May be worth adopting plant based diet to ease chronic migraine severity, say doctors

Stony Brook University and University of Pennsylvania, November 22, 2021 Prescribed meds, elimination diet, yoga and meditation provided no or little symptom relief Boosting dark green leafy veg intake may be key It may be worth adopting a plant based diet, rich in dark green leafy vegetables, to ease the symptoms of chronic migraine, suggest doctors in the online journal BMJ Case Reports.

(next)

Exercising at the start of fast can help people reach ketosis 3.5 hours faster: study Brigham Young University, November 24, 2021 

Now a new Brigham Young University study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise finds that exercising intensely at the start of a fast may help maximize health benefits of temporarily foregoing food. Ketosis occurs when the body runs out of glucose—its first, preferred fuel—and begins breaking down stored fat for energy, producing chemicals called ketones as a byproduct. In addition to being a healthy energy source for the brain and heart, ketones combat diseases like diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

(NEXT)

To calm your emotions, get 15 minutes alone University of Rochester, November 24, 2021

Being by yourself—even for just 15 minutes—may decrease your strong positive and negative emotions, and instead reduce stress and induce calm, a new study suggests. Lead researcher Thuy-vy Nguyen, a doctoral candidate in clinical and social sciences in psychology at the University of Rochester, together with the cofounders of self-determination theory, psychology professors Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, conclude that solitude can lead to relaxation and stress reduction—as long as people actively chose to be alone.

(NEXT)

Fermented tea could help protect the liver from high-fat diet damage

Tianjin University (China), November 30, 2021

Water extracts of a fermented tea, known as Pu-erh tea, could help to reduce oxidative stress and protect the liver against damage caused by a high fat diet, research in rats has found. The study, published in Food Science and Human Wellness, investigated the potential of the polyphenol and theabrownin-rich fermented tea to protect the liver after previous studies linked the tea to a raft of health benefits. “Pu-erh tea can be used as a potential healthy drink for prevention and/or treatment of fatty liver disease and many diseases associated with oxidative stress,” suggested Jing and colleagues.

(NEXT)

Excessive media exposure to traumatic events could harm kids Florida International University, November 20, 2021

FIU scientists investigating the effects of hurricanes and other natural disasters on children's brain development previously found that increased exposure to media coverage of disasters led kids to have post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms regardless of physical proximity. A new follow-up study led by FIU psychologists Anthony Dick and Jonathan Comer confirmed those findings and also showed that individual differences in the response in a key brain region involved in detecting threats—the amygdala—predicted the degree to which viewing storm-related media coverage led children to develop PTS symptoms.

(NEXT)

Adults with ADHD four times more likely to have generalized anxiety disorder

University of Toronto, November 20, 2021

A new nationally representative study published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that one in four adults aged 20-39 with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) had generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Those with ADHD were four times more likely to have GAD at some point in their life, when compared to those without ADHD. Even after controlling for other relevant factors, including sociodemographics, adverse childhood experiences, and a lifetime history of substance use disorders and major depressive disorders, those with ADHD still had more than double the odds of GAD.

(OTHER NEWS NEXT)

The Madness of Anthony Fauci

Rather than own up to his disastrous policy and medical advice, Fauci instead is accelerating his messianic impulses. 

By Julie Kelly

It’s nearly impossible to select the most maniacal comment made by Dr. Anthony Fauci in his nearly 70-minute interview with “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan that aired over the weekend. Joe Biden’s chief coronavirus advisor and miniature global menace spent more than an hour denying responsibility for his documented mistakes, bragging about his self-appointed role as the world’s doctor, hogging credit for the vaccines, and attacking anyone who has challenged his unrivaled ego and track record of failure. Portraying himself as a victim rather than the cruel, megalomaniacal tyrant he is, Fauci took aim at Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Congressional co-sponsors of the “Fire Fauci Act,” which would zero-out the salary of the federal government’s highest-paid bureaucrat and audit Fauci’s correspondence and financial transactions during the pandemic. While declaring, “I represent science,” Fauci humbly graded the scientific approach to the pandemic an “A+” while incongruently  warning about a “fifth wave” of the virus and explaining away one scientific stumble after another, from useless temperature checks to the need for bi-annual booster shots and randomly claiming the virus spread is “40 to 50 to 60 percent . . . asymptomatic.” Science! Of all his alarming remarks, however, Fauci’s push to get experimental vaccines for babies and young children to market as quickly as possible is the most depraved. When asked by Brennan, who has spent the better part of two years asking Fauci how to run her life and the lives of 330 million Americans, when he expects vaccines for children between the age of six months and five years to be available, Fauci said he hopes the shots are ready by the beginning of next year. “I would hope it would be in the first quarter because the studies are being done right now on children from two to five and then from six months to two years,” Fauci told Brennan. “I don’t think there’s going to be an issue with efficacy. But when you’re dealing with children, it’s a very sensitive area. And that’s the reason why [it] may take a little bit longer.” When parents question whether it’s necessary to vaccinate children, Fauci replies that, “yeah, we do want to be vaccinating the children because we want to vaccinate and protect everyone in society, including children.” Now, that is not the conclusion of a sound man of science, as Fauci again insisted he is in the interview, or even a man of common sense and humanity—that is the raving of a madman.Only a demon would propose injecting a child, including babies who cannot yet even walk or talk, with a rushed “vaccine” to allegedly minimize a virus that poses no serious health threat to them. Only a sociopath would dismiss parental fears about not just the medical necessity of the shot for the child but also unknown side effects that their children could suffer in both the near and long term. And only a sadist would continue to promote his own destructive policies that have inflicted incalculable human suffering but done nothing to halt the spread of a virus that is lethal to only a tiny percentage of the population. In a just world, Anthony Fauci would be giving lengthy television interviews clad in an orange jumpsuit from the confines of a federal penitentiary. Aside from his crimes against humanity, especially the tragic toll on senior citizens and young people, Fauci has clearly committed a number of crimes including lying to Congress and the American people in his official capacity and misappropriating federal funds on ghoulish scientific experiments. He violated the Hatch Act by using his government post for political purposes; for example, the weekend before the 2020 election, Fauci told the Washington Post that Joe Biden “is taking [the pandemic] seriously from a public health perspective,” but that Trump was only looking at it from an economic standpoint. Contradicting the president, Fauci warned the country was in for a “world of hurt” with rising COVID-19 cases and that “all the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season.” Fauci has repeatedly and treasonously defended the Chinese Communist Party, something he did yet again in his interview with Brennan. Still peddling the “wet market,” rather than Wuhan laboratory-produced, theory about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, Fauci disputed Brennan’s claim that “Beijing acknowledges now that they don’t think it originated in that market.” Fauci shot back: “I think you could say we don’t know how and where it originated. There were wet markets in Wuhan that are ample opportunity for a virus to jump from an animal that gets brought in from all parts of China that are very closely related physically to bat enclaves in caves and come to the market. So I don’t think anyone can say that it didn’t come from here or it did come from here.” The vaccines for which Fauci takes credit have been a costly failure. He, along with Joe Biden, misled the American people into believing the vaccines are safe and effective. But caseloads continue to spike despite high vaccination rates; Fauci himself recently admitted the prophylactic effect of the vaccines has waned and boosters are now required to extend what little short-term benefit the first round of injections provided. COVID fatalities this year are slightly ahead of 2020, a metric no one, including Dr. Anthony Fauci himself, publicly predicted. Rather than own up to his disastrous policy and medical advice, Fauci instead is accelerating his messianic impulses. He’s unsure, Fauci told George Stephanopoulos on Sunday morning, whether new lockdowns are needed to prevent the spread of the omicron mutation. “Prepare for the worst,” Fauci warned. Music, undoubtedly, to the ears of Xi Jinping. Ironically, Fauci, who laughed off his own criminal culpability related to the pandemic in Brennan’s interview, wants others investigated both for the handling of COVID-19 and the four-hour protest at the Capitol earlier this year. In one sinister exchange with Brennan, Fauci nervously giggled and rhetorically asked Senator Ted Cruz, “What about January 6, senator?” He also wants a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Trump Administration’s response to the crisis. The top focus, Madman Fauci noted, should zone in on why “Trump left things up to the states.” Chalk up the U.S. Constitution as another thing Anthony Fauci has no clue about. But perhaps Fauci is on to something. When Republicans take over the House next year, they should immediately form several 9/11-style commissions to investigate numerous scandals stemming from the Trump era; at the top of the list should be a public accounting of Fauci’s leading role in the COVID-19 crisis; his misstatements to the public and Congress on the “science”; his relationship with the Chinese Communist Party; his political machinations before the 2020 election; and his ties to pharmaceutical companies and other parties with a financial interest in pushing vaccines. Further, Fauci should testify under oath on what scientific basis he recommended using American children, including babies, as pharmaceutical lab rats. If indeed he is “America’s doctor,” as Margaret Brennan so obsequiously claimed, and to which Fauci agreed, then he should be properly investigated for medical malpractice at the very least. A wide-ranging federal probe into what happened during the pandemic? Maybe for once, the madman is right.

(NEXT)

With Low Vaccination Rates, Africa's Covid Deaths Remain Far below Europe and the US MISES INSTITUTE, 11/23/2021 NOTE: TOTAL POPULATION OF AFRICA 1.3 BILLION, LARGEST NATIONS NIGERIA (206 MILLION), ETHIOPIA (115 MILLION), EGYPT (103 MILLION)

Since the very beginning of the covid panic, the narrative has been this: implement severe lockdowns or your population will experience a bloodbath. Morgues will be overwhelmed, the death total toll will be astounding. On the other hand, we were assured those jurisdictions that do lock down would see only a fraction of the death toll. Then, once vaccines became available, the narrative was modified to "Get shots in arms and then covid will stop spreading. Those countries without vaccines, on the other hand, will continue to face mass casualties." The lockdown narrative, of course, has already been thoroughly overturned. Jurisdictions that did not lock down or adopted only weak and short lockdowns ended up with covid death tolls that were either similar to—or even better than—death tolls in countries that adopted draconian lockdowns. Lockdown advocates said locked-down countries would be overwhelmingly better off. These people were clearly wrong. Undaunted by the increasing implausibility of the lockdown narrative, the global health bureaucrats are nonetheless doubling down on forced vaccines—as we now see in Austria—and we continue to be assured that only countries with high vaccination rates can hope to avoid disastrous covid outcomes. Yet, the experience in sub-Saharan Africa calls both these narratives into question: Africa's numbers have been far, far lower than the experts warned would be the case. For example, the AP reported this week that in spite of low vaccination rates, Africa has fared better than most of the world: [T]here is something “mysterious” going on in Africa that is puzzling scientists, said Wafaa El-Sadr, chair of global health at Columbia University. “Africa doesn’t have the vaccines and the resources to fight COVID-19 that they have in Europe and the U.S., but somehow they seem to be doing better,” she said…. Fewer than 6% of people in Africa are vaccinated. For months, the WHO has described Africa as “one of the least affected regions in the world” in its weekly pandemic reports. But that "conventional wisdom" flies in the face of the reality of covid in Africa, which is that there have beenfewer deaths. In any case, the World Health Organization reports that covid deaths in Africa make up only 2.9 percent of covid deaths, while Africa’s population is 16 percent of the global total. Africa’s covid total could double or triple, and Africa would still be faring far better than Europe and the Americas.

(NEXT)

Excess Deaths Caused by Vaccines (an email letter)

As you know, since the summer there has been a 10% excess of deaths in England, largely due to cardiovascular problems and mainly in younger adults and men. Some argue this is due to vaccines directly killing people, as the spike protein (produced in our bodies from the gene added to our cells by the vaccines) is known to damage heart cells, blood vessels, and the normal clotting mechanisms. Others claim it is the spike protein, but blame the spike protein produced by virus infection. I have now looked at the relevant data quite carefully, and the only explanation that fits all the data is as follows: The vaccines have reduced levels and/or duration of virus in individuals (hence also reduce severe covid symptoms) but unfortunately the spike protein produced by the vaccines added on top of the spike protein produced by the virus is having a lethal effect in many people. The net result is that vaccines have merely displaced deaths from being (and being recorded as) frank covid deaths to now being cardiovascular deaths, coincident with an increase in virus prevalence This phenomenon will fade away as the virus fades away after December, as the winter peak of respiratory diseases passes. But everything will be made worse if we roll out mass booster vaccinations. Regards Professor Anthony J Brookes Department of Genetics & Genome Biology University of Leicester

(NEXT)

Despite Pledge, Biden Leaves Tap Open, Approving Billions in Arms Deals to Saudi Arabia

A new MintPress News study based on Dept. of Defense documents can reveal that U.S. weapons manufacturers have sold well in excess of $28.3 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since the Yemen War began, including 20 separate deals inked during Biden’s presidency.

Alan Macleod

MINT PRESS NEWS. November 19th, 2021

“The war in Yemen must end,” declared President Joe Biden in his first major foreign policy speech; “and to underscore our commitment, we are ending all American support for offensive [Saudi] operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.” Yet studying sales records from the Department of Defense (DoD), MintPress can reveal that less than one year into his presidency, the Biden administration has already approved 20 separate weapons contracts, worth just shy of $1.2 billion, to Saudi Arabia alone. This includes a $100 million shipment of Black Hawk helicopters, support for Apache gunships, and a $78 milliondeal to buy 36 cruise missiles. A new and controversial $650 million deal announced earlier this month has yet to be finalized but will likely soon follow, boosting sales up to levels equal with the earlier years of the Trump presidency. Sorting through thousands of approved contracts, the Department of Defense has approved in excess of $28.4 billion worth of sales from American companies to the armed forces of Saudi Arabia since they began their military intervention in the Yemeni Civil War in March 2015. This includes billions of dollars worth of arms, supplies, logistical support and training services. While this is a gargantuan number (already larger than Yemen’s gross domestic product), it is certainly a serious underestimate of just how much the military industrial complex is benefiting from what the United Nations has called the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” In addition to the $28 billion figure, Saudi Arabia is also a named customer (often along with other nations) in weapons deals worth more than $34 billion over the same period. However, the amounts the Saudis actually paid in these were not disclosed, though in some of these orders Saudi Arabia was clearly the primary buyer. For example, a $3.4 billion DoD-approved radar deal with Raytheon lists only two buyers: Saudi Arabia and the tiny nation of Kuwait (population 4.2 million). Added together, this means that the DoD has greenlighted the sale of somewhere between $28 billion and $63 billion worth of arms from American companies to Saudi Arabia since the latter began its attack on the largely civilian population of Yemen. The biggest profiteer from Yemen’s destruction has been aviation giant Boeing, which brought in $13.9 billion in sales over the period. Next comes Lockheed Martin, which has signed 62 separate contracts with the Kingdom since March 2015, worth in excess of $7.4 billion. Third on the list is missile expert Raytheon, which has cashed in on the violence to the tune of $3.3 billion. In total, 86 U.S. companies have profited from sales to Saudi Arabia since its intervention in Yemen, including household names like General Electric, Booz Allen Hamilton and Honeywell. The full list is also available in the accompanying spreadsheet.

May be worth adopting plant based diet to ease chronic migraine severity, say doctors

Stony Brook University and University of Pennsylvania, November 22, 2021 Prescribed meds, elimination diet, yoga and meditation provided no or little symptom relief Boosting dark green leafy veg intake may be key It may be worth adopting a plant based diet, rich in dark green leafy vegetables, to ease the symptoms of chronic migraine, suggest doctors in the online journal BMJ Case Reports.

(next)

Exercising at the start of fast can help people reach ketosis 3.5 hours faster: study Brigham Young University, November 24, 2021 

Now a new Brigham Young University study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise finds that exercising intensely at the start of a fast may help maximize health benefits of temporarily foregoing food. Ketosis occurs when the body runs out of glucose—its first, preferred fuel—and begins breaking down stored fat for energy, producing chemicals called ketones as a byproduct. In addition to being a healthy energy source for the brain and heart, ketones combat diseases like diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

(NEXT)

To calm your emotions, get 15 minutes alone University of Rochester, November 24, 2021

Being by yourself—even for just 15 minutes—may decrease your strong positive and negative emotions, and instead reduce stress and induce calm, a new study suggests. Lead researcher Thuy-vy Nguyen, a doctoral candidate in clinical and social sciences in psychology at the University of Rochester, together with the cofounders of self-determination theory, psychology professors Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, conclude that solitude can lead to relaxation and stress reduction—as long as people actively chose to be alone.

(NEXT)

Fermented tea could help protect the liver from high-fat diet damage

Tianjin University (China), November 30, 2021

Water extracts of a fermented tea, known as Pu-erh tea, could help to reduce oxidative stress and protect the liver against damage caused by a high fat diet, research in rats has found. The study, published in Food Science and Human Wellness, investigated the potential of the polyphenol and theabrownin-rich fermented tea to protect the liver after previous studies linked the tea to a raft of health benefits. “Pu-erh tea can be used as a potential healthy drink for prevention and/or treatment of fatty liver disease and many diseases associated with oxidative stress,” suggested Jing and colleagues.

(NEXT)

Excessive media exposure to traumatic events could harm kids Florida International University, November 20, 2021

FIU scientists investigating the effects of hurricanes and other natural disasters on children's brain development previously found that increased exposure to media coverage of disasters led kids to have post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms regardless of physical proximity. A new follow-up study led by FIU psychologists Anthony Dick and Jonathan Comer confirmed those findings and also showed that individual differences in the response in a key brain region involved in detecting threats—the amygdala—predicted the degree to which viewing storm-related media coverage led children to develop PTS symptoms.

(NEXT)

Adults with ADHD four times more likely to have generalized anxiety disorder

University of Toronto, November 20, 2021

A new nationally representative study published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that one in four adults aged 20-39 with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) had generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Those with ADHD were four times more likely to have GAD at some point in their life, when compared to those without ADHD. Even after controlling for other relevant factors, including sociodemographics, adverse childhood experiences, and a lifetime history of substance use disorders and major depressive disorders, those with ADHD still had more than double the odds of GAD.

(OTHER NEWS NEXT)

The Madness of Anthony Fauci

Rather than own up to his disastrous policy and medical advice, Fauci instead is accelerating his messianic impulses. 

By Julie Kelly

It’s nearly impossible to select the most maniacal comment made by Dr. Anthony Fauci in his nearly 70-minute interview with “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan that aired over the weekend. Joe Biden’s chief coronavirus advisor and miniature global menace spent more than an hour denying responsibility for his documented mistakes, bragging about his self-appointed role as the world’s doctor, hogging credit for the vaccines, and attacking anyone who has challenged his unrivaled ego and track record of failure. Portraying himself as a victim rather than the cruel, megalomaniacal tyrant he is, Fauci took aim at Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Congressional co-sponsors of the “Fire Fauci Act,” which would zero-out the salary of the federal government’s highest-paid bureaucrat and audit Fauci’s correspondence and financial transactions during the pandemic. While declaring, “I represent science,” Fauci humbly graded the scientific approach to the pandemic an “A+” while incongruently  warning about a “fifth wave” of the virus and explaining away one scientific stumble after another, from useless temperature checks to the need for bi-annual booster shots and randomly claiming the virus spread is “40 to 50 to 60 percent . . . asymptomatic.” Science! Of all his alarming remarks, however, Fauci’s push to get experimental vaccines for babies and young children to market as quickly as possible is the most depraved. When asked by Brennan, who has spent the better part of two years asking Fauci how to run her life and the lives of 330 million Americans, when he expects vaccines for children between the age of six months and five years to be available, Fauci said he hopes the shots are ready by the beginning of next year. “I would hope it would be in the first quarter because the studies are being done right now on children from two to five and then from six months to two years,” Fauci told Brennan. “I don’t think there’s going to be an issue with efficacy. But when you’re dealing with children, it’s a very sensitive area. And that’s the reason why [it] may take a little bit longer.” When parents question whether it’s necessary to vaccinate children, Fauci replies that, “yeah, we do want to be vaccinating the children because we want to vaccinate and protect everyone in society, including children.” Now, that is not the conclusion of a sound man of science, as Fauci again insisted he is in the interview, or even a man of common sense and humanity—that is the raving of a madman.Only a demon would propose injecting a child, including babies who cannot yet even walk or talk, with a rushed “vaccine” to allegedly minimize a virus that poses no serious health threat to them. Only a sociopath would dismiss parental fears about not just the medical necessity of the shot for the child but also unknown side effects that their children could suffer in both the near and long term. And only a sadist would continue to promote his own destructive policies that have inflicted incalculable human suffering but done nothing to halt the spread of a virus that is lethal to only a tiny percentage of the population. In a just world, Anthony Fauci would be giving lengthy television interviews clad in an orange jumpsuit from the confines of a federal penitentiary. Aside from his crimes against humanity, especially the tragic toll on senior citizens and young people, Fauci has clearly committed a number of crimes including lying to Congress and the American people in his official capacity and misappropriating federal funds on ghoulish scientific experiments. He violated the Hatch Act by using his government post for political purposes; for example, the weekend before the 2020 election, Fauci told the Washington Post that Joe Biden “is taking [the pandemic] seriously from a public health perspective,” but that Trump was only looking at it from an economic standpoint. Contradicting the president, Fauci warned the country was in for a “world of hurt” with rising COVID-19 cases and that “all the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season.” Fauci has repeatedly and treasonously defended the Chinese Communist Party, something he did yet again in his interview with Brennan. Still peddling the “wet market,” rather than Wuhan laboratory-produced, theory about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, Fauci disputed Brennan’s claim that “Beijing acknowledges now that they don’t think it originated in that market.” Fauci shot back: “I think you could say we don’t know how and where it originated. There were wet markets in Wuhan that are ample opportunity for a virus to jump from an animal that gets brought in from all parts of China that are very closely related physically to bat enclaves in caves and come to the market. So I don’t think anyone can say that it didn’t come from here or it did come from here.” The vaccines for which Fauci takes credit have been a costly failure. He, along with Joe Biden, misled the American people into believing the vaccines are safe and effective. But caseloads continue to spike despite high vaccination rates; Fauci himself recently admitted the prophylactic effect of the vaccines has waned and boosters are now required to extend what little short-term benefit the first round of injections provided. COVID fatalities this year are slightly ahead of 2020, a metric no one, including Dr. Anthony Fauci himself, publicly predicted. Rather than own up to his disastrous policy and medical advice, Fauci instead is accelerating his messianic impulses. He’s unsure, Fauci told George Stephanopoulos on Sunday morning, whether new lockdowns are needed to prevent the spread of the omicron mutation. “Prepare for the worst,” Fauci warned. Music, undoubtedly, to the ears of Xi Jinping. Ironically, Fauci, who laughed off his own criminal culpability related to the pandemic in Brennan’s interview, wants others investigated both for the handling of COVID-19 and the four-hour protest at the Capitol earlier this year. In one sinister exchange with Brennan, Fauci nervously giggled and rhetorically asked Senator Ted Cruz, “What about January 6, senator?” He also wants a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Trump Administration’s response to the crisis. The top focus, Madman Fauci noted, should zone in on why “Trump left things up to the states.” Chalk up the U.S. Constitution as another thing Anthony Fauci has no clue about. But perhaps Fauci is on to something. When Republicans take over the House next year, they should immediately form several 9/11-style commissions to investigate numerous scandals stemming from the Trump era; at the top of the list should be a public accounting of Fauci’s leading role in the COVID-19 crisis; his misstatements to the public and Congress on the “science”; his relationship with the Chinese Communist Party; his political machinations before the 2020 election; and his ties to pharmaceutical companies and other parties with a financial interest in pushing vaccines. Further, Fauci should testify under oath on what scientific basis he recommended using American children, including babies, as pharmaceutical lab rats. If indeed he is “America’s doctor,” as Margaret Brennan so obsequiously claimed, and to which Fauci agreed, then he should be properly investigated for medical malpractice at the very least. A wide-ranging federal probe into what happened during the pandemic? Maybe for once, the madman is right.

(NEXT)

With Low Vaccination Rates, Africa's Covid Deaths Remain Far below Europe and the US MISES INSTITUTE, 11/23/2021 NOTE: TOTAL POPULATION OF AFRICA 1.3 BILLION, LARGEST NATIONS NIGERIA (206 MILLION), ETHIOPIA (115 MILLION), EGYPT (103 MILLION)

Since the very beginning of the covid panic, the narrative has been this: implement severe lockdowns or your population will experience a bloodbath. Morgues will be overwhelmed, the death total toll will be astounding. On the other hand, we were assured those jurisdictions that do lock down would see only a fraction of the death toll. Then, once vaccines became available, the narrative was modified to "Get shots in arms and then covid will stop spreading. Those countries without vaccines, on the other hand, will continue to face mass casualties." The lockdown narrative, of course, has already been thoroughly overturned. Jurisdictions that did not lock down or adopted only weak and short lockdowns ended up with covid death tolls that were either similar to—or even better than—death tolls in countries that adopted draconian lockdowns. Lockdown advocates said locked-down countries would be overwhelmingly better off. These people were clearly wrong. Undaunted by the increasing implausibility of the lockdown narrative, the global health bureaucrats are nonetheless doubling down on forced vaccines—as we now see in Austria—and we continue to be assured that only countries with high vaccination rates can hope to avoid disastrous covid outcomes. Yet, the experience in sub-Saharan Africa calls both these narratives into question: Africa's numbers have been far, far lower than the experts warned would be the case. For example, the AP reported this week that in spite of low vaccination rates, Africa has fared better than most of the world: [T]here is something “mysterious” going on in Africa that is puzzling scientists, said Wafaa El-Sadr, chair of global health at Columbia University. “Africa doesn’t have the vaccines and the resources to fight COVID-19 that they have in Europe and the U.S., but somehow they seem to be doing better,” she said…. Fewer than 6% of people in Africa are vaccinated. For months, the WHO has described Africa as “one of the least affected regions in the world” in its weekly pandemic reports. But that "conventional wisdom" flies in the face of the reality of covid in Africa, which is that there have beenfewer deaths. In any case, the World Health Organization reports that covid deaths in Africa make up only 2.9 percent of covid deaths, while Africa’s population is 16 percent of the global total. Africa’s covid total could double or triple, and Africa would still be faring far better than Europe and the Americas.

(NEXT)

Excess Deaths Caused by Vaccines (an email letter)

As you know, since the summer there has been a 10% excess of deaths in England, largely due to cardiovascular problems and mainly in younger adults and men. Some argue this is due to vaccines directly killing people, as the spike protein (produced in our bodies from the gene added to our cells by the vaccines) is known to damage heart cells, blood vessels, and the normal clotting mechanisms. Others claim it is the spike protein, but blame the spike protein produced by virus infection. I have now looked at the relevant data quite carefully, and the only explanation that fits all the data is as follows: The vaccines have reduced levels and/or duration of virus in individuals (hence also reduce severe covid symptoms) but unfortunately the spike protein produced by the vaccines added on top of the spike protein produced by the virus is having a lethal effect in many people. The net result is that vaccines have merely displaced deaths from being (and being recorded as) frank covid deaths to now being cardiovascular deaths, coincident with an increase in virus prevalence This phenomenon will fade away as the virus fades away after December, as the winter peak of respiratory diseases passes. But everything will be made worse if we roll out mass booster vaccinations. Regards Professor Anthony J Brookes Department of Genetics & Genome Biology University of Leicester

(NEXT)

Despite Pledge, Biden Leaves Tap Open, Approving Billions in Arms Deals to Saudi Arabia

A new MintPress News study based on Dept. of Defense documents can reveal that U.S. weapons manufacturers have sold well in excess of $28.3 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since the Yemen War began, including 20 separate deals inked during Biden’s presidency.

Alan Macleod

MINT PRESS NEWS. November 19th, 2021

“The war in Yemen must end,” declared President Joe Biden in his first major foreign policy speech; “and to underscore our commitment, we are ending all American support for offensive [Saudi] operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.” Yet studying sales records from the Department of Defense (DoD), MintPress can reveal that less than one year into his presidency, the Biden administration has already approved 20 separate weapons contracts, worth just shy of $1.2 billion, to Saudi Arabia alone. This includes a $100 million shipment of Black Hawk helicopters, support for Apache gunships, and a $78 milliondeal to buy 36 cruise missiles. A new and controversial $650 million deal announced earlier this month has yet to be finalized but will likely soon follow, boosting sales up to levels equal with the earlier years of the Trump presidency. Sorting through thousands of approved contracts, the Department of Defense has approved in excess of $28.4 billion worth of sales from American companies to the armed forces of Saudi Arabia since they began their military intervention in the Yemeni Civil War in March 2015. This includes billions of dollars worth of arms, supplies, logistical support and training services. While this is a gargantuan number (already larger than Yemen’s gross domestic product), it is certainly a serious underestimate of just how much the military industrial complex is benefiting from what the United Nations has called the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” In addition to the $28 billion figure, Saudi Arabia is also a named customer (often along with other nations) in weapons deals worth more than $34 billion over the same period. However, the amounts the Saudis actually paid in these were not disclosed, though in some of these orders Saudi Arabia was clearly the primary buyer. For example, a $3.4 billion DoD-approved radar deal with Raytheon lists only two buyers: Saudi Arabia and the tiny nation of Kuwait (population 4.2 million). Added together, this means that the DoD has greenlighted the sale of somewhere between $28 billion and $63 billion worth of arms from American companies to Saudi Arabia since the latter began its attack on the largely civilian population of Yemen. The biggest profiteer from Yemen’s destruction has been aviation giant Boeing, which brought in $13.9 billion in sales over the period. Next comes Lockheed Martin, which has signed 62 separate contracts with the Kingdom since March 2015, worth in excess of $7.4 billion. Third on the list is missile expert Raytheon, which has cashed in on the violence to the tune of $3.3 billion. In total, 86 U.S. companies have profited from sales to Saudi Arabia since its intervention in Yemen, including household names like General Electric, Booz Allen Hamilton and Honeywell. The full list is also available in the accompanying spreadsheet.