Yes that is distressing as is what I saw this morning, a large class of about 40 middle school students walking through my neighborhood on an exercise jaunt. Finally a lovely spring day. The teacher was unmasked. Almost every single student was masked.
One quick story, just to show how deep the rabbit hole goes with the fear we are "teaching" our children. I was in an airport security line, maybe at RDU, probably 18 months ago. A mother and child were in line behind me, far enough back that they were next to me in the Disneyland type circuit they put you through at security. The line moved, and the mother stepped up, to move in behind the people in front of her. Her little girl, probably 10 or 11, recoiled and pulled her Mom back. I heard her say something along the lines of, "you got too close!" So here is a little girl, already Karening her Mom about a practice--social distancing--that is complete and utter horsesh*t. The scars on our societies will run deep and manifest in many unexpected and sh*tty ways, for years.
I's hard to believe ,people outside along the beach walking running ,biking or driving alone masked .No doubt they are retarded for life ,or they always have been .I'm disgusted and feel I live in an open air crazy house . It is depressing ,the masks are only a small part of the countless other crimes ,done to us . Sadly the ones not taking part in that madness are a minority .
I am too Joe. I thank God everyday that I knew life when it was “normal”. I’m 58, I grew up in a “sane” world. Maybe it was the same, but it was hidden. Is ignorance bliss? Nope…not when it’s destroying life. I will not give in, and I will not back down-EVER!
Yes saw the same last week! My 13 year old’s class had a biking lesson and all rode past my place on a beautiful spring day. Only the teacher was maskless.
The only ones wearing masks where I live are teenagers. I think they like being covered up - so many kids dont like themselves right now with the trans crap being pushed on them and all
Saw the same thing in my neighborhood which has several schools. It seemed that every teenager that was outside walking somewhere had a mask on. Simply unbelievable. Location, British Columbia, Canada. Very depressing.
It seems it has to involve peer pressure. I know other commenters have suggested and perhaps are right that kids have become more comfortable hiding themselves or they feel unattractive.
But that this behavior (voluntary mask wearing) which would have seemed unimaginable a few years ago is now commonplace is extremely troubling.
Breathing freely has become secondary to whatever is causing teens to choose to mask.
I am in Illinois which was a strict mask state but my brother in Atlanta sees many young people still masked up there as well.
My daughter is the only child out of 22 in her grade 1 class who takes her mask off at her desk. In Quebec the mask mandate in public doesn't end until next weekend (it will have been in place for 666 days.) A white guy with dreadlocks and I were the only unmasked parents at pick up for months. Now we are more but we still remain the minority. In my neighbourhood I would say half of the people wear masks outdoors. 🤡
I was one of two unmasked parents for months as well. Only recently have more started showing their faces at pick up! And wow Quebec is nuts! Do you watch Viva Frei on YouTube? He has some great videos and I believe he lives there.
Consider yourself lucky! Here in Thailand the maskerade is now so socially ingrained that any hope these worthless pieces of cloth and plastic will ever disappear from public and private view again is totally gone by now! I feel like in a zombie movie! Many of them know masks don't prevent infection, but admit that the social pressure of "losing face" (let that pun sink in for a minute) is too strong.
Or when you see 95% of motorcyclists without helmets but religiously wearing their grimy facediapers and referencing that it is the law to wear masks in public, I just know that people's minds have been broken.
And when I see fully vaccinated newsanchors with supposedly save and effective ambrosial shots in newsrooms breathing and mumbling through masks while a sign-language interpretor recorded from another room mimes with covered face, I believe a society's consciousness has been successfully highjacked, hacked and broken.
Your motorcycle helmet v. mask analogy clearly illustrates the loss of reasoning that’s occurred in people throughout the world. Masked people driving and texting is another. Masked people loading up their grocery carts with sodas and chips, another. And my favorite, liquor stores remaining open while gyms were shut down in the good ole USA.
Thank you so much for sharing news from Thailand. It does seem increasingly obvious people’s minds are broken as you say. Your eloquence touches a nerve.
I will check out your substack. I hope to see something there soon!!! You are a great writer.
Speaking of sign language interpreters...way back when I was a reporter telling a series of stories on a situation at the state school for the deaf I used a sign language interpreter in my report as, duh, the news affected primarily the deaf community. My news director blew a gasket and said that the inclusion of a sign language interpreter made the story look visually tacky. Now interpreters are, as you suggest, de rigueur.
The hypocrisy and inconsistencies of people is so crazy! I know someone who is addicted to street drugs. Not above stealing lying etc to get them. BUT will not entertain breaking the travel mandates back into Canada! I’m like hey if you go to the states just don’t DO the quarantine. Risk the fine / Don’t pay it. He’s like “I like to follow the legislation”. Legislation?!!!!!!
It’s probably a way of protecting himself from further trouble. But it’s really infuriating.
WOW! And I thought it was bad in California! I’m so sorry that you’re forced to be a part of this insanity. You’re not alone. I was kicked out of a grocery store for not wearing a mask. I stood my ground on a few stores, and I was “permitted” to shop. Just think…if every person took their mask OFF. The power and illusion would be gone. People are mentally weak. I refuse to hide the creation of God. May God give you His love, strength, and guidance!
Always remember the named asshole we see spewing these lies and filth are always backed by 40x the length of nameless shitheads in the propaganda colon who are the actual originators of the feces.
If you can draw... imagine pFauci standing at a podium dripping turds labeled "safe and effective" from his little brownstar mouth. Behind his head a colon descends and extends into the distance withs scores of polyps labeled CDC, FDA, WHO, Pfizer, Etc....
"Beneath every tiny melanoma lurks an ocean of cancer"
They can't give up. When you spend over a year pretending to have all the answers, bullying, shaming, and threatening anyone that disagrees, when you contribute to policies that cause people to loose their jobs, when you demand healthy young people take an experimental drug they don't need; you become emotionally and psychologically invested. From the beginning they didn't have the intelligence. humanity, or courage to deal with a crisis. They will never posses the strength of character needed to admit they were wrong.
Oh boy, him starting off mentioning statistical analysis (i.e. looking at the curves) as well as evoking his deceased sister immediately did not stir much confidence in the rest of the article.
I will always be reminded of Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding's twitter account shooting off emojis about SARS-COV2 being found in mice, not just for his rampant use of emojis but the amount of people saying "this will make zero COVID more difficult, but it is still possible!"
The irony of him to include that phrase. As someone who is not religious, I can still see the fallacy of man to be so arrogant to think that we can control everything. There's a difference between giving up and coming to terms, and these doctors are so wrapped up in their own hubris to not understand such a difference.
I sometimes think it might be better to keep it simple (imagine that!) ~ "I pray for serenity, courage, and wisdom today" ~ because the supposed fruit of these blessings is so distracting, and not just to those with OCD.
Well, not to air out too much dirty laundry, but as someone who lost their job over mandates and have been trying to grow my Substack, I find it very frustrating to see someone like Dr. Ding have one of the top paid Health Substacks on here, only to find out he has only posted twice yet has hundreds of subscribers. It really just indicates as long as you play to the cult of personality that's all that really matters for many people.
You’re in good company. We lost our jobs as well. God shall provide. Watch your own side of the street, for your own peace! My best advice, which I find hard to do myself. God bless!
Thanks Renee. I'm trying to make it work and I know it's a slow process for everyone so I'm not too hard on myself. I do wish all the best to everyone!
100s of subscribers is not a lot. And to make money from subscriptions you'd need at least 1k paid subscribers which on my experience you'd need 30k or so subscribers (i.e. expect 2/3 paid subscribers per 100 subscribers).
Eric wouldn't be happy on 40k a year though. So multiply above figures by enough to make him happy. 10x?
I would argue it depends. For many high-profile Substacks hundreds of paid subscribers certainly wouldn't be a lot. Hundreds of paid subscribers for a Substack that only has two posts with one of them amounting to only "hey y'all, big things are coming!" Is what sets off a lot of alarm bells.
One tinfoil hat item I have considered. How hard would be to launder payouts to someone, by manufacturing 1000 subscribers to their substack? Probably not so hard.
But he has a funny name, at least to a German ear! Some sort of redeeming quality, eh? Invoking images between "coward thing" or "little fig thing"? Then also remembering that Chuck Berry sing-along "Ding Aling", ... eh. Well.
The most important issue is that covid never was an extraordinarily dangerous pathogen that required preventing contagion at all costs.
It is a nasty respiratory virus maladjusted to human hosts because it was created in a lab. It produces some atypical symptoms that, if not treated, kill a small percentage of the population.
There are only three pillars, in order of importance
- Treat the symptoms
- Gain population immunity as soon as possible
- Try to protect the vulnerable
The last one is very difficult, so maybe it is not even a pillar, but at least we can try to enhance the immune system of the vulnerable and of course not kill them by making their lives miserable.
All that has been tried has failed. And we knew it would fail, because trying to influence the spread of a respiratory virus like covid is futile.
I agree wuth you, so I’m already hopelessly biased.
To your overriding point, what value or range for IFR are you using when you confidently state that the new virus simply wasn’t lethal enough to justify much, if any, centrally forced policy response?
I’ve been criticised for leaning too much on the work of Dr John Ioaniddis. In part because he’s not a member of a cult & he was an epidemiologist before Covid19.
I have always worked with a 0.1 to 0.3 %. That is what the data has always shown, from the beginning out of the Diamond Princess outbreak. I also read the initial analysis from Ioaniddis and his IFR assessments.
Now, when many countries are reaching herd immunity, the cumulative deaths attributed to covid are in that range so it looks he was right.
Now, the funny thing about respiratory viruses (maybe funny is not the right word), is that they cannot be very lethal, because that causes them to disappear when they kill their hosts too much. I believe that covid was more or less in the sweet spot, not too lethal and fairly contagious.
All of this was known. So I am not really saying anything revolutionary.
It is the reason why nobody has ever been truly interested in trying to eradicate or control the flu. Only looking for ways for making easy money. That is why nobody buys flu vaccines. You get them only through the corrupt public health agencies.
"It is a nasty respiratory virus maladjusted to human hosts because it was created in a lab. It produces some atypical symptoms that, if not treated, kill a small percentage of the population."
No concern about long term damage in those who do survive? I agree that measures taken have totally failed, but I know enough people who were young and healthy in that first year who are now struggling to think that death wasn't the only thing to be concerned about. Out of control blood pressure, senses of taste and smell that remain altered/reduced even after 18 months, headaches, the list goes on. It makes me glad I took extreme measures to avoid it until Omicron came around.
Thank you for reading Gates's book, so I don't have to. Under normal circumstances I would not outsource my judgment on such a book, but Gates is so loathsome I fear for my mental health if I actually do read it, so I welcome Professor e as my proxy.
Maybe a silver lining will be that the book is so bad it will actually damage his reputation enough to reduce his credibility. But I am not betting on that.
You are wise to not bet on that. That Gates is not already running for his life, pursued by refugees from a Capital One commercial gone awry, tells you all you need to know about how tolerant we are of what would, under almost any other rubric, be classified as damned-near homicidal, Malthusian, horsesh*t.
I see there are seeds being planted for a "new wave". Between Birx, Gates and now a new one saying "smart people KNOW that vaccine efficacy wanes, so they'll WANT a booster in the fall", as if pandering to one's intelligence will encourage them to take a booster.
SMART PEOPLE have NOT taken a shot for a MYRIAD of reasons - nearly all of them legitimate.
EIPCa (Election Integrity Project California) has some tips regarding voting. Vote In Person. https://www.eip-ca.com/ Also, be a part of an observer team or volunteer to watch (AND REPORT) things you see happening to your state's equivalent (election integrity team - be careful, the main parties are trying to create teams now to "observe", but they're in on it.)
Keep contacting legislators about wanting election safeguards (Mandatory govt. ID, vote in person, access to machine code or removal altogether, etc.) Challenge candidates publicly and ask them where they stand (WITH SPECIFICS). Vote out people who aren't doing anything to allow the public to vote and are trying to keep the status quo with inaction, no action or denial.
Commifornia is a lost cause. The lying and cheating is entrenched in this state. It would take decades to clean it up, if even possible. Of course I’m just outside San Fransicko. So, I’m at ground zero for sound asleep people.
Take a look at the court case in the 9th circuit court of appeal by EIPCa. If successful, it will dismantle a lot of what California has put in place for allowing fraud to occur.
You are, of course, absolutely correct! We have data, lots of it, that supports your assertions. The problem is, talismans have an amazing ability to remain practiced and accepted by our species. One could get into a long discourse about risk asymmetry and all that, but the bottom line is, superstitions last. Covid generated a bunch of new ones! (Vaccination is just a money grab, but that too is a much longer discussion.) "Vaccination = kills" summarizes it!
Not that kind of ventilation. He wasn't referring to shoving a tube down your throat and having the machine kill you. He meant the kind of ventilation that makes airplanes uniquely safe places to be... they circulate and filter the air so that aerosol pathogens are not allowed to accumulate to levels that would make infection likely.
I'm pretty sure he did mean mechanical ventilation in an ICU. That is what did and does kill the majority of ICU "covid" patients. High-Flow O2 is worlds better and often suffices for severe cases.
I think the ventilation he is referring to is the kind to clean the air in closed spaces. It is probably the only thing on the list that is even remotely effective.
Ventilation as he refers to it is not what you think it means. It's the main thing he said that makes sense, but installing HEPA filtration is not realistic for all indoor places.
I support ventilation since I like to breathe, and I'm also fond of the Serenity Prayer, which I've repeated a zillion times the past couple of years when confronted with absurdities coming from power nuts like Yaneer Bar-Yam. I'd make a joke about the last part of his name, but after reading Yaneer's Tweet, my thinking process has stalled.
Wait, wait, a yam joke just bubbled into the conscious part of my poor 74-year old brain, and here it is...
Yaneer is (yet another) physicist who thinks that extremely complex systems well outside of current human comprehension can be reduced to more easily analyzed mathematical models with which he is familiar.
I don't begrudge him his own perspective ... but why on earth would anyone think that it has authoritative value?
This last weekend my roomie was catching up on Grey's Anatomy, and this episode was pretty early during the pandemic. One of the actors created a model showing how covid could be beaten with masks and social distancing because "it allows multivariable input".
The coffee came flying out of my nose so fast it hurt. When you tell the model that masks and distancing work, the model tells YOU that masks and distancing work. Garbage in, garbage out.
Whats odd is he's written a lot about how complexity poses problems for top down controls. He's written on the multiscale law of requisite variety, which says there's a tradeoff between the complexity and scale of actions an organization can take. He even uses it to explain why guerilla warfare is successful against large conventional forces. The rona is the ultimate guerilla opponent.
You kidding me? He would relish the opportunity to "Die from Covid". It's his God. There is no higher honor except maybe death by their baptismal toxic vaccines.
Bar-Yam has been fear-mongering about diseases for who knows how long. In 2020, he and Taleb thought that COVID would result in extinction. That's why in his mind we have to go to every measure to eliminate the disease.
Agreed. Not only that, but he doesn’t seem as bright as he makes himself out to be. He was clearly wrong so many times about COVID. And we still have yet to see his portfolio…
Will these self aggrandizing god-king experts ever sit down? Or will we have to make them...waiting with bated breath in Canada for the reinstitution of the ‘five pillars’ this fall.
These assholes just will not give up.
happily almost nobody is listening to him anymore.
Indeed? Small victories are still victories, I guess! TBH, for people like him, and Pfauci, to *still* be talking in public distresses me viscerally.
Yes that is distressing as is what I saw this morning, a large class of about 40 middle school students walking through my neighborhood on an exercise jaunt. Finally a lovely spring day. The teacher was unmasked. Almost every single student was masked.
It’s absolutely child abuse! These will be damaged human beings, scared of life itself!
One quick story, just to show how deep the rabbit hole goes with the fear we are "teaching" our children. I was in an airport security line, maybe at RDU, probably 18 months ago. A mother and child were in line behind me, far enough back that they were next to me in the Disneyland type circuit they put you through at security. The line moved, and the mother stepped up, to move in behind the people in front of her. Her little girl, probably 10 or 11, recoiled and pulled her Mom back. I heard her say something along the lines of, "you got too close!" So here is a little girl, already Karening her Mom about a practice--social distancing--that is complete and utter horsesh*t. The scars on our societies will run deep and manifest in many unexpected and sh*tty ways, for years.
unfortunately I can see all freedoms gone one day cause these kids are obeying EVERYTHING - they WANT to be controlled - so sad
I's hard to believe ,people outside along the beach walking running ,biking or driving alone masked .No doubt they are retarded for life ,or they always have been .I'm disgusted and feel I live in an open air crazy house . It is depressing ,the masks are only a small part of the countless other crimes ,done to us . Sadly the ones not taking part in that madness are a minority .
I'M very scared of the life we have now and even more scared of what is coming .
I am too Joe. I thank God everyday that I knew life when it was “normal”. I’m 58, I grew up in a “sane” world. Maybe it was the same, but it was hidden. Is ignorance bliss? Nope…not when it’s destroying life. I will not give in, and I will not back down-EVER!
Amen
Yes saw the same last week! My 13 year old’s class had a biking lesson and all rode past my place on a beautiful spring day. Only the teacher was maskless.
Are they that indoctrinated? Is it peer pressure? I can’t figure out why anyone would choose to wear a mask.
A young pteacher I met the other day, (who did not impress me at all), said some of her students find the mask empowering.
The only ones wearing masks where I live are teenagers. I think they like being covered up - so many kids dont like themselves right now with the trans crap being pushed on them and all
Empowering?!! 🤣👏😩
Saw the same thing in my neighborhood which has several schools. It seemed that every teenager that was outside walking somewhere had a mask on. Simply unbelievable. Location, British Columbia, Canada. Very depressing.
It seems it has to involve peer pressure. I know other commenters have suggested and perhaps are right that kids have become more comfortable hiding themselves or they feel unattractive.
But that this behavior (voluntary mask wearing) which would have seemed unimaginable a few years ago is now commonplace is extremely troubling.
Breathing freely has become secondary to whatever is causing teens to choose to mask.
I am in Illinois which was a strict mask state but my brother in Atlanta sees many young people still masked up there as well.
Is it a form of theatre?
Any psychologists among us?
I’m in BC too! Depressing indeed. Cycling teens in masks on a spring day.
My daughter is the only child out of 22 in her grade 1 class who takes her mask off at her desk. In Quebec the mask mandate in public doesn't end until next weekend (it will have been in place for 666 days.) A white guy with dreadlocks and I were the only unmasked parents at pick up for months. Now we are more but we still remain the minority. In my neighbourhood I would say half of the people wear masks outdoors. 🤡
I was one of two unmasked parents for months as well. Only recently have more started showing their faces at pick up! And wow Quebec is nuts! Do you watch Viva Frei on YouTube? He has some great videos and I believe he lives there.
How horrible.
Consider yourself lucky! Here in Thailand the maskerade is now so socially ingrained that any hope these worthless pieces of cloth and plastic will ever disappear from public and private view again is totally gone by now! I feel like in a zombie movie! Many of them know masks don't prevent infection, but admit that the social pressure of "losing face" (let that pun sink in for a minute) is too strong.
Or when you see 95% of motorcyclists without helmets but religiously wearing their grimy facediapers and referencing that it is the law to wear masks in public, I just know that people's minds have been broken.
And when I see fully vaccinated newsanchors with supposedly save and effective ambrosial shots in newsrooms breathing and mumbling through masks while a sign-language interpretor recorded from another room mimes with covered face, I believe a society's consciousness has been successfully highjacked, hacked and broken.
Have a look:
https://youtu.be/8dZgz2mxBZs
Your motorcycle helmet v. mask analogy clearly illustrates the loss of reasoning that’s occurred in people throughout the world. Masked people driving and texting is another. Masked people loading up their grocery carts with sodas and chips, another. And my favorite, liquor stores remaining open while gyms were shut down in the good ole USA.
Thank you so much for sharing news from Thailand. It does seem increasingly obvious people’s minds are broken as you say. Your eloquence touches a nerve.
I will check out your substack. I hope to see something there soon!!! You are a great writer.
Speaking of sign language interpreters...way back when I was a reporter telling a series of stories on a situation at the state school for the deaf I used a sign language interpreter in my report as, duh, the news affected primarily the deaf community. My news director blew a gasket and said that the inclusion of a sign language interpreter made the story look visually tacky. Now interpreters are, as you suggest, de rigueur.
Thank you for your compliment and encouragement! Thank you for being the first subscriber of my postless stack;)
But for me writing posts is as useful as a sign-language interpretor is for the blind;)
What about you starting to share your thoughts on substack?;)
May you always be blessed!
The hypocrisy and inconsistencies of people is so crazy! I know someone who is addicted to street drugs. Not above stealing lying etc to get them. BUT will not entertain breaking the travel mandates back into Canada! I’m like hey if you go to the states just don’t DO the quarantine. Risk the fine / Don’t pay it. He’s like “I like to follow the legislation”. Legislation?!!!!!!
It’s probably a way of protecting himself from further trouble. But it’s really infuriating.
WOW! And I thought it was bad in California! I’m so sorry that you’re forced to be a part of this insanity. You’re not alone. I was kicked out of a grocery store for not wearing a mask. I stood my ground on a few stores, and I was “permitted” to shop. Just think…if every person took their mask OFF. The power and illusion would be gone. People are mentally weak. I refuse to hide the creation of God. May God give you His love, strength, and guidance!
Not my son's grade, only one kid ever wears a mask anymore. Get your kid out of the publics if you can!
What is even more tragic is how many of the masked students are vaxxed - and what damage is that doing to their growing bodies! INSANE!!
You are right. Ticking time bombs inside them.
Insane parents.
😡
Yes they are, and appreciate them because there might not be any big ones!
Little p in pFauci.
Im not too sure; I can’t make myself read Gates’ book but I’ve read quotes from it & his “GERM” squad sounds even worse….
It's the ones that are listening that frighten me
That is the point: where there is demand, there is supply. He did not force anyone to listen to him.
I was going to try and be clever and come up with a more eloquent label for people with this view, but asshole works just fine!
Always remember the named asshole we see spewing these lies and filth are always backed by 40x the length of nameless shitheads in the propaganda colon who are the actual originators of the feces.
Consider "propaganda colon" stolen.
If you can draw... imagine pFauci standing at a podium dripping turds labeled "safe and effective" from his little brownstar mouth. Behind his head a colon descends and extends into the distance withs scores of polyps labeled CDC, FDA, WHO, Pfizer, Etc....
"Beneath every tiny melanoma lurks an ocean of cancer"
I love you.
ditto... We've all arrived here from so many different backgrounds and places for a reason.
A sudden grant of enormous power, followed by a sudden loss of same, drives some insane.
I was about to post another comment but you've said it so well and succinctly.
They can't give up. When you spend over a year pretending to have all the answers, bullying, shaming, and threatening anyone that disagrees, when you contribute to policies that cause people to loose their jobs, when you demand healthy young people take an experimental drug they don't need; you become emotionally and psychologically invested. From the beginning they didn't have the intelligence. humanity, or courage to deal with a crisis. They will never posses the strength of character needed to admit they were wrong.
Hey! I was gonna say that!
I just had to laugh.... among all the brilliant comments, this one, well... it just sums it up perfectly, no?
Oh boy, him starting off mentioning statistical analysis (i.e. looking at the curves) as well as evoking his deceased sister immediately did not stir much confidence in the rest of the article.
I will always be reminded of Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding's twitter account shooting off emojis about SARS-COV2 being found in mice, not just for his rampant use of emojis but the amount of people saying "this will make zero COVID more difficult, but it is still possible!"
The irony of him to include that phrase. As someone who is not religious, I can still see the fallacy of man to be so arrogant to think that we can control everything. There's a difference between giving up and coming to terms, and these doctors are so wrapped up in their own hubris to not understand such a difference.
Seems like he missed the point of the serenity prayer.
Where some people may find humility and introspection, some people may find arrogant zealotry.
Bingo! :-)
bingo
I sometimes think it might be better to keep it simple (imagine that!) ~ "I pray for serenity, courage, and wisdom today" ~ because the supposed fruit of these blessings is so distracting, and not just to those with OCD.
I despise Ding almost as much as I do Fauci and Gates.
Well, not to air out too much dirty laundry, but as someone who lost their job over mandates and have been trying to grow my Substack, I find it very frustrating to see someone like Dr. Ding have one of the top paid Health Substacks on here, only to find out he has only posted twice yet has hundreds of subscribers. It really just indicates as long as you play to the cult of personality that's all that really matters for many people.
You’re in good company. We lost our jobs as well. God shall provide. Watch your own side of the street, for your own peace! My best advice, which I find hard to do myself. God bless!
Thanks Renee. I'm trying to make it work and I know it's a slow process for everyone so I'm not too hard on myself. I do wish all the best to everyone!
100s of subscribers is not a lot. And to make money from subscriptions you'd need at least 1k paid subscribers which on my experience you'd need 30k or so subscribers (i.e. expect 2/3 paid subscribers per 100 subscribers).
Eric wouldn't be happy on 40k a year though. So multiply above figures by enough to make him happy. 10x?
I would argue it depends. For many high-profile Substacks hundreds of paid subscribers certainly wouldn't be a lot. Hundreds of paid subscribers for a Substack that only has two posts with one of them amounting to only "hey y'all, big things are coming!" Is what sets off a lot of alarm bells.
https://drericding.substack.com/
Totally agree. That is the most gamed substack that I've seen.
You know what else is interesting? Empathy1st is a free subscriber and you have to be a paid subscriber to comment....
One tinfoil hat item I have considered. How hard would be to launder payouts to someone, by manufacturing 1000 subscribers to their substack? Probably not so hard.
There 'used' to be a huge amount of manufactured followers going on on Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, etc etc. I'm sure it still happens.
I haven't looked, but I also wouldn't be surprised!
Ding's behavior strikes me as the kid who *barely* got a seat at the "cool kids table" and so has to be extra assholish to prove he belongs there.
Nah. He was the dork that was made fun of constantly. Wouldn't you have made fun of someone with that last name, that was an asshole?
I love his name though. It's such a beautiful example of the name fitting the person.....idiotic.
But he has a funny name, at least to a German ear! Some sort of redeeming quality, eh? Invoking images between "coward thing" or "little fig thing"? Then also remembering that Chuck Berry sing-along "Ding Aling", ... eh. Well.
And have their heads so far up each other’s asses
The most important issue is that covid never was an extraordinarily dangerous pathogen that required preventing contagion at all costs.
It is a nasty respiratory virus maladjusted to human hosts because it was created in a lab. It produces some atypical symptoms that, if not treated, kill a small percentage of the population.
There are only three pillars, in order of importance
- Treat the symptoms
- Gain population immunity as soon as possible
- Try to protect the vulnerable
The last one is very difficult, so maybe it is not even a pillar, but at least we can try to enhance the immune system of the vulnerable and of course not kill them by making their lives miserable.
All that has been tried has failed. And we knew it would fail, because trying to influence the spread of a respiratory virus like covid is futile.
I agree wuth you, so I’m already hopelessly biased.
To your overriding point, what value or range for IFR are you using when you confidently state that the new virus simply wasn’t lethal enough to justify much, if any, centrally forced policy response?
I’ve been criticised for leaning too much on the work of Dr John Ioaniddis. In part because he’s not a member of a cult & he was an epidemiologist before Covid19.
I have always worked with a 0.1 to 0.3 %. That is what the data has always shown, from the beginning out of the Diamond Princess outbreak. I also read the initial analysis from Ioaniddis and his IFR assessments.
Now, when many countries are reaching herd immunity, the cumulative deaths attributed to covid are in that range so it looks he was right.
Now, the funny thing about respiratory viruses (maybe funny is not the right word), is that they cannot be very lethal, because that causes them to disappear when they kill their hosts too much. I believe that covid was more or less in the sweet spot, not too lethal and fairly contagious.
All of this was known. So I am not really saying anything revolutionary.
It is the reason why nobody has ever been truly interested in trying to eradicate or control the flu. Only looking for ways for making easy money. That is why nobody buys flu vaccines. You get them only through the corrupt public health agencies.
That’s a VERY important point: I also don’t think it’s possible to have a super infectious & highly lethal respiratory virus pandemic.
That’s yet another reason why I’m so sure the new WHO treaty is completely malign.
"It is a nasty respiratory virus maladjusted to human hosts because it was created in a lab. It produces some atypical symptoms that, if not treated, kill a small percentage of the population."
No concern about long term damage in those who do survive? I agree that measures taken have totally failed, but I know enough people who were young and healthy in that first year who are now struggling to think that death wasn't the only thing to be concerned about. Out of control blood pressure, senses of taste and smell that remain altered/reduced even after 18 months, headaches, the list goes on. It makes me glad I took extreme measures to avoid it until Omicron came around.
It’s the vaccines which cause those symptoms.
Long COVID is real, but is no more commonplace or more severe than long flu or post viral fatigue
You got it. They pretended it was Ebola from the get go.
Thank you for reading Gates's book, so I don't have to. Under normal circumstances I would not outsource my judgment on such a book, but Gates is so loathsome I fear for my mental health if I actually do read it, so I welcome Professor e as my proxy.
it's so, so bad.
You might want to wear a cross or Rosary beads around your neck while reading that “Pulitzer Prize” book-lol.
I'll bet the vegetable protein patties are worse.
Maybe a silver lining will be that the book is so bad it will actually damage his reputation enough to reduce his credibility. But I am not betting on that.
You are wise to not bet on that. That Gates is not already running for his life, pursued by refugees from a Capital One commercial gone awry, tells you all you need to know about how tolerant we are of what would, under almost any other rubric, be classified as damned-near homicidal, Malthusian, horsesh*t.
Ask him about the little cartoon like illustrations. Better to communicate with you little peons, my dear. --- He creeps me out sooo much! 🤢🤢🤮🤮
No wonder Belinda divorced the Gates .Did he find another Damsel yet ,or is he married to the virus .??
Yes the condescending dislike of the people is revealed by the diagrams
Seriously, eugyppius, I wish I could give you hazard pay for this task.
Or a purple heart.
Yes, definitely "Thank you for your service" Eugyppius! It's like the cop who HAS to look at all the kiddie porn to catch the scumbags.
I see there are seeds being planted for a "new wave". Between Birx, Gates and now a new one saying "smart people KNOW that vaccine efficacy wanes, so they'll WANT a booster in the fall", as if pandering to one's intelligence will encourage them to take a booster.
SMART PEOPLE have NOT taken a shot for a MYRIAD of reasons - nearly all of them legitimate.
These upcoming elections are going to need SO MUCH fortification.
EIPCa (Election Integrity Project California) has some tips regarding voting. Vote In Person. https://www.eip-ca.com/ Also, be a part of an observer team or volunteer to watch (AND REPORT) things you see happening to your state's equivalent (election integrity team - be careful, the main parties are trying to create teams now to "observe", but they're in on it.)
Keep contacting legislators about wanting election safeguards (Mandatory govt. ID, vote in person, access to machine code or removal altogether, etc.) Challenge candidates publicly and ask them where they stand (WITH SPECIFICS). Vote out people who aren't doing anything to allow the public to vote and are trying to keep the status quo with inaction, no action or denial.
BE WARY of attempts to pass laws to undermine election integrity. Look what they've done in California: https://www.eip-ca.com/The-Golden-State-Agenda.pdf
EIPCa has a lawsuit in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals here: https://www.eip-ca.com/complaint/EIPCa_First_Amended_Complaint_3.10.2021.pdf
At this point I'm literally at the "Go dip your finger in ink" stage.
Me too!
Commifornia is a lost cause. The lying and cheating is entrenched in this state. It would take decades to clean it up, if even possible. Of course I’m just outside San Fransicko. So, I’m at ground zero for sound asleep people.
Take a look at the court case in the 9th circuit court of appeal by EIPCa. If successful, it will dismantle a lot of what California has put in place for allowing fraud to occur.
Went to fill up my car with diesel in Vancouver Canada and I payed $ 9.44 a gallon .
Masking= useless
Ventilation= kills
Testing= useless
Social Distancing= useless
Vaccination= kills
So his solution is lots of Theater to cover up murder?
You are, of course, absolutely correct! We have data, lots of it, that supports your assertions. The problem is, talismans have an amazing ability to remain practiced and accepted by our species. One could get into a long discourse about risk asymmetry and all that, but the bottom line is, superstitions last. Covid generated a bunch of new ones! (Vaccination is just a money grab, but that too is a much longer discussion.) "Vaccination = kills" summarizes it!
We are no better than the Incas and Aztecs. Cause and effect does not enter into it at all.
Not that kind of ventilation. He wasn't referring to shoving a tube down your throat and having the machine kill you. He meant the kind of ventilation that makes airplanes uniquely safe places to be... they circulate and filter the air so that aerosol pathogens are not allowed to accumulate to levels that would make infection likely.
The rest of the assessments are right on, though!
I'm pretty sure he did mean mechanical ventilation in an ICU. That is what did and does kill the majority of ICU "covid" patients. High-Flow O2 is worlds better and often suffices for severe cases.
Read the article!
Ventilation would help out with allergens and/or mold found in many large buildings containing many workers.
I think the ventilation he is referring to is the kind to clean the air in closed spaces. It is probably the only thing on the list that is even remotely effective.
Ventilation as he refers to it is not what you think it means. It's the main thing he said that makes sense, but installing HEPA filtration is not realistic for all indoor places.
Let's give Yaneer a one-way ticket to Shanghai.
I support ventilation since I like to breathe, and I'm also fond of the Serenity Prayer, which I've repeated a zillion times the past couple of years when confronted with absurdities coming from power nuts like Yaneer Bar-Yam. I'd make a joke about the last part of his name, but after reading Yaneer's Tweet, my thinking process has stalled.
Wait, wait, a yam joke just bubbled into the conscious part of my poor 74-year old brain, and here it is...
Q: Why didn't the yam go to the Australian Open?
A: Because he wasn't a commontator.
Another crazy. They're everywhere.
That guy is absolutely insane. He needs mental help.
Yaneer is (yet another) physicist who thinks that extremely complex systems well outside of current human comprehension can be reduced to more easily analyzed mathematical models with which he is familiar.
I don't begrudge him his own perspective ... but why on earth would anyone think that it has authoritative value?
This last weekend my roomie was catching up on Grey's Anatomy, and this episode was pretty early during the pandemic. One of the actors created a model showing how covid could be beaten with masks and social distancing because "it allows multivariable input".
The coffee came flying out of my nose so fast it hurt. When you tell the model that masks and distancing work, the model tells YOU that masks and distancing work. Garbage in, garbage out.
Well, the "model" then also produces actual money for you... So there's that.
Whats odd is he's written a lot about how complexity poses problems for top down controls. He's written on the multiscale law of requisite variety, which says there's a tradeoff between the complexity and scale of actions an organization can take. He even uses it to explain why guerilla warfare is successful against large conventional forces. The rona is the ultimate guerilla opponent.
In the words of the great Foghorn Leghorn: Aaaaahhhhhh shhhaaaadapppp! /slap!
I think maybe this would be solved if we all brought back the great Saturday morning cartoons no?😆.
Pay Attention Boy!
Someone give this guy covid already
You kidding me? He would relish the opportunity to "Die from Covid". It's his God. There is no higher honor except maybe death by their baptismal toxic vaccines.
He can tweet from the beyond then
I particularly appreciate the ritualistic references to 'purity' of air and of water.
Bar-Yam has been fear-mongering about diseases for who knows how long. In 2020, he and Taleb thought that COVID would result in extinction. That's why in his mind we have to go to every measure to eliminate the disease.
Some supplemental reading:
https://stephenjwood.substack.com/p/yaneer-bar-yam-and-the-zero-covid?s=w
Agreed. Not only that, but he doesn’t seem as bright as he makes himself out to be. He was clearly wrong so many times about COVID. And we still have yet to see his portfolio…
Will these self aggrandizing god-king experts ever sit down? Or will we have to make them...waiting with bated breath in Canada for the reinstitution of the ‘five pillars’ this fall.