No Agenda Episode 1376 - "Dead Puppies"

  No Agenda Episode 1376 - "Dead Puppies"
    "Dead Puppies"
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  Credits
    "Dead Puppies"
    Executive Producers:
      Sir Earthbound Astronaut of the Agarthic Realm
      Sir Walk-Man, Duke of the Buckeye!
      Sir Boseman of Cape Fear
      Sir Dirt Farmer
      Sir Goodbook of the Escarpment
      Nina Jurewicz
      Katie Olson
      Sir Kit Bored
      Bored Stupid
      Andrew
      Sir Render
      Kamra Dopps
      patrick watson
      Borislav Marinov
      Mike Keeler
      Christin Tsutsui
    Associate Executive Producers:
      Sir Patrick Coble, The Duke of The South and Dame Sarah
      Larusso
      Colin Preston's Wife's Hood to Coast Running Team
      Charles VandeSande
      Sir Davey of the Sooner State
      Darius Gandhi
      Dan Scalese
    1376 Club Members:
    Become a member of the 1377 Club, support the show here
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    Title Changes
      Sir Mike Keeler -> Baronet
    Knights & Dames
      Laura -> Dame Toonces, the SQL Data Queen
      Courtney Scalese -> Dame Courtney the Douchebag Dame
      Seth Klann (Klon) -> Sir Earthbound Astronaut of the Agarthic Realm
      David Boseman -> Sir Boseman of Cape Fear
      Jason Bybel -> Sir Goodbook of the Escarpment
      Joshua Schmidt -> Sir Kit Bored
      Mike Keeler - Today
      James Cobel - Sir James
    Art By: Koob the Boob
    End of Show Mixes: Rexo - Gucci Dragons - Sound Guy Steve - Tidewater Architect
    Engineering, Stream Management & Wizardry
      Mark van Dijk - Systems Master
      Ryan Bemrose - Program Director
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    Chapters: Dreb Scott
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  Cover Art
    Art By: Koob the Boob
  Shownotes
    The Testing Scam
      2 tests cvs
      1 scheduled at DFW rapid 1 hour ($250)
      Got it Monday AM
      Asked for at check in test and declaration
      Empty at DFW
      Upon arrival
      ONLY PASSPORT!
      In hotel 2 tests
        10 minute antigen 54 euros
        1 hour PCR 250 euros
    EU Report
      Complete media silence on vaccines, masks and lockdowns
      6 months no government
      Brinks truck 67 million
      BBC stones back to back
      Charlie Watts unique jazz style and rhythm
      New DJ's afraid of social media slams
      AFG is BIG News
    FDA Approval
      Core FDA approval issue
        It seems the “approval” is just for them to use a new brand name, and to get a boost in sales by saying the vaccine is approved.
        But they won’t use the brand name until the CDC’s ACIP committee places the vaccine on the official schedule - which is the trigger to ensure the pharmaceutical company isn’t liable for any damages for the rest of time (under the NCVIA act of 1986). Until that point (which won’t happen until the “emergency” is over, or the vaccine is FDA approved for children and babies, they will continue to inject the “Pfizer” version of the same vaccine. The Pfizer version is covered by the Emergency Use Authorization and therefore is protected from liability by the PREP act.
        The Best Quote:
        "FDA did not refer this application to the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Committee (VRBPAC) because our review of the information submitted to this BLA did not raise concerns or controversial issues that would have benefited from an advisory committee discussion."
        Another
        "Based on these data, and review of manufacturing information regarding product quality and consistency, FDA concluded that it is reasonable to believe that Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine may be effective. "
      Comirnaty | European Medicines Agency
      Pfizer FDA Clarification
      The Pfizer vaccine’s brand name, Comirnaty, is weird for a reas
      It's Pronounced Koe-mir'-na-tee. How The Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine's Name Came To Be
      Does the FDA think these data justify the first full approval of a covid-19 vaccine?
        August 23, 2021
        The FDA should demand adequate, controlled studies with long term follow up, and make data publicly available, before granting full approval to covid-19 vaccines, says Peter Doshi
        On 28 July 2021, Pfizer and BioNTech posted updated results for their ongoing phase 3 covid-19 vaccine trial. The preprint came almost a year to the day after the historical trial commenced, and nearly four months since the companies announced vaccine efficacy estimates “up to six months.”
        But you won’t find 10 month follow-up data here. While the preprint is new, the results it contains aren’t particularly up to date. In fact, the paper is based on the same data cut-off date (13 March 2021) as the 1 April press release, and its topline efficacy result is identical: 91.3% (95% CI 89.0 to 93.2) vaccine efficacy against symptomatic covid-19 through “up to six months of follow-up.”
        The 20 page preprint matters because it represents the most detailed public account of the pivotal trial data Pfizer submitted in pursuit of the world’s first “full approval” of a coronavirus vaccine from the Food and Drug Administration. It deserves careful scrutiny.
        Link
      Experimental mRNA HIV Vaccine Set To Start Human Trials Next Month
    ADE and the Israel Problem
      Original Antigenic Sin” first appear in a major elite media outlet
        Link
        Antigenic drift - Wikipedia
      The Vaccinated Are Worried and Scientists Don’t Have Answers - Bloomberg
      Alex Berenson on Israel numbers
        New Israeli preprint shows natural immunity to #SARSCoV2 is FAR superior to the artificial kind - vaccinated people were 13x as likely to be infected and 27x to have symptomatic infections as a matched cohort that was previously infected. And this is with Delta dominant.
    Mandates
      Meat Processors no longer USDA Stamped
        ITM
        As of 330p today we can no longer apply the mark of inspection to our product. We’re putting the usda and FSIS on blast for this coercion and could use some help. We’ve got some studies questioning the efficacy of masks but would like to add to the stack of info we can throw at them. Can you throw me any links to stuff you’ve found? Headed to no agenda social later to blast it out.
        Stay Dangerous!
      Swiss airlines makes Covid vaccination compulsory for pilots and cabin crew
      1.6m Moderna doses withdrawn in Japan over contamination
      Delta Air Lines is raising health insurance premiums for unvaccinated employees by $200 a month to cover higher Covid costs
      Alex Berenson on Israel numbers
        New Israeli preprint shows natural immunity to #SARSCoV2 is FAR superior to the artificial kind - vaccinated people were 13x as likely to be infected and 27x to have symptomatic infections as a matched cohort that was previously infected. And this is with Delta dominant.
      Illinois Hospital shot required
        Biggest thing: now that Pfizer is FDA approved any patients who are admitted for any medical reason (even just for overnight monitoring) and is undiagnosed will be given the first Pfizer shot and make an appointment for the second.
      New Mexico hospital workers protest vaccine mandates
      15 rescue dogs, including 10 puppies, killed by council in Australia over COVID-19 concerns
        A local government in the state of New South Wales in Australia faced criticism after reports surfaced they ordered 15 dogs killed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among shelter workers.
        On Sunday, The Sydney Morning Herald reported the Bourke Shire Council, located in the northern part of New South Wales, shot and killed 15 impounded dogs so volunteers at another shelter wouldn't travel to pick up the animals. Of the 15 dogs, 10 were puppies, and one had just given birth to a litter.
        "This is just absolutely heartbreaking – to think of these lost or abandoned animals not even having a chance to find a loving forever home,” said Emma Hurst, a state lawmaker from the Animal Justice Party.
        The council said that the pound with the animals was at capacity, and two of the dogs were aggressive toward each other and staff. They added that the person that rehomes dogs wasn't available before they decided to euthanize the dogs.
        Link
      More than 40% of Employees Support Higher Insurance Rates for Unvaccinated
      Dallas Cowboys Camera Man Ivermectin BOTG
        This is Sir Doghouse Reiley of the Big Sleep
        I work as a camera operator, mostly sports. I am scheduled to work the Dallas Cowboys Houston Texans game as a camera operator on Saturday. Since I am not vaccinated I had to show a negative covid test. I was scheduled to work on the sidelines but since I am not vaccinated I was moved to a hard camera. Then I was informed wednesday I would need to show a negative covid test by thursday 9 am. I went to a drive through covid testing site, once a corner gas station that is now shuttered. Two weeks ago the place was always empty when I drove by now the line is an one and half hour wait
        The guy came around to about 5 cars at a time and took your paper and a sample then went into a metal trailer. About 11 he came to my car and gave me a piece of paper with a big check by the Positive sign. He said "You are positive, Stay Safe"
        Being Covid positive I went to the FLCCC.net website. Front Line Covid Care site
        On their website is a list of doctors who will prescribe Ivermectin and a list of pharmacies that will fill it. I called my local Kroger Pharmacy and they said they would not fill it
        I called a local doctor about 11:15. Got a 2 Pm Phone appointment ($200) and by 4pm I had my Ivermectin ($50)
        Alas I got yanked from the Cowboys game which is depressing in light of the fact that CBS will no longer employ unvaccinated gig workers starting august 28 and Fox sports will not hire unvaccinated gig workers starting in sept. They used to pay for Covid Testing before games. CBS would hire a full time nurse to travel to gigs to test workers.
      French Boycotting the Passport Sanitaire, but eating picnic lunches on the streets in front of cafes
    Healthcare take-down
      Healthcare staff being rile dup against unvaccinated
        I work for the university of Pittsburgh medical center. We received this email last week, which I consider to be thinly-veiled attack on the unvaccinated. The leadership here gives the appearance of green-lighting staff anger towards patients. In all my career, it has never been tolerated to treat a patient differently if their disease process is a result of lifestyle choices. We don’t do this to drug addicts, smokers, gangbangers, seatbelt refuseniks, even cop-shooters. Yet a system with 20,000 unvaccinated employees (many of whom are nurses and doctors) feels entitled to send such a gaslighting email.
        This is a prelude to vigilantism. Beware of the coming war on the unvaxxed.
      NHS wards 'full because:
        I also asked why the wards are so overrun especially as numbers are dropping.
        Covid wards have half the beds taken out and are staffed by half the usual numbers of nurses. This is to adhere to social distancing measures.
        Everyone who goes into hospital is tested for Covid regardless of why they are admitted. If they test positive, they go into the Covid ward.
        This leads to overcrowding as there are not enough beds and they are sticking people in them who don't need to be in there.
        Its a situation they have created themselves.
    VAERS
      CDC warns of uptick of rare polio-like illness in kids
      BBC presenter Lisa Shaw, 44, died due to complications caused by AstraZeneca Covid vaccine three weeks after she had first jab, coroner rules
    Mass Formation
      Stop that! It’s not Tourette’s but a new type of mass sociogenic illness
    Bat vs Lab
      New U.S. Intelligence Report Doesn’t Provide Definitive Conclusion on Covid-19 Origins
    Supply Chains
      Executives warn of growing container ship shortages
      Four States Dole Out Direct Payments Amid Ongoing Stimulus Uncertainty
    AFG
      A message from the spook community on fighting season
        Adam, John,
        ITM from a member of the Gitmo Nation Spook Community. First a little credentialism: I am currently a DIA officer working somewhere in the national capital region. I hold a Masters of Science in strategic intelligence from the National Intelligence University and over the course of my 25+ year career I've worked at FBI, NGA, overseas combatant command J2s, and various other military and intelligence elements.
        "Fighting Season" is very much real, and the various tribal entities in that part of the world have been practicing this for - well, basically forever. The regional climate and significant snowfall during winter months, combined with rugged mountainous terrain, make many areas impassable and therefore conflict and warfare are put "on hold" until spring time. Concerning the statement on Sunday's show about the Taliban being at "the height of their power", I'd say this is accurate with respect the apex of this year's season.
        Thank you both for your courage,
        Anonymous
      RT -- “Unfortunately, we can’t post pictures or videos right now, it would violate the evac agreement between Russia and the US.”
    Joe and Kamala
      China Undercuts Kamala Harris' 1 Million Vaccine Donation to Vietnam
    Flat Earth
      Ball Believers
    Big Tech
      YouTube COVID-19 medical misinformation policy
        The safety of our creators, viewers, and partners is our highest priority. We look to each of you to help us protect this unique and vibrant community. It’s important you understand our Community Guidelines, and the role they play in our shared responsibility to keep YouTube safe. Take the time to carefully read the policy below. You can also check out this page for a full list of our guidelines.
        YouTube doesn't allow content about COVID-19 that poses a serious risk of egregious harm.
        YouTube doesn't allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts local health authorities’ or the World Health Organization’s (WHO) medical information about COVID-19. This is limited to content that contradicts WHO or local health authorities’ guidance on:
        Treatment
        Prevention
        Diagnosis
        Transmission
        Social distancing and self isolation guidelines
        The existence of COVID-19
    Build the wall!
      Texas Defeats Biden: SCOTUS Rules Biden Must Restart ‘Remain In Mexico’ Policy
    Climate Change
      TN Flooding from David
        Afternoon Gents,
        Blame it on Global Warming, etc. The cause of the deadly flooding in Waverly, TN was man-made and mother nature. I am the same guy that told you about the ABC control state contracts. Before that I was in the fire service for 25 years. Here's what happened:
        The one bridge under the railroad tracks became filled with debris.
        The water was trapped on the north side of the tracks, creating a moderate sized lake.
        The levee(railroad tracks) washed out and released the water.
        The rest is on CNN, Fox and others.
        Brief history:
        Certain neighborhoods in Waverly are regularly flooded every 3-5 years.
        The residents are trained what to do when the water rises above a certain level. Raise furniture, appliances, etc. They all have Go Bags.
        Because of this training, many waited too long to get out and we had many losses of life. Some of my friends are gone.
        I was out at 5am helping get people ready to move. I heard the roaring of the water before we saw it. Everyone I helped got out safe, but they lost everything. Houses, boats, cars, medicine, etc.
        I worked a little of New Orleans during Katrina. Waverly reminds me of Katrina.
        17 inches of rain in 6 hours.
        Love and light.
      Taliban vow to tackle CLIMATE CHANGE
        Taliban spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi says they want to play a global role
        The terror group wants to help tackle climate change and security, he claims
        The Taliban is trying to project a more modern and 'inclusive' image
        But executions and rights crackdowns have already been reported in regime
        Link
    STORIES
      Executives warn of growing container ship shortages
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Thu, 26 Aug 2021 19:01
        Container shipping updates
        Sign up to myFT Daily Digest to be the first to know about Container shipping news.
        For months the world's largest shipping groups have grappled with container shortages and a lack of berths in ports, as seesawing demand and Covid-19 heaped pressure on global logistics. Now another shortage is occupying the industry's attention: that of the ships themselves.
        Executives have warned that, despite a recent surge in orders for new vessels, the availability of container ships is likely to remain strained in coming years given soaring demand for their services and the complexity of retooling fleets for environmental reasons.
        Xavier Destriau, chief financial officer of Israel's Zim, one the world's largest shipping groups, said that the tight supply of vessels posed ''a potential major threat'' given that many companies have hesitated until this year to order new capacity, while many old ships are overdue for scrapping.
        ''We are looking at the potential risk of pressure on supply in terms of vessels,'' he said. ''We're talking three, four or five years along the line.''
        His warning was echoed by Andi Case, chief executive of Clarksons, the world's largest shipping broker, who said the number of shipyards globally had dropped by two-thirds since 2007 to about 115. ''We are miles off oversupplying the fleet,'' he said.
        Those shipyards still in operation have received a deluge of orders after container shipping groups raked in unprecedented profits over 2020-21, after surging demand for goods spurred a meteoric rise in freight rates from the second half of last year.
        Shipping groups have ordered vessels capable of carrying 3.2m 20-foot containers so far in 2021, the most in the year to date on record, according to Clarksons Research, its analytics arm.
        But there are concerns this will still not be nearly enough to meet global demand. New orders are equivalent to 20 per cent of the current fleet's capacity '-- up from around 10 per cent in 2019, but far below the 60 per cent level in 2007.
        A vessel shortage raises the prospect of persistently high freight costs, albeit lower than current exorbitant levels. The industry had been plagued by the opposite problem in the past decade with a glut of vessels straining profitability, leading to the collapse of South Korea's Hanjin Shipping and forcing consolidation.
        Some industry figures still privately express concerns about over-ordering, despite the increase in global demand, pointing to the shortage of container equipment and infrastructure bottlenecks as more pressing issues. But a lack of extra capacity would mean supply chains are even more vulnerable to one-off disruptions such as the Chinese port closures that have roiled global trade this year.
        Another reason for industry hesitancy is over the type of vessels to order given incoming environmental regulation.
        Global rules on energy efficiency that come in from 2023 have spurred interested in liquefied natural gas-powered ships, but orders have been stuck at the same percentage of total orders since October 2019.
        LNG reduces greenhouse gas emissions by about a quarter compared with traditional fuels but it is controversial because it locks in substantial emissions for 25 years. Environmental activists believe the industry needs to make a more radical leap to clean fuels such as green ammonia or hydrogen.
        Maersk, the world's largest container shipping group, has shied away from ordering LNG-powered vessels because of technological and regulatory uncertainty.
        But Destriau and Case argue shipping companies should embrace LNG and act now to reduce emissions rather than waiting for new technologies to arrive. Zim has signed long-term charter agreements for 20 LNG-fuelled vessels this year.
        ''Is it OK to wait 10 years to say 'maybe by then hydrogen will be ready'?'' said Case. ''The drive should be to eradicate the heavy fuel oil-powered ships.''
      Are incels a violent terrorist subculture, or a collection of disenfranchised, misguided souls who need compassion and treatment? '-- RT Op-ed
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Thu, 26 Aug 2021 12:25
        Chris Sweeney
        Chris Sweeney is an author and columnist who has written for newspapers such as The Times, Daily Express, The Sun and Daily Record, along with several international-selling magazines. Follow him on Twitter @Writes_Sweeney
        Chris Sweeney is an author and columnist who has written for newspapers such as The Times, Daily Express, The Sun and Daily Record, along with several international-selling magazines. Follow him on Twitter @Writes_Sweeney
        Britain has been rocked by a rare mass shooting, carried out by an incel. The US has already witnessed several attacks by incels. But why are they happening and are tougher laws the answer?
        A three-year old girl, her father, two passers-by, and the gunman's mother were murdered in cold blood in Plymouth, southwest England last week. Mainstream reports attributed the blame to Jake Davison identifying as an incel, a term short for involuntary celibate.
        According to them, the subculture is creating dangerous killers.
        As proof of how that narrative is being consumed by the public, an online petition was created to have incels formally recognised as a terrorist group in the UK. The direct link with terrorism was repeated by platforms such as Sky News and The Guardian, which wrote that previous shootings should have ''brought misogynist terrorism into the awareness of law enforcement around the world.''
        It's true there have been several high profile incidents, most notably when Eliot Rodger killed six people in a stabbing spree in California, back in 2014 and when Alek Minassian took 10 lives by driving into pedestrians in Toronto in 2018.
        But the reality is, incel culture is vastly misunderstood.
        RT.com spoke to academic and incel researcher Kyle Stewart, who has studied the movement as the focus of a masters degree in Homeland Security. He said: ''We should feel sorry for them, they seriously need help.''
        The term incel was created by a woman named Alana who started a love-shy forum in 1997, to detail her relationship troubles. In interviews, she admits to regretting coining the term that has taken on a life of its own.
        The first basic misconception is that incels are solely seeking sex, despite their name. Stewart, who's based in Texas, explained: ''It boils down to companionship, the feel of being hugged, being given love, they are missing that segment of relationship skills.There are some incels out in the world who have jobs and successful careers but can't seem to get a relationship.''
        Also on rt.com 6 people, including suspected gunman, killed in Plymouth shooting The reason why this is commonly linked back to sex by the mainstream media is a manifestation of the incels inability to adapt to normal life, particularly as teenagers and young adults. Whilst it's viewed mostly in a light-hearted fashion, there is a common perception that teenage boys should be chasing girls, and the inability to 'get' a girl is emasculating.
        Stewart added: ''Hollywood puts out these teenage movies, the ones where you've got to have sex by the age of 16, think of Superbad, those boys trying to get laid before they graduate high school. That's what incels think life is and how it works in the real world.''
        This pressure and expectation to lose one's virginity causes the first cracks to appear. The fundamental stage that sections of society fail to grasp though is the power of the internet. Those who are over-40 did not grow up in an online world and for the younger generation who don't succumb in the same way, it's difficult to appreciate what incels undergo.
        There is an entire global community based on Reddit, a social media and discussion website where incels complain of being 'black-pilled'.
        It's a term they use to describe how most of the media, medical journals, governments and articles reaffirm their way of thinking.
        Stewart said: ''They have a sense of stress and social anxiety, they feel they are being attacked and laughed at by people, they assume that's happening. If two girls are looking at their phones in a coffee shop and are laughing, one of these guys would think the girls are laughing at them. They misconstrue something that is totally benign and blow it out of proportion. They are incredibly self-conscious.They also feel that psychology in the current fashion is controlled by feminists and the left, so therefore it is against men entirely. Their online forums are echo chambers.''
        It's a self-enforcing cycle.
        As they develop more anxiety and paranoia, they retreat online, compounding their fears and pushing them to seek solace in ever darker corners of the internet. It's a pressure cooker waiting to explode.
        A key part of being an incel is self-loathing, which connects to their scale of looks, which goes from 1-10. At the top are males called 'Chads', who are tall, good looking and popular. Stewart feels a good example of that is male model Mark Vanderloo. By contrast, being short, wearing glasses and not being stereotypically good-looking results in lower marks.
        Also on rt.com UK police watchdog investigating cops over return of Plymouth shooter's gun & permit Stewart said: ''One is an ultimate incel, isolated and views that he is ugly, thinks he is sub-human and feels he cannot continue anymore.They have this LMS term, which is Looks, Money, Status and they think you need all three to find a relationship.''
        This continues online, as the incels start to consume more content that reaffirms their beliefs. In essence, they become brainwashed and unable to view reality as the rest of society does.
        Their parents are normally clueless to what their son has been consuming online, so in a few isolated cases, the person explodes, Stewart added: ''Video games aren't working, porn is not working, so where do they turn? Nobody can help, what can I do to get everyone to listen to me? I know, a mass shooting or get a few bombs to blow up a building. 'Listen to me, please!' is what they are saying, but they can't convey that in a regular manner, other than typing on a computer all day.
        Some of these guys can't deal with the stress anymore and I think that's what happened with Jake Davison in Plymouth. It sounded like he was under tons of stress. With this pandemic, male suicides have gone straight up, here in the US it's gotten bad as people have lost their jobs. Many people are now going to lose their homes as the eviction moratorium is about to end, so the stress will get worse.''
        A common theme is that incels tend to live with their parents into adulthood, often in a broken home and receive social security benefits. Both are true in the case of Davison. But it's not these similarities that are jumped on by the mainstream media and law enforcement, it's the incel link.
        Part of that is fed by another online subculture, which is against incels. The best known is the subreddit IncelTear. Users there target and call out incels, often with baseless accusations.
        Stewart recalls an incel meet-up in 2019: ''The first post that popped up on IncelTear was 'look at all these incels, these bastards are probably thinking about raping women'. But these guys were happy, reading books, showing Pokemon cards and doing their hobbies. It was all calm and peaceful but it was blown up out of proportion as if they were stereotypical paedophiles.''
        Also on rt.com Feds slap Ohio 'incel' with hate crime & weapons charges over alleged 'revenge slaughter' plot Another problem is infiltrators visit incel forums and post content to harm the subculture's reputation. Commonly they post insults or even illegal material like child porn and allow it to be discovered, creating more anger towards incels. They are then banned but either create new accounts or use VPNs to get around their IP address being blocked. Stewart said: ''Many of them are young teenage girls who have no idea who they are messing with, it is demonising incels.
        It's basically planting evidence.''
        As a result, incel websites end up moving servers and end up further underground, out of the gaze of parents, family and the authorities. The irony is that incel is a name that's becoming increasingly famous but exists already in another form.
        The Japanese documented this decades ago with Hikikomori, meaning social isolation. They noticed a sizeable amount of young people struggling with the pressure of expectation. Whether it was to be a success professionally or have a family, they couldn't cope and became hermits. So they withdrew and their issues became bigger. Stewart added: ''We have the same thing here in the US, we call them incels. It's a complete circle of destruction.''
        It appears Britain's police and security services are set to now crack down on incels. That would follow what happened in the US, after the mass shootings. Some incels regard Stephen Paddock, the gunman who carried out the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay attack in 2017, as a hero. That kind of worship is because they feel ignored and sadly viewed Paddock as making a stand (though Paddock himself was not part of the movement). It's clearly wrong and violence is never to be encouraged, but they are suffering extreme paranoia.
        Stewart explained: ''Another issue is the parents are out of touch with their kids and can't connect. On their forums they talk about things like a mom saying they are worthless as they don't do anything or have a job. Some parents don't help and just say it's hormones, and that they should talk to girls. And there's the media frenzy, in some of these shootings you see 'incel' being picked up within an hour of the shooting, even before the evidence from law enforcement comes out, they tell their audiences that there is an incel problem.''
        For example, the teenager Kyle Rittenhouse who shot dead two protesters during a BLM rally in Kenohsa last year was linked to being an incel, but had a girlfriend.
        Stewart feels censorship will cause more incels to radicalise.
        Also on rt.com Canadian prosecutors charge suspect behind truck attack on Muslim family with 'terrorism' He said: ''Some countries Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand have started clamping down on free speech, they are arresting people for making jokes on Facebook. After the Christchurch shooting, New Zealand set up a law saying if you own the live stream video on your computer, you will be charged with a felony, they charged two people for sharing it online. Many incels feel the government is spying on them. They are afraid of the free speech laws, so they're going more underground and untraceable.''
        There is no simple remedy to the issue. But using the full force of the law to scare incels seems like it may only do more damage than good. Violence and murder cannot be excused, neither can misogyny, but this behaviour doesn't occur in a vacuum.These young men are disenfranchised and feel there is no one to turn to.
        Proving just how fragile and naive they are, Stewart revealed: ''To incels being called a virgin is the ultimate insult, that reinforces the fact they won't have love or have a girlfriend. They want to have a life and a family.If someone says they self-identify as an incel, the problem is now you get so much scrutiny. You're called a paedophile, terrorist, criminal, sex offender, so they won't ask anyone for help.''
        Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
        The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
      New Mexico hospital workers protest vaccine mandates - NewsBreak
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Thu, 26 Aug 2021 11:41
        1 of 4SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) '-- Around 150 people protested in front of the New Mexico state capitol Friday, demanding an end to vaccine mandates for healthcare workers.
        Many protesters identified themselves as hospital workers '-- nurses, nursing assistants and clerical workers. Other attendees included correctional officers, retirees and children of healthcare workers.
        A state mandate requires nurses and other workers in high-risk environments to get vaccinated, and some hospitals have their own mandates.
        ''I believe the vaccine is harmful,'' said practical nurse Katrina Philpot, picketing along the road outside the capitol complex with a sign that read ''Healthcare workers deserve rights.''
        Philpot said the hospital she works at in Rio Rancho is requiring her to be vaccinated by Aug. 27 or be fired. She fears she won't qualify for medical and religious exemptions to the mandate.
        State employees, including prison guards, are required to get vaccines or submit to weekly testing. At least one prison guard has sued the state over the mandate.
        Supportive drivers honked as they passed, while those who disapproved yelled at the group.
        ___
        Attanasio is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.
      Experimental mRNA HIV Vaccine Set To Start Human Trials Next month | IFLScience
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        Thu, 26 Aug 2021 10:53
        Human trials for an experimental new HIV vaccine, the first to use mRNA after the success of the COVID-19 vaccines, are set to start next month.
        Devised by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and Scripps Research, this new approach will be tested using an mRNA vaccine by Moderna. Similar in concept to the biotech company's COVID-19 vaccine, the mRNA will be taken in by cells that produce specific (but harmless) proteins to stimulate the right immune response. This will train the immune system to fight the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
        According to the US National Institutes of Health Clinical Trial registry, the trial is set to start September 19 and will last until spring 2023. It will have 56 participants taking two slightly different mRNA vaccines. The participants have to be adults between 18 and 50 and be HIV-1 negative.
        Back in April, results from IAVI and Scripps' proof of principle concept for an HIV vaccine showed that there are ways to elicit a particular response from the human body. It was able to stimulate production of the immune cells needed to kickstart the process of generating antibodies against the virus. These are specialized blood proteins that can attach themselves to the spikes on the surface of HIV, neutralizing the virus before it can infect cells. This approach would work on fast-mutating different strains of HIV.
        HIV is responsible for the deadliest pandemic of the last 50 years and there is currently no permanent cure or vaccine available. The success of this new approach, following the success of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 mRNA vaccines '' the first to have been used in humans '' could be revolutionary in stopping the HIV pandemic. It could also be a starting point to create vaccines that can prime the body to fight off different strains of influenza, and even diseases such as dengue fever, Zika, hepatitis, and even malaria.
        While a vaccine is still in the experimental stages, there are current drugs that are extremely efficient at preventing people from becoming infected with HIV, such as PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis), new versions of which could be even easier to administer. This new Moderna vaccine is also not the only HIV vaccine going to trial at the moment.
        People living with HIV and on antiretroviral drugs live healthy lives and once their viral load becomes undetectable it is impossible for them to pass the virus on. This is encapsulated by the phrase undetectable equals untransmittable, U=U.
        People living with HIV continue to experience stigma, which may prevent access to information about the disease and life-saving drugs due to political, religious, and social-economic conditions. More than 35 million people around the world live with HIV. A vaccine and a cure would be revolutionary, but equal access to education and medicines globally would change (and save) lives today.
        Correction: This article has been updated to correct the start date to September 19 after the trial information was updated and to clarify what the earlier IAVI trial achieved.
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      CDC Manipulating Data, Again? Deaths Less Than 14 Days After Jab Considered "Unvaccinated"
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        Thu, 26 Aug 2021 09:48
        The CDC continues to deceive the American public about COVID-19 and the experimental jabs.
        A study from Los Angeles County has revealed insight on how they're misguiding the public to push the ''Pandemic of the Unvaccinated'' narrative.
        Read this excerpt from a Yahoo Finance titled, ''Unvaccinated LA residents were 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19: CDC study.''
        A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bolsters the argument that unvaccinated individuals are at a much higher risk of experiencing the worst outcomes of COVID-19 than vaccinated individuals.
        ''These data indicate that authorized vaccines protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19, even with increased community transmission of the newly predominant Delta variant,'' the CDC report stated.
        Between May 1 and July 25, 2021, unvaccinated residents of Los Angeles County, California, were 29.2 times more likely to be hospitalized by COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, than their fully vaccinated counterparts. Those unvaccinated individuals also accounted for 71.4% of all infections during that time.
        About 51.6% of the American population is fully vaccinated. In California, about 55.1% of the population is fully vaccinated while 67.9% have received at least one dose.
        ''This really is a medical miracle that we were able to take the information that we've had over the past two decades and have all of our agencies working together to get us a vaccine in record time,'' Dr. Adam Brown, Envision Healthcare's COVID-19 national task force chair, said on Yahoo Finance Live recently. ''But what's important for folks to recognize is that the safety procedures, the clinical trials, the number of people who were tested with the vaccine, have been followed just like they have been with other types of medications.''
        Vaccination has slowed despite scientific data showing that the vaccines make a significant difference in preventing serious illness and death. Unvaccinated individuals cited reasons including distrust of the FDA, concerns over side effects (stemming from misinformation), or personal liberties.
        'The fact is that these vaccines are safe'The FDA initially granted Pfizer (PFE), along with Moderna (MRNA) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), emergency use authorizations for their COVID-19 vaccines, meaning that they would allow the use ''in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions when certain statutory criteria have been met, including that there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives.''
        The FDA granted full approval to the Pfizer vaccine on Monday, and the new CDC study further corroborates the idea that the vaccines work.
        ''I understand there's a lot of fear out there,'' Brown said. ''There's a lot of information coming at people from multiple different sources about the vaccine, about the virus, about masks. The fact is that these vaccines are safe. And when you look at our hospitals, you look at the people who are sadly dying from COVID-19, they are primarily with a high percentage those who are unvaccinated.''
        Here's the chart Yahoo Finance references from the CDC study:
        *Source '' Yahoo Finance*
        The study's findings have circulated across mainstream media.
        With Delta as dominant strain in LA County, unvaccinated individuals were 5 times more likely to get Covid and 29 times more likely to be hospitalized. https://t.co/XCBcHAAAYd
        '-- Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) August 24, 2021
        CDC study in LA County: ''infection and hospitalization rates among unvaccinated persons were 4.9 and 29.2 times, respectively, those in fully vaccinated persons.''https://t.co/fXsSmOfxGS via @CDCgov
        '-- Sewell Chan (@sewellchan) August 24, 2021
        Unvaccinated people are almost 5 times more likely to be infected with COVID and 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with it, according to a new CDC study of LA County data from this summer: https://t.co/spEERgSA3K
        '-- Jessica Roy ðŸ...… (@jessica_roy) August 24, 2021
        Now, let's review that chart again.
        But this time, directly from the CDC study.
        Persons were considered fully vaccinated '‰¥14 days after receipt of the second dose in a 2-dose series (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines) or after 1 dose of the single-dose Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 vaccine; partially vaccinated '‰¥14 days after receipt of the first dose and <14 days after the second dose in a 2-dose series; and unvaccinated <14 days receipt of the first dose of a 2-dose series or 1 dose of the single-dose vaccine or if no vaccination registry data were available.
        In the study, the CDC doesn't consider you 'fully vaccinated' until at least 14 days after your final dose.
        If you're hospitalized or pass away within 14 days of receiving the experimental jab, then it's still listed as 'unvaccinated.'
        Remember the lawsuit slapped against the U.S. federal government by Thomas Renz and America's Frontline Doctors?
        A CDC whistleblower made a sworn declaration that one VAERS reporting system listed 45,000 post-vaccine deaths.
        And those were within 3 days of injection.
        In this LA County study, how many hospitalizations and deaths labeled as 'unvaccinated' were individuals who received the experimental jabs?
        We don't know the real data because the CDC continues to gaslight the American people about the safety of the experimental jabs.
      1.6m Moderna doses withdrawn in Japan over contamination - Nikkei Asia
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        Thu, 26 Aug 2021 09:10
        The Moderna vaccine against COVID-19 was cleared in May for emergency use in Japan. (C) Reuters YUMIKO URASAKI and YUKO NOMURA, Nikkei staff writers August 26, 2021 04:48 JSTUpdated on August 26, 2021 15:22 JST | JapanTOKYO/ NEW YORK -- About 1.6 million doses of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine have been taken out of use in Japan because of contamination reported in some vials, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said early Thursday.
        Several vaccination centers have reported that vaccine vials contained foreign matter, according to an announcement from the ministry, which added it will seek to minimize the impact of the withdrawal on the country's inoculation program.
        The ministry said later in the day that the substance that had been mixed in may have been metal. "It's a substance that reacts to magnets," a ministry official said. "It could be metal."
        Takeda Pharmaceutical handles distribution of the U.S.-developed Moderna vaccine in Japan.
        Nasdaq-listed Moderna confirmed receiving "several complaints of particulate matter" in vaccine vials distributed in Japan but said it had found "no safety or efficacy issues" related to these reports.
        "The company is investigating the reports and remains committed to working transparently and expeditiously with its partner, Takeda, and regulators to address any potential concerns," a Moderna spokesperson told Nikkei, saying the drugmaker believed a "manufacturing issue" at a plant in Spain was the cause.
        The vaccine lot in question and two adjacent lots have been put on hold "out of an abundance of caution," the spokesperson said.
        The Japanese ministry has not halted the use of Moderna vaccines in other batches, deeming them safe.
        Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Thursday afternoon that he had instructed the ministry to look into the case with safety as the top priority, adding he had received reports that the withdrawal "won't have a significant impact on the country's vaccination campaign."
        The Moderna vaccine was granted emergency-use authorization in Japan in May.
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      Save Austin Now sues city, says it is not enforcing camping ban
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        Thu, 26 Aug 2021 06:15
        Save Austin Now '-- the political action committee behind the return of Austin's homeless camping ban '-- says it has filed a lawsuit against the city, accusing it of failing to fully enforce the ban.
        The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a Travis County state District Court, comes as city records show Austin police have not issued a single citation for illegal camping since July 20 despite the persistence of encampments throughout town. The final phase of the city's four-phase enforcement strategy went into effect Aug. 8.
        One of the encampments is across the street from the Austin Police Department's headquarters underneath Interstate 35 in downtown Austin.
        The lawsuit's filing comes one week before the start of a new statewide camping ban approved by the Legislature.
        City spokesman Andy Tate issued a statement denying the city has not enforced the ban.
        ''We have received this lawsuit and entirely reject its premise," the statement read. "Since May, APD officers have visited hundreds of people experiencing homelessness at encampments and other areas across Austin, connecting many with social support services. During that time officers have issued hundreds of written warnings and multiple citations. APD and city partners will continue to take a responsible and humane approach to enforcing this law and working with the people who are impacted.''
        Prior to the lawsuit being filed, interim Austin Police Chief Joe Chacon told the American-Statesman that his officers are instructed to seek voluntary compliance to the camping ban and not issue citations unless necessary.
        Chacon said that the only officers tasked with enforcing the ban are the 19 district representatives in the department, leaving patrol officers to respond to 911 calls and emergencies. The district representatives work Monday through Friday during the daytime, aligning their shifts with the operating hours of the Downtown Austin Community Court, which is the facility where people experiencing homelessness go to get services and to resolve citations, and where they'll typically go if arrested for refusing to vacate an encampment.
        More: As camping ban takes effect, why didn't Austin have a better plan to house homeless?
        "The reports I have been receiving are we are largely getting voluntary compliance and not having to resort very often at all to writing citations," Chacon said.
        According to city records, 18 citations have been issued for illegal camping since the middle of June. An additional 17 citations were issued for obstruction in the community court area. Two others were given for aggressive confrontation.
        Save Austin Now's lawsuit comes nearly four months after Austin voters approved the reinstatement of the camping ban during the May 1 election. The vote was 58% in favor and 42% against, a resounding rebuke of the Austin City Council's 2019 decision to lift the ban. That same vote made it illegal to sit or lie in the downtown area and near the University of Texas campus and also cut down the hours during which panhandling is allowed.
        More: More people relocated to hotel as Austin clears downtown homeless encampment
        Four Austin business owners joined in the lawsuit, alleging harm due to the city's refusal to enforce the new ordinances. They are Laura North of Headspace Salon and Co-op; Stuart Dupuy of Balance Dance Studios; Robert Mayfield, who owns three local Dairy Queen franchises; and Bob Woody, who owns Buckshot Bar.
        In Wednesday's filing, Michael Lovins, an attorney representing the business owners, said his clients have incurred "substantial expenses to protect their property, their customers and their clients."
        The lawsuit seeks a writ of mandamus requiring the city and City Manager Spencer Cronk to fully enforce the camping ban.
        In a statement addressing the lawsuit, Save Austin Now co-founder Matt Mackowiak accused the city of "choosing not to respect the will of the voters."
        "Austin business owners, families, children, commuters and visitors remain threatened by this failed policy. Unregulated public camping has been illegal in Austin since Prop B passed. It is time for the city of Austin to respect the will of the voters and put public safety first. We will take this fight as far as it needs to go to make our city safe again '' for both the residents and the homeless," Mackowiak said.
        In response to the lawsuit, city officials are likely to point to efforts made since the reinstatement of the ban to get people off the streets and into shelter. Occupants of three large encampments have been moved into hotels since the middle of June, and the plan is to do the same at a fourth encampment in the coming weeks.
        Wednesday's filing was the second lawsuit Save Austin Now has brought against the city in a little more than a week. The first related to a citywide vote in the upcoming November election to require certain staffing levels for the Police Department. Save Austin Now, which collected more than 20,000 signatures to force the vote, is asking the courts to order City Council members to rewrite ballot language the group deems to be misleading and biased against the proposition.
        More: Final phase in enforcement of Austin's camping ban underway
      Roberta Lipson | U.S. Chamber of Commerce
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        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 22:09
        Ms. Lipson has more than 30 years of experience in various aspects of the healthcare industry including pharmaceuticals, capital medical equipment and consumable products marketing and distribution, and hospital management. Since she co-founded Chindex in 1981, the company has grown to become the premier American healthcare company in China. She has been the creative force behind the United Family Healthcare concept, and has been central to the development and implementation of the world-class hospital and clinic network. Ms. Lipson is a member of the Board of Directors of the company.
        Ms. Lipson is an expert in many aspects of health care in China and has shared this expertise in many forums. She has authored articles and often speaks on issues related to the healthcare industry in China. An active member of the business community in Beijing for over 30 years, she has served on the Board of Governors of AmCham-China and on the Board of Directors of the U.S.-China Business Council, and Chairs the Board of the United Foundation for Children's Health. She holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BA in History from Brandeis University.
      Antigenic drift - Wikipedia
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        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 21:43
        Antigenic drift is a kind of genetic variation in viruses, arising from the accumulation of mutations in the virus genes that code for virus-surface proteins that host antibodies recognize. This results in a new strain of virus particles that is not effectively inhibited by the antibodies that prevented infection by previous strains. This makes it easier for the changed virus to spread throughout a partially immune population. Antigenic drift occurs in both influenza A and influenza B viruses.
        (Confusion can arise with two very similar terms, antigenic shift and genetic drift. Antigenic shift is a closely related process; it refers to more dramatic changes in the virus's surface proteins. Genetic drift is very different and much more broadly applicable; it refers to the gradual accumulation in any DNA sequence of random mutational changes that do not interfere with the DNA's function and thus that are not seen by natural selection.)
        The immune system recognizes viruses when antigens on the surfaces of virus particles bind to immune receptors that are specific for these antigens. These receptors can be antibodies in the bloodstream or similar proteins on the surfaces of immune-system cells. This recognition is quite precise, like a key recognizing a lock. After an infection or after vaccination, the body produces many more of these virus-specific immune receptors, which prevent re-infection by this particular strain of the virus; this is called acquired immunity. However, viral genomes are constantly mutating, producing new forms of these antigens. If one of these new forms of an antigen is sufficiently different from the old antigen, it will no longer bind to the antibodies or immune-cell receptors, allowing the mutant virus to infect people who were immune to the original strain of the virus because of prior infection or vaccination.
        In 1940s, Maurice Hilleman discovered antigenic drift, which is the most common way that influenza viruses change.[1][2][3][4] A second type of change is antigenic shift, also discovered by Hilleman,[1][2] where the virus acquires a completely new version of one of its surface-protein genes from a distantly related influenza virus. The rate of antigenic drift is dependent on two characteristics: the duration of the epidemic, and the strength of host immunity. A longer epidemic allows for selection pressure to continue over an extended period of time and stronger host immune responses increase selection pressure for development of novel antigens.[5]
        In influenza viruses Edit In the influenza virus, the two relevant antigens are the surface proteins, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase.[6] The hemagglutinin is responsible for binding and entry into host epithelial cells while the neuraminidase is involved in the process of new virions budding out of host cells.[7] Sites recognized on the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase proteins by host immune systems are under constant selective pressure. Antigenic drift allows for evasion of these host immune systems by small mutations in the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase genes that make the protein unrecognizable to pre-existing host immunity.[8] Antigenic drift is this continuous process of genetic and antigenic change among flu strains.[9]
        In human populations, immune (vaccinated) individuals exert selective pressure for single point mutations in the hemagglutinin gene that increase receptor binding avidity, while naive individuals exert selective pressure for single point mutations that decrease receptor binding avidity.[8] These dynamic selection pressures facilitate the observed rapid evolution in the hemagglutinin gene. Specifically, 18 specific codons in the HA1 domain of the hemagglutinin gene have been identified as undergoing positive selection to change their encoded amino acid.[10] To meet the challenge of antigenic drift, vaccines that confer broad protection against heterovariant strains are needed against seasonal, epidemic and pandemic influenza.[11]
        As in all RNA viruses, mutations in influenza occur frequently because the virus' RNA polymerase has no proofreading mechanism, resulting in an error rate between 1 — 10''3 and 8 — 10''3 substitutions per site per year during viral genome replication.[9] Mutations in the surface proteins allow the virus to elude some host immunity, and the numbers and locations of these mutations that confer the greatest amount of immune escape has been an important topic of study for over a decade.[12][13][14]
        Antigenic drift has been responsible for heavier-than-normal flu seasons in the past, like the outbreak of influenza H3N2 variant A/Fujian/411/2002 in the 2003''2004 flu season. All influenza viruses experience some form of antigenic drift, but it is most pronounced in the influenza A virus.
        Antigenic drift should not be confused with antigenic shift, which refers to reassortment of the virus' gene segments.As well, it is different from random genetic drift, which is an important mechanism in population genetics.
        See also Edit Antigenic shiftOriginal antigenic sinNotes Edit ^ a b Oransky, Ivan (2005-05-14). "Maurice R Hilleman". The Lancet. 365 (9472): 1682. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)66536-1. ISSN 0140-6736. PMID 15912596. S2CID 46630955. ^ a b Kurth, Reinhard (April 2005). "Maurice R. Hilleman (1919''2005)". Nature. 434 (7037): 1083. doi:10.1038/4341083a . ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 15858560. ^ D. J. D. Earn; J. Dushoff; S. A. Levin (2002). "Ecology and Evolution of the Flu". Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 17 (7): 334''340. doi:10.1016/S0169-5347(02)02502-8. ^ A. W. Hampson (2002). "Influenza virus antigens and antigenic drift". In C. W. Potter (ed.). Influenza. Elsevier Science B. V. pp. 49''86. ISBN 978-0-444-82461-5. ^ Boni, T; S. Cobey; P. Beerli; M. Pascual (2006). "Epidemic dynamics and antigenic evolution in a single season of influenza A". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 273 (1592): 1307''1316. doi:10.1098/rspb.2006.3466. PMC 1560306 . PMID 16777717. ^ Bouvier NM, Palese P (Sep 2008). "The biology of influenza viruses". Vaccine. 26 (Suppl 4): D49''53. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2008.07.039. PMC 3074182 . PMID 19230160. ^ Nelson, M. I.; Holmes, E. C. (March 2007). "The evolution of pandemic influenza". Nature Reviews Genetics. 8 (3): 196''205. doi:10.1038/nrg2053 . PMID 17262054. S2CID 221107. ^ a b Hensley, S. E.; Das, S. R.; Bailey, A. L.; Schmidt, L. M.; Hickman, H. D.; Jayaraman, A.; Viswanathan, K.; Raman, R.; Sasisekharan, R.; Bennink, J. R.; Yewdell, J. W. (30 October 2009). "Hemagglutinin receptor binding avidity drives influenza A virus antigenic drift". Science. 326 (5953): 734''736. Bibcode:2009Sci...326..734H. doi:10.1126/science.1178258. PMC 2784927 . PMID 19900932. ^ a b Taubenberger, Jeffery K.; Kash, John C. (17 June 2010). "Influenza virus evolution, host adaptation and pandemic formation". Cell Host & Microbe. 7 (6): 440''451. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2010.05.009. PMC 2892379 . PMID 20542248. ^ Bush, R. M.; K. Subbarao; N. J. Cox; W. M. Fitch (3 December 1999). "Predicting the evolution of human influenza A". Science. 286 (5446): 1921''1925. doi:10.1126/science.286.5446.1921. PMID 10583948. S2CID 2836600. ^ Carrat F, Flahault A (September 2007). "Influenza vaccine: the challenge of antigenic drift". Vaccine. 25 (39''40): 6852''62. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2007.07.027. PMID 17719149. ^ R. M. Bush; W. M. Fitch; C. A. Bender; N. J. Cox (1999). "Positive selection on the H3 hemagglutinin gene of human influenza virus". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 16 (11): 1457''1465. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a026057 . PMID 10555276. ^ W. M. Fitch; R. M. Bush; C. A. Bender; N. J. Cox (1997). "Long term trends in the evolution of H(3) HA1 human influenza type A". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 94 (15): 7712''7718. Bibcode:1997PNAS...94.7712F. doi:10.1073/pnas.94.15.7712 . PMC 33681 . PMID 9223253. ^ D. J. Smith, A. S. Lapedes, J. C. de Jong, T. M. Bestebroer, G. F. Rimmelzwaan, A. D. M. E. Osterhaus, R. A. M. Fouchier (2004). "Mapping the antigenic and genetic evolution of influenza virus" (PDF) . Science. 305 (5682): 371''376. Bibcode:2004Sci...305..371S. doi:10.1126/science.1097211. PMID 15218094. S2CID 1258353. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-03-07. CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link) Further reading Edit Boni MF (July 2008). "Vaccination and antigenic drift in influenza". Vaccine. 26 Suppl 3: C8''14. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2008.04.011. PMC 2603026 . PMID 18773534. Gog JR (July 2008). "The impact of evolutionary constraints on influenza dynamics". Vaccine. 26 Suppl 3: C15''24. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2008.04.008. PMID 18773528. External links Edit An illustration of antigenic driftA technical definition
      Original antigenic sin - Wikipedia
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        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 21:40
        Original antigenic sin, also known as antigenic imprinting or the Hoskins effect,[1] refers to the propensity of the body's immune system to preferentially utilize immunological memory based on a previous infection when a second slightly different version of that foreign pathogen (e.g. a virus or bacterium) is encountered. This leaves the immune system "trapped" by the first response it has made to each antigen, and unable to mount potentially more effective responses during subsequent infections. Antibodies or T-cells induced during infections with the first variant of the pathogen are subject to a form of original antigenic sin, termed repertoire freeze.
        The original antigenic sin: When the body first encounters an infection it produces effective antibodies against its
        dominant antigens and thus eliminates the infection. But when it encounters the same infection, at a later evolved stage, with a
        new dominant antigen, with the original antigen now being recessive, the immune system will still produce the former antibodies against this old "now recessive antigen" and not develop new antibodies against the new dominant one, this results in the production of ineffective antibodies and thus a weak immunity.
        The phenomenon of original antigenic sin has been described in relation to influenza virus, dengue fever, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [2] and to several other viruses.[3]
        This phenomenon was first described in 1960 by Thomas Francis Jr. in the article "On the Doctrine of Original Antigenic Sin".[4][5] It is named by analogy to the theological concept of original sin. According to Thomas Francis, who originally described the idea,[4] and cited by Richard Krause:[5]
        "The antibody of childhood is largely a response to dominant antigen of the virus causing the first type A influenza infection of the lifetime. [...] The imprint established by the original virus infection governs the antibody response thereafter. This we have called the Doctrine of the Original Antigenic Sin."
        In B cells Edit A high affinity memory B cell, specific for Virus A, is preferentially activated by a new strain, Virus A
        1, to produce antibodies that ineffectively bind to the A
        1 strain. The presence of these antibodies inhibits activation of a naive B cell that produces more effective antibodies against Virus A
        1. This effect leads to a diminished immune response against Virus A
        1, and heightens the potential for serious infection.
        During a primary infection, long-lived memory B cells are generated, which remain in the body, and provide protection from subsequent infections. These memory B cells respond to specific epitopes on the surface of viral proteins in order to produce antigen-specific antibodies, and are able to respond to infection much faster than B cells are able to respond to novel antigens. This effect shortens the amount of time required to clear subsequent infections.
        Between primary and secondary infections, or following vaccination, a virus may undergo antigenic drift, in which the viral surface proteins (the epitopes) are altered through natural mutation, allowing the virus to escape the immune system. When this happens, the altered virus preferentially reactivates previously activated high-affinity memory B cells and spurs antibody production. However, the antibodies produced by these B cells generally ineffectively bind to the altered epitopes. In addition, these antibodies inhibit the activation of higher-affinity naive B cells that would be able to make more effective antibodies to the second virus. This leads to a less effective immune response and recurrent infections may take longer to clear.[6]
        Original antigenic sin is of particular importance in the application of vaccines.[7] In dengue fever, the effect of original antigenic sin has important implications for vaccine development. Once a response against a dengue virus serotype has been established, it is unlikely that vaccination against a second will be effective, implying that balanced responses against all four virus serotypes have to be established with the first vaccine dose.[8]
        The specificity and the quality of the immune response against novel strains of influenza is often diminished in individuals who are repeatedly immunized (by vaccination or recurrent infections).[9] However, the impact of antigenic sin on protection has not been well established, and appears to differ with each infectious agent vaccine, geographic location, and age.[6] Researchers found reduced antibody responses to the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccine in individuals who had been vaccinated against the seasonal A/Brisbane/59/2007 (H1N1) within the previous three months.[7]
        In cytotoxic T cells Edit A similar phenomenon has been described in cytotoxic T cells (CTL).[10] It has been demonstrated that during a second infection by a different strain of dengue virus, the CTLs prefer to release cytokines instead of causing cell lysis. As a result, the production of these cytokines is thought to increase vascular permeability and exacerbate damage to endothelial cells, a phenomenon known as dengue hemorrhagic fever,[11]
        Several groups have attempted to design vaccines for HIV and hepatitis C based on induction of CTL response. The finding that the CTL response may be biased by original antigenic sin may help to explain the limited effectiveness of these vaccines. Viruses like HIV are highly variable and undergo mutation frequently; due to original antigenic sin, HIV infection induced by viruses that express slightly different epitopes (than those in a viral vaccine) would fail to be controlled by the vaccine. In fact, the vaccine might make the infection even worse, by "trapping" the immune response into the first, ineffective, response it made against the virus.[10]
        See also Edit Antibody-dependent enhancementCell mediated immunityHumoral immunityPolyclonal responseReferences Edit ^ FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Vaccines and Related Biological Products: Advisory Committee(RTF) ^ Singh, Rana AK; Rodgers, John R; Barry, Michael A (2002). "The role of T cell antagonism and original antigenic sin in genetic immunization" (PDF) . The Journal of Immunology. 169 (12): 6779--6786. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.169.12.6779 . Retrieved May 14, 2021 . ^ Deem, Michael W.The Adaptive Immune Response Rice University ^ a b Thomas Francis Jr (1960). "On the doctrine of original antigenic sin". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 104 (6): 572''578. JSTOR 985534. ^ a b Krause R (2006). "The swine flu episode and the fog of epidemics". Emerg Infect Dis. 12 (1): 40''43. doi:10.3201/eid1201.051132. PMC 3291407 . PMID 16494715. ^ a b Lambert PH, Liu M, Siegrist CA (2005). "Can successful vaccines teach us how to induce efficient protective immune responses?". Nat Med. 11 (4 Suppl): S54''62. doi:10.1038/nm1216. PMID 15812491. ^ a b Choi, Yoon Seok; Baek, Yun Hee; Kang, Wonseok; et al. (September 2011). "Reduced Antibody Responses to the Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Vaccine after Recent Seasonal Influenza Vaccination". Clinical and Vaccine Immunology. 18 (9): 1519''1523. doi:10.1128/CVI.05053-11. PMC 3165229 . PMID 21813667. ^ Midgley, Claire M.; Bajwa-Joseph, Martha; Vasanawathana, Sirijitt; et al. (January 2011). "An In-Depth Analysis of Original Antigenic Sin in Dengue Virus Infection". Journal of Virology. 85 (1): 410''421. doi:10.1128/JVI.01826-10. PMC 3014204 . PMID 20980526. ^ Kim, J.H.; Skountzou, I.; Compans, R.; Jacob, J. (1 September 2009). "Original antigenic sin responses to influenza viruses". Journal of Immunology. 183 (5): 3294''301. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.0900398. PMC 4460008 . PMID 19648276. ^ a b McMichael AJ (1998). "The original sin of killer T cells". Nature. 394 (6692): 421''422. doi:10.1038/28738 . PMID 9697760. ^ Juthathip Mongkolsapaya (2006). "T Cell Responses in Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever: Are Cross-Reactive T Cells Suboptimal?". J. Immunol. 176 (6): 3821''3829. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.176.6.3821 . PMID 16517753.
      Comirnaty | European Medicines Agency
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 21:29
        COVID-19 mRNA vaccine (nucleoside-modified)
        Authorised
        This medicine is authorised for use in the European Union.
        Comirnaty is a vaccine for preventing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in people aged 12 years and older.
        Comirnaty contains a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) with instructions for producing a protein from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Comirnaty does not contain the virus itself and cannot cause COVID-19.
        Comirnaty is given as two injections, usually into the muscle of the upper arm, 3 weeks apart.
        Arrangements for the supply of the vaccine are the responsibility of national authorities. For more information about using Comirnaty, see the package leaflet or consult a healthcare professional.
        Comirnaty works by preparing the body to defend itself against COVID-19. It contains a molecule called mRNA which has instructions for making the spike protein. This is a protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which the virus needs to enter the body's cells.
        When a person is given the vaccine, some of their cells will read the mRNA instructions and temporarily produce the spike protein. The person's immune system will then recognise this protein as foreign and produce antibodies and activate T cells (white blood cells) to attack it.
        If, later on, the person comes into contact with SARS-CoV-2 virus, their immune system will recognise it and be ready to defend the body against it.
        The mRNA from the vaccine does not stay in the body but is broken down shortly after vaccination.
        A very large clinical trial showed that Comirnaty was effective at preventing COVID-19 in people from 12 years of age.
        The trial involved around 44,000 people aged 16 and above in total. Half received the vaccine and half were given a dummy injection. People did not know whether they received the vaccine or the dummy injection.
        Efficacy in people aged 16 and above was calculated in over 36,000 participants (including people over 75 years of age) who had no sign of previous infection. The study showed a 95% reduction in the number of symptomatic COVID-19 cases in the people who received the vaccine (8 cases out of 18,198 got COVID-19 symptoms) compared with people who received a dummy injection (162 cases out of 18,325 got COVID-19 symptoms). This means that the vaccine demonstrated a 95% efficacy in the trial.
        The trial in people aged 16 years and older also showed around 95% efficacy in the participants at risk of severe COVID-19, including those with asthma, chronic lung disease, diabetes, high blood pressure or obesity.
        The trial was extended to include 2,260 children aged 12 to 15. It showed that the immune response to Comirnaty in this group was comparable to the immune response in the 16 to 25 age group (as measured by the level of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2). The efficacy of Comirnaty was calculated in close to 2,000 children from 12 to 15 who had no sign of previous infection. These received either the vaccine or a placebo (a dummy injection), without knowing which one they were given. Of the 1,005 children receiving the vaccine, none developed COVID-19 compared to 16 children out of the 978 who received the dummy injection. This means that, in this study, the vaccine was 100% effective at preventing COVID-19 (although the true rate could be between 75% and 100%).
        There were no additional side effects in the 545 people who received Comirnaty in the trial and had previously had COVID-19.
        There were not enough data from the trial to conclude on how well Comirnaty works for people who have already had COVID-19.
        The impact of vaccination with Comirnaty on the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the community is not yet known. It is not yet known how much vaccinated people may still be able to carry and spread the virus.
        It is not currently known how long protection given by Comirnaty lasts. The people vaccinated in the clinical trial will continue to be followed for 2 years to gather more information on the duration of protection.
        Comirnaty is not currently authorised for children below 12 years of age.
        There are limited data on immunocompromised people (people with weakened immune systems). Although immunocompromised people may not respond as well to the vaccine, there are no particular safety concerns. Immunocompromised people can still be vaccinated as they may be at higher risk from COVID-19.
        Animal studies do not show any harmful effects in pregnancy, however data on the use of Comirnaty during pregnancy are very limited. Although there are no studies on breast-feeding, no risk for breast-feeding is expected.
        The decision on whether to use the vaccine in pregnant women should be made in close consultation with a healthcare professional after considering the benefits and risks.
        People who already know they have an allergy to one of the components of the vaccine listed in section 6 of the package leaflet should not receive the vaccine.
        Allergic reactions (hypersensitivity) have been seen in people receiving the vaccine. A very small number of cases of anaphylaxis (severe allergic reaction) have occurred since the vaccine started being used in vaccination campaigns. Therefore, as for all vaccines, Comirnaty should be given under close medical supervision, with the appropriate medical treatment available. People who have a severe allergic reaction when they are given the first dose of Comirnaty should not receive the second dose.
        The main trial included people of different ethnicities and genders. Efficacy of around 95% was maintained across genders and ethnic groups.
        The most common side effects with Comirnaty were usually mild or moderate and got better within a few days after vaccination. These included pain and swelling at the injection site, tiredness, headache, muscle and joint pain, chills, fever and diarrhoea. They affected more than 1 in 10 people.
        Redness at the injection site, nausea and vomiting occurred in less than 1 in 10 people. Itching at the injection site, pain in the arm where the vaccine was injected, enlarged lymph nodes, difficulty sleeping, feeling unwell and allergic reactions (such as rash, itching, itchy rash, and rapid swelling under the skin) were uncommon side effects (affecting less than 1 in 100 people). Weakness in muscles on one side of face (acute peripheral facial paralysis or palsy) occurred rarely in less than 1 in 1,000 people.
        A very small number of cases of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the membrane around the heart) have occurred with Comirnaty. Allergic reactions have also occurred with Comirnaty, including a very small number of cases of severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis). As for all vaccines, Comirnaty should be given under close supervision with appropriate medical treatment available.
        Comirnaty offers a high level of protection against COVID-19 which is a critical need in the current pandemic. The main trial showed that the vaccine has a 95% efficacy. Most side effects are mild to moderate in severity and are gone within a few days.
        The Agency therefore decided that Comirnaty's benefits are greater than its risks and that it can be authorised for use in the EU.
        Comirnaty has been granted a conditional marketing authorisation. This means that there is more evidence to come about the vaccine (see below), which the company is required to provide. The Agency will review any new information that becomes available and this overview will be updated as necessary.
        As Comirnaty received a conditional marketing authorisation, the company that markets Comirnaty will continue to provide results from the main trial, which is ongoing for 2 years. This trial and additional studies will provide information on how long protection lasts, how well the vaccine prevents severe COVID-19, how well it protects immunocompromised people, pregnant women, and whether it prevents asymptomatic cases.
        In addition, independent studies of COVID-19 vaccines coordinated by EU authorities will also give more information on the vaccine's long-term safety and benefit in the general population.
        The company will also carry out studies to provide additional assurance on the pharmaceutical quality of the vaccine as the manufacturing continues to be scaled up.
        Recommendations and precautions to be followed by healthcare professionals and patients for the safe and effective use of Comirnaty have been included in the summary of product characteristics and the package leaflet.
        A risk management plan (RMP) for Comirnaty is also in place and contains important information about the vaccine's safety, how to collect further information and how to minimise any potential risks.
        Safety measures will be implemented for Comirnaty in line with the EU safety monitoring plan for COVID-19 vaccines to ensure that new safety information is rapidly collected and analysed. The company that markets Comirnaty will provide monthly safety reports.
        As for all medicines, data on the use of Comirnaty are continuously monitored. Suspected side effects reported with Comirnaty are carefully evaluated and any necessary action taken to protect patients.
        Comirnaty received a conditional marketing authorisation valid throughout the EU on 21 December 2020.
        List item
        Comirnaty : EPAR - Medicine overview (PDF/140.22 KB) (updated) First published: 23/12/2020 Last updated: 06/08/2021 EMA/411652/2021
        List item
        Comirnaty : EPAR - Risk-management-plan (PDF/3.04 MB) First published: 23/12/2020 Last updated: 28/05/2021
        This EPAR was last updated on 11/08/2021
        Product details Name Agency product number Active substance Single-stranded, 5'-capped messenger RNA produced using a cell-free in vitro transcription from the corresponding DNA templates, encoding the viral spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2
        International non-proprietary name (INN) or common name COVID-19 mRNA vaccine (nucleoside-modified)
        Therapeutic area (MeSH) Anatomical therapeutic chemical (ATC) code Additional monitoring This medicine is under additional monitoring, meaning that it is monitored even more intensively than other medicines. For more information, see Medicines under additional monitoring.
        Conditional approval Publication details Marketing-authorisation holder BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH
        Revision Date of issue of marketing authorisation valid throughout the European Union Contact address An der Goldgrube 1255131 MainzGermany
        22/07/2021 Comirnaty - EMEA/H/C/005735 - II/0038/G
        Pharmacotherapeutic group
        Active immunization against COVID-19 disease
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      Texas Defeats Biden: SCOTUS Rules Biden Must Restart 'Remain In Mexico' Policy | Conservative Brief
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        Archived Version
        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 18:03
        OPINION: This article contains commentary which reflects the author's opinion
        The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered a stinging defeat to Joe Biden.
        By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration must reinstate Donald Trump's Migrant Protection Protocols policy, also known as the ''Remain in Mexico'' policy.
        As The Texas Tribune reported:
        The Biden administration made an emergency request that the Supreme Court justices act, saying Kacsmaryk ''fundamentally misunderstood'' federal immigration law and improperly meddled in immigration and foreign policy decisions left to the executive branch. '... A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit had largely sided with Kacsmaryk and had refused the government's request to stay his ruling while considering the government's appeal.
        All six conservative justices agreed with the lower court's ruling against the Biden administration:
        The application for a stay presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied. The applicants have failed to show a likelihood of success on the claim that the memorandum rescinding the Migrant Protection Protocols was not arbitrary and capricious. '... Our order denying the Government's request for a stay of the District Court injunction should not be read as affecting the construction of that injunction by the Court of Appeals.
        The border crisis continues to worsen under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
        A whopping 56 Republican lawmakers are calling on Biden to replace Harris as the official tasked with addressing the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
        As for Harris, she was given the task of being the ''border czar'' more than 80 days ago and still has not made her way to the border of the U.S. and Mexico.
        Biden announced on March 24 that Harris would lead the administration's efforts at the border, and she has not visited one time to even hold a press event on the crisis.
        Harris is 100% appointed to ''handle'' the border crisis and she has not visited the border one time since Biden named her.
        Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich recently took aim at Harris and said she has failed to respond to his invitation to tour the crisis at the US-Mexico border.
        ''I guess if you were a philosopher you would say no response is a very loud response because we've not received any response,'' Brnovich said.
        Harris needs to ''look into the eyes of people being smuggled across the border, being exploited by the cartels and realize this is a humanitarian crisis on so many levels,'' Brnovich said.
        Days after Biden appointed Harris to oversee his administration's border responses, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, called her ''the worst possible choice.''
        He accused Harris of being someone who has ''completely trivialized the issue by putting someone in charge who flat out just doesn't care.''
        Also, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, predicted that Harris ''is not going to be able to solve this crisis'' after he and 17 other GOP senators visited the border in his home state, adding that the migrant crisis has become Biden's ''biggest political mess.''
        Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich says the only reason that Harris was put in charge of the border crisis was that everyone knows ''she wouldn't do anything'' about it.''
      Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) with Ally Invest®
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        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 17:49
        There may be more suitable ETFs for you that are not part of the commission-free program. Please review the following link for more information regarding exchange products such as ETFs. https://www.ally.com/invest/disclosures/leveraged-exchange-traded-funds.html Securities products and services are offered through Ally Invest Securities LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory products and services are offered through Ally Invest Advisors Inc., a registered investment adviser. Investments are NOT FDIC INSURED, NOT BANK GUARANTEED, and MAY LOSE VALUE. All investments involve risk. Ally Invest Advisors and Ally Invest Securities are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Ally Financial Inc.
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      How Comirnaty Was Named: The Story Behind Pfizer's Oddly Named mRNA Vaccine
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        Archived Version
        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 08:53
        Wondering how Comirnaty was named? Well you have come to the right place! In this article Dr. Jeff Boden of the global branding consultancy Kaleio, Inc. provides the story behind Pfizer's oddly named mRNA vaccine.
        Authored by: Jeff Boden, Ph.D.
        Article Posted: 24 August 2021
        On August 23rd, FDA approved the BLA for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, otherwise known by its brand name, COMIRNATY. It was no less than 1 hour after the news broke that a friend of mine who is a personal injury lawyer, sent me this meme:
        [Photo shows person who navigated earlier difficult steps but falls short on the step with the name label]
        He's not the only one to be surprised by the lackluster brand name for this blockbuster vaccine. Several articles have since been published that have highlighted the ermahgerd style of COMIRNATY, including this one in USA Today. A representative for the naming agency that worked on the name says that it ''represents a combination of the terms COVID-19, mRNA, community, and immunity.''
        Being the former manager of said agency's Creative Department, kicking an approved name when it's down would be unbecoming. After all, as my mom always used to say: ''If you can't say anything nice'...'' However, I am not above pointing out the obvious. The name itself is clearly a spin of COMMUNITY, that was force-fed the MRNA letter string. What you end up with is a mutated variant that embeds the abbreviation for microRNA (MIRNA) rather than mRNA. Scientifically speaking, the name is flat out misleading. The agency behind COMIRNATY also claims to have simultaneously worked on Moderna's Spikevax, another name that is short on creativity but hits the nail on the head in terms of product identity.
        As an active member of the International Nonproprietary Names (INN) /United States Adopted Names (USAN) community, I was surprised to see that the proper name, or nonproprietary name, for COMIRNATY is ''COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA.'' It is true that prophylactic vaccines are not traditionally assigned nonproprietary names by USAN or INN. However, because the composition of the active mRNA drug substance is a single entity that can be unequivocally characterized by a nucleotide sequence, it falls within the scope of INN/USAN nomenclature. The WHO International Nonproprietary Names Programme published a correspondence in The Lancet in February 2021, highlighting their support of the use of INN for mRNA and DNA-based vaccines stating, ''The assignment of a unique and distinct INN to the active substances in each vaccine would contribute to safe prescribing, transnational distribution, enhanced pharmacovigilance, and, ultimately, the safety of vaccine recipients, as it does for therapeutic medicinal substances.'' The INN for COMIRNATY is tozinameran, which makes use of the ''meran pre-stem, defined for messenger RNA (mRNA). The official INN definition of the mRNA molecule can be found in pINN List 124 here.
        Unfortunately, we now have a rare situation where COMIRNATY will have a different nonproprietary in the US versus EU and other regional territories. Is this a big problem? Probably not for now. Everyone will just call them ''the Pfizer vaccine'' or ''the Moderna vaccine'', but perhaps the situation will become complicated in the future when variant vaccine cocktails are available in a year or two. One thing is certain, the COMIRNATY memes and mispronunciations will continue long after the pandemic is over.
        If you found this interesting, share it with a friend!
        RECOMMENDED TO YOU'... Yes this is the name of a real drug!
        ALSO RECOMMENDED TO YOU
      Dancing plagues and mass hysteria | The Psychologist
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        Archived Version
        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 08:45
        John Waller on how distress and pious fear have led to bizarre outbreaks across the ages.
        The year was 1374. In dozens of medieval towns scattered along the valley of the River Rhine hundreds of people were seized by an agonising compulsion to dance. Scarcely pausing to rest or eat, they danced for hours or even days in succession. They were victims of one of the strangest afflictions in Western history. Within weeks the mania had engulfed large areas of north-eastern France and the Netherlands, and only after several months did the epidemic subside. In the following century there were only a few isolated outbreaks of compulsive dancing. Then it reappeared, explosively, in the city of Strasbourg in 1518. Chronicles indicate that it then consumed about 400 men, women and children, causing dozens of deaths (Waller, 2008).
        The year was 1374. In dozens of medieval towns scattered along the valley of the River Rhine hundreds of people were seized by an agonising compulsion to dance. Scarcely pausing to rest or eat, they danced for hours or even days in succession. They were victims of one of the strangest afflictions in Western history. Within weeks the mania had engulfed large areas of north-eastern France and the Netherlands, and only after several months did the epidemic subside. In the following century there were only a few isolated outbreaks of compulsive dancing. Then it reappeared, explosively, in the city of Strasbourg in 1518. Chronicles indicate that it then consumed about 400 men, women and children, causing dozens of deaths (Waller, 2008).
        Not long before the Strasbourg dancing epidemic, an equally strange compulsion had gripped a nunnery in the Spanish Netherlands. In 1491 several nuns were 'possessed' by devilish familiars which impelled them to race around like dogs, jump out of trees in imitation of birds or miaow and claw their way up tree trunks in the manner of cats. Such possession epidemics were by no means confined to nunneries, but nuns were disproportionately affected (Newman, 1998). Over the next 200 years, in nunneries everywhere from Rome to Paris, hundreds were plunged into states of frantic delirium during which they foamed, screamed and convulsed, sexually propositioned exorcists and priests, and confessed to having carnal relations with devils or Christ.
        These events may sound wildly improbable, but there is clear documentary evidence that they did in fact happen. The dancing plagues were independently described by scores of physicians, chroniclers, monks and priests, and for the 1518 outbreak we can even read the panicky municipal orders written by the Strasbourg authorities at the time of the epidemic (Midelfort, 1999; Waller, 2008). Similarly, trial documents and the archives of the inquisition provide copious, in-depth accounts of nuns doing and saying the strangest of things (Sluhovsky, 2002).
        Writers then and now have offered various interpretations of these strange and sometimes deadly crises. It has been suggested that the dancing maniacs of 1374 and 1518 were members of a heretical dancing cult. Contemporary observers, however, made clear their view that the dancing was a sickness. Nor did the Church, at a time when heresies were quickly suppressed, believe the dancers to be anything but victims of a terrible affliction, natural or divine. In recent decades a vogue for simple biological explanations has inspired the view that epidemic madnesses of the past were caused by the ingestion of ergot, a mould containing psychotropic chemicals (Backman, 1952; Matossian, 1989).
        But scholarship in the fields of psychology, history and anthropology provides compelling evidence that the dancing plagues and the possession epidemics of Europe's nunneries were in fact classic instances of a very different phenomenon: mass psychogenic illness.
        Altered states An important clue to the cause of these bizarre outbreaks lies in the fact that they appear to have involved dissociative trance, a condition involving (among other things) a dramatic loss of self-control. It is hard to imagine people dancing for several days, with bruised and bloodied feet, except in an altered state of consciousness. But we also have eyewitness evidence that they were not fully conscious. Onlookers spoke of the dancing maniacs of 1374 as wild, frenzied and seeing visions. One noted that while 'they danced their minds were no longer clear' and another spoke of how, having wearied themselves through dancing and jumping, they went 'raging like beasts over the land' (Backman, 1952). The hundreds of possessed nuns described in chronicles, legal records, theological texts or the archives of the Catholic Inquisition were equally subject to dissociative trance (Newman, 1998; Rosen, 1968). Some may have simulated the behaviour of the demoniac as a means of eliciting positive attention (Walker, 1981), but the detailed descriptions of astute and cautious inquisitors leave little doubt that most were genuinely entranced.
        How might we explain these epidemics of dissociation? Ergot could have induced hallucinations and convulsions in nuns who ate bread made from contaminated flour, but it is highly unlikely that ergotism would cause remorseless bouts of dancing (Berger, 1931). Nor is there any evidence that what the victims of mass possession ate or drank made any difference. Rather, as explained below, there are very strong indications that fearful and depressed communities were unusually prone to epidemic possession. And given that there is a well-established link between psychological stress and dissociation, this correlation is immediately suggestive of mass psychogenic illness.
        Fear and loathing The years preceding the dancing epidemics were exceptional in their harshness. The 1374 outbreak maps on to the areas most severely affected, earlier in the same year, by one of the worst floods of the century. Chronicles tell of the waters of the Rhine rising 34 feet, of flood waters pouring over town walls, of homes and market places submerged, and of decomposing horses bobbing along watery streets (Backman, 1952). In the decade before the dancing plague of 1518, famine, sickness and terrible cold caused widespread despair in Strasbourg and its environs (Rapp, 1974). Bread prices reached their highest levels for a generation, thousands of starving farmers and vine growers arrived at the city gates, and old killers like leprosy and the plague were joined by a terrifying new affliction named syphilis.
        These were intensely traumatic times. Nuns were protected from many of the indignities of daily life, but nunneries could also become toxic psychological environments. Even in well-managed communities, some nuns were inevitably unhappy. Sisters were often consigned to lives of quiet contemplation in accordance with the wishes of their parents rather than any conspicuous piety on their own part. Once inside the cloisters it was very hard for them to get out. But those who keenly embraced the spiritual life were often the most desperate. Tormented by a feeling of falling short of the exacting standards of holiness imposed by their orders, plenty reflected with terrible fear on the fiery destiny awaiting those impure in mind or deed.
        A notable example is that of Jeanne des Anges, Mother Superior of the Loudun nunnery in southern France, who became infatuated with a local priest, Father Grandier, in the year 1627. 'When I did not see him', she later confessed, 'I burned with desire for him.' In consequence, Jeanne felt overwhelming worthlessness and guilt. After weeks of painful penance and introspection, she fell into a dissociative state during which she repeatedly accused Grandier of plotting with Satan to make her lust after him. Within days, several more nuns had followed suit, all deliriously pointing the finger at the hapless priest. After an investigation by the Inquisition, Grandier was burnt alive (de Certeau, 2000). As in the case of the Loudun nunnery, a deep, guilty longing for human intimacy could trigger collective breakdowns. This is in part why, during their possession attacks, dissociating nuns often behaved with alarming lewdness: lifting their habits, simulating copulation, and giving their demons names such as Dog's Dick, Fornication, even Ash-Coloured Pussy. Guilt and desire could drive a nun to distraction (Sluhovsky, 2002).
        The fortitude of many a nun was most severely tested during the evangelical reform movement that swept their communities from the early 1400s. Striving to restore the harsh spiritual codes of earlier centuries, reformers instructed the nuns to consume only the blandest fare, to spurn all vanity, to adopt exacting regimes of abstinence and self-abasement, and to meditate routinely on the evils of Satan and the flames of Hell. Often the younger daughters of nobles or rich burghers, many nuns did not adjust well to tasteless meals, pillow-less beds and evenings bereft of music and conversation. Hence the arrival of reformist Mother Superiors precipitated a significant number of mass possessions. Take, for example, the Ursuline nuns of Auxonne in eastern France who experienced a possession crisis in 1658 after the appointment of the evangelical Barbe Buv(C)e to their nunnery. For several years, distressed and dissociating nuns accused her of being a witch, of killing babies and of being a lesbian. Barbe Buv(C)e was exonerated but judiciously assigned to an alternative nunnery. The possession crisis petered out (Sluhovsky, 2002).
        Mass possession also affected secular communities, and here too the role of stress is abundantly clear. The girls whose 'grievous fits' and 'hideous clamors and screeching' set off the Salem witch panic in New England in 1692 were the members of a community rent by factional strife (Demos, 1983). They were also terrified of attacks by the Native American tribes which had already slaughtered the parents and relatives of several of those at the heart of the witchcraft accusations (Norton, 2003).
        Fear and anguish were the common denominators of dancing plagues and possession crises. But this is only part of the story.
        Rude devils and cursing saints Studies of possession cults in hundreds of modern cultures, from Haiti to the Arctic, reveal that people are more likely to experience dissociative trance if they already believe in the possibility of spirit possession (Rouget, 1985). Minds can be prepared, by learning or passive exposure, to shift into altered states. The anthropologist Erika Bourguignon (1991) speaks of an 'environment of belief', the set of accepted ideas about the spirit world that members of communities absorb, thus preparing them later to achieve the possession state. It is not necessary, however, to be formally trained. The dancers of 1374 and 1518 occupied an environment of belief that accepted the threat of divine curse, possession or bewitchment. They didn't intend to enter trance-like states, but their metaphysical beliefs made it possible for them to do so.
        Similarly, it is only by taking cultural context seriously that we can explain the striking epidemiological facts that possession crises so often struck religious houses and that men were far less often the victims of mass diabolical possession. The daily lives of nuns were saturated in a mystical supernaturalism, their imaginations vivid with devils, demons, Satanic familiars and wrathful saints. They believed implicitly in the possibility of possession and so made themselves susceptible to it. Evangelical Mother Superiors often made them more vulnerable by encouraging trance and ecstasy; mind-altering forms of worship prepared them for later entering involuntary possession states. Moreover, early modern women were imbued with the idea that as the tainted heirs of Eve they were more liable to succumb to Satan, a misogynistic trope that often heightened their suggestibility.
        So when one especially distressed nun began to faint, foam, convulse and speak in strange tongues, there was always a chance that the more suggestible of her sisters would begin to experience the same kind of dissociation, convinced that Satan was stalking their cloisters in search of impure souls.
        Modern anthropology and psychology also reveal how beliefs and expectations can shape the individual's experience of dissociation. In societies where people are encouraged to enter trance states so as to make contact with a spirit world, they typically behave in ways prescribed by their cultures (Katz, 1982; Sharp, 1993). We have every reason to think that the victims of dancing plagues and possession epidemics were also acting in accordance with the rich theology of their worlds.
        That the dancing plagues were reliant on cultural belief-systems is apparent from the fact that they were concentrated in just those communities where we know there to have been a pre-existing belief in the possibility of dancing curses being sent down from Heaven or Hell. In 1374 the dancers believed that Satan had unleashed an irresistible dance, hence they not only danced interminably, but also begged for divine intercession, hurried to holy sites, and submitted gladly to exorcism (Backman, 1952). The people of Strasbourg in 1518 were convinced that a saint called Vitus had unleashed a dancing curse (Martin, 1914; Waller, 2008). And so, having entered the possession state, it seems that they acted according to the conventions of the St Vitus myth: dancing for days on end. The dance turned epidemic, as it had in 1374, because each new victim lent further credibility to the belief in supernatural agency. Indeed, the Strasbourg epidemic exemplifies the awesome power of suggestion: the city authorities ensured that the outbreak got out of control by having the dancers gathered together and left to dance in some of the most public spaces in the city (Waller, 2008).
        Theological conventions also conditioned the behaviour of demoniac nuns. This is apparent from the fact that nearly all possession epidemics occurred within a single 300-year period, from around 1400 to the early 1700s. The reason is that only during this period did religious writers insist that such events were possible (Newman 1998). Theologians, inquisitors and exorcists established the rules of mass demonic possession to which dissociating nuns then unconsciously conformed: writhing, foaming, convulsing, dancing, laughing, speaking in tongues and making obscene gestures and propositions. These were shocking but entirely stereotypical performances based on deep-seated beliefs about Satan's depravity drawn from religious writings and from accounts of previous possessions. For centuries, then, distress and pious fear worked in concert to produce epidemics of dancing and possession.
        Body and mind In 1749 a German nunnery in W¼rzburg experienced an epidemic of screaming, squirming and trance which led to the beheading of a suspected witch. By this period, however, the dancing plagues had disappeared and possession crises were rarities. The incidence of possession declined with the rise of modern rationalism (Bartholomew, 2001). Thereafter, mass outbreaks of dissociation tended to be confined to harshly managed settings such as factories and schools, and to be triggered by groundless fears of poisoning or exposure to toxic chemicals (see box opposite). For a variety of reasons, even these outbreaks are now uncommon in the Western world. But the dancing plagues and the experiences of demoniac nuns still have something to tell us about human responses to stress. For these events place in bold relief the extraordinary power of context to shape how anguish and fear are expressed. What the historian Edward Shorter calls the 'symptom pool' for psychosomatic illness has varied significantly over time and between cultures (Shorter, 1992), and the changing incidences of conversion disorder, somatoform disorder and dissociative trance are all attributable, at least in part, to shifting norms and expectations (Nandi et al., 1992). Madnesses of the past of course tell us much about the worlds that sustained them. But wild epidemics of dancing and possession can also serve as powerful reminders of the instability of many psychiatric conditions.
        - John Waller is in the Department of History at Michigan State University, and is the author of A Time to Dance, a Time to Die [email protected]
        BOX: Modern hysterias
        Even if dancing plagues are things of the past, mass psychogenic illness (MPI) remains a part of the human condition. MPI has been defined as the 'collective occurrence of physical symptoms and related beliefs among two or more persons in the absence of an identifiable pathogen' (Colligan & Murphy, 1982). Simon Wessely (1987) has usefully separated outbreaks of MPI into two different kinds: 'mass anxiety hysteria' and 'mass motor hysteria'.
        Mass anxiety hysteria usually involves the sudden expression of intense anxiety in response to a false threat. In Western settings, plausible fears of poisoning or exposure to toxic chemicals have been known to trigger classic stress-reactions such as fainting, nausea, weakness and hyperventilation. In a school in Blackburn in 1965, for instance, as many as 141 pupils were affected by psychogenic dizziness, nausea, spasms and shortness of breath after several girls had publicly fainted (Bartholomew & Wessely, 2002). Unless the initial fear is given credibility by the media or authorities, cases of mass anxiety hysteria seldom last more than a few days.
        Mass motor hysteria, in contrast, typically requires a prolonged build-up of psychological tension which then manifests itself in dissociative states, conversion symptoms and other psychomotor abnormalities. These can persist for weeks or months. Such outbreaks are often shaped by the kinds of supernaturalist beliefs that were responsible for the dancing mania and the possession crises of European nunneries. In modern-day Malaysia and Singapore, for example, factory workers are often drawn from rural communities steeped in beliefs about the spirit world. Those who find it hard to adjust to the regimentation of factory life sometimes enter a dissociative state in which they behave in a manner shaped by their culture's understanding of spirit possession. MPI may arise where fellow-workers share the same beliefs and are also experiencing severe psychological strain. These outbreaks are often brought to an end with a religious ritual involving the slaughter of a goat (Phoon, 1982). In both Western and non-Western settings, mass motor hysteria usually occurs in schools. In 1962, for example, several girls at a mission school near Lake Tanganyika developed a compulsion to laugh and cry by turns. The affliction soon spread to neighbouring populations (Rankin & Philip, 1963). Similar outbreaks of laughing have been recorded in both Zambia and Uganda. In fact, schools in central Africa are especially prone to outbreaks of mass motor hysteria. Late in 2008 several girls in a Tanzanian school responded to the pressure of taking important exams by dissociating: some fainted, while other sobbed, yelled or ran around the school.
        In other cases, conversion symptoms predominate. Thus in 2006 around 600 students in an emotionally austere all-girls school in Mexico City developed paralysis and nausea lasting days or weeks. Analogous forms of MPI have been described in European and North American schools. In a school in North Carolina in 2002 a dozen pupils experienced seizures or other paroxysmal episodes over the course of four months (Roach and Langley, 2004). In many such cases, the victims receive extensive medical treatment before a failure to identify a pathogenic cause leads to a diagnosis of MPI.
        More properly described as 'mass hysteria' are cases in which groups of people act upon beliefs which gain exaggerated credence in times of social and economic distress. For example, parts of south-east Asia are periodically struck by epidemics of a fear among men and women that their genitals are shrinking into their bodies. 'Koro' is fuelled by a belief in the existence of an evil spirit that causes genital retraction. Death is said to ensue once the penis, nipples or vulva have fully disappeared into the body: hence men have been known to drive pegs through their penises in the attempt to prevent complete retraction (Bartholomew, 2001). A similar phenomenon has been recorded in parts of western Africa where men claim their penises to have been shrunk or stolen through evil magic. Individuals accused of stealing or shrinking genitals are sometimes beaten to death or lynched: at least 14 suspected penis-thieves were killed in Nigeria in 2001 (Dzokoto & Adams, 2005).
        Mass anxiety hysteria and mass motor hysteria can be hard to distinguish from the effects of actual exposure to environmental hazards. Experts have therefore identified several features that are indicative of a psychogenic origin for a sudden outbreak of illness symptoms in a group of people. These include the lack of a plausible organic basis, their occurrence in a relatively closed group, and the prior existence of high levels of stress. It is always necessary, however, to test fully for potential toxic or pathogenic exposures. This point is underscored by a case in 1990 when several children at a London primary school fell sick with typical symptoms of MPI: nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain and over-breathing. It looked like a classic case of hysteria. However, it turned out that they were actually suffering from poisoning from pesticides used on cucumbers (Bartholomew, 2001).
        References
        Backman, E.L. (1952). Religious dances in the Christian Church and in popular medicine (Trans. E. Classen). London: Allen & Unwin. Bartholomew, R.E. (2001). Little green men, meowing nuns, and head-hunting panics: a study of mass psychogenic illness and social delusion. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. Bartholomew, R.E. & Wessely, S. (2002). Protean nature of mass sociogenic illness '' From possessed nuns to chemical and biological terrorism fears. British Journal of Psychiatry, 180, 300''306. Berger, G. (1931). Ergot and ergotism. London: Gurney and Jackson. Bourgignon, E. (1991). Possession. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Colligan, M.J. & Murphy, L.R. (1982). A review of mass psychogenic illness in work settings. In M.J. Colligan, J.W. Pennebaker & L.R. Murphy (Eds.) Mass psychogenic illness: A social psychological analysis (pp.33''52). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. de Certeau, M. (2000). The possession at Loudun (Trans. Michael B. Smith). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Demos, J. (1983). Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the culture of early New England. New York: Oxford University Press. Dzokoto, V.A. & Adams, G. (2005). Understanding genital-shrinking epidemics in West Africa: Koro, Juju, or mass psychogenic illness? Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 29, 53''78. Katz, R. (1982). Boiling energy: Community healing among the Kalahari Kung. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Martin, A. (1914). Geschichte der Tanzkrankheit in Deutschland. Zeitschrift des Vereins f¼r Volkskunde, 24, 113''134 & 225''239. Matossian, M.K. (1989). Poisons of the past: Molds, epidemics and history. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Midelfort, H.C.E. (1999). A history of madness in sixteenth-century Germany. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Nandi, D.N., Banerjee, G., Nandi S. & Nandi, P. (1992). Is hysteria on the wane? A community survey in West Bengal, India. British Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 87''91. Newman, B. (1998). Possessed by the spirit: Devout women, demoniacs, and the apostolic life in the thirteenth century. Speculum, 73, 733''770. Norton, M.B. (2003). In the devil's snare: The Salem witchcraft crisis of 1692. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Phoon, W.H. (1982). Outbreaks of mass hysteria at workplaces in Singapore: Some patterns and modes of presentation. In M.J. Colligan, J.W. Pennebaker & L.R. Murphy (Eds.) Mass psychogenic illness: A social psychological analysis (pp.21''32). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Rankin, A.M. & Philip, P.J. (1963). An epidemic of laughing in the Bukoba district of Tanganyika. Central African Medical Journal, 9, 167''170. Rapp, F. (1974). R(C)formes et r(C)formation Strasbourg: ‰glise et soci(C)t(C) dans le dioc¨se de Strasbourg (1450''1525). Strasbourg: Association des Publications pr¨s les Universit(C)s de Strasbourg. Roach, E.S. & Langley, R.L. (2004). Episodic neurological dysfunction due to mass hysteria. Archives of Neurology, 61, 1269''1272. Rosen, G. (1968). Madness in society: Chapters in the historical sociology of mental illness. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Rouget, G. (1985). Music and trance: A theory of the relations between music and possession. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Sharp, L.A. (1993). The possessed and the dispossessed: Spirits, identity, and power in a Madagascar migrant town. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Shorter, E. (1992). From paralysis to fatigue: A history of psychosomatic illness in the modern era. New York: Free Press. Sluhovsky, M. (2002). The devil in the convent. American Historical Review, 107, 1379''1411. Walker, D.P. (1981). Unclean spirits: Possession and exorcism in France and England in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Waller, J. (2008). A time to dance, a time to die: The extraordinary story of the dancing plague of 1518. Cambridge: Icon Books. Wessely, S. (1987). Mass hysteria: Two syndromes. Psychological Medicine, 17, 109''120.
      Ultra-Vaccinated Israel's Crisis Is a Dire Warning to America
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        Archived Version
        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 08:44
        J ERUSALEM'--The massive surge of COVID-19 infections in Israel, one of the most vaccinated countries on earth, is pointing to a complicated path ahead for America.
        In June, there were several days with zero new COVID infections in Israel. The country launched its national vaccination campaign in December last year and has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with 80 percent of citizens above the age of 12 fully inoculated. COVID, most Israelis thought, had been defeated. All restrictions were lifted and Israelis went back to crowded partying and praying in mask-free venues.
        Fast forward two months later: Israel reported 9,831 new diagnosed cases on Tuesday, a hairbreadth away from the worst daily figure ever recorded in the country'--10,000'--at the peak of the third wave. More than 350 people have died of the disease in the first three weeks of August. In a Sunday press conference, the directors of seven public hospitals announced that they could no longer admit any coronavirus patients. With 670 COVID-19 patients requiring critical care, their wards are overflowing and staff are at breaking point.
        ''I don't want to frighten you,'' coronavirus czar Dr. Salman Zarka told the Israeli parliament this week. ''But this is the data. Unfortunately, the numbers don't lie.''
        Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
        What happened?
        The complex and sobering truth is that no single policy or event brought Israel to this crisis, Hagai Levine, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor of epidemiology, told The Daily Beast. A deadly set of circumstances came together to put Israel on the precipice, most of which can be summed up as: ''We are still in the midst of a pandemic, and there is no silver bullet.''
        ''All the vectors have influenced the rise in morbidity,'' he said.
        But the principal causes of Israel's current predicament are the dominance of the extremely infectious Delta variant, which was carried into the country by Israelis returning from foreign vacations during the weeks in which Israel dropped all restrictive measures'--along with the worrisome decrease in vaccine efficacy after about six months.
        Israel vaccinated its population almost exclusively with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which received full FDA approval on Monday and remains the gold standard for the prevention of severe illness due to the coronavirus.
        '' It is not an Israeli problem. It is everywhere. ''
        But in early July, with citizens over the age of 60 almost completely vaccinated, Israeli scientists began observing a worrisome rise in infections'--if not in severe illness and death'--among the double-vaccinated.
        Fully vaccinated people with weakened immune systems appeared particularly vulnerable to the aggressive Delta variant.
        By mid-July, Sheba Hospital Professor Galia Rahav began to experiment with booster shots for oncology patients, transplant patients, and the hospital's own staff. A group of 70 elderly vaccinated Israelis with transplanted kidneys were the first to receive a third dose.
        The success of Rahav's trials in boosting immunity at about the sixth-month mark contributed to the Centers for Disease Control decision, announced last week, to begin offering booster shots to Americans in September.
        In order to keep severe illness and the number of COVID deaths down, and avoiding a fourth national lockdown, Israel has embarked on an aggressive effort to provide all adults with boosters in a matter of weeks.
        As of this week, all Israelis over 30 will be eligible to receive booster shots. By the end of the month, they are expected to be universally available to anyone over the age of 12 who received their second vaccine five months or more ago.
        Israel will then reconfigure its Green Passports, granting them only to the triple-vaccinated, and limiting their validity to six months. In anticipation of this change, the number of unvaccinated Israelis getting their first shots has tripled since the beginning of August.
        The World Health Organization has asked wealthy countries to halt all third vaccines for a period of two months, hoping that a moratorium will allow poorer countries, where few citizens have received even a first inoculation, to catch up. The United States rejected the call and Israel has ignored it.
        Asked what has brought Israel to peak transmission even as the country has already provided third doses of vaccines to 1.5 million citizens, Rahav, who has become one of the best known faces of Israel's public health messaging, sighed, saying, ''I think we're dealing with a very nasty virus. This is the main problem'--and we're learning it the hard way.''
        ''It is a combination of waning immunity, so that inoculated people get reinfected, and at the same time the very transmissible Delta variant,'' Rahav said, adding that Israelis lacked the discipline to revert to mask usage as the numbers began rising. ''But it is not an Israeli problem,'' she added. ''It is everywhere.''
        Her conclusion should give pause to American authorities, who face school reopenings as, at best, only 50 percent of eligible adults have been fully vaccinated.
        '' We can all learn from other countries, but you can't copy paste other countries' methods. ''
        Unlike New Zealand, which aims for zero community transmission of the coronavirus, and imposes lockdowns when even a single positive case is identified, Israeli authorities have opted for a model they are calling ''living with corona.''
        ''Israel really is a pioneer,'' Levine, the former chairman of the nation's Association of Public Health Physicians, said, referring to the groundbreaking vaccination campaign and the country's efforts, currently underway, to fully reopen schools on Sept. 1 while keeping in place measures aimed at preventing school-driven outbreaks, such as the one that closed the nation down last summer.
        ''We've achieved a plan that is not hermetic,'' Zarka, the coronavirus czar, told a local radio station. ''Clearly there will be cases of illness at schools'... [but] shutting oneself up at home and closing the school system isn't exactly the solution.''
        He has asked the government to impose stricter limitations on the size of cultural and sports events until the incidence of the coronavirus declines.
        ''Each country has to assess its own epidemiology,'' Levine said, ''its culture, its public health, the public's confidence in its health authorities.'' Referring to New Zealand, he added that ''we can all learn from other countries, but you can't copy paste other countries' methods.''
        Israel was forced to make quick decisions and in a time of great uncertainty. Levine was among the public health officials who expressed doubts about the wisdom of Israel's untested move towards nationwide booster vaccination, but he told The Daily Beast that the latest statistics, showing that only 0.2 of the first 1.1 million recipients of the third jab were infected with the coronavirus, proved it had been a ''brave decision.''
        The last week has shown a significant reduction in morbidity among triple-vaccinated Israelis over the age of 70'--the first group to receive the booster.
        Like the other experts, Rahav supports schools reopening, but noted that thanks to upcoming Jewish holidays, which will close schools in about 80 percent of the country, Israel will once again be uniquely positioned to serve as a huge laboratory.
      Spotify Data Reveals Its $230M Podcast Studio Gimlet Has Struggled
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        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 08:24
        Spotify's Gimlet Media has struggled to find its way inside the audio giant's expansive podcast empire. Insiders said Gimlet struggled with Spotify's unclear strategy and with internal tensions. Gimlet Managing Director Lydia Polgreen said monthly listeners grew by 600% since the acquisition. Last September, Gimlet Media found itself in the middle of a late-summer slump.
        The podcast studio experienced a 7% drop in consumption of its shows that month even as podcasting overall at its parent company, Spotify, grew 11% by the same key metric, according to a company newsletter obtained by Insider.
        Though its flagship series "Reply All" had returned with new episodes, Gimlet was the lowest-performing podcast studio at Spotify in a month when consumption of the audio giant's original and exclusive podcasts grew 43% to 62.2 million hours.
        Spotify attributed the drop to "listenership decay" after five popular Gimlet shows '-- including scripted thriller "Sandra" and true crime series "Conviction" '-- concluded their seasons. Consumption of Gimlet shows rebounded the following month, another internal document showed, though the studio still claimed Spotify's lowest share of listening time.
        A Spotify spokeswoman said that Gimlet consumption has increased 25% since September, even with some popular shows publishing less frequently.
        Spotify paid a reported $230 million in February 2019 to acquire Gimlet, boasting that it had nabbed a "best-in-class podcast studio" known for prestige programming. The deal, the largest up to that point for a podcast studio, ignited a frenzied two years of consolidation in which podcast businesses continued to command higher and higher prices.
        "In hindsight, it seems like what Spotify bought with $230 million was essentially the narrative," said Nick Quah, who writes industry newsletter Hot Pod. "It was a statement that they were open for business. 'We want to invest and own the talk space. We want to move beyond music.'"
        Two-and-a-half years later, Gimlet is struggling to find its place within Spotify's podcast universe, according to internal data and interviews with 10 current and former staffers at Gimlet and Spotify.
        This chart from a Spotify newsletter shows September 2020 consumption of its original and exclusive podcasts. Spotify Spotify's move into podcasting is about volume and exclusivity, sources told Insider: Lure millions of listeners with podcasts they can find only on Spotify and, in turn, sell advertising against that audience. It's a strategy that relies on copious hours of cross-promotable programming.
        As Spotify's other podcast studio acquisitions, Parcast and The Ringer, have supercharged their output '-- each producing more than 200 hours of programming monthly per the internal documents '-- Gimlet remains committed to its curated storytelling, which is more labor intensive. Insiders said the disconnect can be traced to a lack of clear goals from Spotify; attrition of key Gimlet leaders, many of whom moved into larger roles at Spotify; and a battle over Gimlet's culture that played out publicly last spring on "Reply All."
        Lydia Polgreen, Gimlet's managing director, said the studio has grown its total audience of monthly listeners by 600% since the Spotify acquisition. She added that while numbers go up and down seasonally, Gimlet still had the "ineffable X-factor" of creative storytelling.
        "We're making shows that get a lot of attention and speak to audiences that I think are really important and underserved," she said. "What I hear is Spotify is really excited and proud that Gimlet is part of the family."
        Spotify's spokeswoman underscored Polgreen's comments in a statement: "Gimlet is beloved for its thoughtful and deep reporting like 'Resistance,' 'Stolen' and 'Welcome To Your Fantasy' (co-produced with Pineapple), and it really makes Gimlet stand out."
        The 'HBO of Podcasting'Gimlet, born in 2014 out of public radio veteran Alex Blumberg's desire to create a home for ambitious audio storytelling, pitched itself as the "HBO of podcasting." Its popular show "StartUp" chronicled the studio's own early days; scripted thriller "Homecoming" was adapted into a glossy Amazon Prime drama series starring Julia Roberts.
        A few years in, though, cracks were showing in Gimlet's business. During much of 2018, the company wasn't generating enough advertising revenue to fund its pricey productions, Blumberg revealed in an episode of "StartUp."
        Gimlet Co-Founders Matt Lieber, left, and Alex Blumberg Clint Spaulding/Getty Images Business picked up at the end of 2018, but staffers still breathed "a sigh of relief," said one former employee, when Spotify appeared with its deep pockets and global reach. But Spotify didn't immediately drive its existing audience '-- now up to 365 million monthly active users '-- to Gimlet shows, causing frustration among staffers, the former employee added.
        Instead, Spotify largely left Gimlet alone '-- allowing it to keep its Brooklyn office and, per multiple sources, a separate Slack domain until a few months ago.
        Some employees relished the creative freedom but others describe a period of uncertainty. Spotify "didn't know what they wanted the partnership to be," said one former staffer. "There wasn't a clear strategic vision around how the two companies would actually merge."
        It's like adopting a teenager and having no plan on how to get them to college. '' an ex-Spotify employeeAn ex-Spotify employee echoed the frustration: "It's like adopting a teenager and having no plan on how to get them to college."
        Meanwhile, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek went on a podcast binge. In March 2019, Spotify acquired Parcast, a Los Angeles-based studio known for high-volume shows about scandals and true crime, and in February 2020 it scooped up Bill Simmons' sports and pop culture shop The Ringer.
        Spotify also paid a reported $100 million to stream "The Joe Rogan Experience" exclusively '-- a move that has caused some outrage inside the company, where critics feel he foments intolerance and promotes conspiracy theories '-- and inked deals with coveted talent including Barack and Michelle Obama via their production company Higher Ground.
        More recently, Alex Cooper agreed to distribute "Call Her Daddy" exclusively on Spotify in a three-year, $60 million deal, per the Wall Street Journal.
        But Spotify has a finite number of promotional spots on its highly trafficked homepage. "They brought on a ton of podcasting companies at once and they can't promote all of them super aggressively," said one Gimlet staffer. "There's never going to be as big an audience for bespoke narrative shows as there is for Joe Rogan."
        Gimlet's original leadership moved into broader roles at SpotifyAfter its sale to Spotify, Gimlet's leaders '-- executives who in some cases made millions in the Spotify acquisition '-- took a step back from the business. Matt Lieber, who co-founded Gimlet alongside Blumberg, moved to a job running operations for Spotify's global podcast studios. Blumberg, who had been leading Gimlet as its CEO, shifted to a creative role, including hosting environmental series "How to Save a Planet."
        Shortly after the acquisition, tensions inside Gimlet spilled into public view. Staffers in March 2019 mounted a union drive, which culminated two years later in a contract with Spotify that set salary minimums at $73,000 per year for Gimlet associate producers, established minimum raises, and guaranteed severance pay.
        Gimlet also has been reeling in recent months from a reckoning over its work culture ignited by a "Reply All" miniseries that explored workplace misconduct at Cond(C) Nast magazine Bon Appetit. Several Black employees publicly shared how they had felt marginalized at Gimlet and the dustup ultimately led to the departure of "Reply All" host PJ Vogt.
        Remaining hosts Alex Goldman and Emmanuel Dzotsi are retooling the high-profile show, which returned from a hiatus in June, and are recruiting a reporter-producer and an editor.
        Gimlet Managing Director Lydia Polgreen. Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Vanity Fair Polgreen, a well-liked leader who was previously the editor in chief of HuffPost and before that spent 14 years at the New York Times, was hired to run Gimlet in April 2020 '-- inheriting, as staffers noted to Insider, a challenged culture. Regarding "Reply All," she called it a "really exciting, creative" time for the show. "This is a very rare opportunity that comes along to rethink 'What should this show be? What should the voice be?'"
        Polgreen disputed the notion that Gimlet had lost steam. Instead, she told Insider, the studio has offered Spotify expertise in storytelling, distribution, advertising, and marketing, with several more of its executives moving to broader roles at Spotify to help power the streamer's overall podcasting ambitions.
        'The podcasting landscape is much, much more crowded'In the years since the Gimlet acquisition, Spotify has become a clear challenger to industry leader Apple Podcasts, building up a library of 2.9 million episodes and enticing more than 25%, or around 91 million, of its users to engage with them. Investors have largely cheered Spotify's pivot, though analysts at Citi earlier this year questioned whether the investment has paid off.
        Meanwhile, the US podcasting business has grown by 37% to $842 million, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. With IAB predicting that ad revenues will tip over $2 billion by 2023, competition has heated up.
        Not only have wannabe audio stars flooded the space with new shows, but powerful new players also have swooped in to compete with Spotify for rights to top podcasts. In June, Amazon nabbed the exclusive premiere window for "SmartLess," an interview show from Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes.
        "The podcasting landscape is much, much more crowded than it used to be," Polgreen said. "Any publisher that you look at, everything that they're making now is getting smaller audiences. The question of what qualifies as a quote-unquote hit in podcasting is really a shifting thing."
        Spotify's podcast charts are dominated by exclusives like "The Joe Rogan Experience" and "Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard," as well as a smattering of Parcast shows and broad hits like "Crime Junkie" and the New York Times' "The Daily." "The Journal," a daily news program produced in partnership with The Wall Street Journal, consistently performs well on Spotify's chart listing its most popular podcasts in the U.S. And the studio's "Science Vs" has charted as the No. 1 podcast in the science category on Spotify in the last 90 days, Spotify's spokeswoman said.
        This chart from a September 2020 Spotify newsletter shows how Gimlet's output stacks up against its sister studios. Spotify Because Parcast and The Ringer produce more programming, their podcasts command a greater share of overall consumption on Spotify. The internal document from September 2020 shows that Gimlet produced 19 hours of programming that month, compared to 276 hours from Parcast and 233 hours from The Ringer.
        Gimlet staffers have long bristled at such comparisons, arguing that their shows take longer to produce than their Spotify siblings' talk radio and true crime formats. "It is a lot easier to ramp up the money you make on The Ringer and Parcast," a Gimlet employee said.
        But former employees concede that Gimlet is protective of its programming and brand, which has hindered its ability to develop formats that can be cheaply and quickly replicated in success.
        Polgreen said that developing new shows is a priority; Gimlet has podcasts in the works with Ava DuVernay's ARRAY and Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions, as well as a collaboration with Crooked Media, about journalist Jason Rezaian's imprisonment in Iran.
        "In podcasting the hardest thing is to get an audience for a new thing," she noted, adding that she has been focused making Gimlet a place where creativity can thrive, be that through the union contract or by charting a path forward for "Reply All." "My role is to create as hospitable and conducive an environment as possible for creative people to do the best work of their careers."
      Making Spotify's Exclusive Content Inclusive to Creators and Listeners '-- Spotify
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        Archived Version
        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 07:56
        At Spotify, we are committed to creating an array of podcasts that engage, inspire, and inform our listeners and can be streamed wherever and whenever, for free. Streaming podcasts isn't just for your entertainment, however; streaming also provides greater insights for our creators, helping them see what is resonating with audiences. These valuable insights, only available thanks to streaming, allow us to create better shows and help you discover more shows. We are able to suggest and introduce you to programming we think you'll like based on your listening, from podcasts to music and more.
        We want to acknowledge that some have pointed out to us that their favorite Spotify-produced podcasts have disappeared from their usual podcast feeds. Therefore, we wanted to take the time to explain where and why these changes have been made, and we hope it brings clarity and a window into our podcasting strategy.
        To enhance our discovery and editorial prowess, in the last few months we've brought some of our shows exclusively to Spotify. What does that mean? Shows like Serial Killers , Horoscope Today , Motherhacker , and How to Save a Planet will still be available for free, but only on Spotify. Many podcast enthusiasts have found some of their favorite podcasts through our popular playlists powered by your algorithmic listening, like Your Daily Drive , or through our playlists where our expert Spotify editors have personally curated the best episodes.
        It's also important to point out what this change does not mean: that you have to pay to listen to Spotify-produced shows. You'll still be able to listen to your favorite Spotify Originals for free on our platform.
        Although this may require a shift in listening habits, we want to share more about why we are doing this. Spotify's ultimate mission is to connect millions of creators to billions of listeners around the world and help those creators live off their art. We're also invested in pushing the medium of audio forward by enabling greater creative freedom and driving the future of audio.
        By utilizing streaming technologies, we've been able to create new and innovative shows like The Get Up '--a daily morning show that mixes pop culture conversation with a personalized playlist. At The Ringer, a Spotify studio, we recently produced a new type of show called Black Girl Songbook '--a weekly production that celebrates a different Black artist per episode, mixing talk and commentary with full music tracks. This unique format, available only on Spotify, is also thanks to Spotify's streaming technology and global catalogue of music.
        We believe that streaming is the future of all audio listening and that our technology can provide the opportunity for the podcast ecosystem to grow, innovate, and ultimately create more opportunities for creators across the globe. It is also our priority to keep our world-class content both accessible and free to all users across the globe.
        Enjoy our content on Spotify through our Free or Premium services and help enhance the experience for all listeners. Check back for more about our upcoming slate of new shows and hear directly from our hosts via the Spotify: For the Record podcast and blog .
      Stop that! It's not Tourette's but a new type of mass sociogenic illness | Brain | Oxford Academic
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 06:49
        Accepted manuscript
        Kirsten R M¼ller-Vahl , Department of Psychiatry, Socialpsychiatry and Psychotherapy,
        Hannover Medical School
        ,
        Germany
        Correspondence to: Prof. Dr. Kirsten R M¼ller-Vahl, Department of Psychiatry, Socialpsychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, D-30625, Hannover, Germany. E-mail:
        mueller-vahl.kirsten@mh-hannover.de Search for other works by this author on:
        Anna Pisarenko , Department of Psychiatry, Socialpsychiatry and Psychotherapy,
        Hannover Medical School
        ,
        Germany
        Search for other works by this author on:
        Ewgeni Jakubovski , Department of Psychiatry, Socialpsychiatry and Psychotherapy,
        Hannover Medical School
        ,
        Germany
        Search for other works by this author on:
        Carolin Fremer Department of Psychiatry, Socialpsychiatry and Psychotherapy,
        Hannover Medical School
        ,
        Germany
        Search for other works by this author on:
        Revision received:
        20 July 2021
        Published:
        23 August 2021
        AbstractWe report the first outbreak of a new type of mass sociogenic illness (MSI) that in contrast to all previously reported episodes is spread solely via social media. Accordingly, we suggest the more specific term ''mass social media-induced illness'' (MSMI).
        In Germany, current outbreak of MSMI is initiated by a ''virtual'' index case, who is the second most successful YouTube creator in Germany and enjoys enormous popularity among young people. Affected teenagers present with similar or identical functional ''Tourette-like'' behaviours, which can be clearly differentiated from tics in Tourette syndrome.
        Functional ''Tourette-like'' symptoms can be regarded as the ''modern'' form of the well-known motor variant of MSI. Moreover, they can be viewed as the 21th century expression of a culture-bound stress reaction of our post-modern society emphasizing the uniqueness of individuals and valuing their alleged exceptionality, thus promoting attention-seeking behaviours and aggravating the permanent identity crisis of modern man. We wish to raise awareness of the current global ''Tourette-like'' MSMI outbreak. A large number of young people across different countries are affected, with considerable impact on health care systems and society as a whole, since spread via social media is no longer restricted to specific locations such as local communities or school environments.spread via social media is no longer restricted to specific locations such as schools or towns.
        This content is only available as a PDF.
        (C) The Author(s) (2021). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain.[br]
        This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (
        http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
      FBI Informant Ran 'Neo-Nazi Terrorist Group' Atomwaffen Division, Got 'Paid Handsomely' to Radicalize Troubled Youth
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 06:37
        FBI informant Joshua Caleb Sutter was "paid handsomely" by the feds to lead the "neo-nazi terrorist group" known as Atomwaffen Division, according to newly released court documents.
        Atomwaffen Division under Sutter's leadership became a Satanic death cult that targeted troubled youth for radicalization so the feds could set them up to advance their false narrative that "white extremists" are America's greatest terror threat.
        Remarkable filing in the case of high-level Atomwaffen member Kaleb Cole outs Joshua Caleb Sutter, the publisher of Martinet Press (Iron Gates, Liber 333, Bluebird), AWD member & a key figure in the O9A Tempel ov Blood, as an FBI informant. Since '03 https://t.co/WDZNx5Eeen
        ½ Ali Winston (@awinston) August 21, 2021Cole is charged with leading a conspiracy to intimidate reporters across the US, along with other AWD members. Every one of them has since plead guilty aside from him. The allegation is that Sutter's role in building intel was never disclosed.
        ½ Ali Winston (@awinston) August 21, 2021There's more in this filing, including the original FBI affidavit for the search of the AWD TX house, which has never been made public before. Bottom line is this: Martinet Press has been essentially bankrolled by the feds, pumping out a steady stream of extremist lit
        ½ Ali Winston (@awinston) August 21, 2021Sutter, according to the filing, earned more than $140,000 from the feds, including $80,000 since 2018, when AWD came under heavy federal investigation following my ProPublica investigation with @Jake_Hanrahan & AC Thompson https://t.co/UlUWBx2IKwpic.twitter.com/AGvoX1UZ0V
        ½ Ali Winston (@awinston) August 21, 2021This is where our tax money is going!
        This is potentially massive. It's been confirmed in court documents that Joshua Sutter, one of the Atomwaffen leaders (and one of the biggest O9A proponents), is an FBI informant.
        More here: https://t.co/joTSqc2Ledpic.twitter.com/chA1bBAmdS
        ½ Jake Hanrahan (@Jake_Hanrahan) August 21, 2021Sutter runs "Tempel ov Blood" with his wife. ToB promotes pedophilia, psychotic violence, and rape, and has even led to Atomwaffen cells convincing young girls to self-harm based off of the ToB ideology. This group is run by an FBI informant. https://t.co/Qk2Yv3mGSP
        ½ Jake Hanrahan (@Jake_Hanrahan) August 21, 2021Here's some Tempel ov Blood footage. Sutter has been an FBI informant since 2003. This was filmed well after that.
        Documents here: https://t.co/GWayOCdW4ipic.twitter.com/wPRqhJksLH
        ½ Jake Hanrahan (@Jake_Hanrahan) August 21, 2021The FBI was paying Sutter as he was doing this kind of shit. It would be interesting to know if the $200,000+ he was paid contributed directly to the promotion of this totalitarian occultist ideology... pic.twitter.com/i0eFaYtxnw
        ½ Jake Hanrahan (@Jake_Hanrahan) August 21, 2021One more thing: The O9A killer from Canada uploaded a ritual video before he killed a Muslim man outside a mosque in 2020. The song is the O9A chant by Nameless Therein, who made Sutter / Tempel ov Blood a specific song when they were flush with FBI cash. https://t.co/eQxNgi0TzCpic.twitter.com/RbrBBgWAzy
        ½ Jake Hanrahan (@Jake_Hanrahan) August 21, 2021The feds reportedly brainwashed a group of troubled patsy youth using "illegal psychedelic drugs" "in what can only be described as a psychological warfare operation."
        "Government operatives utilized the media, illegal psychedelic drugs, and brainwashing techniques to take a small group of friends ... and transform them into boogeymen in what can only be described as a psychological warfare operation."https://t.co/oMFvChKwS6
        ½ Keith Woods '¸ (@KeithWoodsYT) August 22, 2021As the supply of "white supremacist domestic terrorists" has failed to meet the feds' demand, the feds have decided to create the "white supremacist domestic terrorists" themselves.
        The leader of the other most prominent media-hyped "neo-nazi terror group" known as "The Base" last year was outed as an intelligence contractor and suspected federal agent who had worked for Homeland Security.
        The leader of the Neo-Nazi terror group "The Base" was a fed. Imagine my shock. https://t.co/d9EtslUhzZ
        ½ Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) January 26, 2020The leader of a terror group the Base once worked for an agency tasked with coordinating the U.S. government½s counterterrorism efforts. https://t.co/MMb5ZFXuyP
        ½ VICE News (@VICENews) February 17, 2021The FBI was also recently caught having allegedly organized the Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot "starting with its inception."
        https://t.co/fgRTYc4yLu
        ½ Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) July 20, 2021The feds are creating terrorists to justify their new domestic "War on Terror" wherein opponents of the DC regime will be put on the No Fly List or terror watchlist and stripped of their rights with no due process.
        They're partnering together with the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center to label all dissent as "terrorism" and spy on the American people and even members of the military for signs of "extremism."
        The Pentagon under Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is working to partner with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League and spy on members of the military for signs of "extremism," according to documents leaked to The Intercept. https://t.co/gDwZCjCUD6
        ½ Chris Menahan ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡¸ (@infolibnews) May 20, 2021America is an empire in decline and the regime in Washington is rapidly losing legitimacy. Our ruling oligarchs are now lashing out at the American people and blaming them for all our nation's woes while they loot the country and run it into the ground!
        If our "leaders" want to find radical extremists hell bent on destroying America from within all they need to do is look in the mirror!
        Follow InformationLiberation on Twitter, Facebook, Gab, Minds, Parler and Telegram.
      2 Things Mainstream Media Didn't Tell You About FDA's Approval of Pfizer Vaccine ' Children's Health Defense
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        Archived Version
        Wed, 25 Aug 2021 06:31
        The Defender is experiencing censorship on many social channels. Be sure to stay in touch with the news that matters by subscribing to our top news of the day. It's free.
        Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a biologics license application for the Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine.
        The press reported that vaccine mandates are now legal for military, healthcare workers, college students and employees in many industries. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has now required the vaccine for all teachers and school staff. The Pentagon is proceeding with its mandate for all military service members.
        But there are several bizarre aspects to the FDA approval that will prove confusing to those not familiar with the pervasiveness of the FDA's regulatory capture, or the depths of the agency's cynicism.
        First, the FDA acknowledges that while Pfizer has insufficient stocks of the newly licensed Comirnaty vaccine available, there is ''a significant amount'' of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine '-- produced under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) '-- available for use.
        The FDA decrees that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine under the EUA should remain unlicensed but can be used ''interchangeably'' (page 2, footnote 8) with the newly licensed Comirnaty product.
        Second, the FDA pointed out that both the licensed Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine, and the existing vaccine are ''legally distinct,'' but proclaims that their differences do not ''impact safety or effectiveness.''
        There is a huge real-world difference between products under an EUA compared with those that FDA has fully licensed. EUA products are experimental under U.S. law.
        Both the Nuremberg Code and federal regulations provide that no one can force a human being to participate in this experiment. Under 21 U.S. Code Sec.360bbb-3(e)(1)(A)(ii)(III), ''authorization for medical products for use in emergencies,'' it is unlawful to deny someone a job or an education because they refuse to be an experimental subject. Instead, potential recipients have an absolute right to refuse EUA vaccines.
        U.S. laws, however, permit employers and schools to require students and workers to take licensed vaccines.
        EUA-licensed vaccines have an extraordinary liability shield under the 2005 Public Readiness and Preparedness Act. Vaccine manufacturers, distributors, providers and government planners are immune from liability. The only way an injured party can sue is if he or she can prove willful misconduct, and if the U.S. government has also brought an enforcement action against the party for willful misconduct. No such lawsuit has ever succeeded.
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        The government has created an extremely stingy compensation program, the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program, to redress injuries from all EUA products.
        The program's parsimonious administrators have compensated under 4% of petitioners to date '-- and not a single COVID vaccine injury '-- despite the fact that physicians, families and injured vaccine recipients have reported more than 600,000 COVID vaccine injuries.
        At least for the moment, the Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine has no liability shield. Vials of the branded product, which say ''Comirnaty'' on the label, are subject to the same product liability laws as other U.S. products.
        When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices places a vaccine on the mandatory schedule, a childhood vaccine benefits from an generous retinue of liability protections.
        But licensed adult vaccines, including the new Comirnaty, do not enjoy any liability shield. Just as with Ford's exploding Pinto, or Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, people injured by the Comirnaty vaccine could potentially sue for damages.
        And because adults injured by the vaccine will be able to show that the manufacturer knew of the problems with the product, jury awards could be astronomical.
        Pfizer is therefore unlikely to allow any American to take a Comirnaty vaccine until it can somehow arrange immunity for this product.
        Given this background, the FDA's acknowledgement in its approval letter that there are insufficient stocks of the licensed Comirnaty, but an abundant supply of the EUA Pfizer BioNTech jab, exposes the ''approval'' as a cynical scheme to encourage businesses and schools to impose illegal jab mandates.
        The FDA's clear motivation is to enable Pfizer to quickly unload inventories of a vaccine that science and the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System have exposed as unreasonably dangerous, and that the Delta variant has rendered obsolete.
        Americans, told that the Pfizer COVID vaccine is now licensed, will understandably assume COVID vaccine mandates are lawful. But only EUA-authorized vaccines, for which no one has any real liability, will be available during the next few weeks when many school mandate deadlines occur.
        The FDA appears to be purposefully tricking American citizens into giving up their right to refuse an experimental product.
        While the media has trumpeted that the FDA has approved COVID vaccines, the FDA has not approved the Pfizer BioNTech vaccines, nor any COVID vaccines for the 12- to 15-year age group, nor any booster doses for anyone.
        And FDA has not licensed any Moderna vaccine, nor any vaccine from Johnson & Johnson '-- so the vast majority of vaccines available in the U.S., if not all, remain unlicensed EUA products.
        Here's what you need to know when somebody orders to get the vaccine: Ask to see the vial. If it says ''Comirnaty,'' it's a licensed product. If it says ''Pfizer-BioNTech,'' it's an experimental product, and under 21 U.S. Code 360bbb, you have the right to refuse.
        If it comes from Moderna or Johnson & Johnson (marketed as Janssen), you have the right to refuse.
        The FDA is playing bait and switch with the American public '-- but we don't have to play along. If it doesn't say Comirnaty, you have not been offered an approved vaccine.
      Biologics License Applications (BLA) Process (CBER) | FDA
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        Archived Version
        Tue, 24 Aug 2021 03:29
        Follow CBERDivision of Communication and Consumer AffairsOffice of Communication, Outreach and DevelopmentCenter for Biologics Evaluation and ResearchFood and Drug Administration10903 New Hampshire Ave WO71-3103Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002
        ocod@fda.hhs.gov(800) 835-4709(240) 402-8010
        For Updates on Twitter, follow @fdacber
      Surgeon General: COVID-19 Booster Shot Likely Needed for J&J Vaccine Recipients
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        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 22:49
        U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House on July 15, 2021. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
        U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said on Aug. 22 that people who have received the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine will likely need COVID-19 booster shots, after other federal health officials and he said days ago that those who got the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines would be recommended to get a third shot starting in September.
        ''We believe that J&J recipients will likely need a booster, but we are waiting on some data from the company about a second dose of J&J, so the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] can fully evaluate the safety and efficacy of that dose,'' Murthy said in a CNN interview.
        More data and studies are required, he said, noting when they're completed, ''we can present that to the FDA, and they can also review it for safety.''
        ''And so as soon as those studies are done, we'll have more to recommend to J&J recipients about the timing of a booster and which shot they should get,'' Murthy said.
        When asked about whether it's safe to administer a booster shot during a separate ABC News interview on Aug. 22, Murthy said that the J&J booster shot is contingent ''on the FDA and the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] Advisory Committee doing their full and independent evaluation.''
        Neither agency has approved booster shots for the other vaccines, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this month said that third Pfizer and Moderna shots can be given to people with compromised immune systems.
        About a week ago, Murthy was joined by CDC chief Dr. Rochelle Walensky, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins, and Acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Janet Woodcock in saying that federal health agencies will push for booster doses on Sept. 20. Walenksy, during a press conference, cited three studies published by the CDC that show mRNA vaccines' effectiveness in preventing COVID-19 dropped in July.
        Some experts, including one of the developers of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, said that trying to work toward ''herd immunity'' isn't possible with the virus, as it will constantly mutate and breach vaccine protection.
        ''I think [herd immunity] is a pretty distant prospect and we need to get used to the concept that this will become what we call an endemic disease rather than a pandemic disease,'' Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said on Aug. 10. ''A disease that is with us all the time'--probably transmits seasonally a bit like influenza where we see winter outbreaks.''
        Jack Phillips
        Senior Reporter
        Jack Phillips is a reporter at The Epoch Times based in New York.
      Taking COVID-19 Testing to a New Level | Abbott U.S.
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 22:44
        HOME TAKING COVID-19 TESTING TO A NEW LEVEL RAPID ANTIGEN TEST AND MOBILE NAVICA APP DESIGNED TO HELP RESTORE MORE CONFIDENCE IN DAILY LIFE.
        Purchased your BinaxNOW Home Test and now you need the integrated NAVICA app?
        OUR BINAXNOW HOME TESTS AND NAVICA APP ARE MAKING RETURN TRIPS FROM INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL EASIER.
        BINAXNOW AG IS NOW AVAILABLE OVER-THE-COUNTER, BRINGING ACCESSIBLE COVID-19 RAPID SELF-TESTING TO THE MASSES.
        NO MORE BARRIERS. NO MORE INCONVENIENCES. ANSWERS, WHEN AND WHERE YOU NEED THEM.Even while vaccines are rolling out, COVID-19 testing will remain crucial to helping us all return to normal as we begin to engage in everyday life once again. The BinaxNOW COVID-19 Self Test card is identical to the professional-use test card, used since August 2020, and is the most studied and widely available rapid antigen test and is now available as a Self Test.
        Now, with BinaxNOW authorized for over the counter for frequent asymptomatic use, we are making testing directly available for fast results, when and where you need it. You can now access our BinaxNOW test in 3 ways: at your local retailer over the counter self-test, or proctored at-home or from your healthcare professional. This combination will help attack the pandemic on critical fronts '' speed, simplicity, affordability, access and reliability.
        No more lines, no more wait times, no more barriers and no more inconveniences. Answers are now in your hands.
        Here's what to look for when choosing your rapid coronavirus test.
        For the professional use and at-home versions of BinaxNOW, you can receive verified tests results to your phone via our NAVICA mobile app.
        DOWNLOAD THE APP Get the app before your first test.
        OUR BINAXNOW HOME TESTS AND NAVICA APP ARE MAKING RETURN TRIPS FROM INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL EASIER.
        AFFORDABILITY, RELIABILITY, ACCESSIBILITY: THE IMPACT OF BINAXNOW IN COMMUNITIES.
        AS DAILY LIFE OPENS UP, CORONAVIRUS IS THE GUEST THAT WILL CONTINUE TO OVERSTAY ITS WELCOME. THAT'S WHY WE TEST.
        The BinaxNOW' COVID-19 Antigen Self Test is a lateral flow immunoassay intended for the qualitative detection of nucleocapsid protein antigen from SARS-CoV-2 from individuals with or without symptoms or other epidemiological reasons to suspect COVID-19 infection when tested twice over three days with at least 36 hours between tests. This test is authorized for non-prescription home use with self-collected direct anterior nasal (nares) swab samples from individuals aged 15 years or older or adult collected anterior nasal swab samples from individuals aged two years or older.
        The BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag 2 Card is a lateral flow immunoassay intended for the qualitative detection of nucleocapsid protein antigen from SARS-CoV-2 in direct anterior nasal (nares) swab samples from COVID-19 symptomatic individuals tested twice over three days with at least 36 hours between tests within the first seven days of symptom onset.
        This test is authorized for use with direct anterior nasal (nares) swab samples from individuals without symptoms or other epidemiological reasons to suspect COVID-19, when tested twice over three days with at least 36 hours between tests. Testing is limited to laboratories certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), 42 U.S.C. §263a, that meet the requirements to perform moderate, high, or waived complexity tests. This test is authorized for use at the Point of Care (POC), i.e., in patient care settings operating under a CLIA Certificate of Waiver, Certificate of Compliance, or Certificate of Accreditation.
        The BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card 2 Home Test is a lateral flow immunoassay intended for the qualitative detection of nucleocapsid protein antigen from SARS-CoV-2 in direct anterior nasal (nares) swabs from individuals with or without symptoms or other epidemiological reasons to suspect COVID-19 infection when tested twice over three days with at least 36 hours between tests. This test is authorized for non-prescription home use with self-collected observed direct anterior nasal (nares) swab samples from individuals aged 15 years or older or adult collected anterior nasal swab samples from individuals aged two years or older. The BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card 2 Home Test is to be performed only with the supervision of a telehealth proctor.
        The BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag tests have not been FDA cleared or approved. They have been authorized by the FDA under an emergency use authorization. The tests have been authorized only for the detection of proteins from SARS-CoV-2, not for any other viruses or pathogens, and are only authorized for the duration of the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of in vitro diagnostics for detection and/or diagnosis of COVID-19 under Section 564(b)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. § 360bbb-3(b)(1), unless the declaration is terminated or authorization is revoked sooner.
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      With Pfizer Likely to Get FDA Approval Monday It's Worth Remembering Pfizer and Moderna Lost The Clinical Trial Control Group Testing Vaccine Efficacy and Safety - The Last Refuge
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 22:30
        According to the New York Times and multiple media outlets, Pfizer is expected to get full FDA approval today. ''The move would make it the first Covid vaccine to go from emergency use authorization to full FDA approval.'' (read more) With that in mind, it is worth a reminder that both Pfizer and Moderna stopped the clinical trials the FDA was using in their review:
        The Moderna and Pfizer vaccine tests were conducted, as customary, with a control group; a group within the trial who were given a placebo and not the test vaccine. However, during the trial -and after the untested vaccines were given emergency use authorization- the vaccine companies conducting the trial decided to break protocol and notify the control group they were not vaccinated. Almost all the control group were then given the vaccine.
        Purposefully dissolving the placebo group violates the scientific purpose to test whether the vaccine has any efficacy; any actual benefit and/or safety issues. Without a control group there is nothing to compare the vaccinated group against. According to NPR, the doctors lost the control group in the Johnson County Clinicial Trial (Lexena, Kansas) on purpose:
        (Via NPR) ['...] ''Dr. Carlos Fierro, who runs the study there, says every participant was called back after the Food and Drug Administration authorized the vaccine.
        ''During that visit we discussed the options, which included staying in the study without the vaccine,'' he says, ''and amazingly there were people '-- a couple of people '-- who chose that.''
        He suspects those individuals got spooked by rumors about the vaccine. But everybody else who had the placebo shot went ahead and got the actual vaccine. So now Fierro has essentially no comparison group left for the ongoing study. ''It's a loss from a scientific standpoint, but given the circumstances I think it's the right thing to do,'' he says.
        People signing up for these studies were not promised special treatment, but once the FDA authorized the vaccines, their developers decided to offer the shots. (read more)
        Just so we are clear, the final FDA authorization and approval for the vaccines are based on the outcome of these trials. As noted in the example above, the control group was intentionally lost under the auspices of ''the right thing to do'', so there is no way for the efficacy, effectiveness or safety of the vaccine itself to be measured.
        There's no one left within the control group, of a statistically valid value, to give an adequate comparison of outcomes for vaxxed -vs- non-vaxxed. This is nuts. That NPR article is one to bookmark when people start claiming the vaccination is effective.
        How can the vaccine not be considered effective when there is no group of non-vaccinated people to compare the results to?
        Good grief, the entire healthcare system is operating on a massive hive mindset where science, and the scientific method, is thrown out the window in favor of ideological outcomes and self-fulfilling prophecies. The fact that the researchers and doctors, apparently under the payroll of the pharmaceutical companies that have a vested financial interest in the vaccine outcome, lost the control group on purpose is alarming.
        Of course, Big Pharma will promote the vaccine as beneficial, and the controlled media will promote that message with a complete disconnect from the clinical trial details, and the FDA will grant approval on results that were intentionally constructed to produce only one outcome.
        As noted by Dr. Malone, the commonsense therapeutic approach should be the primary focus, not vaccination, for ongoing healthcare systems as the COVID-19 variants will continue to evolve. Ultimately, the natural immunity process will be of greater overall benefit than vaccinations which will require continual boosters to deal with the ever-evolving variants (a similar approach to dealing with reoccurring and evolving flu strains). Dr. Malone provided support for his position with concurrence from the leading U.K. Vaccinologist in Great Britain, Sir Andrew Pollard ( SHORT VIDEO):
        In essence, both Dr. Andrew Pollard (Director of the U.K. Oxford Vaccine Group), and Dr. Malone state that variants of the COVID-19 virus will continue to spread throughout the population regardless of vaccine status; and the virus will continue to evolve into more infectious but less deadly or pathogenic strains.
        There simply is no way to vaccinate the population and stop the spread of COVID variants, because the vaccinated will contract and spread the virus just like the non-vaccinated. The vaccine approach should be targeted to the elderly and those most at risk.
        Specific to the position of Dr. Malone '' given the untested nature of the vaccine itself; no one knows the long-term side-effects; the benefit of the vaccine should be weighed against the individual's current health status. Elderly populations with lower immune responses should be the target for vaccination; they are the most at risk. However, younger -less at risk- individuals will likely benefit more from therapeutic treatment after exposure *if* they experience any symptoms at all.
        The problem is'.... this commonsense approach is less favorable to the interests of the pharmaceutical industry and the healthcare systems that are controlled by the financial mechanisms inside the business of healthcare. Big Pharma would obviously make less money from a smaller target population for vaccination; ergo the therapeutic approach is a threat to the preferred approach of those who operate the business model. This is the overarching political battle.
        The influence of the massive pharmaceutical corporations, inside the institutions of government controlled healthcare on a global basis, is massive. This outlook is the origin of the vaccinate push and vaccine narrative as the *only* and *best* solution. Anyone who raises a point, any point, in opposition to the mandated mass vaccine approach then becomes a target to be isolated, marginalized, ridiculed and removed.
        Madness'.... All of it.
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      New Appetite for Mortgage Bonds That Sidestep Fannie and Freddie - WSJ
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 22:25
        Wall Street is diving back into the business of turning home loans into bonds, injecting new competition into a market long dominated by government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac .
        The so-called private-label mortgage market'--in which financial firms serve the middleman role of creating giant pools of loans and selling them to investors'--had more than $42 billion of issuance in the second quarter. That is the most since the pandemic started and almost the most for any quarter since the last financial crisis, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry research firm.
        This market still made up a mere 4% of all mortgage bonds issued last quarter. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which issue bonds that come with a federal guarantee that investors will get paid, remain the industry's dominant players.
        But mortgage investors expect the private market to keep growing as a repository of loans that Fannie and Freddie can't or won't purchase, such as those tied to investment properties, super-expensive homes or self-employed borrowers. Recent issuers include Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as a growing array of banks and real-estate firms.
        As it has become more liquid in recent months, the private-label market has piqued the interest of more money managers, who are searching for yield in an era of rock-bottom rates. Private-label securities typically offer higher yields than those issued by Fannie and Freddie since they don't come with a government guarantee that investors get paid.
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        ''Because of the growth in the market and the growth of issuance, they view it as a viable market,'' said Mike Fania, head of residential credit at Annaly Capital Management Inc., the largest mortgage real-estate investment trust by market value. The firm has issued five private-label bond deals this year and has logged higher demand for them than in the past.
        There also has been more supply of new loans, partly because Fannie and Freddie have curtailed some business. Earlier this year, they capped their purchases of mortgages tied to second homes and investment properties. That has made it tougher for lenders to sell these loans to the government-backed giants. Instead, many lenders are selling them to Wall Street firms or creating their own mortgage bonds instead.
        Lenders also have restarted making loans that don't conform to the standards Fannie and Freddie require. Some use alternative documentation, such as bank statements instead of pay stubs, to verify borrowers' income.
        These kinds of loans are sometimes used by self-employed people and small-business owners whose incomes can't be verified using standard measures. Michael Buck, who owns a wallpaper-hanging company in Hurst, Texas, completed a refinance last month with Griffin Funding Inc., which used his bank statements to approve him.
        The mortgage firm looked at 24 months of his banking history, which showed income going into his account even though he doesn't draw a regular paycheck. He closed on a loan with an interest rate of 3.625%, down from the nearly 7% he was paying previously on a bank-statement loan he had taken out before the pandemic. He said it will save him hundreds of dollars a month.
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        ''You still have to earn it just like a traditional loan. If you don't have those deposits and you can't prove it, they are not going to give you the loan,'' Mr. Buck said. ''If you can prove it, you can get a piece of the pie just like I did.''
        Such loans were hard to come by in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008-09. When mortgages soured across the country and tanked the economy, investors took heavy losses on loans with alternative documentation. For years afterward, many deemed the loans too risky.
        A nascent revival in 2019 and early 2020 came to a halt when the pandemic hit and investors retreated from risk.
        Delinquencies among these unconventional loans rose in spring 2020 along with other types of mortgages, but fell as time wore on. Less than 6% of mortgages that use alternative documentation were delinquent as of last month, not much higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to Chris Helwig, managing director at Amherst Pierpont Securities LLC.
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        Their performance has given investors confidence that the loans are higher-quality than the type issued before the 2008-09 crisis, analysts say.
        Investors' increased willingness to invest in the market has channeled more capital to lenders such as San Diego-based Griffin Funding. The firm stopped making loans that use alternative documentation in spring 2020 and stuck to government-backed mortgages instead, according to Chief Executive Bill Lyons.
        But Griffin restarted alternative-documentation loans recently; now they are about one-third of its business. ''We finally caught momentum,'' Mr. Lyons said.
        Write to Ben Eisen at ben.eisen@wsj.com
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      New variant dubbed 'Covid-22' could be more deadly than Delta, expert claims - Insider Paper
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        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 22:21
        An expert has warned that a new variant dubbed ''Covid-22'' could be more lethal than the world-dominating Delta.
        Professor Doctor Sai Reddy of the federal technology institute ETH Zurich, an immunologist, believes that combination of existing strains could result in a new and more dangerous phase of the pandemic.
        ''It is very likely that a new variant will emerge and that we will no longer be able to rely on vaccinations alone,'' immunologist Sai Reddy said.
        Prof Reddy told the German newspaper Blick that Delta, dubbed COVID-21, was the most contagious variant of all.
        He cited coronavirus variants from South Africa (Beta) and Brazil (Gamma) that have mutated, allowing them to evade antibodies to some extent. Delta, on the other hand, is far more contagious but has yet to develop such mutations.
        ''If Beta or Gamma becomes more contagious, or if Delta develops mutations, then we could be talking about a new phase of the pandemic,'' said Reddy. ''This would become the big problem of the coming year. Covid-22 could be even worse than what we are experiencing now.''
        Professor Doctor Sai Reddy noted that recent scientific findings show that the viral load of the Delta variant is so high that anyone who contracts it who is unvaccinated can become a ''super-spreader.''
        ''Since children under 12 cannot be vaccinated, they represent a large group of potential super-spreaders,'' said Reddy.
        He noted that the Delta variant can avoid vaccinations due to its extremely high viral load.
        ''We need to counter this with a high level of antibodies, and that is exactly what a third booster dose of vaccine does,'' he explained.
      Email Subscription Platform Substack Adds Bitcoin Lightning Payments | Bitcoin Magazine: Bitcoin News, Articles, Charts, and Guides
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 16:35
        Substack, with over half a million subscribers, announced Monday it has integrated Bitcoin Lightning payments in collaboration with OpenNode, a payment processor offering Bitcoin and Lightning optimized API solutions for businesses.
        Independent online publisher Substack, with over half a million subscribers, announced Monday it has integrated Bitcoin Lightning payments in collaboration with OpenNode, a payment processor offering Bitcoin and Lightning optimized API solutions for businesses.
        OpenNode will now power both on-chain and off-chain Bitcoin and Lightning payments on the Substack platform, meaning journalists and writers can now effectively make a living in Bitcoin as independent writers.
        Nick Inzucchi, product designer at Substack commented, "We're excited to be working with OpenNode to enable independent publishers on Substack to accept crypto payments.''
        Inzucchi continued, "Having this option will give writers more flexibility and freedom, and we look forward to doing more in crypto to meet writers' needs."
        For now, instantaneous lightning payments are only available to ''a select group of crypto-focused publications.'' Subscribers to those publications will be able to pay their subscription fees in Bitcoin, and the lightning-enabled publications can withdraw their earnings in Bitcoin as well.
        Jo£o Almeida, Co-founder & CTO at OpenNode stated, "Our partnership will allow content creators across the Substack ecosystem to accept Bitcoin payments, and retain earnings in Bitcoin or convert to preferred currency. Writers and podcasters have flocked to Substack to regain creative and financial freedom, and Bitcoin is a natural fit.''
      FDA Approves First COVID-19 Vaccine | FDA
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        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 16:33
        For Immediate Release: August 23, 2021Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine has been known as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, and will now be marketed as Comirnaty (koe-mir'-na-tee), for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older. The vaccine also continues to be available under emergency use authorization (EUA), including for individuals 12 through 15 years of age and for the administration of a third dose in certain immunocompromised individuals.
        ''The FDA's approval of this vaccine is a milestone as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. While this and other vaccines have met the FDA's rigorous, scientific standards for emergency use authorization, as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,'' said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D. ''While millions of people have already safely received COVID-19 vaccines, we recognize that for some, the FDA approval of a vaccine may now instill additional confidence to get vaccinated. Today's milestone puts us one step closer to altering the course of this pandemic in the U.S.''
        Since Dec. 11, 2020, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine has been available under EUA in individuals 16 years of age and older, and the authorization was expanded to include those 12 through 15 years of age on May 10, 2021. EUAs can be used by the FDA during public health emergencies to provide access to medical products that may be effective in preventing, diagnosing, or treating a disease, provided that the FDA determines that the known and potential benefits of a product, when used to prevent, diagnose, or treat the disease, outweigh the known and potential risks of the product.
        FDA-approved vaccines undergo the agency's standard process for reviewing the quality, safety and effectiveness of medical products. For all vaccines, the FDA evaluates data and information included in the manufacturer's submission of a biologics license application (BLA). A BLA is a comprehensive document that is submitted to the agency providing very specific requirements. For Comirnaty, the BLA builds on the extensive data and information previously submitted that supported the EUA, such as preclinical and clinical data and information, as well as details of the manufacturing process, vaccine testing results to ensure vaccine quality, and inspections of the sites where the vaccine is made. The agency conducts its own analyses of the information in the BLA to make sure the vaccine is safe and effective and meets the FDA's standards for approval.
        Comirnaty contains messenger RNA (mRNA), a kind of genetic material. The mRNA is used by the body to make a mimic of one of the proteins in the virus that causes COVID-19. The result of a person receiving this vaccine is that their immune system will ultimately react defensively to the virus that causes COVID-19. The mRNA in Comirnaty is only present in the body for a short time and is not incorporated into - nor does it alter - an individual's genetic material. Comirnaty has the same formulation as the EUA vaccine and is administered as a series of two doses, three weeks apart.
        ''Our scientific and medical experts conducted an incredibly thorough and thoughtful evaluation of this vaccine. We evaluated scientific data and information included in hundreds of thousands of pages, conducted our own analyses of Comirnaty's safety and effectiveness, and performed a detailed assessment of the manufacturing processes, including inspections of the manufacturing facilities,'' said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. ''We have not lost sight that the COVID-19 public health crisis continues in the U.S. and that the public is counting on safe and effective vaccines. The public and medical community can be confident that although we approved this vaccine expeditiously, it was fully in keeping with our existing high standards for vaccines in the U.S."
        FDA Evaluation of Safety and Effectiveness Data for Approval for 16 Years of Age and OlderThe first EUA, issued Dec. 11, for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for individuals 16 years of age and older was based on safety and effectiveness data from a randomized, controlled, blinded ongoing clinical trial of thousands of individuals.
        To support the FDA's approval decision today, the FDA reviewed updated data from the clinical trial which supported the EUA and included a longer duration of follow-up in a larger clinical trial population.
        Specifically, in the FDA's review for approval, the agency analyzed effectiveness data from approximately 20,000 vaccine and 20,000 placebo recipients ages 16 and older who did not have evidence of the COVID-19 virus infection within a week of receiving the second dose. The safety of Comirnaty was evaluated in approximately 22,000 people who received the vaccine and 22,000 people who received a placebo 16 years of age and older.
        Based on results from the clinical trial, the vaccine was 91% effective in preventing COVID-19 disease.
        More than half of the clinical trial participants were followed for safety outcomes for at least four months after the second dose. Overall, approximately 12,000 recipients have been followed for at least 6 months.
        The most commonly reported side effects by those clinical trial participants who received Comirnaty were pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle or joint pain, chills, and fever. The vaccine is effective in preventing COVID-19 and potentially serious outcomes including hospitalization and death.
        Additionally, the FDA conducted a rigorous evaluation of the post-authorization safety surveillance data pertaining to myocarditis and pericarditis following administration of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and has determined that the data demonstrate increased risks, particularly within the seven days following the second dose. The observed risk is higher among males under 40 years of age compared to females and older males. The observed risk is highest in males 12 through 17 years of age. Available data from short-term follow-up suggest that most individuals have had resolution of symptoms. However, some individuals required intensive care support. Information is not yet available about potential long-term health outcomes. The Comirnaty Prescribing Information includes a warning about these risks.
        Ongoing Safety MonitoringThe FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have monitoring systems in place to ensure that any safety concerns continue to be identified and evaluated in a timely manner. In addition, the FDA is requiring the company to conduct postmarketing studies to further assess the risks of myocarditis and pericarditis following vaccination with Comirnaty. These studies will include an evaluation of long-term outcomes among individuals who develop myocarditis following vaccination with Comirnaty. In addition, although not FDA requirements, the company has committed to additional post-marketing safety studies, including conducting a pregnancy registry study to evaluate pregnancy and infant outcomes after receipt of Comirnaty during pregnancy.
        The FDA granted this application Priority Review. The approval was granted to BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH.
        Related Information###
        Boilerplate
        The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products.
      Why Hospitals and Health Insurers Didn't Want You to See Their Prices - The New York Times
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        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 11:59
        This year, the federal government ordered hospitals to begin publishing a prized secret: a complete list of the prices they negotiate with private insurers.
        The insurers' trade association had called the rule unconstitutional and said it would ''undermine competitive negotiations.'' Four hospital associations jointly sued the government to block it, and appealed when they lost.
        They lost again, and seven months later, many hospitals are simply ignoring the requirement and posting nothing.
        But data from the hospitals that have complied hints at why the powerful industries wanted this information to remain hidden.
        It shows hospitals are charging patients wildly different amounts for the same basic services: procedures as simple as an X-ray or a pregnancy test.
        And it provides numerous examples of major health insurers '-- some of the world's largest companies, with billions in annual profits '-- negotiating surprisingly unfavorable rates for their customers. In many cases, insured patients are getting prices that are higher than they would if they pretended to have no coverage at all.
        At the University of Mississippi Medical Center, a colonoscopy costs ...
        $1,463
        with a Cigna plan.
        $2,144
        with an Aetna plan.
        $782
        with no insurance at all.
        Until now, consumers had no way to know before they got the bill what prices they and their insurers would be paying. Some insurance companies have refused to provide the information when asked by patients and the employers that hired the companies to provide coverage.
        This secrecy has allowed hospitals to tell patients that they are getting ''steep'' discounts, while still charging them many times what a public program like Medicare is willing to pay.
        And it has left insurers with little incentive to negotiate well.
        The peculiar economics of health insurance also help keep prices high.
        How to look up prices at your hospital (if they're there) 'º
        Customers judge insurance plans based on whether their preferred doctors and hospitals are covered, making it hard for an insurer to walk away from a bad deal. The insurer also may not have a strong motivation to, given that the more that is spent on care, the more an insurance company can earn.
        Federal regulations limit insurers' profits to a percentage of the amount they spend on care. And in some plans involving large employers, insurers are not even using their own money. The employers pay the medical bills, and give insurers a cut of the costs in exchange for administering the plan.
        A growing number of patients have reason to care when their insurer negotiates a bad deal. More Americans than ever are enrolled in high-deductible plans that leave them responsible for thousands of dollars in costs before coverage kicks in.
        Patients often struggle to afford those bills. Sixteen percent of insured families currently have medical debt, with a median amount of $2,000.
        Even when workers reach their deductible, they may have to pay a percentage of the cost. And in the long run, the high prices trickle down in the form of higher premiums, which across the nation are rising every year.
        At the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, a pregnancy test costs ...
        $18
        for Blue Cross patients in Pennsylvania.
        $58
        for Blue Cross HMO patients in New Jersey.
        $93
        for Blue Cross PPO patients in New Jersey.
        $10
        with no insurance at all.
        Insurers and hospitals say that looking at a handful of services doesn't provide a full picture of their negotiations, and that the published data files don't account for important aspects of their contracts, like bonuses for providing high-quality care.
        '' These rate sheets are not helpful to anyone,'' said Molly Smith, vice president for public policy at the American Hospital Association. ''It's really hard to say that when a lot of hospitals are putting in a lot of effort to comply with the rule, but I would set them aside and avoid them.''
        The trade association for insurers said it was ''an anomaly'' that some insured patients got worse prices than those paying cash.
        '' Insurers want to make sure they are negotiating the best deals they can for their members, to make sure their products have competitive premiums,'' said Matt Eyles, chief executive of America's Health Insurance Plans.
        The five largest insurers '-- Aetna, Cigna, Humana, United and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association '-- all declined requests for on-the-record interviews. Cigna, Humana and Blue Cross provided statements that said they support price transparency.
        The requirement to publish prices is a rare bipartisan effort: a Trump-era initiative that the Biden administration supports. But the data has been difficult to draw meaning from, especially for consumers.
        The New York Times partnered with two University of Maryland-Baltimore County researchers, Morgan Henderson and Morgane Mouslim, to turn the files into a database that showed how much basic medical care costs at 60 major hospitals.
        The data doesn't yet show any insurer always getting the best or worst prices. Small health plans with seemingly little leverage are sometimes out-negotiating the five insurers that dominate the U.S. market. And a single insurer can have a half-dozen different prices within the same facility, based on which plan was chosen at open enrollment, and whether it was bought as an individual or through work.
        But the disclosures already upend the basic math that employers and customers have been using when they try to get a good deal.
        People carefully weighing two plans '-- choosing a higher monthly cost or a larger deductible '-- have no idea that they may also be picking a much worse price when they later need care.
        Even for simple procedures, the difference can be thousands of dollars, enough to erase any potential savings.
        At Aurora St. Luke's in Milwaukee, an M.R.I. costs United enrollees ...
        $1,093
        if they have United's HMO plan.
        $4,029
        if they have United's PPO plan.
        It's not as if employers can share that information at open enrollment: They generally don't know either.
        '' It's not just individual patients who are in the dark,'' said Martin Gaynor, a Carnegie Mellon economist who studies health pricing. ''Employers are in the dark. Governments are in the dark. It's just astonishing how deeply ignorant we are about these prices.''
        A vital drug, a secret price Take the problem Caroline Eichelberger faced after a stray dog bit her son Nathan at a Utah campsite last July.
        Nathan's pediatrician examined the wound and found it wasn't serious. But within a week, Nathan needed a shot to prevent rabies that was available only in emergency rooms.
        Ms. Eichelberger took Nathan to Layton Hospital in Layton, Utah, near her house. It hasn't published price data for an emergency rabies vaccine, but the largest hospital in the same health system, Intermountain Medical Center, has.
        Nathan, then 7 years old, received a child's dose of two drugs to prevent rabies. The bill also included two drug administration fees and a charge for using the emergency room.
        Intermountain owns a regional insurer called SelectHealth. It is currently paying the lowest price for those services: $1,284.
        In the same emergency room, Regence BlueCross BlueShield pays $3,457.
        Ms. Eichelberger's insurer, Cigna, pays the most: $4,198.
        For patients who pay cash, the charge is $3,704. Half of the insurers at Intermountain are paying rates higher than the ''cash price'' paid by people who either don't have or aren't using insurance.
        This pattern occurs at other hospitals, sometimes with more drastic consequences for adults, who require a higher dosage.
        Prices for a drug that prevents rabies
        Charts include private insurers only. Prices reflect the typical dose for a 160-pound person.
        Prices were still secret when Brian Daugherty went to an emergency room near Orlando, Fla., for a rabies shot after a cat bite last summer.
        '' I tried to get some pricing information, but they made it seem like such a rare thing they couldn't figure out for me,'' he said.
        He went to AdventHealth Orlando because it was close to his house. That was an expensive decision: It has the highest price for rabies shots among 24 hospitals that included the service in their newly released data sets.
        The price there for an adult dose of the drug that prevents rabies varies from $16,953 to $37,214 '-- not including the emergency-room fee that typically goes with it.
        Mr. Daugherty's total bill was $18,357. After his insurer's contribution, he owed $6,351.
        '' It was a total shock when I saw they wanted me to pay that much,'' said Mr. Daugherty, who ultimately negotiated the bill down to $1,692.
        In a statement, AdventHealth said it was working to make ''consumer charges more consistent and predictable.''
        If Mr. Daugherty had driven two hours to the University of Florida's flagship hospital, the total price '-- between him and his insurer '-- would have been about half as much.
        Similar disparities show up across all sorts of basic care.
        One way to look at the costs is to compare them with rates paid by Medicare, the government program that covers older people. In general, Medicare covers 87 percent of the cost of care, according to hospital association estimates.
        At multiple hospitals, major health plans pay more than four times the Medicare rate for a routine colonoscopy .
        Charts include private insurers only.
        And for an M.R.I. scan , some are paying more than 10 times what the federal government is willing to pay.
        Charts include private insurers only.
        Health economists think of insurers as essentially buying in bulk, using their large membership to get better deals. Some were startled to see numerous instances in which insurers pay more than the cash rate.
        Whether those cash rates are available to insured patients varies from hospital to hospital, and even when they are, those payments wouldn't count toward a patient's deductible. But the fact that insurers are paying more than them raises questions about how well they're negotiating, experts said.
        '' The worrying thing is that the third party you're paying to negotiate on your behalf isn't doing as well as you would on your own,'' said Zack Cooper, an economist at Yale who studies health care pricing.
        ' They don't want their secrets out there' Employers are the largest purchasers of health insurance and would benefit the most from lower prices. But most select plans without knowing what they and their workers will pay.
        To find out what the prices are, they would need to solicit bids for a new plan, which can frustrate employees who don't want to switch providers.
        It also requires the employers to hire lawyers and consultants, at a cost of about $50,000, estimated Nathan Cooper, who manages health benefits for a union chapter that represents Colorado sheet metal and air-conditioning workers.
        '' If you want the prices, you have to spend to get them,'' he said.
        At hospitals in the Erlanger Health System in Tennessee, administration of a flu vaccine costs ...
        $104
        with a Blue Cross plan.
        Employers who do sometimes come up empty-handed.
        Larimer County, in Colorado, covers 3,500 workers and their families in its health plan. In 2018, county officials asked their insurer to share its negotiated rates. It refused.
        '' We pushed the issue all the way to the C.E.O. level,'' said Jennifer Whitener, the county's human resources director. ''They said it was confidential.''
        Ms. Whitener, who previously managed employer insurance contracts for a major health insurer, decided to rebid the contract. She put out a request for new proposals that included a question about insurers' rates at local hospitals.
        A half dozen insurers placed bids on the contract. All but one skipped the question entirely.
        '' They don't want their secrets out there,'' Ms. Whitener said. ''They want to be able to tout that they've got the best deal in town, even if they don't.''
        Hospitals and insurers can also hide behind the contracts they've signed, which often prohibit them from revealing their rates.
        '' We had gag orders in all our contracts,'' said Richard Stephenson, who worked for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association from 2006 until 2017 and now runs a medical price transparency start-up, Redu Health. (The association says those clauses have become less common.)
        At Memorial Regional Hospital, in Florida, an M.R.I. costs ...
        $1,827
        with a Cigna plan.
        $2,148
        with a Humana plan.
        $2,455
        with a Blue Cross plan.
        $262
        with a Medicare plan.
        Mr. Stephenson oversaw a team that made sure the gag orders were being followed. He said he thought insurers were ''scared to death'' that if the data came out, angry hospitals or doctors might leave their networks.
        Warnings, but no fines The Eichelberger family at home. Last summer Nathan, second from right, was bitten by a stray dog and needed a rabies shot. The family originally received an estimate that it would cost about $800 paying cash, but later received a surprise bill for over $2,000 more. Lindsay D'Addato for The New York Times
        Ms. Eichelberger's plan had a $3,500 deductible, so she worked hard to find the best price for her son's care.
        But neither the hospitals she called nor her insurer would give her answers.
        She made her decision based on the little information she could get: a hospital, Layton, that said it would charge her $787 if she paid cash. The price for paying with insurance wouldn't be available for another week or two, she was told.
        But even the cash price didn't turn out to be right: A few weeks after the visit, the hospital billed her an additional $2,260.
        Itemized costs
        It turns out that the original estimate left out a drug her son would need.
        '' It was the most convoluted, useless process,'' said Ms. Eichelberger, who was able to get the bill waived after five months of negotiations with the hospital.
        Daron Cowley, a spokesman for Layton's health system, Intermountain, said Ms. Eichelberger received the additional bill because ''a new employee provided incomplete information with a price estimate that was not accurate.''
        The health system declined to comment on prices at its hospitals, saying its contracts with insurers forbid discussing negotiations.
        It's not clear how much better the Eichelbergers would do today.
        The new price data is often published in hard-to-use formats designed for data scientists and professional researchers. Many are larger than the full text of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
        And most hospitals haven't posted all of it. The potential penalty from the federal government is minimal, with a maximum of $109,500 per year. Big hospitals make tens of thousands of times as much as that; N.Y.U. Langone, a system of five inpatient hospitals that have not complied, reported $5 billion in revenue in 2019, according to its tax forms.
        As of July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had sent nearly 170 warning letters to noncompliant hospitals but had not yet levied any fines.
        Catherine Howden, a spokeswoman for the agency, said it expected ''hospitals to comply with these legal requirements, and will enforce these rules.''
        She added that hospitals that do not post prices within 90 days of a warning letter ''may be sent a second warning letter.''
        The agency plans to increase the fines next year to as much as $2 million annually for large hospitals, it announced in July.
        The hospital that treated Ms. Eichelberger's son has begun posting some information. But it has spread its prices across 269 web pages. To look for rabies, you have to check them all. It isn't there.
        At the Biggest U.S. Hospitals, Few Prices Are Available Six months after the new rules took effect, The Times reached out to the 10 highest-revenue hospitals that had posted little or no data about their negotiated rates or cash prices. Here's what they had to say: '' We will not be providing a statement or comment. ''
        N.Y.U. Langone has not published its negotiated rates or cash prices.
        '' Services that do not have a fixed payer-specific rate are shown as variable. ''
        Stanford Health Care has not published its cash prices. Of more than 300,000 possible combinations of insurance and medical treatment in its data file, it includes prices for 479.
        '' We do not post standard cash rates, which typically will not reflect the price of care for uninsured patients. ''
        Cedars-Sinai Medical Center , in Los Angeles, has not published its cash prices. The hospital initially posted a 2.5 GB data file composed almost entirely of more than one million lines that contained no data. After The Times inquired about the large file size, the hospital reduced it to a 1.4 MB file.
        '' We have listed the fixed rates where possible and, where that is not possible, have listed them as 'variable.' ''
        U.C.S.F. Medical Center has not published its cash prices. Of more than eight million possible combinations of insurance and medical treatment in its data file, U.C.S.F. includes negotiated rates for 346. ( U.C. Davis , which is part of the same system and has also not published its cash prices, sent an identical statement.)
        '' The resources we provide ensure that our patients know what kind of assistance is available to them and, ultimately, what a procedure will cost them '-- not us. ''
        Montefiore Medical Center , in the Bronx, has not published its negotiated rates or cash prices.
        '' Penn Medicine is committed to transparency about potential costs. ''
        The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania added cash prices to its price transparency file after The Times inquired about why that data was missing.
        '' V.U.M.C. offers a toll-free number which consumers can call if they have questions about what they may be charged for services. ''
        Vanderbilt University Medical Center , in Nashville, has not published its negotiated rates or cash prices.
        '' Orlando Health has worked hard over the past several years to deliver helpful pricing information to its patients. ''
        Orlando Health has not published its negotiated rates or cash prices.
        '' ''
        Methodist Hospital (San Antonio) did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The hospital has not published its negotiated rates or cash prices.
        '' We are continuing to work on the machine-readable file that includes payer-negotiated rates. '... It involves analyzing a daunting number of data points. ''
        Long Island Jewish Medical Center has not published its negotiated rates or cash prices.
        The largest hospitals were chosen based on gross revenue reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2018, the most recent year with full data available.
        Do you have a medical bill we should investigate? Share it with us. The New York Times is exploring the wide variation in health care prices that patients face in the United States. Medical bills help us see the prices that hospitals and insurers often keep secret. If you have a medical bill that surprised you '-- maybe because of a high price, or an unexpected charge '-- we'd love to review it.
      Executives warn of growing container ship shortages
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 11:48
        Container shippingOrders for new vessels are surging but availability is still unlikely to keep pace with global logistics demand Ningbo-Zhoushan port in China, the world's third-busiest, was partially shut down this month due to a Covid outbreak (C) BloombergAugust 23, 2021 3:00 am byHarry Dempsey For months the world's largest shipping groups have grappled with container shortages and a lack of berths in ports, as seesawing demand and Covid-19 heaped pressure on global logistics. Now another shortage is occupying the industry's attention: that of the ships themselves.
        Executives have warned that, despite a recent surge in orders for new vessels, the availability of container ships is likely to remain strained in coming years given soaring demand for their services and the complexity of retooling fleets for environmental reasons.
        Xavier Destriau, chief financial officer of Israel's Zim, one the world's largest shipping groups, said that the tight supply of vessels posed ''a potential major threat'' given that many companies have hesitated until this year to order new capacity, while many old ships are overdue for scrapping.
        ''We are looking at the potential risk of pressure on supply in terms of vessels,'' he said. ''We're talking three, four or five years along the line.''
        His warning was echoed by Andi Case, chief executive of Clarksons, the world's largest shipping broker, who said the number of shipyards globally had dropped by two-thirds since 2007 to about 115. ''We are miles off oversupplying the fleet,'' he said.
        Those shipyards still in operation have received a deluge of orders after container shipping groups raked in unprecedented profits over 2020-21, after surging demand for goods spurred a meteoric rise in freight rates from the second half of last year.
        Shipping groups have ordered vessels capable of carrying 3.2m 20-foot containers so far in 2021, the most in the year to date on record, according to Clarksons Research, its analytics arm.
        But there are concerns this will still not be nearly enough to meet global demand. New orders are equivalent to 20 per cent of the current fleet's capacity '-- up from around 10 per cent in 2019, but far below the 60 per cent level in 2007.
        A vessel shortage raises the prospect of persistently high freight costs, albeit lower than current exorbitant levels. The industry had been plagued by the opposite problem in the past decade with a glut of vessels straining profitability, leading to the collapse of South Korea's Hanjin Shipping and forcing consolidation.
        Some industry figures still privately express concerns about over-ordering, despite the increase in global demand, pointing to the shortage of container equipment and infrastructure bottlenecks as more pressing issues. But a lack of extra capacity would mean supply chains are even more vulnerable to one-off disruptions such as the Chinese port closures that have roiled global trade this year.
        Another reason for industry hesitancy is over the type of vessels to order given incoming environmental regulation.
        Global rules on energy efficiency that come in from 2023 have spurred interested in liquefied natural gas-powered ships, but orders have been stuck at the same percentage of total orders since October 2019.
        LNG reduces greenhouse gas emissions by about a quarter compared with traditional fuels but it is controversial because it locks in substantial emissions for 25 years. Environmental activists believe the industry needs to make a more radical leap to clean fuels such as green ammonia or hydrogen.
        Maersk, the world's largest container shipping group, has shied away from ordering LNG-powered vessels because of technological and regulatory uncertainty.
        But Destriau and Case argue shipping companies should embrace LNG and act now to reduce emissions rather than waiting for new technologies to arrive. Zim has signed long-term charter agreements for 20 LNG-fuelled vessels this year.
        ''Is it OK to wait 10 years to say 'maybe by then hydrogen will be ready'?'' said Case. ''The drive should be to eradicate the heavy fuel oil-powered ships.''
        CopyrightThe Financial Times Limited . All rights reserved. Please don't copy articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
      Why You Can't Find Everything You Want at Grocery Stores - WSJ
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        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 11:46
        Industry executives say new problems are arising weekly, driven by shortages of labor and raw materials. Groceries including frozen waffles and beverages remain scarce as some food companies anticipate disruptions lasting into 2022. A wider range of products is running short and logistical challenges are compounding for many retailers.
        Donny Rouse, chief executive of Louisiana-based Rouses Markets, said he is struggling to fill shelves as his company runs low on everything from pet food to canned goods. The chain of more than 60 supermarkets is sometimes receiving as little as 40% of what it orders, prompting Mr. Rouse and his staff to try to secure products earlier and more often. Before the pandemic, Rouses received well over 90% of its orders.
        ''It is difficult for customers to get everything they want to get,'' said Mr. Rouse, grandson of the chain's founder.
        Many grocery chains said that it is hard to predict how complete or on-time their deliveries will be due to limited guidance from suppliers, and executives said there is often little recourse when trucks show up with a fraction of what was ordered. Demand is higher than expected by retailers, with monthly sales up about 14% from two years ago and 3% from a year ago, according to data from research firm IRI.
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        To keep stores stocked, retailers are rethinking when and how to procure products they sell. Some are carrying fewer flavors or sizes, selling different brands and gathering inventory whenever possible. Regional and smaller grocers are struggling more than the biggest chains, industry executives said.
        Albertsons Cos. and other big grocers said they are also feeling the impact of labor and commodity challenges but that their supply picture has improved since last year. Some, including Ahold Delhaize USA, said they have greater control of their inventory because they have their own vehicles and drivers.
        After stores ran short of toilet paper and canned soup in the early days of the pandemic, food manufacturers now are confronting new problems. Resin, aluminum and other raw materials used for packaging are running short, and many producers are giving priority to their most popular items, retailers said. Industry executives said manufacturers are unable to produce enough items to meet demand, with many employees staying home because of the coronavirus or because they have received rounds of stimulus checks. Advocates of the stimulus aid have said such federal coronavirus-relief efforts shield households from sudden income drops and help low earners.
        Kraft Heinz Co. 's Lunchables have been tough to get, and Rouses now is making its own version with crackers, cheese, grapes and meat. Canned tomato goods have also been running low. When Rouses recently received 40% of its orders for Conagra Brands Inc.'s Hunt's products, the chain got more private-label products to fill the gap, said Jason Martinolich, Rouses' vice president of center store. It has also secured more products from other brands, but the grocer is offering less variety than it used to.
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        Kraft Heinz said there is a record demand for Lunchables, with sales growing in double digits for the first time in five years. The company said that it is proactively managing the supply chain and that it is getting more products to customers.
        Conagra said its inventory of some Hunt's items will be low until it can package more tomatoes from this year's harvest, adding that demand for the products is unprecedented.
        Mr. Rouse said he and his team are asking some manufacturers to send products directly from plants. They also check shelves of Rouses' competitors and ask manufacturers why rivals have products that his stores lack. Those efforts don't always alleviate his challenges, though.
        ''Every grocery store is doing the same thing,'' Mr. Rouse said.
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        Many food sellers said they expect the flow of groceries to stay spotty for the near future. Walmart Inc. and other major buyers of food have reinstated penalty fees for late and incomplete orders that they paused last spring, but that hasn't improved supply challenges.
        ''Every day, overall, stores are ordering 10% more than what we can get for them,'' said David Smith, CEO of Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., which supplies food for Rouses and other regional and independent grocers across the country.
        The biggest chains are faring better, Mr. Smith said, because they make up a greater portion of manufacturers' business and are receiving more than their proportionate share. New issues are arising every season for others, such as shortages of sports beverages in the summer or string cheese ahead of the fall, grocery executives said.
        Consumers are adjusting to the new norm, retailers said. Quincy, Mass.-based Stop & Shop Supermarket LLC, owned by Ahold Delhaize, is lowering prices of substitutes for items that are running low.
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        Keith Milligan, controller of Piggly Wiggly stores in Alabama and Georgia, recently secured chicken from a pork supplier after receiving incomplete orders. The alternative breasts, wings and thighs were much larger than what Piggly Wiggly typically sells, but most have sold.
        Amber Edwards, a mother of two who lives in Huntsville, Ala., said she has driven this summer to multiple supermarkets in her area for large packs of cherry Gatorade but has only found small sizes of other flavors.
        ''The shelves are empty, and online they are always out of stock,'' Ms. Edwards said, adding that she has been buying whatever she can find.
        Write to Jaewon Kang at jaewon.kang@wsj.com
      Four States Dole Out Direct Payments Amid Ongoing Stimulus Uncertainty
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        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 11:39
        Protesters rally demanding economic relief during the coronavirus pandemic in New York City on August 5, 2020. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images Demand for a fourth pandemic stimulus check is high, but it's unlikely the federal government will release more support. Four states are trying to respond to that demand. California, Florida, New Mexico, and Tennessee have set aside funds to provide direct payments to residents. Americans are increasingly calling for more stimulus money as the coronavirus pandemic drags on. Some states are responding on their own as the prospect of Washington approving a fourth-round of checks seems more and more unlikely.
        So far, there have been three rounds of stimulus checks. Eligible Americans received $1,400 stimulus checks in March. The Trump administration issued two stimulus checks nine months apart: The checks in the first round were $1,200, the second were $600.
        As Insider's Joseph Zeballos-Roig points out, a fourth stimulus check is unlikely. That's because the economy is regaining jobs, he reported in an analysis published in early July. The White House in May threw the ball in Congress' court, saying it's up to lawmakers to determine whether a fourth stimulus would be issued.
        "We'll see what members of Congress propose," said Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary. She added that the stimulus package is generally costly to the federal government.
        A petition with almost 3 million signatures illustrates there is wide support for not only a single round but also recurring stimulus checks.
        Here are the four states that are offering direct payments to residents in an attempt to meet demand for extra support:
        California
        Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $100 billion recovery package that will enable direct payments to go out to millions of residents.
        The package allocates $12 billion toward stimulus relief, with individuals receiving a $600 check starting in September. Some families with kids will receive an additional $500. Newsom's office says the stimulus checks will reach "nearly two thirds of Californians."
        Florida
        For first responders, one-time, $1,000 stimulus checks are expected to hit bank accounts shortly, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said earlier this week. Nearly 200,000 first responders are qualified to receive the payment, DeSantis' office said.
        Teachers and educators can also expect to receive stimulus checks in the amount of $1,000.
        "Those should be arriving this week and into next week," DeSantis said on Tuesday.
        New Mexico
        Thousands of low-income individuals should expect to receive a one-time check of up to $750, according to the New Mexico Human Services Department.
        The initiative is part of a $5 million state program that provides financial assistance to low-income households in New Mexico. Individuals with the lowest income will receive the checks first, the department said.
        "These support payments are critical to many New Mexico families," said Human Services Secretary David Scrase. "We are proud of this effort and will continue providing support to New Mexicans in need."
        Tennessee
        Full-time teachers are eligible for a 1,000 check after the Tennessee legislature passed a bill in June. Part-time teachers are eligible to receive a $500 check.
        The direct payments are expected to roll in over the course of 2021.
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      Biden's aides 'too afraid' to quiz him over key decisions made in run-up to US Afghan withdrawal | Daily Mail Online
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        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 10:53
        Joe Biden's aides were 'too afraid' to quiz him and his National Security Adviser over key decisions made in the run-up to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to sources close to the US administration.
        The President is accused of insisting on recalling US troops ahead of the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington DC, and allegedly ignored warnings that it would not leave the military enough time to get American nationals and allies out.
        A former defence official in regular contact with senior White House aides suggested that there was not much pushback from concerned administration staffers because they were 'too afraid' of challenging Mr Biden and his National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan.
        The Sunday Telegraph reports that Biden administration officials urged the President - unsuccessfully - to keep open Bagram Air Base, which has more runways than Kabul airport and has been the heart of US operations in Afghanistan during the 20-year intervention.
        The official claimed that the Biden administration functions 'like an autocracy' and stifles internal dissent, adding: ' It's one thing to crack down on leaks, it's another thing to allow a mistake like this.
        ' This White House is very disciplined, especially when it comes to leaks and such. But the downside of discipline is if you're running things like an autocracy, and you broker no dissent internally, that's not what the purpose of a White House staff is.'
        It is understood that the State Department is now pushing the White House to extend the August 31 withdrawal deadline, even if it means striking a new deal with the resurgent Taliban, amid fears that tens of thousands of civilians could remain trapped in Afghanistan in nine days.
        Going into September with a large contingent of US troops still in Afghanistan could be politically damaging for Mr Biden, who campaigned last year on a promise to end America's 'forever wars' and is likely to be keeping an eye on the midterm elections next year.
        Critics claim Mr Biden's narrow pursuit of US interests has left him increasingly isolated abroad, with former British premier Tony Blair calling the decision to withdraw 'imbecilic'.
        Relations between Britain and US are strained, with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace warning 'no nation will be able to get everyone out' of Afghanistan as Mr Biden's August 31 date makes the mission even more time-pressured, in what is likely to be seen as a plea to Washington.
        Cabinet insiders have suggested the President was 'gaga' and 'doolally' for withdrawing so quickly, while the Prime Minister has allegedly privately referred to Mr Biden as 'Sleepy Joe', the nickname coined by Donald Trump. Boris Johnson also allegedly remarked Britain 'would be better off with Trump' - allegations branded 'categorically untrue' by Downing Street.
        Joe Biden's aides were 'too afraid ' to quiz him and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan over key decisions made in the run-up to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to sources close to the US administration
        President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the evacuation of American citizens and vulnerable Afghans, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Friday, August 20, 2021
        Taliban fighters patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan
        Pakistan's soldiers check the documents of Afghan and Pakistani nationals for crossing into Afghanistan at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing point in Chaman on August 22, 2021
        Jake Sullivan: Biden national security adviser who helped negotiate Iran nuclear deal for Barack Obama in secret US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan
        President Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was a senior policy advisor to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential election campaign and her deputy chief of staff at the Department of State when she was Secretary of State.
        Mr Sullivan was also a senior advisor to the Obama administration for the Iran nuclear negotiations, which began in secret throughout 2013.
        He and US officials including Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, Senior White House Iran Advisor Puneet Talwar had met with the Iranian regime at least five times faece-to-face in Oman over the prospect of an agreement over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
        Those efforts paved the way for the Joint Comprehensive, which critics say created the conditions in which Iran could develop nuclear weapons after the deal expired.
        Republicans also say the deal did nothing to contain Iranian terrorism in the Middle East, its ballistic missile programme, the regime's policy towards Israel or its support for Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine and President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.
        The President is under immense domestic and international criticism for his management of the crisis in Afghanistan. In a speech given from the White House on Monday, Mr Biden blamed his predecessor Donald Trump and the Afghan Army for the Taliban's astonishing seizure of Kabul - and seemingly refusing to accept responsibility himself.
        He has spent just four of the last 15 days at the White House and on Saturday was forced to cancel plans to return to his beachfront home in Delaware for the weekend.
        General David Petraeus, the former CIA director who led US and Allied forces in Afghanistan under Barack Obama, told the Sunday Telegraph that Mr Biden was wrong to deflect blame onto the Afghan Army.
        Mr Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, who negotiated the US withdrawal deal with the Taliban, accused the President of giving the US military away to the Islamists as he appeared at a rally for thousands of supporters in Cullman, Alabama.
        'This will go down as one of the greatest military defeats of all time,' Mr Trump said. He called the situation in Afghanistan a humiliation, claiming it's not a withdrawal but rather 'a total surrender'.
        The former President told the massive crowd gathered in the deep red state that 'this would have never happened if I was president.' He said: 'The issue here is not whether to leave Afghanistan, the issue is Joe Biden's staggering incompetence and gross negligence ... creating the greatest strategic humiliation that we've ever seen as a country.
        'With me in office the Taliban would not have ever dreamt of capturing our airfield or parading around with our American weapons. There would have been no emergency embassy evacuation and no taking down of our flag. Because we would have established clear lines that the Taliban would never have dared to cross.
        'The problem with Biden is that our enemies are not afraid of him, they don't respect him.'
        Marc Thiessen, speechwriter under George W Bush, said on Friday that Mr Biden's team of 'sychophants' had enabled him to move forward with the bungled Afghanistan withdrawal and questioned 'where are the adults in the room?'
        'When President Donald Trump was in office, the media were always celebrating the 'adults in the room' - the presidential advisers who restrained Trump from following through on his worst instincts,' Thiessen wrote.
        He noted that the former president sometimes invited those who disagreed with him into his inner circle, like HR McMaster and John Bolton, both national security advisers under Trump.
        'When his generals warned him of disastrous consequences, he modified his plans,' Thiessen said of Trump. The former president had wanted to pull all US forces out of Syria, but left 900. He'd wanted to withdraw from Afghanistan, but left 2,500 troops.
        'Far from a team of rivals, Biden has surrounded himself with a team of sycophants and enablers who share his worst instincts,' Mr Thiessen wrote in the Washington Post. 'Where are the adults in the room today? Nowhere to be found.'
        He noted that Mr Biden told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday no one had recommended to him he leave a residual force of 2,500 in Afghanistan, 'that I can recall.'
        Mr Thiessen laid blame squarely on Secretary of State Antony Blinken, calling to mind late Senator John McCain's warnings about the secretary.
        'Blinken is an ideologue who has been working toward a full Afghanistan withdrawal since he joined the Obama administration in 2009. Ditto for national security adviser Jake Sullivan,' the speechwriter claimed. 'But others such as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark A. Milley knew better.'
        Mr Milley claimed on Thursday: 'There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days'.
        In a 2014 speech on the Senate floor, Mr McCain warned that Mr Blinken, then up for the deputy secretary of state role, would be 'dangerous to America and to the young men and women who are fighting and serving our country.'
        President Biden speaks during a meeting with his Cabinet in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 20, 2021
        Marc Thiessen, speechwriter under George W Bush, laid blame squarely on Secretary of State Antony Blinken, calling to mind late Senator John McCain's warnings about the secretary. Mr Sullivan has defended the Biden administration's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal
        'We will see the same movie in Afghanistan that we saw in Iraq,' adding that 'we must leave a stabilizing force behind of a few thousand troops,' Mr McCain warned at the time.
        Mr Thiessen was chief speechwriter for former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld beginning in 2001, when the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, before joining Mr Bush's speechwriting team in 2004.
        On Friday the Wall Street Journal reported that State Department officials in Kabul had warned the Biden administration that the Afghan capital would fall. A dozen diplomats sent a confidential memo in a dissent channel to Mr Blinken on July 13 that the Taliban was rapidly gaining ground and the city was vulnerable to collapse.
        On July 8, Mr Biden said it was 'highly unlikely' the Taliban would take control of Afghanistan and denied there would be chaos in Kabul. But then on Wednesday this week, the President said there was 'no way' to leave Afghanistan without chaos ensuing.
        Afghan security forces were collapsing, the diplomats said in the memo, and offered ways to mitigate the advancing insurgents. But it may have been too late to stop them.
        The State Department memo, according to the report, also called for the government to use tougher language on the violence in the past from the Taliban and urged them to start collecting information for Afghan allies who qualified for Special Immigrant Visas after working with US forces.
        The Journal reported that 23 Embassy staffers signed the cable and rushed to deliver it considering the deteriorating situation in Kabul. Mr Blinken reviewed the cable, a personal familiar with it told the paper.
      This Is Why "Jeopardy!" Fans Are Calling for Mayim Bialik to Be Fired, Too
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        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 01:55
        When Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek died in 2020, the beloved television personality left big shoes to fill. For months, Jeopardy! held endless rounds of unofficial auditions with guest hosts that included everyone from fan favorite LeVar Burton to Katie Couric to Anderson Cooper.
        But in the end, the show's producers chose Mike Richards'--a little-known public figure in the game show world who also happens to be the executive producer of Jeopardy!'--to host the show regularly. Former Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik was also chosen to host Jeopardy!'s primetime specials and any spinoff series.
        But then, when a number of offensive and inappropriate comments Richards had made about women and Jewish, Asian, and Haitian people resurfaced from his former podcast The Randumb Show, he stepped down. (He will be remaining on the show as executive producer, however.)
        But now, Jeopardy! fans are casting a critical eye at Bialik and some say she should be ousted, too. Read on to find out why.
        RELATED: This Is Who Alex Trebek Wanted to Replace Him as the Next Jeopardy! Host.
        ShutterstockBialik rose to fame as a teen with a breakout role playing a young version of Bette Midler's character in Beaches. She then went on to star on the hit sitcom Blossom from 1990 to 1995.
        More recently, Bialik enjoyed a renaissance playing neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler on the wildly successful sitcom The Big Bang Theory. She's also a neuroscientist in real life'--the actor graduated with a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA in 2007.
        It was Bialik's combination of on-screen smarts on Big Bang Theory and her real-life studies that made her a top contender to join Jeopardy!
        RELATED: 17 Former Child Stars Who Have Totally Different Jobs Now.
        Shutterstock/Kathy HutchinsBialik wrote in her 2012 parenting book Beyond the Sling that she and her then-husband Michael Stone had opted not to get their two children, Miles and Frederick, vaccinated. "We made an informed decision not to vaccinate our children," she wrote in the book. "This is a very personal decision that should be made only after sufficient research, which today is within reach of every parent who seeks to learn about their child's health regardless of their medical knowledge or educational status."
        After taking some heat for the comment in the book, Bialik tweeted in 2015 that she had been misunderstood. "I would like to dispel the rumors about my stance on vaccines," she wrote. "I am not anti-vaccine. My children are vaccinated. There has been so much hysteria and anger about this issue, and I hope this clears things up as far as my part."
        More recently, in a YouTube video from Dec. 2020, Bialik further explained why she and her children would be getting the COVID vaccine. "I have never, not once, said that vaccines are not valuable, not useful, or not necessary'--because they are," she said. "I received a ton of negative press about this and to be quite honest, most of it was inaccurate. The internet jury decided I was a danger to my children, a disgrace to science, and a member of the Hollywood elite responsible for the killing of babies."
        She went on to say that she hadn't opted out of vaccinating her children entirely, but that she had delayed getting her kids vaccinated early on because of vaccine-related allergies they had.
        Bialik's controversial vaccine comments were resurfaced by angry Jeopardy! fans once it was announced she'd officially be hosting. "Keep in mind that Mayim Bialik, though vaccinated, spreads vaccine doubt and hawks brain quackery," journalism professor and former TV critic Jeff Jarvis tweeted. "She is no representative for a show about facts and authority."
        "To be honest, primetime #JEOPARDY host Mayim Bialik is more scandalous," another Twitter user wrote, comparing her to Richards. "She is an anti-vaxxer who pushes some fake 'brain' product on TV commercials."
        A spokesperson for Bialik told The Wrap on Wednesday, the same day she and Richards were announced as hosts: "She has been fully vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus and is not at all an anti-vaxxer."
        RELATED:For more up-to-date information, sign up for ourdaily newsletter.
        Shutterstock/Phil StaffordCritics of Bialik also cited a 2017 editorial she wrote for The New York Times titled "Being a Feminist in Harvey Weinstein's World" as an example of a "victim-blaming" mentality.
        Some have specifically highlighted a portion where Bialik wrote: "I still make choices every day as a 41-year-old actress that I think of as self-protecting and wise. I have decided that my sexual self is best reserved for private situations with those I am most intimate with. I dress modestly. I don't act flirtatiously with men as a policy."
        A few days after the article was released, Bialik issued a mea culpa on Twitter. "There is no way to avoid being the victim of an assault by what you wear or the way you behave," she wrote days after social media users lambasted her for the article. "I really do regret that this became what it became."
        Later, in a Facebook Live interview with then-New York Times editorial board member Bari Weiss, she added: "There is no way to avoid being the victim of assault by what you wear or the way you behave. I really do regret that this became what it became '... The only people who are responsible for their behavior and assault are the predators who are committing those horrendous acts."
        ShutterstockEarlier this week, the executives behind the beleaguered show announced that they would be asking a slew of guest hosts back while they continue to search for a permanent Trebek replacement.
        Many'--including Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds'--have thrown their support behind former Star Trek star Levar Burton.
        "It shouldn't be this hard for @levarburton to receive serious consideration as @Jeopardy host," author Roxanne Gay tweeted. "He isn't some random idea people have. He taught generations of children to read. He has real depth. He is charming and handsome."
        RELATED: Jeopardy! Shot Back at Fans Criticizing the Current Champ.
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      VIDEO - OnlyFans reverses porn ban after backlash from users
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        Archived Version
        Thu, 26 Aug 2021 12:41
        LONDON '-- OnlyFans said Wednesday it has "suspended" plans to ban pornography, in a stunning U-turn that came after fierce backlash from its users.
        A spokesperson for the online subscription platform told CNBC that the proposed changes were no longer required "due to banking partners' assurances that OnlyFans can support all genres of creators."
        The London-based firm last week announced plans to prohibit porn from Oct. 1, citing pressure from its banking partners.
        "Thank you to everyone for making your voices heard," OnlyFans said in a tweet Wednesday.
        "We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned October 1 policy change."
        "OnlyFans stands for inclusion and we will continue to provide a home for all creators," the firm added. "An official communication to creators will be emailed shortly."
        OnlyFans' decision to block sexually explicit posts drew swift condemnation from sex workers, who were in large part responsible for the platform's success and rely on it as a source of income. The site lets adult performers sell "not safe for work" content for subscription fees.
        Founded in 2016, OnlyFans has become a social media powerhouse thanks to its looser approach to overtly sexual material. With more than 130 million users, 2 million content creators and a reported $150 million in free cash flow last year, OnlyFans has the kind of numbers many start-ups could only dream of.
        OnlyFans has attempted to rebrand itself as a platform for all types of creators recently, claiming it is used by everyone from chefs to musicians. Celebrities like Cardi B and Bella Thorne have even joined as creators. Still, porn is by far the most popular category on the site.
        OnlyFans founder and CEO Tim Stokely said in an interview with the Financial Times this week the firm was forced to ban such content after "unfair" treatment from banks.
        Stokely name-dropped JPMorgan, BNY Mellon and Britain's Metro Bank as examples of lenders that have made life difficult for OnlyFans and sex workers. All three banks declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.
        There has been speculation that some other factors were at play. For instance, an Axios report said last week that the company was struggling to find external investment due to concerns with its hosting of adult content.
        Stokely denied this was the case, saying OnlyFans "didn't make this policy change to make it easier to find investors."
        OnlyFans' founder also slapped down the suggestion that Mastercard may have been behind the ban. The payments network is set to bring in tougher rules for adult merchants from Oct. 1, the same day OnlyFans was due to prohibit sexually explicit content.
        Stokely said the firm was already "fully compliant" with Mastercard's new rules and they had "no bearing" on its policy change. A Mastercard spokesperson told CNBC the firm made no contact with OnlyFans related to its decision.
        "They made this decision themselves," the Mastercard spokesperson said.
      VIDEO - Incel 'expert' claims anyone who says 'triggered' or 'based' is likely part of dangerous extremist group '-- RT World News
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        Archived Version
        Thu, 26 Aug 2021 12:02
        Social media users have 'confessed' to their hateful ways after a journalist who infiltrated the incel internet claimed that young men who use words such as ''based'' or ''normies'' are often full-fledged far-right white nationalists.
        Read more
        A clip of journalist Laura Bates sharing her expertise about ''incels'' has caused much soul-searching and repentance on Twitter. Founder of the ''Everyday Sexism Project,'' Bates is one of many impartial experts on the so-called incel (involuntary celibate) movement '' typically described as a resentful den of internet-addicted virgins.
        Bates was invited by ITV to share her deep insights on the subject following the deadly shooting in the English city of Plymouth earlier this month. The suspect, a 22-year-old male, had allegedly posted on 'incel' forums, raising concern that there could be murderous incel sleeper cells across the UK. What can parents do to ensure that their sons do not become radicalized and turn into killers? ITV asked Bates.
        The author of 'Men Who Hate Women' pointed to numerous ''red flags'' that could indicate to worried parents that their offspring are secret incels.
        ''Referring to people as 'normies', or as 'triggered normies', is the word incels use to refer to people outside their community,'' she expertly explained, adding that anyone who uses words such as ''triggered, based [or] cucked'' are also potential dangers to the public. People who refer to themselves as ''red-pilled'' or ''black-pilled'' are similarly suspect.
        What's important to understand is that these words serve as a ''conduit to other forms of extremism,'' Bates revealed. ''It isn't completely separate from far-right, white nationalist, white supremacist movements'... The incel community is a very racist community.''
        very important discussion warning of red flags if someone is using words like "normies", "based", "cucked -- they may be part of an extremist group pic.twitter.com/3o4tFero1a
        '-- Austerity Sucks (@austerity_sucks) August 22, 2021For many internet users, it was a deeply humbling ITV segment.
        That's what they mean by an extremist group mate
        '-- thesnakecharmer' (@snakecharmerXBT) August 22, 2021Others refused to give up their white nationalist lingo.
        Couple of normie beta cucks having a super non based conversation.
        '-- Payne (@Tradermayne) August 23, 2021Normies are so cucked they get triggered by words like based.
        '-- Jameson Lopp (@lopp) August 23, 2021Still others were concerned about Bates' ability to continue going undercover on the internet, with several observers suggesting that she sounded like an out-of-touch geriatric.
        very strong ok boomer vibes
        '-- Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) August 23, 2021This is the "Rock and Roll makes your kids Satanists" but for 2021
        '-- Squid Diddly (@SquidDiddly1989) August 22, 2021The panic over incels comes at a time when both the US and UK have begun to sound the alarm over the alleged threat posed by domestic extremists. Critics have accused authorities of using the narrative in an attempt to criminalize politically incorrect views. British law enforcement has come under fire for patrolling the streets in rainbow-themed patrol cars as they hunt for ''hate crimes.''
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      VIDEO - 'That's crazy': Democrat shuts down Bill Maher's rant against vaccine booster shots on 'Real Time' - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism
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        Kavanaugh claimed to be "a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy." Barrett claimed, "I'm just here to apply the law." Needless to say, progressives were not convinced. When Joe Biden was elected, there was even a brief flare-up of discourse about Democrats embracing court-packing to counter the far-right Court with Biden even appointing a commission to study the question.
        But it is a truism in mainstream media that progressives are always "overreacting," a truism that persists despite events like the January 6 insurrection, which conclusively proved #resistance folks had a better read on Trump than the "it can't happen here" naysayers. So all it took was the Roberts court issuing a couple of early summer moderate decisions '-- the biggest saving the Affordable Care Act '-- and voila! The Beltway media went full bore scolding the left for supposedly overreacting to the Trumpist court.
        "The Supreme Court's Newest Justices Produce Some Unexpected Results," declared the New York Times, with a subheadline gushing how "liberals are often on the winning side."
        "The Supreme Court's Surprising Term," read a similar New Yorker headline, with a subheadline promising that "the Court has largely avoided partisanship."
        "Supreme Court this session saw strong majorities that did not adhere to the Trump brand or even the agenda of the far right," declared U.S. News & World Report.
        "Ideological lines turn out to be more fluid than partisans had imagined when Barrett was named," claimed a headline in the Wall Street Journal.
        And so on and so forth and on and on. The media narrative was set: Liberals are hysterical, the Supreme Court is fair, and gosh, let's just stop all this talk about court-packing already!
        Now, the heat is off, and it appears the Republican majority on the Supreme Court feels free to do exactly what they were appointed to do: Impose their far-right ideology on an unwilling public and trample all good-faith legal reasoning and precedent to do so.
        On Tuesday night, in a shockingly incoherent decision, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling by a Trump-appointed far-right judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, forcing the Biden administration to keep Trump's hateful "remain in Mexico" policy towards refugees applying for political asylum. Biden may be the duly elected president, but it appears this Trump appointee-heavy Republican court still thinks Trump should be setting immigration policy.
        It is hard to even measure how radical this decision is. It is a sign that having secured a media narrative of "moderation" the Court feels free to stomp all over legal norms and basic rationality in order to impose a right-wing agenda. As Ian Millhiser at Vox wrote, the decision implies the Biden administration "committed some legal violation when it rescinded a Trump-era immigration policy, but it does not identify what that violation is." So the Biden administration is now being forced into a policy it doesn't want, based on legal reasoning that is not even available to them.
        Mark Joseph Stern of Slate tweeted some more points about how radical this is:
        While noting the order "was only one paragraph," University of Wyoming law professor Stephen Feldman and author of "Pack the Court!: A Defense of Supreme Court Expansion" told Salon, "the six-to-three political split along conservative-progressive lines is worrisome."
        He added: "If one is looking for evidence of political balance and moderation from the conservative Supreme Court justices, including Trump's three nominees, this decision does not provide it."
        This decision is a disaster on its own, on two levels.
        First is the basic human cost of forcing refugees '-- most of whom have made the long trip from Central America to avoid persecution at the hands of gangs '-- to remain in Mexico, where they are in immediate danger from predatory criminals exploiting their vulnerability. Then there's the bureaucratic disaster for the Biden administration, who is now stuck with being forced to try to talk the Mexican government into agreeing to a Trump policy only put into place in 2019, despite having promised that the policy was changing.
        But the implications expand well beyond this immediate decision as well.
        It suggests, as the progressive Court skeptics feared, that the Supreme Court's feints towards "moderation" this year were little more than political maneuvering meant to take the wind out of the sails of the pack-the-court crowd. Having accomplished that, the radicals on the Court now feel free to unleash their hardline right-wing views '-- and they aren't going to be constrained by expectations of a good-faith reading of either law or precedent in that mission.
        Even in the early summer, there were skeptics of the "moderate" Court narrative. Respected legal analysts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern at Slate pointed out in June that the Court "chose the very last day of the term to let us know that when the rubber hits the road, partisan politics is what matters," by further gutting the Voting Rights Act and ruling that even more dark money can flow into politics. Law professor Leah Litman at NBC News noted that "several high-profile decisions" were distracting journalists from the real story, which is "several lower-profile decisions featured more traditional partisan divisions '-- and those decisions are likely to be extremely consequential."This radical "remain in Mexico" decision proves the skeptics right.
        The most immediate future concern is over abortion rights. In October, the Court will hear arguments about a Mississippi law banning pre-viability abortions, which directly violates Roe v. Wade. The decision will likely be rendered in June 2022. Mississippi has directly asked the Court to overturn Roe. Despite some idiotic hot takes hoping the Roberts court will do the right thing, the odds have always been high that this Court would find some way to uphold the ban, even if they use some shell game legal reasoning that muddies the water enough to avoid the "Roe overturned" headlines that could really hurt Republicans in the 2022 midterms. Now it's even more certain that this Supreme Court feels no compunction about tearing up precedent in order to criminalize abortion.
        It appears the Supreme Court is ready to dance with those that brung 'em, giving Trump and the religious right the radical policies they've always wanted. It will only mean tearing up the very idea of legal good faith and defying the will of the voters.
        Having secured the misleading "moderate court" narrative, the conservative justices appear to feel free to now go hog wild. The very sloppiness of the "remain in Mexico" decision indicates a court that is done pretending at judicial restraint. They were appointed for one mission and one mission only, to impose a far-right ideology on an unwilling America. After a few head nods in the direction of moderation, it appears the far-right justices are feeling ready to let 'er rip.
      VIDEO - Pentagon Spox Warns Unvaxxed Troops Will Be Coerced By 'Leadership' Until They Make 'Right Decision' To Take Injection
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        Pentagon spokesman John Kirby warned that vaccine-hesitant troops will be pressured to take the COVID injection by physicians and even their commanding officers until they make the ''right decision'' and get jabbed.
        Kirby said in a Wednesday press briefing that with the exception of religious grounds and preexisting conditions, every service member who doesn't agree to take the shot will face an array of coercive ''tools'' until they do.
        ''If it's an objection outside those two frameworks, the individual will be offered a chance to sit down with a physician and have that physician communicate to them the risks that they're taking by continuing to not want to take the vaccine,'' Kirby said.
        Pentagon press secretary Admiral John Kirby is essentially saying that they'll force troops who refuse the COVID vaccine into some coercive form of counseling that many would describe as an attempt to re-educate them until they make the "right decision". Dystopian stuff. pic.twitter.com/IMz2lrikJ4
        '-- Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) August 25, 2021''They will also be offered a chance to sit down with their chain of command and their leadership to talk about the risks that their objection will impose on the unit and on the force, and on their teammates.''
        ''The point is'...the commanders have a wide range of tools available to them to help their teammates make the right decision,'' he added.
        ''For themselves, their families, and for their units. And we expect '' the Secretary [of Defense Lloyd Austin] expects that the commanders will use those tools short of having to use the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice).''
        In other words, a court-martial.
        The Defense Department made the COVID injection mandatory for service members right after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) formally approved the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA shot on Monday.
        According to Pentagon data, more than 800,000 service members have not received the COVID injection.
        Twitter: @WhiteIsTheFuryGab: @WhiteIsTheFuryMinds: @WhiteIsTheFuryGettr: @WhiteIsTheFuryJohn-Henry speaks with LifeSite journalist Celeste McGovern, who just came out with a 10-point article pointing out what's the real agenda behind the FDA's Pfizer COVID jab ''approval.''
      VIDEO - Showprep 1376 - FC
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      VIDEO - Psaki says the words "global plandemic" at 40 sec mark!! Freudian slip of the truth. 8-25-21
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        sharing video clips fake news media don't show.copyright owned by
        sars not a naturally evolved virus..bitchute.com/video/fYFEBOV2wC7q/FRED CORBIN; Pfizer vaccine documents & access to the Wuhan labs "deleted" database!
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      VIDEO - Chinese Dream, My Dream: From visitor to partner - YouTube
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      VIDEO - CCP EXPERT: BIDEN IS THE CCP'S OWN - YouTube
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      VIDEO - Bloomberg Quicktake on Twitter: "A J&J booster shot gave recipients a ninefold increase in Covid-fighting antibodies compared to levels seen 28 days after their first shot, the company says https://t.co/WnmgJPdGQ8 https://t.co/OTiZJtDlMO" / Tw
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        Bloomberg Quicktake : A J&J booster shot gave recipients a ninefold increase in Covid-fighting antibodies compared to levels seen 28 days'... https://t.co/9w8vU1IXaA
        Wed Aug 25 14:44:16 +0000 2021
      VIDEO - Spineless & Mindless on Twitter: "@adamcurry" / Twitter
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        Spineless & Mindless : @adamcurry
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      VIDEO - What the heck is an IH? - Ep. 02 - YouTube
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      VIDEO - Covid Rant goes METAL! [San Diego Board of Supervisors meeting Remix] - YouTube
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      VIDEO - New U.S. Intelligence Report Doesn't Provide Definitive Conclusion on Covid-19 Origins - WSJ
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        WASHINGTON'--A new assessment by U.S. spy agencies of the origins of Covid-19 that was delivered to the White House Tuesday didn't yield a definitive conclusion on whether the new coronavirus jumped to humans naturally, or via a lab leak, in part because of the lack of detailed information from China, two senior U.S. officials said.
        The new assessment, which was ordered by President Biden 90 days ago, highlights the administration's difficult challenge to wrest more information from Beijing that would shed light on how the global pandemic began.
        It underscores the importance of inducing China to share lab records, genomic samples, and other data that could provide further illumination on the origins of the virus, which has killed more than four million people world-wide, current and former officials said.
        ''It was a deep dive, but you can only go so deep as the situation allows,'' one U.S. official said. ''If China's not going to give access to certain data sets, you're never really going to know.''
        China has balked at U.S. and other efforts to provide that information, presenting the Biden administration with the same quandary'--how to persuade Beijing to cooperate'--that faced the Trump administration for almost a year. The extensive effort to press China for more information, some details of which haven't been previously reported, ended in bureaucratic infighting and failure.
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        In the first weeks after China acknowledged the outbreak of disease in early 2020, before it spread overseas, Miles Yu, a China-born historian in the State Department's Office of Policy Planning, downloaded copies of webpages from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a high-level biosecurity lab which had conducted work on coronaviruses. Mr. Yu had a hunch that Chinese officials would delete some of the material, he said. He mentioned the Wuhan Institute to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who told him to make it a priority, Mr. Yu said.
        In May of that year, Mr. Yu approached Thomas DiNanno, the acting head of the department's arms control bureau, and told him that Mr. Pompeo had expressed frustration about the lack of good information on the origins of Covid-19, according to Mr. Yu and Mr. DiNanno. Mr. Pompeo declined to comment.
        Mr. DiNanno began to use his bureau's authorities to police compliance with arms-control treaties to requisition information from the intelligence community to assess if Chinese virus research had run afoul of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. His bureau paid $360,000 to a contractor, the Nebraska-based National Strategic Research Institute, to assist, a U.S. official said.
        The institute tapped David Asher, a former official who was already working for Mr. DiNanno on Syria chemical-weapons issues and had overseen financial warfare against North Korea under President George W. Bush by freezing of its assets in a Macau-based bank.
        One clue unearthed was a report, buried in intelligence agencies' files, about several Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers becoming sick in the fall with symptoms that were consistent with Covid-19 or a seasonal illness. The team also found fresh information that the lab worked on classified research for the Chinese military.
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        By December, the State Department was moving along on several tracks. As Mr. DiNanno proceeded with the compliance review, David Feith, a deputy assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific, was drafting an unclassified fact sheet on fresh intelligence that was being identified by Mr. DiNanno's bureau, which the State Department planned to make public.
        Top officials in the arms-control bureau also began to draft a formal diplomatic complaint known as a d(C)marche that sought to hold China publicly accountable by questioning whether its laboratory research on coronaviruses ran afoul of the Biological Weapons Convention.
        The drafting of a d(C)marche, however, provoked a three-way tug of war with other State Department officials and with the Health and Human Services department. China has denied the virus leaked from one of its laboratories.
        Even before the question of a d(C)marche came to a head, sharp debates emerged within the State Department. In a tense mid-December meeting, Mr. DiNanno and Mr. Asher, outlined their preliminary conclusions to Chris Ford, an acting undersecretary who was Mr. DiNanno's boss in the State Department chain of command, participants recalled. Mr. DiNanno thought the Wuhan Institute might not only have been the site of a lab leak but that it might have been used to carry out military research banned by the biological weapons pact.
        Mr. Ford was skeptical and demanded that Mr. DiNanno subject his hypothesis that laboratory manipulation was involved in creating the virus to scientific scrutiny. Mr. Ford didn't dispute the purported links between the Chinese military and the Wuhan lab but thought it plausible that China was conducting permitted experiments to develop defensive responses against biological weapons as the U.S. military does at Fort Detrick, Md.
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        ''Please stop playing games and ducking responsibility,'' Mr. Ford said in a Jan. 6 email to Mr. DiNanno. ''If you're right, you should be willing to prove it.''
        Mr. DiNanno wrote back that he had already arranged for a scientific panel to be convened the next evening over Zoom. The panel met for three hours the following day to hear a presentation by Steven Quay, a scientist who had prepared a statistical analysis indicating the lab leak was the likely explanation. The panel's discussion, however, wasn't conclusive. ''We are in the dark'' without more information, said David Relman, a microbiologist from Stanford University, according to notes of the meeting that were reviewed by the Journal.
        The next day, Mr. Ford submitted his resignation to protest the storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Trump. In a four-page departure memo, he wrote that the scientific case for DiNanno's allegations about China's potential violation of the Biological Weapons Convention, when scrutinized, ''largely fell apart.''
        Mr. DiNanno fired back the next day, saying in a separate memo that Mr. Ford had insisted on ''disrupting the discussions between the experts with long-winded and ill-informed questions'' in order to ''discredit the entire effort.''
        The department still had yet to issue the fact sheet that Mr. Feith had been laboring over as the final two weeks of the Trump administration approached. Mr. Pompeo had shared some of its main points in a Jan. 4 phone call with the U.S.'s closest intelligence-sharing partners, known as the Five Eyes, according to an official who listened to the call. Because the U.S. was told that his New Zealand counterpart wouldn't be in the office for the call, it took place over an unsecure, unencrypted telephone line.
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        In mid-January, a senior official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence signed off on the conclusions to be included in the State Department fact sheet, which was issued on Jan. 15. It noted that the U.S. had no definitive proof whether the virus came from a lab or arose naturally. But it said that American officials had reason to believe that several Wuhan Institute researchers became ill in the fall of 2019, that there were secret ties between the lab and the Chinese military and that it had conducted advanced work on coronaviruses.
        That left the d(C)marche as one outstanding initiative to press China for answers. Mr. DiNanno thought the note might be unveiled in the U.N. Security Council, or a conference of biological weapons treaty signatories or presented directly to China.
        The draft he prepared asked why a Chinese military virologist had been sent to the Wuhan Institute during the Covid crisis and questioned whether the lab's activities were consistent with the Biological Weapons Convention requirement that research be done for peaceful purposes, Mr. DiNanno recalled.
        It also asserted that China's failure to accurately report public-health emergencies in a timely manner was a violation of the international health regulations and asked about allegations Beijing had carried out research aimed at developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities.
        The draft was circulated to about 130 government officials. Much of the d(C)marche ran counter to Mr. Ford's and his staff's assessment that there was no proof of weapons work by the lab and of their interpretation of the biological weapons pact's provisions
        The Department of Health and Human Services, which had worked for almost a year to persuade the World Health Organization to send an investigative team to Wuhan, also feared the diplomatic note would prompt China to block that visit, according to a then-department official.
        Without an agreement on what questions to ask and with the Trump administration down to its final days, the diplomatic note was never sent.
        After Mr. Biden took office, State Department officials who assumed authority over Mr. DiNanno's old bureau concluded that there was ''no connection'' between the Wuhan lab and the Biological Weapons Convention, a U.S. official said. On Feb. 19, officials from that bureau briefed those conclusions to the State Department's office of policy planning.
        Beijing in July rejected a WHO proposal for a renewed investigation into Covid's origins, backed by the Biden administration, that would include lab audits
        Lacking definitive answers, U.S. officials have suggested Mr. Biden may use the new intelligence report to frame new questions for Beijing. Many U.S. lawmakers also are pressing the issue and are calling for a 9-11 style commission.
        But a senior Biden administration official acknowledged: ''We don't have a silver bullet to get China to open up.''
        Write to Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com and Warren P. Strobel at Warren.Strobel@wsj.com
      VIDEO - Workers sue Tri-State hospitals over COVID-19 vaccine requirement
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        The former fitness coach spent two months in the hospital. He was intubated for 47 days and didn't wake up for 18 days.
        Updated: Aug. 24, 2021 at 3:25 AM EDT
        |
        COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. were initially rolled out under emergency use authorization, which lets the FDA speed the availability of medical products in public health emergencies.
        Updated: Aug. 23, 2021 at 11:26 AM EDT
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        Dr. Janet Woodcock, acting FDA commissioner, discusses the reasons the FDA approved the COVID-19 vaccine.
        Updated: Aug. 23, 2021 at 1:52 AM EDT
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        Unvaccinated pregnant women have a higher risk of complications from COVID-19, including premature births, miscarriages and stillbirths.
        Updated: Aug. 22, 2021 at 5:05 PM EDT
        NKY nursing home reports 34 COVID-19 breakthrough cases
      VIDEO - Harris' Flight To Vietnam Delayed Due To Possible 'Havana Syndrome' Cases - YouTube
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      VIDEO - Brad on Twitter: "@adamcurry loves this I'm sure." / Twitter
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        Brad : @adamcurry loves this I'm sure. https://t.co/hdbel7D5m5
        Wed Aug 25 03:20:50 +0000 2021
      VIDEO - Bronze Age CrapCutter on Twitter: "BREAKING: @DHSgov Insider Blows Whistle on International Child Sex Trafficking Gangs Exploiting 'Reasonable Fear' Loophole "Every Single One of These Transnational Criminal Organizations Are Involved in Sex T
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      VIDEO - Disclose.tv on Twitter: "NEW - Biden: "She [Kamala] happens to be in Asia for me right now, but that's why we have a female Vice President of the United States of America, who's gonna be, we're gonna have some [female] presidents pretty soon." htt
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      VIDEO - Daily Caller on Twitter: "Dr. Fauci says that if the majority of Americans get vaccinated, covid-19 will be under control by the "spring of 2022" https://t.co/Kic7noOFm9" / Twitter
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        Daily Caller : Dr. Fauci says that if the majority of Americans get vaccinated, covid-19 will be under control by the "spring of 2'... https://t.co/B8a5bYYTDc
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      VIDEO - How climate change helped strengthen the Taliban - CBS News
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        Rural Afghanistan has been rocked by climate change. The past three decades have brought floods and drought that have destroyed crops and left people hungry. And the Taliban '-- likely without knowing climate change was the cause '-- has taken advantage of that pain.
        While agriculture is a source of income for more than 60% of Afghans, more than 80% of conflicts in the country are linked to natural resources, according to a joint study by the World Food Programme, the United Nations Environment Program and Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency. In 2019, Afghanistan ranked sixth in the world for countries most impacted by climate change, according to the Germanwatch Global Climate Risk Index.
        Over the last 20 years, agriculture has ranged from 20 to 40% of Afghanistan's GDP, according to the World Bank. The country is famous for its pomegranates, pine nuts, raisins and more. However, climate change has made farming increasingly difficult.
        Whether from drought or flood-ravaged soil, farmers in the region struggle to maintain productive crops and livestock. When they cannot profitably farm, they're forced to borrow funds to survive. When Afghans can't pay off lenders, the Taliban often steps in to sow government resentment.
        "If you've lost your crop and land or the Afghan government hasn't paid enough attention [to you] then of course, the Taliban can come and exploit it," said Kamal Alam, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center.
        The Taliban has capitalized on the agricultural stress and distrust in government to recruit supporters. Alam said the group has the means to pay fighters more, $5-$10 per day, than what they can make farming.
        "[Farmers] fall into choices. That's when they become prey to people who would tell them, 'Look, the government is screwing you over and this land should be productive. They're not helping you. Come and join us; let's topple this government,'" said Nadim Farajalla, director of the climate change and environment program at the American University of Beirut.
        In the mountainous north, snow and glaciers have melted more quickly and earlier than ever before, at times flooding fields and irrigation systems, but also leading to snowmelt-related drought in the winter. In the south and west, some areas have seen heavy precipitation events increase by 10 to 25% over the past 30 years.
        Drought-displaced Afghan children carry water containers filled from a tanker at a camp for internally displaced people in the Injil district of Herat province, August 3, 2018. HOSHANG HASHIMI/AFP via Getty Images Those regions are often left reeling, without adequate aid from the former government.
        "With poverty and war and everything else, climate change is the last thing on anyone's mind," said Alam.
        Today, one-third of Afghans are in "crisis" or "emergency" levels of food insecurity due to drought, a danger potentially more threatening than the historic 2018 drought that left thousands dead.
        Farajalla said even Afghans who move into the urban areas in order to leave the stress of farming behind still cannot escape the pressures of "people of ill repute."
        "They become destitute enough to be given a few dollars to join this party or that group."
        The ripples of these climate-spurned Afghans can last for years. Farajalla said farmers who abandon their land often leave their families behind, arguably making those children easier recruiting targets for extremism.
        Climate change has fueled terrorism and civil unrest elsewhere in the world. Boko Haram gripped water-scarce central Africa in 2017 as they gained footholds along the Lake Chad Basin. ISIS has taken advantage of agrarian communities suffering from extreme drought in Iraq and Syria. Farajalla said arid or semi-arid areas in impoverished countries with low levels of education and poor infrastructure are all ripe for extremism.
        The Taliban has not only used farmers and rural communities to fortify their ranks, but also to help fund their efforts by taxing farmers on their territory. Most crucially, they have controlled the uber-lucrative poppy trade in Afghanistan.
        The country is the world's leading supplier of opium poppies . Not only has the Taliban made billions from their illicit drug trade, but poppies require less water than other crops, providing more stable means to struggling farming communities. Poppy cultivation is most abundant in the south of the country, where drought in part fueled by climate change has been the most severe and the Taliban is most popular.
        These partnerships have helped the Taliban's popularity. But since taking control of the country, the group has vowed to make the nation poppy-free '-- a tenuous political decision that would not be popular with the rural communities that rely on the crop, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
        "If they went to go for the ban quickly, they would cause themselves a huge economic downturn. They would set off massive miseration of the population. And they would have real problems with maintaining stability," she said.
        "Their own fighters often harvest poppy. For many of the fighters, poppy was the principal source to help them fund their family and themselves. They could do jihad for months but would have to disengage to harvest so the family had food."
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      VIDEO - Wimbledon Champion Pat Cash Speaks Out Against The Massive Covid Hoax On The World (20th Aug 2021)
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        #whiteroseireland#patcashaustralia#communismThere are only a few adult sports men and women speaking up about the last 18 months. Pat Cash is one of them. These people have power over the masses and could switch the pendulum overnight if they spoke out for the people. Unfortunately adult spor'...
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      VIDEO - Biden calls on employers to require vaccines after Pfizer gets full FDA approval - CBS News
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        President Biden made his clearest plea yet to employers to require the COVID-19 vaccine for their employees, on the day that the Food and Drug Administration announced its full approval for Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine to be given to Americans as young as 16. It's the first COVID vaccine to receive full FDA approval, and health officials hope the new status will encourage more people to get the vaccine.
        "If you're a business leader, a nonprofit leader, a state or local leader who has been waiting for full FDA approval to require vaccinations, I call on you now to do it, require it. Do what I did last month, require your employees to get vaccinated or face strict requirements," Mr. Biden said Monday in remarks after the FDA decision.
        The U.S. military is making the vaccine mandatory for active duty troops, and the federal government is requiring employees to get the shot or be tested regularly. Many companies are doing the same, and a number of employers announced new mandates on Monday alone. The FDA approval could set into motion a new wave of vaccine requirements among employers and universities as cases and deaths rise to the highest levels in months. The FDA had initially authorized the Pfizer vaccine on an emergency use basis.
        "So let me say this loudly and clearly: If you're one of the millions of Americans who said that they will not get the shot until it has full and final approval of the FDA, it has now happened. The moment you've been waiting for is here," the president said.
        The president called the FDA's approval the "gold standard," and emphasized that vaccines are free, safe, easy, effective and convenient. He also stressed that the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are taking place among the unvaccinated.
        "There is no time to waste," Mr. Biden said, warning about the risks of the Delta variant and stressing that this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
        The vaccine has yet to be approved for emergency use in children younger than 12. Since that's the case, the president said best way for children to remain safe at school is for kids to wear masks.
        "While millions of people have already safely received COVID-19 vaccines, we recognize that for some, the FDA approval of a vaccine may now instill additional confidence to get vaccinated. Today's milestone puts us one step closer to altering the course of this pandemic in the U.S," said acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock.
        The other two vaccines authorized for emergency use are still working on submissions for full approval. Moderna said it plans to finish its application this month, and Johnson & Johnson, which is currently gathering data from trials of two-dose regimens, also plans to file for full approval this year.
        More
      VIDEO - Former NBA All-Star Andrew Bogut Explains How Digital Influencers are Bought Off to Spread COVID-19 Submission Propaganda - Big League Politics
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 21:17
        Former NBA all star Andrew Bogut is speaking out about how popular influencers on social media are being paid off to shill COVID-19 submission propaganda.
        Bogut, who is a native of Australia where COVID-19 lockdown policies are the most Draconian, explained how he was approached with an offer to take money to encourage his followers to submit to mandates.
        ''Whoever you are, why don't we hear you speaking up? The silence is deafening,'' Bogut asked other influencers with large social media followings.
        ''Let me give you the reason why: Last year, about three or four months into this pandemic, I got a message from somebody. I'm not going to name who it was or where it came from. I got offered money to put out a public service announcement for you everyday plebs to stay home,'' he added.
        Bogut then recorded a mocking public service announcement that he may have released if he sold his soul and took the cash to become a propagandist for the organized globalist shutdown of society.
        ''Athletes that are in leagues all around Australia and even the world to an extent, I know for Australia for a fact because people reach out to me, have been muzzled,'' he said.
        ''Athletes that are on contract in our biggest leagues in Australia'...They're being told you are not to make anti-lockdown, anti-government statements on social media. Period. No matter how drastic they are because it affects our league staying open and you getting a salary,'' Bogut added.
        His statement can be seen here:
        Big League Politics has reported on the permanent police state in Australia and how COVID-19 is being used as an excuse to destroy the foundations of civil society:
        ''Australia is taking lockdown insanity to a new level with members of the Army being employed to enforce stay-at-home orders.
        300 unarmed military personnel are stalking the streets of Sydney in order to intimidate the masses and enforce mindless compliance, as the Delta variant of COVID-19 is used as an excuse to continue Draconian lockdown policies.
        Reuters even reported the Army is going door-to-door to enforce the Draconian mandates and make sure that those deemed unsafe are confined to their homes, as civil liberties rapidly become a fading notion of the past.
        ''It's starting to become clear that the initial lockdown will be insufficient for the outbreak,'' Queensland state Deputy Premier Steven Miles said to reporters in Brisbane'...
        Prime Minister Scott Morrison is using the lockdown tyranny to punish Australian residents so they will feel compelled to accept the vaccine. He says that the lockdown regime will come to a close after 70 percent of the nation's population above 16 years of age are stuck with the jab. That percentage is at only 19 percent right now.''
        The globalist model in Australia will be imported to the rest of the world before long. Bogut deserves credit for speaking out against the propaganda operation behind this satanic agenda.
        Support Big League Politics by making a donation today. You can also donate via PayPal, Venmo or donate crypto. Your support helps us take on the powerful and report the truth that the mainstream media wants to silence.
      VIDEO - Katie Kirn, RN testimony on Michigan HB 4471 8/19/21 - YouTube
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        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 12:15
      VIDEO - CBS News on Twitter: ""I haven't seen that poll," @edokeefe asks President Biden to respond to a new CBS News poll that suggests Americans mostly disapprove of his handling of Afghanistan. https://t.co/5O6bk0qm4b" / Twitter
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Mon, 23 Aug 2021 01:47
        CBS News : "I haven't seen that poll," @edokeefe asks President Biden to respond to a new CBS News poll that suggests American'... https://t.co/Zz4MJQUPm5
        Sun Aug 22 21:00:23 +0000 2021
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