Society's ChildS


Syringe

Moderna's CEO admits only the vulnerable need a COVID booster and likens the virus to flu

Moderna's CEO Stéphane Bancel
Moderna's CEO Stéphane Bancel said he has been getting a flu shot every year for 20 years.
Not everyone needs to get an annual Covid booster, according to the head of pharma giant Moderna who also likened the virus to seasonal flu.

Stéphane Bancel said his company's shots should mainly be targeted at over-50s and people with underlying health conditions.

His comments seem to be at odds with the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) which is urging everyone over the age of five to get boosted.

Comment: Bancel is probably feeling rather secure in speaking so frankly since the CDC has just voted to add Covid mRNA shots to the childhood vaccine schedule.




Arrow Down

US democracy is failing - poll

voting booth
© EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ / AFP
Many in America are skeptical of the country's voting system and are pessimistic about the state of US democracy, a new poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research suggests.

On Wednesday, AP reported that only about half of Americans today have high confidence that their votes in the upcoming midterm elections will be counted accurately. Nevertheless, the figures are actually higher than two years ago when the figure was four in ten.

Additionally, only 9% of adults in the US said they thought democracy is working "extremely" or "very well," compared to 52% that said it was not working well.

AP notes that following the 2020 presidential race, which saw Joe Biden beat then-incumbent President Donald Trump, Republicans have become more likely to say that democracy wasn't working well. 68% of Republican voters said they feel this way today, compared to 32% two years ago. Meanwhile, the number of Democrats pessimistic about US democracy has dropped from 63% in 2020 to 40% today.

The poll, which surveyed 1,121 adults across the US earlier this month, also showed that a large proportion of Republicans have lost faith in the voting system, as 45% expressed little to no confidence that the upcoming midterm elections will be counted accurately. Democrats, on the other hand, seem to be mostly satisfied with the system, with 74% saying they are "highly confident" in the midterm results.

Heart - Black

Poll shows 70 percent of Ukrainians want to fight until victory over Russia

Kiev, Kyiv, city lights
In Kyiv, in order to save electricity, street lighting was limited on October 17.
Seven out of 10 Ukrainians say their country should continue fighting until it wins the war with Russia, which includes regaining Crimea.

A poll by Gallup, conducted in early September and released on October 18, showed 70 percent of Ukrainians favor fighting until victory, while 91 percent who back the war define victory as retaking all territory seized by Russia, including Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.

Only 26 percent of respondents said Ukraine should seek to negotiate an ending to the war as soon as possible.

The poll, conducted across all regions of the country, was taken from September 2 to 11, just days after Ukraine began a counteroffensive that has pushed Russian troops out of many areas they had taken control of since launching their unprovoked invasion in late February.

Since then, Russia has launched a barrage of air and drone attacks focused on the country's civilian infrastructure, leaving many areas with limited or no energy and water supplies as winter quickly approaches.

Comment: 7 out of 10 Ukrainians are totally deluding themselves, thanks almost entirely to media propaganda which makes it appear as if Ukraine stands a fighting chance, if they think they can win against Russia and take back Crimea. The reality is that such a stance is tantamount to suicide on a national scale.


Jet1

Airshow that was cancelled for three years "due to Covid" now cancelled permanently "due to climate change"

Red Arrows, airplanes, air show
© PA MediaThe Red Arrows were usually a star attraction
The Sunderland Airshow has been cancelled indefinitely as the council which organizes it cites worries about climate change and says it wants to make the city "carbon neutral". BBC News has the story.
The Sunderland Airshow has been cancelled indefinitely as a council says it wants to make the city carbon neutral.

The popular event, which attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators to Roker, was last held in 2019.

Subsequent dates were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Council leader Graeme Miller said the city would host other events, including the World Triathlon Championship next year.

He said residents wanted "to see new and different events" which the council hoped would "inspire more people to become physically active".

A council spokeswoman said: "In light of the new approach to events and the council's ambitions to be carbon neutral by 2030 and the city's to be carbon neutral by 2040, the council has confirmed it has no plans to run the Sunderland Airshow in the future."

Mr Miller said: "Residents have identified the environment as one of their top concerns and both the council and the city have committed to tackling the global climate emergency by reducing carbon emissions.

"This makes it all the harder to justify events such as the airshow, which generate large amounts of carbon, going ahead in the future."

Oil Well

Europe to face worse gas crisis in 2023 - Qatar

A thermometer above a radiator.
© Hendrik Schmidt / picture alliance via Getty ImagesA thermometer above a radiator.
With "zero" fuel coming in from Russia, the region will have "huge" problems "for a very long time," the energy minister predicted.

Europe is facing a shortage of natural gas over the next several years due to the break-up of trade with Russia, the energy minister of Qatar, a leading global exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), has said.

Replacing all Russian gas with other sources doesn't seem like a viable strategy, Saad al-Kaabi told the Financial Times in an interview published on Tuesday.
If "zero Russian gas" flowed in to the EU, as Brussels intends, "I think the problem is going to be huge and for a very long time," he said.
"You just don't have enough volume to bring [in] to replace that gas for the long term, unless you're saying 'I'm going to be building huge nuclear [plants], I'm going to allow coal, I'm going to burn fuel oils'," the minister explained.

Comment: See also:


Black Magic

Canadian court upholds suspension of doctor accused of giving COVID vaccine exemption to high-risk patient

canada doctor covid exemption suspended
© thedemocracyfund.caDr. Crystal Luchkiw speaks on The Democracy Fund podcast, alleging “disrespectful and abusive” treatment
Dr. Crystal Luchkiw is the latest in a string of physicians across Canada censured by their governing bodies for allegedly promoting COVID disinformation

An Ontario court has upheld the suspension of a doctor who allegedly gave a COVID vaccine exemption to a patient at high risk from the virus, casting aside an argument that the province's medical regulator impeded her freedom of expression.

Dr. Crystal Luchkiw of Barrie also suggested on a podcast the pandemic was a government-created hoax, failed to implement public-health rules in her office and obstructed investigators from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Divisional Court decision said.

She is the latest in a string of physicians across Canada censured by their governing bodies for issuing allegedly unwarranted vaccine exemptions, promoting COVID disinformation or otherwise eschewing accepted science around the pandemic.

Comment: It sounds as if Dr. Luchkiw is on top of the reality of the scamdemic, and is being made an example of for being outspoken about it.


Attention

Fire rips through huge mosque in Indonesia

mosque fire
Screenshot
The Jakarta Islamic Center mosque in Indonesia caught fire during renovation works on Wednesday. Dramatic footage captured the moment the building's dome collapsed.

Firefighters were alerted to the blaze shortly after 3pm local time, with at least ten fire engines being dispatched to the scene, CNN Indonesia reported. The cause of the fire is thus far unknown, although the Islamic Center was undergoing renovations at the time.

Video footage showed flames and smoke spewing from the mosque's dome immediately before its collapse.

Comment: See also:


Syringe

Those demonising the unvaccinated need to look in the mirror

boris and beer
It's been known since the outbreak of Covid that obesity leads to higher rates of hospitalisations and deaths. Despite this, very few resources were deployed to encourage healthier eating and lifestyles. This article argues that this was a disastrous decision for the long term health of the nation and the short to medium term capacity of the NHS.

Boris Johnson (BMI 34; healthy is under 25) in his New Year message broadcast on December 31st 2020 said: "Get a vaccine, it's far easier than losing weight" (see video from two minutes in). Well, the people of the U.K. took him at his word: we've had 30 months to galvanise the population into losing weight and getting fitter, 30 months entirely squandered.

Comment: See also:


Bizarro Earth

UK's National Grid warns of possible blackouts during 'deepest, darkest winter', BBC prepares secret scripts in event of outages

pylon
The warning from the head of the National Grid follows the electricity and gas systems operator outlining unlikely scenarios when blackouts may take place this winter.
The head of Britain's electricity and gas systems' operator has told households to prepare for blackouts between 4pm and 7pm on weekdays during "really, really cold" days in January and February if gas imports are reduced.

John Pettigrew, the National Grid chief, said blackouts would have to be imposed during the "deepest darkest evenings" in January and February if electricity generators did not have enough gas to meet demand, especially if there is a period of cold weather.

His comments were made at the Financial Times's Energy Transition Summit on Monday.

Comment: Or, like France, for those with smart meters, who do not make the right choice, they will simply have their boilers shut off remotely by the government: France to shut off household smart water heaters REMOTELY to avoid blackouts as nuclear reactors remain offline and energy prices spike 28%
BBC prepares secret scripts for possible use in winter blackouts

The scripts, seen by the Guardian, set out how the corporation would reassure the public in the event that a "major loss of power" causes mobile phone networks, internet access, banking systems or traffic lights to fail across England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland would be unaffected because its electricity grid is shared with the Republic of Ireland.

The public would be advised to use car radios or battery-powered receivers to listen to emergency broadcasts on FM and long-wave frequencies usually reserved for Radio 2 and Radio 4.

One draft BBC script warns that a blackout could last for up to two days, with hospitals and police placed under "extreme pressure".

Another says: "The government has said it's hoped power will be restored in the next 36 to 48 hours. Different parts of Britain will start to receive intermittent supplies before then."

It is understood they were written by BBC journalists as part of routine emergency planning to deal with hypothetical scenarios. They include local details for the different regions and nations of Britain.

In a national emergency, the BBC has a formal role in helping to spread information across the country, as part of the government's civil contingencies planning. The broadcaster's governance framework states: "If it appears to any UK government minister that an emergency has arisen, that minister may request that the BBC broadcast or otherwise distribute any announcement or other programme."

The government works with the BBC as part of its emergency planning process, although it is unclear whether it had any input on these scripts. A spokesperson said: "The government is confident that this is not a scenario we will face this winter."

The BBC said it did not comment on its emergency broadcasting plans.

Ministers have been at pains to reassure businesses and householders that blackouts are unlikely.


It's actually the opposite, because, as it is, ministers have done nothing to shore up alternative supplies for the country.


On Monday, National Grid's chief executive, John Pettigrew, went further and said that if everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong, there could be rolling blackouts between 4pm and 7pm on "really, really cold" days in January and February, when wind speeds are too low to power turbines.

The BBC's draft scenario suggests that in a national blackout it would run a greatly reduced temporary radio service from the UK's emergency broadcasting centre, called the EBC, based in a rural location not acknowledged by the BBC.

This would provide half-hourly news bulletins on Radio 4's FM and long-wave frequencies and a "music service", with news updates on the FM spectrum used by Radio 2.

One scenario used in some of the scripts assumes that mains electricity is available in only a few lightly populated parts of Scotland - the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland, and some parts of the Highlands.

The draft scripts for on-air news bulletins include space for a quote from a Cabinet Office minister, given the fictitious name Jose Riera.

The scripts report that these blackouts would affect gas supply systems, and knock out mobile phone networks, cashpoints and internet access. Traffic lights would stop working, causing disruption on the roads.

One script, written for a hypothetical news bulletin, warns: "The emergency services are under extreme pressure. People are being advised not to contact them unless absolutely necessary."


Lockdowns are looking more and more like a dress rehearsal.


It states that in Wales an emergency coordination centre has been set up, while in Scotland the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is chairing the devolved government's emergency planning meeting. It adds: "Officials are saying there is no current risk to food supply and distribution. But they're asking people to look out for vulnerable neighbours and relatives."
That they're mentioning food shortages should be a cause for alarm. Although it shouldn't be surprising, because officials across the planet have been warning that our planet is facing food shortages of catastrophic proportions.

Note that this isn't the first warning that officials and industry bosses have given about looming blackouts in recent months, plus it makes sense logically, and so what would be more surprising is that the UK doesn't suffering some form of rolling blackouts this winter.


Syringe

Doctor urges Canadian Medical Association to investigate unusual death of 80 doctors since vaccine rollout

dead doctors
As time goes by, the death toll among Canada's medical professionals rises.

Dr. William Makis MD, a physician and cancer researcher wrote a letter to the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) on Saturday, requesting that they look into the sudden rise in mortality among Canadian medical professionals after the implementation of mandated vaccinations for medical personnel.

Dr. Makis also called to put an end to all COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Canadian healthcare.