40% of Covid deaths among vaccinated: CDC

Covid deaths no longer overwhelmingly among the unvaccinated as toll on elderly grows | Washington Post - Fenit Nirappil and Dan Keating: 

April 29, 2022 - "Unvaccinated people accounted for the overwhelming majority of deaths in the United States throughout much of the coronavirus pandemic. But that has changed in recent months, according to a Washington Post analysis of state and federal data. The pandemic’s toll is no longer falling almost exclusively on those who chose not to or could not get shots, with vaccine protection waning over time and the elderly and immunocompromised — who are at greatest risk of succumbing to covid-19, even if vaccinated — having a harder time dodging increasingly contagious strains.

"The vaccinated made up 42 percent of fatalities in January and February during the highly contagious omicron variant’s surge, compared with 23 percent of the dead in September, the peak of the delta wave, according to nationwide data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed by The Post. The data is based on the date of infection and limited to a sampling of cases in which vaccination status was known.

"As a group, the unvaccinated remain far more vulnerable to the worst consequences of infection — and are far more likely to die. 'It’s still absolutely more dangerous to be unvaccinated than vaccinated,' said Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at the University of California at Irvine who studies covid-19 mortality. 'A pandemic of — and by — the unvaccinated is not correct. People still need to take care in terms of prevention and action if they became symptomatic.'

"A key explanation for the rise in deaths among the vaccinated is that covid-19 fatalities are again concentrated among the elderly. Nearly two-thirds of the people who died during the omicron surge were 75 and older, according to a Post analysis, compared with a third during the delta wave. Seniors are overwhelmingly immunized, but vaccines are less effective and their potency wanes over time in older age groups. Experts say they are not surprised that vaccinated seniors are making up a greater share of the dead.... As more people are infected with the virus, the more people it will kill, including a greater number who are vaccinated but among the most vulnerable.

"The bulk of vaccinated deaths are among people who did not get a booster shot, according to state data provided to The Post. In two of the states, California and Mississippi, three-quarters of the vaccinated senior citizens who died in January and February did not have booster doses. Regulators in recent weeks have authorized second booster doses for people over the age of 50, but administration of first booster doses has stagnated.

"Even though the death rates for the vaccinated elderly and immunocompromised are low, their losses numbered in the thousands.... But experts say the rising number of vaccinated people dying should not cause panic in those who got shots, the vast majority of whom will survive infections. Instead, they say, these deaths serve as a reminder that vaccines are not foolproof and that those in high-risk groups should consider getting boosted and taking extra precautions during surges....

"Hospitals, particularly in highly vaccinated areas, have also seen a shift from covid wards filled predominantly with the unvaccinated. Many who end up in the hospital have other conditions that weakens the shield afforded by the vaccine. Vaccinated people made up slightly less than half the patients in the intensive care units of Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California hospital system in December and January, according to a spokesman. Gregory Marelich, chair of critical care for the 21 hospitals in that system, said most of the vaccinated and boosted people he saw in ICUs were immunosuppressed, usually after organ transplants or because of medications for diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. 'I’ve cared for patients who are vaccinated and immunosuppressed and are in disbelief when they come down with covid,' Marelich said."

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/04/29/covid-deaths-unvaccinated-boosters/

Read study: https://data.cdc.gov/Public-Health-Surveillance/Rates-of-COVID-19-Cases-or-Deaths-by-Age-Group-and/3rge-nu2a

Bill C11 lets gov't regulate content YouTube warns

YouTube says bill could cover user-generated content, despite minister's assurances | CP24 - Marie Woolf, Canadian Press:

May 4, 2022 - "YouTube has warned that cooking videos made in people's kitchens and other home videos could be regulated by an online streaming law, despite assurances from the heritage minister that this will not happen. Speaking publicly for the first time about Bill C-11, Jeanette Patell, head of government affairs at YouTube Canada, ... told the National Culture Summit in Ottawa that the bill's text appears to contradict Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez's public assurances that it does not cover amateur content.... 

"The online streaming bill, known in Parliament as Bill C-11, contains a clause excluding from regulation videos uploaded by a user for other users to watch. It is followed by qualifying clauses saying the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission can make regulations relating to 'programs,' which YouTube claims would give the regulator the discretion and scope to oversee a wide range of content, including home videos.

"Patell told the summit that if the government wants an 'option in the future' to regulate YouTube users' videos, 'that's a conversation we need to have.... It's incumbent on us to have clarity in the law,' she told the summit. Patell indicated that YouTube accepts that full-length professional music videos should fall within the bill's scope, but she said she wants the legal text of the bill to explicitly reflect the minister's insistence that amateur videos will be exempt.

"In February, when the bill was unveiled, Rodriguez said 'cat videos' or social-media 'influencers' would not be covered by it. A spokeswoman for the minister said the government has been very clear that user-generated content does not come within the scope of the bill and the text reflects that. 'We have been extremely clear.... Users and creators will not be regulated. Platforms are in, user-generated content is out,' said Laura Scaffidi.

"The bill would make online streaming platforms, such as Netflix, Spotify and YouTube, promote a certain amount of Canadian content and contribute financially to the Canadian cultural sector. It also gives the CRTC wider powers over digital platforms, so they are regulated along with traditional broadcasters.

"Patell said in an interview that the bill 'provides the CRTC the discretion to regulate user-generated content like a fan doing a cover song or someone making cooking videos in their kitchen or doing how-to-fix-a-bike videos.'"

Read more: https://www.cp24.com/news/youtube-says-bill-could-cover-user-generated-content-despite-minister-s-assurances-1.5888496

Covid in New Zealand (1): Why ZeroCovid failed

The Glorious Flop of New Zealand Virus Control | Brownstone Institute - Ian Miller:

February 26, 2022 - "An infuriatingly consistent aspect of the mainstream media’s COVID coverage was their determination to prematurely credit a country with a wildly successful set of policy interventions. While there has been no track record of universally accurate predictions or expectations, the desire to claim victory as far back as spring 2020 has led to subsequent embarrassments as trends change. 

"Naturally, New Zealand is no stranger to such untimely praise, with the BBC in July 2020 doing an in-depth look at how New Zealand became 'COVID free.' Of course, it was because New Zealand 'locked down early and aimed for elimination' and achieved 'effective communication and public compliance.'

"This is really the whole problem in a nutshell, isn’t it? Assuming that elimination was possible through effective communication, compliance and early lockdowns ignores the inevitably that COVID will eventually spread throughout the population, whenever you 'open up.' Elimination of COVID throughout the world is and always was impossible, and [the] assertion that COVID could be 'eliminated in certain countries' was inane and virtually impossible.

"So how successful has New Zealand been in eliminating COVID in the long term through effective communication, public compliance and early lockdowns? Well. The numbers speak for themselves. When the BBC wrote the article explaining New Zealand’s remarkable success in eliminating the virus, they were averaging 1.5 cases each day. It’s now 2,918 cases each day.... No matter what policy interventions they’ve added, no matter how many early lockdowns they’ve tried, COVID has not been eliminated.

"New Zealand’s amazing tracking and tracing system allowed them to identify transmission that could have only occurred via aerosols.... And recall how all of the pre-pandemic guidance on masking suggested that masks could not stop aerosols? Did that stop New Zealand from using mask mandates to try and continue their elimination goals? Of course not! The following are the currently enforced rules on face masks in New Zealand:  

• As a general rule, you should wear a face mask whenever you are indoors. The exceptions are at your home or your place of work if it is not public facing. Your employer may encourage you to wear a face mask even if your job is not public facing.
• When it is hard to physically distance from people you do not know, we encourage you to wear a face mask.
• Everyone must wear a mask that is attached to the face by loops around the ears or head. This means people can no longer use scarves, bandannas or t-shirts as face coverings.

"We know New Zealanders are complying because the BBC assured us that their success was due to population compliance, but the survey data backs that up as well: Mask wearing has been consistently high since the mandate came into effect in August, yet cases have exploded anyway.

"None of it has mattered. And this isn’t an insignificant increase. New Zealand’s now [as of February - gd] reporting more new cases adjusted for population than the United States, and identical numbers to the United Kingdom....

"[O]ver 88% of the population had received at least one vaccination dose in New Zealand by February 15th. The numbers are even more impressive when considering only those over 12 years of age..... 94% are fully vaccinated: Nearly 2.3 million people over 12 have been given boosters, roughly 53% of that entire population. Clearly those incredible rates of uptake must have been enough.... 

"Whenever you reference the dramatic failure of Australia or New Zealand to maintain 'zero COVID' lockdowns and 'elimination' strategies, adherents to the cult of inaccurate expertise will respond by claiming their goal was only to eliminate cases until widespread vaccination. By allowing for vaccines to blunt the impact of cases, these countries would prevent surges in hospitalizations. But ... Hospitalizations have risen dramatically since January and continue to rise significantly each day. News reports from New Zealand sound like those from any generic location in the US where local doctors report concerns of hospitals being overwhelmed:

"Authorities anticipate Omicron will become the predominant Covid-19 variant in New Zealand within just two to four weeks of it being introduced into the community – and hospitals are bracing to be 'swamped'. Dr John Bonning, a frontline emergency department doctor and immediate past president of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, said EDs were already under 'enormous duress'.

"So their elimination strategy did not prevent a dramatic increase in cases, nor a concerning, overwhelming surge of hospitalizations. And deaths, while thankfully still low, have increased in recent months as well:

"New Zealand’s supposed 'elimination' through their zero COVID policy has completely collapsed. Mask mandates, as their own research indicated, have not prevented surges. Elimination until vaccination has not prevented surges. Zero COVID has been an unmitigated failure, as any rational person would have known and suggested as far back as summer 2020.

"They’ve maintained an unearned sense of superiority, exemplified in this quote from the BBC’s story:

[one of New Zealand's top epidemiologists, Prof Michael Baker] says it is “a bit of a puzzle for us at a distance to understand why” with the UK’s extensive scientific expertise and health care, “you haven’t looked at the evidence and worked out a pattern like New Zealand’s”.

"That undeserved attitude can no longer be maintained. The policies that never had the slightest possibility of long term success, the policies that Fauci claimed could be successful in 'certain countries,' have turned into yet another example of the delusions of hubris.

"While many areas are lifting mandates, they’re doing so without acknowledging the underlying flaws in their strategy. Iceland’s health ministry summed up the inescapable reality of COVID while announcing an end to all restrictions:

“Widespread societal resistance to COVID-19 is the main route out of the epidemic,” the ministry said in a statement, citing infectious disease authorities. “To achieve this, as many people as possible need to be infected with the virus as the vaccines are not enough, even though they provide good protection against serious illness,” it added.

"Until they understand and accept those sentiments, there will always be excuses for politicians and public health officials to bring back their prized, ineffectual interventions. 

"New Zealand is the latest in a long list of countries to be hailed as showing the world the 'right' way to prevent surges; to keep COVID under control. But as with masks, vaccine passports and 'early' lockdowns, zero COVID never had a chance of working — despite the endless media and expert praise."

Read more: https://brownstone.org/articles/the-glorious-flop-of-new-zealand-virus-control/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Covid in New Zealand (2): The mandate era

New Zealand Used Selective Science and Force to Drive High Vaccination Rates | Brownstone Institute - J.R. Bruning:

Jacinda Ardern

April 26, 2022 - "[O]ver the last two years New Zealand’s Ardern government has designed policy, regulation, and information to coercively steward citizens to accept a drug under provisional consent.... [P]olicy endpoints required population-level uptake of novel technology, no matter whether the individual was at risk or not.... [D]ata production was contracted by the department intent on a 90% vaccination rate. For decades governments have promoted ‘evidence-based science’.... What we saw was internally produced and contracted science that focused on case rates, while ... the published scientific literature on vaccine risk, waning and breakthrough was ignored. 

"This produced a tightly controlled scope of knowledge production that then failed to adhere to long-established democratic and public health principles. Responsible risk governance requires that governments must be responsive to data that indicates a technology is not as effective or is possibly more harmful than estimated,– for a democratic government’s primary role is the protection and safety of all citizens. Technology must not be valorized, and uncertainty set aside, in order to achieve policy ends.... 

"Even though the clinical trials did not demonstrate that the vaccine prevented transmission and infection, the Government promoted ‘the jab’ as a way to protect families in the Unite Against Covid-19 campaign. Persistent reporting of case rates fostered a perpetual state of fear and uncertainty among the population, who perceived infection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus to be something more like Ebola. 

"The Ardern government’s intention for the entire population to get the mRNA vaccine was declared through the signing of a supply agreement. This intention was then embedded in policy and regulation via the Traffic Light system, designed to nudge the population over 12 into compliance. It was known by July 2021 that the vaccine waned and was leaky. Breakthrough infections were relatively common and for many. The clinical trials remain incomplete, lacking long-term safety data. The trials did not demonstrate that the vaccine prevented hospitalization and death. However, in April 2022 in New Zealand, mandatory vaccinations remain compulsory for border workers, and workers in health and disability; corrections; defence; Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) and Police. These professions must be vaccinated and have received a booster vaccination against COVID-19.... 

"Kiwis ‘must wear a face mask’ in retail businesses, on shared and public transport, in government facilities and when visiting a healthcare service. This is despite the fact that Omicron ripped through New Zealand in February. In the first week back at school and university after the summer holidays –the obedient mask-wearing young friends of my kids, including my son, from Otago and Canterbury down on the South Island up to the capital Wellington and Auckland – were locked down with Omicron in their first weeks back at university. No evaluation of Omicron and mask efficacy has been provided by the state.

"Government policy processes have persistently excluded uncomfortable knowledge that suggested uncertainty or risk. 

• First, the policy accompanying and justifying Covid-19 legislation and Orders, and modelling by the contracted institution Te Pūnaha Matatini (TPM) contained narrow reasoning central to the state’s claims, locking in the narrative that infection was the predicator of risk, modelling wave after wave of infection. 
• Second, policy supporting the legislation excluded consideration of age-stratified risk and failed to address common principles of infectious disease management embedded in the New Zealand Health Act. 
• Third, reviews of the scientific literature that could publicly identify and communicate risk relating to vaccine-related harm and issues relating to efficacy simply never occurred.... 

"The Government’s Covid-19 Unite campaign failed to communicate age-stratified risk of hospitalization and death as the pandemic evolved. New evidence on infection fatality rates were not reported to the public. In modelling papers, TPM used old infection fatality rate statistics that overestimated death rates. 

"The potential for the vaccine to wane or for breakthrough infection to occur was ignored in a major policy paper focussed on elimination and by the modellers at TPM. The role of natural infection in producing a broader, and protective structural response, assisting populations to shift to herd immunity status was downplayed. While herd immunity was recognized, testing and data modelling was undertaken to identify naturally derived herd immunity in the population. Later modelling exclusively associated herd immunity with vaccination.

"Perhaps the problems addressed here are not surprising, when most modelling was undertaken outside of New Zealand’s public health institutions. Instead, number-crunching was carried out by data analysts, mathematicians affiliated with TPM, with scarce few infectious disease epidemiologists trained in public health ethics participating. And of course, the science and data modelling were directly funded by the government departments and Ministries dedicated to over 90% vaccine compliance. 

"Global vaccination policies ignored the fact that infection-related risk always centered on the aged and infirm and those with complex multimorbid conditions. Disconcertingly, the clinical trial data had conceded that vaccine efficacy remained uncertain for the most at-risk of harm from Covid-19 – the immunocompromised, autoimmune and people who were frail, and those with inflammatory conditions.... In addition, as coronaviruses readily mutate, it was highly probable the vaccine would have a short shelf life....

"There was always a role for safe, established drugs with a long history of safe use that had undergone complete testing before launching onto the market. Early treatments could have been integrated as a major tool to prevent hospitalisation and death. Early treatments avoid the dilemma of mutating variants while acting to protect at-risk groups whose immune systems might not be as responsive to a vaccine. Conventionally doctors are at liberty to repurpose drugs for their patients, such as antivirals with a long history of safe use. However, in July 2021, the government locked in approved drugs for treatment. 

"From at least October, New Zealand doctors were instructed to ‘not use any other antiviral outside of a clinical trial’ while Medsafe warned against use of the safe antiviral Ivermectin for a respiratory virus.... These directives have fractured the practice of informed consent, which forms the basis of trust in the doctor-patient relationships. Even the New Zealand Medical Council, the organisation that grants licences to practice medicine, declared that there was ‘no place for anti-vaccination messages in professional practice.’ These actions may unwittingly undermine trust in vaccines and the doctor-patient relationship for years to come. The implications of silencing doctors, some who have had their medical licenses suspended, when observed alongside the above-mentioned data gaps, are extraordinary. 

"Ethical questions continue to be sidelined. The principle of proportionality, embedded in the 1956 Health Act, has been effectively dropped. Proportionality, which allows for individual risk, is a core consideration in public health. Medicine is a technology, and the space where biology meets technology – including medicine – is never constant, and requires value-based judgement. Risk management of a medical intervention for a pregnant woman, young person or child requires significantly different deliberation to a 75-year-old. 

"Since January 2020, a tsunami of rights-limiting has been rolled out purposefully and consistently. There was scant citizen consultation with public input limited to a few short days in most cases. The unprecedented barrage of rules and orders released by the Ardern government entrenched requirements for almost everybody to get the mRNA vaccine. 

"By mid-2021 – before most mandates – the scientific literature was revealing that the vaccine waned; that breakthrough infection occurred and that there was extensive evidence that it produced a wide range of side effects, and even death. This knowledge should have invalidated any workforce vaccine mandate, but instead by October, the state doubled down and locked in mandates and regulations that would legally and socially coerce most of the population over 12 into accepting the shot. 

"It’s probable that the mountain of legislation produced over the last two years never fulfilled democratic norms of accountability and transparency. For science in a pandemic to be harnessed to serve the public interest, the institutions that set those terms of reference must be guided by principles that protect health. The failure of government agencies to draw on peer-reviewed scientific literature while prioritizing internal modelling is clear from tracking the literature stored online with the relevant agencies. Most compellingly, it is documented in the policy supplied in support of the unprecedented quantity of law-making. 

"It appears that from late 2019, institutional interests anticipated that there would be hesitancy around vaccine safety. Yet there was no public forum. Instead, groups who sought to question the safety of the novel mRNA vaccine remained outside ‘accredited’ media, possibly due to the chilling effect of unprecedented Covid-19 funding and advertising boosts which effectively captured mainstream media. 

"That the New Zealand state mandated not-at-risk people accept a novel technology, creating rules (as nudge policies) that limited economic and social life for the non-vaccinated when there was early evidence the vaccine was leaky and potentially harmful, will take years to unpick. As mandates continue, injured groups continue to face barriers to justice following vaccine injury and death. Ultimately, practices such as this raise nagging doubts concerning the state’s capacity to honor broader obligations to protect health and the public interest in future emergency situations. New Zealand’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic serves as a case study – a precedent, for future health emergencies."

Read more: https://brownstone.org/articles/new-zealand-used-selective-science-and-force-to-drive-high-vaccination-rates/

A deeper dive on this discussion can be found in the paper, Covid-19 Emergency Powers and on Rumble.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Libertarians step up to run in Ontario election

Eric Cummings 

Eric Cummings is running for the Libertarian Party | Timmins Today:

May 2, 2022 - "Temiskaming Shores resident Eric Cummings has announced his candidacy for the upcoming provincial election as a candidate for the Ontario Libertarian Party in the Timiskaming-Cochrane riding. Cummings grew up in the Temagami area and has an education background in natural resource management and work experience in both the public and private sectors.

"He ... is an advocate for conservation and has sat on the Fisheries Management Zone 11 Committee and has been a long-time member/supporter of Ducks Unlimited Canada. In a news release he says he 'is adherent to the principles of the Ontario Libertarian Party, individual freedom, personal responsibility, respect, and fairness.'"
Read more: https://www.timminstoday.com/local-news/libertarian-party-candidate-enters-race-in-the-timiskaming-cochrane-riding-5318912

Ontario election officially on | Brantford Expositor - Michelle Ruby:

May 4, 2022 - "It’s election time in Ontario and races in Brantford-Brant and surrounding ridings are underway. In Brantford-Brant, six candidates are registered so far for the June 2 election, attempting to unseat incumbent Progressive Conservative Will Bouma, who is seeking his second term as MPP. They are Liberal Ruby Toor, Harvey Bischof for the NDP, Karleigh Csordas for the Green Party, Tad Brudzinski for the New Blue Party of Ontario and Libertarian Rob Ferguson.... 

"Ferguson served as the interim Libertarian party leader in 2019. He has been a candidate municipally, provincially and federally. In 2019, he withdrew from both the federal election and the leadership race for the Ontario Libertarian Party due to health reasons."
Read more: https://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/news/ontario-election-officially-on

Gventer seeks NDP nomination ahead of provincial election | Owen Sound Sun Times - Postmedia News:

May 3, 2022 - "Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound’s runner-up in 2018 ... Karen Gventer is seeking the local NDP nomination ahead of the 2022 Ontario general election.... If successful in the nomination bid, Gventer will join a field that includes Grey County Warden Selwyn Hicks, who is running for the Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Liberals. Rick Byers has been appointed by Ontario Premier Doug Ford as the Progressive Conservative candidate. Grey Highlands Coun. Danielle Valiquette is running for the Green Party, paralegal Suzanne Coles will represent the Ontario Party, while Great Lakes freighter engineer Dan Little runs for the Ontario Libertarian Party and Vince Grimaldi has entered the race for the New Blue Party of Ontario."
Read more: https://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/news/local-news/gventer-seeks-ndp-nomination-ahead-of-provincial-election-3

Provincial election: Who are the candidates? | Sudbury.com

May 5, 2022 - "With the Ontario Legislature dissolving yesterday, it’s official provincial election season in Ontario between now and voters hitting up polling stations on June 2. That is, in addition to the 10 days of advance voting that have been allowed this election season. Although candidates have until 2 p.m. on May 12 to file their nomination paperwork, the following are Greater Sudbury’s candidates as of today.... 

Sudbury.... 
Ontario Libertarian Party – Adrien Berthier....

"The Ontario Libertarian Party follows the libertarian mindset of independence from government and 'challenges the right of government to restrict trade in any way, or to force citizens to support through taxes projects they will not willingly support on the free market,' according to their website."
Read more: https://www.sudbury.com/local-news/provincial-election-who-are-the-candidates-5334765

Ontario Election Roundup: Who will represent ridings across Simcoe Muskoka | CTV News - Kim Phillips:

May 5, 2022 - "Campaigning is underway for the June 2 provincial election, with several familiar faces vying for a seat at Queen's Park....Here's a look at the candidates in Simcoe Muskoka and surrounding areas....

YORK-SIMCOE....
Zachary Tisdale - Libertarian."
Read more: https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/ontario-election-roundup-who-will-represent-ridings-across-simcoe-muskoka-1.5890687

Homeland Security sets sights on "disinformation"

New DHS Board Seeks To Counter What It Thinks Is Disinformation | Reason - Joe Lancaster:

April 29, 2022 - "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Wednesday that it had formed a new board meant to counter disinformation. According to the Associated Press, the so-called Disinformation Governance Board will focus, in part, on Russian disinformation campaigns. The board will be headed by Nina Jankowicz, a Wilson Center fellow who studies disinformation and technology.... Jankowicz has advocated for an anti-disinformation agency in testimony before the House's Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Regarding social media companies, she said that she 'would like to empower a new oversight body to make sure that there is transparency and that the platforms are doing their due diligence by their users.'

"But a government entity tasked with policing incorrect information online is both unlikely to succeed and also a potential threat to free speech.... Russian-affiliated entities did engage in influence campaigns targeting the 2016 presidential election. (The actual effectiveness of these efforts is far from certain.) But many politicians and pundits in the years since have painted their ideological opponents as Russian agents spreading Kremlin propaganda. Some, including sitting senators, have referred to contrarian takes on Russian actions as 'treasonous.' Even without a dedicated government entity, some politicians still tend to overprescribe the 'Russian disinformation' label.

"And there is reason to question Jankowicz's appointment. After being announced as the head of the new board, some of her past tweets resurfaced regarding her promotion of the idea that the story of Hunter Biden's laptop in October 2020 was a product of a Russian disinformation campaign. Indeed, at the time, Jankowicz referred to the official story—that then-candidate Joe Biden's son abandoned his laptop at a Delaware repair shop—as a 'fairly [sic] tale.'

"In fairness, there was plenty in that story to be suspicious about.... But despite the far-fetched details, The New York Times reported last month that the laptop's contents had been authenticated. And that is exactly why the idea of a 'disinformation' agency is so alarming: Multiple times, social media companies have responded to both public and political pressure to constrain users from sharing false stories that, with time, turned out to be either completely or partially true....

"On Thursday, Sen. Rob Portman (R–Ohio) issued a statement that he was 'deeply concerned' about the board: 'I do not believe that the United States government should turn the tools that we have used to assist our allies counter foreign adversaries onto the American people. Our focus should be on bad actors like Russia and China, not our own citizens.'

"On Wednesday, in announcing herself as the board's executive director, Jankowicz tweeted that she will seek 'to maintain the Dept's committment [sic] to protecting free speech, privacy, civil rights, & civil liberties.' But earlier this month, in an interview with NPR promoting her recent book on online harassment, Jankowicz told host Michel Martin, 'I shudder to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms, what that would look like for the marginalized communities all around the world… We need the platforms to do more, and we frankly need law enforcement and our legislatures to do more as well. And in other countries that are looking at this, you know, the U.K. has an online safety bill that's being considered right now where they're trying to make illegal this currently, quote, "awful but lawful content" that exists online where people are being harassed.'

"While a free and open internet may certainly facilitate abuse, it also represents one of the best ways for marginalized communities to offer and receive support. And it is not clear what she means by 'free speech absolutists,' but it is chilling that she then advocates for legislation to constrict speech that, while distasteful, is protected by the First Amendment. If Democrats lose the White House in 2024, it is not difficult to imagine a President Trump, President DeSantis, or President Haley getting to appoint his or her own Disinformation Governance Board, tasked with pressuring social media platforms to disallow information embarrassing to the administration.

"No government body should have the ability to determine what is and is not the truth, much less one headed by someone so hostile to free and unfettered speech."

Read more: https://reason.com/2022/04/29/new-dhs-board-seeks-to-counter-what-it-thinks-is-disinformation/

Disinfectant mania lives on in China

China is obsessed with disinfection against Covid. But is it causing more harm than good? | CNN - Simone McCarthy:

May 2, 2022 - "Hazmat suit-clad workers spraying clouds of disinfectant over city streets, building fronts, park benches and even parcels have become a common sight in pandemic-era China. In Shanghai, the epicenter of the country’s largest outbreak, state media report that thousands of workers have been organized into teams to disinfect areas.... Seemingly any outdoor area is at risk of being targeted by workers wielding leaf-blower-style disinfectant machines, as China’s rigorous 'zero-Covid' policy drives an obsession with sanitizing everything. In Shanghai, fire fighters have been plucked from their duties to take up roles as disinfectors, a local youth league has recruited volunteers for disinfection squads, and emergency rescue teams from far-flung parts of China have been enlisted in the drive – often strapping on heavy equipment and full hazmat.

"In some Shanghai neighborhoods, special chemical producing stations have been set up, while in others vehicles have been outfitted with chemical tanks and cannon-like devices to shoot disinfectant onto the streets, according to local media. Disinfection robots have been stationed at railway stations, and have been set up to patrol some quarantine centers. But these efforts – and others, like the insistence that workers wear hazmat suits and the blaring, recorded messages playing on loop reminding people of how to prevent the disease – may be a waste of time, effort and resources. Experts say transmission of the virus via contaminated surfaces is exceptionally low – and that sanitizing outdoor areas such as parks and city streets is largely pointless and worse still, could even pose a danger to public health.

"'The robots and street-spraying are performative acts designed to bolster public trust in government actions,' said Nicholas Thomas, an associate professor at City University of Hong Kong, who pointed to how Chinese authorities have long cited environmental contamination as part of their rhetoric that the virus may not have originated in China. 'It is a problem when politics dominates and diverges from the science of the pandemic response – more and more effort has to be placed on bolstering the politics through acts that do not necessarily increase the bio-safety of the affected populations to the same degree as the effort it requires to undertake them,' he said....

"In a science brief last year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said scientific studies suggest that each contact with a surface contaminated with Covid-19 has less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of causing an infection. Such research has prompted many to view an overt focus on disinfection as 'hygiene theater'.... According to Emanuel Goldman, a professor of microbiology at the Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School[:] '(It’s) highly unlikely that any cases result from touching contaminated surfaces. The virus dies quickly outside an infected person … and transfers very inefficiently by fingers.... Hand washing with soap, or alcohol hand wipes, is all you need to get the incidence down to zero'....

"[C]oncerns about contaminated surfaces date back to the early months of the pandemic, especially after Chinese officials said an outbreak at a market in Beijing likely began due to a worker being infected from handling imported, frozen salmon contaminated with virus.... This has lead to a raft of measures ... like testing the surfaces of imports for traces of virus and mass disinfection of frozen goods from overseas, while some cities have rolled out various orders to disinfect international mail and parcels.... And as Beijing has sought to reframe the narrative around the origin of the coronavirus, first detected in China, officials have pitched a theory that the virus could have been imported on frozen goods in the first place – a hypothesis broadly dismissed by international experts....

"In places like Shanghai, where resources are already stretched thin as the city struggles through a weeks-long lockdown, deploying volunteers and workers for disinfection purposes may put the focus on the wrong risk.... There can also be downsides to such work, according to Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School’s Goldman, who says that people can be harmed by exposure to harsh disinfection.... Earlier in the pandemic, a group of Chinese scientists warned in a letter to the journal Science that the over-use of chlorine disinfectants runs the risk of polluting water and even putting ecosystems in nearby lakes and rivers at risk. 

"There are signs of similar concerns from Shanghai authorities, even as they press on with disinfection measures. Late last month, officials put out recommendations for residents on how to disinfect, urging them against 'spraying disinfectants directly on people,' using 'can[n]on trucks” and drones, or disinfecting outdoor air.'These practices are essentially ineffective, and can cause health hazards and environmental pollution,” a Shanghai official said."

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/02/china/china-covid-disinfection-intl-hnk-mic/index.html