WORLD NEWS
China is experiencing another wave of COVID-19 outbreaks, as a fever wave hits schools across the country, leading to the halting of many classes, an internal metro system document shows.
Shanghai Metro epidemic prevention measures are being enforced again because of a new round of infections, a transit system worker who identified herself as Ms. Liang told The Epoch Times on Feb. 21.
“The second wave of COVID-19 in Shanghai and Hangzhou has come again,” she said. “Three schools in Hangzhou are having COVID-19 outbreaks, and a primary school in Shanghai Qingpu suspended classes for four days because of flu.”
The Metro system recently issued an internal document about epidemic prevention measures, according to Liang.
America’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Shows Up in Ukraine, Announces Aid Transfer of $1.25B
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrived in Ukraine on Monday on a surprise visit to “reaffirm U.S. support for Ukraine” and announce the first transfer of $1.25 billion from a $9.9 billion tranche of aid to Ukraine, according to Reuters.
“America will stand with Ukraine as long as it takes,” she told Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during her visit.
Report: American Corporations Plan Expansion Across Communist China
Despite concerns about human rights abuses and growing economic dominance over the United States, some of the largest American-owned corporations are planning to expand their operations across China.
Corporations like McDonald’s, Starbucks, Tyson Foods, Hormel Foods, Ralph Lauren, and Tapestry Inc. are planning to expand in China. Starbucks, in particular, is banking on rapid growth in the Chinese market to open thousands of new stores.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
“I remain more confident than ever that we are still only in the early chapters of our growth story in China,” said Howard Schultz, Starbucks’s interim chief executive and longtime leader, earlier this month. The company plans to open 3,000 new stores by 2025, even though same-store sales in the country fell 42% in December and 15% in January from a year earlier. Mr. Schultz said he is planning his first visit to the country in years in the spring.
[Emphasis added]
McDonald’s, meanwhile, opened about 700 stores across China in 2022 and plans to open another 900 this year — more than twice as many as it plans to open in the U.S. Tyson Foods, similarly, is planning to open three new food processing plants in China while Hormel Foods is also reportedly scheduling a large expansion.
Brexit leader Nigel Farage said that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s deal with the European Union over the issue of Northern Ireland “doesn’t cut the mustard”, warning that he fears the ultimate authority over disputes will lay in the hands of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Strasbourg rather than the parliament in Stormont.
Following years of dissatisfaction over the Northern Ireland Protocol signed by Boris Johnson, though essentially negotiated by his predecessor Theresa May, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on Monday that the Conservative government had finally come to an agreement with the European Union on the matter. Under the protocol, the EU was given effective control over trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK with the imposition of a trade barrier in the Irish Sea.
My Socialist Hell: Remembering the Time Venezuela’s Socialists Made Eggs Disappear
Americans’ recent woes with eggs, and inflation generally, have affected close friends, acquaintances, and strangers alike — and they are something I, as a Venezuelan, am all too familiar with.
Inflation in socialist Venezuela has been a constant for decades, and uncertainty regarding what basic needs we can access has persisted under dictator Nicolás Maduro. Like many such needs, eggs are a luxury here today. A few years ago, however, even finding eggs in stores became an odyssey after Maduro criminalized profiting from producing them.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Concerns mounting over Ukraine aid – top US official
Both Republicans and Democrats “are starting to question” Washington’s support for Kiev, Victoria Nuland noted
US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are having second thoughts about providing Ukraine with various types of aid amid its conflict with Russia, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland acknowledged on Monday.
Speaking during a panel discussion hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce, Nuland was asked to comment on the political split in Washington regarding support for Kiev.
The State Department official attempted to downplay friction on the matter, noting that the US “has contributed more than $30 billion to the security, economic prosperity, and humanitarian situation in Ukraine.”
“You can’t do that without overwhelming support of both parties in the Congress,” she added.
However, she proceeded to admit that “on the fringes of both parties, folks are starting to question, but fundamentally, when you look at how this issue is polling around the country, Americans hate a bully.”
According to Nuland, US citizens “understand that if we don’t stop this war here, if we don’t restore international law and respect for the UN Charter, then this thing [will] just keep going.”
Nuland’s remarks come as an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released earlier this month found that 48% of Americans support the US providing weapons to Ukraine, with 29% opposed and 22% remaining on the fence. This is a 12% drop compared to a similar poll in May 2022, when 60% of US adults said they favored American military support for Ukraine.
In recent months, some Republicans have repeatedly called for an audit of US aid to Ukraine, with a relevant resolution narrowly defeated in the House of Representatives in early December. However, in early February, a dozen Republicans in Congress put forward the “Ukraine Fatigue Resolution” calling on Washington to end its military and financial aid to Kiev.
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, between January 2022 and January 2023, the US government committed some $77.5 billion to Ukraine, with a sizable part of this sum constituting military aid.
Major U.S. county forced to remove 1.2 million voters for telling reason
‘A historic victory and means California elections are less at risk for fraud’
For those who repeatedly have claimed there’s no election fraud, or only extremely small and very rare cases, the result of a lawsuit in Los Angeles County should be a lesson.
The action, brought by government watchdog Judicial Watch, is forcing the removal of 1.2 million names from the voter registration rolls.
It’s because they all are ineligible to vote.
Judicial Watch said the county removed actually 1,207,613 names under the terms of a lawsuit settlement agreement.
Judicial Watch had sued on its own behalf as well as four lawfully registered voters in the county.
“Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Los Angeles County sent almost 1.6 million address confirmation notices in 2019 to voters listed as ‘inactive’ on its voter rolls,” Judicial Watch said. “Under the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), voters who do not respond to the notices and who do not vote in the following two federal elections must be removed from the voter rolls. The settlement also required an update to the state’s online NVRA manual to make it clear that ineligible names must be removed and to notify each California county that they are obliged to do this.”
First Democratic challenger to expected Biden 2024 bid emerges
Marianne Williamson will formally declare her candidacy for the Democratic nomination in the 2024 presidential race in the US this week, she has announced, becoming the first blue camp challenger to President Joe Biden’s expected reelection run.
The nation needs politics that “does not base itself on the crass imperatives of endless corporate profit, but on the eternal imperatives of our principles and values,” she said in a statement on Monday, explaining her decision to bid for the presidency again.
The US needs to treat the root causes of the problems it faces, she argued, indicating that she will run as an anti-establishment politician. An event to formally kick off her campaign is scheduled for Saturday.
Williamson, 70, is the first person to announce a bid for the 2024 Democratic nomination. She participated in the 2020 cycle, seeking to represent the same party, but dropped out early, endorsing fellow progressive candidate Bernie Sanders. In 2016, she vocally supported Sanders against Hillary Clinton.
Lori Lightfoot, who made history as the first Black woman and first gay person to be elected mayor of Chicago, is asking voters to add one more first to her resume: the first woman to be reelected as Chicago mayor.
Jane Byrne, the city’s first female mayor, lost her bid for reelection in 1983.
But facing eight challengers, it is unlikely Lightfoot — or anyone else, for that matter — will win more than 50% of the vote. That means the top two finishers Tuesday night are likely headed to an April 4 runoff.
Seeking to deny Lightfoot a second term are Ja’Mal Green, Sophia King, Kam Buckner, Willie Wilson, Brandon Johnson, Paul Vallas, Roderick Sawyer and Jesús “Chuy” García.
Control of the Chicago City Council is also up for grabs, with 41 of 50 races for alderperson contested. In addition, voters will elect three people to serve on a council in each of Chicago’s 22 police districts to help oversee the Chicago Police Department as part of an effort to rebuild trust in the beleaguered law enforcement agency.
The Washington Post reviewed “every possible regulatory change” that was made under the Trump administration and found that none of them contributed to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
“We decided to examine every possible regulatory change made under Trump that could be related to the accident and assess whether it could have made an impact,” read a review published Monday by Glenn Kessler at the Washington Post.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Suffers Injury While in East Palestine
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine confirmed that he suffered an injury while he was visiting East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a toxic train derailment that has drawn national headlines in recent weeks.
The Republican governor, 76, told The Columbus Dispatch that he suffered a displaced distal fibula fracture just above his ankle that occurred while he was visiting a church in East Palestine on Feb. 21. It came as the state was opening up a health clinic for residents who live near the train derailment site.
“My foot caught on something. I’m fine,” DeWine told the paper on Feb. 26, noting that he’s “just not walking [his] dog as much.”
A spokesperson for his office confirmed his injury to several media outlets on Feb. 27. Representatives for DeWine’s administration didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for additional comment.
Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan
On Tuesday, Feb. 28, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding challenges on the legality of the Biden administration’s contested program to forgive billions of dollars in federally-backed student loan debt. Confirmation that the High Court would hear the case came on Dec. 1, 2022.
The Biden administration announced the three-pronged Student Debt Relief program in a Fact Sheet on Aug. 24, 2022, just a little over two months before the Nov. 8, 2022, midterm elections. As previously reported by The Epoch Times, some suggested the program was one of several efforts to “buy votes.”
“Virtually every legal scholar that I have spoken to has said that the president of the United States really doesn’t have the authority to do this, and the people at the White House and Domestic Policy Council know that,” Tom Basile told The Epoch Times. “But they also know they couldn’t get it through Congress so they figure they would do this and let people believe they were going to be able to do this.”
DeSantis Signs Bill Ending Disney’s ‘Corporate Kingdom’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis consigned Disney World’s self-governing status to the historical dustbin on Feb. 27 as he signed the bill setting up a new board to govern the Central Florida property, one of the world’s premier tourist destinations.
DeSantis staged the bill with a backdrop not of the Magic Kingdom, but of a big yellow fire truck at Reedy Creek Fire Station No. 4. Reedy Creek was the name of Disney’s self-governing district, which had governmental powers unlike those granted to any other business in the state.
“Today is the day the corporate kingdom finally comes to an end,” DeSantis said.
The state Senate had approved the bill on Feb. 10 after the House passed it the previous day.
The new legislation means Disney will no longer have governmental powers, including the right to tax, to avoid state building and fire codes, to avoid state regulatory reviews and approvals, to issue tax-exempt bonds, and to operate its own utility and emergency services within its 25,000 acres that straddle Orange and Osceola counties.
Kari Lake Provides Update on Arizona Election Case
Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake wrote she will soon be taking her election lawsuit to the state’s Supreme Court after an appeals court rejected her bid earlier this month to toss the Nov. 8 midterm results.
In a Twitter update on Sunday, Lake confirmed she will be taking her case to the Supreme Court this week. It came about two weeks after the Arizona Court of Appeals rejected her election suit, which alleged that vote-tabulating issues, delays, and long lines in Maricopa County on Election Day disproportionately impacted her chances of winning.
“We will be filing our case with the AZ Supreme Court by this Tuesday (2/28) and we will be asking for an expedited review,” the GOP candidate wrote. “As soon as the filings are available I will share them with you. Please pray for justice.” Lake then posted a link to her “Save Arizona Fund.”
HEALTH
Zero-calorie sweetener popular in keto diets linked to strokes, heart attacks
A new study has found that a zero-calorie sweetener that is popular in ketogenic diets has been linked to strokes,
heart attacks, blood clots and death.
The artificial sweetener called erythritol is often found in diet foods, such as Truvia, as a sugar replacement because it does not affect blood glucose levels and does not have any calories.
The new study, published in the journal Nature Medicine on Monday, found that higher levels of erythritol are correlated with a higher chances of heart attack, stroke or death in three years when analyzing blood samples from three different populations.
Safety Data for Hep B Vax for Newborns Exposed
The safety data on Recombivax HB, the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, are sadly lacking, as the FDA approved the shot based on clinical trials performed on only 147 infants and children and followed for only five days
There are four hepatitis B vaccines, two of which are approved for infants; the second approved for infants is Engerix-B, and clinical safety data show infants and children were followed for only four days in these trials
Most infants are not at high risk for hepatitis B. It makes better financial and health sense to test mothers before birth and vaccinate only those infants born to mothers with an active or chronic hepatitis B infection, putting off vaccination in other infants until they are older
The current childhood vaccination schedule includes 19 potential doses of vaccines and one mRNA experimental injection by the time an infant is 6 months old. Many of these contain aluminum, which raises a child’s risk of persistent asthma in childhood
>>Video: SHOCKING: Aaron Siri Exposes the Lack of Safety Data Behind the Hepatitis B Vaccine for Newborns
Transgender Hormone Therapy May Raise Stroke, Heart Attack Risks: Study
A new study indicates people with gender dysphoria receiving so-called “gender affirmation” hormone replacement therapy are significantly more prone to stroke, heart attack, and blood clots.
Hormone replacement therapy usually involves gender dysphoria patients taking either testosterone or estrogen. It has seen growing popularity over recent years among American teenagers and young adults who identify as transgender and wish to have their body more closely resemble their preferred gender.
New Study Finds For-Profit Hospices Often Deliver Worse Care
Patients spending the end of their lives in for-profit hospices receive substantially worse care than those who are in nonprofit hospices, a new study claims.
To come to that conclusion, RAND Corp. researchers analyzed surveys completed by people whose loved ones had spent time in more than 3,100 hospices throughout the country.
The research included reviewing more than 650,000 surveys completed prior to the pandemic, between the second quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2019.
“Our results are not explained by the geographic regions the hospices operate in, or by the types of patients they care for,” said study lead author Rebecca Anhang Price, a senior policy researcher at RAND. “These findings are particularly pressing given the striking growth of for-profit hospices, which have profit incentives that have been shown to affect how they care for patients.”
The study included all types of hospice settings, from home-based care to hospice inpatient care to hospice care provided in a nursing home.
Family members reported worse care experiences, on average, from for-profit hospices across all the domains they assessed, including help for pain and other symptoms and getting timely care.
The family caregivers of patients treated in for-profit hospices were nearly 5 percentage points less likely to definitely recommend their hospice to others, compared to those in nonprofit hospices.
A substantially higher proportion of for-profit hospices were in the low-performing category for all eight measures compared to nonprofit hospices. Those who received care from for-profit chains reported the worst care experiences, according to researchers.
Still, quality of care varied widely: Some for-profit hospices performed above than the national average.
“Not all for-profit hospices provide poor quality,” Anhang Price said in a RAND news release. “When choosing a hospice, families and health care professionals can look at the quality metrics available for hospices in their area on Medicare’s Care Compare website.”
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
51 ‘woke’ companies identified as ‘targeting’ conservatives
At least 51 companies in America have gone “woke” and are, in effect, targeting conservatives, according to a Fox News columnist.
And he’s added some advice on how to battle their leftist social ideologies.
Justin Haskins, director of the Socialism Research Center at The Heartland Institute and a New York Times bestselling author, said, “It is not a secret that over the past decade, hundreds of large U.S. corporations have adopted woke policies, regularly injecting left-wing ideals into their products, services and employment practices. But some of these businesses have recently gone much further than merely promoting social justice causes; they have chosen to target conservative customers and employees, coercing or forcing Americans to abandon their deeply held beliefs in order to receive important goods or services or to stay employed.”
He cited a new Spotlight Report from the 1792 Exchange that assesses the actions, policies and practices of many companies. Especially whether they will “cancel a contract or client, or boycott, divest, or deny services based on views or beliefs.’
“According to the group’s website, ‘High Risk’ companies have generally canceled or denied business relationships based on viewpoint disagreements or pose a high risk of canceling people and businesses who do not share their views. Out of the more than 1,000 companies evaluated, 147 are currently classified as ‘High Risk,’ which means they are much more likely than other businesses to engage in direct discrimination.”
Haskins said he went further, picked out the 51 companies that are the “most impactful.”
Among banks, he identified Ally Financial, Amalgamated Bank, Bank of America, Berkshire Bank, BMO Harris, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Eastern Bank, Fifth Third Bank, First Republic Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, PNC, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, TD Bank, Bancorp, Trillium Asset Management, Truist, US Bank, and Wells Fargo.
They, he said, often have “weaponized their operations to promote social and ideological views favored by the left.”
The anti-woke ‘patriotic’ marketplace set to go public in $200 million deal
Online marketplace Public Square is set to merge with Omeed Malik’s blank check company Colombier Acquisition Group in a $200 million deal as the company launches a full-throttle campaign to give every ‘anti-woke’ consumer an Amazon-like alternative.
The San Diego-based company launched nationwide seven months ago and now hosts nearly 50,000 ‘patriotic’ vendors and has processed millions of transactions.
It’s now drawn in conservative heavyweights like Donald Trump Jr., who serves as an investor and an adviser, and former Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters, who is an advisor.
‘People need to stop giving their money to businesses that hate them. We aren’t going to defeat woke corporations by whining on Twitter,’ Trump Jr. told DailyMail.com.
A final deal could be announced as soon as today, a source familiar confirmed to DailyMail.com.
The company offers consumers an alternative online sales platform at a time when the GOP has made ‘progressive corporatism’ and Big Tech abuses its new battlefront.
‘We’re the nation’s largest directory of patriotic, America-first businesses and consumers that has ever existed,’ Michael Seifert, the company’s founder, told DailyMail.com in an interview.
With more than 450,000 active members and more than 40,000 businesses on its platform, PublicSq. has already become the largest marketplace of pro-America businesses and consumers
Ideally positioned to serve a total addressable market of more than 100 million patriotic Americans searching for companies that share their values
Transaction consideration to PublicSq. holders to consist of newly issued Colombier shares with a value of $200 million and is expected to provide up to $158.5 million in cash to fund PublicSq.’s continued growth and expansion into new revenue streams, assuming no redemptions
PublicSq. Founder and CEO Michael Seifert to retain majority voting rights and continue to steer mission of becoming the nation’s leading values-aligned marketplace
Omeed Malik’s SPAC Nears Deal With ‘Patriotic’ Marketplace PublicSq.
Omeed Malik’s Colombier Acquisition Corp., a blank-check firm, agreed to merge with PSQ Holdings Inc., a marketplace that connects who it describes as “freedom-loving” Americans, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
A new report breaks down what it costs to die, giving further reason to make clear final arrangements
As a culture, we don’t like to talk about death. Even though it’s the destination we all share, regardless of our beliefs, most of us prefer not to think about it. Unfortunately, this aversion leaves most of us unprepared for death when it arrives, making things harder for the loved ones left to manage our affairs.
A new report looks at the cost of dying in the United States, from the material costs to the emotional and physical toll it takes on those left behind.
The report was created by Empathy–a company that helps people manage the logistics and emotional hardships associated with death. The company surveyed almost 1,500 people who had experienced the loss of a close family member in the last five years. Their goal was to try to quantify and better understand what they went through.
Here are some interesting findings from the report:
- 3 million people die in the U.S. every year
- 68 percent of Americans who are grieving suffer physical symptoms
- An average of 540 hours of work are spent settling a loved one’s affairs
- It takes families an average of 12.5 months to resolve all financial matters after the death of a loved one
- 20 percent of the workforce is grieving a recent loss at any given moment
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
John Whitehead Commentary: A Nanny State Idiocracy: When the Government Thinks It Knows Best
It’s hard to say whether we’re dealing with a kleptocracy (a government ruled by thieves), a kakistocracy (a government run by unprincipled career politicians, corporations and thieves that panders to the worst vices in our nature and has little regard for the rights of American citizens), or if we’ve gone straight to an idiocracy.
For instance, an animal welfare bill introduced in the Florida state legislature would ban the sale of rabbits in March and April, prohibit cat owners from declawing their pets, make it illegal for dogs to stick their heads out of car windows, force owners to place dogs in a harness or in a pet seatbelt when traveling in a car, and require police to create a public list of convicted animal abusers.
A Massachusetts law prohibits drivers from letting their cars idle for more than five minutes on penalty of a $100 fine ($500 for repeat offenders), even in the winter. You can also be fined $20 or a month in jail for scaring pigeons.
This overbearing Nanny State despotism is what happens when government representatives (those elected and appointed to work for us) adopt the authoritarian notion that the government knows best and therefore must control, regulate and dictate almost everything about the citizenry’s public, private and professional lives.
Elon Lays Off More Twitter Employees – Including Hardcore Musk Loyalists
Twitter has laid off another round of employees — with many being hardcore Musk loyalists. One high-level Elon loyalist had recently been sleeping in the office to meet Musk’s demanding schedule. She previously tweeted, “When your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork.” Her loyalty has now been rewarded with a pink slip.
The Information reports that Twitter has conducted yet another round of unexpected layoffs as the company’s revenue continues to plunge. The company reportedly laid off 50 employees on Saturday across multiple departments. The layoffs also reportedly include “hardcore Musk loyalist” according to Zoë Schiffer of Platformer.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
Canada Follows U.S. in Banning TikTok on State Devices over Security Concerns
Canada is following the United States in banning the Chinese social media app TikTok from all government-issued devices, which will come into effect Tuesday, citing an “unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”
Canada’s chief information officer made the decision as a “precaution” after concerns were raised about the “unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security” and “legal regime that governs the information collected from mobile devices” following a review of the Chinese social media app. It was also determined that the “data collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of the phone.”
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Federal Agency Issues Warnings Over ‘Powerful Storm System’
A winter storm will bring snow, ice, and winds to portions of the Midwest and Northeast United States starting Monday and lasting until Tuesday, forecasters say.
“A swath of snow and ice are expected spread across the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast today while a secondary low pressure system develops and the pair of surface waves drift slowly toward the East Coast,” the NWS wrote Monday. “Snow totals by Wednesday morning are forecast to be between 4-8 inches from the Upper Midwest to Northeast with locally higher amounts possible,” it added. “Freezing rain accumulations potentially exceeding a tenth of an inch over parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin could cause hazardous driving conditions.”
A map posted Monday morning by the National Weather Service (NWS) show winter storm warnings and advisories were issued across Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.
A “powerful storm system will affect the Great Lakes, Ohio Valley and Northeast through today,” the agency said. “Severe weather threat across the Ohio Valley and heavy snow for the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes, and into the Northeast” is also possible, the NWS added.
In 10 days, the number of dead aquatic animals found near the Ohio train derailment jumped from 3,500 to over 43,000
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources announced Thursday that an estimated 43,000 aquatic animals living near the East Palestine train derailment site have since died.
Ten days ago, that number was only 3,500, Insider previously reported.
“We previously reported that 3,500 dead aquatic species comprised primarily of minnows and small fish were observed and that estimate was based on visual observation of the species collected over that two-day period at those survey sites,” a representative for ODNR said.
Once the department was able to collect hard data, the confirmed total showed 2,938 aquatic animals had died in four sites where data had been collected, “so a little bit less than the initial estimate,” the representative said.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Feds: Georgia Farm Discriminated Against Qualified Americans in Favor of Foreign H-2A Visa Workers
A nursery based in Miami, Florida, is accused of discriminating against qualified Americans for blue-collar, agricultural jobs in Georgia, importing foreign H-2A visa workers instead.
This month, the Department of Labor announced that a judge affirmed the agency’s investigation into Pure Beauty Farm Inc. — requiring the nursery to pay almost $200,000 in penalties and nearly $18,000 in back wages to one particular employee.
COVID RELATED NEWS
CNN Spreads Deadly Lies About Vitamin D for COVID-19
May 27, 2020, CNN published an article that could have deadly consequences if believed. It claims taking vitamin D supplements “can hurt a lot,” as “too much vitamin D can lead to a toxic buildup of calcium in your blood, causing confusion, disorientation and problems with heart rhythm, as well as bone pain, kidney damage and painful kidney stones.” CNN does not specify what “too much” vitamin D actually is
Hypercalcemia (calcium buildup) is caused by insufficient vitamin K2 in relation to vitamin D, not vitamin D per se. Vitamin K2 deficiency is what causes “vitamin D toxicity” symptoms, but CNN does not explain this known fact
Reviews of published trials have demonstrated there are no toxicity symptoms — including hypercalcemia — at dosages up to 10,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day, even when used long-term
Case histories of patients with hypercalcemia and vitamin D toxicity reveal they were taking between 3.6 million IUs and 210 million IUs over the course of one to four months. That means taking 30,000 IUs of vitamin D per day for 120 days on the lowest end, or 7 million IUs a day for 30 days on the extreme upper end
CNN also cites a British expert saying “there’s no evidence that very high vitamin D levels are protective against COVID-19.” This, despite several recent reports showing vitamin D levels appear to play an important role in your risk of testing positive for COVID-19, as well as your risk of severe infection and death
Would Vitamin D Have Saved Half of COVID Deaths?
Vitamin D supplementation cut risk of death from COVID-19 by 51% and reduced risk of admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) by 72%
The results were deemed “conclusive” and suggest “a definitive association between the protective role of vitamin D and ICU hospitalization” from COVID-19
Vitamin D may protect against COVID-19 by maintaining pulmonary barrier function, boosting the innate immune response and reducing the production of proinflammatory cytokines
In another study, none of the patients with severe COVID-19 who received high-dose vitamin D died; instead, 100% of the group improved
Regulatory agencies around the world are largely industry-funded, which is likely why they aren’t recommending vitamin D — a “dirt cheap” intervention — for COVID-19
Polls show that public trust in the scientific establishment has suffered immensely in the wake of Covid. That’s prompted many to ask questions about conflicts of interest. Today, with the help of a watchdog group, we look at the issue of government scientists collecting royalty payments from pharmaceutical companies for discoveries made while working on your dime.
Adam Andrzejewski: So our data shows at OpenTheBooks.com that every single year, NIH doles out $32 billion in federal grant-making to 56,000 entities. And that basically buys you the entire American health care space.
Adam Andrzejewski of the watchdog group Open The Books says the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, accumulates great influence with the power to decide which scientists and projects get all those taxpayer billions.
Adam Andrzejewski: Buys you a lot of friends, buys you a lot of allies, and there’s great incentive to stay on the establishment narratives that NIH disseminates on public health policy.
And he says there’s reason to question who or what is influencing those policies.
Under a 1984 law known as Bayh-Dole, government scientists have a unique arrangement. They can collect royalties from pharmaceutical companies for discoveries they make while working for us.
Andrzejewski: So here’s how the third-party royalty complex works. You have a government scientist funded by taxpayers, and they work in a government lab that’s also funded by taxpayers. And when they have an invention, they have a special situation. The NIH, National Institutes of Health, then licenses that invention —
Xylitol Nasal Spray Prevents SARS-CoV-2 Infection
The sophisticated American consumer has grown accustomed to the gold standard for drug and health products—the prospective randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (RCT). Operation Warp Speed (OWS) was supposed to be a churning mill of large RCTs to help the nation understand what conclusively is effective in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
Unfortunately, after three years, OWS has delivered failed products (remdesivir, baricitinib, molnupiravir, COVID-19 vaccines) and small inconclusive trials of products that doctors have found effective in practice, including off-target generic antivirals and anticoagulants. OWS did not test simple, affordable, available prevention strategies. Fortunately, such RCTs were done outside of the United States and have brought us important findings.
CDC Spreads False Information About COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Monitoring
A top U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official gave false information about COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring to the agency’s vaccine advisory panel, and a spokesperson for the agency refused to correct the misinformation.
Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, director of the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office, presented on COVID-19 vaccine safety to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Feb. 24.
Shimabukuro went over updates to the safety signal for ischemic stroke following Pfizer bivalent booster vaccination that CDC officials detected in one of the agency’s monitoring systems.
After sharing the updates, he made a false statement.
“No safety signals were detected for ischemic stroke for the primary series or monovalent boosters for Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in U.S. and global monitoring,” Shimabukuro said.
That’s not true. The CDC identified ischemic stroke as a safety signal following Moderna and Pfizer vaccination after analyzing reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a different system, which the agency co-manages.
CANCEL CULTURE
NewsGuard: Technocratic Censorship Of All Opposing Views
NewsGuard is a self-appointed misinformation watchdog. It seems to be just one more way Americans are not allowed to think for themselves. Co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz claim it is the “librarian for the internet.” Set up specifically to rate online journalistic integrity, Brill states NewsGuard provides services that “explain to people something about the reliability and trustworthiness and background of those who are feeding them the news.” Eric Effron is the organization’s Editorial Director.
Brill is a Yale graduate and lawyer who has authored multiple best-selling books and was, among other things, CEO of Verified Identity Pass, Inc., the first U.S. biometric Voluntary Credentialing Program that went bankrupt in 2009. It was the parent company of CLEAR which went back online in 2010 and then went public in 2021.
According to MintPressNews, “Crovitz held a number of positions at Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, eventually becoming executive vice president of the former and the publisher of the latter before both were sold to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in 2007. He is also a board member of Business Insider, which has received over $30 million from Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos in recent years.”
Crovitz’s alliances might account for the organization’s favorable 100 ratings for WSJ and the Washington Post. He is also a contributor “to books published by the American Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation,” which are also favorably rated by NewsGuard.
Brookings Institution: AI Is Tool Of Choice To Censor Podcasts
Brookings is a globalist nest of Technocratic thinkers whose board of advisors includes four members of the elitist Trilateral Commission. Brookings has provided academic license to censor all opposing views, and is now targeting podcasts for censorship. Fact checkers like NewsGuard have already lined up to censor podcasts.
Dave Rubin’s podcast was recently approached by NewsGuard with an email that stated: “We are in the process of expanding our purview to podcasts.”
CNAS: Globalist Think Tank And The Subtleties Of Disinformation
This article is written by a research assistant at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), which has two members of the Trilateral Commission on its board. The article deflects attention to China and Russia as the most likely abusers of AI while ignoring current abuses by our own government. In fact, for Technocracy, there is no such thing as the “free world”.
The current head of CNAS, Victoria Nuland, served Deputy National Security Adviser to Vice President Dick Chaney in the Bush administration, also was a member of the Trilateral Commission. She recently resigned her post in the Biden Administration as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
Hollywood is giving away woke awards shows for free now and people still don’t want to watch.
The star-studded annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday managed to draw just 1.5 million viewers, a drop from 1.8 million from last year’s ceremony. The decline is especially dire considering Sunday’s event streamed for free on YouTube and other social media platforms, while last year’s show was broadcast solely on the cable channels TBS and TNT.
ICYMI
Nikki Haley and the Hegelian Dialectic Trick
The Sovereign Citizen Movement
Systematically Erasing America, Part 2 (FYI – Lex is rescheduled for THIS Friday)
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