Month: March 2021

(CNN) — President Joe Biden sharply criticized states such as Texas and Mississippi for lifting Covid-19 restrictions against pleas from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other top public health officials, accusing those in power of “Neanderthal thinking.”

“I think it’s a big mistake. Look, I hope everybody’s realized by now, these masks make a difference. We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of the way in which we’re able to get vaccines in people’s arms,” Biden said when asked about the decisions by GOP Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Tate Reeves of Mississippi to relax restrictions.

“The last thing — the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything’s fine, take off your mask, forget it. It still matters,” Biden said…

https://www.azfamily.com/news/us_world_news/biden-criticizes-texas-and-mississippi-for-lifting-restrictions-neanderthal-thinking/article_25ccbc3b-b612-5188-8585-276633b55a95.html?block_id=997197

There is vast evidence that masks cause more infections than they prevent. Allow me to show you, using their own graphs and data, just one glaring example from here in Arizona.

Take a look at this graphic from the CDC, taking a victory lap last summer when “cases” initially declined, before skyrocketing again:

This graphic was published here:

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6940e3.htm

That was on October 9th, 2020. Y’all know what happened after that, right?

Source: https://azdhs.gov/preparedness/epidemiology-disease-control/infectious-disease-epidemiology/covid-19/dashboards/index.php

The mask mandates went into effect in Arizona on June 17th, 2020. Did the masks help or hurt?

A graph that resembles a brontosaurus moving left to right across time is not a good look.

I expect them to lie to us. I am just asking for the lies to be consistent. Either tell me to believe the case counts or tell me to believe the masks reduce the case counts. Come on, man.

Testing for SARS-CoV-2 is central to COVID-19 management and has relied on quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology. PCR seeks the genetic code of the virus from nose or throat swabs and amplifies it over 30–40 cycles, doubling each cycle, enabling even miniscule, potentially single, copies to be detected. PCR is thus a powerful clinical test, specifically when a patient is, or was recently, infected with SARS-CoV-2. Fragments of RNA can linger for weeks after infectious virus has been cleared,⁶ often in people without symptoms or known exposures.⁷

However, for public health measures, another approach is needed. Testing to help slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 asks not whether someone has RNA in their nose from earlier infection, but whether they are infectious today. It is a net loss to the health, social, and economic wellbeing of communities if post-infectious individuals test positive and isolate for 10 days. In our view, current PCR testing is therefore not the appropriate gold standard for evaluating a SARS-CoV-2 public health test.

Most people infected with SARS-CoV-2 are contagious for 4–8 days.⁷ Specimens are generally not found to contain culture-positive (potentially contagious) virus beyond day 9 after the onset of symptoms, with most transmission occurring before day 5.^7, 8 This timing fits with the observed patterns of virus transmission (usually 2 days before to 5 days after symptom onset), which led public health agencies to recommend a 10-day isolation period.⁹ The short window of transmissibility contrasts with a median 22–33 days of PCR positivity (longer with severe infections and somewhat shorter among asymptomatic individuals).¹⁰ This suggests that 50–75% of the time an individual is PCR positive, they are likely to be post-infectious.^11, 12

Read the whole thing and download the PDF here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00425-6/fulltext

Louie Verrecchio wrote an excellent piece on the Benedict faux “interview” that broke yesterday. Here is the opening:

This morning, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published an article, which, according to its headline, is an “Interview with Ratzinger.”

In this day and age of rampant fakery, it has never been more obvious that “news” items are more often scripted and orchestrated than merely “reported.” The article under review here is no different, the key to its reading intimated in its penultimate paragraph:

“As always when it comes to the Vatican, reality and symbolism are linked in an indissoluble way.“

It is a curious, albeit rather common, occurrence; how often evildoers – in this case, the purveyors of propaganda – seem unable to resist the urge to tip their hand! It is almost as if they are bragging, congratulating themselves on their cleverness, with a wink and a nod directed toward their knowing confreres.

In any case, one can be grateful that writer Massimo Franco saw fit to let readers know, those with eyes to see anyway, that all is not what it seems.

The article begins:

“There are not two popes. The Pope is only one…,” Joseph Ratzinger says in a faint voice, striving to articulate every word well. [Emphasis in original] 

In this opening sentence, the primary purpose of the article is revealed, the bolded text but a smokescreen, a matter of mere secondary concern at best. Evidently, the majority of media, Catholic and otherwise, has taken the bait...

One notes that the roughly 1,500-word article is overwhelmingly comprised of Franco’s observations, no doubt with the pre-approval of the Vatican Press Office. It contains scarcely more than 250 words attributed to the “interviewee.” Some interview, eh?

Would anyone be surprised to discover that there really was no interview at all?

Louie has a lot more to say; do go read the whole thing: https://akacatholic.com/ratzingers-imminent-death/

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Marco Tosatti had his own punchline a few hours ago:

There Is Only One Pope…Andrea Cionci Asks: Which Is the Real One?

2 Marzo 2021 Pubblicato da Marco Tosatti 

Dear friends and enemies of Stilum Curiae, a friend has sent us the English translation of Massimo Franco’s interview with Joseph Ratzinger, and the translation of the commentary that Andrea Cionci published in Libero. We offer them to you, as a contribution to the debate that is taking place on these issues. Happy reading.

“There Is Only One Pope” Ratzinger declares to Corriere.

But He Does Not Explain Which of the Two.

A thing and its opposite cannot both be true. Either new “cases” are crashing, or they’re not. Either the “vaccines” work, or they do not. Pick a side, you can’t play both. The WHO already admitted the PCR test and the “cases” it produces are totally bogus. But even using their own bogus numbers, which also include all the regular flu cases, it sure looks like it’s going away. But now WHO is saying it is “unrealistic” to think the “pandemic” might be under control by the end of 2021. Even if the whole planet gets “vaccinated?” How does that work?

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GENEVA — A senior World Health Organization official said Monday it was “premature” and “unrealistic” to think the pandemic might be stopped by the end of the year… The world’s singular focus right now should be to keep transmission of COVID-19 as low as possible, said Dr. Michael Ryan, director of WHO’s emergencies program.

“If the vaccines begin to impact not only on death and not only on hospitalization, but have a significant impact on transmission dynamics and transmission risk, then I believe we will accelerate toward controlling this pandemic.”

But Ryan warned against complacency, saying that nothing was guaranteed in an evolving epidemic.

“Right now the virus is very much in control,” he said.

https://6abc.com/health/who-makes-sobering-prediction-about-the-end-of-the-pandemic/10380883/

This is not a “vote” in the sense of who you want to be pope. You don’t get a vote in choosing the pope, and neither do I. This is rather like being on a jury. You have examined the evidence brought before you, and you have to make a judgment based on said evidence. You are now being polled as a juror.

Let’s also not get caught up with formal vs informal terms. This is about who is the Vicar of Christ on Earth. There can be only one. As we’ve learned from Dr. Mazza, titles like Pope, Pontiff, and even Supreme Pontiff, are not synonymous with Vicar of Christ.

Who do you say is the Vicar of Christ?

Vote here: https://canon212voice.com/pollwhoispope/

“At least 225 million jobs disappeared worldwide over the past year — losses that were four times larger than what was exacted by the global financial crisis more than a decade ago — according to a report published Monday by the International Labor Organization. Oxfam, the anti-poverty nonprofit, separately found that while the world’s 1,000 richest people recouped their losses during the pandemic in a matter of months, it could take more than a decade for the world’s poorest to recover from its economic impact.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/01/29/davos-merkel-macron-coronavirus/

"We understand that the world is very complex and that change doesn’t happen overnight. But you’ve now had more than three decades of blah blah blah. How many more do you need?"

My address to the World Economic Forum today. #wef2021 #DavosAgenda pic.twitter.com/Bhd9HJSHhp

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) January 25, 2021