Aug 312020
 
 August 31, 2020  Posted by at 9:53 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Bruce Davidson Iran 1964

 

Japanese Wear Face Masks, But The Main Reason Is Just To Fit In (Asahi)
US Floats Idea Of Early Approval For Eventual COVID19 Vaccine (ST)
Moderna Neglected To Disclose Pentagon’s Financial Support (ZH)
On Election Night, We Might Not Know Who Won (Mish)
Trump Approval Rises Among Black, Hispanic Voters (Hill)
DNI Ratcliffe Declassifying More Russia-Collusion, Media-Leak Documents (ZH)
China’s Mega Banks Lost Billions Of Dollars In Profit As Bad Loans Rise (CNBC)
Erdogan Criticizes Greece As Turkey Marks 1922 Victory (K.)
Assange Travesty Continues (Craig Murray)
Rampant Destruction Of Forests ‘Will Unleash More Pandemics’ (O.)

 

 

US new daily cases look promising, but total cases passed 6 million cases.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upward mobility

 

 

Seeing all those people walk outside with masks on, makes me wonder why we can’t inform them better. Wouldn’t that benefit everyone? If they get that wrong, what else don’t they understand?

Japanese Wear Face Masks, But The Main Reason Is Just To Fit In (Asahi)

Japanese people have taken to wearing face masks during the pandemic, but the main reason for doing so has more to do with going along with others than preventing the coronavirus from spreading, a new study says. Peer pressure emerged as the dominant factor for wearing face masks amid the health crisis in Japan, according to the results of a survey administered by academics. A research group headed by Kazuya Nakayachi, a professor at Doshisha University’s Faculty of Psychology, published its findings in the Swiss scientific journal Frontiers in Psychology on Aug. 4. “Wearing masks is recommended to stop the virus from spreading to others, but our research suggests wearers rarely use masks for that purpose,” Nakayachi said.


“Most of them simply want to don masks just because others do.” The researchers surveyed 1,000 Japanese citizens online in March about how often and why they wear face coverings. The survey found that most people wear the protective gear, even though masks offer the wearers themselves limited protection. The results show a majority of respondents, or 51.2 percent, said they “usually” wear masks amid the pandemic, followed by 31.4 percent who said they “sometimes” wear them. Only 17.4 percent said they do “not at all” wear masks.

Read more …

Promises, promises.

US Floats Idea Of Early Approval For Eventual COVID19 Vaccine (ST)

The head of the US Food and Drug Administration raised the possibility in an interview published on Sunday (Aug 30) that a future vaccine against the coronavirus might be given emergency approval before the end of trials designed to ensure its safety and effectiveness. A request for such extraordinary approval would have to come from the vaccine developer, Stephen Hahn told the Financial Times. “If they do that before the end of Phase Three,” which involves large-scale human testing, “we may find that appropriate. We may find that inappropriate, we will make a determination.” But Hahn insisted he was not acting under pressure from President Donald Trump, who has been pushing hard for a vaccine, saying one might be ready before the Nov 3 elections.


“This is going to be a science, medicine, data decision,” Hahn said. “This is not going to be a political decision.” Three Western drugs makers are well along with their Phase 3 clinical trials, involving tens of thousands of participants. The three are AstraZeneca, which is partnering with Oxford University in England; Moderna, collaborating with the US National Institutes of Health, and the Pfizer/BioNTech alliance. By the nature of the trials it is difficult to predict when reliable results will emerge.

Read more …

I think this is what we would call a racket.

Moderna Neglected To Disclose Pentagon’s Financial Support (ZH)

Before the mainstream media transfigures Moderna founder and CEO Stephane Bancel into a corporate savior on par with Bill Gates, we’d like to remind investors (and the public) that Moderna and its insiders have demonstrated an eyebrow-raising affinity for pumping the stock with over-hyped press releases then cashing in shares or warrants (all insider stock sales were pre-scheduled divestitures, the insiders’ lawyers have argued). Despite receiving nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money via “Operation Warp Speed”, the drugmaker is planning to charge as much as $37 for a single dose, or up to $60 for two courses, of its experimental mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. That’s far and away the highest price point disclosed yet.

And while we wait for more detailed data from the vaccine’s Phase 3 clinical trials, patent advocacy group KEI is taking Moderna and its executives to task for neglecting to disclose government funding received by the company during its early stages, before the coronavirus pandemic. Despite receiving $25 million from the Department of Defense’s “Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency” – or “Darpa” – Moderna has never disclosed this, or any other, government funding in its applications for 126 patents and 154 patent applications. KEI has lodged a request with the DoD and Darpa to remedy this in patents.

As KEI points out, Moderna’s “failure” to disclose its government funding could have serious consequences for Americans hoping to get their hands on an affordable vaccine. The disclosures could affect everything from the US government’s worldwide royalty free license, to the public’s march-in rights, to obligations to make inventions available to the public on reasonable terms. When approached by the FT, Darpa confirmed that Moderna was required in its contracts to disclose the funding in any patent applications that stemmed from research that the US government helped fund.

Now, Darpa is actively looking into which Moderna patents may have been produced with Darpa support, so the US government can take credit where credit is due. “It appears that all past and present Darpa awards to Moderna include the requirement to report the role of government-funding for related inventions,” Darpa spokesman Jared Adams said in an emailed response to the Financial Times. “Further, Darpa is actively researching agency awards to Moderna to identify which patents and pending patents, if any at all, may be associated with Darpa support,” he said. Mr Adams declined to comment further, saying the investigation was continuing. US federal law required government funding to be disclosed in these circumstances, he noted.

Read more …

Because Trump voters vote in person and Dems don’t, on election night itself it may look like a large Trump victory. But then….

I’m not sure why Mish says: “Prepare for Trump to Claim Biden Stole the Election”. Is that more likely than Biden making that claim about Trump?

On Election Night, We Might Not Know Who Won (Mish)

An NBC/WSJ Poll on expected mail-in votes might cause some very misleading if not totally inaccurate reporting on who is in the lead depending on when mail-in votes get counted: “Supporters of Democratic candidate Joe Biden are significantly more likely than Trump backers to say they plan to vote by mail. Nearly half – 47 percent – say they plan to mail in their ballot, with an additional 21 percent saying they will cast a vote before Election Day at an early in-person voting site. Only about a quarter of Biden voters, 26 percent, plan to vote on Election Day at a polling place. In contrast, two-thirds of Trump’s voters — 66 percent — say they will vote in person on Election Day. Just 11 percent say they plan to vote by mail, and 20 percent say they will vote early in person”.

Due to the above, FiveThirtyEight notes the Consequences Might Be Weird: “If this holds, it would mean votes cast on Election Day would skew heavily toward Trump, and votes cast by mail would skew heavily toward Biden. This has serious implications for … well, democracy. First, Trump could argue the mail ballots (which, remember, could account for most of Biden’s votes) were fraudulent and thus should not be counted. Although it’s unlikely they’d actually be thrown out, this would damage the credibility of the election in the eyes of many Trump supporters. Second, it could mean the first votes counted on election night will be disproportionately good for Trump, who might claim victory based on incomplete returns. It might not be until days later, after a good chunk of the Democratic-leaning mail vote is counted, that Biden pulls ahead.

Let’s do a quick-and-dirty exercise to show what I mean. In the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll overall, Biden led Trump by 9 percentage points among registered voters. But Biden led Trump by 63 points (!) among voters who planned to vote by mail, and Trump led Biden by 33 points among voters who planned to vote in person on Election Day. If this kind of partisan split occurred in every state, Biden would win the mail vote in all 50 states — from Alabama to Wyoming — and Trump would win the Election Day vote in all 50.”

The above scenario in all 50 states isn’t likely, but it is likely in some states. The election day results could easily swing Florida, Pennsylvania, and Michigan and that could swing the election night apparent winner. Trump will howl and his supporters will believe him. Some of my friends believe Trump will refuse to stand down, but I am sure it would not come to that. A bluff in that direction, however, is another matter. Chaos could last for days or even weeks in such a scenario with severe consequences on the stock market as well as potential riots which Trump would then try to pin on Biden.

Read more …

Shift.

Trump Approval Rises Among Black, Hispanic Voters (Hill)

President Trump’s support among black voters rose 9 percentage points amid the Republican National Convention, a new Hill-HarrisX poll finds. Twenty-four percent of registered black voters in the Aug. 22-25 survey, which included the first two days of the convention, said they approve of the job Trump is doing as president, while 76 percent said they disapprove. That is up 9 points from the previous survey conducted Aug. 8-11, where the President received 15 percent support among this group. The survey found support among Hispanic voters also grew by 2 percentage points, from 30 percent in the last poll to 32 percent in this most recent survey. Forty-four percent of overall registered voters in the Aug. 22-25 survey approved of Trump’s job as president, a 1 percentage point dip from the last poll.


Eighty-two percent of Republican voters approve of Trump, a 1 point increase from the last poll, while 18 percent disapprove. Eighty-seven percent of Democratic voters disapprove of Trump along with 64 percent of independent voters. The survey found the president remains underwater with suburban voters and urban voters, at 42 percent support each. His support remains steady among rural voters, at 53 percent. Thursday, Trump officially accepted the 2020 Republican presidential nomination during the last night of the RNC. The Hill-HarrisX poll was conducted online among 2,861 registered voters between Aug. 22-25. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.83 percentage points.

Read more …

Leaking secret docs to the press has become far too normal.

DNI Ratcliffe Declassifying More Russia-Collusion, Media-Leak Documents (ZH)

John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, told Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that he has been coordinating with US Attorney John Durham and plans to soon declassify more documents related to the Trump-Russia probe. “I pledged to a bipartisan group of senators that I would look at all of the underlying intelligence surrounding the intelligence community’s assessment of Russia’s interference and this idea of Trump-Russia collusion, but I’m not going to prejudice John Durham’s work in connection with that, so we’ve had to coordinate with his office about the timing of that. But I’m optimistic that I’ll be declassifying additional documents soon.”

As a reminder, Durham, the US attorney for Connecticut, is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into several aspects of the Obama administration’s surveillance activities against Trump associates. Ratcliffe went on, referring to Durham’s review of the investigation: “He’s looking at the same documents that I am,” “He’s not sharing his findings or the work that he’s doing. But I’m coordinating with him to make sure that he has the intelligence documents that he needs to do his work. And what I don’t want to do is declassify something that might prejudice his work. So we’re going to have to coordinate as we go forward with the completion of his work with my ability to declassify documents.”

Additionally, Ratcliffe, said Sunday he has filed multiple “crimes reports” regarding alleged leaks of classified information to the media. “When I become aware of intelligence community information that is disclosed unlawfully, I do what’s called a crimes report. I’ve done that now on a number of occasions, and so those investigations are moving forward.” He said that the leaks were “for political purposes” to create what he said is a false narrative “that somehow Russia is a greater national security threat than China.”

Read more …

“The brunt of the asset quality pressures might not have come through yet because of the still existing moratorium on the repayment of loans as well as its interest payments..”

China’s Mega Banks Lost Billions Of Dollars In Profit As Bad Loans Rise (CNBC)

China’s five largest banks reported their biggest profit declines in at least a decade as they brace for further increases in bad loans in an economy weakened by the coronavirus pandemic. The five lenders — Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and Bank of Communications — released their latest financial report cards last week. All five posted at least 10% year-on-year declines in profit for the first half of 2020 as they set aside more funds for potential loan losses in the coming months — much like many banks around the world. “The banks have been asked to … perform ‘national service.’

They’ve been asked to support the economy at the expense of their own operational strength,” said Jason Tan, research analyst at CreditSights, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday. Chinese banks, among the world’s largest by assets, have been placed at the front line of the government’s effort to soften the economic blow on households and businesses. Authorities in Beijing reportedly asked financial institutions to sacrifice 1.5 trillion yuan ($219 billion) in profits this year to help companies by lowering lending rates and deferring repayments on loans. The Chinese economy — the world’s second largest — is expected to grow just 1% this year as measures to contain the coronavirus hit global economic activity, according to the IMF.


That would be China’s weakest growth in at least 40 years, according to data by the fund. China, the first country to be hit by the fast-spreading coronavirus, has shown some signs of economic recovery. But the effect of the economic slowdown on banks have not materialized fully, said Tan. “The brunt of the asset quality pressures might not have come through yet because of the still existing moratorium on the repayment of loans as well as its interest payments,” he explained. “So, these will probably come in the second half, if not in the first half of 2021 when the moratorium lifts in March 2021,” he added.

Read more …

Are Merkel and the EU just waiting for the shooting to start? Ironic that Erdogan ignored, if not insulted, Kemal Ataturk when he made the Hagia Sophia a mosque, but now lays a wreath at his tomb.

Erdogan Criticizes Greece As Turkey Marks 1922 Victory (K.)

Turkey marked the 98th anniversary of the decisive War of Independence battle against Greek forces Sunday as the threat of a new conflict with Athens looms in the eastern Mediterranean. “Turkey’s struggle for independence and future continues today as well,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a message to commemorate Victory Day. “It is absolutely not a coincidence that those who seek to exclude us from the eastern Mediterranean are the same invaders as the ones who attempted to invade our homeland a century ago.” In recent weeks, Turkish and Greek forces have engaged in a series of cat-and-mouse military exercises in the seas between Cyprus and the Greek island of Crete.

The confrontation was sparked when Turkey sent a research vessel accompanied by warships to search for gas and oil reserves. Greece, a member of the European Union, claims the waters are part of its continental shelf and has enlisted the support of the 27-nation bloc, which has condemned Turkey’s “illegal activities” and warned of potential sanctions against Ankara. Turkey says Greece and others are denying its rights to explore for energy resources in the Mediterranean. Greece and Cyprus have recently been joined by France, Italy and the United Arab Emirates in carrying out naval and aerial war games in the region. On Saturday, Turkey began its own military maneuvers until Sept. 11 off its southern coast.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry also released cockpit footage of what it said were Turkish jets in mock dogfights with Greek F-16s between Crete and Cyprus. “No one should have any doubts about our resolve in this matter and our unshakeable belief in victory,” Erdogan said. In an interview with broadcaster AHaber on Saturday, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Greece extending its territorial waters from six to 12 nautical miles would be a “cause for war.” Earlier this week, Athens announced plans to extend its maritime border with Italy to 12 nautical miles. Erdogan laid a wreath at the tomb of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Ankara later Sunday. Ataturk led the Turkish troops in the independence struggle following World War I and went on to establish modern Turkey.

Read more …

Cancel culture wherever you look.

Assange Travesty Continues (Craig Murray)

The travesty that is Julian Assange’s extradition hearing resumes fully on 7 September at the Old Bailey. I shall be abandoning my own legal team and going down to London to cover it again in full, for an expected three weeks. How this is going to work at the Old Bailey, I do not know. Covid restrictions presumably mean that the numbers in the public gallery will be tiny. As of now, there is no arrangement for Julian’s friends and family in place. It looks like 4am queuing is in prospect. By 7 September it will be six months since I applied to resume my membership of the National Union of Journalists. I STILL have not the slightest idea who objected, or what the grounds were for objection. I have not heard from the NUJ for months.

A senior official of an international journalists’ organisation has told us that he inquired, and learnt that the NUJ national executive has considered my application and set up a sub-committee to report. But if so, why is this secret, why have I not been informed, and why am I not allowed to know what the objection is? I find this all very sinister. At this stage it is not paranoid to wonder whose hand is behind this. The practical effect of this is that without NUJ membership I cannot access a Press card, and avail myself of whatever media arrangements are in place for the Assange hearing (just as I was kept out of most of the Salmond trial). I have now reached the stage where I would like to take legal action against the NUJ, but the finances are beyond me.

I am not going to ask you to donate because we are going to need all our resources for the contempt case against me, which the Crown drags out. I shall be writing next week about my own case and that hearing earlier this week. I would just note now that the “virtual hearing” is entirely unsatisfactory and unfair on defendants. There was at least one occasion when my QC agreed with a suggestion of the judge when I would have instructed them not to had I been, as I should normally have been, seated near them in court and able to instruct.

Read more …

Yes, forest destruction is terrible, but you can’t link it to COVID19, because we don’t know where it comes from. You’re just destroying a perfectly viable argument.

Rampant Destruction Of Forests ‘Will Unleash More Pandemics’ (O.)

Scientists are to warn world leaders that increasing numbers of deadly new pandemics will afflict the planet if levels of deforestation and biodiversity loss continue at their current catastrophic rates. A UN summit on biodiversity, scheduled to be held in New York next month, will be told by conservationists and biologists there is now clear evidence of a strong link between environmental destruction and the increased emergence of deadly new diseases such as Covid-19. Rampant deforestation, uncontrolled expansion of farming and the building of mines in remote regions – as well as the exploitation of wild animals as sources of food, traditional medicines and exotic pets – are creating a “perfect storm” for the spillover of diseases from wildlife to people, delegates will be told.


Almost a third of all emerging diseases have originated through the process of land use change, it is claimed. As a result, five or six new epidemics a year could soon affect Earth’s population. “There are now a whole raft of activities – illegal logging, clearing and mining – with associated international trades in bushmeat and exotic pets that have created this crisis,” said Stuart Pimm, professor of conservation at Duke University. “In the case of Covid-19, it has cost the world trillions of dollars and already killed almost a million people, so clearly urgent action is needed.” It is estimated that tens of millions of hectares of rainforest and other wild environments are being bulldozed every year to cultivate palm trees, farm cattle, extract oil and provide access to mines and mineral deposits. This leads to the widespread destruction of vegetation and wildlife that are hosts to countless species of viruses and bacteria, most unknown to science. Those microbes can then accidentally infect new hosts, such as humans and domestic livestock.

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle August 31 2020

Viewing 16 posts - 1 through 16 (of 16 total)
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  • #62758

    Bruce Davidson Iran 1964   • Japanese Wear Face Masks, But The Main Reason Is Just To Fit In (Asahi) • US Floats Idea Of Early Approval For Event
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle August 31 2020]

    #62759
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Pablo Picasso Girl Before A Mirror 1932

    …never seen so many comments on a piece of art posted here; wonderful, wonderful, wonderful…
    😉

    Bruce Davidson Iran 1964

    …that’s got to be an amazing/wonderful collaboration…
    Love that shot…
    Iran is awesome; leave her the fuck alone…

    #62760
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Ilargi;
    Did you see the new reports about Rembrandt’s painting; Head of a bearded Man?
    After 40 years “they” finally figured out it’s genuine!!!!!!
    How ’bout them apples… 😉

    #62761
    zerosum
    Participant

    lies/frustration/disappointment leads to demonstration
    “The decline of upward mobility in one chart”
    More charts:

    The Decline of Upward Mobility in One Chart

    the changes in size for different income classes from 1967 to 2016.
    In 1967 only 6% of people made over $108.5 K and were considered upper well to do middle class
    Now, in 2016, 33% make over $108.5 K and because of inflation that is the amount needed to keep your head above water and you cannot have the same upper well to do middle class lifestyle as in 1967.

    #62762

    Ilargi;
    Did you see the new reports about Rembrandt’s painting; Head of a bearded Man?

    I did. What struck me is that it is the size of a postcard.

    #62764
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    Iran 1964: A charming moment in time. I am appreciating the significance of choosing those high heeled shoes for a walk through the unpaved town square. Young women (am assuming they are young by the height and color of those heels) expressing their individuality, and perhaps even “pushing the envelope”. The sheep laying peacefully in one corner and a group of young men fixated on the ladies, some things never change. I admit to using a good pair of heels for the same purpose.

    Moderna! Where greed and narcissism thrive. Socialize the launch/research with DARPA funds and then privatize all the profits – which will be obscene because “free market!” Why are we being trained to fear Bernie delivering Socialism and not these dishonest cheating Capitalist corporate thieves?

    Mish is half right.

    Julian Assange’s imprisonment and upcoming extradition hearing clearly displays the evil that is HERE NOW. Take notice of the dire consequences for those who dare reveal hidden truths. Despite your political leanings, remember what happened to Lt. Col. Vindman and his family. Law and order! This would be a good place to direct excess unsettled energy, in educating yourself about exactly what went down and what is coming.

    #62765
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    US Floats Idea Of Early Approval For Eventual COVID19 Vaccine (ST)

    The article which Sumac Carol recommended yesterday, by Stephen Harrod Buhner, provides a good overview of the COVID-19 situation, including vaccines:

    Understandably, there is tremendous political and social pressure to create a vaccine quickly. Many vaccine experts are worried that this will create “a rush to market” that will fail to identify or even recognize the range and extent of the vaccine’s side effects – and there are always side effects. Nor is there any way to know how effective it will be or how long it will last. (As an example, in any given year the flu vaccine’s effectiveness runs from around 9 percent to less than 70 percent, depending on the age of the person getting it and how well the vaccine matches the current influenza virus.) This is why vaccine trials normally last years, not the months that are being demanded for this viral pathogen. (The HPV vaccine took fifteen years to develop; the one for chickenpox twenty-eight.)

    Eventually, a potential vaccine will have to be tested on people. That means subjecting healthy people to injections of new vaccines which may have a range of side effects, including death. Then, sooner or later, people will have to be exposed to the potentially deadly coronavirus to see how effective the vaccine is (if it is a challenge trial). There are a number of ethical concerns about this. And normally, since trials occur in three stages, that is, Phases I, II, and III it, again, usually takes, and should for safety’s sake take, years to go through them all – the record so far is four years for the mumps vaccine.

    https://www.stephenharrodbuhner.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/covid-19-2.update.txt.pdf

    #62766
    Dr. D
    Participant

    CDC ran through and fixed their data, and it turns out the Covid death rate is 6%. So they were right. …Oh wait: it was that only 6% of reported COVID deaths were real and not caused by extreme old age and serious underlying conditions. That math that nobody wants is 99.96% survival rate (40 per 100,000) x 0.06 = 2.4 deaths per 100,000. That is, 0.0024% A 99.998% survival rate. Cross-checked by the average age of death which is near 80. Statistically, that means getting Covid ADDS 3 years to your life, that’s how old its victims are.

    Golly, since suicide from unemployment and despair is one of the highest causes of death in America, do you think we might get 2.4 additional deaths per U.S. city due to complete lockdown and massive unemployment while removing all family and social supports? Yup. But we don’t even need that, since their deadly lockdown STOPPED NOTHING. When penetration crossed 1% — probably in January — everyone still got it. Like I said. Like the CDC said. The masks did nothing. Like I said. Like Fauci said. Like the AAPS said. So thanks to lockdown, they have killed far in excess of the virus itself. Like I said. Not according to me, according to the CDC, simply assembling their numbers, because I am literate and can read the little black squiggles. That were published by the official scientific sources you say are authoritative and he-who-must-be-obeyed.

    Don’t expect to see it in the news. We gots another million or three to kill. Voluntarily. And another million businesses to destroy. Voluntarily. And the lives that go with those businesses, owner and employee alike. To steal all their wealth to give to a dozen monopoly oligarchs. With your help and compliance, citizen. Thank you. All liquor stores and casinos are open, all churches and temples are closed. The deadly riots are proceeding wonderfully, and human rights considered normal for the last thousand years vanish. Being human itself vanishes. Only fear remains. It must last until we cure death.

    Thanks to the unthinking, unquestioning, unscientific playing along, the totalitarian controls are falling into place not to kill a paltry few, clinging on the edge of life, but to kill the full hundred million, to shut off food and medicine worldwide, fill the prisons, as always with this group, and they are quite public about it, but as we see, they’re already well underway with the eugenics extermination of the poor and uncompliant, population control, and wealth grab.

    Big Brother will be pleased.

    http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=240125

    “The CDC admits, in their own data, that over 5,100 accidents, suicides and poisonings are counted as “Covid19” deaths — which is outright fraud.”

    That is, on that one basis alone, 1 in every 30 deaths was fake. If I screwed up 1 in 30 orders at Taco Bell, I’d be fired. If 3% of the register ended up in my pocket every night, I’d be in jail. Not these guys. They’re “Experts.” The million people they killed with their equally bad math is an “accident”, old chap. You understand. Golf at 3? We can go hit some peasants with clubs and call it an “accident.” The media will blame the caddy for not wearing a helmet, and the people will applaud the members and condemn the innocent dead. The sanctity of Science is upheld. All is good in the world.

    itBurns
    https://i.etsystatic.com/5756153/r/il/408505/848225844/il_794xN.848225844_r6g1.jpg

    Can we please stop now?

    #62767
    zerosum
    Participant

    EXPERTS
    Sooooo we, at TAE have enough wisdom to see WHAT is happening?
    We even have a few clues as to what will happen?
    What we don’t know is WHY and WHO.
    I know who is not causing these things to happen.
    The blue collar workers, and the students are out in the street demonstrating because they want change.
    That leaves us with the educated elites as the enablers guiding our political leaders.

    Freezing, smoking, drying, canning the bounty from my garden, bulk buying, fishing and hunting makes me feel secure and satisfied.

    #62768
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    Can we please stop now?

    That’s a quote from one of the most amazing movies ever made, Night of the Iguana. A desperate, nearly broken Hannah Jelkes utters one prayer: “Dear God…Can we please stop now?” I am forever hopelessly in love with Deborah Kerr for her performance in that movie.

    #62769
    Huskynut
    Participant

    We’re looking at the vaccine thing exactly backwards. We already have a well-studied mechanism of producing effective antibodies with minimal risk to healthy individuals – its the virus.
    Sure, a well-tested, working vaccine could be useful for stimulating antibodies in higher-risk individuals.
    Meantime, take every healthy person who consents. Expose them to the virus (may as well use one of the weakest strains). Quarantine them for 10 days with regular medical monitoring by phone while their immune system does it’s business. Supply them with groceries etc so they don’t need to go out. Perhaps even give all prophylactic treatment with HCQ, Zinc etc. For the unlikely 0.04% who get quite ill, be ready to move them into hospital care. After 10 days, release them from quarantine with a badge allowing free movement, no mask etc etc. Which provides the incentive for healthy people to take a minor risk.
    The ethics of doing this would be no worse (I’d argue far better) than the ethics of deploying a vaccine that by definition has received vastly less testing/scrutiny than the virus itself.

    #62770
    sumac.carol
    Participant

    Huskynut- I understand that you can’t beat naturally- achieved immunity (as opposed to immunity achieved thru a vaccine). However, the challenge is that the virus mutates, making immunity a more challenging issue. Recall that herd immunity is never achieved for the common cold because of the variations.
    Recall that the guy (I forget his name and too tired from harvesting grapes to find it) who correctly predicted there would be no vaccine for HIV says that effective treatment will likely be our best option. I guess we’ll see.

    #62771
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    I did. What struck me is that it is the size of a postcard.

    Wow. That I did not know; a postcard, amazing…

    #62772
    John Day
    Participant

    I currently think the best course through this pandemic is cheap paper tests a couple of times a week, and treating everybody who is both positive and gets a fever, or is at higher risk, or just wants to be treated without having a fever. Hcq/Zn (+/- azithromycin or doxycycline) or ivermectin/Zn/doxycycline, or even a synthesis of the two, which is a viable option, also.

    Please look at minutes 2-17 of RFK Jr last week in Germany, at the press conference before the rally. Robert Kennedy Jr is a decent and honest human, who is a proponent of safe vaccines for children.

    Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Holds a Press Conference in Berlin After Launching CHD’s Europe Chapter

    #62773
    Huskynut
    Participant

    @sumac.carol – I agree the virus mutates, though haven’t seen any studies showing what extent antibodies from one strain protect against a different strain. Given studies showing some T-cell immunity to Covid having been produced from exposure to other coronoviruses, it’s likely there will be some cross-over immunity, but we just don’t know.
    But mutation is very likely to effect the efficacy of vaccines in a similar way to natural immunity. So comparing my proposed strategy to any “wait for the vaccine” strategy (which is what the NZ government has just publicly said is their official strategy) seems a “like for like” proposal in my view.
    With a couple of additional advantages:
    – it could be commenced immediately, as opposed to incurring lockdown costs + subsequent vaccination costs
    – seeing increasing numbers of people with “Covid recovered/immunity” badges would help counter the off-the-chart fear/aversion shown by multiple polls, where the majority of people have a completely distorted idea of the stats and risk because all the see/read/experience reinforces the negative side of the risk equation

    #62774
    Huskynut
    Participant

    @JohnDay
    THANK YOU. That RFK Jr video is extraordinary.

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