DR. MCCULLOUGH ON MONKEYPOX
The Highwire with Del Bigtree | May 26, 2022
As the monkeypox outbreak saturates the news cycle, we check in with Epidemiologist and Cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough to look into the danger the virus poses to the public.
Here’s what you should know about the latest Money Pox
Smallpox, money pox, and the vaccines they will try to frighten you into getting
By Meryl Nass, MD | May 27, 2022
The WHO released a clever statement to introduce the idea of mass money pox vaccination to the public:
The World Health Organization (WHO) maintains that the growing monkeypox outbreak remains “containable,” and that there’s no immediate need for mass vaccination against the orthopoxvirus; since May 7, a total of 131 confirmed cases and 106 suspected cases have been reported in countries where it usually does not spread. (Reuters)
No immediate need. Let that statement ferment in your unconscious. It seems like a benign sentence, but implicit in it is the idea that soon there may well be a need to mass vaccinate the population against money pox, a disease that has never before spread due to casual contact.
I don’t think we even know the actual mortality rate for money pox. Has a westerner ever died from it?
Could this possibly be the same money pox that occurs in Africa? If so, how did it suddenly appear in so many countries at once? This fact alone—its novel, never-before-seen pattern of spread, should make us question whether it is a biowarfare agent being seeded deliberately. Probably not meant to kill us, maybe not even to harm us much. We can’t tell yet, based on the minimalist info coming out of our esteemed public health agencies. Perhaps it’s here just to nudge us to get another shot?
Below I give you the basics on smallpox, monkeypox and the newest vaccines coming to a clinic near you:
1. If there is a money pox vaccine (and FDA has apparently approved one that the army helped develop) it has not been tested for efficacy, because there have not been enough human cases to do so.
- Efficacy testing requires that you vaccinate people and then see how many cases of the disease occur in the vaccinated versus the placebo group. If you were able to vaccinate a million people but disease frequency was such that you couldn’t even get a handful of cases occuring, you cannot perform an efficacy test.
- Instead, in order to get vaccines approved or authorized, antibody tests are done that are claimed to demonstrate the presence of immunity. But oft times (as in the COVID or anthrax vaccines) the antibody that is selected for this purpose may not be a reliable indicator of immunity…as admitted at the booster VRBPAC meeting by FDA staff and committee members.
2. The smallpox vaccine is said to be 85% effective against monkeypox… but without many human monkeypox cases, that 85% number cannot possibly have been established.
3. The smallpox vaccine causes a huge number of myocarditis cases and other known cardiac problems, making it almost certainly more dangerous than the risk of getting monkeypox. One in 220 recipients developed an obvious case of myocarditis in a US military study published in 2015, and one in 30 got a subclinical case.
Why would ANYONE take such a high risk of cardiac damage to avoid a miniscule risk of money pox? Only because they were misinformed.
4. Smallpox vaccine, when used routinely in babies, was considered the most dangerous vaccine available. It led to the deaths of several people per million administrations.
5. I received smallpox vaccines in 1951 and 1972 and believe I had insignificant reactions. I expect I am fully immune to smallpox. Tests done in people in 2003 published in NEJM suggested immunity was lifelong.
6. The US smallpox vaccine last used routinely in civilians was the NY Department of Health version, and it was made similarly to the vaccine of the 1700s. Infectious fluid from a related orthopox virus was scratched on the belly of a calf, and then when new vesicles developed the material was collected as the vaccine substrate, and could only be minimally purified.
7. Ever wonder why the smallpox vaccine is scratched on while all others are injected? Because it was so dirty, contaminated with other animal viruses and unspecified materials, which might cause a serious infection if injected beyond the skin.
8. It was hoped, 20-30 years ago, that a newer, cleaner, purified vaccine would avoid the many severe side effects. Two newer vaccines (ACAM 2000, purified from the NY DOH Dryvax vaccine and MVA) were purchased by the Clinton and Bush administrations for all Americans. It turned out, unfortunately, that the cardiac side effects persisted. They were due to the actual vaccine antigen, not to the ‘junk.’ The MVA (Modified Vaccinia Ankara) vaccine, which is less reactogenic but may be less effective than ACAM2000, had its US name changed to Jynneos, and has now been designated the official MoneyPox vaccine.
Regarding ACAM2000 and the licensing of Jynneos, FDA said in 2019 (on page 4):
ACAM2000 is contraindicated for use in individuals with severe immunodeficiency who are not expected to benefit from the vaccine… In 2003, a monkeypox
outbreak was confirmed in the U.S. This was the first time human monkeypox was
reported outside of the African continent. (Not true but close—Nass) Currently, there is no approved treatment
or licensed vaccine for monkeypox, although the Advisory Committee on
Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends that ACAM2000 be used for prevention of monkeypox in individuals at high risk of exposure (e.g., lab workers who handle monkeypox virus). Thus, there is an unmet need for a monkeypox vaccine.
9. The US government initiated a smallpox vaccine program in 2003 that rapidly failed—people refused to be vaccinated due to high rates of heart attacks, heart failure and myocarditis. The National Academies of Science (NAS) wrote a series of about 8 critical “Letter Reports” on the government program, and the magazine Science wrote about the final report here. However, both the NAS and Science pulled their punches, failing the fully emphasize the dangers and to reflect the widespread skepticism about the program, which used a dangerous vaccine for a nonexistent or at least unproven threat.
10. According to Medpage, CDC says both Jynneos and ACAM2000 vaccines will be available to respond to the money pox event. Yet even CDC currently admits that the chance of myocarditis is huge (greater than one in 200 vaccine recipients) from the ACAM2000 vaccine, in an MMWR from November 2021:
Because ACAM2000 is replication-competent, there is a risk for serious adverse events (e.g., progressive vaccinia and eczema vaccinatum) with it; myopericarditis also occurs with ACAM2000 (estimated rate of 5.7 per 1,000 primary vaccinees based on clinical trial data), but the underlying mechanism is unknown (7,8).
11. From the same MMWR article , the CDC perhaps inadvertently admitted it had no reliable evidence for either safety or efficacy:
The effectiveness of JYNNEOS was inferred from the immunogenicity of JYNNEOS in clinical studies and from efficacy data from animal challenge studies. [But humans do not necessarily respond the same as lab animals—Nass] Occurrences of serious adverse events are expected to be minimal because JYNNEOS is a replication-deficient virus vaccine. However, because the mechanism for myopericarditis following receipt of ACAM2000 is thought to be an immune-mediated phenomenon, it is not known whether the antigen or antigens that precipitate autoantibodies [causing myocarditis or other adverse events—Nass] are present in JYNNEOS as well.
12. Despite knowing there is virtually no reliable information about how the vaccine might prevent monkeypox nor how safe it is, the Quebec government has begun rolling out the vaccine for the prevention of money pox. According to CBC:
… the smallpox vaccine — which hasn’t been routinely offered in Canada for decades — will be offered to those at high risk of contracting the disease, such as those who have been in contact with confirmed cases.
[Quebec’s top health officer] Boileau said the province has access to hundreds of doses at the ready, but vaccination will only occur after a recommendation from public health. It will not be open to the general public.
13. Whitney Webb wrote last week about two of the Beltway Bandits poised to make yet another killing on money pox, Emergent BioSolutions and SIGA Technologies.
I will be adding to this post.
As Questions Swirl Around Monkeypox Origins and Risk, Vaccine Makers Set Sights on Profits
By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | May 26, 2022
As an unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox spreads throughout the west, questions continue to swirl around the origin of the outbreak, the risk it poses to the public and the measures that may or may not be required to contain the virus.
Some also wondered how unexpected the outbreak was after learning about a March 2021 tabletop simulation of a hypothetical deadly outbreak of monkeypox predicted to occur in May 2022.
The Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Munich Security Conference — entities closely connected to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security — conducted the tabletop exercise.
Some analysts suggested the outbreak may have resulted from gain-of-function research or similar experiments involving the virus, while others floated the theory that malign actors, perhaps related to the conflict in Ukraine, intentionally released the virus.
Meanwhile, politicians and public health officials are delivering mixed and confusing messages to the public about the level of risk, while pharmaceutical companies are preparing to introduce monkeypox vaccines.
WHO responds with emergency meeting — just prior to its World Health Assembly
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it has considered monkeypox a “priority pathogen” for several years. Nevertheless, the new outbreak led the agency on May 20 to hold an emergency meeting of its Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards with Pandemic and Endemic Potential (STAG-IH) to discuss monkeypox.
STAG-IH, comprised of experts and scientists from around the world and chaired by David Heymann, professor of epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, advises the WHO on infection risks that could threaten global public health.
STAG-IH does not have the authority to declare a public health emergency of international concern — the WHO’s highest form of alert — which is currently active in relation to COVID-19.
The WHO convened the emergency meeting even though the organization was already set to meet for its World Health Assembly May 22-28 in Geneva, Switzerland — where members discussed proposed amendments to the existing International Health Regulations 2005, and where WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was re-elected without opposition to a second five-year term.
The WEF also held its annual meeting May 22-26 — in Davos, Switzerland, not far from Geneva.
Monkeypox response described as ‘gaslighting’
Health officials and politicians are responding to the sudden spread of monkeypox with mixed messages.
WHO Europe regional director Dr. Hans Kluge recently expressed concerns about transmission at “mass gatherings, festivals, and parties.”
President Biden also shared concerns, stating that “it is something that everybody should be concerned about … it is a concern in the sense that if it were to spread, it’s consequential.”
And the U.K.’s National Health Service issued an advisory recommending people “only eat meat that has been cooked thoroughly.”
However, other public health professionals said the risk to the public is low, as is the likelihood the epidemic will last very long.
In what has been described by scientist and author James Lyons-Weiler as an example of gaslighting, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised the public not to be concerned over the spread of monkeypox, contradicting President Biden’s warning.
An article in the Daily Mail delivered its own mixed messages by first warning, in capital letters, about a possible “hypermutated” monkeypox virus, then quoting Dr. Rosamund Lewis, who heads the smallpox secretariat on the WHO’s emergencies program, who said, “Despite suggestions that the virus may have evolved, experts have warned there is no evidence it has done so.”
Despite the fact that the WHO has not declared any kind of public health emergency related to the spread of monkeypox outside of Africa, various countries have begun enacting their own measures in response to the outbreak.
Public health authorities in Belgium announced May 20 that a compulsory 21-day quarantine will be imposed for monkeypox patients, U.K. health authorities urged “high risk” contacts of monkeypox cases to self-isolate and to avoid children for 21 days, and Greece and other countries are considering similar measures.
The Belgian Institute of Tropical Medicine announced it is conducting its own monkeypox PCR tests.
Smallpox outbreak: a new windfall for vaccine manufacturers and Big Pharma?
In response to the monkeypox outbreak, the Biden administration placed a $119 million order for smallpox vaccines from Bavarian Nordic, the manufacturer of JYNNEOS (also known as Imvamune and Imvanex), a smallpox vaccine also licensed to treat monkeypox.
The purchase includes a $180 million option for the purchase of future doses, bringing the combined total of the order to 13 million doses if the option is exercised.
According to Fortune :
“The order will convert existing smallpox vaccines, which are also effective against monkeypox, into freeze-dried versions, which have a longer shelf life. The converted vaccines will be manufactured in 2023 and 2024, the company says.
“Bavarian Nordic has worked with the U.S. government since 2003 to develop, manufacture and supply smallpox vaccines. To date, it says, it has supplied nearly 30 million doses to the Department of Health and Human Services.”
The U.K. ordered more than 20,000 doses of JYNNEOS, while the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reportedly is set to recommend a monkeypox vaccine plan for EU member states.
Existing smallpox vaccines reportedly are up to 85% effective against monkeypox. With the recent outbreak, health authorities in countries such as the U.K. have begun administering the smallpox vaccine to healthcare workers and others who may have been exposed to monkeypox.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2019 approved the JYNNEOS smallpox vaccine, which was developed in conjunction with U.S. Army scientists.
After JYNNEOS received FDA approval, Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said:
“[A]lthough naturally occurring smallpox disease is no longer a global threat, the intentional release of this highly contagious virus could have a devastating effect.
“Jynneos will be available for those determined to be at high risk of either smallpox or monkeypox infection.
“This vaccine is also part of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), the nation’s largest supply of potentially life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency that is severe enough to cause local supplies to be depleted.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci had a hand in the development of JYNNEOS, with accompanying controversy, as highlighted in 2009:
“Fauci gave about $100 million each to Bavarian Nordic and Acambis for research on a smallpox vaccine in preparation for a BioShield contract to be awarded in 2006.
“Some observers have said that Fauci is ‘overstepping his bounds,’ [The Wall Street] Journal reports.”
A study published in February 2022 in the PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases journal, “initiated and funded by Bavarian Nordic” and co-authored by employees of the company, states:
“The appearance of outbreaks beyond Africa highlights the global relevance of the disease.
“Increased surveillance and detection of monkeypox cases are essential tools for understanding the continuously changing epidemiology of this resurging disease.
“Overall, monkeypox is gradually evolving to become of global relevance.”
Bavarian Nordic isn’t the only drugmaker focused on monkeypox. On May 19, the FDA approved an additional drug, an intravenous version of TPOXX (tecovirimat) for the treatment of monkeypox.
TPOXX is produced by SIGA, described by Bloomberg as “a biological warfare defense firm.”
According to SIGA, “Funding and technical support for this work is provided by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), under the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).”
As reported by The Gateway Pundit :
“TPOXX has been available for use to treat smallpox for several years, but it was only available in pill form.
“The new version of TPOXX will be delivered directly into the bloodstream via injection and also reportedly works for treating monkeypox.”
The previous oral formulation of TPOXX was approved by the FDA in July 2018. That same year, SIGA signed a $629 million contract with BARDA for the inclusion of smallpox drugs in the Strategic National Stockpile.
SIGA reached a similar agreement with Canadian authorities in December 2021, less than a month after Bill Gates warned of the risk of a bioterror attack.
In June 2019, SIGA signed an international promotion agreement with Meridian Medical Technologies, a company owned by Pfizer.
Recent developments sent the stocks of SIGA and Bavarian Nordic soaring. SIGA’s stock, which previously peaked in November 2021, rose soon after Gates’ pronouncements regarding the possibility of an intentional release of smallpox.
In a recent article, investigative journalist Whitney Webb highlighted the potentially troubling track record of SIGA and another smallpox vaccine manufacturer, Emergent Biosolutions, including:
- Close ties to Jeffrey Epstein and the Democratic Party.
- “Outrageous” no-bid federal contracts to SIGA for the procurement of smallpox drugs.
- “Troubling ties” to the 2001 anthrax attacks.
- “Serious deficiencies” at a manufacturing plant of a smallpox vaccine producer, Emergent Biosolutions, that also produced COVID-19 vaccines.
Webb also discovered a direct link between Emergent Biosolutions, the Strategic National Stockpile, the anthrax attacks of 2001, the Dark Winter simulation and Bavarian Nordic — via Robert Kadlec, who served as the top bioterror advisor to the Pentagon in the weeks leading up to the 2001 anthrax attacks.
Kadlec participated in the June 2001 Dark Winter simulation of an anthrax attack, helped establish the Strategic National Stockpile, and has directly advised Emergent Biosolutions and Bavarian Nordic.
New players also are jostling for position in light of the monkeypox outbreak, including a familiar face: COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Moderna, which recently announced it is testing potential monkeypox vaccines.
Confusion over who — or what — to blame for the monkeypox outbreak
Analyst Paul Craig Roberts recently wrote, “No one has explained why and how monkeypox, a problem in a small area of Africa, suddenly appeared all at once all over the Western world,” asking if we are about to experience another fear campaign, or something even worse.
The questions posited by Roberts point to the broader confusion, at least from what is evident through publicly available information, as to the origin of the monkeypox outbreak and how it is spreading.
Many scientists reportedly are “baffled” by the “unprecedented” spread of monkeypox outside of Africa and find its spread in North America and Europe to be “perplexing.”
This may remind some of the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, which was said to have emerged in Botswana and South Africa without, apparently, heavily impacting those countries.
Oyewale Tomori, a virologist and former president of the Nigerian Academy of Science who currently serves on various WHO advisory committees, was quoted as saying:
“I’m stunned by this. Every day I wake up and there are more countries infected … [t]his is not the kind of spread we’ve seen in West Africa, so there may be something new happening in the West.”
Dr. Hans Kluge, the WHO’s Europe director, characterized the situation as “atypical.”
“We’ve never seen anything like what’s happening in Europe,” said Christian Happi, director of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases.
Happi also suggested the cessation of smallpox vaccination campaigns in 1980, when the disease was declared eradicated, may be contributing to the spread of monkeypox, as no immunity against smallpox or monkeypox would exist in the population.
This view was mirrored recently in an analysis by Jason Gale of Bloomberg, and picked up by the Washington Post. Gale argued that the eradication of smallpox “led to the end of a global vaccination program that provided protection against other poxviruses [including] monkeypox.”
Others argued the low level of incidence of smallpox makes vaccination against it more of a risk than a benefit.
Debates appear to be ongoing in the scientific community as to whether monkeypox is now being sexually transmitted.
Tomori noted sexual transmission has not been observed in Nigeria, but also that viruses not previously known to transmit via sexual contact, such as Ebola, were later proven to do so.
Alessio D’Amato, health commissioner of the Lazio region in Italy, said it was too early to say if monkeypox has morphed into a sexually transmitted disease, while Stuart Neil, professor of virology at King’s College London, said, “The idea that there’s some sort of sexual transmission in this, I think, is a little bit of a stretch.”
Neil Mabbott, personal chair of immunopathology at the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, argued the spread of monkeypox among sexual partners is likely due to close physical proximity rather than sexual contact per se.
However, David Heymann, an infectious disease specialist at the WHO who led the organization’s recent emergency meeting on monkeypox, suggested the virus entered the population as a “sexual form, as a genital form, and is being spread as are sexually transmitted infections.”
This appears to be aligned with the WHO’s current official view that sexual contact is responsible for the spread of monkeypox, not as a sexually transmitted disease but by virtue of close physical contact.
Is the current monkeypox outbreak related to gain-of-function research?
The term “gain-of-function” (GoF) research over the past two years entered mainstream discourse following speculation the SARS-CoV-2 virus was engineered, and subsequently escaped from, the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China.
GoF refers to medical research in which an organism is genetically altered, either for military purposes or medical research, in such a way that the biological functions of gene products are enhanced.
The National Pulse reported that in February 2022, Virologica Sinica, a prominent journal of virology, published a peer-reviewed study pertaining to a monkeypox-related GoF research project performed by scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in August 2021.
In this study, according to The National Pulse :
“The Wuhan Institute of Virology assembled a monkeypox virus genome, allowing the virus to be identified through PCR tests, using a method researchers flagged for potentially creating a ‘contagious pathogen.’
“The paper … also follows the wide-scale use of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests to identify COVID-19-positive individuals.
“Researchers appeared to identify a portion of the monkeypox virus genome, enabling PCR tests to identify the virus.”
Canadian researcher Polly St. George in a recent investigative report said there is an association between monkeypox and GoF research.
And in a recent interview, international law scholar Francis Boyle, who drafted the Biological Weapon Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, said the bioware industry uses monkeypox as a simulant for smallpox.
Along these lines, geopolitical analyst Michael Whitney in a recent article remarked on the sudden rapid spread of monkeypox and posed the following question:
“I wonder if that ‘rapidly spreading’ part has something to do with the way that researchers have been tweaking the gain-of-function of these unique pathogens in order to make them more contagious and more lethal? Is that what’s going on?”
Similarly, James Lyons-Weiler pointed out monkeypox first officially appeared in 1958, “about the time scientists were injecting African subjects with blood products from monkeys to see which viruses might be transmissible. Zikavirus came into our species about the same time.”
Uncertainty breeds speculation, and such is the case with some who suggested a possible link between the monkeypox outbreak and a January 2022 incident involving a truck transporting 100 laboratory monkeys that collided with a dump truck and overturned in Pennsylvania, leading to the escape of at least three monkeys.
The monkeys reportedly were later caught and euthanized, though no reason was given as to why they were killed.
An eyewitness who handled escaped monkeys developed pink eye and a cough, received treatment and was monitored by the CDC.
Others also tried to draw a connection between monkeypox and the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which utilizes a chimpanzee adenovirus vaccine vector.
However, no such link has been reported, and it’s important to note that chimpanzees are distinct from monkeys.
Is monkeypox outbreak a tool of intentional warfare?
Some officials speculated monkeypox was weaponized and intentionally released as an act of biological warfare, perhaps in relation to the conflict in Ukraine.
There are at least three such strands of speculation currently circulating:
- Claims by independent investigator Dr. Benjamin Braddock that an unnamed source at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said, “Preliminary analysis of the monkeypox strain currently doing the rounds found the virus came from a lab and may be related to the U.S.’s biological research in Ukraine,” implying that it may have been intentionally released, perhaps by Russia.
- Theories circulating in China and reported by Chinese state media that the U.S. intentionally released the virus, as part of “a plan by the U.S. to leak bioengineered monkeypox virus.”
- Statements by Irina Yarovaya, co-chair of Russia’s parliamentary commission on investigation of U.S. biological laboratories in Ukraine, and reported by Russia’s TASS news agency, that “the U.S. researched Ebola and smallpox viruses in Ukraine,” perhaps implying this resulted in the monkeypox outbreak.
These scenarios remain within the realm of speculation for the time being, but bear a close resemblance to the Wuhan lab leak scenarios under investigation in relation to the outbreak of COVID-19.
However, even if none of these scenarios hold water, they possess evident value as tools of information warfare, especially in relation to the ongoing schism between Russia and the West vis-à-vis the conflict in Ukraine.
Are monkeypox symptoms similar to COVID vaccine side effects?
Despite the current scare, monkeypox symptoms for most individuals who have been infected are mild, particularly in countries with adequate health systems.
However, they also resemble known adverse effects of the COVID-19 vaccines and symptoms of ailments such as shingles.
According to the WHO, monkeypox symptoms are characterized by “a person of any age presenting in a monkeypox non-endemic country with an unexplained acute rash,” with one or more of the following symptoms (updated March 15, 2022):
- Headache
- Acute onset of fever (>38.5oC)
- Lymphadenopathy (swollen lymph nodes)
- Myalgia (muscle and body aches)
- Back pain
- Asthenia (profound weakness)
Notably, many of these symptoms appear in the list of adverse effects of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. These adverse effects include lymphadenopathy, myalgia, asthenia, back pain and headache.
Others noted the similarity between monkeypox and shingles. Indeed, an image published by TheHealthSite.com of rashes said to be caused by smallpox is identical to an image published by Australia’s Queensland government displaying shingles rashes.
The CDC states, “The rash may be hard to distinguish from syphilis, herpes simplex virus infection, shingles and other more common infections.”
Moreover, according to Andrew Preston, professor of microbial pathogenicity at the University of Bath, “Some people say the rash is a bit like shingles.”
In recent years, certain countries, such as the U.K., have introduced a comprehensive shingles vaccination campaign for individuals age 70 and over.
Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., is an independent journalist and researcher based in Athens, Greece.
Trudeau wants “new tools” to tackle online “misinformation”
No details given
By Christina Maas | Reclaim The Net | May 28, 2022
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the government is investing in new tools for security agencies to fight extremism and online “misinformation.”
“We need new tools to fight all of these pending threats, and that’s why we’ve turned to all of our security agencies to look at new ways of ensuring peoples’ safety,” Trudeau said in a press briefing in Vancouver, without specifying the tools he was referring to.
“Because, as we know, what happens in the virtual world has impact in the real world. It doesn’t stay on the internet.”
Trudeau added that the tools were necessary to fight “new threats weighing in on our society and country,” mentioning the spike in disinformation and misinformation and foreign adversaries and domestic extremists weaponizing social media.
“Whether it’s extremist ideology and right-wing terrorism on the rise in Canada, or whether it’s examples like the illegal [Freedom Convoy] protests we saw in the winter, there are a whole new set of challenges that we need to be responding to,” Trudeau said.
The prime minister paid the usual lip service that politicians do when they bring in limits to speech, saying that the new tools would be deployed in a way that protects free speech and the right to protest.
Trudeau specified that the government was “working closely with organizations like the Canadian Security Establishment [CSE] around communications.”
The mention of communications suggest tools that would collect and analyze data from social media to identify potential threats.
Poland Wants Billions From Brussels to Support Ukrainian Refugees
Samizdat – 28.05.2022
Over 3.6 million Ukrainians, equivalent to nearly 10 percent of Ukraine’s population, have fled to Poland in recent months, with millions more making their way to Russia, Romania, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, the Czech Republic, and other nations to escape the crisis in their home country.
Poland will need billions of additional euros from the European Union to help support the millions of Ukrainian refugees in the country, Deputy Minister of the Interior Pawel Szefernaker has indicated.
“From the very start we said that the aid we provide costs in the billions, not millions of euros. The European Union’s aid for countries which help refugees should also be counted in the billions – just as it was in the case of Turkey or Greece between 2015-2016”, Szefernaker said, speaking to the Polish Press Agency (PAP) on Saturday.
The official, who is tasked with coordinating Poland’s response to the refugee crisis, complained that the European Commission has yet to transfer any funds to assist the Polish government via its Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe (REACT-EU) programme. The fund was topped up with 3.4 billion euros to help members absorb Ukrainian refugees in April by the European Parliament, and is expected to be allocated to EU countries bordering Ukraine, as well as those whose refugee intake is greater than one percent of their total population.
PAP says Warsaw is expected to receive a 144.6 million euro payout from a 400 million euro tranche of funding allocated to five countries, including Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic for refugee assistance. However, even that money has not yet been delivered, with an EC spokesperson saying the European Commission will discuss subsidy agreements with Warsaw “in the coming weeks.”
Szefernaker suggested a separate, new fund needs to be established by the EU to deal with the financial burden. “The measures referred to by the European Commission are not additional measures. These are resources shifted from various other funds that were already in the European Union’s budget”, he said.
The official noted that 95 percent of the remaining funds given to Poland by Brussels were committed to various other investments, and could not be redirected to help refugees.
Over 42 billion euros were earmarked for Poland from the bloc’s REACT cash pile last year, but was frozen over the Polish government’s intransigence on “LGBT-free” zones – municipalities where LGBT “propaganda” marches and other events are banned.
Poland has long been a net beneficiary when it comes to contributions to the EU budget, getting billions more euros than it pays into the bloc, which is funded mainly by Germany, France, Italy, and, until 2020, Britain.
Poland spent years battling Brussels in the mid-late 2010s over EU demands that the country take in refugees from Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and other countries turned into failed states by US and NATO interventions, with the European Commission finally dropping its “refugee quotas” initiative in 2020 amid Polish, Hungarian, and Czech intransigence.
When the Ukraine crisis exploded in February, Warsaw rushed to accept millions of Ukrainians with open arms, on top of millions more already working and living in the country. Since the 2014 Euromaidan coup, over two million Ukrainians have taken up roles in sectors of the Polish economy, ranging from construction and agriculture to logistics and housework, with Polish businessmen valuing them as a source of cheap but skilled labour.
Ex-Louvre director charged in Egyptian artifacts trafficking case
Press TV – May 28, 2022
The former president of the Louvre museum in Paris has been charged with fraud in acquisition of archaeological treasures that may have been taken out of Egypt during the Arab Spring uprisings.
Jean-Luc Martinez who ran the Paris Louvre, the most visited museum in the world, from 2013-21 was charged this week after he was taken in by police for questioning, a French judicial source told Agence France-Presse.
Martinez, who now serves as an ambassador for international cooperation in the field of heritage, stepped down as the Louvre’s president last year.
He was charged with fraud and “concealing the origin of criminally obtained works by false endorsement,” according to a French judicial source.
Martinez, who has denied any wrongdoing, is also accused of neglecting fake certificates of origin for the pieces.
The case, which threatens to embarrass the French culture ministry and ministry for foreign affairs, was opened in July 2018, two years after the Louvre Abu Dhabi bought a rare pink granite stele depicting the pharaoh Tutankhamun and four other ancient works for €8m (£6.8m).
French investigators suspect that hundreds of artifacts were pillaged during the public uprising in Middle-East that engulfed several Middle Eastern countries in the early 2010s.
These were then believed to have been sold to galleries and museums that did not ask too many questions about previous ownership, nor look closely enough at potential incoherence in the works’ certificates of origin.
Several countries are thought to have been affected by artifacts being pillaged, including Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria.
Another prized Egyptian work, the gilded coffin of the priest Nedjemankh, which was bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2017, was at the center of a separate inquiry by New York prosecutors.
The Met, however, said it had been the victim of false statements and fake documentation, and that the coffin would be returned to Egypt.
Climate madness: British startup releases masks for cows
British startup ZELP has developed a mask for cows that filters methane. They received a climate protection award for this – Prince Charles is thrilled about the project.
Free West Media | May 28, 2022
It sounds like a belated April Fool’s joke: On May 24, 2022, the online portal Agrarheute reported that the British startup ZELP (Zero Emissions Livestock Project) had developed masks for cows. In this case, however, not to protect them from Corona, but to filter methane.
ZELP is currently testing various prototypes of the cattle masks, according to Agrarheute. These are already able to filter around 30 percent of the methane emitted by ruminants. In the future, this value should be increased to around 60 percent.
The highlight: ZELP was awarded the climate protection prize “Climate Design Award” for the “revolutionary” idea, which was created by WEF figurehead Prince Charles and designer Sir Jony Ive. The cattle mask was one of four winners and received a cash prize of the equivalent of 58 000 euros. Prince Charles supports face masks for cows to fight climate change.
The British monarch is one of the architects of the Great Reset, the name of the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), held in June 2020. It brought together high-profile business and political leaders, convened by Prince Charles. At the launch event for the Great Reset, he listed key areas for action, similar to those listed in his Sustainable Markets Initiative. These included draconian measures for net zero emissions globally as well as the introduction of carbon pricing.
To prove that this report was not a joke, the portal linked a video in its article that showed the enthusiastic heir to the throne presenting the project.
The 100-gram rubber masks with solar-powered fans are designed to direct the animals’ exhalations into a small chamber and then use chemical processes to convert methane into carbon dioxide, Agrarheute explained. But first farmers have to be convinced to actually use the masks.
One obstacle could be the rather high price: The use costs 45 dollars per cow and year, the equivalent of 41 euros. In addition, the masks would not bring any advantage for the farmer from an economic point of view.
In the comments below the article, readers legitimately wondered whether this message was some kind of joke. Agrarheute immediately confirmed that this was unfortunately not the case.
The claims about methane have been debunked
One reader commented: “Madness or stupidity? Every thinking person understands what nonsense the story about cow’s methane is. A cow is not a perpetual motion machine and it does not create energy out of thin air. The cow lives in the earth’s natural carbon cycle and is not ‘climate-damaging’ (if such a thing exists). Even the climate heroes at Climate Facts know that, although some people don’t like it. They are just producing a lot of garbage, trying to get more money out of the farmers’ pockets, end of the story.”
The three main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, all impact the environment differently. Methane is known as a “flow gas”, removed from the atmosphere at a rapid pace. Methane’s lifespan in the atmosphere is approximately 10 years, but flow gases will stay stagnant as they are destroyed at the same rate of emission.
Thus the initial method for calculating greenhouse emissions misrepresents the impact of short-lived flow gases, like methane, on future warming.
The hypocrisy of the global elite
The global elite pushing the Great Reset this week emitted thousands of units of carbon dioxide with an estimated lifespan in the atmosphere of 1000 years, meaning carbon dioxide emitted from the year 2022 will still be in the atmosphere in 3022. Meeting via Zoom for example, would have been a much better choice, given their “concerns” about climate change.
Traveling in private jets to the Davos Summit in Switzerland to foist their climate agenda on the rest of the world to “limit global temperature rise and stave off disaster” as stated on its website, “10 private one-way flights departed various European cities on Wednesday evening and landed in St. Gallen-Altenrhein Airport, the closest airstrip to Davos, emitting approximately 43 440 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere”.
For the WEF annual meeting in 2019 in Davos, according to an analysis from Air Charter Service, The Guardian reported at the time that around 1 500 private jets flew to and from airports near the Swiss town.