The Wuhan virus—how are we doing? - Page 177 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15209559
colliric wrote:National Post: Freedom Convoy 2022 live updates: 'We are the fringe minority'.
https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/ ... -2022-news

Yep. Biggest Convoy protest in world history confirmed. Exact numbers not quite certain, but it did break the record by a large margin.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/au.news.ya ... 15016.html

Over 100,000 Donors raised nearly $10 million.

Only half of them needed to be truckers turning up.


Quote the relevant text.
#15209595
le Devoir wrote:Image


GODIN SUNDAY CARTOON

Justin Trudeau and the Ottawa Demo

"I would have loved to have been there to give them my take on the situation, but I'm currently in preventitive isolation from COVID."
#15209657
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So it looks like the Xi/Omicron surge is well and truly over, we can probably expect a similar collapse in the death rate over the next few weeks.

Now a top doctor for John Hopkins University is calling for those with natural immunity that were fired because they refused to take an unnecessary vaccine is calling for them to be rehired:



In an article in a column in the Wall Street Journal, he added this:

    "Public-health officials ruined many lives by insisting that workers with natural immunity to Covid-19 be fired if they weren't fully vaccinated. But after two years of accruing data, the superiority of natural immunity over vaccinated immunity is clear. By firing staff with natural immunity, employers got rid of those least likely to infect others. It's time to reinstate those employees with an apology. None of this should surprise us. For years, studies have shown that infection with the other coronaviruses that cause severe illness, SARS and MERS, confers lasting immunity. In a study published in May 2020, Covid-recovered monkeys that were rechallenged with the virus didn't get sick. Public-health officials have a lot of explaining to do."

And it seems likely that there has been a conspiracy involving the Wuhan virus, to suppress any consideration that it might have come from a lab:

A Covid Origin Conspiracy?
From almost the moment the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in the city of Wuhan, the medical-research establishment in Washington and London insisted that the virus had emerged naturally. Only conspiracy theorists, they said, would give credence to the idea that the virus had escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Now a string of unearthed emails—the most recent being a batch viewed by the House Oversight and Reform Committee and referred to in its January 11, 2022 letter—is making it seem increasingly likely that there was, in fact, a conspiracy, its aim being to suppress the notion that the virus had emerged from research funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), headed by Anthony Fauci. The latest emails don’t prove such a conspiracy, but they make it more plausible, for two reasons: because the expert virologists therein present such a strong case for thinking that the virus had lab-made features and because of the wholly political reaction to this bombshell on the part of Francis Collins, then-director of the National Institutes of Health.

The story begins with a January 31, 2020, email to Fauci from a group of four virologists led by Kristian G. Andersen of the Scripps Research Institute. The genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2 had been published three weeks before, giving virologists their first look at the virus’s structure and possible origin.

Andersen reported to Fauci that “after discussions earlier today, Eddie, Bob, Mike and myself all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory.” Eddie is Edward C. Holmes of the University of Sydney; Bob is Robert F. Garry of Tulane University; Mike is Michael Farzan at Scripps Research. In their unanimous view, the virus didn’t come from nature and may instead have escaped from a lab.

We knew this much already from emails obtained in June 2021 by a Freedom of Information Act request, as well as from the fact that a teleconference took place the following day (February 1, 2020) to discuss the virologists’ conclusion. But something remarkable happened at the conference, because within three days Andersen was singing a different tune. In a February 4, 2020 email, he derided ideas about a lab leak as “crackpot theories” that “relate to this virus being somehow engineered with intent and that is demonstrably not the case.”

Andersen and his colleagues then prepared an article, published on March 17, 2020, in the journal Nature Medicine, that declared flatly, “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.” The article was highly influential, persuading the mainstream press not to investigate lab-leak theories. That paper, along with an earlier letter in the British medical journal The Lancet, froze into silence any dissenting voices from the scientific community. The Lancet letter was signed by Jeremy Farrar, a powerful research administrator in London who convened the February 1 teleconference.

What happened at the February 1 teleconference to make the virologists change their minds so radically? It was impossible to tell from the emails released in June 2021 because almost every word in them was redacted. The House Oversight and Reform Committee was allowed to view the emails only in camera, meaning members weren’t given copies, but staffers are allowed to transcribe them by hand while viewing them.

A striking feature of the excerpts released in the committee’s January 11, 2022 letter is that the virologists had little doubt that the virus bore the fingerprints of manipulation. The focus of their attention was a genetic element called a furin cleavage site. This short snippet of genetic material is what makes the virus so infectious for human cells. Scientists sometimes add this element to laboratory viruses to make them more virulent, but in nature, viruses usually acquire runs of genetic material like this by swapping them with other members of their family. The furin cleavage site in the Covid virus sticks out like a sore thumb because no other known member of its family—a group called Sarbecoviruses—possesses a furin cleavage site. So how did the virus acquire it?

A member of the Andersen group, Garry of Tulane University, remarks in the latest emails on the fact that the inserted furin cleavage site, a string of 12 units of RNA, the virus’s genetic material, was exactly the required length, a precision unusual in nature: “I just can’t figure out how this gets accomplished in nature . . . it’s stunning. Of course, in the lab it would be easy to generate the perfect 12 base insert that you wanted.”

Another member of the Andersen group, Farzan of Scripps Research, apparently felt much the same way. “He is bothered by the furin cleavage site and has a hard time explain[ing] that as an event outside the lab (though, there are possible ways in nature, but highly unlikely),” the House committee’s letter says of his remarks. Farzan noted that viruses can acquire elements like furin cleavage sites when grown in cultures of human cells, so “instead of directed engineering . . . acquisition of the furin site would be highly compatible with the continued passage of virus in tissue culture.” Both routes— direct insertion of the cleavage site or tissue culture—would mean that the virus came from a lab.

The conferees were clearly aware of the possibility that the virus had originated in the Wuhan lab. “So I think it becomes a question of how do you put all this together,” Farzan wrote, “whether you believe in this series of coincidences, what you know of the lab in Wuhan, how much could be in nature—accidental release or natural event? I am 70:30 or 60:40,” meaning he thought lab origin considerably more likely than not.

You might think that the senior administrators present at the conference would have rushed to investigate the startling inference that their expert advisers had drawn. But just one day after the teleconference at which his experts explained why they thought the virus seemed manipulated, Collins complained about the damage such an idea might cause. “The voices of conspiracy will quickly dominate, doing great potential harm to science and international harmony,” he wrote on February 2, 2020, according to the new emails.

Even after the March 2020 Nature Medicine article, which made the natural-origin theory the mainstream view, Collins still fretted that the lab-leak idea had not been sufficiently suppressed. “Wondering if there is something NIH can do to help put down this very destructive conspiracy,” he emailed Fauci on April 16.

Fauci was less concerned. “I would not do anything about this right now,” he replied the next day. “It is a shiny object that will go away in times.” For many months, it did just that. Natural emergence remained the only possibility on the table in the scientific establishment and mainstream media.

But the lab-leak theory gained in plausibility as more facts emerged about the research NIAID was funding at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The program followed a debate among virologists as to how far one should go in enhancing a virus’s abilities in the lab in order to study its properties. Collins and Fauci were proponents of “gain-of-function” research, as it is blandly known. “Important information and insights can come from generating a potentially dangerous virus in the laboratory,” they wrote in the Washington Post in 2011.

Some virologists questioned whether the possible gains were worth the substantial risks. But Collins and Fauci prevailed over the doubters, and in 2014 they began supporting a program of manipulating SARS-related viruses in Wuhan. Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance of New York, managed the program, using NIH money to fund Shi Zhengli, the chief expert on coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

As we know from EcoHealth’s grant applications to the NIAID, Shi collected many types of coronaviruses from wild bats and took them back to her lab. There she manipulated the viruses, principally by taking the gene for the spike protein of one virus and inserting it into the genome of another. The stated goal of this research was to find out how close the wild viruses might be to jumping to humans. To this end, she tested the novel viruses in humanized mice—animals genetically engineered to carry in their airways the proteins that the virus targets. The process adapts the virus to be capable of attacking live humans, even though this is not the intent.

Besides adding novel spike proteins, Shi’s manipulations may well have included insertion of a furin cleavage site. EcoHealth applied for a grant in 2018 for research that proposed to “introduce appropriate human-specific cleavage sites” into SARS-like coronaviruses. Though this grant application, submitted to an agency of the Defense Department, was turned down, Shi’s research team was clearly aware of the technique and may well have conducted such experiments with other funds. It’s common practice for researchers to test out experimental techniques before applying for the grant in which they will be used.

The Andersen group’s detection of the furin cleavage site on January 31, 2020, was a plausible basis for suspecting that SARS-CoV2 was not a natural virus. It’s an enduring puzzle as to why they then ruled out this possibility a mere four days later. There is thus far no counterargument in the public record. Farzan, the one member among Andersen and his three colleagues who did not sign the Nature Medicine article, declined an email request to discuss the episode.

However, Garry said in an email response that his remarks about the furin cleavage site in the emails discussed in the House committee’s January 11 letter were just arguing a position and were taken out of context. “I favored the natural origin and had so for weeks, but the furin cleavage site was hard to rationalize.”

The Andersen group’s change of mind, Garry said, was not precipitate and had developed over several weeks for scientific reasons, not political pressure. A principal factor was “extremely important and compelling” data posted on January 23 about a coronavirus found in pangolins. The pangolin virus’s receptor-binding domain, a critical feature that recognizes a target protein on the cell surface, was almost identical to that of SARS-CoV-2. This was a “big deal,” Garry said, because “if this feature was natural then very likely the whole virus was natural including the furin cleavage site.”

The argument is a little difficult to follow. Just because one part of the virus is natural, why does that show that someone had not inserted a genetically engineered furin cleavage site in another part? Garry replied that engineering such a site would be a “very expensive, labor intensive, multiple month” process, and that in any case the Chinese researchers wouldn’t have used a virus so different from SARS1, the cause of a 2003 epidemic and their primary known focus of interest. But this is a hypothetical, not a clinching argument. If the Andersen group heard compelling new information about the virus’s origin between January 31 and February 4, Garry seems unable to say what it was.

So what induced these virologists to such a radical change of view? “The February 1, 2020, telecon sent a clear message to participants that Fauci and Collins regarded discussion of the lab leak possibility, even though plausible on scientific data, to be politically unacceptable and something that had to be blocked,” says Richard Ebright of Rutgers University, a molecular biologist and a leading critic of gain-of-function research.

Fauci oversees a large portion of funds available for virology research in the U.S. It is not unreasonable to suppose that virologists keen on continuing their careers would be very attentive to his wishes. Both Garry’s and Andersen’s labs receive large sums of money from the NIAID. “Telecon participants with current and pending grants controlled by Fauci and Collins could not have missed or misunderstood the clear message,” Ebright says.

The repudiation by Andersen, Garry, and Holmes of their original conclusion, expressed in the January 31, 2020, email was of enormous benefit to Collins and Fauci. Though primary responsibility for any lab leak would rest with Shi at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and with Chinese regulatory authorities, Collins and Fauci could share a portion of the blame for having funded gain-of-function research despite its obvious risks and then failing to ensure that grant recipients were taking all necessary precautions.

If there really was a conspiracy surrounding the origin of SARS-CoV-2, Congress should search for it—first, in the still-closed records of the National Institutes of Health and the EcoHealth Alliance. Congress then needs to ask scientists free of outside pressures or conflicts to reassess the probable origin of a virus that has now killed some 5 million people worldwide.


And the governments' complete mishandling of the Wuhan virus vaccine push is having a dangerous side effect: COVID-19 fights bleed into larger ‘anti-vaxx’ movement, threaten longtime vaccine rules in schools
#15209662
It is hilarious to me that colliric got vaccinated the second there was even the smallest inconvenience to not getting the shot but they still boost every moronic anti-vaxx protest. He got all anxious but other than getting a shot and having a healthcare worker listen to him bitch for a moment he was fine.

Ooohhhhh 250 trucks. Two hundred and fifty whole people showed up to this protest, which colliric promised us would be enough trucks to circle the sun and back.

There's news stories coming out about dumbasses purposely leaving their children fatherless because hospital organ donation programs require them to be up to date on vaccines, but colliric gave in immediately and is just cheering from the sidelines. He admires these stupid fucks because on some level he knows all the "local news" he consumes about spermjacking groups funded by Soros aren't real, but he wants to commit to the stupid rightwing lie.
#15209668
Maybe they would clear up if you stopped consuming "local news" reports all day about how the vaccine is rewriting your DNA or whatever.

You literally had a nurse hold your hand because you hyper ventilated after your shot, maybe consuming right wing bullshit all day has something to do with it.

Which, lol, your thought process was literally, "I have to get the poison vaccine to keep my job. Better keep supporting rightwing politics unconditionally because AOC wore a dress to a fundraiser and now I have to support international fascism."
#15209669
SpecialOlympian wrote:Maybe they would clear up if you stopped consuming "local news" reports all day about how the vaccine is rewriting your DNA or whatever.

You literally had a nurse hold your hand because you hyper ventilated after your shot, maybe consuming right wing bullshit all day has something to do with it.


I'm listening to Abby Martin's podcast right now.

"How The Pentagon Runs Hollywood".

Fascinating episode.
#15209682
colliric wrote:No I'm not fine. I've had heart issues and high blood pressure ever since taking that damn crap.

Weird. When I got mine, the only changes I could find in my body were the scales, my teeth became sharper and now I can spit fire. I didn't have any heart issues.
:lol:
#15209686
colliric wrote:No I'm not fine. I've had heart issues and high blood pressure ever since taking that damn crap.
Somatic Symptom disorder is a mental illness.
#15209709
colliric wrote:No I'm not fine. I've had heart issues and high blood pressure ever since taking that damn crap.

If there are side effects of the vaccine, they shouldn't be mentionned, because this makes it look like you're spreading "misinformation" (not sure what this word means, but it's a bad thing that only bad people do).

ON the positive side, according to our PM, you are no longer "a racist, or misogynist."

#15209768
Canadian Truckers Throw Trudeau in A Tailspin

https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-01-...-mandates.html

Natural News) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been moved from the country’s capital in Ottawa as convoys of thousands of truck drivers stream there to protest his government’s continued COVID-19 vaccine, mask and lockdown mandates.

“CBC says Justin Trudeau has been relocated from Rideau Cottage for his safety,” the National Post reported in a live update on Saturday, adding: “Crowds are packing Parliament Hill today to protest the federal Liberal government, vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions.”

The paper continued:

The sounds of honking horns are echoing around Ottawa’s downtown core. About 100 vehicles are idling around the National War Memorial in downtown Ottawa, with more trucks and personal vehicles packed on Wellington Street stretching west past Parliament Hill. Hundreds of demonstrators are marching up and down Wellington Street, which runs right in front of Parliament Hill and the Prime Minister’s Office.

The national flag is flying from some vehicles, or draped around the shoulders of some protestors, many of whom appear to be unmasked. Some are carrying copies of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Reuters reported that several trucks and smaller vehicles that joined the convoy were adorned with various anti-mandate signage including some that simply said, “Stop The Mandates.”

Local12 added that by many estimates, the convoy was the largest in the country’s history.

“The ‘Freedom Convoy‘ was reportedly organized to protest against the vaccine mandates put in place at the U.S.-Canada border, as well as mask mandates for truckers, which orders the drivers to wear masks in trucks,” the outlet reported.
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