Today’s News 25th December 2021

• A Myth Is Born: How CDC, FDA, & Media Wove A Web Of Ivermectin Lies That Outlives The Truth
  A Myth Is Born: How CDC, FDA, & Media Wove A Web Of Ivermectin Lies That Outlives The Truth

  Via RESCUE with Michael Capuzzo Substack,

  New Mexico officials admit they were wrong: Two people died from covid. NOT from ivermectin. Yet the CDC generated the nation’s highest health alert and a thousand fake headlines on false cases.

  Linda Bonvie  and Mary Beth Pfeiffer

  When a Texas cattleman, seventy-nine, died last September in New Mexico after contracting covid, his family never anticipated the worldwide headlines that would ensue.

  In a ballyhooed press conference, New Mexico Human Services Secretary Dr. David Scrase, the state’s top health chief, announced New Mexico’s first ivermectin “overdose,” soon adding a second fatality allegedly from “ivermectin toxicity.”

  

  An ornament with a photo of the Texas cattleman, whose death was falsely attributed to ivermectin and used as part of a deliberate effort to make that perfectly safe drug appear to be highly dangerous, is lovingly hung on the family Christmas tree by his daughter. 

  Now, Scrase has acknowledged that his repeated, what he called “offhand,” assertions were groundless. Two deaths were not caused by ivermectin, a long-used generic drug that was emerging as a covid treatment. Instead, he said that the pair died because they “actually just delayed their care with covid.” 

  That is a big difference.

  Scrase backpedaled on December 1 in a little-noticed online press briefing and only after we pressed his agency to provide evidence for its claims of so-called “ivermectin deaths.” Officials had repeatedly said they were awaiting a toxicology report on the cattleman’s death. Yet we learned that the report was never even ordered or done, and, moreover, the man’s death was ruled by the state’s coroner as being from “natural” causes.

  Not a single media outlet reported Scrase’s admission, even as dozens, including the The Hill and The New York Times, had eagerly covered his original assertions about ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2015.

  “I don’t want more people to die,” read one early headline, quoting Scrase. “It’s the wrong medicine for something really serious,” Scrase said in the Times article.

  Doctors, scientists, and toxicologists worldwide were puzzled by the assertions, because ivermectin is an extraordinarily safe, FDA-approved drug. A fixture on the WHO’s list of 100 essential medicines all hospital systems are recommended to carry, nearly four billion doses have been given in four decades.

  New Mexico became a key player in a broad pattern of governmental deception late last summer to portray ivermectin as dangerous, in tandem with three related developments. Research strongly supported the drug’s efficacy against covid; prescriptions were soaring; and public health officials were single-mindedly focused not on treatment but on vaccination.

  We previously reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s tweeted warning last August against using ivermectin meant for livestock was prompted by incorrect—and unverified—information from Mississippi. Health officials there had posted an alert suggesting the state’s poison control center was deluged with hundreds of calls over ingestion of livestock ivermectin; in reality, we found, four reports were received.

  But, fueled by bits of contorted evidence like this, the anti-ivermectin train was unstoppable. We have now learned that, in the rush to bury a drug described as “astonishingly safe” and long used globally to quell animal and human parasites, FDA was not alone.

  Emails we obtained from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control show that an influential August 26 national health alert on ivermectin was spurred, like the FDA tweet, by a sliver of evidence: just three cases of alleged ivermectin side effects, two involving animal formulations. No patient died; one appeared to have been hospitalized, and one declined any medical help.

  Nonetheless, those three reports, obtained by Atlanta-based CDC from the Georgia poison control center, sealed the decision to issue the nation’s highest-level health warning, according to the emails. 

  

  Shortly after learning of three cases, CDC’s Michael Yeh writes, “we have evidence of significant toxicity.”

  Referring to planning for the health alert, “the consensus was that unless we’re seeing bad adverse effects from ivermectin, we’d hold off,” wrote a CDC medical toxicity officer, Dr. Michael Yeh, in an August 17 email. “Now it sounds like we have evidence of significant toxicity.”

  That email was written seventy-two minutes after brief information on three reports arrived in a separate email.

  While CDC’s intention might have been to protect people, the alert is emblematic of what had become a national obsession: Portray an early treatment for covid—whether in the animal or human form—as potentially toxic.

  CDC hopped aboard.

  In an email later that day, Yeh laid out the evidence. The most serious case involved a man, seventy-seven, who had was said to have taken a dose of ivermectin “apparently meant for an 1800 lb. bovine.” He had “hallucinations and tremors, which improved but he was eventually diagnosed with COVID-19” for which he needed only supplemental oxygen, Yeh notes.

  In two other cases, a woman who took the human form of the drug was said to have suffered “some confusion.” Another woman had “subjective visual disturbances” after taking “a product meant for sheep” but declined medical help. These side effects are in keeping with what the National Institutes of Health calls a “well-tolerated” anti-parasitic drug with such adverse effects as “dizziness, pruritis, nausea, or diarrhea.”

  French researchers published a review last March of 350 ivermectin articles in the medical literature and found adverse effects to be “infrequent and usually mild to moderate.” The study, by the French drugmaker MedinCell, noted that no deaths were reported even after accidental overdoses or suicide attempts.

  In view of ivermectin’s well-established safety profile, our request for CDC documents under the Freedom of Information Act sought the rationale for the health alert and specifically asked for the data CDC used from the American Association of Poison Control Centers, to which state centers report. (AAPCC had refused to provide it.)

  In response to the FOIA request, CDC asserted, quite remarkably, that it “no longer possesses or has access to the data” because its “licensing agreement” with AAPCC had lapsed. The data might have specified, for example, just how many calls were related either to animal or human formulations; the alert instead lumps all reports together, making it difficult to fathom the extent of livestock ivermectin use.

  

  The CDC asserts in a letter to us that it no longer possesses the data on which a national health alert was based.

  An increase in ivermectin calls to poison control centers in 2021 is not in dispute, especially as doctors learned of studies showing fewer deaths, shorter hospitalizations, and outpatient success. Poison control centers often see upticks in calls when new drugs come into use, with many callers seeking only information. Centers also field calls on old, long-established medications. Acetaminophen alone generated 47,000 reports in 2019 and led to 164 deaths, according to the AAPCC.

  This context, of course, was missing from CDC’s alert. Calls to poison control centers for use of animal and human ivermectin grew five- to eight-fold from “pre-pandemic levels,” the alert ominously reported. At the same time, it said, ivermectin prescriptions had soared twenty-four-fold—in a perfectly legal trend led by physicians but one the CDC clearly found unacceptable and alarming.

  No distinction was made between animal and human formulations in the alert, which was peppered with phrases like “ivermectin misuse and overdose;” “seizures, coma, and death;” “sheep drench,” “severe illness,” and “rapid increase.” The message: Don’t use either form, even as seventy-one studies show 64 percent of 50,180 patients improved after taking ivermectin for covid.

  Despite the alert and New Mexico’s unfounded pronouncements, no one has died from ivermectin poisoning among 2,112 cases logged by AAPCC from January 1 to December 14, 2021. Two percent of those reports, about forty-two, involved a “major” effect, an AAPCC bulletin states. Seventy percent were dismissed as having no effect, “nontoxic exposure,” and the like.

  One category of those calls might rightfully have been classified as anti-ivermectin hysteria. New Mexico, for example, urged citizens to report any known ivermectin use to the state’s poison control center, even if  “someone you know has taken it.” 

  We asked Dr. Paul Marik, a founder of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, his thoughts on the effort to vilify ivermectin as dangerous.

  “Ivermectin is one of the safest medications on this planet; far safer than aspirin or acetaminophen,” he said.

  “This is a fairy tale. Disney could not come up with a better fairy tale.” 

  But it was no kind of fantasy for the cattleman’s family when he got sick. It was a painful experience with a politicized health system.

  A “Very Puzzling” Phone Call

  It wasn’t a secret that a cattleman, who died while in New Mexico from covid, took an animal formulation of ivermectin. It is a drug he was well versed in using, having routinely administered it to his herds in Texas.

  Others in the family also used Ivomec, a liquid formulation of ivermectin for cattle, since news spread of ivermectin’s effectiveness against covid. “Practically everyone I know takes it,” we were told by a close family friend and business associate of the Texan. (We are withholding the man’s name at the family’s request.)

  Ivermectin is just one of 167 drugs tested for safety and approved by the FDA for both animals and humans. Yet those who take either form of ivermectin for covid have been characterized as being anti-science and influenced by “misinformation.”

  The Texan is one of two individuals who, according to repeated statements from New Mexico officials, died from “ivermectin toxicity.” While their identities were not revealed by the department of health, a source familiar with the cases released them to us during this investigation.

  Documents and interviews with those knowledgeable about the death of the rancher tell a different story than the narrative put forth by New Mexico health officials.

  When the cattleman arrived at the ER on the evening of September 2 with his wife, he was soon diagnosed as suffering from acute dehydration as well as being covid positive.

  His daughter arrived at the hospital several hours later.

  In an interview, she told of the surprise eightieth birthday party for her dad the weekend before, where eight of the eleven family members attending ended up with covid. Everyone seemed to have mild symptoms, she recalled.

  With her dad in New Mexico and not feeling well, she suggested he be checked out. “My father was not very good at keeping himself hydrated,” she said, and at that point he didn’t seem to be drinking at all.

  He arrived at the hospital dehydrated to the point that his kidneys had become damaged, doctors told the family. Lacking a proper dialysis machine at the Lincoln County Medical Center, the family was told that they were trying to locate another hospital to send him to. Unfortunately, he never made it out of Ruidoso, dying on September 3.

  But what happened while his wife and daughter anxiously waited outside the ICU, soon after being informed that the Texan was likely going to pass away, struck them as most peculiar.  

  His daughter recalled a “very puzzling” phone call her mother received—so disturbing, in fact, that she felt like “yanking the phone from her.”

  An unknown man was on the line asking if her father took ivermectin. It was the only time she remembers that particular drug being discussed in the hospital.

  “I feel like they were pushing her. It was really irritating,” she said, adding, “it was not a doctor or nurse, but mom cannot remember who it was or what they represented.”

  They were most interested, she recalled, in grilling her mother about her dad’s use of Ivomec.

  At the very next press briefing, Dr. Scrase announced that a “reliable source” reported the state’s “first death” from someone who took ivermectin. While he hedged his bets about the role of ivermectin—and mentioned delayed care—he nonetheless repeatedly characterized the man’s death and one other as specifically being caused by ivermectin.

  However, the cattleman’s death certificate, filed at the end of September, says otherwise. It stated he passed away from “natural” causes. His death was not listed as requiring any type of “pending investigation,” and the medical examiner’s office confirmed the fact that no autopsy or toxicology report was done.

  But Dr. Scrase’s original tale proved to be very popular with the media. USA Today liked it so much the paper released several versions.

  “Two die of ivermectin poisoning,” it announced the same day the death certificate was officiated. Five days after that, a headline in The Hill trumpeted, “New Mexico reports two deaths from ivermectin.”

  The New Mexico Department of Health has yet to respond to any questions about why a straightforward correction was not made to the media early on regarding the two deaths that were erroneously attributed to ivermectin. It is also not clear why at a recent press briefing the agency was continuing to perpetuate this fallacy even after admitting it was untruthful, rather than correcting the record—and why they have alleged another ivermectin-related death, again without offering any evidence to that effect.

  The second supposed ivermectin death involved a thirty-eight-year-old woman from Cuba, New Mexico, reportedly of Navajo heritage. An autopsy was done, but the results have yet to be released.

  While Scrase has acknowledged that the two deaths were from covid, not ivermectin, he nonetheless announced what he called yet a “third” ivermectin death at his December 1 briefing.

  The new death, Scrase said, is a “60-year-old man who took a horse preparation. This gentleman took 150 milligrams, [suffered] liver failure, kidney failure and actually died from the ivermectin without the covid.” 

  As with the first two cases, the cause of death remains to be seen.

  According to Dr. Marik, 150 milligrams of ivermectin can be safely tolerated. “I do not know of a single case of liver failure and organ failure due to ivermectin,” he wrote in an email.

  Both the CDC and New Mexico Department of Health declined to answer questions for this article.

  

  Despite ongoing requests by the New Mexico Department of Health for residents to report any ivermectin use, as this slide displayed during a December 1 press conference shows, only 29 calls came into the state’s poison control center for most all of 2021. The graphic also states that ivermectin caused three deaths in the state, despite the fact that during that very same press briefing it was acknowledged that the first two of the alleged deaths were due to covid, not ivermectin (with no evidence released to support the third claim).

  The CDC emails suggest it took very little to convince the agency to issue a national warning about the use of ivermectin. Details on those three cases are scant, the emails show. 

  Ivermectin dosages are missing or, in one case, described as “concentration unknown.” One woman “was sent to the hospital, but her baseline mental status was unclear.” Another woman was to be contacted for follow-up after declining aid, but there is no indication this was done.  

  These anecdotal bits are the threads from which a mythical tapestry about so-called “ivermectin toxicity” has been woven. This myth lives on in easily accessed online articles.

  Among them:

  • Mississippi’s health alert on August 19 said 70 percent of poison-control calls were for ingestion of livestock ivermectin. The actual figure was 2 percent; it was not corrected for forty-six days.

  • FDA claimed last March to have “received multiple reports” of injury and hospitalization after people took livestock ivermectin. In reality, the agency relied on four reports, a spokesperson said in an email. CDC officials referenced the FDA “consumer warning” when planning their own contribution to the myth of ivermectin harm.

  It matters little that false Mississippi figures were corrected (at our behest) by The New York Times, twice, and The Washington Post. What matters is the hurricane of fear, whipped up by New Mexico, Mississippi, the FDA, and CDC—and abetted by media—made ivermectin into something it was not.

  So where do we stand as vaccines fail and cases rise?

  On October 28, WisPolitics.com reported the case of a family that failed to convince a court to give FDA-approved ivermectin to their dying loved one.

  “There have been multiple reports nationally,” the website reported, “of people taking the version of the drug intended for animals to combat COVID-19 and sickening themselves in the process.”

  Unsupported in the medical literature, the false image of ivermectin convinced doctors in that case to suggest that “the prescribed dosage may be lethal.”

  Indeed, the invented peril, rather than promise, of ivermectin has become ingrained in the national media and consciousness.

  That is the story that lives.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 23:15

• Defiance Grows In Face Of Another COVID Christmas
  Defiance Grows In Face Of Another COVID Christmas

  Most of us probably thought, or at the very least hoped, that Christmas 2020 was going to be a one-off – a festive period which for many was devoid of the usual social gatherings and traditions we look forward to and treasure.

  Alas, as Statista’s Martin Armstrong notes, here we are in December 2021 with Covid cases in a large number of countries rising drastically and many people facing renewed restrictions or even another dose of full lockdown.

  

  As a survey conducted by Statista in early November shows though, there is a rising defiance in the United States and United Kingdom to not let Christmas be “cancelled” this time round.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Although the measures which their respective governments may implement is a fluid situation, around 30 percent of respondents said that they are not planning on giving up any of their Christmas traditions or activities in 2021 – a stark rise compared to the roughly 15 percent recorded by Statista in both countries last time around.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 22:30

• You'd Better Watch Out: The Surveillance State Has A Naughty List, And You're On It
  You’d Better Watch Out: The Surveillance State Has A Naughty List, And You’re On It

  Authored by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “He sees you when you’re sleeping

  He knows when you’re awake

  He knows when you’ve been bad or good

  So be good for goodness’ sake!”

  – “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”

  Santa’s got a new helper.

  No longer does the all-knowing, all-seeing, jolly Old St. Nick need to rely on antiquated elves on shelves and other seasonal snitches in order to know when you’re sleeping or awake, and if you’ve been naughty or nice.

  

  Thanks to the government’s almost limitless powers made possible by a domestic army of techno-tyrants, fusion centers and Peeping Toms, Santa can get real-time reports on who’s been good or bad this year. This creepy new era of government/corporate spying—in which we’re being listened to, watched, tracked, followed, mapped, bought, sold and targeted—makes the NSA’s rudimentary phone and metadata surveillance appear almost antiquated in comparison.

  Consider just a small sampling of the tools being used to track our movements, monitor our spending, and sniff out all the ways in which our thoughts, actions and social circles might land us on the government’s naughty list.

  Tracking you based on your health status. In the age of COVID-19, digital health passports are gaining traction as gatekeepers of a sort, restricting access to travel, entertainment, etc., based on one’s vaccine status. Whether or not one has a vaccine passport, however, individuals may still have to prove themselves “healthy” enough to be part of society. For instance, in the wake of Supreme Court rulings that paved the way for police to use drug-sniffing dogs as “search warrants on leashes,” government agencies are preparing to use virus-detecting canine squads to carry out mass screenings to detect individuals who may have COVID-19. Researchers claim the COVID-sniffing dogs have a 95% success rate of identifying individuals with the virus (except when they’re hungry, tired or distracted). These dogs are also being to trained to ferret out individuals suffering from other health ailments such as cancer.

  Tracking you based on your face: Facial recognition software aims to create a society in which every individual who steps out into public is tracked and recorded as they go about their daily business. Coupled with surveillance cameras that blanket the country, facial recognition technology allows the government and its corporate partners to identify and track someone’s movements in real-time. One particularly controversial software program created by Clearview AI has been used by police, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to collect photos on social media sites for inclusion in a massive facial recognition database. Similarly, biometric software, which relies on one’s unique identifiers (fingerprints, irises, voice prints), is becoming the standard for navigating security lines, as well as bypassing digital locks and gaining access to phones, computers, office buildings, etc. In fact, greater numbers of travelers are opting into programs that rely on their biometrics in order to avoid long waits at airport security. Scientists are also developing lasers that can identify and surveil individuals based on their heartbeats, scent and microbiome.

  Tracking you based on your behavior: Rapid advances in behavioral surveillance are not only making it possible for individuals to be monitored and tracked based on their patterns of movement or behavior, including gait recognition (the way one walks), but have given rise to whole industries that revolve around predicting one’s behavior based on data and surveillance patterns and are also shaping the behaviors of whole populations. One smart “anti-riot” surveillance system purports to predict mass riots and unauthorized public events by using artificial intelligence to analyze social media, news sources, surveillance video feeds and public transportation data.

  Tracking you based on your spending and consumer activities: With every smartphone we buy, every GPS device we install, every Twitter, Facebook, and Google account we open, every frequent buyer card we use for purchases—whether at the grocer’s, the yogurt shop, the airlines or the department store—and every credit and debit card we use to pay for our transactions, we’re helping Corporate America build a dossier for its government counterparts on who we know, what we think, how we spend our money, and how we spend our time. Consumer surveillance, by which your activities and data in the physical and online realms are tracked and shared with advertisers, has become big business, a $300 billion industry that routinely harvests your data for profit. Corporations such as Target have not only been tracking and assessing the behavior of their customers, particularly their purchasing patterns, for years, but the retailer has also funded major surveillance in cities across the country and developed behavioral surveillance algorithms that can determine whether someone’s mannerisms might fit the profile of a thief.

  Tracking you based on your public activities: Private corporations in conjunction with police agencies throughout the country have created a web of surveillance that encompasses all major cities in order to monitor large groups of people seamlessly, as in the case of protests and rallies. They are also engaging in extensive online surveillance, looking for any hints of “large public events, social unrest, gang communications, and criminally predicated individuals.” Defense contractors have been at the forefront of this lucrative market. Fusion centers, $330 million-a-year, information-sharing hubs for federal, state and law enforcement agencies, monitor and report such “suspicious” behavior as people buying pallets of bottled water, photographing government buildings, and applying for a pilot’s license as “suspicious activity.”

  Tracking you based on your social media activities: Every move you make, especially on social media, is monitored, mined for data, crunched, and tabulated in order to form a picture of who you are, what makes you tick, and how best to control you when and if it becomes necessary to bring you in line. As The Intercept reported, the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies are increasingly investing in and relying on corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to identify potential extremists and predict who might engage in future acts of anti-government behavior. This obsession with social media as a form of surveillance will have some frightening consequences in coming years. As Helen A.S. Popkin, writing for NBC News, observed, “We may very well face a future where algorithms bust people en masse for referencing illegal ‘Game of Thrones’ downloads… the new software has the potential to roll, Terminator-style, targeting every social media user with a shameful confession or questionable sense of humor.”

  Tracking you based on your phone and online activities: Cell phones have become de facto snitches, offering up a steady stream of digital location data on users’ movements and travels. Police have used cell-site simulators to carry out mass surveillance of protests without the need for a warrant. Moreover, federal agents can now employ a number of hacking methods in order to gain access to your computer activities and “see” whatever you’re seeing on your monitor. Malicious hacking software can also be used to remotely activate cameras and microphones, offering another means of glimpsing into the personal business of a target.

  Tracking you based on your social network: Not content to merely spy on individuals through their online activity, government agencies are now using surveillance technology to track one’s social network, the people you might connect with by phone, text message, email or through social message, in order to ferret out possible criminals. An FBI document obtained by Rolling Stone speaks to the ease with which agents are able to access address book data from Facebook’s WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage services from the accounts of targeted individuals and individuals not under investigation who might have a targeted individual within their network. What this creates is a “guilt by association” society in which we are all as guilty as the most culpable person in our address book.

  Tracking you based on your car: License plate readers are mass surveillance tools that can photograph over 1,800 license tag numbers per minute, take a picture of every passing license tag number and store the tag number and the date, time, and location of the picture in a searchable database, then share the data with law enforcement, fusion centers and private companies to track the movements of persons in their cars. With tens of thousands of these license plate readers now in operation throughout the country, affixed to overpasses, cop cars and throughout business sectors and residential neighborhoods, it allows police to track vehicles and run the plates through law enforcement databases for abducted children, stolen cars, missing people and wanted fugitives. Of course, the technology is not infallible: there have been numerous incidents in which police have mistakenly relied on license plate data to capture out suspects only to end up detaining innocent people at gunpoint.

  Tracking you based on your mail: Just about every branch of the government—from the Postal Service to the Treasury Department and every agency in between—now has its own surveillance sector, authorized to spy on the American people. For instance, the U.S. Postal Service, which has been photographing the exterior of every piece of paper mail for the past 20 years, is also spying on Americans’ texts, emails and social media posts. Headed up by the Postal Service’s law enforcement division, the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) is reportedly using facial recognition technology, combined with fake online identities, to ferret out potential troublemakers with “inflammatory” posts. The agency claims the online surveillance, which falls outside its conventional job scope of processing and delivering paper mail, is necessary to help postal workers avoid “potentially volatile situations.”

  Fusion centers. Smart devices. Behavioral threat assessments. Terror watch lists. Facial recognition. Snitch tip lines. Biometric scanners. Pre-crime. DNA databases. Data mining. Precognitive technology. Contact tracing apps.

  What these add up to is a world in which, on any given day, the average person is now monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways by both government and corporate eyes and ears.

  Big Tech wedded to Big Government has become Big Brother.

  Every second of every day, the American people are being spied on by a vast network of digital Peeping Toms, electronic eavesdroppers and robotic snoops.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, surveillance, digital stalking and the data mining of the American people—weapons of compliance and control in the government’s hands—add up to a society in which there’s little room for indiscretions, imperfections, or acts of independence.

  In an age of overcriminalization, mass surveillance, and an appalling lack of protections for our privacy rights, we can all be considered guilty of some transgression or other.

  So you’d better watch out—you’d better not pout—you’d better not cry—‘cos I’m telling you why: this Christmas, it’s the Surveillance State that’s coming to town, and you’re already on its naughty list.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 21:45

• "I'll Be Vaxxed For Christmas" & Other COVID Carols
  “I’ll Be Vaxxed For Christmas” & Other COVID Carols

  This season, it’s important to focus on the true meaning of Christmas: compliance. 

  

  Christmas caroling, once a holiday tradition of family and friends spreading joy and cheer to neighbors and communities, is now illegal, and rightfully so.

  We are – and will forever be – in the midst of a dangerous pandemic, and nothing spreads lethal viruses more virulently than through friends, family, singing, and joy.

  Dismay not! The Babylon Bee – as usual – has come to America’s aid…

  You can still find a sliver of Christmas cheer while isolated in your sanitized home, double-masked and quadruple-vaccinated, by listening to some of these COVID-19 Christmas Carols:

  “I’ll Be Vaxxed for Christmas” – A merry, joyful reminder that only the vaxxed are allowed to enjoy Christmas.

  “It Came Upon A Mandate Clear” – Sing this beautiful carol and remember your first mandate. Precious memories…

  “Baby, There’s COVID Outside” – That’s a billion times worse than it being cold outside! 

  “Silent Media” – The Wuhan Virology Lab released a virus upon the world… and the media fell reverently silent.

  “Do You Fear What I Fear” – If it’s not COVID, you’re killing Grandma. 

  “What Variant is This?” – Yeah, we lost track too. 

  “Have Yourself A Lonely Little Christmas” – OR ELSE. 

  “God Rest Ye Boosted Gentlemen” – The only gentlemen who have a right to rest are the ones who are boosted.

  “mRNA In a Manager” – Remember the birth of the savior: mRNA. 

  “Fauci Baby” – As sung by Brian Stelter. 

  “Carol of The Bell’s Palsy” – Completely unrelated to the vaccine, Pfizer assures us. 

  “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Wuhan” – Unsurprisingly, this carol is illegal in Wuhan.

  “Santa Claus Is Staying at Home” – “He sees you defying lockdowns, he knows when you’re not vaxxed, he is not coming anyway, so stay home and wear a mask!”

  “All I Want For Christmas Is Ivermectin” – A conservative favorite.

  “Jab to the World” – Who needs “joy” when you got that jab? 

  “Fauci the Vaxman” – Why hasn’t he melted away yet? 

  “Ave Moderna” – AAAAAVVVEE MO-DERRRRRR-ERRRRR-NAAAAAA

  “Have an Omi-Cron-y Christmas” – The hit single of 2021 is raging through the world after its South Africa debut!

  “Good King Brandon” – Let’s go Brandon! 

  “Grandma Got COVID By A Cuomo” – An unsettlingly peppy song. 

  “Variant Both Meek And Mild” – As pretty much all the variants were…

  “Christmas (Baby Please Stay Home)” – We highly recommend the version recorded by The National Karens Choir.

  “Mary Did You Know (About the Vaccine Mandate)” – Sometimes a Christian holiday mansplainer is needed to spread the joy of mandates.

  “Masked Christmas” – This Christmas pop song will have you singing along in your own muffled, sad way.

  “Sanitize The Halls” – “Fa-la-la-la-la-la wash your hands!”

  “O Come, O Come, Dr. Fauci” – This old classic choral number sings reverence to our Lord and Savior and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

  Jingle Bells, Biden Smells: Fauci laid an egg!

  Now sing some carols, and have yourself a safe, socially distanced, vaxxed, masked, remote zoom call little Christmas! 

  *  *  *

  NOT SATIRE: If Big Tech censorship worries you, The Patriot Post is your relief. The left will censor this, but they can never stop the message. For 25 years we have equipped Patriots to save America’s future. Take advantage of our free resources and rest easy knowing we have your back.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 21:00

• Saudi Arabia Is Building Ballistic Missiles With China's Help
  Saudi Arabia Is Building Ballistic Missiles With China’s Help

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  CNN reported on Thursday that US intelligence agencies have concluded Saudi Arabia is now actively manufacturing its own ballistic missiles with the help of China.

  As the world’s largest importer of arms, Saudi Arabia has purchased ballistic missiles from China in the past but has not previously had the ability to manufacture them.

  

  Unnamed sources told CNN that US officials at several agencies have been briefed in recent months on “on classified intelligence revealing multiple large-scale transfers of sensitive ballistic missile technology between China and Saudi Arabia.”

  In a statement to CNN, China’s Foreign Ministry said the two countries are “comprehensive strategic partners” and “have maintained friendly cooperation in all fields, including in the field of military trade.”

  “Such cooperation does not violate any international law and does not involve the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” the statement said.

  Saudi Arabia is entirely reliant on the US to continue waging war in Yemen. While the US is still supporting the war, there have been efforts in Congress to cut off arms sales to Riyadh, which likely motivated the Saudis to look elsewhere for weapons.

  

  CNN wrote in its in-depth report:

  New satellite images obtained by CNN indicate the Saudis are already manufacturing ballistic missiles at a site previously constructed with Chinese assistance, according to experts who analyzed the photos and sources who confirmed they reflect advancements that are consistent with the latest US intelligence assessments.

  Satellite photos taken by Planet, a commercial imaging company, between October 26 and November 9 show a burn operation occurred at a facility near Dawadmi, Saudi Arabia, according to researchers at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, who told CNN this is “the first unambiguous evidence that the facility is operating to produce missiles.”

  So, U.S. “ally” Saudi Arabia started building ballistic missiles with China and didn’t even tell us? WTAF. Clown Prince MBS (Mr. Bone Saw), call your office. https://t.co/FEu2TOreO1 Big scoop by @ZcohenCNN

  — Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) December 23, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The US has not been happy about the relationship between China and other Middle East allies. The UAE recently threatened to pull out of a $25 billion arms deal that includes F-35 fighter jets over security requirements the US wants in order to protect the technology from China. The US has also repeatedly warned Israel against doing business with China.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 20:30

• Beijing Influence Expands After Solomon Islands Accepts Chinese Offer For Riot Police Help
  Beijing Influence Expands After Solomon Islands Accepts Chinese Offer For Riot Police Help

  In the latest Asia-Pac domino piece to quietly fall in China’s favor on Christmas eve, Chinese police officers and equipment will soon be sent to Solomon Islands to help defuse months of civil unrest, a move that is already causing anxiety for Australian officials. 

  

  On Thursday Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s besieged government announced it would accept Beijing’s offer of assistance to strengthen its anti-riot policing capabilities, Australia’s ABC News reported.  In a statement, the government said it was “mindful of the urgent need to strengthen Royal Solomon Islands Police Force capability and capacity to respond to future unrest”.

  “The government has agreed to accept the Peoples’ Republic of China’s offer of riot equipment and six Police Liaison Officers to equip and train Royal Solomon Islands Police Force with the skill sets complimenting ongoing training received under existing bilateral assistance,” it said.

  Last month we reported that 73 Australian Federal Police and 43 Australian Defence Force personnel were dispatched to the troubled Pacific nation following days of rioting against Sogavare’s government. A decision by Solomon Islands to switch diplomatic allegiances from Taiwan to China in 2019 is one of the factors blamed for unhappiness with the Pacific nation’s government. 

  Sogavare has blamed “external factors” for the recent unrest in his country and the Premier of Malaita Province, Daniel Suidani, has been outspoken in his opposition to the national government’s decision to back Beijing rather than Taipei.

  Following November’s riots, the federal government was relieved that the first call for help came to Canberra, rather than Beijing, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison insisted Australia was taking no part in “internal issues of the Solomon Islands”.

  Defense and diplomatic sources have told the ABC they believe Solomon Islands is the first government in the Pacific to accept this level of Chinese help specifically for anti-riot for domestic policing, and there are concerns more assistance will be sought from Beijing in the future.

  Over recent days Australia’s police-led deployment to Solomon Islands has been gradually reduced, but 40 AFP members, 15 ADF personnel and three Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) staff remain there. In a statement, a spokesperson for DFAT said it was aware that China was sending reinforcements.

  “Australia, together with our Pacific family partners Fiji, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, responded swiftly and effectively to the 25 November request from Solomon Islands government to help Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) restore calm in Honiara following civil unrest,” the spokesperson said.

  “Since that time, Australia and Pacific family partners have successfully supported the RSIPF to maintain a stable and calm situation.

  “We are aware of China’s expected engagement in the security sector in Honiara. This is a matter for the Solomon Islands government.”

  For China’s part, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Beijing was helping Solomon Islands respond to “grave” anti-government riots: “At the request of the government of Solomon Islands, China will provide a batch of emergency riot equipment for the police and send an ad-hoc police advisory team,” he told reporters on Thursday.

  “The Chinese supplies and personnel will arrive in Solomon Islands soon and are expected to play a constructive role in enhancing the ability of the Solomon Islands police.

  “China firmly supports the government of Solomon Islands in defending the country’s stability, resolutely safeguards the relations between China and Solomon Islands and the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens there, and strongly condemns any illegal and violent action.”

  The Australian government is yet to directly respond to Solomon Islands’ decision to accept Chinese policing assistance.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 20:00

• US Navy Intercepts Huge Cache Of Arms From Iran Near Yemen On "Stateless Ship"
  US Navy Intercepts Huge Cache Of Arms From Iran Near Yemen On “Stateless Ship”

  This week the US Navy announced that it seized some 1,400 AK-47 assault rifles and 226,600 rounds of ammunition from a “stateless” fishing vessel after it was intercepted in the North Arabian Sea based on suspicious activity, which led to a “flag verification boarding”. 

  The illicit weapons and ammunition were then transferred to the guided-missile destroyer USS O’Kane. The five passengers were reportedly Yemeni nationals. Subsequent reports suggested it may have been an Iranian smuggling operation into war-torn Yemen, where Tehran-backed Shia Houthi rebels have for a half-decade been battling the Saudi-UAE coalition which has also long enjoyed the support of the Pentagon.

  

  The Associated Press on Thursday described that the large cache of weapons were being “smuggled by a fishing ship from Iran likely bound for war-ravaged Yemen.”

  This after the Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet issued an unusually blunt statement that pointed to finger directly at the Iranians, given the vessel sailing along a route “historically used to traffic weapons unlawfully to the Houthis in Yemen,” according to the US military statement.

  “The direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of weapons to the Houthis violates U.N. Security Council Resolutions and US sanctions,” the 5th Fleet added.

  Once the cargo and crew were removed, with the Yemeni nationals reportedly transported back to their home country, the vessel was declared a potential hazard to commercial shipping in the area and was sunk. 

  Meanwhile, despite Biden White House promises to try to end the war in Yemen, which the UN has over the past two years dubbed the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, given the mass civilian death and starvation amid the relentless Saudi air war, fighting has ramped up over the past week. 

  Yemen’s main airport in Sana’a was bombed this week by the Saudi-led coalition that is backed by the US.

  The Biden administration has supplied nearly $1.2 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia. pic.twitter.com/sOKZ0Rax4V

  — MintPress News (@MintPressNews) December 23, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  In particular the Saudis stand charged with deliberate airstrikes on Yemen’s main international airport in the capital of Sanaa, resulting in extensive damage. However, Riyadh claims that it was a legitimate target that was being used by Houthis to stage and launch for cross-border attacks.

  In the past days there’ve been widespread reports that the Saudis ramped up their airstrikes across various parts of Yemen. Yet generally US media has been silent on the continuing air war.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 19:30

• Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer's Lesson On Individualism
  Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer’s Lesson On Individualism

  Via The Epoch Times,

  In 1964, NBC aired what would become one of the most beloved Christmas TV specials that has withstood the test of time with incredible stop-motion animation, sets, and colourful characters, all having been enjoyed by generations.

  

  The story and one song in particular, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” teach us about how being an individualist and thinking differently from the crowd can often lead to a better outcome.

  We follow the story about Donner, Santa’s most trusted sleigh leader, and his wife when they celebrate the arrival of a new fawn which they name Rudolph. When it is discovered that Rudolph’s nose glows red, Donner becomes scared of what others will say, and tries to hide his son’s deformity.

  At the same time we meet one of Santa’s elves, Hermey, who is more interested in dentistry than in making toys.

  His boss fires him when he doesn’t keep up with his co-workers. Rudolph and Hermey accidentally cross paths when they’re running away from being rejected, mocked, and pushed away by their companions.

  The two join in a delightful duet titled “Misfits,” in which they state that their own decisions are best and that not fitting in is not a bad thing. A particular phrase that demonstrates this in the lyrics is:

  We may be different from the rest

  Who decides the test

  Of what is really best?

  This message is being forgotten amongst many of us, as governments and the school system try to stop us from thinking for ourselves.

  If you don’t have the newest iPhone, then you’re considered not worth it. Many young people of today are just reacting to others and taking in the latest trends. Peer pressure and false methods being taught by teachers push youngsters away from listening to parents and the wisdom of following a steady course in life.

  At the end of the special when the Abominable Snow Monster enters, all the others shy away except those with independent thought. In the end, we see that Rudolph is successful in life as “he goes down in history.”

  Before you watch new Christmas movies that lack a significant moral or life message, go back to the classics and you might find that they have a deeper than expected effect on your whole family, apart from being a magical experience.

  Merry Christmas!

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 19:00

• NFL's Chief Medical Officer Warns There's Almost No Indication Of Asymptomatic Spread
  NFL’s Chief Medical Officer Warns There’s Almost No Indication Of Asymptomatic Spread

  In the latest sign that “the science” promoted by Dr. Anthony Fauci and the US government as justification for scaring half the country into staying home this Christmas really, truly, no longer applies, the NFL has changed its strategy for dealing with COVID to dramatically break from federal guidelines.

  ESPN reports that the league is suppressing the latest COVID surge with an understanding that symptomatic individuals are driving transmission within the team environment, said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sills on Thursday. Apparently, the League has taken its own look at the COVID Problem, and decided that asymptomatic players actually don’t spread COVID.

  

  Well, at least not in any meaningful way.

  Again, here’s Dr. Sills:

  “I think all of our concern about [asymptomatic spread] has been going down based on what we’ve been seeing throughout the past several months,” Sills told ESPN. “We’ve got our hands full with symptomatic people. Can I tell you tonight that there has never been a case when someone without symptoms passed it on to someone else? No, of course I can’t say that. But what I can say to you is that I think it’s a very, very tiny fraction of the overall problem, if it exists at all.”

  He clarifies further:

  “Clearly if you want to look at the overall pattern and concern about transmission, it is not being driven by people who have no idea that they are infected and they are infecting scores of others. This is being driven by people with symptoms and the exposures during that symptomatic period.”

  In response to omicron, the league and the NFL Players Association agreed last week to stop weekly testing on vaccinated players and begin random testing of a sample across teams and positions.

  Vaccinated players who report symptoms are required to be tested, and unvaccinated players continue to be tested daily, as the league is still performing 1,000 tests per day for players and staff.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 18:30

• Don't Let Cancel Culture Grinches Strip Your Joy From Christmas
  Don’t Let Cancel Culture Grinches Strip Your Joy From Christmas

  Authored by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “It’s Christmas Eve! It’s the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be! It’s a sort of a miracle because it happens every Christmas Eve… There are people that are having trouble making their miracle happen… It’s not just the poor and the hungry, it’s everybody that’s gotta have this miracle!”— Scrooged (1988)

  What a year.

  It feels as if government Grinches, corporate Scrooges, and cancel culture humbugs have been working overtime to drain every last drop of joy, kindness and liberty from the world.

  

  After endless months of gloom and doom, it can be hard to feel the joy of Christmas in the midst of rampant commercialism, political correctness and the casual cruelty of an apathetic, self-absorbed, dog-eat-dog world.

  Then again, isn’t that struggle to overcome the darkness and find the light within exactly what Christmas—the celebration of a baby born in a manger—is all about? The reminder that we have not been forgotten or forsaken. Glad tidings in the midst of hard times. Goodwill to counter meanness. Innocence in the face of cynicism. Hope in the midst of despair. Comfort to soothe our fears. Peace as an answer to war. Love that conquers hate.

  As “fellow-passengers to the grave,” we all have a moral duty to make this world (or at least our small corners of it) just a little bit kinder, a little less hostile and a lot more helpful to those in need.

  No matter what one’s budget, religion, or political persuasion, there is no shortage of things we can each do right now to pay our blessings forward and recapture the true spirit of Christmas.

  For starters, move beyond the “us” vs. “them” mentality. Tune into what’s happening in your family, in your community and your world, and get active. Show compassion to those in need, be kind to those around you, forgive those who have wronged you, and teach your children to do the same. Talk less, and listen more. Take less, and give more. Stop being a hater. Stop acting entitled and start being empowered. Learn tolerance in the true sense of the word. Value your family. Count your blessings. Share your blessings. Feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and comfort the lonely and broken-hearted. Build bridges, and tear down walls. Stand for freedom. Strive for peace.

  One thing more: make time for joy and laughter. Shake off the blues with some Christmas tunes, whatever fits the bill for you, be it traditional carols, rollicking oldies, or some rocking new tunes. Watch a Christmas movie that reinforces your faith in the things that truly matter.

  Here are ten of my favorite Christmas movies and music albums to get you started.

  First the movies.

  It’s A Wonderful Life (1946). An American classic about a despondent man, George Bailey who is saved from suicide by an angel working to get his wings. This film is a testament to director Frank Capra’s faith in people. Sublime performances by James Stewart and Donna Reed.

  The Bishop’s Wife (1947). An angel comes to earth in answer to a bishop’s prayer for help. Cary Grant, David Niven and Loretta Young help energize this tale of lost visions and longings of the heart.

  Miracle on 34th Street (1947). By happenchance, Kris Kringle is hired as Santa Claus by Macy’s Department Store in New York City for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Before long, Kringle, who believes himself to be the one and only Santa Claus, has impacted virtually everyone around him. Funny, witty and heartwarming, this film is stocked with some fine performances from Maureen O’Hara, John Payne and young Natalie Wood. Edmund Gwenn won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role as Saint Nick.

  A Christmas Carol (1951). This is the best film version of the penny-pinching Scrooge’s journey to spiritual enlightenment by way of visits from supernatural visitors. Alastair Sim as Scrooge gives one of the finest film performances never to win an Oscar. The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) provides a wonderful glimpse into how Charles Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol.

  A Christmas Story (1983). Ralphie is a young boy obsessed with one thing and only one thing: how to get a Red Ryder BB-gun for Christmas. Ralphie’s parents are wary, and his mother continually warns him that “you’ll shoot your eye out.” Based on Jean Shepherd’s autobiographical book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, at the heart of this timeless comedy is the universal yearning of a child for the magic of Christmas morning. A great cast, which includes Darren McGavin, Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon and a voice-over narrative by Shepherd himself.

  One Magic Christmas (1985). If you grew up in a family where times were tough, this film is for you. A guardian angel comes to earth to help a disillusioned woman who hates Christmas. This tale of redemption and second chances is a delight to watch. And Harry Dean Stanton makes a first-class offbeat angel.

  Prancer (1989). This story of an eight-year-old girl who believes that an injured reindeer in her barn is actually one of Santa’s reindeer is one of the most down-to-earth Christmas films ever made. It’s a testament to the transforming power of love and childhood innocence. Sam Elliott and Cloris Leachman are fine in supporting roles, but Rebecca Harrell shines. Filmed on location in freezing, snowy weather, this film is a treat for those who love Christmas.

  Home Alone (1990). Eight-year-old Kevin, accidentally left behind at home when his family flies to Paris for Christmas, thinks he’s got it made. Hijinks ensue when two burglars match their wits against his. A funny, tender tribute to childhood and the bonds of family.

  Elf (2003). Another modern classic with a lot of heart. Buddy, played to the hilt by Will Ferrell, is a human who was raised by elves at the North Pole. Determined to find his birth father, Buddy travels to the Big Apple and spreads his Christmas cheer to everyone he meets. This film has it all: Santa, elves, family problems, humor, emotion and above all else, a large dose of the Christmas spirit. One of the best Christmas movies ever made.

  The Christmas Chronicles (2018). The story of a sister and brother, Kate and Teddy Pierce, whose Christmas Eve plan to catch Santa Claus on camera turns into an unexpected journey that most kids could only dream about. Kurt Russell’s star turn as Santa makes for movie magic.

  Now for the music.

  Out of the hundreds of Christmas albums I’ve listened to over the years, the following, covering a broad range of musical styles, moods and tastes, each in its own way perfectly captures the essence of Christmas for me.

  It’s Christmas (EMI, 1989): 18 great songs, ranging from John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” to Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.” The real treats on this album are Greg Lake’s “I Believe in Father Christmas,” Kate Bush’s “December Will Be Magic Again” and Aled Jones’ “Walking in the Air.”

  Christmas Guitar (Rounder, 1986): 28 beautifully done traditional Christmas songs by master guitarist John Fahey. Hearing Fahey’s guitar strings plucking out “Joy to the World,” “Good King Wenceslas,” “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas,” among others, is a sublime experience.

  Christmas Is A Special Day (The Right Stuff, 1993): 12 fine songs by Fats Domino, the great Fifties rocker, ranging from “Amazing Grace” to “Jingle Bells.” The title song, written by Domino himself, is a real treat. No one has ever played the piano keys like Fats.

  Christmas Island (August/Private Music, 1989): “Frosty the Snowman” will never sound the same after you hear Leon Redbone and Dr. John do their duet. Neither will “Christmas Island” or “Toyland” on this collection of 11 traditional and rather offbeat songs.

  A Holiday Celebration (Gold Castle, 1988): The classic folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary, backed by the New York Choral Society, sing traditional and nontraditional holiday fare on 12 beautifully orchestrated songs. Included are “I Wonder as I Wander,” “Children Go Where I Send Thee,” and “The Cherry Tree Carol.” Also thrown in is Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

  The Christmas Album (Columbia, 1992): Neil Diamond sings 14 songs, ranging from “Silent Night” to “Jingle Bell Rock” to “The Christmas Song” to “Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Diamond also gives us a great rendition of Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over).” A delightful album.

  A Charlie Brown Christmas (Fantasy, 1988): 12 traditional Christmas songs by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. The pianist extraordinaire and his trio perform “O Tannenbaum,” “The Christmas Song” and “Greensleeves.” Also included is the Charlie Brown Christmas theme.

  The Jethro Tull Christmas Album (Fuel Records, 2003): If you like deep-rooted traditional holiday songs, you’ll love this album. The 16 songs range from “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” to Ian Anderson originals such as “Another Christmas Song” and “Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow.” With Anderson on flute and vocals, this album has an old world flavor that will have you wanting mince pie and plum pudding.

  A Twisted Christmas (Razor Tie, 2006): Twisted Sister, the heavy metal group, knocks the socks off a bevy of traditional and pop Christmas songs. Dee Snider’s amazing vocals brings to life “Oh Come All Ye Faithful,” “Deck the Halls,” “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” among others—including “Heavy Metal Christmas (The Twelve Days of Christmas).” Great fun and a great band.

  Songs for Christmas (Asthmatic Kitty, 2006): In 2001, independent singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens set out to create a Christmas gift through songs for his friends and family. It eventually grew to a 5-CD box set, which includes Stevens’ original take on such standards as “Amazing Grace” and “We Three Kings” and some inventive yuletide creations of his own. A lot of fun.

  Before you know it, Christmas will be a distant memory and we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming of “us vs. them” politics, war, violence, materialism and mayhem.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, there may not be much we can do to avoid the dismal reality of the American police state in the long term—not so long as the powers-that-be allow profit margins to take precedence over people—but in the short term, I hope you’ll do your part to “spread a smile of joy” and “throw your arms around the world at Christmastime.”

  As you celebrate the season, take to heart the closing sermon in The Bishop’s Wife:

  “Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child’s cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven’t forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts… We forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. It’s his birthday we’re celebrating. Don’t let us ever forget that. Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share, loving kindness, warm hearts, and a stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.”—The Bishop’s Wife (1947)

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 18:00

• Christmas Comes Early For 1 In 5 American Families
  Christmas Comes Early For 1 In 5 American Families

  Christmas traditions vary greatly across the world.

  While some countries hold the main celebration on Christmas Eve, others wait until Christmas Day to get festive and, most importantly at least to kids, to open presents.

  In the United States, most families unwrap their gifts on Christmas Day, with the majority not waiting until breakfast to get cracking or unpacking.

  According to data from Statista’s Global Consumer Survey, Santa comes early to 1 in 5 families, however, as 22 percent of respondents said they open presents on Christmas Eve in their household.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 17:30

• Media Falsely Reports Texas Man Died From Omicron While Government Officials Refuse To Say
  Media Falsely Reports Texas Man Died From Omicron While Government Officials Refuse To Say

  A little more than a week ago, we shared a story about how the UK government had decided to withhold information about the first patient to die while being infected with the omicron variant. In the information vacuum, many critics of the UK government’s strategy of withholding information, including some prominent doctors, asserted that the patient likely died with omicron, not from it, an important distinction that we have discussed in the past.

  A similar scenario is apparently playing out in the US, now that authorities in Texas have confirmed their first death on a patient who was assessed to be infected with the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Whether that’s what actually killed him is another matter entirely.

  Now, the Blaze is reporting that officials in Texas are also being tight-lipped about the circumstances of this first death, after the increasingly careless mainstream media blared out the news that an American had died “from” the omicron variant, when that’s actually not the case – or at least has not yet been confirmed to be the case.

  

  Not only did Harris County public health officials initially claim only that the man died with the Omicron variant of COVID-19, a spokeswoman for the county confirmed this is the case when a Blaze reporter followed up later in the week.

  To be sure, Harris County isn’t entirely blameless for the confusion. On the contrary, they seemingly added to the confusion by releasing a press release with the headline “Harris County Reports First COVID-19 Omicron Variant-Related Death.” The sub-heading, however, clarified that the “unvaccinated man with underlying health conditions had tested positive for the Omicron variant.”

  As the Blaze adds, similar confusion has plagued mainstream media reporting throughout the pandemic. One problem is that the government health officials who are feeding the media its information often don’t differentiate between people who died from COVID and those who died with the virus, a fact that we first pointed out way back in 2020 shortly after the virus first went global. Any death where a patient is COVID positive is reported as a COVID death, even if the patient died from a motorcycle accident, in one famous case.

  Courtesy of the Blaze, here’s a roundup of headlines that failed to convey this important distinction.

  • Reuters: “Texas’ Harris County records its first death linked to Omicron variant”
  • Business Insider: “The first American to die of the Omicron variant was an unvaccinated Texas man who had previously caught COVID-19”
  • Newsweek: “First Omicron Death in U.S. Was Reinfection—A Warning to Those Who’ve Already Had COVID
  • KHOU-TV: “Unvaccinated man with health issues in Harris County becomes first known omicron death in US”
  • Washington Post: “Unvaccinated Houston man’s death may be first attributed to omicron in U.S.”
  • Axios: “First confirmed U.S. Omicron death recorded in Texas”
  • The Independent: “Unvaccinated Texas man first in US to die of Omicron variant”

  Of course, it’s understandable why officials in Harris County don’t want to get into the weeds on this subject. There’s simply too much risk to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s (and by extension, President Joe Biden’s) favored narrative.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 17:00

• All I Want For Christmas Is A Mute Button
  All I Want For Christmas Is A Mute Button

  You either love them or you hate them: With Christmas songs, there is no in-between.

  But, this year, as Statista’s Florian Zandt notes, fans of festive tunes can celebrate a special milestone.

  

  Mariah Carey’s 1994 hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has managed to rack up over one billion streams on Spotify, beating its competitors by a wide margin as our chart shows.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Coming in second is Wham!’s classic “Last Christmas” from 1984 with 794 million streams.

  When putting into perspective the years since the release of the corresponding song, Ariana Grande might just take the cake. Even though “Santa Tell me” only places third, the song managed to accumulate 595 plays. Titles that aren’t likely to challenge the dominance of Carey, Wham! and Grande make up the last four spots on the top 8, among them classics like “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee from 1958 and the upbeat “Jingle Bell Rock” released in 1957 by Bobby Helms.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 16:30

• Kaepernick's SPAC Deal Implodes Just In Time For Christmas
  Kaepernick’s SPAC Deal Implodes Just In Time For Christmas

  Just like his career as a professional football player, a SPAC deal involving former San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was infamously blacklisted from the league for taking a knee during the National Anthem, has fallen apart.

  Is this another case of Kaepernick being punished for shining a light on America’s racial disparities? Before anybody rushes to judgment, the answer is a definite ‘no’. The real reason, according to the WSJ reporters who broke the story, is that Kaepernick balked at demands by executives in the target company that he stump for the merger by sitting for interviews, including on “Good Morning America”, and with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

  Because of this, the deal is officially “dead”.

  

  In a statement from Kaepernick’s erstwhile target, the Change Company, a lender in California that supposedly focuses on doing business with underserved borrowers, the bank said it would be willing to do business with Kaepernick. But they didn’t go as far as to deny that the deal had collapsed.

  “The Change Company would proudly consider a partnership with Mr. Kaepernick – yesterday, today, or tomorrow,” the lender’s chief executive, Steve Sugarman, said in a written statement on Thursday that praised the former quarterback’s commitment to racial justice.”

  Kaepernick is Mission’s co-chairman along with Jahm Najafi, who runs a private-equity fund and is a minority owner in the National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 16:00

• Is China Signaling Imminent Devaluation: PBOC Fixes Yuan Weaker Than Expected For Record 15th Consecutive Day
  Is China Signaling Imminent Devaluation: PBOC Fixes Yuan Weaker Than Expected For Record 15th Consecutive Day

  A little over two weeks ago, on Dec 10, just after Beijing had made it abundantly clear it was done with its latest experiment in financial tightening – an experiment which has led to the implosion of China’s property developers led by Evergrande, a deep freeze in China’s USD-denominated junk bond market, and an accelerating slowdown in China’s $62 trillion housing sector which Goldman recently defined as the world’s largest asset…

  

  … Beijing issued its loudest hint yet that with China’s economy rapidly slowing down and the country’s monetary policy now fully reversed from the tightening observed across most DM central banks following a hike in China’s FX reserve ratio (from 7% to 9%), and the first cut in China Required Reserve Ratio (by 50bps) in over a year, a currency devaluation may soon follow.

  It did that by fixing the yuan at a whopping 179 pips weaker than consensus at 6.3702. This was the largest miss vs surveyed market participants’ fixing expectations on record, and followed China’s fix on Thursday which was already the largest miss since Oct. 14. The news promptly sent the CNH sliding further, dropping as far as 6.3893 against the dollar, before sharply reversing amid continued foreign inflows into China’s capital markets, making China’s attempts to return to simple mercantilism more difficult in the process.

  

  As Bloomberg’s Simon Flint wrote then, “this is an extremely strong signal, and should prolong the impact of the policy change announced on Thursday”… only as shown in the chart above, it did just the opposite and the yuan actually strengthen shortly after the kneejerk reaction.

  Fast forward to today, when Beijing’s signaling is the loudest it has been since the August 2015 devaluation….

  

  … as China’s central bank set a slightly weaker-than-expected reference rate for the yuan in its longest string of higher fixes on record.

  On Friday, the PBOC set the daily reference rate at 6.3692 per dollar, weaker than the estimate 6.3688 with a surveyed range from 6.3676 to 6.3711. And, according to Bloomberg, at 15 days the stretch of higher-than-expected fixes is now at the record since Bloomberg released its median consensus forecast in June 2018.

  

  To some, Beijing could not be clear in its FX intentions – one among them is SocGen’s Albert Edwards, who in his year ahead outlook show a “shocking chart” of the divergence in the yuan/USD vs trade-weighted yuan. This is what he said:

  The second shocking chart I want to flag up is the one below. We all know that the renminbi has been pari-passu against a robust US dollar, but the officially targeted trade-weighted renminbi is through the roof this year and stands at an equivalent Rmb6.00/$. At a time when Chinese credit conditions are too tight, this is simply intolerable.

  

  Edwards’ conclusion: “Despite Chinese exports remaining robust, investors should be on the alert for a 2015-like surprise renminbi devaluation.“

  Maybe, but what is Beijing is unwilling to use this particular nuclear option especially since relations with the Joe “10 for the big guy” Biden admin are improving with every passing day, and the last thing Beijing needs is to be accused of stoking currency wars with the US. As we discussed two weeks ago, here China has four potential options to hit the currency:

  • More verbal warnings against one-way bets
  •  
  • Officially adding back the countercyclical factors to its yuan fixing, essentially setting the yuan weaker than otherwise
  • Accumulate dollar reserves and/or ask state banks and experts to hold dollars
  • Liberalizing FX outflows and tightening the channels for inflows.

  Here, as Bloomberg’s Ye Xie noted, “the most effective would be allowing more outbound investments to offset the inflows.” But while authorities have already done some of that, including the launch of the Southbound bond connect that allows local residents to buy overseas bonds in Hong Kong, clearly it is not enough.

  Which leads us to an ironic question: will China realize what has been clear to the Fed for so long, and use cryptocurrencies as an excess pressure “release valve”, in this case letting cryptocurrencies absorb a measured amount of FX outflows to avoid further overheating in the yuan. Needless to say, Beijing realizing that it needs to buy crypto to ease pressure off the yuan – not long after China destroyed its domestic crypto industry by banning bitcoin mining- would truly be ironic.

  And while that may be a bit hyperbolic (for now), a devaluation of sorts is clearly a topic that is being discussed among currency analysts, and last week when addressing the best way for China to ease financial conditions rapidly and lower market rates, Nomura’s China strategist Ting Lu said that selling the yuan versus the dollar would be the most effective way to achieve this goal:

  Though barely noticed by markets, the PBoC’s net purchases of FX jumped to USD5.6bn in November from USD1.7bn in October, and this could be more relevant in lowering market interest rates in coming months (Figure 2).

  

  Despite a massive FX inflow due both to a surplus in current account and financial account, the PBoC’s net purchases of FX from end-2019 until October 2021 was almost zero. We expect the net purchases of FX by the PBoC could increase significantly in the coming months, and we think it is the best option for the PBoC for three reasons.

  • First, it could prevent the yuan from appreciating further.
  • Second, it could raise the PBoC’s FX reserves in a time of rising market fear of Chinese corporates’ offshore dollar bonds defaults.
  • Third, it could add liquidity to the economy, which is slowing to a worrisome pace.

  Needless to say, “buying FX”, i.e., dollars in the open market, is certainly one way to devalue your currency. The only question is what is Xi’s intervention “red line.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 15:30

• By The Numbers: Shipping's Unparalleled Year In 10 Charts
  By The Numbers: Shipping’s Unparalleled Year In 10 Charts

  By Greg Miller of FreightWaves

  Ocean shipping hit myriad all-time highs in 2021, and just days before the new year, there’s no sign yet of a return to pre-COVID normalcy.

  Following are charts covering both container shipping and bulk commodity shipping that highlight how unusual this year has been:

  Shipping stocks

  Shipping equities have scored big in the COVID era. Shipping stock indexes are published by New York-based communications and advisory firm Capital Link. Capital Link’s container shipping index outperformed the pack, up 242% year to date as of Tuesday. 

  

  The Capital Link Maritime Index, which covers stocks of all vessel segments, was up 138%, while the dry bulk index was up 97%.

  Tankers and gas carrier stocks lagged. Capital Link’s gas carrier index was up 43% year to date as of Tuesday, with the tanker index giving back almost all of its earlier gains and up only 4%. 

  Container spot freight rates

  Why did container stocks do so well? The initial driver was spot container freight rates, which subsequently drove up ship charter rates and contract freight rates.

  Drewry’s weekly spot index reveals how extreme the rise has been. Even after a slight pullback recently, Asia-West Coast spot rates are still five to 10 times where they’ve been over the past decade.

  

  Container-ship charter rates

  The more ships that ocean carriers operate, the more boxes they can carry and the more they profit from stratospheric freight rates. This dynamic pushed ship charter rates to record highs as carriers scrambled to secure leased tonnage.

  As with freight rates, charter rates recently dipped slightly from extreme highs. Now rates are going back up again.

  

  According to Alphaliner, 2021 “will be remembered as a historic year for the charter market, with all-time high demand, a continuously tight supply and record-breaking rates. Time-charter rates are bouncing back, and in some cases improving on their previous highs, putting an end to a recent softening trend.”

  Maritime imports customs filings

  What got the ball rolling, pushing up spot freight rates, and in turn, charter rates? Consumer demand for goods, particularly in the U.S.

  Customs data on the number of import shipments per day highlights the continued strength of that demand. The rush to get goods into the country for Christmas is over, but even so, the number of daily import shipments remains near all-time highs and is up 40% from the same time two years ago, pre-COVID.

  

  Inbound ocean bookings

  The customs data shows what just arrived. Other data signals what’s coming.

  FreightWaves’ SONAR platform features a proprietary index of shippers’ ocean bookings measured in twenty-foot equivalent units as of the scheduled date of overseas departure, indexed to January 2019.

  The bookings index is a bellwether of U.S. import volumes several weeks ahead, when ships from export destinations arrive at American ports. The index peaked in May at around 250, fell to around 150 in November and has now bounced back to over 200, pointing to continued very strong volumes in the first quarter of 2022.

  

  Ships waiting for LA/LB berths

  The freight rate, charter rate, customs and ocean booking data all imply that the supply chain squeeze is far from over. Each of these numbers remains close to its all-time high.

  Yet another gauge of supply chain pressure: the number of container ships waiting for berths at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which handle around 40% of U.S. containerized imports. The bigger this queue number, the more U.S. inventories are in transit versus available for sale.

  The queue off Southern California ports reached an initial peak in Q1, fell back in Q2, then climbed to new heights in Q3 and into Q4, far surpassing Q1 highs.

  

  As of Tuesday, there were 91 container ships in the Pacific queue. The count has been above 90 since Nov. 23, peaking at 102 on Dec. 15.

  Dry bulk spot rates

  Container shipping grabbed the headlines in 2021, but it was also an exceptionally good year for dry bulk shipping, as shown in the strong performance of dry bulk stocks.

  Spot rates for Capesizes (bulkers with capacity of around 180,000 deadweight tons or DWT) surged to $87,000 per day in early September and then plummeted; they were $20,400 per day as of Wednesday, according to Clarksons Platou Securities. That’s still several thousand per day above where rates normally are at this time of year.

  Rates for Panamaxes (65,000-90,000 DWT) hit a decade high of $36,300 per day in late September and were down to $20,800 per day on Wednesday, still around $10,000 per day better than the 2016-2020 average for this time of year.

  Rates for Supramaxes (45,000-60,000 DWT) reached a decade high of $39,900 in late October and are down to $26,200 per day, still over 2.5 times better than where they normally are at this time.

  

  Crude-tanker spot rates

  In contrast to other shipping sectors, 2021 has been exceptionally bad for crude tankers. Rates remain far below normal. Crude tanker owners continue to bleed cash.

  As of Wednesday, Clarksons put rates for 10-year-old very large crude carriers (VLCCs, tankers that carry 2 million barrels) at just $8,400 per day, with older Suezmaxes (1 million-barrel capacity) at $11,400 and Aframaxes (750,000-barrel capacity) at $13,400.

  Whereas dry bulk rates have been well above their 2016-2020 average throughout this year, crude tankers have suffered the reverse pattern: Rates are far below the five-year average. At this time of year, VLCC rates should be around $50,000 a day, more than five times current levels. Suezmax rates are normally around $35,000 and Aframax rates $30,000, more than double current levels.

  

  Ship sales

  Yet another reason that 2021 stands out: An extraordinary number of vessels traded hands in the secondhand market.

  As of mid-December, Greece’s Allied Shipbroking counted 1,897 vessel sales year to date, with aggregate capacity of 130.84 million DWT. That’s well above the totals in any year since the financial crisis and 32% higher, measured in DWT, than the previous decade high in 2017.

  

  Container-ship sales were driven by high freight rates. Carriers sought to increase upside exposure to rates not just by chartering ships but also by acquiring them. MSC was by far the leading purchaser.

  Sales were also high for bulkers and tankers — particularly bulkers. According to Allied data, tankers sales (measured in DWT) were up 32% versus the same period in 2019, pre-COVID, with bulker sales shooting up 81%.

  New ships on order

  One reason for higher bulker and tanker secondhand sales: It makes more sense to buy existing ships than to build new ones, given high newbuild prices and uncertainty over future environmental regulations. Also, as 2021 progressed, heavy ordering of new container ships and gas carriers filled up yard slots, blocking orders for other vessel types and pushing owners to the secondhand market.

  Data from Clarksons Platou Securities reveals a stark split in this year’s orderbook. At one end of the spectrum, container-ship capacity on order now equals 22.8% of tonnage on the water, with the ratio for fully refrigerated LPG carriers up to 24% and for LNG carriers to 29.2%. Those levels imply headwinds for rates when new ships are delivered.

  On the other end of the spectrum, the order-to-fleet ratio is a mere 5.7% for product tankers, 6.9% for bulkers and 7.9% for crude tankers as 2021 comes to a close. These are historically low levels of new ship orders, implying continued strength for bulkers in the years ahead and offering promise of future relief to beleaguered tanker owners.

  

   

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 15:05

• South Africa Eases COVID Restrictions After Omicron Peaks
  South Africa Eases COVID Restrictions After Omicron Peaks

  South Africa is dialing back COVID-19 restrictions after the Omicron variant – which is far more mild than other strains – has peaked sooner than expected.

  

  On Friday, the government announced that contacts of Covid-positive cases that they will no longer need to test or self-isolate if they aren’t showing symptoms. Those who develop mild symptoms will be required to isolate for eight days, while anyone with severe symptoms will need to isolate for 10 days, according to the Health Ministry.

  Meanwhile, the Ministry is ending quarantine at specialized facilities outside the home, and will be scrapping contact tracing efforts with the exception of cluster outbreaks, according to DW.

  The changes were “based on advice from our scientists that it [isolation] is not really having an impact anymore,” per Deputy Health Minister Sibongiseni Dhlomo in a statement to local broadcaster SABC.

  The decision comes as some researchers believe cases of the highly-transmissible omicron variant may have peaked in South Africa, where it first emerged last month.

  Also on Friday, South Africa began offering booster shots to the general public for the first time.

  Both Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer shots have been authorized as boosters by the country’s health regulator.

  So far, only J&J booster shots have been available for health workers. Pfizer booster shots will be available in early January. -DW

  As Summit News noted last week, South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla said that only 1.7% of COVID cases in the current Omicron wave are being hospitalized, compared to 19% in the previous wave and that the vast majority of cases are “fairly mild.”

  Meanwhile residents across ‘developed’ nations can look forward to another round of ‘one-virus-fits-all’ lockdowns.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 14:40

• Two Democrats Thank Police After Being Carjacked In Separate Incidents Just Hours Apart
  Two Democrats Thank Police After Being Carjacked In Separate Incidents Just Hours Apart

  Authored by Isabel van Brugen via The Epoch Times,

  Two elected Democrats this week became the victims of carjacking in the space of 24 hours, officials have confirmed.

  

  Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), center, talks with Reps. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) and Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Penn.) during a House Judiciary Committee markup hearing on the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 12, 2019. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)

  According to her office and city officials, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Penn.) was carjacked at gunpoint at a South Philadephia park on Wednesday afternoon, after she had a meeting at that location.

  “The Congresswoman was physically unharmed,” her office said in a statement.

  “She thanks the Philadelphia Police Department for their swift response, and appreciates the efforts of both the Sergeant at Arms in D.C. and her local police department for coordinating with Philly PD to ensure her continued safety.”

  Scanlon’s spokesperson, Lauren Cox, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the lawmaker’s vehicle and possessions, including her government cell phone, identification, personal cell phone, and purse were taken in the incident.

  Police say that as Scanlon walked to her vehicle, she was approached by two men, aged approximately 20-30, who demanded she give them her keys, reported Fox News. One of the men drove off in her blue 2017 Acura MDX and the other fled the scene in an SUV.

  According to CBS, Delaware State Police recovered Scanlon’s stolen vehicle at 9 p.m. Wednesday and five suspects are now in custody.

  Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, a Democrat, described the incident as “disheartening” and “infuriating.”

  “Everyone deserves to feel safe in our city, and sadly, as we know, that hasn’t always been the case this year,” said Kenney.

  “It’s disheartening, and quite frankly infuriating, that criminals feel emboldened to commit such a reckless crime in the middle of the day in what should be a place of tranquility and peace—one of Philadelphia’s beautiful parks,” the mayor added. “I’m thankful that she was not physically harmed during this incident, and my thoughts are with her during what I’m sure is a traumatic time.”

  Kenney’s administration has been criticized for how it’s been dealing with a spike in violent crime this year.

  According to figures released by the city, Philadelphia set its all-time yearly murder rate earlier this month. As of Wednesday, the city saw 544 murders in 2021, surpassing the previously set record of 500 murders in 1990.

  With a population of about 1.579 million, police data suggests Philadelphia’s homicide rate is more than 33 murders per 100,000 people, which is more than four times the 2020 U.S. homicide rate of 7.8 per 100,000 people.

  Wednesday afternoon’s carjacking incident came less than 24 hours after Illinois’ Democratic state Senate majority leader Sen. Kimberly Lightford and her husband were carjacked on Tuesday night in Chicago—amid a surge in shootings and murders in the city this year.

  Police told CBS Chicago that the pair were approached by three masked individuals as Lightford and her husband, Eric McKennie, were driving a Mercedes Benz SUV.

  The carjackers fired shots during the incident, but the pair were unharmed, police said, adding that the carjackers fled the scene in Lightford’s vehicle and a Dodge Durango.

  “First and foremost, I am thankful that my husband and I are alive and physically unharmed,” Lightford said in a statement.

  “I am trying to process the trauma of what happened. I want to thank everyone who has offered their love and support. I want to especially thank Mayor Katrina Thompson and the Broadview Police Department for their quick and thorough response.”

  Both Scanlon and Lightford have advocated for police reform following George Floyd’s May 2020 killing.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 14:15

• Vaccines Do Not Stop COVID-19 Spread As Governments Claim: Legal Advocacy Group
  Vaccines Do Not Stop COVID-19 Spread As Governments Claim: Legal Advocacy Group

  Authored by Andrew Chen via The EPoch Times,

  Vaccines are not as effective in stopping the spread of COVID-19 as governments have claimed them to be, an analysis of government narratives conducted by a constitutional rights group shows.

  

  The report (pdf), published Tuesday by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, found that claims made by government leaders that mandatory vaccination will reduce or stop the spread of COVID-19 are not supported by either medical science or real-life experience in the countries that have achieved the highest level of vaccination.

  “Unfortunately, and contrary to government-led narratives and media coverage in both Canada and the U.S., the evidence strongly suggests vaccinations do not stop the spread of Covid – not the original strains, and not the later Delta and Omicron variants,” the Justice Centre said.

  In its analysis, the legal advocacy group compared government-led narrative and what authoritative health agencies say about vaccine effectiveness in stopping the spread of the coronavirus with the actual situation in “heavily vaccinated communities,” including Israel, the United Kingdom, the U.S. state of Vermont, Gibraltar, and Sweden.

  “We conclude that whatever value vaccines may have in reducing hospitalization and mortality, they do not ‘work’ with the thoroughness government leaders claim, and certainly not to the degree that mandatory enforcement or vaccine passports could ever be justified in Canada as a reasonable limitation upon individual rights to bodily autonomy and Charter freedoms,” the Justice Centre said.

  Goal of Vaccines Redefined

  The Justice Centre said that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) change of definition of a “vaccine” in September has effectively switched its goal from producing “immunity” to merely providing “protection” against an infectious disease.

  According to the CDC website, “vaccination” is now defined as “the act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce protection from a specific disease.”

  In response to social media controversies following the revised definition, the CDC said the previous definitions could have been interpreted to mean that vaccines were 100 percent effective, which “has never been the case for any vaccine.”

  The Justice Centre also found many government-led narratives and health policies to be socially divisive.

  While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden repeated the narrative that vaccines work, both leaders have introduced restrictions requiring employers to enforce mandatory COVID-19 vaccination mandates.

  “With these actions, Prime Minister Trudeau and President Biden have separated Canadians and Americans into two groups: those who can fully participate in society and those who, having been first excluded from events and restaurants, can now be barred from earning a living, often in employment they have enjoyed for decades,” the Justice Centre said.

  Evidence of Reinfection

  Public enthusiasm for mass vaccination stemmed from the concept of “herd immunity,” which means that when enough people within a society become immune to a disease, it becomes harder for an infected individual to spread the virus.

  However, the Justice Centre noted that real-world evidence shows that even in heavily vaccinated communities around the world, fully vaccinated people continue to contract and die from COVID-19.

  One of the most notable examples is Israel, which was the first country in the world to have the majority of its citizens fully vaccinated. However, cases started to surge in June 2021, and over 13,000 fully vaccinated individuals had breakthrough infections between July 11 and July 31, 2021.

  “To date, no government has presented the public with evidence to support its repeated and fear-filled propaganda message that the Covid vaccine stops the spread of Covid,” the Justice Centre said.

  “In a free and democratic society, an ineffective policy of mandatory vaccination and vaccine passports to participate in normal society, deliberately excluding unvaccinated Canadians from civil society, cannot be justified as a reasonable limitation upon Charter rights and freedoms.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/24/2021 – 13:50

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