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Half of 'long Covid' sufferers have never had Covid, says new study

Ian Macleod
The Daily Sceptic
Mon, 03 Apr 2023 16:32 UTC
long COVID symptoms
The battle of ideas around Covid has few clashes as hotly contested as Long Covid. Alarmists have hyped the frequency and severity with which infection causes long-term damage. Sceptics see no reason for panic. A new study helps to settle at least part of this debate.

The paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association's (JAMA) Network Open looked at "post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) in young people after mild acute infection" to find how common it was and to find risk factors. Participants were aged between 12 and 25.

The authors offer this straightforward conclusion: "PCC was not associated with biological markers specific to viral infection." That is, participants were equally likely to suffer from 'Long Covid', whether or not they had suffered from acute COVID-19.

The researchers concluded that Long Covid is predicted by "initial symptom severity" and, intriguingly, "psychosocial factors".
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Attention

Signature verification software used by Maricopa County says 10% is 'high-confidence' match

Natalia Mittelstadt
Just the News
Sat, 01 Apr 2023 16:02 UTC
Kari Lake
© Getty Images
With Kari Lake's legal complaint alleging systematic signature verification failures in Maricopa County remanded by the Arizona Supreme Court to trial court, closer examination of the signature verification software used by the county reveals a strikingly low threshold for signatures to qualify as "high-confidence" matches.

Since falling about 17,000 votes short in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election to Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs, Lake has continued to contest the election results in court, arguing that there were ballot chain of custody and signature verification issues in addition to thousands of Republican voters disproportionately disenfranchised on Election Day, when voting machine errors occurred in nearly 60% of the voting centers in Maricopa County. Lake has requested that the election results be invalidated or that she be declared the winner.

Last week, the Arizona Supreme Court remanded Lake's claim alleging massive signature verification failure to the trial court, ruling that because Lake is challenging the failure to adhere to current policy rather than the policy itself, her suit was not filed too late, as the lower court had found in dismissing her case. The former candidate must "establish that 'votes [were] affected "in sufficient numbers to alter the outcome of the election"' based on a 'competent mathematical basis to conclude that the outcome would plausibly have been different, not simply an untethered assertion of uncertainty,'" the state's high court ruled.

According to 2020 emails between Maricopa County officials and an employee of the county's election technology vendor, Runbeck Election Services, the election firm's Verus Pro application for signature verification ranks signature matches on a scale of 0 to 100. However, only scores "lower than 10" are "not marked as Accepted by Verus Pro," according to an email from a Maricopa County official, which the county provided to then-Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich after a public records request.

When Maricopa County was testing Verus Pro for the 2020 general election, county election official Rey Valenzuela called the rollout of the software a "sh-t show" in an October email to Runbeck.

Comment: In what capacity and to what extent was the verification software used, and why is Maricopa County denying that they used this software when they clearly contracted this software for use? Questions that may just turn things in Lake's favor. If the questions are actually answered, that is.

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People

The New Normal Left

CJ Hopkins
Consent Factory, Inc.
Tue, 04 Apr 2023 00:00 UTC
lefties
So, I went to London to speak to the Left ... no, not "the Left" you're probably thinking of. Not the mask-wearing, Ukrainian-flag-flying Left. Not the pronoun-using, segregationist Left. Not the WEF, WHO, FBI, CIA, DHS, and MI6-loving Left. Not the global-capitalist New Normal Left. The other Left. The old-school Left. The "Covid-denying, conspiracy-theorizing, Putin-loving, far-right-extremist" Left.

There were approximately 150 of us, and we gathered in a "homophobic church" in Islington. Yes, Islington, which is more or less the British headquarters of the New Normal Left. We did not care. "Let them come for us," we said. They didn't. It was a Saturday. They were probably out shopping or hunting down imaginary anti-Semites. So, we went ahead and did our thing.

Our "thing" was a conference loosely based on leftist opposition to the WEF and its assorted dystopian visions for our future ... you know, eating the bugs, owning nothing, being happy, that kind of stuff. I was invited by this group called Real Left to speak on a panel with Fabio Vighi, a professor of Critical Theory at Cardiff University. We didn't talk about the WEF very much. We mostly talked about global capitalism, totalitarianism, and "the New Normal Left."

Here are the broad strokes of what I said the conference.

...
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Attention

New study supports social contagion theory for surge in teen girls identifying as transgender

Mia Ashton
The Post Millennial
Sat, 01 Apr 2023 06:35 UTC
trans kids flag
A new study examining the recent epidemic of teenagers and young adults identifying as transgender has been published and the findings strongly indicate that social contagion is a factor in this new phenomenon.

The study by Drs. Michael J. Bailey and Suzanna Diaz, published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour, examined a survey of 1655 parent reports to further investigate the Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) hypothesis first put forward by Dr. Lisa Littman in 2018. Activists at the time accused Littman of transphobia and claimed her study was invalid, but evidence to support her hypothesis has only grown in the intervening years and this latest study indicates that, at least for some, ROGD is a disturbing reality.


The study is much larger than any attempt that has been made to study this cohort to date, and consists of parent reports from an online survey on the website Parents of ROGD Kids. The authors acknowledge the possible bias of their sample, but state that research on "children's development in many domains has long depended on parent reports."

Notable findings in line with past studies show that adolescent-onset gender dysphoria disproportionately affects females, with the sample showing 75 percent females versus 25 percent males.
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Black Magic

Sick: Boston Children's Hospital director calls for drastic increase in capacity for gender surgeries for minors

Hannah Grossman
Fox News
Sun, 02 Apr 2023 20:25 UTC
Oren Ganor is a plastic surgeon boston children's hospital gender surgery
© Harvard Medical School/screenshot)Oren Ganor
The director at Boston Children's Hospital said medical school students should learn transgender surgeries in residency programs

Boston Children's Hospital co-director at its Center for Gender Surgery called for a drastic increase in capacity for what he called "gender-affirming care" (GAC), including surgeries, for kids as GOP states enact bans on the practices.

Oren Ganor is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who specializes in gender-affirming surgeries. He has previously stated in an email that the hospital is "slightly flexible" when it comes to the age of transgender girls seeking genital surgery," according to a local outlet. The policy had not been finalized, he said, "because of the issue around consent for sterilization."

The children's hospital clarified to Fox News Digital that it does not provide genital surgeries on kids. A patient needs to live in their new gender for 12 months before the genital surgeries are considered.

Comment: Former transgender kid, Chloe Cole, shares the complications she deals with every day as a result of medical interventions she was subjected to after being diagnosed with gender dysphoria.



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Yoda

Liberal writers blast Lesley Stahl after Marjorie Taylor Greene's blunt interview on '60 Minutes'

David Propper
New York Post
Mon, 03 Apr 2023 20:09 UTC
mtg Marjorie Taylor Greene 6o minutes pedophiles
© 60 Minutes CBS NewsGoing there: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene talks about pedophilia on “60 Minutes,” saying Democrats support “grooming children.”
Outspoken GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) doubled down on calling Democrats "pedophiles," blasted establishment Republicans and demanded that the US stop the flow of aid money to Ukraine in a wide-ranging and fiery 60 Minutes interview Sunday.

Taylor Greene, also known as MTG, made numerous controversial comments during her sit-down with veteran reporter Lesley Stahl — and was promptly panned by many across social media.

In one of the more shocking moments, the Georgia lawmaker responded, "I would definitely say so" when Stahl pressed her on previous comments she has made about Democrats being "the party of pedophiles."

Comment: Well done, Rep. Taylor Greene!

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Eye 1

Adult diaper-wearing fetishists complain about pedophilia accusations


The Post Millennial
Sun, 02 Apr 2023 00:00 UTC
adult diaper
The Adult Baby and Diaper Lover (AB/DL) communities want people to stop assuming they are attracted to children and according to a report by The Stranger there are a number of reasons a person may engage in AB/DL including "Relaxation, comfort, or stress relief" among other reasons given besides a sexual fetish.

A study conducted by Kevin J. Hsu and J. Michael Bailey found that among the 200 AB/DL men surveyed less than five percent had any attraction to minors, which is in line with the studies on pedophilia in the general population.
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Bad Guys

Prominent Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky killed in St. Petersburg - UPDATES


RT
Sun, 02 Apr 2023 17:13 UTC
Vladlen Tatarsky (real name Maksim Fomin) explosion St. Petersburg
Vladlen Tatarsky (real name Maksim Fomin)
At least 19 people are reported injured by a suspected IED explosion in a city center café

An explosion that rocked the 'Street Bar' café in St. Petersburg, Russia on Sunday has claimed at least one life and left 19 people injured, authorities reported.

Vladlen Tatarsky (real name Maksim Fomin), a military correspondent and blogger, was killed in the incident, according to emergency services.

Comment: More from RT on the explosion:
Details emerge on blast that killed Russian war reporter

An improvised explosive device was allegedly camouflaged as a gift presented to the victim, Vladlen Tatarsky

War reporter Vladlen Tatarsky may have been killed by an improvised explosive device disguised as a statuette, Kirill Makarov, the youth policy minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, told Russian media on Sunday. Tatarksy was killed earlier today by an explosion while hosting a live event for his supporters at a café.

According to several Russian media outlets, a young woman presented the figurine to the war correspondent and blogger during the event. Her identity is unknown so far. The police have not commented on this version of events. Law enforcement only confirmed that Tatarsky was killed in the blast, which also left 16 people injured.

Earlier, a source with the emergency services told TASS that an improvised explosive device was detonated near the stage in the café.

Russia's REN TV reported, citing a witness, that the statuette blew up as Tatarsky was holding it.

According to TASS, the IED's power was equivalent to 200 grams of TNT.

A video published by REN TV shows the moment Tatarsky was allegedly given the bomb camouflaged as what appears to be a large bust. The footage shows, however, that it was a man, not a woman, who gave the supposed gift.

Tatarsky became prominent in Russia as a blogger and war correspondent reporting on the situation in Donbass after he joined the local militias in the wake of the Maidan coup in Kiev in 2014. The man, who also authored several books, was hosting a live event in a St. Petersburg café on Sunday.




Someone went to serious effort to get Tatarsky. Was the girl a patsy? Full text of the above tweet:
The explosion in the St. Petersburg cafe, where military commander Vladlen Tatarsky died, was radio-controlled and directional. Its capacity is 100 grams of TNT. This was reported to "Baze" by a source.

The source also said that the explosive device was hidden in plaster. Apparently, in case there was a service dog at the bar where the meeting with Tatarsky was held, capable of smelling an explosive device. It is extremely difficult to do this through plaster.

On the video, the moment of transferring the bust to Vladlen Tatarsky. According to eyewitnesses, it was this figurine that exploded, which the girl had previously presented.
UPDATES 03/04/2023: More information on Tatarsky's murder is being reported by RT. First, the background:
What happened?

An explosive device went off in the 'Street Bar 1' café in the center of St. Petersburg on Sunday. The explosion was strong enough to blow out the windows of the café and cause its facade to collapse. It is estimated that the improvised explosive device (IED) was equivalent to around 200 grams of TNT and was packed with shrapnel, according to law enforcement officials.

Following the blast, one person - Vladlen Tatarsky - was pronounced dead at the scene, while 33 other people have been hospitalized with various injuries. Some are in critical condition, including a 14-year-old girl, according to the Russian Health Ministry.

Where and when did it happen?

The incident took place at the 'Street Bar 1' café at 25 Universitetskaya Embankment on Vasilyevsky Island in the center of St. Petersburg. The venue was hosting an event for Tatarsky and several dozen of his followers at the time of the explosion.

Russian billionaire and founder of the Wagner Private Military Company, Evgeny Prigozhin, has confirmed that he had business ties to 'Street Bar 1' and said he allowed a "patriotic" club to use the venue. He has compared Tatarsky's assassination to the murder of journalist Darya Dugina, who was killed when her car was blown up last August.

Who was Vladlen Tatarsky?

Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name was Maksim Fomin, gained prominence in Russia as a military blogger and correspondent during the Ukraine conflict. A Donbass native, he joined the local militias in the wake of the Maidan coup in Kiev in 2014, and served until 2019.

Tatarsky regularly reported on the battlefield developments in Donbass and authored several books. At the time of his death, his Telegram channel had over 560,000 subscribers. Kiev imposed sanctions on him in January of this year.

What have officials said?

The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case and are treating the incident as a murder. Investigators are at the scene of the incident and are working on leads. St. Petersburg prosecutor Viktor Melnik has told journalists that the investigation will be carried out as rapidly as possible.

Moscow, meanwhile, has branded the incident a "terrorist act" carried out by Kiev. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that "the regime in Kiev supports terrorist activities" and has been behind numerous murders since 2014.

Who is the chief suspect?

Videos from the event have shown that not long before the blast, Tatarsky was handed a figurine that is believed to have contained the IED. Investigators have since identified the woman who handed the blogger the figurine as 26-year-old Darya Trepova.

After being placed on a wanted list, Trepova was detained in St. Petersburg on Monday. According to local news outlets, she was hiding out in an apartment that belonged to a friend of her husband, and had booked tickets for a flight to Uzbekistan.

In a video published by Russia's Interior Ministry, Trepova admitted to handing Tatarsky "the figurine that exploded," but refused to say how she had obtained the item and asked investigators if she could "tell them about it later."

Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) has claimed that the "terrorist act" was planned by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) using agents collaborating with opposition figure Alexey Navalny's anti-corruption fund (FBK). It was stated that Trepova was a supporter of Navalny and his group.

According to Shot news, Trepova reportedly told investigators that she was recruited by a man named Roman Popkov - a journalist believed to have ties to the SBU. Trepova allegedly said that Popkov initially "taught her journalism" but then asked her to "do a task" for a "contact" of his.

Trepova reportedly claimed that she was instructed to strike up a friendship with Tatarsky in order to recruit him later on. Trepova admitted that she had brought the figurine containing the explosive device to St. Petersburg in her car several days ago, but has insisted that she did not know about the nature of the figurine and thought it was a listening device.
The accused bomber has been admitted she brought the device to the bar:
"МВД Russia publishes video of the detention of a woman allegedly involved in an explosion in a cafe on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg "As a result of operational and investigative measures, police officers in cooperation with colleagues in St. Petersburg...
0:23
⏺📹 Video interrogation of a woman allegedly involved in the explosion in a cafe on Vasilevsky Island in St. Petersburg"

In the clip, Trepova admits that she "brought in the statuette that exploded" in the café in the city's historic center, killing the blogger, whose real name is Maksim Fomin, and injuring 32 people.

When asked whether she understood why she had been detained by law enforcement, the suspect said that it was for "being at the scene where Vladlen Tatarsky was murdered." Trepova, 26, also said that she would "explain later" where she had obtained the figurine from.

Trepova was arrested earlier in the day, hours after her name was included on Russia's wanted list. According to Irina Volk, the Interior Ministry's spokeswoman, she was detained at her rental apartment in St. Petersburg during a police operation.
The Kremlin called Tatarsky's murder a terrorist attack comparable to the murder of Darya Dugina last year:
The explosion that killed Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a St. Petersburg café was a terrorist attack, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. His statement came after Russian authorities accused Ukraine of orchestrating the blast.

"Of course, this constitutes an act of terrorism," Peskov claimed during a call with journalists. "The regime in Kiev supports terrorist activities... [and] has been behind the murders of many people since 2014," he added.

[...]

Moscow has repeatedly accused Ukraine of conducting terrorist attacks on Russian soil, including the bombing of the Crimean Bridge in 2022. Russian officials claimed that Ukrainian agents were behind last year's murder of journalist Darya Dugina, who died in a car bombing near Moscow. Ukraine denied any involvement in the incident.
Moscow fingers Kiev, the logical culprit, as staging the operation:
The blast in St. Petersburg that killed military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was orchestrated by Ukraine, Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAK) said on Monday. It described the murder as "a terrorist attack."

According to the NAK, Kiev used "individuals who collaborated with [Alexey] Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation [FBK]" to carry out the attack. Officials described suspect Darya Trepova, who was detained on Monday, as an "active supporter" of the FBK.

Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and opposition figure, founded the FBK in 2011. The organization was labeled by the authorities as 'extremist' and banned in Russia in 2021.
The Kremlin has named the head of the operation as Roman Popkov:
Roman Popkov MBKh Media accused tatarsky murder
Roman Popkov, a Russian journalist and opposition activist
The main suspect in the murder of prominent Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, Darya Trepova, has admitted she was recruited by a man with ties to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), news outlet Shot claimed on Monday, citing sources. Tatarsky was killed on Sunday by a blast from an improvised explosive device.

The attack on Tatarsky was orchestrated by Roman Popkov, a former journalist with the MBKh Media outlet founded by exiled oligarch and staunch Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Trepova is reported to have said. According to the suspect, Popkov "taught her journalism" at first but then asked her to carry out a task for a "contact" of his.

Shot claimed that Popkov's contact was an SBU agent, although his identity has not been revealed. The Russian Interior Ministry published a video earlier on Monday in which Trepova admitted to bringing the bomb camouflaged as a statuette to Tatarsky's meeting with his followers. In the footage, Trepova said she would "explain later" where she had obtained the figurine from.

According to Shot, Trepova brought the statuette to St. Petersburg in her car several days ago. She also claimed that her contacts tasked her with striking up a friendship with Tatarsky to later recruit him. She reportedly maintained that she was told the figurine contained a listening device.

Citing sources, other news outlets reported that Popkov is now working for exiled former State Duma Deputy Ilya Ponomarev. Ponomarev, who currently resides in Ukraine, has repeatedly threatened to launch a terror campaign targeting Russian officials and anyone he deems to be supportive of Moscow's actions in Ukraine. The former deputy has also claimed to have ties to what he called a guerilla movement in Russia.

Ponomarev previously alleged that this movement was behind the high-profile murder of another Russian journalist and public figure, Darya Dugina, who was killed in a car blast last year. Russian officials later claimed that Ukrainian agents were behind her murder.
Meanwhile Russia has posthumously awarded Tatarsky the Order of Courage:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has posthumously awarded Vladlen Tatarsky, a prominent Russian war correspondent and blogger, the Order of Courage. Tatarsky was recognized "for the courage and bravery he displayed in line of his professional duty," a presidential order published on Monday said.
russian Order of Courage medal
© Global Look Press / Vladimir BoikoOrder of Courage
[...]

Tatarsky gained prominence as a war correspondent and a blogger in Russia amid the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev. A Donbass native, he joined the local militias in the wake of the Maidan coup in Kiev in 2014. Tatarsky (real name Maksim Fomin) left his service in 2019 before moving to Moscow and authoring several books about his life.

Following the start of the Russian military operation in February 2022, he returned to Donbass, where he reported on the developments on the ground on a daily basis.

In the wake of his murder, Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said that Russian journalists are facing a "witch hunt" in the West, as well as "death threats" from Kiev, which are silently ignored by international bodies and relevant professional associations.


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No Entry

Germany could ban ChatGPT - data chief


RT
Mon, 03 Apr 2023 18:32 UTC
OpenAI, ChatGPT
© AFP / Lionel Bonaventure
Germany could "in principle" block access to OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot due to privacy concerns, a spokeswoman for the country's data protection commissioner told the Handelsblatt newspaper on Monday.

"In principle, a similar procedure is also possible in Germany," Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Ulrich Kelber's spokeswoman told the paper, referring to the Italian ban.

Italy's National Authority for Personal Data Protection ordered ChatGPT temporarily taken offline on Friday, as it investigates a suspected leak of user data by the application last month. The Italian regulator also criticized ChatGPT for not notifying users that it collects and stores their information, and for failing to install any filters to verify user age.

Kelber's spokeswoman said that there are currently no plans to ban the chatbot in Germany, and that such a decision would fall under the jurisdiction of the country's individual states.

Comment: Perhaps Germany should consider pulling the plug:

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Jet5

EU nation killed civilians in Iraq - media investigation


RT
Fri, 31 Mar 2023 10:20 UTC
fighter jet
© C. Van Grinsven/SOPA Images/Lightrocket/Getty ImagesDutch Air Force F-16 fighter jet
The Netherlands has decided to declassify data on airstrikes in the Middle East after media exposé...

The Dutch government agreed to release previously classified information about its air sorties in Iraq and Syria, after media exposed as false claims that no civilians were killed in a 2016 strike by the European nation on a building in Mosul, Iraq. A US military assessment had identified the target as a terrorist HQ.

The database, released on Thursday, details Dutch F-16 missions between October 2014 and December 2018, which were part of Operation Inherent Resolve, a US-led military campaign against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). It disclosed over 2,200 weapon deployments relating to over 600 airstrikes. The Dutch Ministry of Defence also pledged to conduct its own investigation into suspected killings of civilians by anti-IS coalition forces.

The move was in reaction to an exposé published on the same day by the Dutch public broadcaster NOS, its current affairs program Nieuwsuur, and the newspaper NRC. It provides evidence that at least seven civilians, including a three-year-old girl, were killed in a Dutch airstrike at a residential building in Mosul on March 22, 2016. The strike hit a residence outside of the campus of Mosul University, where academics and their families were housed.

Comment: See also:

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