Lockdowns: the evidence revisited
Professor Marilyn James, Professor of Health Economics, Professor David Paton, Professor of Industrial Economics | Health Advisory & Recovery Team | June 10, 2022
“It is possible that lockdown will go down as one of the greatest peacetime policy failures in modern history” – Professor Douglas Allen[1]
In March 2021, we wrote two sections in ‘Covid-19 the evidence’, namely ‘Economic impacts – the true cost of lockdown’ and ‘Lockdowns – do they work?’. Over a year later, we have revisited not only the financial costs of lockdowns but also the societal costs, the impact on healthcare and the lack of evidence for overall benefit.
Assessing the economic costs of lockdowns and other Covid-19 restrictions is not easy, partly because the pandemic itself would have impacted economic activity independent of Government restrictions. However, we do now have considerable evidence that both voluntary behaviour change and government restrictions have significant economic effects.[2],[3] Further, voluntary changes tend to have most impact on the activity of groups most vulnerable to Covid, whilst Government restrictions have a disproportionate effect on those least vulnerable. This means that not only do most mandatory restrictions have a significant economic impact, but any benefits in terms of reductions in hospitalisations or deaths are minimal.[4]
Many of the immediate economic consequences of lockdowns were masked by the eye-watering amount of money spent by governments on furlough and business support schemes. Given the limited evidence that stay-at home measures and business closures have any significant impact on infection rates[5], the question needs to be asked whether the billions spent paying business to shut down and people not to work could have been used better by building up capacity in the health system. The stay at home message of “protect the NHS” may have been no more than elaborate code for don’t highlight years of dwindling funding that failed to keep pace with growing population and demand in health care, with the NHS entering the pandemic with spending per GDP at the lowest level since 2009.[6]
Although furlough and business support schemes have had success in limiting the impact on unemployment, the longer-term economic consequences of lockdowns are now becoming clear. The lack of spending opportunities during lockdown contributes to a build-up of personal and corporate savings. As restrictions have eased, people begin to spend these savings and, combined with the supply chain issues that have built up in the meantime, sustained inflation is the inevitable result. Even worse, having spent about £70 billion[7] paying healthy people not to work via the furlough scheme and some £150 billion in total on support measures[8], the ability of the government to respond to this lockdown-induced cost-of-living crisis via either tax cuts or increased benefits, is limited due to the hit to public finances caused by lockdown-induced government spending.
It is perhaps no surprise that a series of research papers looking at data from Australia[9], the UK[10], Canada[11] and the US[12], have concluded that the costs of lockdowns exceed any plausible estimate of the benefits many times over.
The pandemic saw one disease prioritised over all others. It is now painfully clear that the “all others” are set to suffer with longer and larger health consequences than those of the covid-19 crisis itself. The report issued by the BMA is terrifying in every sense.[13] At the start of the pandemic 4.24m were waiting for elective treatment this now stands at 6.18m. Ridsdale makes the point “stay home” may well have contributed to excess deaths as people died at home without access to care and government policy prioritised covid above all other health concerns[14]. This figure of 6.18m masks and continues to mask the lack of referrals that occurred. There is no reason to suppose demand has dropped for elective care, yet, since the pandemic there have been 4.51 m fewer elective referrals. The latest figures show some 300,000 are waiting over a year for treatment. Again, this figure is masked by GPs under referring, reporting their ability to make referrals is severely constrained, yet the patients are still sitting at primary care level needing care. If the elective surgical figure continues to remain well below pre pandemic levels, NHS waiting lists will only continue to rise. Add to this routinely soaring long waits of over 12 hours at emergency department level and the gap between target time for cancer surgery and actual time to getting surgery increasing, the health picture created by covid prioritisation in the UK is frightening.
Lockdowns created isolation from our social and working worlds. The latest report from MIND states “Isolation and loneliness have made people’s mental health worse – with young people particularly badly affected.”[15] Similar can be said for older people especially those in care homes. The unintended consequences of removing activity, family and social interaction from the elderly may be more serious than the direct disease consequences of covid, with isolation being listed as cause of death in a number of care homes in the USA.[16]
Given what we now know, it is hard to disagree with the conclusion of Professor Doug Allen’s analysis of lockdown costs and benefits in Canada that “lockdown will go down as one of the greatest peacetime policy failures in modern history.” 1
References
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13571516.2021.1976051
- www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272720301754?dgcid=rss_sd_all
- https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/doi/10.1162/rest_a_01108/107399/Do-Stay-at-Home-Orders-Cause-People-to-Stay-at
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42973-021-00077-9
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eci.13484
- https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/charts-and-infographics/health-spending-as-a-share-of-gdp-remains-at-lowest-level-in
- Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme: statistics – House of Commons Library (parliament.uk)
- https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9309/#:~:text=Current%20estimates%20of%20the%20cost,per%20person%20in%20the%20UK
- https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40592-021-00148-y.pdf
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/national-institute-economic-review/volume/87652BB968C8244B2E478DAA353C7DF9
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13571516.2021.1976051
- https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2022/01/A-Literature-Review-and-Meta-Analysis-of-the-Effects-of-Lockdowns-on-COVID-19-Mortality.pdf
- https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/pressures/nhs-backlog-data-analysis
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3515
- https://www.mind.org.uk/media/8962/the-consequences-of-coronavirus-for-mental-health-final-report.pdf
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hidden-covid-19-health-crisis-elderly-people-are-dying-isolation-n1244853
US policies led to ‘new G8’ – Moscow
Samizdat | June 11, 2022
The United States “with its own hands” pushed the countries, which are not participating in “sanctions wars,” to form a “new Big Eight” group with Russia, the Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Saturday.
Following the launch of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine in late February, the US, EU, UK and many other countries imposed hard-hitting restrictions on Moscow, making Russia the most sanctioned country in the world.
In a Telegram post, Volodin included a table with IMF data on GDP based on purchasing power parity of countries he calls the “new G8” and of countries forming the current G7 (after Russia’s participation in the bloc was suspended over Crimea’s vote to join the country in 2014, the G8 effectively turned into the G7).
“The group of eight countries not participating in the sanctions wars – China, India, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Iran, Turkey – in terms of GDP at PPP is 24.4% ahead of the old group,” Volodin wrote.
In his opinion, the economies of the G7 members – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada – continue “to crack under the weight of sanctions imposed against Russia.”
“The rupture of existing economic relations by Washington and its allies has led to the formation of new points of growth in the world,” Volodin claimed.
While having serious economic difficulties, the US, according to the Duma speaker, continues “doing everything to solve their problems at the expense of others.” Creating tensions will “inevitably” lead the US to lose its world domination, Volodin stressed.
“The United States created the conditions with its own hands for countries wishing to build an equal dialogue and mutually beneficial relations to actually form a ‘new Big Eight’ together with Russia,” he said.
Meanwhile, on Friday, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Eric Woodhouse said that Washington and its allies had realized that they would get “spillovers” of anti-Russia sanctions into their own economies. Their determination in imposing sanctions on Moscow, he claimed, has demonstrated a willingness to “accept those costs.”
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted on the same day that the anti-Russia sanctions have made a “huge difference to food and energy prices,” amid record-setting inflation. The remarks followed the statement by the Russian President Vladimir Putin who said that “many years of mistakes made by Western nations” in their economic and sanctions policies have caused “a global wave of inflation, disruption of established logistical and manufacturing chains, a surge in poverty and a deficit of food.”
Arctic Council Decisions Made Without Russia to Be Illegitimate – Ambassador to US Antonov
Samizdat – 09.06.2022
WASHINGTON – Russia is concerned about plans to resume the work of the Arctic Council without its participation and warns that decisions made in this format will be illegitimate, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said.
Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the United States earlier announced their intention to resume work in the Council on a limited basis – within the framework of projects that do not involve Russia.
“Such a step cannot but cause concern not only for Russia as the current chairman of the Council, but also for the entire international community interested in the further sustainable development of this region. We state that this unique format of interstate interaction continues to be politicized,” Antonov said.
“Decisions on behalf of the Arctic Council, made without our country, will be illegitimate and violate the principle of consensus stipulated by its governing documents,” he warned.
The work of the Council was suspended on March 3 in light of the events in Ukraine.
Trudeau denounced by foreign senator for locking up unvaccinated Irish citizen
By Thomas Lambert | The Counter Signal | June 8, 2022
Trudeau is making international headlines again after Irish Senator Sharon Keogan denounced Trudeau for freezing Canadians’ assets and preventing an Irish citizen from leaving the country due to their vaccination status.
During a debate in May over COVID programs, Senator Keogan used Trudeau and his government as a specific example of what happens when a government abuses its power over the people.
“Recent global events have given rise to concern over State control of private finances. The extrajudicial freezing of assets and transactions by the Canadian government of individuals deemed associated with anti-government protests provides a chilling case study in the abuse of centralized power,” Keogan said.
She then asked the Irish finance minister what protections the country needs to protect citizens’ privacy so that Ireland doesn’t become an authoritarian state like Canada.
In a separate instance, Keogan read out a letter of an unvaccinated Irish citizen who was prevented from leaving Canada by Trudeau’s government — even though he had an exemption.
The letter states, “I cannot board a plane in Canada to fly to Ireland because I’m not vaccinated. The government of Canada has set a mandate that states that no unvaccinated person shall board a plane, train, or [sic], whether to travel domestically or internationally.”
“I believe it is the only country in the Western world that has imposed this sanction of the unvaccinated population.
Indeed, not only are other Western countries not persecuting the unvaccinated, but most have also dropped every single COVID-related restriction and travel requirement for both citizens and foreigners alike. Meanwhile, Trudeau is doubling down.
Responding to the letter, Keogan demanded the “immediate intervention by the Minister for Foreign Affairs” to stop Trudeau’s persecution of an innocent Irish citizen.
“These are our citizens who are locked up in another country and who cannot travel back to their own native homes. This requires immediate intervention by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney,” Keogan said.
Global Aviation Union waves red flag on pilots’ vaccine injuries
By Mike Campbell | The Counter Signal | June 3, 2022
The Global Aviation Advocacy Coalition (GAAC) has called for an end to vaccine mandates for pilots worldwide due to a disturbing number of them having vaccine injuries, of which some resulted in death.
“The undersigned pilot advocacy groups, scientists and doctors are hearing daily from vaccine-injured airline pilots. These harms include cardiovascular issues, blood clots, neurological and auditory issues, to name just a few,” their statement reads.
“While not an exhaustive list, the airlines below have pilots on staff who are vaccine injured and with whom our pilot advocacy groups are in contact:
-
- Jetstar Australia
- Qantas Australia
- Virgin Australia Australia
- Air Canada Canada
- Air Transat Canada
- WestJet Canada
- Air France France
- EasyJet France
- HOP France
- Lufthansa Germany
- TUI Netherlands
- KLM Netherlands
- American USA
- Delta USA
- JetBlue USA
- Southwest USA
- United USA
- Frontier USA
- Alaska USA
- Spirit USA”
If you are wondering about why airlines are facing massive cancellations due to staffing problems this explains it all.
GAAC further calls out federal aviation regulators – such as Transport Canada – for failing to live up to aviation safety standards.
“Many pilots also sought guidance from civil aviation regulators. These regulators are ultimately responsible for the safe and secure transport of citizens, yet most, if not all, actively ignored their own safety recommendations against unproven, unapproved drug use or medical trials for flight crews. Transport Canada, for instance, simply removed this online guidance the week following numerous pointed, written questions on the same.” [Emphasis added]
Additionally, GAAC claims the staffing shortages are directly related to the vaccine mandates. Some pilots viewed the experimental vaccine as too risky, their statement says, so they were forced into unpaid leave as a result. Others, they claim, submitted to the coercive mandates to feed their families, causing mental health problems, as well as injuring and even killing some of them.
“Now, the global aviation industry is heading into a dire staffing shortage.”
GAAC calls for an end to all vaccine mandates for pilots (where they remain); enhanced medical screenings of pilots and cabin crews to account for the increase in injuries; and hiring third-party regulators to analyze data on said injuries and determine if vaccination was the cause.
Despite this call, Canadian Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra recently voted against ending the federal vaccine mandates, just as Canadian airline Westjet’s CEO, Alexis von Hoensbroech, spoke out against the mandates.
Canada remains one of the last countries to keep their federal vaccine mandates in place. And it doesn’t look like that will change any time soon. Indeed, earlier this week, Trudeau said that vaccine mandates must stay to protect against future variants that do not even exist.
Trudeau predicts new variants, says mandates must stay
The Counter Signal | June 2, 2022
While countries around the world continue to drop their COVID mandates, Trudeau says Canada’s are here to stay due to the risk from new variants that don’t even exist yet.
“The reality is, as much as people would like to pretend that we’re not, we’re still in a pandemic,” he said.
“There are Canadians who die every single day because of COVID-19 in our hospitals.”
Trudeau adds that vaccine mandates are needed to protect against variants that do not (yet) exist.
“We are still at risk, particularly at risk, as Fall approaches, of new variants.”
“. . . What will also further damage our tourism industry is if we get another wave. If we get more serious impacts from COVID.”
This announcement comes a day after Canadian airline Westjet’s CEO, Alexis von Hoensbroech, spoke out against the mandates.
“As vaccines are not preventing the spreading of the virus since Omicron, there is no more logic to maintain it,” he said.
Indeed, most countries dropped their COVID mandates weeks, if not months ago. The latest country to do so was Italy.
Additionally, even big Pharma and Bill Gates have acknowledged the futility of the current vaccines and their mandates.
In January, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla admitted that two doses of the vaccine “Offer very limited protection if any.” He further claimed his team was working on a new vaccine, “Version 1.1,” to effectively tackle the Omricron variant. However, to date, nothing has been produced.
And last week at the WEF conference in DAVOS, Gates admitted the vaccine wears off fast and doesn’t block transmission.
Earlier this week, Liberals, NDP, and Bloq Quebecois members of Parliament rejected a motion to lift the travel restrictions that conservative members had put to a vote.
The next day, the Trudeau government extended the current requirements until at least June 30.
But, given that future variants are always possible, Trudeauian logic implies there’s no end in sight.
They’ve officially forbidden the practice of medicine in Ontario, Canada
By Steve Kirsch | June 1, 2022
Executive Summary
They are adopting authoritarian medicine in Ontario, Canada by requiring physicians to either follow authoritarian guidelines which are not science based, or have their license to practice medicine revoked.
If you live in Canada, please contact the members of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of OntarioCollege of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and let them know what you think of their actions.
If you live in California, which is about to go the same way, please donate NOW to the campaigns of Michael Huang and Brian Tyson.
Introduction
Dr. Ira Bernstein who practices medicine in Ontario, Canada is about to have his license to practice medicine revoked soon. Currently he is required by the authorities to operate under the following restrictions:
- Dr. Bernstein will not provide medical exemptions in relation to vaccines for COVID-19;
- Dr. Bernstein will not provide medical exemptions in relation to mask requirements for COVID-19;
- Dr. Bernstein will not provide medical exemptions in relation to diagnostic testing for COVID-19; and
- Dr. Bernstein will not prescribe ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine.
Furthermore, Dr. Bernstein is now required to post a sign in his waiting room that says this:
Dr. Bernstein must not provide medical exemptions in relation to vaccines, mask requirements or diagnostic testing for COVID-19. Dr. Bernstein must not prescribe ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine. Further information may be found on the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario website at www.cpso.on.ca
What was his crime?
None of his patients complained. None of his patients were hospitalized or died from COVID. Nobody was harmed.
What was his crime? He didn’t toe the line and treat COVID patients like the College thinks they should be treated.
The message to physicians in Canada is clear: you either treat COVID patients using methods approved by the medical authorities or they’ll take away your livelihood for the rest of your life.
If this type of authoritarian medicine can happen in Canada, it can happen everywhere else in the world. No Canadian physicians are coming to Dr. Bernstein’s defense publicly because doing so would jeopardize their license.
Who is behind this? The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. They are listed here. I’m sure they are all proud of their actions because the President wrote this (emphasis mine):
The CPSO is here to help support physicians, and in doing so, fulfill our mandate to serve the public trust in Ontario’s health care. I am proud of the CPSO’s clear messaging to its membership regarding vaccine and mask exemptions. Our role is to protect the public and that includes protection from misinformation and risk of ignoring public health policies.
These people are incompetent. Their recommendations are based on politics, not science. They are the ones that should have their licenses revoked.
For example, they think masks work even though masks have never worked to slow or stop any virus in history and the best controlled large-scale study (in Finland) showed that wearing masks resulted in higher infection rates (as UCSF Professor Vinay Prasad pointed out). That’s what the best science says.
In Ontario, a doctor faces NO professional discipline for giving hundreds of children under 5, some as young as 6 months old, the COVID jab. No matter how many die, they will not be sanctioned.
I’ve reached out to the College to see if any members will appear on our weekly VSRF calls. Don’t hold your breath on that one.
Welcome to the new world of authoritarian medicine!
California is going to be implementing similar policies. Your state is next.
We’re basically on our way to implementing the same thing in California. Check out this article:
I received this message:
I hate to tell you but there is already a bill in the California legislature that is proposing just that: either a doctor does as he/she is told or his/her license could be revoked and/or disciplinary action could be taken. My father who was a practicing physician and surgeon for the better part of 40 years told me when I worked for him told me that the insurance industry would capture the medical industry within 25 years after the institution of Medicare. That was in 1975. That has now taken place. If the proposed California legislation goes through, we can kiss traditional medicine and the conscientious practice of medicine by unfettered medical practitioners goodbye. We have to oppose the legislation in California or it will spread like wildfire throughout this country and, yes, the US will be just like Canada.
And this message:
The same criminal and idiotic medical regulations are in place in Australia, and have been since the start of the Covid 19 “pandemic”. The Canadians must be singing from the same song-sheet as AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Authority). I wonder who wrote the lyrics?
It’s important to memorialize statements like this in the public record to show that there were millions of critical thinkers who were being ignored.
What you can do
If you live in Ontario, Canada, you can reach out and contact the members of the College and let them know what you think of their actions. Please don’t just sit back and let this happen.
If you live in California, please make a generous contribution to red-pilled doctors running for public office such as Michael Huang and Brian Tyson.
Please donate immediately as these doctors could really use the funds and the election is days away. It is now or never. Thank you.
Liberals vote to keep travel ban against unvaccinated Canadians
The Counter Signal | May 30, 2022
Members of parliament today voted 202-117 to keep the current travel ban against unvaccinated Canadians in place.
The Conservatives proposed the motion to have the current travel ban against the unvaccinated lifted.
Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh, and Travel Minister Omar Alghabra voted against the motion, as did virtually every Liberal, NDP, and Bloq Quebecois member.
Conservatives all voted to lift the ban.
“Today, the NDP-Liberal government voted against our common-sense motion that would have returned to pre-pandemic rules and service levels for travel and helped end the delays we’re seeing at airports across the country,” their Conservative’s website reads.
“As Canadian travellers are being subject to extreme delays, line-ups, bottlenecks, and missed connections because of unnecessary protocols, our allies across the world, including the European Union and the United States, have loosened rules for passengers on flights and in airports.”
“. . . Airports have directly cited the Liberals’ policies as the reason for these delays . . .”
“After two long years of the pandemic, Canadians are finally looking to return to normalcy and begin travelling again. Unfortunately, the NDP-Liberal government continues to cling to outdated and unnecessary protocols that are exacerbating delays.”
Conservative members of parliament proposed the motion on May 17. However, Charter rights – such as freedom of movement – were not leveraged to justify their call to drop restrictions.
Instead, “unacceptable wait times” at the airport (for those who are allowed to travel), labour shortages, and economic losses caused by the restrictions were cited.
However, the motion also mentioned that the restrictions were ineffective and that international allies have all dropped their restrictions.
Indeed, Canada remains one of the only countries to have a ban on unvaccinated citizens from leaving their own country, and the efficacy of the restrictions appears questionable at best.
The Trudeau Liberal government was expected to renew the federal vaccine policy eight weeks ago but has still not announced anything.
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.
World Bank to receive $450 million to start pandemic preparedness fund
The Counter Signal | May 17, 2022
Joe Biden announced that the US would give the World Bank $450 million to start a pandemic preparedness fund, which will be run in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO).
“We’re increasing our support for [a] new pandemic preparedness and global health security fund that will be established at the World Bank this summer with $450 million in seed funding,” Joe Biden announced at the second Global COVID Summit.
Vice President Kamala Harris also said that the US would work to “shape new international norms” on pandemic-related issues.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom confirmed this and continued, reminding others in attendance that the WHO is still drafting its pandemic treaty.
“At the World Health Assembly this month, WHO will present a plan to strengthen the global architecture for health emergency preparedness response and resilience,” said Tedros Adhanom. “This includes the creation of a financial intermediary fund to support equitable access to life-saving tools in the face of future epidemics and pandemics.”
During the COVID Summit, other world leaders confirmed that they’re in favour of strengthening the WHO after reiterating that “the pandemic is not over” — even though it clearly is.
PM Justin Trudeau also announced that he would waste $732 million in Canadian taxpayers’ money on the Access to COVID-19 Tools-Accelerator (ACT-A).
“We must continue to work together and support the international response to end this pandemic everywhere and for everyone,” Trudeau began.
“Today, I am announcing new and meaningful funding for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), bringing Canada’s total contribution to more than $2 billion since the start of the pandemic. Canada is contributing to the international pandemic response and will continue to work with partners to ensure that that we strengthen our collective ability to prevent, prepare and respond to disease outbreaks going forward.”
WHO pandemic treaty: A fresh push for vaccine passports, global surveillance, and more
By Tom Parker | Reclaim The Net | May 20, 2022
Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) are days away from voting on an international pandemic treaty and amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) which would give the unelected WHO greater control of national emergency healthcare decisions and new powers to push vaccine passports, global surveillance, and “global coordinated actions” that address “misinformation” whenever it declares a “health emergency.”
From May 22 to May 28, representatives of the WHO’s 194 member states (which represent 98% of all the countries in the world) will attend a World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva and vote on this treaty and the proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR). If passed, both the treaty and amendments to the IHR will be legally binding under international law.
The international pandemic treaty
The World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the WHO, established an intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) to draft and negotiate a “global accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response” in December 2021. The WHA aims to have this treaty adopted under Article 19 of the WHO Constitution which gives the WHA the power to impose legally binding conventions or agreements on WHO member states if two-thirds of the WHA vote in favor of them.
While the WHO framed this as an international pandemic treaty, the latest draft of the treaty has since evolved to cover all “health emergencies.” Unlike the term “pandemic,” which is limited in scope and refers to the worldwide spread of infectious disease, the WHO’s definition of a “public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC) is much broader and applies to all types of disease, regardless of whether they’re infectious:
“A PHEIC is defined in the IHR (2005) as, ‘an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response.’”
The draft treaty places the “WHO at the centre” and solidifies the WHO as “the directing and coordinating authority on international health” and gives it sweeping, legally binding powers to force member states to adopt many of the censorship and surveillance tools that were imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the key areas of the draft treaty include:
International vaccine passports and contact tracing: Member states will be required to “support the development of standards for producing a digital version of the International Certificate of Vaccination and Prophylaxis” (the WHO’s official vaccine passport). The WHO will also “develop norms and standards” for “digital technology applications relevant to international travel” such as contact tracing apps and digital health forms.
Global surveillance: The WHO will conduct “coordinated global surveillance of public health threats” and member states will be required to build out their surveillance systems and work with “the WHO’s global systems for surveillance.” Non-state actors (which could include Big Tech companies) will also be required to work with governments, the WHO, and other international partners to leverage their “considerable data” to “create the strongest possible early warning and response systems.”
Addressing “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “too much information:” The draft treaty pushes “national and global coordinated actions to address the misinformation, disinformation, and stigmatization, that undermine public health.” Member states will also be required to strengthen their approaches to “infodemic management” (a term coined by the WHO that refers to “too much information including false or misleading information in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak.”) Additionally, non-state actors will be required to actors to work with governments to fight disinformation.
Funding: WHO members are set to collectively pay the WHO over $950 million in dues for 2022-2023 and already paid over $270 million in voluntary contributions for 2020-2021. And this draft treaty proposes that G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US) also pay $11 billion for the “Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A).” Additionally, it intends to create an”International Pandemic Financing Facility” that will extract long-term (10-15 year) contributions of $5-10 billion per year.
We obtained a copy of the draft treaty for you here.
If this draft treaty is approved at the May 22 to May 28 WHA meeting, the INB will hold a second meeting on August 1 to discuss progress on the draft. A progress report will then be delivered at the 76th WHA meeting in May 2023. The final treaty will then be presented for adoption at the 77th WHA meeting in May 2024.
Proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005)
On January 18, the Biden administration quietly sent the WHO its extensive proposed amendments to the IHR. The details of these proposed amendments were only made public on April 12, almost three months after they were sent.
Under the current IHR, 196 countries are legally required under international law to build the capability to detect and report potential public health emergencies worldwide and respond promptly to a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) whenever it’s declared by the WHO.
These proposed amendments from the Biden administration give the WHO and its Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, sweeping new powers to declare public health emergencies, even over the objection of member states, and implement global surveillance measures that require the mass collection of genetic sequence data.
Some of the key amendments that are being pushed by the Biden administration include:
Increased WHO powers to declare “potential” emergencies: Currently, the WHO can only declare a PHEIC when there’s an actual “public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease.” These proposed amendments allow it to declare a PHEIC when there’s a “potential or actual” PHEIC. This means there doesn’t have to be evidence of the international spread of disease, just the potential for it.
Increased WHO powers to declare health emergencies: Currently, the WHO has to follow the PHEIC criteria when declaring a public health emergency and health emergencies can only be declared by the Director-General. But under these proposed amendments, the WHO Director-General can issue an “intermediate public health alert” to any country in response to events that don’t meet the criteria of a PHEIC and a WHO “regional director” can declare a “public health emergency of regional concern” (PHERC).
Global surveillance and data sharing: The Biden administration’s proposed amendments empower the WHO to develop new “early warning criteria” for monitoring “national, regional, or global risk posed by an event of unknown causes or sources.” Additionally, these proposed amendments expand the scope of data sharing under the IHR and require members to hand over genetic sequence data to the WHO whenever they have an event that “may constitute a public health emergency of international concern.”
We obtained a copy of the proposed amendments to the IHR for you here.
If these amendments are approved at the May 22 to May 28 WHA meeting, nations have six months to reject them. After six months, they’ll enter into force and any rejection or reservation “shall have no effect.”
The WHO’s history of supporting surveillance and acting as an arbiter of truth
Not only could this treaty and the proposed amendments to the IHR empower the unelected WHO to push surveillance, vaccine passports, and global programs that target what it deems to be misinformation but this international health agency already gave the world a taste of how it exercises these powers during the COVID-19 pandemic. As COVID-19 spread, the WHO rigorously supported surveillance tech and was increasingly used as an arbiter of truth on Big Tech platforms, even though it got many things wrong.
YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, and others have partnered with the WHO to tackle misinformation or display labels with information from the WHO. YouTube even goes as far as removing videos that go against the WHO and has censored over 800,000 videos under this policy.
Despite having significant influence over how these platforms determine which posts to brand as misinformation, the WHO has got many things about COVID wrong and amplified misleading statements. For example, in an infamous January 14, 2020 tweet, the WHO stated that “preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission” of the coronavirus.
The WHO has also praised China’s response to COVID which relies heavily on digital censorship and surveillance. Only recently did the WHO break this trend and criticize China’s zero-COVID policy. And when it did, these digital censorship systems were unsurprisingly used to censor the WHO’s statements on Chinese social platforms.
Another thing that the WHO heavily supported throughout the COVID-19 pandemic was vaccine passports. It pushed for them in December 2020 and it’s still pushing for the adoption of global vaccine passports this year.
The WHO’s undemocratic global governance system
The way the WHO gains its powers gives citizens almost no recourse. Instead of the response to national emergencies in democratic nations being the sole purview of elected officials who can vote on proposed measures that apply to their citizens and be held accountable at the ballot box by those citizens, WHO members vote on legally binding international treaties and agreements on their behalf via the WHA. If two-thirds of the WHA vote to adopt a treaty or agreement, it becomes legally binding under international law.
This global governance system has the support of both parties in most democratic countries. For example, during the 2022 Australian federal election campaign, both of the leading candidates expressed full support for the WHO’s expanded powers.
And the WHO Director-General has used the COVID-19 pandemic to push countries to further embrace the WHO’s global governance system by blasting countries that made their own decisions and claiming that their “‘me-first’ approaches… stymie the global solidarity needed to deal with a global threat.”
Countries that support the WHO’s expanded powers
Many countries have expressed support for the international pandemic treaty or the proposed amendments to the IHR.
The US supports both its proposed IHR amendments and the international pandemic treaty.
The treaty also has the support of the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the European Council (EC) (which represents 27 European Union (EU) member states). According to the EC, 110 countries supported the decision to launch negotiations on the treaty. If these 110 countries vote in favor of the treaty, it would give the WHA close to the two-thirds of the majority it needs to pass the treaty.
Opposition to the WHO’s expanded powers
While there’s significant member state support for these expanded WHO powers, local politicians, citizens, and rights groups are opposing this power grab.
In the US, Congresswoman Mary Miller (R-IL), Congressman Byron Donalds (R-FL), and Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), have opposed the Biden administration’s proposed amendments to the IHR.
Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) have also opposed the Biden administration’s support of the international pandemic treaty.
In Australia, Senator Malcolm Roberts (One Nation), Senator Alex Antic (Liberal Party), and Senator Gerard Rennick have opposed the international pandemic treaty.
Several UK Members of Parliament (MPs), including the Conservative MPs Craig Mackinlay and Steve Baker, have also called for the government to provide clarity on the treaty.
UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid responded to Baker’s calls by stating that the UK government supports the treaty but “would not sign up to any instrument that compromises the UK’s sovereignty,” including “any instrument which compromises the UK’s ability to take domestic decisions on national restrictions or other measures.”
A UK Government and Parliament petition urging the government to not sign any WHO pandemic treaty unless it’s approved via public referendum has received over 130,000 signatures which means Parliament will now consider it for a debate. The petition has also trended on the homepage of the UK Government and Parliament petition’s website.
Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Christine Anderson has opposed the treaty, branding it an “abolition of democracy by the global elites.”
Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP Leslyn Lewis has also pushed back against the treaty and launched a “Stop The Treaty” petition which calls for Canada to decline the treaty.
And rights group World Council for Health has launched a #StopTheWho Campaign which opposes both the treaty and proposed IHR amendments.
But for now, the fate of this WHO power grab rests on the outcome of the May 22 to May 28 WHA meeting.
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15 Saudi ‘hijackers’ were CIA agents working for US: Scholar
Press TV – April 13, 2016
Fifteen of the 9/11 “hijackers” from Saudi Arabia were CIA agents working for the United States government, which was seeking to destroy the Middle East for Israel and to double the American military budget, says Dr. Kevin Barrett, an American academic who has been studying the events of 9/11 since late 2003…. continue
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