Uruguay Halts COVID-19 Vaccine for Kids Under 13, Judge Demands Officials Turn Over Pfizer Contracts
By Megan Redshaw | The Defender | July 8, 2022
Uruguay suspended COVID-19 vaccines for children under 13 after a judge on Thursday issued an injunction halting vaccinations in that age group until government officials turn over its contracts with Pfizer.
Uruguayan government officials and Pfizer were ordered on Wednesday to appear in court after judge Alejandro Recarey gave them 48 hours to present detailed information on Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine while the court considered an injunction request to halt COVID-19 vaccinations for children 5 and older.
The government said a confidentiality clause in the contract prevents it from producing the documents, The Washington Post reported.
According to ABC News, the judge received answers to 18 questions about the safety and chemical composition of COVID-19 vaccines, signed by Health Minister Daniel Salinas, but did not turn over the contracts.
It is unknown whether the answers provided by government officials adequately addressed the questions posed by the judge, who ultimately ordered an injunction based on what was provided.
Salinas, after the court’s ruling, strongly defended the government’s vaccination plan and criticized the judge for questioning the safety of vaccines.
Alvaro Delgado, the secretary of the presidency, said the halt is a threat to public health.
“We’re convinced that it’s crazy to suspend voluntary vaccination because it has a strong scientific backing,” Delgado said at a news conference.
Vaccinations for those older than 13 will continue, the Health Ministry said in a statement.
The government plans to appeal the decision, according to ABC News.
As The Defender reported Wednesday, judge Recarey of the Administrative Litigation Tribunal used his inquisitorial powers to demand the Uruguayan Ministry of Public Health, State Health Services Administration and the President’s Office submit all information regarding the contracts for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines, including contractual information related to any clauses of civil indemnity or criminal impunity of the suppliers in the event of adverse effects.
The judge is seeking, among other things, to know whether there are clauses in the contracts that promised pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer civil and criminal immunity for adverse effects caused by their vaccines.
Judge Recarey posed a series of questions to government officials and Pfizer regarding the chemical composition, efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines, and required Pfizer to state whether it has “admitted, in any area, internal or external to it and its partners, the verification of adverse effects” of its COVID-19 vaccines in children.
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Ontario stops showing COVID by vaccine status
By Mike Campbel | The Counter Signal | July 8, 2022
After months of off-brand COVID stats, Ontario’s official reporting database has stopped showing cases and hospitalizations based on vaccine status.
Now, why would they do that?
Well, the reason given is to prevent false impressions that the vaccine isn’t working:
“This data set reported the total number of patients in hospital by vaccination status without taking into consideration the number of people in Ontario who are vaccinated overall. Comparing groups using count data (such as the number of patients) is appropriate when the groups being compared are about the same size (i.e. around mid-2021). However, now that approximately 87% of eligible Ontarians are fully vaccinated (compared to 3% partially vaccinated and 10% unvaccinated) This comparison is no longer appropriate and may be misleading.”
In other words, they’re hiding behind the “base rate fallacy,” which occurs when categories with different population sizes are compared. For example, if there are 10x as many Americans as Canadians, comparing deaths needs to be done per 100,000 people to show a rate rather than the base numbers, wherein American death totals will be higher because of their larger population alone.
However, this reason for pulling the data appears to be a cop-out and is misleading.
At The Counter Signal, we’ve reported that the rates themselves have become unfavourable and disproportional for the vaccinated categories.
In Ontario, by April 5, those who had not received two doses of the COVID vaccine have a COVID death rate of 0.02 per capita, as did the fully vaccinated. However, those who had received booster shots had a COVID death rate of 0.03 per capita.
Additionally, those with a booster dose were also more likely to be infected with COVID-19 than any other group. Those with booster doses had 22.35 cases per capita, fully vaccinated had 15.47 cases per capita, and partially vaccinated or unvaccinated had 12.75 cases per capita.
As for Canada more broadly, during the week of April 10-17, 222 fully vaccinated individuals died from COVID compared to only one unvaccinated person (among the eligible population). 99% of COVID deaths were in vaccinated persons that week, a higher percentage than the 85-90% of eligible Canadians who’d been fully vaccinated.
That’s beyond base rate fallacy.
Moreover, between May 8 to 22 in Canada, the vaccinated with at least one booster population accounted for 82 per cent of new COVID deaths — despite making up only 48.6 per cent of the population.
The following two weeks were similar.
Between May 22 and June 5, the unvaccinated population in Canada (at 5+ years old) made up 10.7% of the eligible population in Canada yet only accounted for 8% of COVID deaths.
It appears we’ve gone from trusting the science to hiding it.
UK’s Online Safety Bill Shields Mainstream Media & Axes Alternative News Under Guise of Press Freedom
By Ekaterina Blunova – Samizdat – July 8, 2022
The British government has tabled an amendment to the Online Safety Bill seeking to prevent social media giants from taking down mainstream news without an appeal process. While London is declaring this to be a further boost to journalism protections, this new safety net is not meant to be applied on alternative media sources.
“Social media is now the main source of information about the world for 16-24-year-olds, and for all ethnic minorities in the UK,” explained Ellis Cashmore, honorary professor of sociology at Aston University in the UK.
“Yet platform moderators have practically unrestricted power to edit, and, if they wish, remove content. This is an unheard-of censorial power. I can’t think that, in history, proprietors have ever had such colossal power to control the flow and content of information, not just to one population, but to the world.”
The Online Safety Bill was first introduced in the British Parliament in March 2022 with the aim of holding social media platforms, search engines and various websites to account for hosting illegal activities or spreading harmful content.
The newly introduced amendment is “designed to guard against the arbitrary removal of articles from journalists at recognized news outlets when shared on social media platforms,” according to the UK government’s website. The authors of the amendment draw attention to the fact that half of British adults use social media for news, with Facebook*, Twitter and Instagram* being the most popular platforms. When it comes to 16-24 year-olds, the internet is the most-used platform.
Once the bill comes into force, social media giants would be required “to ensure recognized news publishers’ articles remain viewable and accessible on their sites even if they are under review by moderators.”
The introduction of the new amendment can be explained by the fact that the tech giants have proved themselves impossible to control, the professor explained.
“Tech companies operate in a relatively unrestricted way and governments around the world usually rely on the companies’ goodwill,” he said.
Still, the new amendment is focused on so-called “category one companies”, which include “the largest and most popular social media platforms”, and is not designed to shield alternative media sources.
The bill’s selective approach has been manifested by its earlier amendment obligating social media platforms “to proactively look for and remove disinformation from foreign state actors which harm the UK.” It specifically singles out Russian news, with an obvious reference to Sputnik News and RT – both presently banned by the EU and social media giants after the beginning of the Russian special operation to de-militarize and de-Nazify Ukraine.
“Freedom of speech and expression are highly valued principles in western Europe and North America,” says Cashmore. “But it is interesting that, after the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, there were no protests at the decisions of western governments to prohibit broadcasts and news supplies from RT, Sputnik and maybe a few less important news outlets.”
The professor notes that wiping Russian news from the media sphere is senseless given that many westerners are interested in learning Russian perspectives. “This does not mean they would be persuaded or even influenced, but they feel entitled to make up their own minds independently. They have been denied that facility,” Cashmore stressed.
“Since February, Russia, its people and its values have been condemned, denounced and stigmatized,” said the professor. “Vladimir Putin has been personally vilified. It is difficult to see this ending, at least not for 30 years. Russia has been excluded from many world affairs and many believe Russia and the other BRICS countries may coalesce into an international configuration to rival NATO. This would become a new world order.”
Meanwhile, the bill’s amendments have raised concerns among British campaigners who are warning the government that in its current form the proposed internet safety laws are “on the verge of being unworkable,” according to The Independent.
In particular, campaigners have advocated for a number of measures to strengthen freedom of expression and rights safeguards to better protect people from marginalized backgrounds and expand transparency requirements on firms to boost access to data for researchers and academics.
*Facebook and Instagram are banned in Russia over extremist activities.
‘What’s happening to Dutch farmers, Trudeau is doing to Canadians’
By Thomas Lambert | The Counter Signal | July 8, 2022
Alberta MLA and former Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen is concerned that what’s happening to Dutch farmers is being done to Canadian farmers by PM Justin Trudeau.
“What’s happening to Dutch farmers, Trudeau is doing here to Canadians,” Dreeshen told The Counter Signal.
“There’s no magic to grow more food with less fertilizer. Trudeau keeps making things more expensive for people that grow our food, but then he acts shocked when people can’t afford to buy groceries. It’s him.”
To this point, recent data from Farm Credit Canada shows that nitrogen fertilizer prices have increased by 148% between the 2020-21 and 2022-23 fiscal years, rising from $550 per tonne to $1,365 per tonne.
This is partly due to the war in Ukraine and sanctions imposed on Russia, but also the Canadian government’s damaging policies.
In December 2020, the Trudeau government unveiled their new climate plan, with a focus on reducing nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizer by 30% below 2020 levels by 2030.
“Fertilizers play a major role in the agriculture sector’s success and have contributed to record harvests in the last decade. They have helped drive increases in Canadian crop yields, grain sales, and exports,” a news release from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada reads.
“However, nitrous oxide emissions, particularly those associated with synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use have also grown significantly. That is why the Government of Canada has set the national fertilizer emissions reduction target, which is part of the commitment to reduce total GHG emissions in Canada by 40-45% by 2030…”
This is a tacit admission that any attempt to lower admissions by reducing nitrogen fertilizer will consequently lower crop yields over the next decade.
And indeed, according to a report from Fertilizer Canada:
“Total Emission Reduction puts a cap on the total emissions allowable from fertilizer at 30% below 2020 levels. As the yield of Canadian crops is directly linked to proper fertilizer application this creates a ceiling on Canadian agricultural productivity well below 2020 levels.”
“… It is estimated that a 30% absolute emission reduction for an a farmer with 1000 acres of canola and 1000 acres of wheat, stands to have their profit reduced by approximately $38,000 – $40,500/ annually. In 2020, Western Canadian farmers planted approximately 20.8 million acres of canola. Using these values, cumulatively farm revenues from canola could be reduced by $396M – $441M on an annual basis. Wheat famers could experience a reduction of $400M.”
Moreover, Fertilizer Canada doesn’t believe that forcibly decreasing fertilizer use will even lower greenhouse gases but could lead to carbon leakage in other jurisdictions.
Nonetheless, Trudeau’s government is moving forward, with farmer’s groups speaking to Farmers Forum now wondering if he’s intentionally trying to cause a food shortage — which Trudeau previously told Canadians to prepare for.
OPEC keeps refusing G7 requests to increase oil production as ‘Russian oil cap’ reverie falls apart
By Drago Bosnic | July 8, 2022
One of the two central topics of the most recent G7 summit was limiting Russia’s oil sale profits. The initial suggestion of capping the price to just above the production costs hit a little snag when reality kicked in and it turned out to be impossible without, ironically, pushing the oil prices exponentially higher, despite the fact that current prices have already pushed economies to a breaking point. In order to tackle the “unexpected” issue, Japan gave a “more reasonable” suggestion to “only cut Russian oil prices in half”. Naturally, Moscow took neither of the suggestions too kindly. Deputy head of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev warned that Japan’s proposal would lead to a significantly lower supply of oil on the market, which could push the price to around $300-400 per barrel or higher.
“Japan will have neither oil nor gas from Russia, nor will it be able to continue participation in the Sakhalin-2 LNG (liquefied natural gas) project,” Medvedev commented on reports about the proposal presented by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The other central topic was yet another request by the political West for OPEC+ countries to increase oil production. And once again, OPEC+ refused, insisting that Russia’s oil production share cannot be replaced. The association of 23 oil-producing countries keeps insisting on its earlier decision to collectively increase daily production by 648,000 barrels in July and August, but nothing more than that. Worse yet, how OPEC+ will fulfill even that remains to be seen after recent reports that some members are struggling to meet even their own internal demand, as OPEC’s leading countries are already at maximum production capacity. French President Macron himself revealed to his G7 partners that in a conversation with top Saudi and UAE representatives he was told that Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are already producing oil “almost at maximum capacity”.
Faced with the first signs of coming oil shortages at the peak of the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere, the political West could not figure out where to expect an increased inflow of oil during July and August. If the sanctions on Russia, the world’s key oil exporter, are kept or, worse yet, intensified, where could the “requested barrels” come from? The lifting of sanctions against Venezuela and Iran isn’t just “problematic” for the political West, but it’s also questionable whether they are able (or willing) to increase production. In addition, any production increase by US shale oil companies seems equally unlikely this summer.
Non-OPEC oil producers such as Brazil and Canada cannot hope to make up for the deficit of Russian oil. The political West is now sending conflicting economic signals as it’s faced with the very real possibility of a recession, which would inevitably result in a drop in demand. The prospect of this is discouraging the OPEC+ to increase production, as it could leave them with excess oil. To make matters for Western stock markets even worse, OPEC+ did not give any statements on its intentions regarding further production from September 1, when the current agreement on the gradual increase in production is set to expire.
The oil price in the US is already moving towards the “astronomical” six dollars per gallon, which will almost certainly lead America into another recession, according to the Wall Street Journal’s estimate. US President Joe Biden recently pointed out that “Washington DC has no way to quickly stop the rise in the prices of gas and food in the United States at this time”. The US is even considering measures in case oil soon reaches the price of $200 per barrel. It is in this atmosphere of uncertainty on a global level that the political West is trying to limit Russian oil revenues, obviously without considering the simple fact that Russia could just cut its oil supplies to anyone trying to impose this illegal price cap, which would make the $200 per barrel prediction “incredibly optimistic”, as oil prices could be pushed to more than double of that.
Additionally, there’s a looming uncertainty over Russian natural gas deliveries to the European Union, particularly Germany, which is now effectively begging Canada to return the Nord Stream turbines it has seized. The German industry, by far the largest and most important in the EU, is struggling to make any plans for the foreseeable future as natural gas deliveries, its lifeblood, hang in the balance. There are even warnings of a complete industrial collapse in Germany if this issue is not tackled as soon as possible, to say nothing of the natural gas demand for heating and energy production, which is now under tremendous pressure to meet even basic demand.
Despite all this, the political West keeps fantasizing about the Russian oil price cap. Although we’re still powering through an extremely hot summer, we are only several months away from winter. Maybe the political West can try capping the temperature and prevent it from falling below the freezing level. After all, their chances of doing that are much higher than capping Russian oil prices.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.
Ukraine seeks to block return of gas turbine to Russia
Samizdat – July 8, 2022
The Ukrainian government is pressuring Canada not to return a gas turbine to Russia that could boost the supply of Russian fuel to Germany, Reuters and a Ukrainian news site have reported. Kiev argues the precedent would erode anti-Russia sanctions.
Previously, Russian gas monopoly Gazprom reduced the flow through the Nord Stream pipeline to 40% of capacity, claiming that Germany failed to return a Siemens gas turbine from maintenance in Canada. The crucial piece of equipment had become stuck due to Ottawa’s sanctions against Russia.
According to sources in the Ukrainian government cited on Thursday and on Friday by Reuters and the Ukrainian news website Evropeyskaya Pravda, Kiev was informed that Canada had decided to return the turbine. Officials in Ukraine argued that it was a bad move.
“If, God forbid, this decision is approved, we will undoubtedly appeal to our European colleagues that their approach must be reassessed,” a source in Ukraine’s Energy Ministry was quoted as saying by Reuters. “Because, if countries do not follow decisions they have agreed about sanctions, how can we talk about solidarity?”
Both outlets said Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko had lobbied Canada not to return the turbine, claiming that Russia could ramp up gas supplies to Germany. The Ukrainian newspaper said the minister had sent a two-page letter to his Canadian counterpart, Jonathan Wilkinson, on June 22, in which he explained that more Russian gas could be pumped through Ukraine.
Kiev is concerned that by bowing down to what it considers Russian energy blackmail, Canada would set a bad precedent for the Western sanctions regime.
Germany activated the second phase of its gas emergency plan after Russia reduced supplies through Nord Stream. Berlin reportedly asked Ottawa to return the turbine before 10 days of scheduled maintenance starts on the pipeline next week.
West is ‘artificially’ blocking Russian grain exports – Lavrov
Samizdat | July 8, 2022
Western countries are contributing to the global food crisis by hindering Russian grain exports, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
The minister referred to the issue of Ukrainian grain being unable to leave the country’s ports due to the military conflict in the region, and to subsequent concerns over global food security, when speaking at the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Indonesia.
“Statistics clearly show that the grain locked in Ukrainian ports represents less than one percent of world production, so it has no real impact on food security. All that is required is for the West to stop artificially blocking our supplies to those countries that have ordered our grain,” Lavrov said, as quoted by the TASS news agency.
Russia, with Turkey’s help, is ready to ensure the safe passage of convoys to the Mediterranean Sea and then to buyers’ markets, Lavrov said, adding that some Western countries seek to complicate the process.
“The problem is that our Western colleagues are eager to create an international monitoring mechanism for this process, with the participation of NATO forces. We understand their intention very well,” he explained.
Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, is expecting to harvest a record amount of grain this year. The country said earlier this week that it has started selling its grain to “friendly” nations, for rubles.
The global grain market has been badly affected by the disruption of exports from Russia, Ukraine and other major wheat producers, such as India and Kazakhstan. The latter two have banned wheat exports to ensure food security at home. The developments have led to a spike in grain prices and warnings of a global food crisis.
Anthony Fauci on day 26 of his Paxlovid- and vaccine-enhanced Corona experience
Says that he is “Close to if not at 100% the way I was before infection”
eugyppius – July 8, 2022
Despite not only following, but embodying, The Science, global vaccinator-in-chief Anthony Fauci caught Corona while attending his high school reunion on 11 June. While most Omicron infections resolve within a week, the quadruple-vaccinated NIAID director and blight upon human civilisation suffered Paxlovid rebound at the end of June and is now approaching a month of infection.
Yesterday, he ended his radio silence to give some press interviews:
I believe I’m about close to if not at 100% the way I was before infection. So I’m really fortunate that I’ve done very well. And I keep telling people when they ask me that, is that I was vaccinated, and doubly boosted, and I believe if I did not have that degree of background protection I would’ve had a much more serious course. My course was relatively light minor symptoms, and right now I’m completely without symptoms and I feel very good, very energetic.
Nonzero chance he rebounds again.