Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Self Help

 Autonomous Life Forms,


​  ​COVID-19 mortality risk correlates inversely with vitamin D3 status, and a mortality rate close to zero could theoretically be achieved at 50 ng/ml 25(OH)D3: Results of a systematic review and meta-analysis
Conclusions The two datasets provide strong evidence that low D3 is a predictor rather than a side effect of the infection. Despite ongoing vaccinations, we recommend raising serum 25(OH)D levels to above 50 ng/ml to prevent or mitigate new outbreaks due to escape mutations or decreasing antibody activity.

​​I keep my vitamin-D in the upper normal range (5000 U/d for me), take a little zinc with morning supplements​. I​ get quercetin from garden veggies and green tea.
20-Week Study of Clinical Outcomes of Over-the-Counter COVID-19 Prophylaxis and Treatment
Results.
​  ​While both groups were moderate in size, the difference between them in outcomes over the 20-week study period was large and stark: Just under 4% of the compliant test group presented flu-like symptoms, but none of the test group was COVID-positive; whereas 20% of the non-compliant control group presented flu-like symptoms, three-quarters of whom (15% overall of the control group) were COVID-positive.
...​The core supplementation formulations included zinc; zinc ionophores (quina plant bark extract and quercetin); vitamins C, D3 and E; and l-lysine. Sourcing for these components was, except as noted below, from a range of well-known manufacturers of name brand supplements.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2515690X211026193

Preprint: "The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is poised to acquire complete resistance to vaccines"​  ​
​...​We analyzed … 16 anti-NTD neutralizing antibodies, and found that none of the anti-NTD neutralizing antibodies could recognize Delta spike … In contrast, when we analyzed the binding of the anti-NTD infectivity-enhancing antibodoies … eight out of ten anti-NTD enhancing antibodies bound to Delta spike at levels comparable with wild-type spike
​  ​The situation, then, is precisely this: The vaccines gave billions of people antibodies to legacy spike proteins, including anti-NTD neutralising antibodies and anti-NTD enhancing antibodies. Delta is evolving to escape the neutralising antibodies, but not the enhancing antibodies. Which is what you would expect. We have sown antibodies against one viral protein in the lungs of half of mankind, and that protein has now evolved slight modifications to use those antibodies to its advantage where it can, and to escape the rest.​..
​  There are, however, Delta strains with key escape RBD mutations. The authors of this preprint find that four such mutations, already out there in various Delta sub-strains, are sufficient for Delta to evade the anti-RBD antibodies more or less completely.
​  ​In sum: Beneath the surface, Delta has evolved to use anti-NTD antibodies, like those elicited by BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines, to enhance its infectiousness. So far we have not seen any effect, because the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines still elicit anti-RBD antibodies that hurt Delta on balance. But, all the mutations necessary to escape these crucial anti-RBD antibodies exist. All that remains is for a single Delta strain to pick up the right combination of them, and BioNTech/Pfizer antibodies will provide “weak neutralization only at the highest concentration”. Otherwise, they will enhance infectiousness.

  ​A "pangolin lineage" SARS-CoV-2 variant, with multiple vaccine-escape mutations popped up in Moscow early this year. It's hard to tell how that might have happened. No link between distant pangolins and the circulating virus has been found. It's getting around pretty well in the world. I wonder where it came from.​
A new SARS-CoV-2 variant (B.1.1.523) capable of escaping immune protections
​  ​The authors of this study have reported that the B.1.1.523 variant harbors a new combination of concerning spike mutations that are present in many currently circulating VoCs. Many of these mutations are concerning and are associated with the evasion of immune protection. This is critical, as these developments could challenge the effectiveness of available vaccines

​Victoria, Australia: ​Health Minister Foley announced 867 new COVID cases recorded yesterday.  During the statistical outline Foley identifies 375 people as hospitalized, 81 people in intensive care and 61 people on a ventilator.   Then comes the statistic everyone in government and media ignore.  Amid the recorded cases “78% of the hospital cases are fully vaccinated, and 17% are partially vaccinated (1 dose)”….
  That means 95% of the COVID patients in Victoria hospitals are vaccinated.
356 people out of 375 patients are vaccinated, yet 81 people are still in intensive care with 61 on a ventilator...

78% of the hospital patients are fully vaccinated, that’s actually a higher percentage than the population vaccinated as a whole.

Biden's Vax Mandate To Be Enforced By Fining Companies $70,000 To $700,000?​   Wait, did I vote for THAT?

Democrats provide much higher vaccine efficacy estimates than Republicans (88% vs. 50%), and unvaccinated Republicans have a median vaccine efficacy of 0%, compared with 73% for vaccinated Republicans.

Only 45% of respondents said they trust the president to provide accurate information about the virus, down from 58% in January. The result of this poll is exemplified in Biden's outlandish comment on Monday about pre-pandemic life can only return if 97% of Americans are vaccinated.
Compared with rating earlier this year, Biden is losing trust among Democrats (an 11-percentage point decline to 81% trust a great deal or fair amount) and Republicans (a 10-point drop to 11%). He has experienced the most significant decline in confidence among independents (a 17-point decline to 42%).
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/americans-trust-president-biden-provide-accurate-covid-info-tumbles

​Lt. Colonel Theresa Long MD, an Air Force Flight surgeon​ files a Military Whistleblower affidavit seeking a court injunction, on the basis of the fact, presented in evidence, that current COVID-19 vaccines produce heart damage in pilots and flight crews, and that all of those vaccinated need to be grounded until medical studies can be carried out, at least MRI, because the majority of myocarditis and lesser damage is not overtly symptomatic. The pilots and crew members that have died within 2 days of vaccination, so far, did not die flying. 
This is a courageous and principled stand, and the end of her military career, no matter what the court may ultimately find.

"Oh Canada..."
​  ​Canadian military leaders saw the pandemic as a unique opportunity to test out propaganda techniques on an unsuspecting public, a newly released Canadian Forces report concludes. The federal government never asked for the so-called information operations campaign, nor did cabinet authorize the initiative developed during the COVID-19 pandemic by the Canadian Joint Operations Command, then headed by Lt.-Gen. Mike Rouleau. But military commanders believed they didn’t need to get approval from higher authorities to develop and proceed with their plan, retired Maj.-Gen. Daniel Gosselin, who was brought in to investigate the scheme, concluded in his report.
https://nationalpost.com/news/national/defence-watch/military-leaders-saw-pandemic-as-unique-opportunity-to-test-propaganda-techniques-on-canadians-forces-report-says/

The Great Game Moves On    (The western goal is now to contain China, to allow island nations to maintain independence from China.)
  Following NATO’s defeat in the heart of Asia, and with Afghanistan now under the Taliban’s rule, the Chinese/Russian axis now controls the Asian continental mass. Asian nations not directly related to its joint hegemony (not being members, associates, or dialog partners of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) are increasingly dependent upon it for trade and technology. Sub-Saharan Africa is in its sphere of influence. The reality for America is that the total population in or associated with the SCO is 57% of the world population. And America’s grip on its European allies is slipping.
  NATO itself has become less relevant, with Turkey drawn towards the rival Asian axis, and its EU members are compromised through trading and energy links with Russia and China. Furthermore, France is pushing the EU towards establishing its own army independent of US-led NATO — quite what its role will be, other than political puffery for France is a mystery.
  It is against this background that three of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership have formed AUKUS – standing for Australia, UK, and US — and its first agreement is to give Australia a nuclear submarine capability to strengthen the partnership’s naval power in the Pacific. Other capabilities, chiefly aimed at containing the Chinese threat to Taiwan and other allies in the Pacific Ocean, will surely emerge in due course. The other two Five Eyes, Canada and New Zealand, appear to be less keen to confront China...
 But gathering intelligence and building naval power in the Pacific won’t defeat the Chinese. All simulations show that the US, with or without AUKUS, cannot win a military conflict against China. But AUKUS is not a formal model on NATO lines which commits its members by treaty to aggression against a common enemy. While Taiwan remains a specific problem, the objective is almost certainly to discourage China from territorial expansion and protect and give other Pacific nations on the Asian periphery the security to be independent from the SCO behemoth.​..
...​While the US may not like it, if RCEP goes ahead, freer trade will almost certainly undermine a belligerent stance in due course. Despite hiccups, the progression of trade dealing in the Pacific region promises to prove Mackinder right about the prospect of a more balanced world. All being well and guaranteed by a balance of naval capabilities between AUKUS and China, a free-trading Pacific region will render the European and American trade protectionist policies an anachronism.​..
...​Having failed in their land-based military objectives, America’s undeclared tariff and financial wars against China are also coming to an end, to be replaced by a policy of maritime containment through the AUKUS partnership. Attempts to stem strategic losses in Asia have now ended with the withdrawal from Afghanistan and from other interventions. ​ 
​  The change in geopolitical policy is not yet widely appreciated. But the parlous state of US finances, dollar market bubbles, persistent and increasing price inflation and the inevitability of interest rate increases will make a policy backstop of maritime containment the only geostrategic option left to America.

John Ward has some insights. China is the largest coal user in the world, by far. China is the largest coal producer, but has low reserves. Chinese imports of American coal (at low import duty) just increased ninefold, after Australian coal imports were halted for a trade dispute. 
China is having rolling blackouts from lack of coal-power recently, and expects them to last, "new normal". Coal choke-hold?​
https://therealslog.com/2021/09/29/now-here-is-some-news/
At least 20 Chinese provinces and regions making up more than 66% of the country’s GDP have announced some form of power cuts. Guangdong province, the southern industrial hub, is cutting ~10% of its peak power demand.
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/china-provincial-governor-pleas-more-coal-imports-resolve-power-crunch

P​epe Escobar, A New World Order Takes Shape, Part 2 - Eurasian Consolidation Ends The US Unipolar Moment
​  ​With very little potential to contain China now that it’s been all but expelled from the Eurasia heartland, the fallback position had to be a classic maritime power play: the “free and open Indo-Pacific”, complete with Quad and AUKUS, the whole set up spun to death as an “effort” attempting to preserve dwindling American supremacy.​..​
​  ​The Global South is not impressed. Addressing the forum in Dushanbe, President Putin remarked that the portfolio of nations knocking on the SCO’s door was huge, and that was not surprising at all. Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are now SCO dialogue partners, on the same level with Afghanistan and Turkey. It’s quite feasible they may be joined next year by Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Serbia and a cast of dozens.​..
It’s no wonder the process irks the Empire immensely, because Greater Eurasia, led by Russia-China, is a mortal attack against the geoeconomic architecture of Atlanticism. And that leads us to the nest of vipers debate around the EU concept of “strategic autonomy” from the US; that would be essential to establish true European sovereignty – and eventually, closer integration within Eurasia.

​  Taiwan makes the chips and systems that the world needs. Taiwan has to keep making them, but China would like to control them, and so would the US. 
Nobody wants to destroy that capacity, but to own it. Taiwan can probably buy whatever missiles it wants, but not from China.
​  Taiwan's Defense Minister Demands Long-Range Missiles For The Island To Repel China
​  ​"The development of equipment must be long-range, precise, and mobile, so that the enemy can sense that we are prepared as soon as they dispatch their troops," Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told parliament in Taipei on Monday

The AUKUS preparing a nuclear war to sustain Taiwan​  ​by Thierry Meyssan​      Thanks Eleni.
​  ​The AUKUS Pact seems to be designed to come to Taiwan’s aid if China tried to take it back by force. General Sir James Hockenhull, commander of Her Majesty’s Military Intelligence, confirmed that British armies were recruiting Asian agents.

All of Central Asia is re-setting towards the SCO, EAEU, Russia and China. The former is now ‘lost’ to the U.S., Alastair Crooke writes.
​  ​In a very real sense, Washington was the hub: and states – particularly Gulf States defined themselves more in relation to the hub – than to each other. Now those relationships, and associated policies, many of which were geared to pleasing and being favoured by the hub, are up for radical review.​..
...​if there was doubt about where the U.S. ‘is’, consider this: The stunning betrayal of France by America over the eleventh hour surprise provision of nuclear submarine technology for Australia signals a huge geopolitical shift in U.S. strategy. In its growing confrontation with China, a ruthless Washington has demonstrated that what matters to it now is not Europe, but the Indo-Pacific region. This is wthe new Cold War is to be fought.here 

For Israel, the problem is more acute as former Ambassador, Michael Oren, has outlined:
​"​The new Israeli government is facing this doomsday nuclear threat [from Iran]. In five years’ time, it will be worse: Iran’s programme will be further along. [This conflict] is going to happen eventually, of that I am absolutely certain, so I prefer it happens now, rather than in 5 years’ time – when it will be more difficult for Israel to respond​"​
“With the U.S. focusing its efforts on preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Iran is liable to reach the conclusion that as a nuclear threshold state, it will not be the target of a military retaliation. And if sanctions are imposed on it – it can look to other world powers for help, such as China and Russia. If Iran reaches the conclusion that there is no point in developing real nuclear weapons because this could produce a frontal clash with the U.S. and the West; yet still become a nuclear threshold state, the challenge to Israel is liable to be particularly difficult”.

Are We Really So "Rich"? A New Way of Defining Wealth  Charles Hugh Smith​
What if our commoditized, financialized definition of wealth reflects a staggering poverty of culture, spirit, wisdom, practicality and common sense?
​  ​The conventional definition of wealth is solely financial: ownership of money and assets. The assumption is that money can buy anything the owner desires: power, access, land, shelter, energy, transport and if not love, then a facsimile of caring.
​  ​The flaw in this reductionist definition is obvious: not everything of value can be purchased at any price--for example, health, once lost, cannot be purchased for $1 million, $10 million or even $100 million.

​Health Practitioner​

4 comments:

  1. re: The Great Game Moves On - "a policy backstop of maritime containment the only geostrategic option left to America"

    This is NOT the USA's only option. It can cease viewing China (and the rest of the emerging 'World Island') as an enemy, and work with it instead of against it.

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    1. I think Americans would like to cooperate with other countries and peoples, but that is not who is calling the shots. It's globalist and nationalist "interests", which cannot agree on much these days. All of China's neighbors , which are still not part of "China", are very wary of a powerful Han empire in rising mode. The incorporated "neighbors" are subject to grades of genocide, certainly cultural genocide. Blacks and Native Americans can relate to Tibetans, I suspect.

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  2. Hi John,

    Love your blog, but I watched the video of the Aussie Health Minister, he does indeed say "..71% vaccinated..." but I wonder if he simply mis-spoke. Elsewhere (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-28/victoria-covid-cases-vaccination-rate/100496066) the number is reported as 71% unvaccinated.

    Does anybody know where to find the official Aussie government statistics?

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    1. Thanks for loving the blog. Not much happy news overall, but I try to be of service.
      Error-correction is always important.
      Thanks for contributing to error-correction in the world.

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