Memory Lane: 2 years on
Who would have thought we'd be here...
I’ve been rummaging around in my mailbox recently and bumped into some old emails to and from family and friends, from what now seems a galaxy far, far away.
I’m going to share some chronologically as I think they are an interesting historical log, and possibly useful for some, now that we have some distance and hindsight.
Email to my family
Sent: Tuesday, 31 March 2020
Subject: Latest Public Order
Hi All
This is a unique time in the history of this country, and the law that came into effect this morning is the most significant ever.
It’s worth noting that the federal government does not have the ability to create law that affects the movement of people, only the states can do that. So, when the Prime Minister says “we are going to…” what he is relying on is the state Premiers to turn that into law.
Also, with so many sources of “news” there is a lot of misinformation and confusion about what is real and what is not…in these situations it’s a good habit to simply go and read the source material to figure out what is current reality.
So, NSW have issued this public order as midnight last night (attached).
https://preview.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/public-health-orders
At the very least please read the link (but it would be good to read the attached to see what the mechanics of the law are and how it is written).
The punishment they have written into the law is like nothing I have ever seen. A maximum on the spot fine of $11,000 or up to 6 months in prison!
It is quite possible that NSW Police will take a heavy handed approach early on, so as to create some headlines that then further scare people into compliance…so please keep that in mind.
A summary from the link above:
You must stay at home unless you are going to
work (where you can’t work remotely)
school or an educational institution
shop for food and essentials
get medical care or supplies
exercise
I just want to highlight a few things that are relevant for us:
You are allowed to travel to and from work/study
You can travel to and from “exercise”…but…no more than 2 people can gather in public
So, I could cycle to Paul’s…but the 3 of us could not stop and sit down and have a coffee
But I don’t think I could drive to Paul’s and then cycle from there…I think if a cop stopped me, I would then be relying on his reasonableness, which is not something I would like to depend on, as I think the law would be on his side to fine me or worse.
As the order is written, driving to Amy and Mike’s would be an offence…I am expecting the police to be stopping people just like an RBT
Going to see friends is out
They have defined “household” in the simplest sense…where you “live”…so there is no allowance for boyfriends and girlfriends staying over
Anyway…I just wanted to sharpen everyone’s mind on this, so we know what the new world looks like and how to navigate it.
Xxx
Dad
Email to two close friends on Wednesday, 1 April 2020
Subject: Dr Sucharit Bhakdi: Corona virus COVID-19- hype & hysteria?
With a link to this Bhakdi video. I’m pretty sure it was his first public video. I’m surprised it’s still up on YouTube.
I wanted to try and reduce their fear. I didn’t hear from either of them. Still very close with one, who is awake to the BS now, the other got swept away.
Email to my daughter’s boyfriend at the time
Sent: Thursday, 2 April 2020
Subject: COVID
Hi M
Good chat yesterday 😊
If you would like to go a bit deeper down the rabbit hole of the alternative view, here is a bit of reading:
Imperial College UK COVID-19 numbers don’t seem to add up
12 Experts Questioning the Coronavirus Panic
F
He didn’t reply.
Email to a friend on 27 April 2020
This is what has happened…we have been “corrupted in the deeper strata of our emotional nature”…fuck!!!
All this was inspired by the principle—which is quite true within itself—that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.
It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.
—Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X
Email from a close friend’s boss that he forwarded to me
Sent: Friday, 24 April 2020
Subject: Fwd: Coronavirus: The Basic Dance Steps Everybody Can Follow
Hello All,
Tomas Pueyo (’The Hammer and the Dance’) has provided the most insightful, evidence-based writing on coronavirus that I have yet seen.
His latest article explains, amongst many things, the likely dangers - very real dangers - of heading back into an enclosed workspace (of which, WeWork is a prime example).
Please take a look. It’s long, but compelling. The videos are worth looking at too. Sadly, they won’t make you sleep better tonight.
https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-basic-dance-steps-everybody-can-follow-b3d216daa343
John
My reply to my friend
Sent: Tuesday, 5 May 2020
Subject: RE: Coronavirus: The Basic Dance Steps Everybody Can Follow
This really pisses me off…I don’t even know where to start.
I read the Hammer and The Dance around 20 March when it first came out…in COVID time that’s like 3 years ago. Don’t bother reading, it just a (good) dummies guide to a flattening of the curve argument…but it has gems like this:
If we do nothing: Everybody gets infected, the healthcare system gets overwhelmed, the mortality explodes, and ~10 million people die (blue bars). For the back-of-the-envelope numbers: if ~75% of Americans get infected and 4% die, that’s 10 million deaths, or around 25 times the number of US deaths in World War II.
The follow up piece is very SEO friendly and has every COVID word possible about transmission etc etc…but it doesn’t talk about the most recent research which is saying that it is NOT really that dangerous after all.
The early Korean data showed a mortality rate of 0.6% (NOT 4%) and the recent German study you sent me talks about 0.37% (basically a pretty bad flu season)
He is projecting his terror onto everyone else…which is pretty lame…if you and the other staff are happy to take the risk, it shouldn’t be for him and the board to act as either a morality police or “protectors” of your health.
F
To my wife
Sent: Thursday, 9 July 2020
Subject: British scientists warn of potential wave of COVID-linked brain damage
I am pretty confident that all these secondary diseases that are being linked to COVID will turn out to be consequences of a Cytokine Storm…which is not unique to COVID…the immune over reaction can be triggered by many (most) other viruses including the flu…
Cytokine Storm
https://www.newscientist.com/term/cytokine-storm/
Cytokine storms are a common complication not only of covid-19 and flu but of other respiratory diseases caused by coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS. They are also associated with non-infectious diseases such as multiple sclerosis and pancreatitis.
The phenomenon became more widely known after the 2005 outbreak of the avian H5N1 influenza virus, also known as “bird flu”, when the high fatality rate was linked to an out-of-control cytokine response.
Cytokine storms might explain why some people have a severe reaction to coronaviruses while others only experience mild symptoms. They could also be the reason why younger people are less affected, as their immune systems are less developed and so produce lower levels of inflammation-driving cytokines.
In 2006, six healthy young men were left in intensive care with multiple organ failure as a result of an out-of-control cytokine immune response during a preclinical trial of a new kind of drug. This reaction happened just 90 minutes after receiving a dose of the drug.
The actual report that the article is based on is attached, it has repeated reference to cytokine’s causing much/most of the damage:
Ten of our patients had transient encephalopathies with features of delirium, and psychosis in one. Delirium with agitation is described in case reports and in the larger studies mentioned above, and cognitive dysexecutive syndromes have been reported at discharge (Rogers et al., 2020). While our patients had transient syndromes, detailed neuropsychological testing and follow-up is required to determine the extent of cognitive dysfunction in recovery, and to examine psychiatric and psychological factors (Brown et al., 2020). The underlying mechanisms for the encephalopathy may be multifactorial resulting from the combined or independent effects of sepsis, hypoxia and immune hyperstimultion (‘cytokine storm’) (Mehta et al., 2020).
The potential mechanisms underpinning the syndromes described include either individually, or in combination, direct viral injury, a secondary hyperinflammation syndrome related to cytokines including IL-6 (Mehta et al., 2020), vasculopathy and/or coagulopathy, post infectious inflammation including autoantibody production to neuronal antigens, and the effects of a severe systemic disorder with the neurological consequences of sepsis and hypoxia.
Elevation of pro-inflammatory cytokines was found to correlate with COVID-19 disease severity (Herold et al., 2020; Huang et al., 2020), and some patients responded to IL-1 or IL6 blockade (Cavalli et al., 2020; Price et al., 2020);
in support of this possible mechanism, transient splenial lesions have been reported in a number of cases, including in children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), in which elevated cytokines are thought to play a role
BTW…Kate Kelland who wrote the article and is a health and science journalist does not mention the word cytokine in here article once.
Bottom line, viruses can trigger an immune over-reaction and that can cause damage anywhere in the body. This is not specific to COVID, it just how the body can sometimes respond to a virus.
I am struggling for an analogy on this, but let’s try this out:
Saying that COVID may be causing all these things is like saying:
Wine (viruses) generates (trigger) a good feeling (immune response)
Too much of a good feel, in some people, can lead to violence
Some of that violence can take the form of wife abuse
So…McGuigan Shiraz 2016 may cause domestic violence
This is a technically accurate statement…it is not false.
F
Email to my son
Sent: Saturday, 21 November 2020
Subject: Mike Yeadon
Hi R
Please make the time to watch this, it’s just out and only about half an hour. It’s the pure stuff. YouTube censored it (which is a big part of the reality distortion problem we are experiencing).
https://lbry.tv/Mike-Yeadon-Unlocked:0
I’ve been following Yeadon for a long time; he is the real deal. An incredible combination of deep knowledge, ability to simply explain concepts plus good character. Simply a good man.
Like Bhakdi (whose book I gave you) he is in a very small group of heroes (most of whom I know by now, because that’s how small the group is) that gets no airtime on mainstream news and are vilified as “anti-lockdown conspiracy theorists”.
Anyway, as I’ve told you before, you are a good thinker, and this will only improve your ability to think through these important issues as all around you are and remain uninformed.
Dad
This is his bio from LinkedIn
And lastly an email from a friend and work colleague, who also figured it out very early.
23 March 2020
Ok here goes. The loss of lives globally that will follow from this “containment” folly will far outnumber those saved from it as measured against the alternative, imminently more sensible “mitigation strategy” that should be deployed.
The impending deep global recession in developed nations will (read already has) result(ed) in massive unemployment, SME closures and the collapse of an immeasurable number of large national and multinational enterprises.
A massive destruction of income and capital – that will be felt intergenerationally.
The knock-on effect: unquestionably massive increases in domestic violence, divorce rates, broken homes, crime, alcohol and drug abuse and deaths, suicide, imprisonments and homicides. But that’s just first world economies. I guess that’s where too many people’s thoughts in such matters end in these circumstances.
Before I go on let’s just put this in perspective. About 157,000 people die globally EVERY SINGLE DAY! Or about 1.15M a week. That’s around 57M a year. Or put another way about 110 every minute. To put that in perspective we’ve lost a little over 2 hours “extra” people since 1 Jan because of CV-19 - a period during which around 14M people have died globally from “other causes”. In reality of course more than 80% of those deaths have been an exercise in what (however harshly) could be termed a “bring forward”. That is, the victims were gravely ill and aged to the point their immunity was compromised such that almost any viral or septic infection would have felled them.
Let’s get back to reality. Then as it follows massive GDP reductions and wealth obliteration must lead to equivalent cuts in social spending in developed nations - health care cuts, education cuts, welfare cuts - the list goes on - nations that spend to survive cannot also spend to prosper and grow and support their most needy. And if governments cannot afford to support THEIR most needy then they must reduce international aid to the world’s genuinely most needy. Even if ratios of aid to GDP prevail, reductions in GPD end nowhere other than massive real dollar reductions in aid budgets. But perhaps more significantly, as businesses fail, a corresponding number of charities fail. Yes, charities go bankrupt too. As income and wealth is obliterated, philanthropy dries up. Let’s pause to put that all in perspective - the US remains by far the greatest dollar value contributor to global aid with an annual contribution of around $32Bn pa - around 25% of which is for direct humanitarian efforts. Now before anyone shouts oh no China provides “double that” I call bollocks, as their aid is self-centred “development aid” for the most part - like spending $3Bn or so to dredge Sri Lankan ports to provide better access to cheap sub-continental coal and ore rather than shipping quality resources from Australia. But let’s put the US aid contribution into context. As a percentage of GDP, it represents around 0.17%. Or about 1.4% of their annual federal budget spend. US GDP drops 20% and the world loses $6.4Bn pa of foreign aid and US-funded humanitarian efforts lose $2.1Bn pa - until the US economy recovers. That will cost countless lives of young men, women and children. But that’s not the half, or tenth of it. Much lauded as selfish bastards - it surprises most just how generous private US citizens are. Private philanthropy in the US dwarfs the federal aid budget at nearly 1.5% of GDP (and we thought Aussies were generous - we give just 0.23% of GDP). With a GDP of $21,400,000 million, (yes $21M million) that’s about $321Bn pa of private charitable donations from US citizens. The majority of which in hard dollar terms surely flows from the high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth class. You simply cannot destroy asset values and the wealth of a people and a nation and expect such generosity to prevail.
Let’s just say it prevails in percentage terms though - a 20% reduction in GDP results now in a $64Bn pa reduction in private philanthropy - unless and until incomes and capital values recover. And this is just the US - of course the global impact is going to be a lot more significant. All of this resulting in second-world countries reverting to third-world countries; emerging first-world countries slipping back deep into second-world conditions; and everyone all-but forgetting about the third world.
For every “life saved” by this absurd “containment” strategy there will be 2-5 (perhaps 10 or more) lost as a result of the above when we could have pursued an appropriately stringent “mitigation” response that would have still severely hurt the economy; but not crippled it.
One final piece of perspective - it is claimed around 9M people globally die from starvation (directly and indirectly) each year - or around 1-6 of all global deaths. An increase of 10% of that number alone due to a lack of philanthropy and international aid and a regression in emerging country economies results in nearly a million avoidable deaths pa.
Surely this is a graph that we might want to “flatten”.
So when I say I don’t care if CV-19 brings forward the deaths of a million or five million aged and immune comprised people in the next 12 months while we get it under control and figure out how to treat and cure it please forgive me – it’s not that I am not carer – and that is not upsetting – and that I wish it were different – but at the top end that is a bring-forward of about a months’ worth of global deaths over a 12-18 month period.
The approach being adopted does not serve humanity well. Despite its virtuous intention, to save our ailing grandparents from an otherwise earlier passing, at the expense of our neighbours is selfish, arrogant and misguided in the extreme.
Wash your hands; don’t shake hands; keep your distance; avoid unnecessary travel; and don’t meet in groups unnecessarily. Protect the aged, the frail and immune compromised; stay away from grandma – but get back to bloody work and stay in school. Just saying....
Memories are important, and record-keeping is vital. Even if this ends tomorrow, we must never forget.
Wow! You were onto the fraud from the very beginning.
I was disturbed by lockdowns in late March 2020. But I didn't become terrified until early 2021 when it was clear that the vax rollout was making no sense.