Tag: pandemic

Ohio’s Vaccine Lottery Didn’t Increase COVID-19 Vaccination Rate, Study Says. Governor Disputes.

Many states offered incentives for residents to get the COVID-19 vaccine when it became available to anyone over the age of 16. One of the most well-known incentives was found in Ohio, which created a Vax-A-Million lottery that would enter people who obtained the COVID-19 vaccine into a lottery for $1 million. Children who were vaccinated would be entered into a drawing for a full-ride scholarship to attend one of Ohio’s state universities.

But a new study suggests the lottery didn’t increase the state’s vaccination rate any more than states that did not offer a similar lottery, Fox 8 reported. The study, conducted by Boston University’s School of Medicine, compared vaccination rates in Ohio with some states that offered no such incentive. It found that Ohio did see an increase in vaccinations after the lottery was announced – but other states saw a similar spike around the same time because the eligibility for the Pfizer vaccine was expanded to include those added 12 to 15.

Dan Tierney, spokesperson for Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH), suggested the study was flawed for focusing on the expanded age group. Tierney said the state had already removed the younger age group when it compiled data on the lottery in order to tout its success.

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HHS Secretary Becerra: ‘It Is Absolutely The Government’s Business’ To Know Who’s Been Vaccinated Against COVID-19

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra fired back at critics of the Biden administration’s plan to go door-to-door promoting the COVID-19 vaccine by insisting that it is “absolutely the government’s business” to know who has gotten the shot.

The Biden administration announced, earlier this week, that they would be putting together “strike forces” charged with going “door-to-door” to convince vaccine-hesitant populations to get the jab. Speaking to a press conference, Biden touted the plan as a community-by-community public health push: “Now, we need to go to community-by-community, neighborhood-by-neighborhood, and oftentimes, door-to-door — literally knocking on doors — to get help to the remaining people protected from the virus.”

But the plan met with sharp, swift criticism on social media and from Republican legislators, who blasted the Biden administration for believing it is the government’s job to check up on people’s private healthcare decisions.

“How about don’t knock on my door,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) fired back at the president Tuesday night. “You’re not my parents. You’re the government. Make the vaccine available, and let people be free to choose. Why is that concept so hard for the left?”

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New South Wales bans church singing due to COVID – even over Zoom

Another example of Australia’s sometimes draconian Covid restrictions has come to light in reports that say the authorities in New South Wales have banned singing in churches – even if it is for the purpose of being live streamed to a physically distant congregation.

The current rules have been in force since June 26 and are meant to last two weeks amid a fresh round of lockdowns. The Public Health Order states that, “singing by audiences at indoor shows or by congregants at indoor places of worship are not allowed.”

The thinking behind banning singing among groups of people is that the virus is transmitted faster than through the act of speaking; however, the fact that singing on Zoom, i.e., to a camera is also banned, has left some church leaders in Australia upset with the decision.

The New South Wales order, shared with religious leaders in an email, says that the purpose is to protect those who “may be involved in assisting in live streaming,” and also those who “may be in regional communities attending a service.”

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Spain’s Proposed ‘National Security Law’ Would Allow Seizure Of Citizens’ Property During Health “Crisis”

The prominent Spanish daily El País is reporting a hugely alarming scenario in which Spain’s central government is mulling a national mobilization and “security law” which would compel citizens to “temporarily” give up their rights in instances of future public health crises or emergencies such as happened with the coronavirus pandemic.

The law is currently at the level of a mere proposal but worrisomely it would elevate matters of public health to the level of ‘national security’ – as El País spells out based on a translation of its reporting: “Any person of legal age shall be obliged to carry out the ‘personal obligations’ required by the competent authorities, following the guidelines of the National Security Council, when a state of crisis is declared in Spain. In this case, all citizens without exception must comply with the orders and instructions issued by the authorities.“

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The Great Big ‘Delta’ Scariant

Why the Delta scare?

As a virus mutates, it becomes more contagious and less lethal. And then eventually it mostly disappears. Many voices claim that Delta will be with us for a very long time, but we should be so lucky. It’s way more likely that it will soon be followed by a next variant that will in turn become dominant. And more contagious and less lethal.

And no, that’s not because of unvaccinated people, or at least there’s no logic in that. If most people are not vaccinated, the virus has no reason to mutate. If many people are, it does. So this CNN piece is suspect. Vaccinated people are potential variant factories, just as much, if and when the vaccines used don’t stop them from being infectious, as the present vaccines don’t, far as we know.

Unvaccinated People Are “Variant Factories,” Infectious Diseases Expert

Unvaccinated people do more than merely risk their own health. They’re also a risk to everyone if they become infected with coronavirus, infectious disease specialists say. That’s because the only source of new coronavirus variants is the body of an infected person. “Unvaccinated people are potential variant factories,” Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told CNN Friday. “The more unvaccinated people there are, the more opportunities for the virus to multiply,” Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said. “When it does, it mutates, and it could throw off a variant mutation that is even more serious down the road.”

“Even more serious”? Well, yes, it can become more contagious, but then it loses lethality. Maybe that’s what we want. Maybe we want a virus that everyone can be infected by, and build resistance to, without serious consequences. Maybe that’s even what we should aim for. And also, maybe that’s what we already have, with survival rates of 99.99% among most people.

And maybe, just maybe, a one-dimensional “solution” in the shape of an experimental vaccine is the worst response of all. Because it doesn’t protect from anything other than more severe disease, while unleashing potential adverse effects for decades to come in the inoculated. Maybe one dimension simply doesn’t cut it. Maybe we should not refuse to prevent people from becoming infected, or to treat them in the early stages of the disease.

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Florida Man Files Lawsuit Against CDC’s Mask Mandate in Supreme Court

A Florida man who frequently files on planes asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) mask requirements for public transportation, decrying the regulation as unconstitutional.

Lucas Wall appealed to the court on Tuesday and named the CDC, President Joe Biden, and other federal agencies as defendants in the case. Previously, he filed a lawsuit against seven airlines and alleged they engaged in discrimination against fliers who cannot wear face masks due to medical reasons.

“This Court has issued at least five emergency injunctive orders in the past seven months unequivocally holding that governments may not restrict First Amendment rights even in the name of fighting a pandemic,” Wall wrote in his Tuesday petition. Now, he wants the court to rule on whether other constitutional rights “can’t be suspended by the federal defendants because of COVID-19.”

Wall was ejected from the Orlando International Airport last month because he wasn’t wearing a mask, according to reports and video footage he posted online. In his previous lawsuit, Wall said he has a generalized anxiety disorder that makes it not possible to follow what he called an “improper, illegal, and unconstitutional” mandate on mask-wearing.

When he was ejected from the airport, Wall told Transportation Security Administration agents: “I refuse to comply with that,” reported the Washington Examiner, citing his video.

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New Normal Newspeak #1: “Herd Immunity”

Ever since the beginning of the “pandemic”, and its transition into the clear “New Normal” (or “Great Reset) agenda, the English language itself has become a battleground. Words and phrases are being stretched and twisted into new, bizarre or contradictory meanings, or weighted with implications that never existed before.

“New Normal Newspeak” is our attempt to catalogue these changes, and stop the real meaning of words being memory-holed forever.

Our first example is a very, very literal one.

The phrase “Herd Immunity” has existed for decades, and most of us had probably come across it at some point prior to March 2020. It had a clear meaning, which was available from (among other places) the World Health Organization website:

Herd immunity is the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection.”

However, after the “pandemic” hit, this erstwhile totally uncontroversial theory became the subject of fierce debate, and proponents of it suddenly found themselves described as “genocidal”.

It was at this point that the WHO changed their website, updating their definition of “herd immunity” to totally remove the concept of “natural immunity”:

‘Herd immunity’, also known as ‘population immunity’, is a concept used for vaccination, in which a population can be protected from a certain virus if a threshold of vaccination is reached. Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it.

You can check their old site through the wayback machine, or with this screencap (in case the archive gets wiped)

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