January…February…March…April…May…June…August…2020 here

This is a chronology not based on the date the information was published but based on the date I received it.

Those who accuse this site of hyperbole would have thought that even suggesting the possibility of half of what’s happening today just over a year ago was hyperbolic and paranoid. The sleep of subversive reason is spawning an epidemic of monsters.

It should be clear that I am not in accord with the ideological aspects of the content of many of the articles I link to.

I should also add that there may well be some inconsistency and contradictory information here. That’s because it’s extremely difficult to sift what is valid, what is speculation and what is manipulation. However, it seems more worthwhile trying to put forward some of what appears to be the more pertinent criticisms of what’s going on than remain silent before the overwhelming propaganda machine and wait a few years in order to be “correct” but too late. “The path toward simplicity is the most complex of all, and here in particular it seemed best not to tear away from the commonplace the tangle of roots which enable us to transplant it into another region, where we can cultivate it to our own profit. ” – here

29/7/21:

Google mandates ALL of its 130,000 employees to get vaccinated

Israel: vaccination authorised for 5-11 year olds

28/7/21:

France, Montpellier: Football fans against the Health Passport

“After more than a year away from the stadiums, the ultra supporters’ movement is faced with a terrible dilemma: return to the stands… provided they accept the health pass. Ultrasupporters (inspired by the Italian tifosi) have always fought against restrictions of freedom and against the registration of fans. This population, often caricatured by the media, has been a laboratory for repression techniques. Today, the two Montpellier groups, the Butte Paillade 1991 and the Armata Ultra 2002, take a clear position: “hold on and don’t give in”!

A line that is not at all obvious, since other groups have finally accepted to bend to the constraints, such as the Indians from Toulouse or the Lingon’s Boys from Dijon. Let’s remember that in the middle of the confinement, many ultras groups, notably from Montpellier, had shown their solidarity with the medical staff by organising a collection to support them. Today, the choice of a coherent and firm position in the face of unprecedented restrictions on freedom shows the way – let’s hope that other groups will follow suit.”

Translation of communiqué:

“We, the ultras of Montpellier, have decided not to bow down before the liberticidal measures engendered by the Health Passport. As a whole, we are neither “conspiracy theorists” nor conformists, neither anti- nor pro- vaccination. Over and above the political and financial considerations connected to Covid, we simply refuse putting in place an insidious dictatorship, the dictatorship of “it’s for your own good”. As ultras we have always fought against measures that we consider to be liberticidal. The health passport alone brings together the various abuses we have fought against over the years: restrictions on freedom of movement, filing, digital identification, mass surveillance. How can we, who have never agreed to show an identity document to enter a stadium, accept such measures to identify and classify people? As citizens we refuse: to access a personal pleasure, even if passionate; to legitimise measures that amount to a form of social credit. We want to show solidarity, and not get down on our knees, even if it means depriving ourselves of places of conviviality that we cherish we cherish like the stadium at Mosson. We will not support the development of a 2-speed society, with its pariahs and its Good Pupils. We hereby send a clear message to our sympathisers: stand firm and concede nothing. Our future freedoms, those of our children, are at stake. Let’s be realistic: such measures, if endorsed by the masses, will never be questioned, and will be considered as a new normal for decades. The virus of numeric and health control of people is a lot more dangerous than any “variant”. Let’s not pay for pseudo security with our freedom. In addition, we will be regularly present on the outskirts of the stadium in order to meet up in a warm atmosphere and maintain connections which unite us. Non-digital connections, real connections, at a single speed”

27/7/21:

France: Ministerial adviser promises “a shit life for the unvaccinated”

France: despite necessity of being vaccinated or having PCR test to enter discotheques, increasing clusters of Covid found there

France: some clear comments from a radical group

Translation:

Dictatorship, Work in progress, #2

19 July 2021

The sinister Laurent WAUQUIEZ wants to experiment with facial recognition devices in trains and stations in the Auverge-Rhône-Alpes region;
He wants to install 10,000 additional cameras in the region, develop “intelligent video protection” and experiment with innovative systems (biometric technology);
He wants to deploy “video protection” (sic) inside school and intercity buses and continue equipping regional trains with “real-time video protection cameras”.

Source : https://www.laquadrature.net/2021/07/16/lundi-prochain-laurent-wauquiez-veut-autoriser-la-reconnaissance-faciale-dans-les-trains-et-les-gares/
Dictatorship, Work in progress, #1

16 July 2021

Ban on going to shopping centres, restaurants, cafés, cinemas, sports halls and any other establishment open to the public (ERP) for people who do not have a health passport;
Six months’ imprisonment and a €10,000 fine for people inspected without their health passport in establishments open to the public;
Possibility for private sector bosses and public employers to suspend treatment and then to dismiss the refractory among the millions of employees now concerned by the compulsory anti-covid vaccination and/or health passport;
Mandatory isolation of those who test positive, with random checks by the police or gendarmerie

Source : https://www.ouest-france.fr/sante/virus/coronavirus/pass-sanitaire-vaccination-obligatoire-sanctions-l-avant-projet-de-loi-anti-covid-se-precise-17bfc5c1-f0b3-4053-9b41-82ce27fef479

This is not a dictatorship

16th July 2021

Democracy’, as we have known it since our childhood, is gradually disappearing and dying. Political liberalism is in its death throes and, under the pretext of a health crisis, a new regime is being set up. Yet no one says it, no one sees it, everyone pretends that nothing is happening and that, once covid has been defeated, we will return to the world of before. Journalists, the self-proclaimed watchdogs of democracy, are there to reassure us and, far from denouncing the incredible brutality of the current anti-democratic regression, they are pushing it to the limit.

One day we will have to realise that journalism, as it is practised in so-called democratic countries, is not an obstacle to the rise of totalitarianism but its instrument, and that as freedom retreats and tyranny takes hold, journalists change the definition of these terms in order to make people believe that we are still in a democratic and temperate state governed by the rule of law.

Thus, the criteria for freedom are systematically lowered and those for tyranny are raised. To use a metaphor, the thermometer is changed every time the temperature rises, to suggest that the temperature remains constant and that the regime has not changed its nature.

Whatever measures the regime takes, the “thermometer of democracy” that is journalism (but also the various “control” and “defence of liberties” bodies) will tirelessly indicate “Room temperature: 20 degrees; moderate regime, any comparison with non-democratic regimes prohibited”.

Indeed, for journalists, one does not resist a “democratic” regime and one does not contest its democratic character. For them, resistance is always in the past tense, or it only applies to those who claim to conjugate it in the present tense. They are the fascists, the conspiracy theorists, the populists, the negationists, who must all be lumped together. The “duty to remember”, as applied by the media-political class, only serves to consolidate the dominant order, presented as unsurpassable, democratic by nature and preferable to anything that may have existed in the past.

In the meantime, with new laws, new decrees and new technological applications, a new Leviathan is rising, gradually swallowing up our last freedoms and giving itself an overwhelming, immense, implacable power, such as no other state in history has ever had. The covid-stage of capitalism is the end of political liberalism and the entry into a new totalitarianism with a digital face. While journalists and “democrats” look the other way, we will denounce and analyse each step of the implementation of this new iron heel, in order to help overthrow what is in reality a colossus with feet of clay, built on our renunciations and resignations.

General text on situation from anarchists in Greece – Our dignity in quarantine

“Never let a crisis go to waste”

26/7/21:

France, Montelimar: hospital personnel on unlimited strike against compulsory vaccination for hospital staff

This is a CGT-led strike, been going for a few days now. Not very likely to lead to any victory, given their history. See this.

24/7/21:

Brazil, San Paolo: clashes as hundreds of thousand demonstrate throughout country against Bolsonaro’s handling of Covid

“Bolsonaro’s government is being harshly questioned by suspicions of corruption in the purchase of vaccines, which have been uncovered by the investigations being carried out by a Senate commission and which have put even the president himself under the eye of the Attorney General’s Office. The far-right leader’s denialism in dealing with the pandemic and the alleged corruption at the expense of covid have raised calls in Brazil for his impeachment, driven by the opposition. Huge banners with the slogans “Bolsonaro out!” “Vaccine for all now!” and “Bolsonaro genocidal” were the common denominator of the protests, which only registered acts of violence in Sao Paulo. At the beginning of the night, when the marches were already dispersing in the São Paulo capital, the police fired tear gas after being attacked with stones by a group of hooded men, who also destroyed the facade of a bank.”

France: minor clashes in Paris and Lyon on anti-health passport demos, as 100s of thousands demonstrate round the country in mid-holidays…and in Nancy

“During the rally, the police were also targeted. According to a source, they were targeted by projectiles including firecrackers and smoke bombs, but also by insults. The window of a pharmacy was also damaged, as well as the Covid-19 screening tent in front of it.”

Obviously it’s impossible to say how many demonstrated, but given the massive presence in the cities I’ve heard about, it’s clear that the media figure of 165,000 people demonstrating in 170 towns and cities throughout France is an absurd underestimate, even by traditional manipulative standards.

23/7/21:

Deepl translation of part of this article, including link to research, showing the uselessness of masks:

“Professor Ari Joffe of the University of Alberta in Canada describes in his study COVID-19: Rethinking the Lockdown – Groupthink (Joffe AR (2021) COVID-19 : Rethinking the Lockdown Groupthink. Frontiers in Public Health 9:625778. doi : 10.3389/fpubh.2021.625778) , on the disastrous effects of lockdowns, several cognitive biases, including:

Anchoring bias, which consists of preferring the initial hypothesis and ignoring evidence that refutes it;

Commitment escalation in which investments in a defined course of action are maintained, even in the face of evidence of better options, thus respecting previous decisions;

Superstition bias which postulates that action is better than non-action (even in the absence of evidence), as it reduces anxiety;

The present bias, which favours immediate benefits over even greater benefits in the future (measures that would prevent more deaths in the long term seem less attractive);

And the identifiable lives bias which includes the identifiable casualty effect (neglecting invisible death statistics, such as collateral victims of measures, reported at the population level) and identifiable cause and effect (prioritising efforts to save lives from a known cause, even if more lives were saved by alternative responses).

These various biases, among many others, seem to me to explain in part not only the steps taken by various governments, but also the establishment and maintenance of a certain narrative, one that has come to captivate an overwhelming majority of the population, not sparing even those with a scientific background.

Such prohibitive measures could never have been imposed without the construction of this narrative, which finds its foundation in a serious threat, relayed and amplified by the traditional media. The latter maintained it by morbidly disseminating daily figures of COVID-19 deaths, and subsequently figures of contaminations. The narrative thus gradually took hold by means of several methods, including the dissemination of a single message through all channels of communication, spreading through society in the form of doxa (or the set of opinions received without discussion, as self-evident, in a given civilisation – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxa).

It is striking that the notion of war is evoked in the context of the pandemic… For propaganda has always been a fundamental tool in warfare, and one of its practices is censorship. In our digital age, it takes the form of fact checking. On 25 November 2020, I posted an article on Facebook entitled Are Face Masks Effective? The Evidence published on Swiss Policy Research (SPR) (an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organisation that investigates geopolitical propaganda)(Swiss Policy Research : https://swprs.org/face-masks-evidence/?fbclid=IwAR27ISnO9WnQQ6TRprb8WJpUwsVgSGLmCJmVSHlHbUlgMD0Di1qZP5X9iaQ#development-of-cases-after-mask-mandates). The article cited ten studies that concluded that masking is not effective against the spread of SARS-CoV-2, along with ten other aspects to be considered when assessing the effectiveness of masks. To supplement this information, the article even included and analysed seven studies that showed the proven effects of masks on the spread of the virus. This article was not just an unfounded opinion, but a position based on references, and yet Facebook labelled it as false information. The link provided by this fact-check was to the Lead News website, which claimed that several sources confirm that masks work against the spread of SARS-CoV-2 while citing only one source, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Facebook fact-checking on the site of Lead News : https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2020/11/fact-check-137-many-studies-find-masks-do-work-against-the-spread-of-coronavirus.html?fbclid=IwAR0XS6ebN0gFFmVscp6QYhcwB0Ep-JyX_VW8RmV9zOH_My0es86yUDhDDLU) ! Upon further investigation, it turned out that Facebook was fighting misinformation by conducting fact-checks with the help of so-called independent source checkers. But the famous Lead News (which is funded solely by Facebook) is a branch of another group, the Credibility Coalition, which is itself funded by Facebook, Google and Twitter, among others (Credibility Coalition, to which the Lead News belongs: https://credibilitycoalition.org/).

More recently, on YouTube this time, the video of the Great Debate (https://www.kairospresse.be/grand-debat/) organised by Kairos did not even last 24 hours before being withdrawn on the grounds of medical misinformation. As a reminder, a series of scientific experts and representatives of the Belgian government had been invited to debate with six other speakers (including myself) from different scientific and medical backgrounds, but none accepted the invitation. The debate therefore took place more in the form of an exchange of views. When looking for the reason for the banning of the video, YouTube informed that it does not allow content that spreads incorrect medical information contradicting that of the local health authorities or the World Health Organisation (WHO) regarding COVID-19. Examples of prohibited content include those that claim that a specific treatment or drug guarantees a cure for COVID-19 and those that contradict the consensus of local health authorities or the WHO regarding the COVID-19 vaccine (I invite readers to read the list of prohibited content under this reference – List of forbidden content on YouTube : https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9891785).

This phenomenon of fact-checking is not limited to social networks, as traditional media are also involved. La Libre Belgique has created a section called La Source dedicated to checking sources. In an article entitled Do PCR tests overestimate Covid-19 cases? published on 4 April 2021 (https://www.lalibre.be/planete/sante/les-tests-pcr-surevaluent-ils-les-cas-de-covid-19-6066ecff7b50a6051776bce0), La Libre Belgique analysed Prof Martin Zizi’s LinkedIn publications on two claims:

PCR positive ≠ infection

PCR positive ≠ contagiousness

Rather than presenting possible references contradicting these statements, The Source was satisfied with comments from expert Dr. L. Cornelissen. Prof Zizi, for his part, verified the sources of the La Libre Belgique article, maintaining his position and thus fact-checking La Libre’s facts (giving rise to the article PCR useless if asymptomatic – https://www.kairospresse.be/pcr-inutiles-si-on-est-asymptomatique/). It is regrettable that La Libre did not read the article COVID-19: “effet de la vaccination sur le risque de transmission” published on the Chirec Pro website (http://www.chirecpro.be/fr/news/covid-19-effet-de-la-vaccination-sur-le-risque-de-transmission), in which the supposedly beneficial effects of vaccination on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 are highlighted. The article states:

The presence of virus detected by PCR is not synonymous with a risk of transmission since PCR is likely to identify low viral loads and therefore not necessarily sufficient to be responsible for possible transmission, this being confirmed by the overall reduction in viral load in vaccinated subjects.

The reference cited for this assertion is of poor (or even weak) quality to support the hypothesis that vaccination would decrease the spread. Note the three major problems with this source:

The referenced scientific article – explicitly states that this preprint reports new research that has not been certified by peer review and should not be used to guide clinical practice,

the study does not directly compare vaccinated people with a control group, but merely assesses the efficacy of a vaccine on hypothetically vaccinated people…

The researchers compare PCR-positive data (with the methodological biases mentioned above) from one age group with another age group, thus establishing an additional methodological problem.

Thus, Chirec similarly asserts to Prof Zizi that a positive PCR is not synonymous with contagiousness… but cites much less reliable references. What would The Source say about this?

If fact-checking existed before the current health crisis (becoming a more debated topic during the term of President Trump, who is known for his controversial statements), it has become a real reference tool to suppress anything that is deemed questionable. But this raises several questions, such as:

what content can be verified and identified as established fact? Is it legitimate, for example, to censor arguments on evolving scientific subjects under the pretext of a challenge from local authorities and the WHO (who have already proven their ignorance and error about the nature of SARS-CoV-2 on several occasions)?

Is fact-checking objective when verification on social networks is done partly by software (given the large amount of information put online every day) (Hard Questions : How Is Facebook’s Fact-Checking Program Working ? https://about.fb.com/news/2018/06/hard-questions-fact-checking/ ) and by verifiers, who are themselves paid by the social networks (https://credibilitycoalition.org/)?

And these questions raise an even more crucial question (which seems to be frequently postponed): what function do social networks have in the public arena? The head of Facebook, Marc Zuckerberg, has repeatedly said that Facebook is not a form of media (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-zuckerberg-idUSKCN1141WN?utm_source=Daily+Lab+email+list&utm_campaign=107c14838f-dailylabemail3&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d68264fd5e-107c14838f-395963781). Is censorship of content then justified on the grounds that Facebook calls itself a technology company and collaborates with governments to reduce the spread of misinformation (https://www.facebook.com/formedia/blog/together-against-covid-19-misinformation-a-new-campaign-in-partnership-with-the-who & https://www.kairospresse.be/facebook-ou-le-retour-de-linquisition/ ) while sharing allegedly anonymous data of their users with the authorities to combat the spread of the coronavirus (https://dataforgood.fb.com/docs/european-researchers-covid19/)? And what about journalism, which was once considered the fourth estate that was supposed to watch over the excesses of the other three embodying the state (executive, legislative and judicial), and which has never ceased from the beginning of the crisis to give voice to the state’s experts acting as authority figures during this health crisis and to defend them at all costs?

The establishment of a narrative through all these means of communication became perhaps most visible during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. In addition to the increased censorship on social networks of any arguments against these vaccines (whose real effectiveness and risks of side effects are still debatable – https://covidrationnel.be/2021/05/11/note-technique-vaccins-contre-la-covid-19-base-de-preuves-et-consentement-eclaire/) , the medical profession also participates in influencing public opinion without any visible debate on the traditional media. Even mental health professionals are working on ways to get the population to accept measures, including vaccines, and recommend techniques such as nudging (= persuading someone to do something, gradually or by flattery; gently encouraging someone to do something) (https://www.kairospresse.be/nudging-et-consentement-eclaire-un-duo-qui-ne-fait-pas-bon-menage/) or outright using fear as leverage (https://www.news.uliege.be/upload/docs/application/pdf/2020-04/recommandations_psychosociales_covid-19.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0aSwlrOMEgMuyUjY-WRH–L6zGzkc9k95omQHMgbY9QcqMic4JXiEzNe0). And it is probably in the case of vaccines, where the economic interests of this health crisis are most identifiable.

In a debate with French essayist Idriss Aberkane, public health doctor Martin Blachier asserted the absence of pharmaceutical industry (specifically Pfizer) interests in this crisis (Youtube – LES DÉBATS – Martin Blachier vs Idriss Aberkane at 29min : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5CtlE9ILmE ). But some quick research shows that Pfizer’s revenue for the first three months of 2021 is $3.5 billion and the estimated revenue for the year 2021 for the vaccine alone would be $26 billion (or two-thirds of their annual revenue) (https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/PFE/pfizer/revenue). Recall that their annual revenue in 2019 was $41.17 billion. In 2020 it was $41.9 billion (an increase of 1.79% over 2019, rather than a loss of sales) (Youtube – LES DÉBATS – op. cit.)… And there is likely to be seasonal demand for its COVID-19 vaccines in the coming years (like the seasonal flu vaccine) (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56979406?fbclid=IwAR2_b6UhBsvjAFc9lwsrqrjgNXG-9JkJf8QTbp4JAhqXRWjM8W7ff2MFh7M)…”

Video from September 30th 2020

(apparently contested here, though it seems it says only that masks do not protect against most aerosols other than the large ones – spit)

22/7/21:

Two Facebook posts from the last week about Israel.

Facebook post from 14/7/2021:

Given that most adults are vaccinated I find nothing interesting in this
statistic that Inbar Twisser presents as interesting – a reporter for N12 News, who tweeted that “this morning there are more fully vaccinated severe Covid patients in the hospitals than unvaccinated ones, 45 to 25”.

What IS interesting:

This situation where some of the population is vaccinated and some are not, is of great concern to the Ministry of Health because it creates two comparable groups: an experimental group and a control group. And that’s how easy it is to unveil the bluff. To illustrate:

When adolescents do not end up in the hospitals even though they are not vaccinated, it is clear to any reasonable person that the vaccine is unnecessary for them. On the other hand, if they do not get to the hospitals after they are vaccinated – the masters of mind-conditioning (and they are masters!) will tell us that it is thanks to the vaccine.

They are most disturbed by those who recover. These are not contagious, not sick and certainly not dead, and I fully understand why it was so important to vaccinate them in at least one dose. This is just another attempt to neutralize the control group and in this case it is a
particularly disturbing control group.

***

Facebook post from 20/7/2021:

“How they are messing with our minds.

The media has been publicizing for some time that the percentage of vaccinated tested positive is 40%.

This figure in itself raises questions about the efficacy of the vaccine. We are also told that an almost absolute majority of new critically ill patients during this period are also vaccinated.

I checked the data on the official website of the Ministry of Health and found updated data for the first week of July. The numbers there are interesting :

The left column is of people tested positive who have been vaccinated with a second vaccine over twenty days ago. The right column is of
unvaccinated who tested positive.

If you look at the total, you find that 50.2% of the positive cases are vaccinated. No longer 40% as reported in the media.

If we leave out the children up to the age of 19 (the vast majority of them without any symptoms anyway, but simply came out positive for the PCR test) we will actually find that from the age of 20 and up, the percentage of vaccinated out of the positive cases stands at 85.1%. Do you understand? 85.1% of the new positive cases are fully vaccinated!

For what reason did we rushed to get vaccinated?

So they said we would at least spare ourselves a serious illness, but even that is no longer true. After all, it is reported that most new severe patients are vaccinated.

We’re in big trouble.”

***

T writes:

I don’t know how much hard “scientific” conclusions can be drawn from all this about the efficiency of the vaccine, but it does makes things interesting. Also, the Health authorities representatives are now explicitly saying that natural immunity due to exposure to the virus is better than the immunity from the vaccine (and the data shows it as well – there are hardly any hospitalization or infections among people who were already exposed to the virus, vaccinated and unvaccinated alike) – the exact same people who explicitly lied earlier when they said that there are no reasons to believe that natural immunity will last and that the immunity from the vaccine is most probably a lot better – and this against all scientific knowledge up to 2020.

Greece: clashes on demos against mandatory mRNA vaccine, including clashes between anti-authoritarians and right-wingers

21/7/21:

France, Chambery: as National Assembly pass Health Passport law 300 demonstrators against it invade the prefecture and take down portrait of Macron

“A lie repeated 1000 times becomes a truth”

According to this, this sticker, amongst innumerable others, has been produced by an extreme right wing group, though the name “la rose blanche” (“The White Rose”) is the name of a group of students who resisted the Nazis between July 1942 and February 1943 in Germany, distributing dissident leaflets. The students wrote pacifist and anti-fascist slogans on the walls, collected bread for concentration camp inmates and looked after their families. The actions of the White Rose were taken as an example from January 1943 by intellectuals in southern Germany and Berlin. The line “A lie repeated 1000 times becomes a truth” is taken from Goebells. I suspect that most people reproducing this sticker have no knowledge of what the group “the white rose” is nor the history of where the name was taken from. If this group is, as the article states, a group of Trump QAnon supporters it’s also indicative of how recuperative the Right have become: the sticker – without the Covid references – could have been produced by anarchists in previous epochs. It’s also indicative of how this epoch is confusing to almost everyone and that trying to untangle the massively proliferating mystifications is one of the tasks of those who want to stop the movement towards totalitarianism.

Former Vice President and Chief Science Officer at Pfizer’s Pfizer’s allergy and respiratory research division speaks out against vaccination of those with no need to be vaccinated, against Health Passports and other things

Yet another video censored/removed by YouTube. Speaks about the Nuremberg Code. Also questions the idea of asymptomatic people with Covid infecting others and even the idea of being asymptomatic with Covid rather than presymptomatic (ie the few hours before symptoms kick in). And confirms coagulation of blood as significant possibility. Says that variants are almost the same as the original virus (ie 99.7% the same) and they’re not an additional health problem at all. And that the FDA and the EMA have not required the top-up vaccines for the variants to be tested because they’re so like the normal pre-top-up vaccines.

Apparently this guy’s views have been taken up by lots of right-wingers. But that doesn’t mean that he’s wrong on all counts, any more than when leftists say something that means you have to take up either their viewpoint or the opposite viewpoint. As I’ve said so often, Hitler’s scientists said tobacco caused cancer. Which, if you take the opposite viewpoint of your enemy, would mean you should support smoking tobacco. Of course, he may have significantly demagogic reasons for what he says. But it remains to be seen what is valid and what is crap in such things.

20/7/21:

Martinique (French overseas territory); 2nd night (18th July) of riots against curfew, health passports, etc.

“It was in this working-class district of Fort-de-France that the clashes between the police and mobile gangs took place, with a majority being young according to witnesses. At around half past midnight, a house caught fire on Avenue Jean Jaurès, where several cars were burnt….On the night of Sunday 18 to Monday 19 July 2021, the police had a hard time repelling uncontrolled gangs at the start of the curfew introduced at 9pm. Retreating to Terres-Sainville in the middle of the evening, it was the main thoroughfare of the district, Avenue Jean Jaurès, which was the scene of new confrontations for the second consecutive night, after the city centre the day before….Beforehand, some public buildings such as the courthouse and the prefecture were secured. As a result, several projectile throwers (including fireworks mortars), always ready to fight visibly with the mobile forces, decided to set fire to at least 3 cars…Meanwhile, the security forces used stun grenades with a blast effect to try to disperse the troublemakers. A helicopter from the national gendarmerie came to reinforce the set-up, using a powerful searchlight to sweep the whole area for more than an hour, the time it took to bring the fire under control. Wheeled armoured vehicles were also deployed by the soldiers on the ground, in order to evacuate the burning cars, to avoid new fires on the boulevard…According to other testimonies, there were no victims during this very agitated night…”

Leaflet from France: l’insupportable obeissance

Translation:

Unbearable obedience

After compulsory wearing of masks, social distancing, the retreat to digital-television-work, confinement, the curfews, travel with authorisations, the incitement to download tracking applications, thus to denounce, making everyone a snitch, the fines and the arrests, here is now the phase of the compulsory Health Passport!

This recent announcement, made by the experts in the zombification of the masses, imposes a Health Passport at the entrance of commercial, cultural and social establishments. Anyone who fails to comply with this rule will be punished, and will have to stay at home!

The right to rationally choose a treatment (vaccination), in conscience, is granted to us. The threat of punishment is the hallmark of totalitarian regimes, which only use coercion and repression to maintain themselves. The deprivation of freedom to come and go as one pleases without control is thus imposed on all, this freedom having become a fault! The repeated injection of fear and the anaesthetisation of brains makes us the willing actors of general control.

The servility of certain cultural decision-makers, museums, theatres and festivals, more ready to obey the power on which they depend than to make a real commitment to the advent and survival of the cultural values on which true democracies are based, participate in the fracturing by bending to the demands of the Health Passport.

Connecting, gathering, sharing, exchanging through the arts are the very essence of living societies. To exclude them on the pretext of not presenting a passport, even a health one, is to go against these values, culture not being compatible with the suppression of freedom.

We can already see festival organisers coming in to reinforce the health order, turning into contamination cops, indicating in addition to the booking fees the places for “screening” and the vaccination centres nearby!

This suicidal, collaborationist turn we are witnessing tells us enough about the future of this drifting society.

One of the characteristics of dictatorships is that they claim to have values but act in the opposite way: they claim to fight against exclusion but divide and separate through more control, they claim to protect but subject everyone to the worst interferences, they claim to care about health but make real care impossible through dehumanisation, they replace solidarity with competition, they promise security but create conditions that produce insecurity, etc. Each of these successive contaminations has been the result of a different approach. Each successive contamination, whether viral or radioactive, systematically leads to restrictions on our freedoms, destroying and/or banning spaces and places. This makes us guilty victims, forcing each of us to take responsibility for the consequences of technological decisions imposed for the benefit of the powers that be, without real justice.

To resist and put a stop to the machine that crushes life, whether we are a simple customer in a bar or restaurant, a spectator or listener participating in live performances, against and before generalised facial recognition, permanent tracking in the private sphere and intrusion into the body through tracking: disobedience is a duty.

17 July 2021

SF: Obviously such appeals to “the cultural values on which true democracies are based” are meaningless crap, which anyone can see from the development of bourgeois democracy onwards has largely meant culture as a form of anaesthetisation and domestication for a democracy that means a choice between different forms of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie’s commodity economy (money, wage labour, commodity consumption, etc.). Nevertheless, resistance to the attack on even bourgeois freedoms and to the fact that this is now not merely limited to your financial means but to your submission to being injected with a vaccine that is being increasingly shown to be hardly effective and resisting having to carry around a method of tracking your movements is potentially the start of a more general resistance to a world and life accelerating at ever faster speeds out of the control of the vast majority.

Cyprus, Nicosia: attack on TV station following demonstration against health vaccination passport (18th July)

“…around 2,500 protesters went to the network after a larger protest outside the presidential palace against a Covid “Safe Pass” and force vaccination. Some of the protesters attacked the TV facilities…broken glass around the building, several broken windows and four Sigma-branded cars in various states of damage, one completely burned-out….cars burning in the car park and smashed up furniture apparently inside the building’s lobby, with police sirens wailing in the background.”

Clashes in London on anti-lockdown demo

Anarchist report on reactions to vaccine certificates for crowded spaces in UK

19/7/21:

How drug trials underestimate side effects

18/7/21:

Thailand, Bangkok: clashes over government handling of Covid

Significant riot in Martinique (overseas territory of France)

“During this night of confrontations between the forces of order and anti-curfew demonstrators, others took advantage of it to attack in particular jewellery shops in Fort-de-France…A jeweller’s shop in the rue Lamartine was stormed shortly after 10pm. It was opened, emptied and set on fire at around 2am on Sunday, according to our journalists on the spot. …Later, at around 4am, a group of at least four people tried to break into another jeweller’s shop on Rue Lamartine but the security system resisted…By retreating far from the prefecture, small groups who intended to fight with the forces of order caused fires that the fire brigade was able to extinguish under the protection of police and gendarmes.

♦Bin fire in Victor Sévère street

♦Car set on fire on boulevard du Général de Gaulle

♦Fire in the jewellery shop on rue Lamartine, (mentioned above)

♦Bin fire in rue Perrinon

♦Car set on fire in Victor Sévère street

♦Fire in the hall of the Edf building in Place François Mitterrand

♦Bin fire in Place François Mitterrand

♦Brush fire on the Savane
Several barricades still smoking on the boulevard at 6am on Sunday morning …In addition, some videos posted on social networks show an attempt to burn down the courthouse. People can be seen in possession of incendiary devices…”

“Macron allows the poor to go through the bins for free”

Indonesia: despite mass vaccination country’s cases of Covid rise above those of Brazil

Indonesia has had compulsory vaccination since the beginning of March:

Indonesia threatens 1 year in prison plus a $7,000 fine for those who don’t get vaccinated (March 2021)

Google translate:

“ While in most countries of the world the criterion for receiving corona vaccines is old age or background diseases, in Indonesia these days the picture is the opposite. The huge country, which has a population of 267 million people on a vast area of ​​thousands of islands, has decided that one of the first groups in line for vaccines will be … everyone over the age of 18 to 59. The rationale behind this approach is that this group is the “engine” of the corona plague – many asymptomatic patients, who have multiple social connections …36,000 residents have died so far in the epidemic in Indonesia, out of 1.3 million residents infected with Corona. As in Europe, in Indonesia the second wave recorded during December-January was much larger than that recorded at the beginning of the epidemic, but morbidity has been declining in recent weeks. Indonesia has acquired most of its vaccines from China, which was the first country to develop a vaccine for corona, although it has not yet been approved for use by medical authorities in the West. The vaccine was developed by SinoVac and is widely used in China itself. The vaccination campaign in Indonesia began on January 13, and since then aims to vaccinate about 1.3 million health care workers as well as a group of police officers, public servants, teachers, athletes, journalists and more (estimated at 17 million people). Everyone will get the vaccine for free, subsidized by the authorities. But one of the significant differences compared to other countries is that the vaccine is defined as “mandatory”, although it is not yet clear what sanctions will be imposed on those who do not get vaccinated. A government minister said the penalty to be fixed by law for those who do not get vaccinated is a year in prison and a $ 7,000 fine, but the government still needs to offer the vaccine in adequate quantities to make sure residents get the chance to get vaccinated. Amnesty International has criticized the government’s statements, saying the vaccination was “contrary to human rights”. … it is possible that in the coming weeks young people and adults without background diseases are also expected to start receiving the vaccines. This group numbers about 150 million people, and the country hopes to end their vaccinations by the end of 2021. Vaccinate first those who are important to the economy … Critics said the government decided to do so in an attempt to preserve the economy by first vaccinating the most efficient, working-age workers.”

17/7/21:

France: clashes on demos against “health passport” in Metz & Strasbourg…and Lyon…

The media use their classical manipulative stereotyping of the demos as being “anti-vax” when it included some who’ve been vaccinated (but are opposed to such a tyrannical forcing of vaccination) and many – probably the majority – who are not anti-vaccination as such. It should be pointed out that many “revolutionaries” also use this term in order to block themselves against seeing and thinking and acting critically. Official figures say that 18,000 demonstrated in Paris. A lawyer demonstrating there said that there were more like 350,000. Who knows? There was one placard with a photo of the gates of Auschwitz and the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” changed to “Vaccins Macht Frei”. Of course one can be pedantic and say this totalitarian development is not at all like classic fascism or Nazism, which is true (for one thing, passive demos were not allowed under fascism) . However, this intellectual precision misses the emotional point: people are aware that these authoritarian developments are moving more and more towards the eradication of even bourgeois freedoms for increasing amounts of people.

Large poster of Macron, in Toulon: “Obey – get vaccinated”

Videos of demos…Photo report of Montpellier in English

…Isere: vaccination centre vandalised and tagged

Article critiquing medical research in relation to Covid

“…Many medical journals now charge authors thousands of dollars to publish their research. This ensures that it is very difficult for any researcher, not supported by a university, or a pharmaceutical company, to afford to publish anything, unless they are independently wealthy. Driven by financial imperative, the research itself has also, inevitably, become biased. He who pays the paper calls the tune. Pharmaceutical companies, food manufacturers and suchlike. They can certainly afford the publication fees….”

16/7/21:

France: opposition to totalitarian “health passport” in 14th July Bastille Day demos throughout France …More here, here and here…Martinique (overseas territory)

“On the margins of the demonstration of several hundred people last night (13 to 14 July 2021), around the prefecture in Fort-de-France, slight clashes pitted a group of people against the forces of order… a dozen people threw empty bottles at police officers in front of the Fort-de-France prefecture. The police immediately retaliated by throwing tear gas, which dispersed the crowd. …Despite this intervention by the police, the people continued to throw bottles before moving away. As they withdrew, they burnt some bins in the centre of Fort-de-France. ..Many people had responded to the call launched on social networks against the new health measures. Several hundred of them gathered in front of the gates of the prefecture on Tuesday evening (13 July 2021) under the theme “Freedom – we are not guinea pigs!”.

Montpellier

Not that you’d know it from the link, but the station was occupied for at least 20 minutes, and the main shopping centre near the main square was closed for fear of an invasion of demonstrators.

Lyon

“Buses and cars set on fire..Cars were also set on fire during the evening and night, as here in Vaulx-en-Velin.”

…Annecy

“In the early afternoon, a thousand people gathered in front of the Haute-Savoie prefecture. This unexpected mobilisation had not been declared to the authorities. The call for the rally was spread directly on social networks. In the crowd, many signs denounced the deprivation of individual freedoms. The demonstrators chanted “Macron resign” and “No to the health pass”… the entrance gates of the prefecture were broken. About 200 demonstrators entered the courtyard and occupied the staircase, without going inside the building. ..At around 4.30pm, the crowd moved towards Annecy town hall, blocking for a long time the traffic between the prefecture, the Bonlieu centre and the town hall. “

Given that Macron announced this compulsory “health passport” some 38 hours before the demos and at the start of the summer holidays when half of France leave home for a few weeks, these demos have been organised pretty spontaneously. Nevertheless, these obviously involve a massive mix of people, including conspiracy theorists, right-wingers and anti-semites, but also anarchists, ultra-leftists, etc. Whilst purism remains aloof from any possible gropings towards some contestation, and cedes the terrain to the right, participation that’s indifferent to these significant contradictions is also dangerous (remember that in Weimar Germany, the Communists and the Nazis sometimes joined together against the cops and Social Democrats – and with what result ultimately?).

Pasteur Institute report on testing of ivermectin on hamsters shows definite positive results

“Ivermectin could then be considered as an encouraging therapeutic agent against Covid-19, without impacting SARS-CoV-2 replication but alleviating inflammation and related symptoms. “Our results provide a significant advance and demonstrate that ivermectin belongs to a new class of anti-Covid-19 agent in an animal model. This work opens the way for the development of better treatments against Covid-19 in humans””

US: report from June of 153 hospital employees in Houston who refused vaccine being forced to resign or fired

Gibraltar: 10 Covid deaths for the whole of 2020, 70 deaths after 3 weeks of vaccination in January 2021

15/7/21:

Israel: 25% higher death rate among women aged 40-49 than perennial average?

Translation of a Facebook post by Yaffa Shir Raz, 15/7/2021:

Why is the death rate among women aged 40-49 25% higher than the
perennial average?

This finding revealed by Yariv Hammer is based on an analysis he
conducted based on official data from the Central Bureau of Statistics
(CBS).

In absolute numbers: compared to the perennial average, which stands at
202 deaths in this group from January to early June, this year 252 women
aged 40-49 died in the corresponding period – 50 more women.

The finding is particularly interesting, since, as can be seen from the
charts, the over-mortality of women in this age group parallels the
injection operation among those aged 40-49. More than that, two waves of
mortality can be seen, corresponding to the two doses of injection, and
especially to the second one.

And it’s even more interesting because we seem to be starting to see a
phenomenon with a recurring pattern – over-mortality that parallels the
injection waves.

Yariv Hammer and Ran Israeli found that from February to April there was
a significant increase in mortality among young people aged 20-29 – 43%
more than the average of the last five years in the same period, and
this increase was also equivalent to the injection campaign in this
group (in absolute numbers – 143 deaths Compared with the average 100.2
in the last five years).

To these horrible data must be added the findings of Prof. Retzef Levy,
who showed, based on Magen David Adom [MDA – Israel’s national emergency
medical, disaster, ambulance and blood bank service – Tal] readings, a
25% increase in heart attacks and cardiac arrest between the ages of
16-39 – also in an amazing correlation to the injection operation.

For those who want to claim that the excess mortality among women is due
to Corona – well, no. According to the Ministry of Health’s control
panel, 33 women aged 40-49 died this year “from Corona” (or with Corona,
maybe one day we’ll know). However, 23 of them died in January-February,
while, as mentioned, the highest mortality rate was in March. According
to the control panel, 6 women died “from Corona” in March, 4 in April
and 0 in May.

Nor can you claim that the excess mortality is due to road accidents,
since according to the CBS report, two women aged 40-49 were killed in
road accidents this year. One in March and one in May.
So what is the reason?

Among young men we know that one of the reasons is myocarditis, for
which there is also a huge under-reporting and concealment of most cases
by the health authorities. But what is the reason for this significant
excess mortality among women aged 40-49? Maybe it has to do with the
many clotting / bleeding events that Dr. Josh Guetzkow wrote about in
his report?

To find out the explanation for this phenomenon we will need more
information on the serious and fatal side effects, segmented by age and
sex.

I’m reminding all my doctor, researcher and scientist colleagues –
inquiry and questioning are at the heart of science. Science is neither
an institution nor an authority, and an imaginary “consensus” does not
create such an authority. It is the questions that form the basis for
all scientific inquiry and for all scientific progress. It’s time for
you to start asking too.

14/7/21:

Greece, Athens & Thessaloniki: 1000s demonstrate against health passports

Video of doctor explaining disastrous side effects of mRNA following the fact that only 25% of vaccine stays in the arm, etc.

Says that microscopic blood clots are happening in 62% of people vaccinated, causing permanent damage (massive reduction in “effort tolerance”), including high blood pressure in their lungs, possibly causing death within 3 years. This doctor was removed from hospital duty following his criticisms of vaccine side effects.

How Covid and state responses to it are indirectly encouraging an increase in even worse respiratory illnesses amongst the under-5s

“Infections other than COVID fell over the past year due to limits on socialising, improved hygiene and mask wearing. This reduced the build-up of antibodies that protect people against illness, creating what experts are calling an “immunity debt”. The UK is already beginning to see an uptick in respiratory illnesses such as RSV, a common respiratory virus that causes bronchiolitis. More than three in five children usually catch RSV by their first birthday, but public health officials believe that lockdowns and school closures meant many have escaped infection. That means fewer children are immune to RSV, which in turn has led to a rise in cases as restrictions are lifted. In the week to 4 July, RSV positivity in England increased to 3.4% from just 0.1% two months earlier…As early as May, PHE issued a warning about a potential surge in cases in the coming autumn and winter. Its modelling suggests that between 20% and 50% more cases will need hospitalisation, requiring a doubling of paediatric intensive care beds later in the year, according to reporting by the Health Service Journal. RSV is more deadly for young children than COVID. It accounts for more than 5% of global deaths in under-fives [i.e. roughly 1.28 million – SF]…A similar surge is expected in flu cases, which have been in the low single figures in England over the past year”

2 points here:

There’s an implicit idea here that Covid is deadly amongst under-fives, when in fact it’s only when children of that age have other very serious health problems that then also get Covid which allows the “health” statisticians to attribute death to Covid.

The idea that death from flu has been down to single figures indicates another statistical manipulation: in the UK in normal years flu kills 10,000 or so people. Almost certainly those who have died of flu have had their death attributed to Covid, possibly even amongst those who haven’t also had Covid.

Yet another Covidiotic vaccinationalism

13/7/21:

France: Macron announces further step towards Covid-justified slavery-cum-apartheid/vaxscism

“All healthcare and non-healthcare staff (clinics, retirement homes and establishments for the disabled) will have to be vaccinated against Covid-19. “You will have until 15 September to be vaccinated. From 15 September onwards, checks will be carried out and penalties imposed”, said the Elysée Palace President, who spoke of the need to impose vaccination on all French people. The caregivers who have not been vaccinated by 15 September will no longer be able to work and will therefore no longer be paid,.. Specific vaccination campaigns for schools will be organised at the beginning of the school year…The health pass, in force since last Friday in discotheques, will be extended “at the beginning of August” to cafés, restaurants, shopping centres, as well as to planes, trains, long-distance buses and medical establishments. ..”

On Google’s (and Wikipedia’s) ties to the pharmaceutical industry

“In 2017, the search engine blacklisted naturalnews.com, a natural health advocacy organization that reports on controversial health topics including vaccine safety, GMOs, and pharmaceutical experiments, de-indexing over 140,000 of their webpages.

In a 2019 article, the founder of NaturalNews, Mike Adams, had this to say about Google (emphasis in original):

Make no mistake: Google is pro-pharma, pro-Monsanto, pro-glyphosate, pro-pesticides, pro-chemotherapy, pro-fluoride, pro-5G, pro-geoengineering and fully supports every other toxic poison that endangers humankind.”

Google’s ties to Big Pharma are well-known. In 2016, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, partnered with GlaxoSmithKline to create a new company focused on research into bioelectronics – a branch of medical science aimed at fighting diseases by targeting electrical signals in the body. GSK also works directly with Google thanks to a deal between the two companies that allows GSK full control over the data that they use. What data? Whose data? That isn’t disclosed….it has recently come to light that Google’s charity arm, Google.org, provided funding for research and studies carried out by Peter Daszak and his charity, EcoHealth Alliance – the same charity that previously worked with the Wuhan lab involved in so-called ‘gain of function’ research.”

12/7/21:

LinkedIn deletes account of mRNA vaccine pioneer who questioned risks of COVID-19 shots

See this for a discussion involving this guy. And look at entry for 21/6/21 for summary of much of the content of this discussion.

UK’s Transport Secretary says: “We know that double vaccinated, fully vaccinated people are much more likely to get coronavirus” (video)

Probably meant “less likely” – but who knows what’s likely or not?

UK’s quarantine hotels

11/7/21:

What are we actually up against?

“…At the start of the coronavirus crisis, I pointed out that the authorities will never let a crisis go to waste when it can be used as an opportunity to leverage it to implement a pre-planned or even a semi-planned agenda. I naively thought that many anarchists would instinctively get this and start to ask some difficult questions regarding what was being done to and planned for us. By and large, that didn’t happen. When the crisis broke, far from any questioning as to how it was being leveraged, instead, the anarchist movement fell into lockstep with the implementation of lockdowns. Truly bizarre behaviour for a movement that’s supposed to have a revolutionary cutting edge….”

And this from the same site

“…There have been a few eyebrows raised at my attending these #UniteForFreedom protests.The issue of elements of the far right attending these events in the hope of exploiting people’s anger at what lockdowns have done to their lives was raised. I’ve been asked, ‘do I feel comfortable with this?’ Let’s turn this around.I’ve been on more left organised marches than I care to remember to hand out anarchist propaganda. Have I felt comfortable being on the same protest as the likes of the SWP (rape apologists)? No I haven’t! …Yes, there have been a few very dodgy elements attending the #UniteForFreedom protests, I’m not going to deny that. Yes, I did take the few precautions required to avoid flagging up on their radar. By and large, when I’ve been handing out Estuary Stirrings on these protests, I’ve had a very positive reception from a very wide range of people. The point is that if there are a few iffy elements sniffing around, it’s vital that anarchists attend and engage people with their propaganda rather than dismiss the entire anti-lockdown / anti-great reset movement out of hand…”

Report on a protest in Bristol in August 2020

The Impact of Lockdown on UK Housing

“While capitalising on this crisis to outsource more functions of the UK state to its corporate partners, the Government has taken this opportunity to vastly increase its own powers to monitor and control the lives of British people in perpetuity. As expected of a country in which the single largest fixed monthly expenditure for most households is on the costs of accommodation, housing is at the heart of this transition to what is already the most authoritarian state in British history, the effects of which are widening the already-existing inequalities in UK society. Here we list some of the negative effects the lockdown has had on UK housing, while making some predictions about the future that awaits us.

1. The Increase in Housing Poverty and Homelessness…

2. The Transformation of the Home…”

The problem with distractions…

On some of the contradictions of anti-lockdown protests and the reactions to them.

“…having a pop at the leadership behind today’s protest is like shooting fish in a barrel. Because of some of the questionable speakers, it’s such an easy target to hit. The problem is that some of the people having a pop at the organisers of and speakers at these protests are lumping everyone who attends in with them. Which means the legitimate concerns and fears people have end up being summarily dismissed when they should be engaged with…”

Critique of “The Great Reset”

Followed by a list of articles on “The Great Reset” (not all of which I’ve read yet)

“There is a massive overlap between those behind this insidious scheme and the Climate Capitalists whom we and others have previously exposed. The scam is essentially the same: using a façade of combatting climate change, or a virus, or even social injustice, this criminal mafia intends to force us, our children, and our children’s children into a miserable future of slavery, while they install themselves as undisputed rulers of the world.”

An abridged version of the same subject:

What are they trying to do to us?

The Great Reset can be found here: COVID-19_-The-Great-Reset-Klaus-Schwab, but keep a spare paper bag near you if you read this nauseously written attempt to dress up tyranny in nice “we’re so very concerned for you poor things” humanist language with its public front of exquisite social sensitivity, sustainability and exemplary altruism.

10/7/21:

Covid vaccinated: what now?

Rough translation:

More and more people are being vaccinated, 2/3 of the adults in our country [France – SF], which should logically slow down any evolution of the epidemic. Unfortunately it seems that this is not the case, maybe the opposite. Without vaccines, last summer was more serene, with 4 months of holidays (May to end of August), less than a month this year. There are no more seasons!

In the panoply of treatments, France has chosen only one, imposing it exclusively. This is what most countries do, under pressure from powerful lobbies. We have the European Medicines Agency (EMA), 85% of which is financed by those to whom it issues marketing authorisations (!!). (This is why ivermectin has no chance, as it cannot finance the EMA because it is in the public domain, and no laboratory will apply for a marketing authorisation…), headed by the biggest laboratories, vaccine manufacturers, and the WHO, whose main financier is Bill Gates ($194M in 2019), his foundation investing heavily in vaccines. On BioNTech alone, he multiplied his stake by 10 (Don’t make me say that everything he does is wrong, on the contrary, but here he is “seriously” wrong and deceives others).

Bill Gates said: “Celebrating success is good, but it is more important to learn from failure”. I would add, especially when success is not forthcoming. This beautiful success scenario, vaccines = end of the pandemic, has unfortunately seized up. It was predicted and foreseen by the health workers, not by our “specialists-decision-makers”. The virus mutates, it is in its nature, and variants that are not sensitive to a too narrowly targeted vaccination are appearing more and more and more quickly. I had already written a few weeks ago that a good third of the vaccinated can be contaminated, plus with delta, delta plus, and tomorrow lambda and epsilon, already out. The authorities, who claimed like the labs 95% protection now recognize it without problem: the vaccine does not prevent you from catching the disease, from contaminating. The latest official speeches speak of 65% coverage. As for the unvaccinated, you must keep on with the mask and all the protective measures, be confined or even quarantined, revaccinated if in contact, and if you want to travel, for example, a test is more valuable than a vaccination certificate.

After this observation and these lamentations, being admitted that the vaccinated catch and will catch more and more of the new variants, let’s be constructive and positive: these vaccinated people who catch the covid, what do we do with them? They were promised a cure, they followed through, what do we give them now that they are sick? A third dose? A fourth? It’s planned, it’s ordered, but will they follow? They thought they would be protected the first time, what will they do the second, the third? What have our authorities planned in the face of this growing problem? Will they finally look elsewhere, open other avenues?

Today, the response of our authorities is still on the same line, with blinkers on, without looking for other ways: in the face of the epidemic, let’s increase the rate of vaccination. If we could exclude the problems of side effects, they bring some things, we cannot deny it. But very logically, in the face of this supposed drastic drop in efficiency with these variants that are increasingly insensitive to vaccines, can we keep the same line without taking this into account? We are told that at least it protects against severe forms. On this subject, this is not what all the studies say.

Some say there are more, others less. We lack a bit of hindsight and, above all, reliable statistics (which we don’t have or don’t give) to be able to say one way or the other without being mistaken. In the nursing homes in the Landes, all vaccinated, (almost) all contaminated, and some deaths. A priori, there would be neither more nor less serious forms, which the English seem to show. On the other hand, what is undeniable is that there are globally fewer serious forms of the disease with delta, but both among the vaccinated and the non-vaccinated (who remain in the majority). In France, 50% of positive cases are due to delta, and yet hospitalisations, cases of resuscitation and deaths continue to fall. Delta therefore seems more contagious, but less nasty. Under these conditions, does it make sense to vaccinate for a virus that is not very aggressive, with a vaccine that does not work very well, exposing us to side effects that are, to say the least, a bit serious, not to mention the long term ones that are not yet known?

Under these conditions, in order to obtain the famous herd immunity, would it not be better for everyone to catch the delta, which is not very serious, than to be vaccinated! Yes! This is what the study just published in Nature on 8 July shows. This study compares the sensitivity of the delta variant to monoclonal antibodies, to antibodies of infected and convalescent people, and to antibodies of vaccinated people. I quote: “Serums from people who received a dose of Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines barely inhibited the Delta variant.” Bamlanivimab, totally ineffective, as for the serum of infected people (up to 12 months after the disease), it is 4 times less effective on the delta than on the alpha. Better to have delta antibodies than alpha. Of course it is better with two doses, but is it between the two doses that the variants explode, confirming an old forgotten rule: you don’t vaccinate in the middle of an epidemic?

This variant will quickly contaminate everyone, it is to date the least toxic variety, and the immunity acquired by the disease is far superior to that acquired by vaccination, which cannot lead to sufficient immunity to be collective/herd. And with a little Doxy and ivermectin, it won’t even be seen, probably less than seasonal flu.

With the benefit of hindsight, we can now look at what is happening in countries that have vaccinated faster and stronger than us. The first example is England, which despite vaccination is already suffering a wave that is higher than the second one in October-November, even though there was no vaccine! At the time, there were 25,000 cases per day, today England is at 32,000 cases per day on 8 July, 35,200 yesterday, and it is still rising. Who can objectively speak of the results of vaccination? In terms of severe cases, yes, but isn’t the delta the primary cause of this result? If there are fewer hospitalizations and deaths, the 2/3 of the patients who are not vaccinated should fill the hospitals, which is not the case! (a few more days to be more affirmative).

I regularly follow the Seychelles, a small country, quite isolated and therefore relatively protected during periods of confinement and reduced transport. I follow it because it is the country that has vaccinated the most in the world and quickly, which gives some hindsight. 70% of the population has received two doses, enough to be comfortably in the zone of herd immunity. It’s nothing: quiet last year, its problems started at the beginning of January with the first vaccines (as almost always, with rare exceptions). Here’s where they are now:

You will tell me that 375 is a small number of cases. No: in relation to the population, the wave is much higher than what is happening in France, it is a very big wave. It’s as if we had 50 or 60,000 cases a day, despite 70% of people being vaccinated!

Patrice Gibertie seems to find the same thing in Malta, which he thinks is more vaccinated than the Seychelles (personally my sources give 1% less than the Seychelles). Their wave is however fresh, one week, for one month in England and 3 months in the Seychelles. Same scenario to come?

So what are these countries going to propose to their population, now that the vaccine card has been used? A third dose pushed by the laboratories? Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum (*)? I know what I would do, but it is true that I am not under any pressure. I hope I am wrong about the effectiveness of vaccines, I hope I am not wrong about the aggressiveness of the delta, but the facts and figures are there, stubborn, they are moving forward and I am only looking at them. Facts, nothing but facts.

(*) “To err is human, to persevere is diabolical” falsely attributed to Seneca. One might prefer Saint Augustine in his sermons: “Humanum fuit errare, diabolicum est per animositatem in errore manere”: “To err is human, but to persist in error through arrogance is diabolic”.

N.B. I would point out to the global anti-vaxers that there are other places to express themselves. It is one thing to oppose vaccines or covid pseudo-vaccines because of their defects, which can be serious; it is another thing to oppose vaccination in general, which takes us away from the current problems, which I do not wish to do here.

Israel – Pfizer’s third shot

Translated by T:

Yaffa Shir Raz / Eran Hildesheim, 09/07/2021:

How did Netanyahu’s seemingly innocent statement demanding that the entire population be vaccinated become within a week an official request from Pfizer submitted to the FDA?

Join Eran Hildesheim who presents an interesting and especially suspicious chain of events that took place this week:

1. We will start first at the end of February [2021], when Netanyahu, still as Prime Minister, surprises members of the government. “We will be required to renew the vaccine every six months” – he told them. It is not clear how Netanyahu, who is not an epidemiologist, could even then have predicted with such certainty something that even the major health bodies in Israel and around the world could not know regarding the effectiveness of a vaccine that was then barely two months in use?

2. About four months later, on July 1, Thursday night – Netanyahu, no longer Prime Minister and still without a PhD in medicine, comes up with a new online video. He reiterates his call to vaccinate all citizens in a third dose as early as August despite continued medical opposition from the medical community to the move. He claims he came to this conclusion after talking to the best experts in the world (on behalf of Pfizer?). In any case, he did not give their names.

3. Three days later – on July 4, Sunday – in almost perfect coordination with Netanyahu’s statement, Yoav Even announces in News 12 that against the background of rising “morbidity” [the inverted commas are my addition – T] in Corona in Israel, the Ministry of Health is considering removing their opposition and allowing the entire population to be vaccinated with the third dose. Then they will go back on it.

4. The next day, July 5 – The Ministry of Health, which until this week has been fighting anyone who doubted the effectiveness of the vaccine, crosses the line and is quick to publish a puzzling figure according to which the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing infection has dropped to 64%. The figure has been sharply criticized by many experts. The criticism even reached CNN where they said: “The Israeli Ministry of Health simply published the numbers and did not say how it got to them, because they simply published the data without any research, without any information, which experts said was very unprofessional.” Additional data released by the ministry the day after only increased the question marks surrounding the truth of this figure.

5. The next day, July 9, between Thursday and Friday – exactly one week after Netanyahu’s statement and just days after the puzzling data presented by the Ministry of Health – the ground was prepared for Pfizer’s announcement: “As we see in world evidence published by the Israeli Ministry of Health, the effectiveness of the vaccine declined six months after the vaccine, just at a time when the Delta variant is becoming dominant in the country.” [translation from Hebrew and not a direct quote – T] The company has announced that it will apply to the FDA for an emergency vaccination permit. The FDA has already announced that it sees no reason at present for a third vaccine. The request will be submitted in any case by Pfizer in the month in which Netanyahu said that vaccination should begin – in August.

So it is possible that all these events that took place within a week are the product of a coincidence and that Netanyahu is actually a prophet. On the other hand, it is possible that someone here is doing shady business deals on our backs and our health, after all, dark agreements between large corporations that want to make a profit for regulators and legislators is not something we do not see in our world. I’m not saying this is what happened here, but if one wants to dispel the cloud and understand the story one must reveal the confidential agreements with Pfizer. It is also possible to blacken trade secrets in them so that there is no excuse to prevent advertising. It is known that Netanyahu insists on not publishing them. It is not clear just why Bennett [new Prime Minister – T] and Horowitz [new Health Minister, from the Social-democratic party Meretz – T] are collaborating with him.

***

And my addition [Shir Raz ]:

Article 6: Prof. Itamar Grotto [previous Health Ministry deputy chief – T] yesterday in an interview with Radio 103: “I do not think it is worth asking the seller how long the product is valid. There are tools to check it. Of course to do so contrary to the manufacturer’s instructions is risk taking, but sometimes you have to take risks.”

8/7/21:

Some Israeli vaccine-recruitment posters aimed at kids:

A selection of Israeli children-vaccine propaganda posters, June-July 2021

Almost all of the below are produced in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, whose logo appears on most of the posters

1. Bney Brak

“Green Summer in Bney-Brak

Bney-Brak chooses a green summer!

Get vaccinated and enjoy to the fullest [literally it says “enjoy up to the heavens/sky” – (Bney-Brak is mostly an ultra-orthodox city) ].

Children from the age of 12 to 16 come today to the vaccination centers …

Get vaccinated and enjoy a huge and amazing amusement park

Flood of experiences up to the heavens at Biluna [the name of the amusement park] for you – free!

* [below] The campaign runs until Friday 9.7.21“

2. Clalit HMO (the largest of Israel’s four state-mandated health service organizations, charged with administering health care services and funding for its members (all Israeli citizens resident in the country must be a member of one of the four providers)

Right-side photo: “without vaccine”

Left-side photo: “with vaccine”

[clearly the vaccine gives you an instant sex change, yet another side effect they’ve kept quiet about so far]

“So that your summer vacation will go into quarantine

Getting vaccinated now, also from the age of 12″

3. Tel Aviv-Jaffa

“Municipal booths for corona vaccines

4-8 July, 17:00-23:00″

Middle, in purple: “Vaccine, ice cream and free entrance ticket to one attraction in the city”

4. Carmi’el

“Vaccination site for teenagers in Carmiel

At the bottom, in red:

“Free movie ticket for everyone vaccinated

For ages 12-18″

Other posters offer kids ice lollies, a DJ Rave [Israel’s not the only place to use this – see this video from Belgium], a lottery with prizes, multimedia games, entrance tickets to the municipal swimming pool, pizza slices and a drink for each vaccinated. Nevertheless, despite the propaganda and shoddy bribes, apparently only 13 percent of parents are willing
to vaccinate their children.

7/7/21:

Kenya, Nairobi: clashes with cops over Covid restrictions and cop savagery towards youth

Video here

On the risk of death by Covid for children

“To sum up, covid is not a threat to children. At least not more of a threat than many other risks we take for granted and happily let our children take, like riding in cars and crossing streets. …Since it is at present far from clear that vaccination is less risky to children than infection, it is deeply unethical to vaccinate them.”

Not conforming to consensus described as being “Down the Rabbit Hole”

According to this piece by the NY Times, “critical thinking isn’t helping in the fight against misinformation”, so just read and believe what you’re told is true and don’t worry about it.

Putting Covid in context – the dramademiology of Covid

(January 2021 article by doctor)

“Overhyping and distorting what is already intrinsically dramatic does not garner more respect for the menace, it garners distrust of the message. A consistent, willful want of context that amplifies portents of doom propagates anxiety and dread among those predisposed to take the bad news seriously, and disdain among those predisposed to suspect deceit. Harm is actually done in both directions, to both camps.”

6/7/21:

The Illusion of Evidence Based Medicine

Video about research papers on medical journals and the fact that they’re often ghost-written by the drug companies, with reputable names signing the paper as theirs’ – “….It very often turns out to be the case that none of these people have actually reviewed the data – all they’ve done is read the paper and agreed to put their name on it…”.

It quotes Richard Horton, current editor of The Lancet as saying, “Medical…journals have devolved into information-laundering operations for the pharmaceutical industry”.

Most of the anomalies in the trials and secret funding were only discovered through litigation as a result of significant adverse side effects. Also talks of how doctors and hospitals are effectively “bribed” by Big Pharma (e.g. in 2013 Big Pharma paid $3.5bn to doctors and hospitals). And also how high-ups in the FDA or the CDC who gave approval to drugs then retire from the FDA or CDC and take up high positions in the pharmaceutical industries whose drugs they’d just given approval to.

Sent by T:

Two relatively short texts by Dr. David Katz that provide more contextual reference to the pandemic (not so much of a radical critique, but in these days even the things he says here could be considered radical…).

Gaps in the Tale of COVID’s Long Tail (on the phenomenon of “long covid”)
www.linkedin.com/pulse/gaps-tale-covids…/

The Dramademiology of COVID: A Pandemic Manifesto of Here and Now
www.linkedin.com/pulse/dramademiology-c…/

“My own respect for the pandemic was never in question, and has been informed by a front line view, and now a new, particular intimacy. As I write this, I almost certainly have COVID. My son, two of my daughters, and my wife are all sick and have tested positive, and we all have much the same array of symptoms (none too bad, I hasten to note). I await my confirmation by test result, but you know what they say when it flaps like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck.

I respect this contagion and have from the start. I also resent the drama.

While public policy and coordinated crisis response have been wanting, the media response has been a veritable feeding frenzy, and the systematic extraction of every droplet of drama to keep it going. As the saying goes: never waste a good crisis. My contention is that a thick overlay of drama where unencumbered data ought to be is among the reasons we have so horribly wasted this one. We are mired in the dramademiology (my own neologism) of COVID. If there is to be a field of COVIDramademiology- and there should be, when this crisis is subject to its post-mortem exam- it will require us to study the impacts of pandemic distortion on human populations. They will, when we finally look back with clarity and dispassion, prove quite massive.”

2009 article about Pfizer

Fear and Loathing in the Age of COVID

From a forum, T. writes:

Fear in its many aspects is one thing I find to be at the heart of much of this ongoing period. There was an interesting yet way too academic and philosophical text by Agamben that I read a few months ago but that I only found in French translation. Anyway, this piece from Montreal Counter-info offer some good points for reflection:

“Back in March 2020, a group of behavioural scientists penned an open letter urging the U.K. government to use evidence-based techniques to influence the public to comply with its commands. Their letter states: “those essential behaviour changes that are presently required… will receive far greater uptake the more urgent the situation is perceived to be.”

It seems so benign when they put it that way, but it would seem to me that what is being proposed is the state uses psychological manipulation to frighten the populace so that they are more compliant.

Other examples make a pattern clear. According to an article in Die Welt, headlined “The German Government Ordered Scientists to Produce Data to Scare Citizenry”: “a group of German lawyers has been pushing for the Koch Institute to disclose correspondence with the German Home Office in which the latter demanded that “scientists” create “scientific” documentation to scare the populace… The document, published just weeks later, finally identified a worst-case scenario in which more than a million people could die from the coronavirus.”

The same article goes on to note that fear-conditioning seems to be widely accepted. It notes that “on the website of one of the largest and best known institutions of higher learning in the US, Cornell University, the following study was found: “Modelling the role of media induced fear conditioning in mitigating post-lockdown COVID-19 pandemic: perspectives on India”.

This study (which has not been peer-reviewed) finds that “fear conditioning via mass media (like television, community radio, internet and print media),” along with positive reinforcement, resulted in “significant decrease in the growth of infected population.”

Basically, this study advocates for the use of fear-mongering propaganda in the name of Public Health, specifically through the formation of conditioned reflexes. … Are we being conditioned to have automatic, unconscious reactions to certain stimuli as part of a propaganda campaign?

According to the study, the answer to this question is yes. It states: “Modelling studies have shown that fear has a major influence in reducing the impact of a pandemic. Fear was shown to be directly associated with increased social distancing, as well as increased security measures… Thus, reflex fear production through incoming information, combined with other techniques, can increase social distancing and cautious behaviour. Fear conditioned reflex production, a subspecies of classical conditioned reflex production, is the making of a connection between unpleasant events and a stimulus from the environment.””

Israel: The Ministry of Health vs. The Ministry of Health

A year ago myocarditis amongst the young was the great threat hanging over those inflicted with Covid, with potential very long-term effects, according to the Ministry of Health. But myocarditis resulting from the vaccines is presented by the same Ministry of Health as largely benign, with short-term effects.

From a thread on a forum, T. writes:

Rough translation of a Facebook post of an Israeli health journalist, recently fired from the lifestyle magazine in which she worked in order to “make it lighter” according to the magazine:

Basically, the question is not whether you believe independent doctors and researchers, who have nothing to gain from warning you about the serious side effects of the vaccine such as myocarditis, and putting their good name and careers at risk to do so, or the Ministry of Health officials, some of whom at least are in significant conflicts of interest and not declaring it.

The question is do you choose to believe the Ministry of Health … or the Ministry of Health?

Do you choose to believe the Ministry of Health 15.7.2020:
“Corona disease can cause long-term disabilities even in young and healthy populations, and even in those who have suffered only a mild disease … myocarditis is a complication in some corona patients … Following inflammation, myopathy of the heart muscle may develop, accompanied by some cardiac disorders … It is possible that these damages are in some cases even irreversible.”

Or the Ministry of Health 1.6.2021: “There is a likelihood of a link between receiving a second dose of vaccine and the onset of myocarditis …. The link is stronger in young people aged 16-19 relative to other ages … In most cases it is a mild disease that passes within a few days.”

Mild illness or irreversible damage ???
Anyone who still believes the information coming out of the Ministry of Health in the context of Corona or the experimental genetic therapy mistakenly called “vaccination”, or at all, is welcome to ponder this a little more.

When you lie without a break and the lies get complicated

Source for document of Ministry of Health from 15.7.7.20 (in Hebrew):

https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/reports/report-n60-elderly-population-vulnerability/he/research-report_report-n60-elderly-population-vulnerability.pdf

The 1990 CBC Massey Lectures, “Biology As Ideology”

“Richard Lewontin is a prominent scientist — a geneticist who teaches at Harvard — yet he believes that we have placed science on a pedestal, treating it as an objective body of knowledge that transcends all other ways of knowing and all other endeavours.“Science is a social institution,” he writes in this collection of essays, which began their life as CBC Radio’s Massey Lectures Series for 1990. “Scientists do not begin life as scientists, after all, but as social beings immersed in a family, a state, a productive structure, and they view nature through a lens that has been molded by their social experience … Science, like the Church before it, is a supremely social institution, reflecting and reinforcing the dominant values and vices of society at each historical epoch.” In Biology as Ideology Richard Lewontin examines the false paths down which modern scientific ideology has led us. By admitting science’s limitations, he helps us rediscover the richness of nature — and appreciate the real value of science.”

SK writes: In Biology as Ideology Richard Lewontin examines the false paths down which modern scientific ideology has led us. By admitting science’s limitations, he helps us rediscover the richness of nature — and appreciate the real value of science.

SF: Not directly related to Covid, but still pertinent. A section of his book about DNA can be found here on this site.

5/7/21:

Israel: as expiry dates on vaccines approaches, propaganda to vaccinate kids intensifies (sent by email)

T.writes:

One of the reasons (perhaps the main one) for the rush to vaccinate 12-5 year olds in Israel his last month, with the renewed obsession with PCR testing everyone (especially children) and the renewed fear campaign full of disinformation and blatant lies, is that there’s a stock of the vaccines that’s gonna expire very soon (I think they said around 9/7, although some officials claimed that the expiration date can be somehow prolonged, without really explaining it). But what do you know? They may have found a solution: giving this stock as a third shot for vaccinated adults and 16+s . This may have to do with the fact that despite the massive contradictory propaganda for vaccinating your children so they will not infect adults – with a vaccination that doesn’t prevent infection and infecting others – there wasn’t enough enthusiasm on behalf of parents to vaccinate their kids. We already saw in the Belgian documentary that I sent how before the vaccination campaign started the EMA purchased something like 1.8 billions of vaccines (maybe I don’t remember accurately), which they probably won’t want to waste either… From what I understand from the contradictory statements of different actors such as the new Prime Minister and some of the so-called Health journalists – it’s pretty obvious that Pfizer will provide more vaccines when needed. So when the Prime Minister is directly urging children in a recent video to get vaccinated “before it’s too late and the vaccines are expired and you won’t be able to” – it’s probably a maneuver to create panic and to rush people, whether the current stock of vaccines is really going to expire or not (about which I’m not really sure).

This screenshot from Israeli news says:
“A third Corona shot already in the next few days?”
“If the third vaccine is approved: Hundreds of vaccines will not be thrown away“

4/7/21:

Ivermectin: Can a Drug Be “Right-Wing”?

2/7/21:

This is not a conspiracy! A video

T. writes:

Was made by an ex-journalist.

English subs (man-made, not auto-generated) available if you choose it in the options.

It’s not the Society of the Spectacle or anything, and is made in the common fashion of documentaries of that sort, but still provides good insights into how different players played their role (notably the media, but also the virologists), and manages not to be hysterical or sensationalist.

SF: Although the perspective is far from being a radical critique and doesn’t say much that’s new, it brings together lots of aspects of the situation that are usually considered separately, and in doing so generates a feeling of thoughtful anger that makes it well worth watching. Most interesting bit for me was an interview with a doctor who worked in an Intensive Care Unit who was sacked merely for his critical views, just in the middle of an epidemic when hospitals apparently needed people like him the most. Amongst other things, this doctor pointed out that the immune system is very sensitive to fear. Another interesting bit was the fact that in Belgium they used young good-looking actors with make-up supposedly on ventilators in ICUs to convey the image of the virus attacking young people. It also talks about a Ministry of Health press conference and extensive headlines about a 3-year-old dying of Covid, when the child was already dying of neuromuscular disease when she caught Covid. The father’s complaints about the child being instrumentalised for propaganda purposes were ignored. Also the irony of Facebook allowing Flat Earthers to share their delerium but discussions about Covid outside of the consensus are censored. And another thing: a government adviser suggested that 50 additional cases a day should mean the continuation of Covid regulations and no “return to normal”, when very often there are 150 new cases of flu a day without any restrictions (though this is not entirely comparable as Covid is proportionally more fatal than flu, though maybe that’s because severe cases of flu are usually treated with anti-virals, whereas Covid isn’t).

1/7/21:

The contradictions of protests against lockdown in Brazil

“Many people must have invested such money in a small enterprise in an attempt to make some money at the end of the year in order to try to survive in the hard times that will come. These people saw such source of income disappear and were left without any alternative. For these reasons, and not because of pandemic denialism or stupidity, but out of sheer necessity, that there was a crowd of workers together with business owners in downtown Manaus on December 26 blocking traffic during the whole day in several roads and making barricades until the governor retreated….the foundation and form of the movement is that it is not made of manipulated and ignorant people, and that it has some roots among urban workers and considers itself legitimate….When the movement speaks about the “balance between economy and health” it is talking about a simple reality: it is not possible to stay at home and take care of people’s health without the proper conditions. Why was it necessary to carry out demonstrations, close highways and make barricades for the governor and the mayor to take these basic measures that minimally help people to stay at home? People need to eat and need to take care of their health. Those things cannot be in opposition to one another A lockdown without social and economic protection measures is a repressive farce. People will revolt against such a situation — and it will be a legitimate revolt.”

Many protests today, and even historically, have had an element of cross-class composition. Few movements don’t involve, in some way, elements that have interests outside of and against attempts to confront the miseries imposed by capital and the state. Which is certainly not a reason to dismiss them but is a reason to point out the dangers inherent in not challenging such contradictions. The stupidity of those who insist on lockdown across the board is that it’s a “one-size-fits-all” top-down imposition not, by any means, always applicable and an invariably hierarchical imposed constraint. No-one with any sense wants people to have to work in unhealthy conditions that could threaten their lives (even though many have done so before, and continue to do so during, the Covid epoch) but all “solutions” within the logic of this society, which itself created the health aspect of what is fundamentally a social problem and exacerbated it in the first place, not only aren’t solutions but invariably impose miseries and confused responses that have almost no possibilities of leading to going beyond the false choices imposed by capitalism, a perspective that mainly needs to be developed from critiquing equally lockdown and simplistic anti-lockdown reactions. This is not something that will come from “the Left”, of which this text wants to consider itself a part – the text says “It is up to the left to … demand social protection measures in order to reassure the protection of the health of poor people who depend on their own economic activities.”. If the state comes to offer “social protection measures” it will only be for reasons that have nothing to do with the welfare of the poor – either as a means of pacifying and recuperating revolt, or because it needs a relatively healthy workforce for other reasons such as fighting a war. If revolt is strong enough to force the state to reverse its neoliberal perspectives it would equally be strong enough to establish the basis for the development of a non-capitalist form of social life: yet again allowing the state to buy time by accepting the provision of some form of Welfare State would be to allow history to repeat itself (see “the welfare state isn’t now, and never was, a “genuine gain for the working class”). Such a mirage of victory would only be temporary and giving in to it would allow our enemies to go on to reverse it as they’ve done before.

Almost invariably “the Left” has been thoroughly abject in its inability and fear of questioning anything other than the most obvious during this Covid epoch, though perhaps this text expresses a slight exception to this general trend. But the inability and fear of questioning anything other than the most obvious has been its historic comportment for more or less a century, representing proletarian critique in lieu of actually contributing to it. And now in this Covid epoch most of the Left, “libertarian” or otherwise, don’t even begin to represent discontent: most merely echo the dominant discourse.

***

Other “Coronacrisis”-related pages on this site:

The contradictions of herd immunity

The politics of large numbers

India: Covid & ivermectin

Conspirouettes (may 2021)

Ivermictine (april 2021)

Better to be sorry than safe (February 2021) (on the vaccination programme)

Coronavirus in France (March 2020)

Czaravirus May 2020 (about the situation in Russia)

Cameravirus, April 2020 (facial recognition cameras, masks and the global development of totalitarianism from China to the rest of the world)

Leftist bollocks from the usual suspects (December 2020)

and also, on aspects of the search for vaccinations, see this (September 2020)

Also “The ‘C’ word”

Also see these from earlier phases of this madness: Letter from a comrade in China (March 2020) & Social Contagion (February 2020) (I have minor qualms about what could be interpreted as some nostalgia for welfare state capitalism, but it’s not explicit and is not in any way the main aspect of this text; for a critique of welfare state capitalism see this)