Excess Mortalities

 Dr. Campbell has to speak carefully here due to censorship, but the implications are concerning.

Vaccines at this point look more dangerous than Covid.

British Data on Excess Deaths

 

Confirms what Germany is saying ...

A Scary Thought

 

The evidence is beginning to look damning: that the COVID vaccines were actually more dangerous, for most of us, than the virus itself.

This explains why many governments, including that of Canada, suddenly around last September became insistent that everyone must be vaccinated, and imposed vaccine mandates even on truckers  There was no medical case for this, even if the vaccines worked and were safe. All that was needed was to vaccinate the most vulnerable. It was an otherwise unnecessary violation of human rights.

I assume they knew by about September, if not before, that herd immunity was not possible through vaccination, that the vaccines did not prevent the virus's spread, and that the vaccines were riskier than advertised. Up to t his point, pushing the vaccine on everyone might have been an innocent mistake. The responsible thing to do then would have been to pull back on the vaccination program. But then they risked being held to account for all those who died unnecessarily due to the vaccine.

Rather than intake their lumps. the safer political path was to try to force everyone to vaccinate, to hide the terrible reality that people who were vaccinated were dying at a higher rate than people who were not vaccinated. This would also explain why Trudeau called a snap election in the middle of a pandemic, which the public saw as unnecessary. It was to get a solid mandate before the truth came out.

No wonder they react so badly to any mention of the Nuremberg Code. No wonder they resorted to the Emergency Act. No wonder they have suddenly gone so authoritarian. They figure if and when this hits the fan, they are in big trouble. They are like burglars doubling down by trying to kill the witnesses...

A frightening thought, but it does seem to explain the facts at a time when government actions otherwise seem bizarre.

"This Has Just Destroyed Faith in Authority"

 

Not a radical voice or a conspiracy theorist. Heretofore generally a supporter of medical and government authority.

Ivermectin Works After All?

 

"One of the huge scandals of this epidemic."

Note that: "one of..."

A Journal of the Plague Year--Er, Decade

 

It's probably of little interest, but on my afternoon walk today, in this Toronto neighbourhood, absolutely nobody I passed was wearing a mask. One guy looked at me knowingly (I was not wearing a mask either) and said hi; as if we knew each other. A few weeks ago everyone would be wearing a mask.I think ordinary people are quietly expressing their feelings in this way. 

Were Lockdowns Effective?

 

Recognizing Dr. Campbell's reservations, lockdowns might have been worthwhile at the start--but it seems clear from this study they are no longer.

Up She Goes!

 

A Journal of the Plague Decade

 

The amount of empty shelving at the local supermarket has become alarming. Picking up weekly needs has become hit and miss. For a time I was trying to make up the difference by visiting two or three supermarkets a week. But with Omicron raging, and of uncertain potency, I’m not sure it is worth it any longer. My estimate is that the weekly food bill has gone up 30%.

A Depressed World

 

The problem faced by governments now is a good model of what depression is all about. Not a “mental illness,” but a rational reaction to there being no good options available.

The Covid lockdowns are causing increasing economic devastation. The attempt to keep everyone afloat financially through them is causing increasing inflation. Government debt has piled up to the point that governments cannot afford measures to fight inflation. And yet, just as the end seemed again in sight, here we have another wave of the virus, more virulent and, as far as we can tell so far, as deadly. And resistant to the vaccines. If we do nothing, many may die, and we will have just the sort of chaos in the health system we wanted to avoid all along. As if all our effort until now was for nothing—we might as well have gone ahead and let the original virus spread. 

And whatever the governments do, they are going to get blamed for the situation. They will be told they should have done the opposite.

And we have seen hopes dashed repeatedly. We thought we could end it all with the vaccines. Just as we seemed poised to have the virus under control, the Alpha variant popped up; and then the Delta variant. After Omicron, there may be yet another variant, and another wave.

This is just how depression develops—false dawns, hopes repeatedly dashed, and in the end, no good options. Blamed for whatever you do.

This most naturally comes about in a family situation in which a parent has made one or more child the scapegoat.

But here we see it happening naturally. My wife suggested, “It is as if God hates us.” And that is just what it looks like: like the situation of the hated child.

So You Thought It Was Over?

 

Is there really a bat in here?

Two bits of troubling information on Covid. First, confirmation that people who have previously had Covid can be reinfected with the Omicron variant. Second, 80% of a sampling of white-tail deer have or have had Covid. So Covid now has an “animal reservoir” from which to re-emerge forever in new variants, even if we eliminate it in the human population.

Pandora’s box is well and fully open now. 

But as with Pandora’s box, one hope remains: that Omicron will be milder in its effects.

Hopeful News--or at Least, Hopeful Thought

 

While initial reports of the new Omicron variant of Covid were alarming, the news has more recently looked a little brighter. The South African doctor who first detected the strain says she has only seen mild cases. 

If Omicron is extremely contagious yet causes only mild symptoms, it may actually work like a vaccine, quickly inoculating large populations. 

Here’s hoping…

Armageddon Nervous

 

The news is coming in fast right now--about the new Omicron variant of COVID. It sounds as though it is far more virulent than the previous strains, as contagious as anything we’ve ever seen. Just when it looked as though we were about to come out of the pandemic, down we go again. I first heard of the new variant yesterday. Today, it is already reported from seven African countries, Belgium, Israel, Hong Kong, and South Korea. Hospitalizations in one South Africa province have doubled in the past day. The New York Times is running live updates.

Speculation is that it may be able to bypass the vaccinations, since it has mutated significantly. Nobody is prepared to say yet whether it is more or less deadly than previous strains. One doctor says lockdowns are not going to do much against this one.

Meantime, yesterday the abstract of a study was released suggesting that the mRNA vaccines significantly increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Stock markets are taking a hit.

It begins to feel as though we are in a downward spiral. It reminds me of the pace of Orson Welles’s radio version of War of the Worlds.

Ivermectin--or Something

 

We may be seeing the end of the virus...

It's the Herd's Fault

 

There seems to me to be a certain illogic in the insistent demands, by, for example, Justin Trudeau, that everyone get vaccinated. What is the premise here? 

There is probably a legitimate concern that the unvaccinated, if they all get sick, could overload the ICUs and the health system. Fair point—fifteen days to slow the spread. But aren’t the fifteen days up yet?

Beyond that, if the vaccines work, those who are vaccinated need not care whether the next person is vaccinated. If the vaccines do not work, why get vaccinated? 

If the failure by many to get vaccinated causes a “fourth wave,” those falling sick are presumably those who have chosen not to get vaccinated. Their bodies, their choice.

This is an oversimplification; the common claim currently is that those who have been vaccinated do run some risk of catching COVID, probably in a mild form. Still, we do not take such extreme measures against the flu or the common cold. 

I do not object to vaccine passports. I do not fear they are a wedge to take away our freedoms. Temporary suspensions of basic rights have happened in the past; in war, for example. Our historical experience has been that these do not endure beyond the emergency. In any case, is a vaccine passport really a greater intrusion on one’s rights than a driver’s license?

But do we really need them?

Perhaps the idea is to achieve “herd immunity”: get there, and the virus should die out. Unfortunately, the consensus is apparently growing among top doctors that, with the more virulent strains we now face, herd immunity is no longer possible. If perhaps 70% vaccinated was necessary for the original strain, the Delta variant is perhaps a hundred times more contagious. That puts the herd immunity threshold beyond the realistically possible—and for all we know, a more contagious form is going to appear. Reports are that one has emerged in South Africa that is twice as transmissible as Delta. The very fact that a fourth wave is gathering despite the high levels of vaccination in Canada, the eUK, or Israel tends to demonstrate that “herd immunity” is no longer a viable goal.

My suspicion is that leading politicians are so insistent that everyone get vaccinated because they need a scapegoat for the continuing high number of cases. If they do not focus attention on this scapegoat, people are likely, fairly or unfairly, to start blaming them. I fear they have a tiger by the tail: they cannot leave the restrictions in place forever. Yet they cannot drop all the restrictions and let infection rates rise without people questioning why the restrictions were there in the first place. 

The Delta Variant Hits the Philippines

 

Not seeing anything about it in the international news, but my wife, who is on the ground, is reporting a dangerous surge in hospitalizations due to COVID in and around Cebu in the Philippines. These photos are taken outside two local hospitals within the past two days.

She is thankfully fully vaccinated. But she has stocked up on food, fearing a general lockdown or a collapse of supply chains. The vaccination rate in the Philippines is still quite low.

UK OK?

 

It looks as though Britain may be the first nation to achieve herd immunity to COVID. And it was not all that painful. England opened up on July 19. Cases soared. But deaths did not. Now, the rate of infection has begun falling as quickly as it rose—and in the UK, the reporting system is very good. There might be a new spike in the fall; there might be some new variant. But thiis looks promising. Past drops seemed to reflect measures like lockdowns, masking, and vaccines. This time, most folks are already vaccinated, and other measures have been mostly removed. What else but growing herd immunity could be causing it?

A Dog Not Barking

 

Isn't it surpassingly strange that India, where the Delta variant began, has seen a sharp decline in infections, despite the fact that few have been vaccinated? While in the UK, where a high proportion have been vaccinated, the incidence of the Delta variant just keeps going up, now far higher than it was in India even at the peak? And isn't it strange that nobody comments on this?

The obvious reason is that India began unrestricted use of Ivermectin as a prophylactic. And the evidence seems to be that this cheap and common medicine is actually better protection against COVID-19 than a vaccination.

But on the down side, the profit margin is low ...

What Might Have Been

 

Canada is now expecting enough vaccines by the end of July to vaccinate every Canadian twice.

What a pity that the CNE has been cancelled for this summer. Coming in the third week of August, it would be timed perfectly to celebrate full vaccination and an end to the pandemic. At a minimum, adults could be asked for proof of vaccination in order to enter, and it might have served as that last push to get stragglers vaccinated. Indeed, why not a government-funded free day pass to the CNE for those vaccinated? It would be the perfect way to celebrate the end of the pandemic, just before everyone had to get back to school and batten down hatches for another winter. And a way to help the CNE recover from the financial damage of having to stay closed last summer.

Such an opportunity missed…

A Shot in the Arm

 

Got the Pfizer vaccine, first dose, yesterday—Easter Sunday.

No detectable side effect so far. Not even an aching arm.

I figure in three weeks, round about April 25, I will have substantial immunity, and need not worry about being out and about. Masking and distancing still, but only for the sake of others’ peace of mind.

Surprised to learn now that my cousins, all but one of whom are younger than I, have all already had their second dose of Pfizer. How can that be? I’ve been keeping close tabs, and got mine as soon as I was eligible.

I think it must be because they have their Indian cards. Racial preferences; or, put more frankly, racial discrimination. My own second shot, although older and with a couple of comorbidities, is not slated until the end of July.

It might make sense to rush-vaccinate people living on reserves, based on higher infection rates. Online, I see claims that infection rates on reserves are 187% of the national average. On the other hand, the fatality rate is much lower—less than half. As a matter of fact, as of August, the story was that the rate of COVID, too, was much lower on reserves than in the general population: only 25% of the national average.

Whatever is happening currently on reserves, shouldn’t the risk be greater in urban settings, where people are closer together? Are matters worse on reserves than in other poor communities, or is the issue just poverty? In any case, my cousins are prosperous and indistinguishable from their urban neighbours. The different treatment seems based not on any scientific or humanitarian justification, but purely racial preference.

We are creating different classes of citizenship in Canada based on race.