The Saker has now for some reason gone through his deplorables moment and alienated most of his readers with arrogant, childish ad-hominem labels for those who do not accept his non-science, but instead want to maintain the right to decide over their own bodies. One has to speculate what happened there, but I guess it is pointless. In any case it isn’t every day you see credibility crash and burn like that.

Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 5 2021 14:19 utc | 103

Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 5 2021 14:19 utc | 103
I agree, Norwegian, about the Saker. It just seems like he snapped, something went haywire in his life. He’s always been a little too sensitive about dissenting points of view but I appreciate his perspective on Russia along with most writers he invites.

Posted by: migueljose | Jul 5 2021 14:41 utc | 105

@105
To give a perspective:

According to the most recent data from the CDC’s National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey (NBCUS), the largest survey of blood collection and utilization data in the United States, almost eight million people donated blood in 2017, with around two million of these people first-time donors.

http://www.statista.com/topics/7512/blood-donation-in-the-us/

Posted by: aquadraht | Jul 5 2021 15:07 utc | 107

Exclusive: Western scientists face government probe, death threats for opposing COVID-19 lab-leak theory: source

Prominent US and Australian scientists focused on the COVID-19 origins tracing are now facing tremendous political pressure, and some have been sidelined for not yielding to politicians-driven conspiracy theory on the matter and received anonymous threatening letters with bullets, the Global Times learned from people familiar with the matter. Chinese experts have urged the US to stop politicizing the origin-tracing research and conduct a comprehensive investigation in the US.

Freedom? What freedom?
But the lack of freedom isn’t the bigger problem here: it’s the Inquisition against science.
The West, in order to fight socialism/communism (China), is plunging itself into a new Dark Age. Do not just follow, but also must listen to the Blind.
–//–
Russia’s new strategy shows US’ failure to split China-Russia ties
Does anybody have an English version of the decree? I only found it in Russian.
If the document does not exist in English, it would be nice if one of the Russophones here translate it to us. It’s only 44 pages long.
–//–
The Tech Cold War’s ‘Most Complicated Machine’ That’s Out of China’s Reach

The machine is made by ASML Holding, based in Veldhoven. Its system uses a different kind of light to define ultrasmall circuitry on chips, packing more performance into the small slices of silicon. The tool, which took decades to develop and was introduced for high-volume manufacturing in 2017, costs more than $150 million. Shipping it to customers requires 40 shipping containers, 20 trucks and three Boeing 747s.

This is not a machine: it’s a masterpiece. A monument to human mechanical engineering.
ASML should not deprive anybody with the ability to pay of this work of art.
This will also put many traditionalists off:

That includes not only China but the United States, where Congress is debating plans to spend more than $50 billion to reduce reliance on foreign chip manufacturers. Many branches of the federal government, particularly the Pentagon, have been worried about the U.S. dependence on Taiwan’s leading chip manufacturer and the island’s proximity to China.
A study this spring by Boston Consulting Group and the Semiconductor Industry Association estimated that creating a self-sufficient chip supply chain would take at least $1 trillion and sharply increase prices for chips and products made with them.
That goal is “completely unrealistic” for anybody, said Willy Shih, a management professor at Harvard Business School who studies supply chains. ASML’s technology “is a great example of why you have global trade.”

Posted by: vk | Jul 5 2021 15:23 utc | 109

@ farm ecologist | Jul 5 2021 13:28 utc | 98.. thanks… i agree with what you say..
regarding the often heard quote – mrnas are gene therapy – here is a link that says otherwise… i tend to agree with the article..
4 Myths About COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines and Why They’re Wrong

Posted by: james | Jul 5 2021 15:39 utc | 111

Posted by: aquadraht | Jul 5 2021 14:41 utc | 105
Insofar, the results are indeed stunning. Samples taken in December 2019 may point to infections weeks if not months earlier.
_____________________________________________________
It also suggests that it was a much more benign form that was circulating, if millions of people had it but no one recognized it as a new disease. When SARS2 hit Wuhan, NYC, Northern Italy and other places in early 2020 it was in a form that it could not be missed or ignored

Posted by: jinn | Jul 5 2021 15:59 utc | 113

b, thank you for your ‘Other Issues’article by Akit Papadakis, “The Return of Sadr”, which this morning has quite blown my mind. I realize I’ve known nothing about anything since so many of us protested the invasion of Iraq, Ted Koppel riding in his truck and camel rider off on the horizon.
What has been happening to the world? Maybe, Norwegian these truths are also impinging on Saker. We are finding out how little even the crumbs of information we have been shuffling about amount to in the larger picture. God help us.
I will as well mention the earlier article by the same author (from March I think) on the origins of covid and ask, can others verify that what it contains is accurate? It rivals the first article in impact. I apologize for not having noted if it has been linked here earlier. No wonder some are saying the matter of agency needs to be addressed.
I’ll go back to my garden now. All of this needs to be assimilated. Thank you, b.

Posted by: juliania | Jul 5 2021 16:09 utc | 115

@juliania | Jul 5 2021 16:09 utc | 118

Maybe, Norwegian these truths are also impinging on Saker.

Which truths are causing him to go against his former decent logic and principles, attack his readers and play into the hands of the forces he supposedly oppose? It is a genuine question, I do not see there is any logic to such an explanation. I can guess at other explanations, but I would like to know which truths you think could have caused such a mental and moral collapse.

Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 5 2021 16:32 utc | 117

Concerning the building collapse in Miami.
Apparently all of the people moved out of the yet to collapse side of the building that collapsed last week seemingly in the middle of the night..no MSM pictures of moving vans, etc. but just like 9-11 the authorities took down the collapsed building in record time, even before it was settled exactly how the building collapsed..and who was responsible..
I personally worked in an industry that had steel reinforced concrete mezzanines, over which highly corrosive aqueous salt liquid solutions often flowed. We had to replace the 12″ steel reinforced Mezzanines every three or so years, but never did these always wet structures fall down. They got weak to feel while walking on them, shaky of sorts, but never did they fall(and believe me they were heavy), there were miles of these mezzanines, in many different rows, all with highly corrosive aqueous salt solutions flowing over them. None ever fell if they had fallen, most likely a small section would have fallen and be left dangling by the corroded iron in the more secure sections. Weakened sections were no where near uniform along the length. so except for complete neglect they were not likely to fall and stack like pancakes.
At breakfast this am, several people reviewed the published list of names of the persons who were said to be missing in the collapsed building and nearly all concluded something sounds ..?? Several questioned the TV interviews with families who lost persons in the building collapse; they did not sound completely authentic some said.
The fact that none of the so called missing people have been found (except maybe four) not even a trace, gives rise to the question where are those 150 people who were supposedly in the building at the time the building collapsed (demolished). If the condo owners were not in the building at the time it collapsed no trace of the missing occupants would ever be found.
The names were mostly foreign sounding, and most where listed as past important people from foreign nations from which they came. Where are those people now?
So then the question came up why would anyone collapse the building so that the part that collapsed as well as the part still standing would have to be abandoned and demolished overnight? The breakfast group observation: if occupancy of the building had been continued until the building was condemned; insurance would probably not pay, but if a sudden collapse happened, which could blame a fault in the building, its design, its site, or its foundation, then maybe the insurance would pay.
Is this something worth talking about?

Posted by: snake | Jul 5 2021 16:34 utc | 119

here’s a partial list.
Posted by: john | Jul 5 2021 13:57 utc | 99
Thanks for the link, john. I was unfamiliar with several of those cases. The adverse effects of some drugs on the list (e.g., NSAIDs) should have been predictable from problems with other similar drugs.
It’s troubling that government gatekeepers aren’t sufficiently diligent, as again seems to be the case with the recently licensed “anti-alzheimer” drug aducanumab. The claims of the pharmaceutical companies should never be taken at face value, as they are more interested in making money than anything else.

Posted by: farm ecologist | Jul 5 2021 16:44 utc | 121

farm ecologist @ 124
The claims of the pharmaceutical companies should never be taken at face value, as they are more interested in making money than anything else
Indeed, but the process of ‘making money’ demands much complicity…some of these drugs stayed on the market for years, decades even!

Posted by: john | Jul 5 2021 16:59 utc | 123

=> Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 5 2021 6:31 utc | 76
(I am not a physician, so don’t rely on anything I write…)
R-Lipoic Acid protects against (and may even cure) nerve conduction or neuropathy conditions by blocking certain forms of ‘free radicals’. This is a delicate issue because if you overdose on some antioxidants you can completely disable crucial components of your immune system.
I have mild neuropathy, which seems to be improving as I take the ‘R’ form of lipoic acid at 240mg, along with a somewhat high dose of vitamin C and a moderate dose of vitamin E (which I do not overdose on). (I make sure of the reputation of the manufacturer!) These three things need to work together, if they are to work at all. Most people can synthesize r-lipoic acid, but not enough, especially when they age. Some people with very severe neuropathy take over 2,000mg of r-lipoic acid. Some say this even seems to help people lose belly fat!
I also take hyaluronic acid for my problematic knee joints.
I must warn you to discuss this with your physician before taking any actions, of course.

Posted by: blues | Jul 5 2021 17:06 utc | 125

Jen 84
Oldhippie mentioned something about BioNtech or their bachground being a black hole. Although political, I had a look at wikipedia for anything of interest. A couple of things stand out.
wiki…
“In August 2018, the company entered into a multi-year research and development (R&D) collaboration with the US company Pfizer Inc. to develop mRNA-based vaccines for prevention of influenza. Under the terms of the agreement, following BioNTech’s completion of a first-in-human clinical study, Pfizer would assume sole responsibility for further clinical development and commercialization of mRNA-based flu vaccines.[21]
“In September 2019, BioNTech received an equity investment of US$55 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with the option of doubling that investment amount at a later date.[22]
Nasdaq IPO (2019)
Since 10 October 2019, BioNTech, with its newly founded North American headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been publicly traded as American Depository Shares (ADS) on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol, BNTX.[23] BioNTech was able to generate total gross proceeds of 150 million dollars from the IPO.[24]”
A lot of things of interest in the Pfizer page as well Head of FDA leaving and joining Pfizer board ect. Re ‘national security’ on the Australian deal – Pfizer makes countries put up national assets as security in its deals.
wiki page on Pfizer..
“In February 2021, after a year long investigation relying on unnamed officials, Pfizer was accused by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) of employing “high-level bullying” against at least two Latin American countries during negotiations to acquire COVID-19 vaccines, including requesting that the countries put sovereign assets as collateral for payments.[138] According to TBIJ, these negotiation tactics resulted in a months long delay in Pfizer reaching a vaccine agreement with one country and a complete failure to reach agreements with two other countries, including Argentina and Brazil.[138]”
The legal issues section of Pfizers wiki page is interesting reading.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfizer#Legal_issues
They are a crooked company and our corrupt government has done a dirty deal. For a while now I have been watching our government making an enemy of China and thinking we are now wide open to be looted by the US. It looks as though that looting has started.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 5 2021 17:56 utc | 127

“Someone paid her to write that.”
Posted by: One | Jul 5 2021 17:00 utc | 124
that is possible and i had thought that… thanks..

Posted by: james | Jul 5 2021 18:35 utc | 129

Stop with your grocery shopping right now and Sieg fucking Heil:
National anthem breaks out in Walmart. Happy 4th! Patriots!!!!

Posted by: vk | Jul 5 2021 19:02 utc | 131

snake | Jul 5 2021 16:34 utc | 119 Norwegian, gottlieb.
Someone earlier mentioned that there were very few signs of metal strengthening in the photos of the rubble. ie, The builders could have been saving money during the construction by not using the amount stated in the original plans. The total cost of rebuilding the whole complex (and the similar complex a bit further away?) to acceptable standards, would have involved re-starting from the bottom up. This would not be covered by the insurance.
With the two towers on 9/11, one unexpected thing was the speed at which the rubble was collected and shipped to China for disposal. Before any forensic enquiry, and before any serious “questions” could be asked about alternatives. (By Guilliani if memory serves me once again).
IF the rubble in Miami is “rapidly” removed, so will any trace of malfeasance be removed. We shall have to see.
The idea of an insurance scam is a distinct possibilty.
(The twin towers and Asbestos ?)

Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 5 2021 19:23 utc | 133

BioNtech and Moderna
https://leadershipvision.net/2021/04/30/bill-gates-turned-his-55-million-investment-in-pfizers-partner-biontech-into-550-million-in-just-under-two-years-tech-news/
“Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019, Moderna and BioNtech had never produced or launched a single product. Today, Moderna’s vaccine has propelled its market capitalization to $67 billion. BioNtech, which later partnered with Pfizer to develop mRNA vaccines, is now valued at over $46.33 billion (see market chart at the bottom of this page).”
Pfizer no different to Boeing or the revolving door of the US MIC establishment.
https://khn.org/morning-breakout/ex-fda-head-scott-gottlieb-takes-seat-on-pfizers-board-of-directors/ (june 2019)
“After resigning as FDA commissioner in March, Scott Gottlieb now joins the pharmaceutical industry he once regulated.”
“After a two-year stint running the Food and Drug Administration, Scott Gottlieb has joined the board of directors at Pfizer, giving the world’s largest drug maker crucial insights into the inner workings of the Trump administration as it attempts to contain national angst over the rising cost of medicines. And in doing so, Gottlieb is also picking up where he left before joining the agency, since he had been on the board of several smaller pharmaceutical companies and was also a partner at a venture capital firm that invests in life sciences companies. (Silverman, 6/27)”

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 5 2021 19:41 utc | 135

Lurk wrote:
Ever heard of a funny lung disease called EVALI? Symptoms look remarkably similar to COVID
____________________________________________
Yes EVALI does seem similar to covid but there are clear differences. The main difference is that the people who present with EVALI are generally young and they don’t have any sign of the SARS2 virus. There are some differences in symptoms. At any rate you can’t explain millions of people having antibodies specific to covid from a couple thousand cases of a disease that looks similar.
_________________________________________________
Then in the fall of 2019, an unusually bad flu season was declared in the USA. The “bad flu” disappeared completely when the coronavirus appeared.
_________________________________________________________
Yes the flu season ended around the time people started staying home, wearing masks and keeping their distance from other people in public. There was very little flu in the 2020-21 flu season also. Covid as we know it now is not the same as the flu.
It is certainly probable that if covid was around the USA in 2019 it was not recognized as a separate disease, but again I repeat that suggests the form of covid disease at that time must have been more benign so that it remained undetected as a separate disease.

Posted by: jinn | Jul 5 2021 20:03 utc | 137

@jinn | Jul 5 2021 20:03 utc | 137
Study the coronavirus daily death graphs (eg. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/).
Note how in temperate regions in the northern hemisphere, there are very few deaths during the summer months. The daily deaths start ramping up well into the winter months, peaking only past february.
If sars-cov-2 was making the rounds in the USA during the summer of 2019, you could have easily missed it if you were not looking for a new virus. Most cases would have been benign and could easily pass for a cold. Several cold viruses even are coronaviruses, so unless you were on the alert for a new strain of “cold virus”, you would most likely not notice it.
A few unfortunate summer victims with some sort of predisposed vulnerability to developing covid-19 stood out, but were classified as EVALI cases.
The only way to find out the truth is to go back and investigate these cases in the USA during the summer and fall of 2019. What are the chances of that happening, if the USA deep state has known the truth all along, has been hiding and spinning it ever since the start of the outbreak and is hell-bent on never admitting, apologizing and taking responsibility.
In the words of George H W Bush: “We will never apologize.”

Posted by: Lurk | Jul 5 2021 20:48 utc | 139

Average age of the ‘young’ e puffers that died was 53.
________________________________________________________
So the older ones died? Both the age of those who died and those who didn’t was younger than in covid. Besides, since the test for the SARS2 virus was developed there is no longer any possibility of confusing the two diseases.
Even if you make a convincing argument that maybe there were a couple hundred cases of serious deadly covid that got mistaken for something else, how do you account for the several million people that Red Cross blood samples suggest have the antibodies?
If the antibodies were caused by getting covid, that suggests that the variant of covid that was circulating back then was much more benign than the current forms.

Posted by: jinn | Jul 5 2021 21:13 utc | 141

To those who criticized the Saker: When I glimpse over the defecations of the donkeytroll here, I understand the decision to moderate.

Posted by: aquadraht | Jul 5 2021 22:16 utc | 143

@140 Jinn
According to reports I read about EVALI cases it does not appear to me that they were – at least not most of them – related to early forms of Sars-Cov2 infections, I may be wrong though. Anyway it seems to me that the virus became human transferrable albeit insufficiently adapted long before Winter of 2019, maybe some months, maybe half a year earlier, possibly even more.
We see germs, understandably, from an anthropocentric perspective. From the perspective of the germs a human or animal organism is a habitat, a microbiome with very contested niches to survive and procreate. Far the most germs are not defeated by medicine but by other “native” germs who learned to exist and cooperate with the immune system of the organism they inhabit. Germs devour their competitors where they can, they are lipids and proteins, just food. To adapt in such an environment, to overcome its defenses, is a complex struggle for adaptation. The Sars-Cov2 may have needed a couple of attempts resulting in partial failures, thus the antibodies.

Posted by: aquadraht | Jul 5 2021 22:49 utc | 145

Fukushima pig tale was a good diversion b. But what of the killer wales and the radioactive mutant squid? I guess the Japanese cuisine will get to appreciate strontium sushi on a bed of soft glowing seaweed. Discerning gourmands will need to get the Huawei Geiger app before venturing out.
Funny how we we don’t get too many stories of the Ukranian reactor meltdown these days but then that is a ‘managed’ site – I guess.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 6 2021 0:11 utc | 147

Mina | Jul 5 2021 16:03 utc | 114
superspreaders…
https://www.pnas.org/content/118/21/e2104547118
Read the link… looks like detection method was PCR @ 40 count…
One might just as well posit that the 2% labeled “superspreaders” identified as carrying 90% of Covid-19 viral loads detected from the saliva samples are the only true “cases” of the virus being pursued, the rest being false positives; given that the notoriously inaccurate PCR specifically described by its developer/creator as inappropriate for the use of specific identification of a particular virus.
Seems as reasonable a “take” as: “[98%] seem to be in noninfectious phases of the disease, based on having low viral loads in a range from which live virus has rarely been isolated.”

Posted by: Doesitreallymatter | Jul 6 2021 1:21 utc | 149

Excellent article from a former Australian ambassador on the deteriorating relationship with China, the links are very good too:
https://johnmenadue.com/the-axis-of-evil-shaping-our-minds-on-china-and-more/

Posted by: Paul | Jul 6 2021 1:54 utc | 151

@jinn | Jul 5 2021 20:03 utc | 137

It is certainly probable that if covid was around the USA in 2019 it was not recognized as a separate disease, but again I repeat that suggests the form of covid disease at that time must have been more benign so that it remained undetected as a separate disease.

First it is necessary to differentiate between infection with sars-cov-2 and contracting covid-19. A person can become infected and develop antibodies while showing only mild symptoms or even no symptoms at all. The covid-19 cases are the ones where the immune system goes into overdrive, leading to systemic inflammation and in some cases even death.
If there is no awareness or testing for viral rna/dna or antibodies, the mild and asymptomatic cases are invisible. Only the severely ill and the deaths will stick out.
Now check the death statistics for countries in the northern hemisphere with a temperate climate.
Observe that there are typically very few deaths in the summer and early fall. Only in November does the death toll rise significantly, and it drops again at the end of spring. Clearly, sars-cov-2 behaves as a seasonal virus.
Back to the summer of 2019 in the USA.
Asymptomatic infections will not have been noticed at all, and the mild cases will have been seen as a case of the common cold. Indeed, several of the viruses causing the common cold are coronaviruses (most of the rest being adenoviruses). Nothing out of the ordinary, it seems.
As the graphs show for 2020, and will likely, show again for 2021, there will have been few severe cases in the summer of 2019 and the ones that did occur may have been disregarded as simply frail or old people succumbing to the inevitable, leaving only a much smaller number of inexplicable cases of apparently young and healthy people suddenly falling gravely ill. EVALI was coined.
When fall came and the number of severe cases and deaths started to rise, a bad flu season was declared. Again, it is not at all uncommon that frail and elderly people are severely struck by the flu and succumb to it. Business as usual, just more business.
When the sars-cov-2 became officially identified, thanks to the Chinese, recognition of its presence in the USA started to pick up, though not until after a lone doctor in Washington state was ordered by the cdc to stop testing for the new virus and to destroy all results she had collected thus far. Then the early availability of officially sanctioned test was much delayed due to “unfortunate” errors and mishaps. Donald Trump declared the White House coronavirus briefings a secret. Critics complained that no serious effort was being made to nip the spread of the pandemic to and across the USA in the bud.
Admittedly, I am interpolating and extrapolating the few data points that are available. The only way to establish the facts about sars-cov-2’s hypothesized presence and spread in the USA in the summer of 2019 is by an independent investigation of tissue samples and remains of victims of EVALI and the bad flu.
Will that ever happen? What if indeed sars-cov-2 was weaned by Baric at UNC Chapel Hill and further “perfected” by his friends at USAMRIID Fort Detrick, from where it escaped somewhere between 2018, when a flood damaged its main waste decontamination system, and August 2019, when the CDC shut it down for “serious failures in containment procedures”. Would the USA deep state ever voluntarily admit it?
Remember the words of George H W Bush: “I’ll never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don’t care what the facts are.”

Posted by: Lurk | Jul 6 2021 2:05 utc | 153

Norwegian, apologies for not being clearer- the truths I refer to, if verified, are those in the second article, the earlier one about covid. I saw that you had mentioned the manner in which Saker was responding to a series of posts he himself had put on his site on the covid question (framed very strangely I must say). In each of the post responses folk were giving earnest responses that seemed to anger him,although he himself had encouraged those.
If indeed the enormity of the information was causing some psychological distress, too horrific personally in light of his previous certitude, I could see that to have devastating consequences. It’s hard enough for those of us who have been sceptical of what is happening in this country to have such facts (and I emphasize I don’t yet know them to be that) even considered- he and I both chose this country in which to raise our families. I understand the stress such information can give – we chose to be here. We have put our families in harm’s way, in the heart of the beast, so to speak. It’s a big responsibility.

Posted by: juliania | Jul 6 2021 2:25 utc | 155

@161 Lurk
I appreciate your persistence with #160 – that must have been galling. And your other posts. Many thanks.
Useful to know that simply separating the parts of a URL escapes detection by Typepad intervention.

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 6 2021 3:15 utc | 157

israel seems to either be on the legit, or the new pr company for pfizer.. i can’t tell which… looks like the later at this point.. maybe rt wants to take a chink out of the pfizer armour too for all i know..
“Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine has dropped to 64% effectiveness in preventing infection amid the spread of the Delta variant in Israel, the Health Ministry said, as officials weigh the need for booster shots and new restrictions.”
Pfizer vaccine losing effectiveness amid Delta variant surge, Israeli Health Ministry says as it mulls 3rd shot & new restrictions

Posted by: james | Jul 6 2021 5:28 utc | 159

jinn 141
In China, a number of younger doctors died amongst others. I leave it open about whether or not it was covid, but young people getting sick, if a few of them were on the E puffers, then its just as kily others with similar symptoms simply fall into that group. Young one live, 40 onwards higher death rate. for the oldies its just the flu. But looking into it a bit makes me think maybe not covid.
I’m not sure it would have been spreading much in the US before the Wuhan military games. A lot that went there got sick about the time they were heading home.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 6 2021 6:15 utc | 161

Re: Kovid situation in India
India had an explosion of cases and deaths a month back. Now cases and deaths are both reducing so that it appears as if there is immunity in general population. With the reduction in cases daily vaccines administered is around 4-5 million. At present the maximum no of cases is from state of Kerala which has highest literacy and good health care. It appears as if UK PM was right when he said to take it on the chin.( Allow the disease to spread and get natural immunity). Now every where lockdowns are being lifted but still cases and deaths are going down. Anecdotally a good number of senior citizens who died had all taken vaccines during the second wave. The govt is not releasing any data which goes against the narrative so we can only guess about the breakthrough cases.

Posted by: R M Rao | Jul 6 2021 7:00 utc | 163

In India, covid fatalities are violently underreported, according to local observers by a factor of ten at least. Data from Mahdya Pradesh (state Bhopal is capital of, 72m inhabitants) show an excess mortality at least by factor 5, and 17 times more than reported covid cases. https://scroll.in/article/996772/madhya-pradesh-saw-nearly-three-times-more-deaths-than-normal-after-second-wave-of-covid-19-struck
The number of infections, and mild and asymptomatic cases most probably exceeds the number of registered covid cases (30 million)by a much higher factor, probably 20-30, as the rural population was practically not tested at all, so weren’t most of the poor, the Dalit, and the Muslims. And as the Indian population is rather young (median 28.4 yrs), there will have been many more mild and asymptomatic cases never reported, and often not even recognized due to high morbidity by air and water pollution and malnutrition.
Health care in India practically collapsed under the pandemic, even worse in rural areas where much had been done by interational organizations in the years before, but at the start of the pandemic Modi’s fascist party militia RSS incited pogroms against foreigners as the alleged guilty ones for the pandemic so many left.
“Taking on the chin” in India means taking on the lives of the peasants and the poor. The economy in India is still in the dumps and will at best slowly recover. But the Modi regime cares more for military buildup against China.

Posted by: aquadraht | Jul 6 2021 8:06 utc | 165

China enlightens the EU to the arts of civil discourse and fine tunes their minds to improve their BS detector problem https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202107/1227891.shtml“>here at Global Times. I suspect it will be pearls before swine given the neocon coprolite that lies within the EU skull.

Over the past 100 years, the Communist Party of China has united the Chinese people and led them to a path of development that conforms to China’s national conditions and is universally supported by the people, Xi said, noting that China and the EU should correctly view each other’s differences and rationally deal with divergences and firmly grasp the general direction of China-EU relations.
China is willing to work to push forward the 23rd EU-China summit while holding high-level dialogues covering strategy, trade, people-to-people exchanges, digital and climate change, Xi said at the virtual summit.
Given the epidemic control situation, China will also streamline channels for people exchanges, Xi said, noting that China is steadfast in expanding the opening-up and he hopes that the EU will provide Chinese companies with a fair, transparent and nondiscriminatory business environment in accordance with market principles.
Xi’s emphasis on holding a correct understanding about each other’s differences as the first thing during the online summit is a direct warning to Europe’s recent misperception of China and interference in Chinese internal affairs, which can also be interpreted as timely guidance for future China-EU ties, Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Monday.

But it was more than just words as the report reiterates the China stick flogging that the EU copped for sanctions agains China over the invented Xinjiang crapola. Its worth the read.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 6 2021 8:35 utc | 167

R M Rao #163
Sure there was a peak and then a decline in infection. It infects that group of people with a pronounced vulnerability and seriously wipes a large proportion out. Then there are the many who either through good luck, good management, or merely chance that they are in the non vulnerable group. The latter may never get Covid in any serious way and the former can be radically assisted with open advocacy of using preventative medicines.
However we are being driven by a cult of prohibition minded zealots waving their thuribles in the air and chanting to their god Vaxx. The dead are, therefore, many.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 6 2021 8:47 utc | 169

If BoJo had said that and authorized Ivermectin + given free vit D and advertised it, he would have a bit of credibility. But we all know what he meant. Depopulating the +80 is good for the economy, period.

Posted by: Mina | Jul 6 2021 9:32 utc | 171

@Peter AU1 | Jul 6 2021 6:15 utc | 161
The new coronavirus was never widespread in China. Only 10% of the Chinese population was affected by lockdowns and these measures effectively contained the spread of the virus. Since then, al new cases in China have been traced back to travelers into China from abroad. If the virus had established itself several months earlier, it would have been everywhere in China. It wasn’t, apparently.
In contrast, the serological evidence shows that at the same time in the USA, it had already spread to 9 states. Even if the USA had employed the same radical lockdowns as China did, it would have had to quarantine much more than 10% of the population.
As I have mentioned before in another thread, any USA lockdown measures would have necessarily also applied to its military apparatus, spread far and wide across the globe. In fact, had word gotten out about a new killer virus on the loose in the USA, many of the countries host to a USA military base would have demanded measures, up to forced evacuation, to be applied to these bases. That would have created a global strategic discontinuity and not have sat particularly well with the pentagon planners.
In hindsight, if my suspicions are correct, there is no need to blame Trump for mishandling the pandemic. He did fine, exactly as he was told to.

Posted by: Lurk | Jul 6 2021 10:10 utc | 173

Looks like Pfizer’s shares are going to fall
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/covid-infections-in-israel-spike-by-50-percent-1.9973150
“The Health Ministry reported 501 new coronavirus cases in Israel on Monday, a 50 percent increase from the previous day. The figure is the highest since March 30, when 571 tested positive for the virus. Out of the new infections on Monday, 42 percent had been vaccinated against the virus. This comes amid concern over the rapid spread of the highly contagious delta variant, which is now responsible for more than 90 percent of Israel’s cases, according to tests of the virus’ genome among confirmed cases. Of the new infections, 31 recently returned from abroad and the rest were infected via community transmission. The R number, the average number of secondary infections from a single person, currently stands at 1.43. Seventy-four patients are hospitalized, 43 percent of whom were fully vaccinated. Five were added on Monday, including three who were vaccinated.”
“The morbidity rate among children aged 0-11 has also quadrupled in the last week. The number of cases in this age group in Tel Aviv constitutes almost a third of the total morbidity of the age group across the country. ”

Posted by: Mina | Jul 6 2021 11:08 utc | 175

“Nota bene, chronic exposure to pesticides is a cause of mast cell activation, one of the drivers of the out of control inflammation in covid-19.”
Posted by: Lurk | Jul 6 2021 10:34 utc | 174
Yes. In general you can assume that any regular exposure to pullutants has the same effect, leads to chronic inflammation and auto-immune problems. This explains a lot, actually, but nobody makes the connection.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jul 6 2021 12:36 utc | 177

Back to the summer of 2019 in the USA.
Asymptomatic infections will not have been noticed at all, and the mild cases will have been seen as a case of the common cold.
__________________________________________________________
Yes that is what I have been saying.
This is pretty simple:
If there were say 4+ million cases of Covid in the US prior to 2020 it would not have gone unnoticed if that disease was the same as the current form.
The form of Covid disease that is known today is not confused with the flu or EVALI. That kind of medical differential diagnosis is being made everyday.
Covid is not confused with the Flu. Sure some people get the flu or covid and have no symptoms, but for most who have symptoms the symptoms are different enough that confusion does not happen.
What all this suggests is that if the 4 million in the US had covid prior to 2020 that was caused by a variant that was so mild that nobody noticed a new virus was circulating. It had to be a form that caused far less severe disease and death to go undetected for long enough to infest that many people. It
What that also suggests is that a new variant that was more severe somehow developed around the end of 2019. And sure, it is reasonable to assume the milder form was still circulating in February 2020, but if they were not showing symptoms they were not tested. Widespread testing did not begin until after the new variant had taken over just as now the new D variant is taking over.

Posted by: jinn | Jul 6 2021 12:49 utc | 179

jinn 180
The version I put up on discovering the virus was the Chinese version. A female doctor was suspicious of it after seeing an old couple and imaging the lungs of both. She then asked about family and had the son come in foe testing and although he thought he was fine, his lungs on imaging showed the beginnings of what they called ground glass opacities. A while now since I read it but I take it that’s when local health authorities were notified and blood or other samples sent for testing – SARS being the main suspect. The corona virus that was isolated was not SARS, though it took a number of days to find bug and then check that it did not match other known pathogens.
I would have to find the piece I had read again to be sure but I think it was this family cluster that the Wuhan health authorities were notified about.
Identification of the pathegen was going ahead even if local authorities had not notified a higher body.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 6 2021 14:30 utc | 181

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-57732033
South Korea has been among the very best in terms of care since the beginning, but sees a rise among 20-30 y old. They prefer target vaccination apparently and have not tried to impose it nor are they talking about vaccinating kids.

Posted by: Mina | Jul 6 2021 15:23 utc | 183

Dr. Michael Hudson has published a new paper, “Finance Capitalism versus Industrial Capitalism: The Rentier Resurgence and Takeover”. To get your PDF copy, click the link, then click the link embedded with Sage Journals under the picture and above the word Abstract. What follows is that abstract:
“Marx and many of his less radical contemporary reformers saw the historical role of industrial
capitalism as being to clear away the legacy of feudalism—the landlords, bankers, and monopolists
extracting economic rent without producing real value. However, that reform movement failed.
Today, the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) sector has regained control of government,
creating neo-rentier economies. The aim of this postindustrial finance capitalism is the opposite
of industrial capitalism as known to nineteenth-century economists: it seeks wealth primarily
through the extraction of economic rent, not industrial capital formation. Tax favoritism for real
estate, privatization of oil and mineral extraction, and banking and infrastructure monopolies
add to the cost of living and doing business. Labor is increasingly exploited by bank debt, student
debt, and credit card debt while housing and other prices are inflated on credit, leaving less
income to spend on goods and services as economies suffer debt deflation. Today’s new Cold
War is a fight to internationalize this rentier capitalism by globally privatizing and financializing
transportation, education, health care, prisons and policing, the post office and communications,
and other sectors that formerly were kept in the public domain. In Western economies, such
privatizations have reversed the drive of industrial capitalism. In addition to monopoly prices
for privatized services, financial managers are cannibalizing industry by leveraging debt and highdividend payouts to increase stock prices.”
Hudson colleague Steve Keen is also in the process of publishing a new book, The New Economics: A Manifesto, the Introduction to which can be read at the link. Steve is also interviewed by Max and Stacy of the Keiser Report.
Yes, it’s the inevitable avalanche of material that arrives after every holiday weekend. I could easily add ten news items of importance but will ask a simple question: Was anyone aware of the Summit with leaders of more than 500 world political parties that occurred today? No, the Ds. Rs, and Tories certainly didn’t attend, but the CPC did.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 6 2021 17:42 utc | 185

@james | Jul 5 2021 19:35 utc | 134
I have watched a little more than an hour of the french video about the pyramids. In my opinion there are too many assertions presented as facts in that video. There really is no evidence that Khufu built a pyramid, the only “proof” is a much disputed graffiti above the top chamber (“kings chamber”). Regardless of the building method used, the dynastic Egyptians didn’t have the technology to conduct such large scale engineering. Remember, they had not even discovered the wheel according to conventional history.
There are clear similarities between the knobs on the granite casing stones on the Menkaure pyramid (the smallest of the 3 at Giza) and identical granite knobs in Peru (Cuzco). It seems to me to be the same technology. You find similar knobs in Asia and other places too. I think this technology belonged to a world wide civilization, and most likely it existed before the Younger Dryas, i.e. when the comet struck in North America ~12900 years ago, causing world wide floods and devastation and a 7-8 thousand year long “dark age” when civilization recovered after which the pyramids were re-discovered and claimed by the rulers of the time.

Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 6 2021 17:47 utc | 187

@Peter AU1 | Jul 6 2021 18:09 utc | 188
Travel is best done by boat. And the Pacific is and was generally very deep, many thousands of meters. During the ice age the sea was “only” 100-200m lower.
The knobs mentioned are found everywhere in megalithic structures Cambodia, India, Turkey, Peru and more. Their purpose is not understood, much less how they were made. But they are wide spread.

Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 6 2021 18:24 utc | 189

Norwegian
The is an underwater archipelago. The higher ones a still islands today. When sea levels were 100 -120 meters lower there would have been many more islands.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 6 2021 18:35 utc | 191

Norwegian @187–
I suggest reading Eden in the East, which is freely available at the link. It’s mostly about the region known as the Sunda Sea, its people, and their creation stories, which are very different from most other peoples. Given the now drowned geography, the Sunda Sea region might account for a few mysteries, like the reason why Asia has had a much higher number of people for a great many years versus Europe and Africa–the region’s fecundity being rather massive in comparison.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 6 2021 18:53 utc | 193

This is a lovely story that encapsulates the humanity of Britain’s rulers.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/06/three-members-of-stockwell-six-cleared-after-nearly-50-years
The gist is this. Six young men were fitted up by a corrupt police officer in 1972. It happens, right?
In 1980 that police officer was himself convicted of robbery in 1980. He died in prison in 1982.
So for the last forty one years the “system” has known that any prosecution based on his evidence must be unsound.
They finally got around to it now that the victims are in their late sixties and their productive lives are over.
Some of the comments are vomitworthy,

“It is most unfortunate that it has taken nearly 50 years to rectify the injustice suffered by these appellants”
“It is wholly regrettable that the criminal actions of a discredited former officer of this force over four decades ago led to these unsound prosecutions”
“I apologise unreservedly for the distress, anxiety and impact this will have undoubtedly caused those who were wrongly convicted”

Do you hear the echo of Lord Bingham* and his enquiry into BCCI?
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2021/07/open-thread-2021-050.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef026bdedc9fa3200c#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef026bdedc9fa3200c
* I have subsequently learned that Bingham was a Knight of the Garter, just like Gordon Richardson who was Governor of the Bank of England from 1973 to 1983 when BCCI was being set up, and Robin Leigh-Pemberton who was Governor of the Bank of England from 1983 to 1993 when the worst of the BCCI crimes were underway.
Small world!

Posted by: John Cleary | Jul 6 2021 19:25 utc | 195

A map of the pacific ocean floor showing sea mounts.
Link

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 6 2021 20:27 utc | 197

Lurk
Finally got to reading your articles about mast cells linked near top of thread. Above my pay grade and have to admit they are a hard slog. And worth reading. All sorts of information that even the little people can use. And make sense of.
About the recurring seasonality issue. In temperate climes the sun is stronger and the days far warmer in summer. Exposing skin to sun creates vitamin D. Lots of vitamin D. Far more than most would ever use in the form of supplements. Excess D is stored for two to three months. The season for infectious respiratory diseases does not get underway until D stores are depleted. Those who avoid the sun even in summer are protected by those who partake. D is highly protective.
Your extrapolation and speculation of 4.75 million remains unproven, it is entirely plausible, useful as an hypothesis. Unproven hypotheses are very often useful for thinking through a problem. Even when unproveable as well as unproven there are good reasons to indulge in such thought experiments.
Doctors are very conservative, US doctors operate under so many restraints. New diseases with any similarity at all to established diagnoses could go unremarked a very long time. I would love your have an internist/GP who would do what the Chinese doctors began in December 2019. My doc is pretty good by current standards, he would never go out on a limb and entertain the possibility he was observing something new. He would face disciplinary action. Likely he would lose his job. One of my former docs was head of internal medicine at a major university. He had that position because he was thick as a brick. US medicine could easily miss anything and everything Detrick might do.

Posted by: Oldhippie | Jul 6 2021 22:21 utc | 199