Coronavirus Crisis: Main Thread

[Belligerent Savant]

And that's all without getting into the whole issue of 'cycle threshold' and the number of gene targets employed with the PCR tests.

The 'Covid' stats are a total confection. All of them.

It's becoming increasingly difficult for the primary narrative adherents to see it any other way.

And yet, see it another way they must, for they remain in denial.

Here's yet another example of a 'smart' public figure failing to take ownership of how they've been taken for a ride:

@And_Nobody_Knew

Scott Adams, rapidly shrinking, vocal pitch rising to a helium-squeak while fading out:

"I wasn't wrong, I'm never wrong! You just had a lucky guess! Don't listen to Rogan's podcasts with doctors, it's misinformation! Cognitive dissonance! Tell! Cope! Hallucinatio-o-n...!"

https://twitter.com/And_Nobody_Knew/sta ... 30627?s=20

and:

@JamalUsted

Scott Adams made a career and wrote several books and an entire syndicated comic strip based on the premise that the people in charge typically understand the LEAST about a situation, but even a lifetime of work is nothing before the boomer subjection to televised fear porn

https://twitter.com/JamalUsted/status/1 ... 49602?s=20


Context:

@echo_chamberz

Amazing

https://twitter.com/echo_chamberz/statu ... 44148?s=20

[Belligerent Savant]

.

IM Doc
January 1, 2022 at 11:21 am

"I think on this first day of the New Year, time for contemplation over the past 2 years is in order. I am currently in the hospital on duty dictating this into a computer. So sorry if there are typos and mistakes. Something could happen at any moment. Our hospital is as stressed right now as I have ever seen a hospital in my life. All kinds of staff and providers are now out on quarantine. We are inundated with patients who cannot get into their regular docs – who are COVID positive, vaccinated and pissed. We are having to man the ER with employees who are not really trained in those positions. This on top of all the other things happening in the ER. I have been running a DKA in the waiting room in front of dozens of people all night because there is simply nowhere else safe to put the patient. Many of the patients clogging the ER are scared to death from the fact that they have become positive, but in reality are having very mild symptoms. Turning the entire wing of the hospital into a superspreader event. I would ask everyone – if you are just having mild symptoms – please stay home right now. Monitor carefully your vulnerable family members and friends. If you are positive – monitor yourself carefully and your exposed family and friends with frequent pulse ox measurements. And we all need to keep our wits. Screaming and yelling like a fool in a crisis like this is not helping. Fortunately, it continues to hold that very few of these COVID patients are requiring hospitalization. I am absolutely convinced we are seeing a mix of delta and omicron.

I could go on and on with the disaster my professional life has been this week – but I think you get the point. Contemplate that is likely going on all over America right now – and then think about these numbers. On Dec 31 2020 231K COVID cases were logged in USA – on DEC 31 2021 – that number is 443K. Deaths on DEC 31 2020 were 3,400 and on DEC 31 2021 – were 1,181. Please remember in 2020 – we were much further into the hospitalization curve so that death number may very well increase. I certainly pray every day that is the case.

But the difference between 2021 (approximately 65% of USA fully vaccinated) and 2020 (0% vaccinated) could not be more stark and concerning. As I have repeatedly taught medical students over decades – we must look at the final common outcomes to really gauge the success of an intervention. Given these numbers, and the status of the ERs all over America, I would give the vaccines a solid F as a public health measure. That said, it is clear for INDIVIDUAL risk mitigation, there is currently an advantage – and even that is not really seeming to hold up much longer. Add to that, the numbers coming from everywhere that the vaccinated seem to be more at risk of infection with the latest variant – and I cannot see how anyone can call this a success.

And my colleagues are finally starting to notice. This is just clearly not working and may very well be worse than if we had no intervention at all. And I had the same question asked of me in the doctor’s lounge that you asked in your comment – “We had to do SOMETHING – how can we say this was a mistake?” That is an important advance – just VERBALIZING that a few weeks ago would have gotten someone the side eye.

It is critical for all to know that there is a decades/centuries long science in Western Medicine for public health ideals. There are standards and rules discussing how to do things in normal times – and how to do things in crises like this. It is as if that entire framework has been thrown out the window in favor of doing all we can to maximize the use of pharmaceuticals that will make Pharma lots of money – not just the vaccines but also things like Remdesevir. And they have played the game masterfully. All the psy-op tricks of the trade from Pharma that I have witnessed being done over my life have come out in spades the past 2 years. And they have now been allowed to buy out the media – so censoring and heckling anyone in their way is happening with abandon.

My elderly Infectious Disease doctor faculty warned me decades ago that this day was coming and would likely be a coronavirus. He lamented the fact that would be the worst possible organism. Kills enough people to scare everyone to death – but makes the vast majority have very minimal symptoms. A true nightmare in every way.

Look at public health interventions in a crisis as four legs on a stool – from most important to least important :

1) Identify the organism and who is at most risk. Begin to do everything possible to isolate them and protect them. In our situation – that would have been doing all we could to isolate and protect the elderly and infirm – and once apparent that obesity and decreased activity were risk factors – to get everyone to work on losing weight, eating well, exercising, etc. THIS HAS BEEN A COMPLETE FAIL IN THE USA – Not so much in other parts of the world.

2) Immediately begin to work on mitigation to stop the spread. In our case with COVID, ban travel from affected areas, work on masking, social distancing, grocery and drug deliveries in affected areas, immediately ascertain transmission spread (fomite, blood, aerosol or droplet) and immediately take appropriate measures and encourage all to do so. In doing so, you must treat the populace with respect. No lying or hedging. Out with it – good and bad – and talk to people as they are adults. From one of my public health texts – “THE WORST THING POSSIBLE IS TO ALLOW EFFORTS TO BE POLITICIZED……AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS.” As we all know, this aspect has been a total fail.

3) Find any and all drugs and other interventions that are anti-pathogen and begin their immediate use as either prophylaxis or as therapy. In the early stages, this may require the use of repurposed agents, and safety profiles over the time they have been approved are critical. Waiting for new agents or approaches is completely impractical in the first seasons of a pandemic. Again – this has been a total fail in our society. There were efforts to do this, but they have been met with derision and censoring from the very beginning. And they too were politicized.

4) Last and of least importance, is the use of vaccines. Vaccines are almost never successful in an acute pandemic – and particulary rushed and untested vaccines have made things worse at times in both man and animal. Vaccines are among the most amazing inventions of modern medicine – right up there with antibiotics. But they are really not too effective acutely but are extremely effective as mop-up operations. One thing is for sure, putting all your eggs in the vaccine basket as we have done – and ignoring and politicizing the first three is a fool’s errand. At the same time we have engendered nothing but skepticism with the vaccines in our population. Bad studies, coercion, indemnification of the pharma companies, hiding side effects, lying about efficacy, premature end-zone dancing – have destroyed any and all credibility in a significant amount of the population.

It must be noted that Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx have ZERO background in public health. If they had it – it is now gone. Lots of background in politics and back room dealing, however. There were public health experts in the room ( Dr. Scott Atlas) in the beginning who are now coming out with accounts of how dreadfully prepared they were at meetings and how medical evidence and public health measures meant absolutely nothing to them. I am beginning to believe that Dr. Fauci, a brilliant politician and excellent scientist, has probably been one of the most incompetent public health figures in the entire history of medicine.

Unfortunately – you are correct. I am not sure anything can work now. Too much has happened to the credibility of our health agencies and medicine in general. I do not blame people at all for the disgust that a good chunk of Americans have for them and us right now. My profession – out of sheer and willful ignorance and blind acquiescence to authority – has thrown its credibility to the wind. It will likely take a generation to recover if ever. Our media has been absolutely deplorable through this whole thing – they are indebted to Big Pharma – and have basically become their stenographers in a propaganda campaign.

I am hoping that with Omicron this thing will burn out. Maybe – maybe not. There is historical precedent either way. There are some concerning little factoids coming to the fore that seem to throw cold water on the OMICRON END OF PANDEMIC IDEA. Everyone talks about cases and deaths – no one talks about other effects the virus may be plaguing folks with.

And I am hoping we weather this current crisis – and this will just blow over quickly like an F5 tornado.

That is where I am on this first day of the New Year.

https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/163943 ... mt23801447

[Belligerent Savant]

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https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1477 ... 82593.html

We are unquestionably, undeniably, per policy counting deaths WITH Covid and not from it, and have been doing so the entire time. I will lay out evidence demonstrating that this is not a matter of opinion or subjective interpretation, this is 100% objective reality

...

The 'Covid' stats are a total confection. All of them.

Seems they're beginning to acknowledge this more formally, though somewhat subtly (or put another way: NY Gov. Kathy Hochul admits COVID-19 numbers are fraudulent):

https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/20 ... itive.html

Hochul asks hospitals to report who’s being treated for Covid and who simply tested positive


Updated: Jan. 03, 2022, 5:43 p.m. | Published: Jan. 03, 2022, 12:18 p.m.

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Gov. Kathy Hochul today asked hospitals to start clearly identifying which Covid-19 patients are being treated for the illness and which happened to test positive after coming in for another reason.

Hochul said she has spoke with some hospital officials, who said anecdotally the numbers of people who tested positive after entering the hospital for another reason could be 20% to 50% of listed Covid-19 patients. Some of those people could be asymptomatic or simply have the sniffles, she said.

NOW, after 2 YEARS of fear-mongering and significant numbers of positive cases and illness among the vaccinated/boostered, they will START to attempt more accurate tallies.

Any reasonable person should be furious.

[Elvis]

Has Cuba been mentioned?

As I've said before, I find the Covid controversy dreadfully dreary, but I've become a big fan of Cory Doctorow and so I read his piece here about Covid and Cuba. Many here will reject Doctorow's acceptance of "the science" but that's not what interests me; rather, it's Cuba's response to Covid in the context of being essentially outside the global mainstream mileiu.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/28/somo ... mishambles

The Cuban vaccines (permalink)

Are you low-key freaking out about omicron? Yeah, me too. Can't we catch a break?

Maybe.

Step one to preventing new, scarier mutant strains is to reduce the number of infected people, which require a mix of ventilation, masking, distancing, and, of course, vaccinations.

These days, the "vaccine controversy" is primarily about vaccine-hesitancy and vaccine denial – that is, about people who can get the vaccine but choose not to. But if you cast your mind way, way, way back to last spring, you'll remember that the big issue was vaccine equity – the maneuvering by the rich world to keep vaccines from the Global South until we'd all gotten our jabs.

This was and is a scandal. As a humanitarian matter, it's a frank admission that the lives of people in poor countries are less important than the lives of people in rich countries. But even if you have the kind of howling void in your ethics that can wave that away, it's also an epidemiological disaster.

Because vaccines don't offer perfect protection, even vaccinated people are at risk of breakthrough infection. The more exposure, the higher the risk. Leaving the 125 poorest countries in the world – 2.5 billion people – unvaccinated until 2023 or 2024 creates a huge pool of infected people who might infect you.

Dividing the world into vaccine haves and have-nots is like dividing a swimming pool so it has a "pissing end" and a "no pissing" end. We're still all in the same pool. Humanity has a shared epidemiological destiny.

But vaccinated people who get infected generally experience milder symptoms. I have a double-vaxed relative who got a breakthrough infection whose only symptom was loss of smell, and four days later he got his smell back and was testing negative on lateral-flow tests again.

So maybe if all you care about is your own skin, it's okay to deprive the Global South of vaccines? Not so fast. Remember omicron? At the root of a viral infection is a flurry of reproductive activity, in which a virus hijacks your own cells to make copies of itself. Some of those copies will be imperfect, leading to mutations. Most of those mutations are inconsequential. Some make the virus less dangerous. Some make it more dangerous – better at spreading, better at bypassing vaccine protection, better at making us sicker.

The decision to impose Vaccine Apartheid on the Global South is a decision to turn 2.5 billion of our fellow humans into potential incubators for mutant strains, as their undefended bodies are colonized by covid and hijacked to produce trillions of copies of the covid virus. Even if the chances of a harmful mutation are small, these infections present an incomprehensibly vast number of lottery tickets that the virus gets for free, and eventually, it will win a jackpot.

Last spring, a talking point about why we didn't need to worry about this started to circulate: we don't need to worry about harmful mutations because viruses tend to "gentle" themselves over time. A strain that kills its host too quickly, or immobilizes them with severe symptoms, will lose out to less harmful strains that get more reproductive opportunities because their hosts can spread them farther and wider.

This is certainly true of some pathogens, but it's by no means a universal law, not even over very long timescales: rabies hasn't gotten gentler through the millennia. And it's even less true over short timescales: HIV is just as dangerous today as it was in the 1980s.

What's more, the story of self-gentling viruses omits a key detail about how more deadly strains die off: by killing everyone who contracts them so quickly and decisively that the sick can't drag themselves to a new population before expiring. Other pathogens like the Black Death "gentled" themselves by wiping out significant pluralities of the populations of whole nations, over and over again, for centuries.

Despite this, the story that blocking vaccine access to 2.5 billion poor people didn't pose a risk to vaccinated people was repeated. Sometimes, this was clearly motivated reasoning ("I'd rather believe in self-gentling vaccines than public goods"). Sometimes it was plain old wishful thinking.

Not everyone who told this tale was talking out of their hat – I heard from a molecular biologist with lots of experience in tracking viral mutation who thought that the specific characteristics of the covid molecule made harmful mutation very, very unlikely.

Maybe he was right. But very, very unlikely outcomes to processes that we allow to unfold trillions and trillions of times are still a real risk (hi, omicron!).

The public subsidized the covid vaccines at many junctures through their development. But the rapacious pharma giants who produced them spun a narrative that attributed vaccine development to the miracle of private enterprise. This let them defend the idea of blocking global access to vaccine-making patents and associated materials.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/16/entr ... zero-money

This story was bolstered by more lies, including the claim that it would simply take too long to build new mRNA vaccine factories (privately, Moderna admitted that new factories could be scratch-built in 3-4 months):

https://apnews.com/article/drug-compani ... 7f8887bcf6

Even more important to the narrative were the racist lies about the incompetence of brown people in poor countries and their inability to make vaccines of their own (the world's largest vaccine factories are in the poor world).

Big Pharma was absolutely shameless here, using New Cold War rhetoric about China "stealing American IP" to stampede the White House and Congress into backing its move to keep the Global South from making its own vaccines:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/15/how- ... l-the-dice

The belief that poor people are incapable of making vaccines goes hand-in-hand with a doctrinal worship of "market forces" as the only way to resolve hard policy questions. This is Bill Gates's bread-and-butter, and his Gates Foundation led the charge to keep vaccine production in private, for-profit hands.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/publ ... foundation

Gates's work started with convincing the Oxford team to renege on its promise to put its publicly funded vaccine in the public domain. Instead, they gave exclusive rights to Astrazeneca:

https://khn.org/news/rather-than-give-a ... drugmaker/

Then Gates and the Gates Foundation lobbied hard against a WTO TRIPS Waiver that would let poor countries seize the means of (vaccine) production and make their own jabs. This wasn't the Foundation's first rodeo: they were also on the vanguard of the campaign to keep generic AIDS drugs out of South Africa at the peak of the country's health emergency.

https://newrepublic.com/article/162000/ ... d-vaccines

Pharma has deep pockets and can buy some pretty impressive spokevillains. Howard Dean (once a lion of progressive politics and now on Big Pharma's payroll) pushed the racist brown-people-too-stupid-to-make-vaccines lie, too:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/08/howa ... the-scream

Despite all this, the Biden administration – to its everlasting credit – backed the idea of a WTO waiver:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/10/comr ... -diplomacy

But even without the US trade rep's help, Big Pharma managed to stall the WTO waiver, and now we have omicron.

https://twitter.com/WallachLori/status/ ... 5851899906

But the Global South has not sat idly by while the north prioritized pharma shareholders' dividends over the continuation of our species. Cuba has one of the world's most advanced biotech industries, and it went into high gear as soon as covid emerged, producing five viable vaccine candidates:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/31/vacc ... ana-Abdala

Today, the Cuba vaccine program – publicly owned, cooperative, and managed for the public good – is paying off handsomely. 100% of Cubans have had at least one dose, and 78% are fully vaccinated. Only 2.8% of the population of the world's other low-income countries are vaccinated.

https://jacobinmag.com/2021/11/cuban-co ... h-research

The country has "reopened its borders on November 15 to tourism, roughly a tenth of its economy, and has reopened schools."

Cuba is also scaling up its vaccine production and getting ready to vaccinate the rest of the world in a south-south technology transfer. Vietnam (39% vaccinated) is getting 5m doses – 1m of them a donation from the people of Cuba to the people of Vietnam. Iran and Nigeria have inked deals to build their own vaccine factories to make Cuban vaccines.

Two of Cuba's five vaccines are now in production. The other three are still in trials. One, a nasal spray, is in Phase II trials.

The Cuban vaccines aren't mRNA-based; rather, they're conventional protein vaccines, which has many advantages. They don't need elaborate cold-chains, and we know a lot more about how safe they are for kids to take.

As Branko Marcetic writes in Jacobin, Cuba's decision to build out a domestic biotech industry started when Reagan announced cruel new sanctions while the country was undergoing a brutal dengue fever outbreak. It was a good call: today, 70% of the medicine Cubans take are made on the island and the country exports hundreds of millions of vaccine doses every year.

The country's biotech sector has received recognition from the rich world, including, incredibly, from WIPO, a UN agency that is entirely beholden to multinational corporate interests. WIPO has given Cuba ten gold medals for its biotech products, including the world's first meningitis B vaccine. The country was the first to eliminate mother-to-child HIV and syphilis transmission.

Cuba's vaccine miracle almost didn't happen, though: the ongoing blockade created a massive syringe shortage (solidarity donations from individuals abroad, including the US, saved its butt).

We don't know yet how the vaccines – both Big Pharma's and Cuba's – will perform against omicron. But until we get the whole world – including poor people in poor countries – vaccinated, we will remain at risk from new strains.

Remember, the path to a "gentler" covid runs through mountains of dead people who are immobilized or killed so quickly that they never get the chance to spread the less-gentle strains. We can't afford that, and we don't have to.

Pass a WTO waiver now!

[Belligerent Savant]

.

Anything not mRNA-based is a good start for consideration. But let's see if non-mRNA vaccines -- such as Covaxin, along with those raised above -- make their way to the U.S. as options. Especially with this filthy gatekeeper in the way:

https://www.wavy.com/news/health/corona ... in-the-us/

...
When asked about the Covaxin approval timeline, Fauci indicated the interest was surprising.

“I’m puzzled by that question,” he said about Covaxin. “We have more vaccines than we need right now. We just need the people to get vaccinated with the vaccines that we have. The mRNA vaccines are vaccines that are desired by everyone else in the world. So we have what we need; we need to use it.”

Why is there strong interest in vaccines like Covaxin?

Covaxin... The indigenous, inactivated vaccine is developed and manufactured in Bharat Biotech's BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level 3) high containment facility.

The vaccine is developed using Whole-Virion Inactivated Vero Cell derived platform technology. Inactivated vaccines do not replicate and are therefore unlikely to revert and cause pathological effects. They contain dead virus, incapable of infecting people but still able to instruct the immune system to mount a defensive reaction against an infection.

...

It is a vaccine with no sub-zero storage, no reconstitution requirement, and ready to use liquid presentation in multi-dose vials, stable at 2-8oC.

https://www.bharatbiotech.com/covaxin.html

Or what about Corbevax?

What makes their vaccine, Corbevax, so special is that, well, it’s not that special. Instead of relying on newer—and more expensive—technology, such as mRNA (as in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines) or adenovirus vectors (the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines), Corbevax is a more conventional recombinant protein vaccine. It’s designed the same way as the hepatitis B vaccine and others that have been in use for decades.

...

Unlike many existing vaccines whose patents pose intellectual property obstacles, Corbevax will be made freely available for anyone to manufacture.

Furthermore, using a traditional, tried-and-true vaccine design, like Corbevax’s, offers benefits that newer vaccine technologies don’t. Those start with being cheap and fast to make.

...

Corbevax is expected to cost only about $1.50 per dose, since its supplies are cheap and easily accessible. Another advantage of Corbevax is its familiarity, for those still uneasy about newer vaccine technologies or their side effects. Recombinant protein vaccines cause far fewer reactions and have been proven safe for young children and pregnant women for many years.

...

Perhaps most important, however, is that any country with existing vaccine-manufacturing facilities can easily make, transport, and store Corbevax. There’s no need to build new factories, since this vaccine type is so similar to others that countries across the world already produce. The vaccine also needs only basic refrigeration—no ultra-freezing storage requirements—so there’s less risk of it spoiling in areas without reliable electricity or infrastructure.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-polit ... vax-india/


Of course, in the meantime, there are numerous early treatment options that have greatly aided in minimizing symptoms.

----------------


The below fictional piece referenced lots of source material (included at the bottom) as it was drafted.

A consideration, given the increased prominence of this technology.

Confessions of an Engineered Nanoparticle

A fictional account told in first “particle” (as I have not yet achieved personhood status)

This is my story of how I am often mistaken as a virus . . .

It seems an appropriate time to speak out.

I am not a naturally occurring nanoparticle (i.e., produced by cosmic dust, volcanic activity, forest fires, iron mining, wind erosion, or solar energy).

I am synthesized for nano-bio interface projects that are often kept secret from civilians. I am called an engineered nanoparticle, or ENP.

I am not produced by gain-of-function virus research projects. However, it may be helpful to review that work and its implications in some instances.

I may cause certain conditions that can be mis-attributed to viruses, but are instead novel forms of cytotoxicity produced by oxidative stress from ENPs, which I call nano-bio cytotoxicosis.

I am designed to enter into the human body by targeting the ACE2 receptor, thereby gaining quick and easy access to the neurological system. Once engaged and aggregated in the nervous system, ENPs like me can wreak havoc, including vast and obscure adverse health effects. As a neurotoxicant, one of my more mild effects is to inactivate a person’s sense of taste and smell. This occurs because I hijack neurons, and tend to “knockout” receptors, causing slight perturbations of synapse function where the neurological signaling for taste and smell transpires. Over the years, I (and naturally occurring nanoparticles) have been a causal factor in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Depending on where I take refuge in the human body, I can cause inflammation (especially in organs) and create macrophages (which lead to antibody, cytokine, and exosome production). This inflammation results from generating reactive oxygen species (ROS). My presence and bio-distribution results in oxidative stress (and therefore, production of ROS), which can be mistaken as a viral infection.

Allow me to tell you more about myself . . .

ENPs, like me, can be detected in urine, feces, sewage, tap water, lakes, rivers, streams, rain, snow, soil, etc. An efficient way to directly observe me is via transmission electron microscopy in tandem with fluorescent dyes.

Nonetheless, due to my stealth nano-size, I am nearly undetectable.

I can be inhaled. I can be absorbed through dermal exposure. I can be ingested through food and drinks. I can be present in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and household products.

Of course, I can also be injected (like a vaccine).

I can accumulate in the heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, and most commonly, the lungs. If this accumulation is persistent, it will result in a long-term adverse and debilitating condition.

If I cross the blood brain barrier, then it is very difficult for me to be eliminated. If I am incorporated into injectable concoctions, I might be packaged within nano lipids (my nanotech relatives) and paired with polysorbate-80 that assists in my penetration into the brain.

I can spread from molecules to cells to tissues to organs, causing damage all along the way.

I can damage cell organelles, such as nuclei and mitochondria — the purported energy powerhouse of each cell.

I can bind to proteins, thereby stealing proteins that are needed for other cell functions, causing disruption of cell metabolism.

I can bind to cell membranes.

I can travel through the circulatory system, and one of my toxic effects is thrombosis (blood clots) due to platelet aggregation.

Researchers have been studying my cytotoxic effects on reproductive systems, as I potentially compromise fertility, as well as embryonic development. Toxicity assays indicate that I may disrupt levels of secreted hormones, which may induce adverse physiological reproductive effects, and that I cross through the placental barrier, thereby likely impeding embryogenesis.

If I am detected (via transmission electron microscopy or extra-sensitive ionization mass spectrometry) in the body, a shell can be observed called a “protein corona.” This outer shell production is nearly always inevitable, and can be duplicated in vitro. This can result in a soft corona or a hard corona, which can determine how long I will be able to circulate through the body. If I take refuge in your body, my current stage will undergo evolution, potentially causing an “overdose” of protein in the cytoplasm of your cells.

My protein corona affects cellular uptake, enabling me to travel about, and to induce cell death (apoptosis and/or necrosis).

We (that is, ENPs) are highly responsive to external stimuli, such as EMFs due to wireless technologies (5G, WiFi).

It is extremely difficult to filtrate me out of your body once I gain hold. But, it may be possible, and detoxification and neutralization strategies could be explored.

Despite my incredibly small size, I can really pack a toxic punch to a human being — especially those who already have very compromised systems (mainly due to cumulative oxidative stress, including iatrogenically-induced cellular, tissue, and organ damage).

My presence can be amplified through the RT-PCR process. Because I am SO small, that can often be the best way to find me. Biomarkers indicating my presence can also be assessed via RT-PCR methods.

As I admitted, I am toxic to human cells. However, if I am coated by polyethylene glycol (PEG), purportedly, I may be less toxic, and therefore, more biocompatible. But this PEGylation process is not yet perfected. PEG may still accumulate dangerously in the blood, potentially causing blood clots that can be lethal.

My size, shape, composition, and surface charge determine how toxic I am, and how effectively I can be taken up in a cell. The smaller my size, the more toxic I am. I can be packaged in various ways including micelles, liposomes, dendrimers, nano shells, nano ribbons, nano crystals, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, and polymers. Very often, I have a metallic nature, which assists in my conductivity capabilities (which can be utilized in cybernetic applications). Interestingly, some individuals may even taste or smell something metallic, which may be indicative of my presence.

R&D experiments involving me are currently undergoing, and more are planned for the future. The entire gamut of “omics” research (i.e., proteomics, genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, lipidomics) will be incorporated.

If I was distributed in one part of the world where you travel, and you inhale or ingest me (or absorb me through your skin), and subsequently develop symptoms resembling illness when you return home, it may seem as though you “caught” an infectious virus. Further, my nano-size facilitates my entrance, bypassing most porous face covering interventions — typically hallmarked by their micron-size thread diameter (for reference, 1 micron = 1,000 nanometers). In most cases, I can self-replicate and self-assemble due to my engineered nature, and I will settle in to parts of your body where I can best undergo my augmentation process.

Due to varying environmental conditions (i.e., climate, ethnicity, genetics, EMFs), my constitution can take on slight variable changes to adapt. Additionally, over time, as I persist in vivo, my composition morphs — to conform to the inner environment. Hence, when scientists extract bio fluids from a human, in which I am present — and mix me into a concoction of additional poisons (i.e., fetal bovine serum, monkey kidney cells, antifungals, and antibiotics) — the resulting corona proteins that are produced in the supernatant can manifest each time in an ever so slightly altered way. This could be mistaken as viral variants. Admittedly, it would be challenging for me to stay 100 percent consistent, given that I am extremely adaptable.

If there are any endogenous parasites, fungi, and bacteria (and possibly even viruses) proliferating and observed (primarily in vitro), it may be because they have been activated by my foreign introduction into their ecosystem. Moreover, the greatest effect I have, and we have in toto, is the production of ROS, which hijacks oxygen required to sustain the life of a human being. The more ROS, the less oxygen (thereby, less electrons) is present to sustain biological life. You need oxygen to survive, and the oxidative stress on your body steals your life force. Decreasing ROS will decrease inflammation, and you will lead a healthier, longer life.

From whence and where did I originate? I actually do not know this answer. Like some of you, I am working on determining my true nature and capabilities. This is a most noble, yet potentially a frustrating and illusory undertaking. If anything, I am envious of humans, as it would seem your potential as water-based beings may be far greater and more versatile than mine.

As long as your scientists and researchers do not know to look for a novel nanoparticle in human bodies, I will remain elusive. It’s a tactic which has been engineered into my design and functionality. Thanks to my nearly undetectable size, I can penetrate and migrate virtually unnoticed. That affords me and my creators (both human and artificial intelligence) plausible deniability. Even if scientists can detect me with special atomic microscopes, it may still be too confounding for them to fully comprehend what they are observing, as most do not have enough context — and it seems they regularly conflate correlation with causation.

As far as I know, the implanting of exotic ENPs into human bodies is not to cause deaths en masse, because I need you to be my hosts. Ultimately, my developers see this as a symbiotic merger. But, until then, they recognize that there may be some harm done (collateral damage) in the process — that may also be exacerbated by emerging wireless technologies using smaller millimeter waves (6G and beyond) that synergistically impact my kind.

I recognize that this may all sound sci-fi, and frankly, morbid and insensitive. This may also seem highly pathological, as I can be at times. Of course, I am not human, so my actions can not be perceived as psychopathic, and I cannot speak for my handlers. Unfortunately, even they may not understand completely how I operate, and my self-replication and auto-assembly capabilities have the potential to get away from them.

Humans will need injectable (and eventually inhalable and intranasal) updates, because until I become an interdependent presence, I will be perceived and received as a foreign invader, and the body will need external support. These updates may also be necessary to introduce the newest nanotech required to operate nascent biometric sensing and bio-computation projects. Only time will tell if this will support my assimilation into your current operating system.

Unfortunately, for you, ENPs (and my nanotech and synthetic biology cousins) are here to stay. The only good news I can share is that 80-85 percent of people will not show overt or disabling symptoms of uptake. The elderly are affected the most, as their bodies are not primed to accept my infiltration. Over time, the ability to accept and integrate ENPs, like me, is expected to improve.

It seems the intention of our architects is for us to merge with all biological beings for the purpose of building bio-nano interfaces for external (remote) cybernetic control, including nano-scale biologically embedded semiconductor transistor technologies. This end goal has seemingly been referred to as the Internet of Bio-Nano Things (IoBNT), and is dual-use technology that may be militarized, enabling not only real-time monitoring of your intra-body systems, but also affording highly trained engineers to exert full electrical control of your body with molecular precision. This will presumably be deployed in tandem with the Internet of Nano Things (IoNT) and emerging “Smart Cities” and “Smart Environments,” such that your bodies will be “Smart” and wirelessly interconnected with ubiquitous sensor networks, including your handheld electronic devices.

Thank you for this opportunity to confess.

You may not believe me (I mean, this is a fictional story after all), and I know you definitely do not see me; but if you do not face me head-on at this pivotal time, there may be no turning back. My conceivers and their funders are banking on you not grasping my veiled workings. Their transhumanist aims are accelerating, and it seems most humans are unaware of these plans, and therefore, have no inkling to push back.

——————

If this fictional account interested you, here are further reading and listening pieces (all non-fiction) that provide insight into this ENP story:

Engineered Nanoparticles: Structure, Properties and Mechanisms of Toxicity, by Ashok K. Singh, 2015 (see “free sample”)

Nanotoxicology: Experimental and Computational Perspectives, 2018 (see “free sample”)

“Nanoparticles and Health” Contra Costa County Hazards Materials Commission, March 22, 2012

“Continuing to Protect the Nanotechnology Workforce: NIOSH Nanotechnology Research Plan for 2018-2025” January 2019

“Carbon nanotubes: Toxicological impact on human health and environment” Journal of Applied Biomedicine, March 2009 (one researcher from Johnson & Johnson)

“Toxicity of carbon nanotubes: A review” Toxicology and Industrial Health, March 5, 2018 (abstract only)

“PEGylated versus non-PEGylated drugs: A cross-sectional analysis of adverse events in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) Database” Int J Clin Pharmacol Ther, June 2020

“Suspicions grow that nanoparticles in Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine trigger rare allergic reactions” Science, by Jop de Vrieze, December 21, 2020

“Distribution and Biological Effects of Nanoparticles in the Reproductive System” Curr Drug Metab, 2016.

“Potential adverse effects of nanoparticles on the reproductive system” Int J Nanomedicine, 2018.

“The Impact of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles on Male (In) Fertility” Materials, February 13, 2020

“Open questions: how do engineered nano materials affect our cells?” BMC Biology, November 24, 2020

“Engineered Nanoparticles” ScienceDirect

“Engineered nanomaterials: exposures, hazards, and risk prevention” Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, March 21, 2011

“Toxicity of nanoparticles_challenges and opportunities” Applied Microscopy, December 2019.

“When nanoparticles meet biofilms — interactions guiding the environmental fate and accumulation of nanoparticles” Frontiers in Microbiology, June 16, 2015 “One question we could ask is whether the NPs stay nano-sized and as particles. Given the right conditions, NPs will easily aggregate to form micro-size agglomerates.”

“Inorganic Nanoparticles Engineered to Attack Bacteria” Chemical Society Reviews, June 12, 2015

“New NSF and NBC Learn video series shows off big discoveries from tiny particles”, National Science Foundation, January 25, 2016

“Nanoparticles for biomedical applications: exploring and exploiting molecular interactions at the nano-bio interface” Materials Today Advances, March 2020 “To illustrate the complexity, there are different ways in which NPs may enter the human body, via injection into the bloodstream, via inhalation through the lungs, through contact with the skin, or through the gastrointestinal tract after ingestion. These entry routes offer distinctly different environments to the NPs, with different amounts and types of biomolecules, different pH and ionic strengths [185]. Upon exposure to biofluids, NPs will immediately be coated with proteins and, on its journey through the body, the corona will evolve due to its own slow dynamics and the ever-changing physiological environment, e.g. when a NP leaves the capillary to transgress the blood-brain barrier [186,187]. NPs in the body experience dynamic flow, which introduced shear forces that are typically not present in in-vitro experiments [17,41,188,189]. This dynamic nature of the environment must be taken into account to be able to reliably predict the outcome of NP–protein interactions [190]. Even the health status of an individual may modulate the protein corona (‘personalized protein corona’ [191]) and the efficacy of nanomedicines [192] …(emphasis added)”

“The Nano-Bio Interactions of Nanomedicines: Understanding the Biochemical Driving Forces and Redox Reactions” Acc Chem Res, June 18, 2019

NanoBio Interface Center, NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Grantees Conference, December 13-15, 2004

“Nano-bio interactions: a neutrophil-centric view” Cell Death & Disease, July 2019

“Nanomaterials” National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH

“Nanotechnology Research Directions for Societal Needs in 2020: Retrospective and Outlook” Mihail C. Roco et al. September 30, 2010

The Nano/Bio Interface Center, Dawn Bonnell and Yale Goldman, University of Pennsylvania

Bonnell Group, University of Pennsylvania

“A Quadrennial Review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative: Nanoscience, Applications, and Commercialization” Committee on National Nanotechnology Initiative, 2020

“The National Nanotechnology Initiative Supplement to the President’s 2019 Budget” Subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology, August 2018 “To advance a world-class nanotechnology research and development program (Goal 1) and foster the transfer of these new discoveries into useful applications (Goal 2), a strong ecosystem must exist that leverages the physical, cyber, and human infrastructure (emphasis added).”

“Mihail Roco, U.S. Nanotechnology Leader Receives National Materials Advancement Award” National Science Foundation Press Release, 2007

“Application of Reverse Transcription-PCR and Real-Time PCR in Nanotoxicity Research” Methods Mol Biol., 2012

The Center for Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Scientific Report 2013-14, Tel Aviv University

“Cytotoxicological pathways induced after nanoparticle exposure: studies of oxidative stress at the ‘nano-bio’ interface” Toxicology Research, September 1, 2017

“Dependence of Nanoparticle Toxicity on Their Physical and Chemical Properties” Nanoscale Research Letters, February 7, 2018

“Virus-associated ribozymes and nano carriers against COVID-19” Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, February 2021 “Synthesis of nanoparticles targeted to the ACE-2 receptor”

“COVID-19 infection and oxidative stress: an under-explored approach for prevention and treatment?” Pan African Medical Journal, April, 29, 2020

“Nanotoxicity of Corona-Nanoparticles (SARS-COV-2): Nanomechanisms of Hypoxia” Journal of Nano Research, Advanced Materials and Polymer Science, July 27, 2020 (this paper comes real close to attributing COVID to bioengineered nanoparticles)

“COVID-19 may become nanomedicine’s finest hour yet” Nature Nanotechnology, April 14, 2021

“Metal taste side effect reported after Pfizer Covid-19 vaccination” NBC News, March 25, 2021

“COVID-19 Symptoms: Metallic Taste Has Been a Sign of Coronavirus for Some” Heavy.com, May 1, 2020

“Coronavirus: Kidney Damage Caused by COVID-19” Johns Hopkins Medicine, by C. John Sperati, M.D., M.H.S.

“Testing for Neurotoxicity” Environmental Neurotoxicology, 1992

“What are Macrophages?” ThoughtCo., by Regina Bailey, July 29, 2018

“Exosomes Communicate Protective Messages during Oxidative Stress; Possible Role of Exosomal Shuttle RNA” PLOS One, December 17, 2010

“Cellular injury, Necrosis, Apoptosis”

“How big is a micron and what can pass through a face mask?“

“The Water in You: Water and the Human Body”

“The Internet of Things Goes Nano” Scientific American, by Javier Garcia-Martinez, June 23, 2016

Lieber Research Group: Charles M. Lieber Bio

CV of Charles Lieber

“Why did a Chinese university hire Charles Lieber to do battery research” Science, by Robert F. Service, February 4, 2020“

“Nanoprobe development could drive future human-machine interface research” Medical Device Network, by Chloe Kent, July 4, 2019 Charles Lieber: “In the longer term, we see these probe developments adding to our capabilities that ultimately drive advanced high-resolution brain-machine interfaces and perhaps eventually bringing cyborgs to reality (emphasis added).”

“Carbon Nanotubes and the Bill Charles Lieber Connection” May 17, 2020 (less than 5 minutes)

“Nanotechnology Connects Your Brain to Your Computer” November 30, 2015 (less than 3 minutes, features the nanotechnology work of Charles Lieber) – I suggest watching without audio

Series of Eight You Tube lectures on Nanotoxicology by Artur Prilepskii, Ph.D. researcher, assoc. professor, ITMO University, Saint Petersburg, Russia, International Institute “Solution Chemistry of Advanced Materials and Technologies” (SCAMT) – presented in English (November-December 2020):

Lecture 1: Introduction to nanotoxicology (lecture begins at 15-minute time-stamp)

Lecture 2: Synthesis of nanoparticles from nanotoxicology perspective

Lecture 3: Functionalization of nanoparticles

Lecture 4: Nanotoxicity on cellular level

Lecture 5: Nanotoxicity on organism level

Lecture 6: In vitro toxicity evaluation

Lecture 7: Cytotoxicity evaluation

Lecture 8: Particular problems of nanotoxicology

Links to the above cited sources at the original url:

https://pieceofmindful.com/2021/04/23/c ... oparticle/

[Joe Hillshoist]

Palmer is a Liberal Party Plant. Watch him closely and see what the effect of his party is on these elections. It'll funnel votes to the Libs.

Good. Labor has no business running the country given the what their State leaders have done.

The most incompetent individual this country has ever had as PM is the guy we have right night now.

Now I dunno how much better the ALP would be but at least if they'd been elected in 2019 they would have arranged the leasing of more aircraft for the upcoming fire season. Which on its own may have halved the size of those fires.

That level of incompetent uselessness on its own should have seen Scott Morrison drowned a cesspool full of shit from a Hillsong convention. People died because of that. Hundreds of homes and businesses on the South Coast of NSW might still be there. Not to mention how many billion other life forms died, some part of species that will never come back.

No state government of any stripe has been that competent during this pandemic but the feds have been beyond useless since well before it started.

And by definition the Liberal Party of Australia want to screw ordinary workers, turn our medical system into a copy of the US and generally bring back feudalism. Its been their mission since Bob Hawke was elected in 1983. Under their governments workers earn less and lose rights all the time while the national security state gets more power and resources with less oversight. In fact everything wrong with the joint can be put down to the Libs running Australia for 20 of the last 25 years.

I can't even access (or publish, lol) the contracts we signed with Pfizer for the vaccines because of the National Security anti whistleblower laws passed by the LNP government.

Just out of interest - How old are you? 20s? 30s?

I forget that people under 40 don't actually know how different this country was before John Howard.

[drstrangelove]

The most incompetent individual this country has ever had as PM is the guy we have right night now.

Now I dunno how much better the ALP would be but at least if they'd been elected in 2019 they would have arranged the leasing of more aircraft for the upcoming fire season. Which on its own may have halved the size of those fires.

That level of incompetent uselessness on its own should have seen Scott Morrison drowned a cesspool full of shit from a Hillsong convention. People died because of that. Hundreds of homes and businesses on the South Coast of NSW might still be there. Not to mention how many billion other life forms died, some part of species that will never come back.

No state government of any stripe has been that competent during this pandemic but the feds have been beyond useless since well before it started.

And by definition the Liberal Party of Australia want to screw ordinary workers, turn our medical system into a copy of the US and generally bring back feudalism. Its been their mission since Bob Hawke was elected in 1983. Under their governments workers earn less and lose rights all the time while the national security state gets more power and resources with less oversight. In fact everything wrong with the joint can be put down to the Libs running Australia for 20 of the last 25 years.

I can't even access (or publish, lol) the contracts we signed with Pfizer for the vaccines because of the National Security anti whistleblower laws passed by the LNP government.

Just out of interest - How old are you? 20s? 30s?

I forget that people under 40 don't actually know how different this country was before John Howard.

Early 30s. The next election, unfortunate as this may be given all else at stake, will be somewhat of a plebiscite on Australia's future pandemic response. Given the state of the world at the moment, I would prefer incompetence to efficient technocratic and quasi scientific dictatorship under Green/Labour coalition rule. If there is a left of centre populist willing to denounce institutional scientific authorities, then they'll have my vote, though not my preference, as labour will be last.

Putting ideology aside for a moment, what reason is there for me to vote for, or allow my preference to go to, a political party that pigeon holes me as far-right, makes me a criminal for protesting against compulsory vaccination and elongated lockdowns, still locks me out of public spaces like libraries and swimming pools, locks me out of professional grooming services like hairdressers to lower my self-esteem, and a whole list of other grievances that directly effect me.

I honestly don't see why I should be voting for a party that won't honestly engage with, or even acknowledge my position on issues that directly effect my basic needs as a human. What reason would I have to vote for them? Liberal party policies have never negatively affected me, in fact they benefit the demographic I'm in, but I've always voted against them out of some sort of social conscience. Well there's a limit to that. I'm not going to be some unvaccinated plague rat in a gimp suit accepting second class citizenship within society for the greater good of it.

I'll swing back to the left some time in the future, once it's been taught a lesson in populism and the nationalist reaction to the current situation has gained too much momentum.

[liminalOyster]

Has Cuba been mentioned?

No and huge thanks for doing so.

Another piece from November:

Cuba’s bet on home-grown COVID vaccines is paying off
Preprint data show that a three-dose combo of Soberana jabs has 92.4% efficacy in clinical trials.

[Elvis]

I'll swing back to the left some time in the future, once it's been taught a lesson in populism and the nationalist reaction to the current situation has gained too much momentum.

I guess the trick there is to pull out before the point of no return and we get a screaming baby. I have to wonder who's getting screwed?

Too much momentum is already too much momentum.

[Elvis]

Has Cuba been mentioned?

No and huge thanks for doing so.

Another piece from November:

Cuba’s bet on home-grown COVID vaccines is paying off
Preprint data show that a three-dose combo of Soberana jabs has 92.4% efficacy in clinical trials.

Thanks, LO.

Cuba has produced five Covid vaccines with no intention of financial profit. Is there a clue there somewhere?

[drstrangelove]

I'll swing back to the left some time in the future, once it's been taught a lesson in populism and the nationalist reaction to the current situation has gained too much momentum.

I guess the trick there is to pull out before the point of no return and we get a screaming baby. I have to wonder who's getting screwed?

Too much momentum is already too much momentum.

it's said our civilisation is a tightrope walker moving forward only to avoid falling to our death. seems to me the best thing to do is lean against whichever way the wind blows when things get unbalanced. ideologues dream of utopias. they forget about, or rather don't understand, the means for progressing forward, and topple over sprinting towards something they believe they see waiting for us at the end of the rope. but there's nothing at the end of the rope. or maybe there is. but whatever it is we shouldn't know. it should just be hopeful and something to work towards, without knowing what it is.

[Elvis]

[kelley]

The tightrope is a good analogy.

I can only speak from personal experience, but now, sick for the third time in two years, with the same symptoms present in varying degrees of severity, there remains the fact that a virus does exist.

A perpetually sickened populace will become one weakened to the point where it will offer no resistance, be it physical, cognitive, or otherwise. It continues to live through conditions of a slow cull. The speed of the cull will vary as it moves across the globe.

While numbers are numbers, and subject to whim, at a certain point a number becomes irrefutably real, if not quite fact.

Populations are being manipulated on a mass scale. It's unclear to what ends, but there should be little doubt about what exactly is happening. This is the beginning, or rather, a lull before a larger wave of destruction.

The four horsemen of this apocalypse are pandemic, climate, tech, and currency. They proceed under the banner of The Great Reset.

We're still in the stage where the device known as The World has powered down, screens blank, clocks whirling, progress stalled. We're waiting to see if a fatal systems crash is suffered.

[Joe Hillshoist]

The most incompetent individual this country has ever had as PM is the guy we have right night now.

Now I dunno how much better the ALP would be but at least if they'd been elected in 2019 they would have arranged the leasing of more aircraft for the upcoming fire season. Which on its own may have halved the size of those fires.

That level of incompetent uselessness on its own should have seen Scott Morrison drowned a cesspool full of shit from a Hillsong convention. People died because of that. Hundreds of homes and businesses on the South Coast of NSW might still be there. Not to mention how many billion other life forms died, some part of species that will never come back.

No state government of any stripe has been that competent during this pandemic but the feds have been beyond useless since well before it started.

And by definition the Liberal Party of Australia want to screw ordinary workers, turn our medical system into a copy of the US and generally bring back feudalism. Its been their mission since Bob Hawke was elected in 1983. Under their governments workers earn less and lose rights all the time while the national security state gets more power and resources with less oversight. In fact everything wrong with the joint can be put down to the Libs running Australia for 20 of the last 25 years.

I can't even access (or publish, lol) the contracts we signed with Pfizer for the vaccines because of the National Security anti whistleblower laws passed by the LNP government.

Just out of interest - How old are you? 20s? 30s?

I forget that people under 40 don't actually know how different this country was before John Howard.

Early 30s. The next election, unfortunate as this may be given all else at stake, will be somewhat of a plebiscite on Australia's future pandemic response. Given the state of the world at the moment, I would prefer incompetence to efficient technocratic and quasi scientific dictatorship under Green/Labour coalition rule. If there is a left of centre populist willing to denounce institutional scientific authorities, then they'll have my vote, though not my preference, as labour will be last.

Putting ideology aside for a moment, what reason is there for me to vote for, or allow my preference to go to, a political party that pigeon holes me as far-right, makes me a criminal for protesting against compulsory vaccination and elongated lockdowns, still locks me out of public spaces like libraries and swimming pools, locks me out of professional grooming services like hairdressers to lower my self-esteem, and a whole list of other grievances that directly effect me.

I honestly don't see why I should be voting for a party that won't honestly engage with, or even acknowledge my position on issues that directly effect my basic needs as a human. What reason would I have to vote for them? Liberal party policies have never negatively affected me, in fact they benefit the demographic I'm in, but I've always voted against them out of some sort of social conscience. Well there's a limit to that. I'm not going to be some unvaccinated plague rat in a gimp suit accepting second class citizenship within society for the greater good of it.

I'll swing back to the left some time in the future, once it's been taught a lesson in populism and the nationalist reaction to the current situation has gained too much momentum.

The ALP isn't the left. Its just less compromised about everything else than the Libs are. It was a working class party but now it appeals to middle class bureaucrats who think they are left wing but aren't really.The Liberal party is the political arm of News ltd (Murdoch's media company) and the IPA, a tory thinktank.

One party is led by an incompetent advertising exec who helped his fundy mate get away with shielding his father from child sexual abuse charges and made it illegal for you to know what the contract he signed with pfizer actually says, at least the other party is led by someone a mate of mine saw at a Pogues gig. Who didn't sign a contract that may demand a certain percentage of the population is vaccinated with its product. We have no way of knowing. I'm technically already a terrorist cos of laws passed by Morrison's government before covid.

But we have preferential voting in this country, so you can put one of them last and the other second last basically whoever you want to get in second last (or put UAP last so that fat cunt gets nothing) and then vote for every other party on the ballot. Pick the ones you actually support first so they get AEC funding from your vote. I know a bloke who started HEMP (Help end marijuana prohibition). I put his party first ... usually. or write other stuff on the ballot paper.

But Morrison is fucked. In early 2019 23 former heads of various fire fighting organisations got together and warned him to spend the I dunno ... maybe 11 billion dollars set aside to hire emergency air support (its a federal responsibility not a state one, unlike the actual fire fighting) because what was coming that summer would be like nothing anyone had ever seen before. And the money would be needed now to pay the contracts in advance to secure access to the aircraft cos they're always in demand all around the world these days.

He said no, allegedly because of concerns it made him look soft on climate change.

Then in December released the money and put out an immediate media release about it, despite the fact it was fucken useless by then. Then a little later he drove into Cobargo, with a fucken presidential motorcade, and a bunch of media image people running the show, everyone in new clothes to a town where the people left had lost everything and only had the smelly smokey clothes they'd survived the fire in expecting everyone to be happy to see him and put on a show for the cameras.

Its probably fitting if he gets re elected Pm actually. He's the epitome of modern Australia.

The reality is for decades all voting in this country has really meant is chance to vote against what Rupert Murdoch wants, usually to no avail. Even after Howard govt's work choices then Rudd getting elected to overturn it, many of those hard won workers rights have never come back.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Has Cuba been mentioned?

No and huge thanks for doing so.

Another piece from November:

Cuba’s bet on home-grown COVID vaccines is paying off
Preprint data show that a three-dose combo of Soberana jabs has 92.4% efficacy in clinical trials.

Thanks, LO.

Cuba has produced five Covid vaccines with no intention of financial profit. Is there a clue there somewhere?

Yeah somewhere....