Not Gonna Hold Back!

That's what we're being told about Zhou when he meets with Vlad--he's not gonna hold back. 

Meanwhile he's warming up at something called the G-7, where democratic leaders gather at the bottom of history's slippery slope and bloviate about becoming more "gender neutral" and "feminine":

.@BorisJohnson: G7 nations must build back in a “greener,” “more gender neutral and perhaps a more feminine way” pic.twitter.com/nLbYzGDk7d

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 11, 2021

Who thinks Putin--or Xi--would've been impressed had they been present?

CDC Schedules Emergency Meeting

This news came out this afternoon. The meeting is to evaluate the unexpectedly high number of reported instances of heart inflammation (myocarditis and pericarditis) being reported after Covid vaccination, and especially affecting young men. We've mentioned this previously, and there have been multiple reports from Israel on this score as well.

There are naturally several different accounts available, but CTH has a nice short version from Reuters as well as a graph from CDC. Here's the title line from ZeroHedge:

CDC To Hold "Emergency Meeting" After 100s Suffer Heart Inflammation Following COVID Vaccines

The ZeroHedge post is longer, but here's the Reuter's report as quoted at CTH, which gives you the essence of what's going on:

REUTERS – “A higher-than-expected number of young men have experienced heart inflammation after their second dose of the mRNA COVID-19 shots from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, according to data from two vaccine safety monitoring systems, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday.”

 […] “We clearly have an imbalance there,” Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, deputy director of the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office, said in a presentation to an advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration meeting on Thursday. The overwhelming majority of the cases have occurred within a week of vaccination, Shimabukuro said.” (read more)

Sundance, alluding to Big Pharma's big push to vax young people who are not at any discernible risk, comments:

“All your children are belong to us”…

How's Zhou Doing Overseas?

CNN has told us that Kama Sutra's first foreign venture was a "disaster". I'll admit I ignored the whole thing, but I'm willing to take CNN's word for it.

Similarly, I'm willing to take the word of anonymous Brit MP's with regard to Zhou's overseas adventure:

BREAKING: Labour Party member comments “At least Trump was attentive,” says Biden can’t keep up with G7 events or follow note cards, per WH official to @HumanEvents pic.twitter.com/oHCoTJD2UM

— AntifaBook.com (@JackPosobiec) June 10, 2021

What's A Scientist?

From the longer article, The New Clerisy.

Briefly Noted: Money Woes

It's another medical morning. I wasn't sure what to name this post, but the common denominator is money, so ...

First we have an update from a comment--I think it was Ray So-Cal who pointed this out, sorry if I'm wrong. Axios or ZeroHedge owes Ray (or someone) a h/t. It shows a largely dysfunctional US, which I guess is not news:

Today In Faucigate

Or should it be Sciencegate--since that's what Fauci claims it's really all about?

Fauci is flailing. He's attempting scare tactics, invoking the Dread Variants--which turn out to be most threatening to ... those who got vaxxed. Go figure, except that knowledgeable people in the field--immunologists and virologists, not amateurs like Fauci--actually DID figure that out. And tried to tell us about it.

His other tactic is to double down on wearing the mantle of science--woops, Science. With a capital "S", so it'll seem as big as Fauci's ego. Here's the money quote, but you can indulge yourselves with more at Red State (Fauci Loses It Big Time, Rants Attacking Him Is 'Attacking Science'). Here's Fauci whining to the utterly fatuous Chuck Todd:

“It’s very dangerous, Chuck, because a lot of what you’re seeing as attacks on me quite frankly are attacks on science because all of the things that I have spoken about consistently from the very beginning have been fundamentally based on science….If you are trying to get at me as a public health official and a scientist, you’re really attacking not only Dr. Anthony Fauci, you’re attacking science. And anybody that looks at what’s going on, clearly sees that. You have to be asleep not to see that. That is what’s going on. Science and the truth are being attacked.”

Yes, that's losing it big time, and it's an embarrassment to any real scientist who are left out there. If it's down to this, I have to suspect he may be a short timer now.

Beyond this silliness, however, there were two items at ZeroHedge that are worth considering. Someone dug up a video of Peter Daszak from 2016 explaining how gain of function research works--and he's explicitly talking about how his "Chinese colleagues" do it. Here's the transcript--I've added the beginning and ending sentences to what appears at the link: Fauci Pal Daszak Admits "Chinese Colleagues" Developing "Killer" Coronaviruses. Note that what Daszak is describing is supposedly how GOF research is used to develop vaccines:

Briefly Noted: A Humor Break

Two especially humorous items today.

First: Progs who just don't get it. 

WHO advisory board member: I'm a progressive Dem who was called a 'right-wing nut' over Wuhan lab leak theory

Jamie Metzl slammed Peter Daszak's 2020 Lancet letter condemning lab leak theory as 'scientific propaganda'

Jamie Metzl sounds for all the world like a prototypical prog. If you don't believe me, check him out at Wikipdedia or at his profile page. Whatever else those pages suggest to you, he's probably a natively very smart guy. He's a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and previously worked for Zhou Baiden and the Clinton Admin. With that background, you have to wonder: Exactly what about the Progressivism doesn't he get?

Obviously there's a disconnect somewhere, because he went and got himself labeled as a "right wing conspiracy theorist." You can imagine the amount of heartburn he--a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a member of WHO's advisory board--is suffering! It's to the point that he actually appeared on Fox and Friends, seemingly the only platform willing to grant him an audience. And he still doesn't seem to understand what hit him--as if pleading his case on Fox will somehow restore him to the good graces of World Progressivism.

Here's how he responds to a question about Peter Daszak's orchestration of the Lancet statement, the statement that, 'Hey, that Covid thing was totally not engineered in a lab--are you crazy?' That's the statement that's now being revealed as complete bullsh*t, basically coerced from scientists who were on the government grant take. 

The clueless Metzl went on Fox to protest his Prog credentials jproceeds to congratulate his right wing hosts on defending science against the progressive Left and generally getting the whole story absolutely correct. Then Metzl goes on to compound matters by naively claiming that science--as practiced in the 21st century--isn't about politics:

Briefly Noted: What Have The Woke Awakened?

Are we finally seeing the American public reacting against the Woke? The Progs, CRTs, Antifa, BLM, etc.? Every day seems to bring fresh examples that suggest that that might be the case.

Yesterday we noted the surge in support for the death penalty--a decidedly unwoke position. Today we link to several stories over the last few days that suggest that people are fed up, they've had enough and don't want any more. In fact, they want to roll back what's been going on. So, just a sample:

[Federal] Judge approves suit alleging new Virginia high school admission policy discriminates against Asians

The judge said the school's admissions policy was not "race-neutral."

The SCOTUS has dodged the issue of discrimination masquerading as diversity in the guise of affirmative action for years. It may not be possible any longer, as Asians in particular are seeing the handwriting on the wall as it affects them where they live.

Vaccines And Variants

H/T Jim

The Daily Telegraph (UK) is reporting that two studies in the US--one at the University of Washington and one at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention--indicate that persons who have been vaxed and then contract Covid are far more likely than unvaxxed persons to contract a variant. Of special concern, according to the article, is the fact that while these vaxed individuals who contract a Covid variant have not died (in the Washington study) they do exhibit a very high "viral load," meaning that they would likely be able to infect others.

You may recall that a vaccine developer whom we cited in the past, Geert Vanden Bossche, expressed a strong concern that the use of these vaccines while the pandemic was still ongoing would tend to foster the development of new variants that might actually be more problematic than the original version. Here's how Vanden Bossche expressed his concern in Vax Hesitancy--Reasonable Or Not? 

In summary, the concerns center around the notion that a combination of lockdowns and extreme selection pressure on the virus induced by the intense global mass vaccination program might diminish the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the short-term, but ultimately, will induce the creation of more mutants of concern.

This is the result of what Vanden Bossche calls ‘immune escape’ (i.e. incomplete sterilization of the virus by the human immune system, even following vaccine administration). This will in turn trigger vaccine companies to further refine vaccines that will add, not reduce, the selection pressure, so producing ever more transmissible and potentially deadly variants.

The selection pressure will cause greater convergence in mutations that affect the critical spike protein of the virus that is responsible for breaking through the mucosal surfaces of our airways, the route used by the virus to enter the human body. The virus will effectively outsmart the highly specific antigen-based vaccines that are being used and tweaked, dependent on the circulating variants. All of this could lead to a hockey stick-like increase in serious and potentially lethal cases — in effect, an out-of-control pandemic.

Not only that, it will be Western nations with high proportions of metabolically diseased, overweight or obese individuals with compromised immune systems that will be hit hardest.

Below is a fairly full excerpt from the Telegraph article. I'm not qualified to comment in any depth. However, I will point out that there is at least one discrepancy between what Vanden Bossche said and what the study author (Pavitra Roychoudhury) says. According to Vanden Bossche the "antigen-based vaccines" are "highly specific". Roychoudhury, on the other hand, maintains that 

"A lot of the antibody responses are pretty broad. The vaccines are not designed to be super specific so they will be able to target the variants."

I'll go out on a limb a bit and state that my impression is that Roychoudhury's tone is that of a cheerleader for the vaccines. Nevertheless, according to the article, she is aware that her findings go against the "prevailing understanding" of what would have been expected. Clearly, this is a "developing situation."

Briefly Noted: In Vax News

This is interesting. Please note that Senator Paul is incorrect. It is NOT true that there was no difference in the reinfection rates for those who were vaxxed and those who were non-vaxxed-but-previously-infected. We'll quote from the study below. The significance of this study--in part--is that it really does establish that naturally acquired immunity is preferable to vax acquired immunity. Moreover, if we're to believe top epidemiologists, there are many, many millions of people who fall into the "previously infected" category.

This information frees up millions of doses of vaccines for those not yet infected in places with vaccine shortages like India.https://t.co/V5EOqZ1CPm

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 8, 2021

Now, first we look at the results of the study in a graph. Please note that, despite the dramatic looking lines, the actual real world incidence of Covid infection in the study group was extremely low. Feed into that the reality of extremely low mortality rates for working age people, if you're inclined to wonder what this means for overall risk assessment. Nothing changes from what we already know. Also feed into that what we know--but which the medical establishment is still trying to hide from us--about highly effective and inexpensive medications for treating Covid.

Briefly Noted: Dem Jim Crow--And More

Brief notes seems to be the way to go today.

We've all heard the comparisons of a vax passport regime to Jim Crow. I've been waiting for someone to point out how literal that type of Jim Crow could turn out to be. My thinking has been that African Americans are participating in the vax experiment to a very significantly lower degree than other "others"--meaning especially Whites and Asians. Two words pop immediately to my mind when I hear people, usually Dems, gloating at the prospect of instituting a vax-pass regime that will hammer all those anti-science deplorables: Disparate Impact. It stands to reason, and here's a story that shows how big a deal that could be, when Karens start denying Blacks access to the normal amenities of American life--like travel, access to higher education, etc.:

Biden’s vaccine push fails to gain traction with African Americans
MSN ^ | 8 June 2021 | Adam Cancryn

Posted on 6/8/2021, 4:38:00 AM by Erik Latranyi

The Biden administration knew the key to a successful Covid vaccination campaign would be reaching the most vulnerable populations. But more than five months in, even a blueprint that’s worked with other ethnic and racial groups isn’t doing enough to win over Black Americans.

Less than a quarter of Black Americans had received their first Covid-19 shot as of June 7 based on available federal data, amid a weekslong stagnation that has defied the government’s ramped-up effort to accelerate vaccinations and reach the nation’s most vulnerable communities.

One assumes that at some point someone will clue the Dems in, but you never know.

In related news ...

I'm for a return to normality--a word I use advisedly:

Briefly Noted: China Won, But Who Won Georgia?

I'm heading out to give blood soon, but here are two good reads I noticed this morning.

The first is Conrad Black offering his big picture view of who won the Covid Panic. His answer is simple: China won. They were ruthless and opportunistic: