Judge allows Alex Berenson suit against Twitter

Twitter loses bid to toss Alex Berenson lawsuit | Politico - Susannah Luthi:

May 5, 2022 - "A federal judge on Friday gave the green light for an independent journalist’s lawsuit against Twitter to proceed — a blow to the social media giant, which had tried to get the case dismissed. But U.S. District Judge William Alsup dismissed the free speech claims made by independent journalist Alex Berenson.... The case won’t challenge Big Tech’s Section 230 shields, but it could still test Twitter’s power to banish users from the site as Elon Musk moves to take over the company following his $44 billion purchase.

"Berenson, a vocal critic of the government’s pandemic response, sued Twitter after the company kicked him off the site for describing Covid vaccines as an advance therapeutic with risky side effects. The complaint got its first preliminary hearing in a San Francisco federal court on Thursday....  Alsup focused his ruling on Berenson’s allegations that the company changed the ground rules on the content Twitter would allow on its platform, despite assurances from an executive that his posts weren’t up for censorship.

"'Collectively, these actions plausibly qualify as a clear and unambiguous promise that Twitter would correctly apply its COVID-19 misinformation policy and try to give advance notice if it suspended plaintiff’s account,' Alsup wrote in his decision. He also noted that “[a]ny ambiguities in a contract like Twitter’s terms of service are interpreted against the drafter, Twitter.'

"However, he deemed that Section 230’s powerful protections are broad enough to shield twitter from Berenson’s other claims — including the complaint that the company violated his First Amendment free speech rights. 'For an internet platform like Twitter, Section 230 precludes liability for removing content and preventing content from being posted that the platform finds would cause its users harm, such as misinformation regarding COVID-19,' Alsup wrote."

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/30/twitter-loses-bid-to-toss-alex-berenson-lawsuit-00029131

Alex Berenson on substack.

Long Covid associated with beliefs, not antibodies

Mind over matter? Long Covid study sparks controversy | MedicalXpress: 

November 12, 2021 - "A large-scale French study suggesting symptoms of so-called long COVID may be more due to psychological factors than to infection with the virus has sparked debate among patients and scientists. The report that appeared earlier this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association focused on nearly 27,000 participants across France who took antibody tests to screen for COVID infection. After the subjects had received the antibody test results, researchers asked them whether they believed they had been infected with COVID and to report on symptoms like fatigue, breathlessness or impaired attention.

"The vast majority of respondents — over 25,000 people — tested negative for COVID antibodies and believed they had never been sick. Of the some 1,000 who tested positive, about 450 believed they had contracted the virus. Finally, about 460 people who received negative antibody tests said they nonetheless believed they had had COVID.

"Researchers found that people who believed they had had COVID, whether or not they had had a positive test, were more likely to report long-term symptoms. A positive antibody test, meanwhile, was only consistently associated with one long-term symptom: loss of smell. They concluded that persistent physical symptoms 'may be associated more with the belief in having been infected with SARS-CoV-2 than with having laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection'.

"The study coordinated by Cedric Lemogne, head of psychiatry at the Hotel-Dieu hospital in Paris, suggested the findings were important in order to allow research into other causes of the symptoms. 'A medical evaluation of these patients may be needed to prevent symptoms due to another disease being erroneously attributed to "long COVID",' it said."

Read more: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-11-mind-covid-controversy.html

Long Covid doesn't exist, volume one zillion | Substack - Alex Berenson:

November 10, 2021 - "The Journal of the American Medical Association has another stunning paper out ... on post-Covid symptoms.... Researchers asked people to report whether they had had Covid and whether they had any of 18 lasting symptoms like insomnia, fatigue, or cough. They found that self-reported Covid was very strongly associated with nearly every symptom. 

"But the scientists ... also ... compared self-reported symptoms in people with antibodies — that is, people who had actually been infected and recovered from Covid — to the general population. And they found no difference in almost any symptom. Covid was not a risk factor for chest pain, or breathing difficulties, or trouble focusing, or stomach pain, or any of the many, many other complaints that long Covid 'patients' and interest groups say are real. There was one interesting exception; people with Covid antibodies did have a much higher rate of anosmia, losing one’s sense of smell. Because anosmia is a known and lasting side effect, it serves as a useful control of sorts.

"The researchers also found that almost 60 percent of the people with antibodies HAD NO IDEA THEY HAD EVEN HAD COVID AT ALL. Meanwhile ... more than half the people who said they had had Covid had no antibodies.... The study strongly suggests that many people are using previous Covid diagnoses — either real or imagined — to help explain away common physical symptoms such as joint pain or cough. It also suggests that actually being infected [with] Covid is far less risky than thinking you have been infected with Covid for many people..... 

"This study should slow, if not stop, the rush to medicalize long Covid. It is yet more proof that the illness is a group of squishy (if painful and difficult) symptoms looking for a name - and more importantly a billing code. But so many patients and physicians and public health experts are now invested (in some cases literally) in making long Covid real that the gravy train will likely roll on."

Read more: https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/long-covid-doesnt-exist-volume-one

Read study: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2785832

Lockdown of the unvaccinated in Lithuania

Lithuania Launches EU Vaccine Passport to Facilitate Travel | Shengen Visa News: 
June 8, 2021 - "Lithuania has facilitated the travel process for all vaccinated people against the Coronavirus by issuing EU vaccination passports.... Approximately 300,000 Lithuanian residents who either have had the virus or have been vaccinated can obtain the digital certificate.... Based on the current rules imposed by Lithuania’s government, travellers are exempted from additional restrictions upon their arrival if they:

• received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine
• two weeks after they have taken the second dose of the Moderna vaccine
• about two weeks after they received the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine
• two weeks after they got vaccinated with the only doze of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine

"Exempted from the restrictions are also people who have fully recovered from the virus if the period from the confirmation of their COVID-19 test result does not surpass 180 days. If people do not follow the requirements mentioned above, they will be obliged to present a negative result of the Coronavirus test, not older than 72 hours, upon their arrival in Lithuania. In addition, they will be obliged to comply with quarantine requirements."
Read more: https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/lithuania-launches-eu-vaccine-passport-to-facilitate-travel/

Lithuania makes COVID pass mandatory for citizens to enter malls, marketplaces | Republic World - Anurag Roushan:
September 14, 2021 - "On September 13, Lithuania made it mandatory for its citizens to obtain national COVID-19 certificates in order to avail certain services. People who have recovered from COVID in the last 180 days, have tested negative for coronavirus, or have been fully vaccinated are eligible for the 'Opportunity Pass,' according to Xinhua news. It further stated that the Digital COVID Certificate issued by the European Union is also valid. People without such certifications will be prohibited from entering non-essential goods stores, major shopping malls, and marketplaces larger than 1,500 square metres. They would also be barred from beauty salons, gyms, and events with more than 500 attendees. People without national certificates, on the other hand, will still be permitted to visit stores and markets that offer food, veterinary products, animal feeds, pharmacies, as well as stores that sell vision correction products, orthopaedic products, fertilisers, seeds and plants...

"Lithuania began issuing the EU's COVID pass on June 7. With more stringent regulations, the government intends to encourage higher immunisation rates in the country." 
Read more: https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/europe/lithuania-makes-covid-pass-mandatory-for-citizens-to-enter-malls-marketplaces.html

Lithuanian news websites delete public comments to prevent COVID-19 misinformation | Euronews - AFP:
October 21, 2021 - "Lithuania's largest news outlets will remove public comments from their websites to combat COVID-19 misinformation. The organisations announced on Wednesday that viewers would not be able to publish anonymous comments on stories about COVID-19.... 'We are showing solidarity with the state and society in the joint effort to neutralise the misinformation spread by anti-vaxxers,' said Arnas Marcinkus, president of the Lithuanian Online Media Association. 'The success of the vaccination campaign must be our common cause, without excluding the government or the media,' he told AFP.

"Around 71% of adults in Lithuania have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 – a higher rate than in many neighbouring countries in Central and Eastern Europe. But cases of infection have increased in recent days, which prompted the government to impose further restrictions in September."
Read more: https://www.euronews.com/2021/10/21/lithuanian-news-websites-delete-public-comments-to-prevent-covid-19-misinformation

Lithuania vaccinated ~75% of its adults and instituted a very strict vaccine pass program … | Substack - Alex Berenson:
October 23, 2021 - "For months, Lithuania – once the home of peaceful and surprisingly effective resistance to Soviet tyranny – has engaged in increasingly strict medical fascism. Adults who refuse the Covid vaccine are essentially barred from work, shopping, and public life. Even food shopping and visits to doctors are difficult. Violators face hefty fines.... And the restrictions have worked – to raise vaccination levels, that is. About three in four Lithuanian adults are fully vaccinated, more than the United States and well ahead of most other Eastern European countries.

"Now Lithuania is seeing the rewards! Covid cases and deaths have fallen basically to zero....

"Wait… I think I cut the chart too soon. Hate it when that happens. Here’s the right one....

"3,000 new cases as of yesterday? 100 times the level in July? The equivalent of more than 350,000 in the United States? This can mean only one thing, citizens of Lithuania: You have abused your freedom. Obviously it’s time to tighten the restrictions!"
Read more: https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/lithuania-vaccinated-75-of-its-adults

New cannabis book called "Reefer Madness 2.0"

Alex Berenson’s Tell Your Children is wrong on marijuana, psychosis, and violence - Vox - German Lopez, Future Perfect:

January 14, 2019 - "Alex Berenson’s Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence ... [has] gotten widespread favorable coverage in CNBC, the New Yorker, Mother Jones, and the Marshall Project, and landed op-eds from Berenson about his findings in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"His central argument is best summarized in a few brief lines later in the book: 'Marijuana causes psychosis. Psychosis causes violence. The obvious implication is that marijuana causes violence.'

"I could have found this argument persuasive.... I’ve written about how there are risks to marijuana that are worth taking seriously, even if one thinks that legalization is ultimately a better policy than prohibition.... But as I read Berenson’s book, it was impossible to escape that, while a compelling read written by an experienced journalist, it is essentially an exercise in cherry-picking data and presenting correlation as causation.....

"In one example, he cites a recent, massive review of the evidence on marijuana’s benefits and harms from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, claiming the report, on the link between marijuana and psychosis, 'declared the issue settled.' But I read the report and wrote about it for Vox when it came out.... [T]he National Academies’ report was extremely careful, cautioning that marijuana’s — and marijuana addiction’s — link to psychosis 'may be multidirectional and complex.' Marijuana may not cause psychosis; something else may cause both psychosis and pot use. Or the causation could go the other way: Psychotic disorders may lead to marijuana use, perhaps in an attempt to self-medicate....

"'In certain societies,' the report noted, 'the incidence of schizophrenia has remained stable over the past 50 years despite the introduction of cannabis into those settings'.... Berenson doesn’t mention any of this. He cites only the parts of the report that are favorable to his thesis....

"And this is representative of the book as a whole.... [T]he further I got into the book, the more it seemed like Berenson was imitating the strategy he’d meant to mock. Tell Your Children is Reefer Madness 2.0.

"There are concerns about marijuana and how legalization is playing out. As the National Academies’ report makes clear, there is still a lot about cannabis that we just don’t know, including its harms and benefits.... But Berenson’s book, with its sensationalist claims and shoddy analysis of the evidence, doesn’t genuinely address those concerns. Tell Your Children claims to inform its readers of the 'truth' about marijuana, but it instead repeatedly misleads them."

Read more: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/14/18175446/alex-berenson-tell-your-children-marijuana-psychosis-violence
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