with a chaplain and an endorsement by the first general officer in the chain of command before being evaluated by a Religious Accommodation Review Board. Requests that are cleared that far are forwarded to a centralized authority for approval or rejection.

The mandate deadline for the Navy was also on Nov. 28, but the branch has not released vaccination numbers and declined to provide them by press time. The Marine Reserve and the Navy Reserve have until Dec. 28 to get vaccinated.

The Air Force had the earliest deadline, Nov. 2. Over 10,000 active-duty personnel, or 3.1 percent, had not been vaccinated by the deadline.

The Army deadline is Dec. 15 for active-duty members.


Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard members have until Dec. 2 while Army National Guard units have until June 30, 2022.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsKYcBu9SWY
4:48 min

Omicron Variant - The Good, Bad, and Ugly

Nov 30, 2021


Doctor Mike Hansen


Omicron Variant - The Good, Bad, and Ugly We know very little about the Omicron variant, B.1.1.529. But we're starting to learn some things, and by the end of this video, you learn the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to this virus.

With Omicron, there is a fine line between overreacting and being too carefree. Because it's still so known.

How we react depends on these 3 things MAINLY. 1. The severity of COVID it causes. 2. How easily it spreads. 3. If it's resistant to our vaccines.

It's unlikely to have total resistance to vaccines, but there is a good chance of making them less effective.

The answers are starting to trickle in but will take time to know for sure in the next few days and weeks. Omicron could be really nasty, or it could be a false alarm. Or somewhere in between. But the most important thing we need to do is learn about Omicron and answer these 3 questions.

What we know for sure is the entire genetic sequence of omicron. It has over 30 concerning mutations in its spike protein. Omicron shares several key mutations with two previous variants, Beta and Gamma, that made them less vulnerable to vaccines. The antibodies that are generated from the vaccines. They target three regions on the spike protein, and Omicron has mutations in all three of those regions. Also, the mutations make it more prone to spread faster by binding more tightly to the ACE2 receptor and getting into cells more efficiently by tweaking the furin cleavage site. Because of all of these specific mutations, many of which are already known to be marks of badness in other variants that promote viral proliferation, spread, and antibody resistance – this is the bad news.

So even though we know the genetic sequence, the technology to reliably predict how a virus's behavior will change, including whether it can evade our current vaccines, is based purely on genetic information that technology does not exist. That's why the upcoming testing is crucial.

Within the next couple of weeks, we'll have this answered, though.

Initial data will come from lab tests of blood samples from vaccinated people or lab animals, analyzing antibodies in the samples after exposure to the new variant. There will also be labs looking to make the Omicron virus and test its antibody sensitivity which will also take a couple of weeks. The first real-world studies of vaccine effectiveness in the community will likely take at 3-4 weeks.

And then there is the ugly. By ugly, I mean those who are hitting the panic button. You want to be prepared and concerned but not overreact. Yes, this virus looks like it's spreading quickly. Not just within South Africa, but how quickly it's spreading across the globe. It's in Canada. Asia. Europe. About 20 countries now. And it's also concerning that it has already started spreading in the community in Germany.

The ugly includes the overzealous partial travel restrictions that do nothing more than to perhaps slow the spread and buy some time, mainly because the virus already had a global spread before it was identified. You don't want countries to feel punished for reporting variant information.

The good news is that of the known cases, it does not seem to cause worse disease. But it's still too early to come to a definitive conclusion on that. But Imagine this for a second. Let's say hypothetically speaking that you have a new virus that is super contagious, but at its worst, causes nothing more than a common cold without any long-term effects; no one would care. You wouldn't need masks. A vaccine. Medications. Restrictions. Nothing. So if, and this is a HUGE if, if Omicron turns out to be super contagious but extraordinarily low virulence, that would actually be great news.

Realistically speaking, it's unlikely that it will have low virulence, but again, right now, we don't know, but this question should be answered in the next couple of weeks. Of course, sitting on your thumbs and waiting for 'definitive proof' is not the smartest way to react to a virus that has the potential to cause mass suffering. Especially if it's nastier than previous variants. So we need to be vigilant, get the science right, and answer the most important questions as soon as possible.

Doctor Mike Hansen, MD Internal Medicine | Pulmonary Disease | Critical Care Medicine
 
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