Local hospital here in Ontario Canada just went full masktard. I guess they don't trust real science. Makes you full of confidence if you happen to have to be treated there, doesn't it?
Yes. As someone else observed, and their logic seems sound: Apparently medical science has been negligent for decades, perhaps over a century, in that they rarely if ever required every living breathing entity that enters a medical facility to wear a piece of cloth over their face. A skeptic might inquire why such a disease-preventing accessory was not more widely used, except for very limited purposes like a surgeon not sneezing into an open incision in the operating room. It's almost as if it was well known that wearing a mask was of very limited value in preventing the spread of airborne pathogens.
A new Siring has been developed that shoots like a shotgun .It was needed because of the many countless sub variants .One shot does it all .The new shots protecting against global warming is almost ready ,brought to you by PFIZER . Right now I feel a bit chilly ,so I will get myself a shot of SCHNAPS .
What about covid shot reminders this year compared to the past? Medicare is one of the organizations with the database to see the damage if they have anyone there interested. Not pushing covid shots like they did in the past would deserve attention.
But I recall other fantastic story: the FLURONA! Flu and covid viruses were combining to create the ultimate virus that would destroy us all. Didnt last too much, though. It was promising.
Media has big incentives to catastrophize illness between preying on fear psychology to increase eyeballs plus making big pharma advertisers very happy. Government money for mockingbird media operations is icing on the cake.
Rob. Your comment made me remember about a book called Selling Sickness by Alan Cassels. It is about the role of the pharmaceutical industry in creating and marketing illness. I confess I haven't read his book but have followed him for years.
He is an independent Health policy researcher and as of 2015 he held an adjunct faculty position in the Faculty of Human and Social Development at the University of Victoria, B. C. Canada.
I haven't managed to find anything about him since covid. Up until then he wrote great critiques about the flu vaccine, shingles vaccine and the hpv vaccine to name a few. He wasn't a fan of any of them.
we have Roku tv, but too cheap to pay for commercial free for most of our apps, so we do endure endless commercials for HIV drugs, kissing men, and scary RSV commercials targeting olden people and there are the celebs wearing two bandaids.
It is disgusting. We use the time to get up and walk around the house. We only watch about two hours of tv every night. The HIV ones are the most offensive, but ALL DRUGS on commercials now. They do not try to sell house hold products or foods because they are too expensive. Taco Bell does advertise their horrid food
Paying extra for ad-free is an incredible bargain. The people making ads are loathsome creatures that should not be trusted with access to your mind even if just in the background.
Rosemary. Still loving your thread on this. The commercials are so long during shows there's no doubt there would be time to clean the cat pan lol. I must confess that while I don't pay for commercial free TV programming, my husband does.
During my first marriage of 36 years I didn't have that luxury and I must admit that I got lots of chores accomplished during the commercials. I never watched them. Used the interludes to my advantage.
I hate commercials and will do anything to avoid them. Because we have an overpriced cable service we can PVR any program with commercials and then when we watch them we can Fast forward through the commercials. The odd time we forget and are amazed by how many commercials they can cram into an ever lengthening timeslot. Some are as short as 15 seconds and yet manage to have their say. It feels like an assault on the senses.
As for enjoying old shows we've been enjoying many series pre 2016 as well. We both have a fondness for British productions.
I can't make any claims for the quality of my mind 🤡but I'm one of those rarities -- a U.S. citizen who watches substantially zero TV or other video. This has been true since my early 40s. The few exceptions were when there was a live-in girlfriend with a TV habit. I still miss some of my old shows, some even still running (e.g. Simpsons) but I just can't bring myself to even watch them streaming.
I haven’t had normal TV at home for more than 15 years, maybe longer. I use Plex (it’s free) to watch everything. I store all my media myself, never have to watch a single commercial, and nothing can be taken away from me. It’s fantastic.
This doesn't apply to streaming services like Hulu, but the United States and New Zealand are the only two countries in the world that allow pharmaceutical advertising on broadcast TV.
I admit I haven't investigated, but I suspect the restriction extended to all media, except specialist publications (e.g. readership was medical professionals.)
We’re being treated to a barrage of the adverts with people rushing to get their free vaccine to be shingles ready. It only used to be just the flu jab advertised on tv for public to go get, now they don’t want you to get trampled on in the stampede for the shingles one they show.
The scrounging adverts never stop where you can make a free will with certain charities in exchange for leaving them a slice of your estate.
The latest updated one for stroke victims informing us strokes strike at any age, then up pops a young primary age child to tug the begging bowl’s heartstrings.
Of course they would have never had the audacity to roll out a child in previous years because it wasn’t common in children until the darting commenced.
I remember that on Hulu. They did a study on straight men seeing other men kissing and it physiologically induced the fight or flight response. It wasn't a "social convention" to not want to see it, but rather a wiring. I have the visceral response of covering my eyes or looking away.
It could, except the study took that into consideration. They talked to people from different cultures. From those who are the most prejudiced to others who were the most open minded...and they all had similar responses.
Rosemary B. Loved your comments on this post. I totally agree about being too cheap to pay for commercial free apps. However there is one I finally succumbed to. A music streaming app for 120 dollars a year. I love music. It's how I feed my soul. Because I am 73 I don't really need any more " stuff" when it comes to birthdays and Christmas so now I ask my husband for a years subscription to my music streaming service every year at Christmas. It's the gift that keeps on giving for me. And he loves it. It makes it easy for him and we are both happy with the results.
And people easily forget how recent is the advertising of prescription drugs. I can't recall the source, but the claim is that the USA and New Zealand are alone in the world that permit direct-to-consumer marketing of Rx drugs. In the USA, only since late 1990s.
Hurr durr I'm a journalist: "TSUNAMI of infections crashes over Bavaria, leaving hospitals OVERWHELMED; "We are running out of beds", warn doctors ominously, with "potentially grim consequences""
They lost me in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic when they warned "EXPONENTIAL CASES." They made the mistake of showing the numbers, which were incremental. I even looked up the word "Exponential" just in case, as someone who is math challenged, I was missing something.
I did not know that Bavaria is located by the ocean where a Tsunami might hit it .I was worried that a tornado of Whyrusses will hit it as it is doing now .
Considering Germany shuttered its nuclear power plants due to an earthquake off the coast of Japan and the tsunami following it, I wouldn't be too surprised.
Not tossing stones either. Here, feminists and other ________ think our reactors can explode like a-bombs.
And then there's the incessant TV commercials ("adverts" to others) that continually bombard us with the availability of the newest potions! "Get your flu vaccine now! Available at no charge at your neighborhood Big Box Behemoth Pharmacy!"
To which I reply (to no one in particular): STFU!!!
RioRosie. I do that all the time. My husband can't understand why I'm yelling at the TV lol. It's that or put my fist through it which isn't an option for me being the kind of person I am.
Right now in Canada we are being bombarded with commercials discuised as health community messages to get our shots.
However I've noticed it's rare that the media reports on the uptake of the covid shots. In an effort to promote their uptake they are urging people to get a covid booster and a flu shot and for good measure consider one for RSV. We have slick commercials with charming children and comforting grandfather's, extolling the virtues of embracing their recommended health measures. Oh and don't forget to wash your hands!
When one of my kids was not yet two, about 11 years ago, she got RSV pretty bad. I was freaked out, but the doctor gave us a nebulizer and a pamphlet and told us to go home. I can only imaging what they would say now.
so strange that i've made it to the rapidly-tarnishing part of my golden years, including the 18 years (plus conception prep and gestational time) where i was primarily responsible for protecting the health of my child, without ever once hearing about rsv.
of course, from the very earliest moments of childraising i always had on hand a bottle of hyland's 25mg vitamin c tablets which dissolved instantly on the tongue and were safe for even the tiniest babies, and i administered them before and after every vaccination and at the slightest sign of any derangement of the bodily humors. they weren't a magic preventative; my kid still got plenty of normal childhood illnesses, and that's not surprising considering the time we spent together and separately on crowded public transportation. but he never, so far as i can tell, got rsv.
but neither did any other kid i ever heard of and i'm sure plenty of them were highly un-supplemented. strange.
My son had RSV as a baby, and they told me that's what led to his childhood asthma and follow-on problems (in hindsight, it occurs to me to wonder if that's true). Nevertheless, I am absolutely not in favor of a vaccine. Most people get this when they are children, which is as it should be for a robust immune system.
did he by any chance also have a childhood tonsillectomy?
i had mine out when i was eight and developed severe cat-triggered asthma in my early 20s (though previous contact with cats hadn't bothered me). years later i read of studies correlating tonsillectomies with later development of asthma.
the immune system is a very tricky critter. i think doctors often flail around when trying to explain asthma and will stick a tail anywhere on the donkey.
fyi my own asthma seems closely tied to times of extreme stress and that's when the cats will get close to killing me. but i haven't used any asthma medicines in decades now, and when i visit friends who have cats, i pre-dose with vitamin c, carry some with me and bring along a couple of black teabags for emergency use (theophylline naturally present in tea is a component of asthma drugs).
Most interesting, SCA--the theophylline aspect (as I just swallowed the last of my cup) before touching this keyboard--don't suffer from asthma, though
it's a great thing to know. in an emergency situation where time matters and one is waiting for more professional assistance, serving a good strong mugful of black tea can be a useful trick (when there's no time to steep it, use multiple teabags!)
It will be interesting to see (I should live so long) whether those who had the varicella vax as children (mine suffered the real deal) will have more or less of shingles as they age.
i was relieved my kid had chickenpox a year or so before the varicella vax came out. i would not have felt comfortable allowing him to get such a new therapeutic.
and funny thing about shingles. i am not young and had chickenpox as a kid. in jan. 2020 i came down with shingles--mostly in my scalp. i tried to pretend for a couple of days that it was just a case of lazy hygiene and then i saw a small patch of blisters on my neck.
it was mostly held in check by 18,000 or so mgs. of vitamin c daily. i only went for medical assistance because the shooting pains in my scalp and ears were getting a little tiring. if i'd known of the miraculous properties of aspirin 500mgs taken two at a time every six hours, i'd've saved myself the trouble (and the horrible valtrex i was persuaded to take too). by the time i started on the anti-viral i really was on the way to recovery.
the lesson herein: therapeutic doses of vitamin c work wonders. but you must take that sufficiently-therapeutic dose.
SCA. Was really interested in your experience with shingles. Like you I am not young and had chicken pox as a child. And no shingles vaccine for me ever. So far, I have been lucky but realize its a possibility. I know two people who had shingles, one in his early twenties, and one in his sixties. Based on research I had done, I mentioned the use of tea tree oil as a possible solution. It appeared to work for both of them, particularly in the case of the older person.
I'm not a fan of aspirin but was intrigued by your experience and the results you achieved using them.
I'm an advocate for vitamin C but normally restrict myself to 2000 units daily. Your comment on vitamin C and shingles was interesting.
Thanks for sharing. Since I have no intention of ever taking the shingles vaccine I'm always interested in ways to cope with it should I ever get it.
it was a very interesting experience. who gets that in their scalp? it was so miserable that i poured skin lotion on my head and massaged it in to relieve some of the symptoms (a natural lotion full of aloe and other soothing herbal ingredients).
in my view aspirin is a miracle drug. in the back-and-body formulation--500mgs with caffeine taken 2 tablets at a time--it's the only thing that works on my migraines. (that was the gift of the menopause fairy and i wish she'd take it back.) and strangely, the lower dose tablets--325 mgs taken 3 at a time--are not sufficient. that extra 25 mgs is the magic.
the urgent care place i went to for the shingles because the pain had gotten very tiring told me that taking an anti-viral was a good idea since shingles so close to the brain can result in encephalitis. valtrex is a very nasty drug with horrible warnings about side effects and i will never know if i was a moron to take it, since i was already getting better, or if the vitamin c was so detoxifying that it really didn't matter.
i can tell you that my own experience with any acute illness or infection (blepharitis is like a toad curse but that's another story) has demonstrated that *sufficient* vitamin c taken throughout the day during the course of the affliction is a miracle drug. each person must discover the dose that is therapeutic for them. but it's not gonna be as little as the competent medical authorities will tell you. the instructions i got for the recuperation phse of my recently-broken arm said "500mg vitamin C' daily" and i just laughed at that. but hey. at least they acknowedged the value!
I’ve two teenagers and never heard of it until recently.
Both of mine played out all day the minute they could walk in all weathers. They had daily sessions of digging in the muck and getting generally filthy building that immune system.
Parents these days have an obsession with never wanting their children ever to be ill, our bodies do not work that way.
My own two are pretty robust and have the odd cold now and again, it’s a standing joke at with our gp that we go years without stepping foot in that place.
Parents just need to understand sometimes kids are sick and medicating for the sake of it should not even enter your head.
My father always used to say you sleep yourself better, we were taught to sleep and sweat it out to speed up the bodies healing process, I’ve taught my own two the same whenever either isn’t well they head off to bed themselves
what works against sleeping yourself better was the pre-plague era mentality of bosses that you drag yourself in to work unless you are in fact dead. and the need of working parents to have kids be able to go to school.
plus the abysmal school times exacerbated by bus schedules. if adults and children could actually stay home and rest when ill--or when feeling like illness was gonna hit you hard the next day--the populace would stay a lot healthier.
Up until the mid-1990s, we had as part of our public health insurance that you didn't lose any pay for the first two sick-days off, no doctor's diagnosis required. This was of course abused by some to have three-day weekends so they didn't have to go to work still hung over on monday morning. Maybe parts of a percent, if that.
Still, it was blown up into a political talking-point and so was changed into no pay at all for the first two sick days, plus private employers got the right to demand a signed diagnositc from an MD.
Effects:
1) Overloading public MDs and public health care centers with people needing that silly slip of paper for a normal sniffle. Not handing in such a slip in due time (which still is undefined to this day) is cause for termination. According to randian and neoliberal dogma (the politicians who enacted this were self-proclaimed fans of Ayn Rand) this makes for better workers.
2) Driving up overall sick leave numbers by tens of percents, because parents working in education and child care who would otherwise stayed home had to go to work, spreading infections among the students - and vice versa; you would lose pay the same way if you stayed at home with kids with the sniffles, virtually the same rules as for adults.
(You can imagine the negative net-effect this has had on the economy, both for individuals and for the state and nation.)
3) People with chronical conditions preventing them from working but who haven't been granted early retirement and state pension have to hand in a doctor's slip with a "new" diagnosis every three months. Each such slip equals one hours work for a doctor, and we have about 35 000 such "chronics". 4 slips per year per person equals 140 000 work hours for MDs lost to what essentially is paperwork.
According to the same neoliberal randian politicans, this will help get these people to "re-enter the work force". Yeah, my 64 year old neighbour, a former specialist welder, who's suffered multiple strokes will surely be able to compete on today's labour market, yah betcha.
Fucking Randians, they are even more moronic than communists.
i truly struggle to understand this admiration for a deranged russian jew whose driving motivation was rage at the impoverishment of her family because of the russian revolution.
this is the basic human need for a cult to join--any cult, no matter how ridiculous, so long as one could quote doctrine and get someone to nod wisely back at you, preferably after sufficient rounds of drinking.
Yeah - I mean, her I understand. I know how angry I am about what our home-grown commies-and-such have done and are trying to do, and while bad they have a ways to go to equal Lenin and Trotsky and their gang.
But her literary achievements... it's 'Mein Kampf'-levels of bad writing.
I think she serves well as an example of what happens when a western idea (modernism and futurism in her case) is filtered through a very different cultural lens; jewish/russian and then reflected back on its originator-culture and how it is re-interpreted.
Contrast and compare with what Lenin did with Engels' ideas on economy for a similar example, or the US Founding Fathers and friends re: french and british philosphies of state, society and economy.
An original idea is after all evolved in a specific context, where everyone understands it (agrees with is a different matter) on cultural instinct - humour is a very good example of this. And some ideas do speak to universal and fundamental things - almost all cultures have "Mulla Nasrin"-style stories f.e. even without any arabic cultural influence. And of course, some ideas are so unique they are almost impossible to translate idiomatically - just compare [Respect] in a germanic cultural context with corresponding arab interpretation of it. In the first, it is something that cannot be demanded, bought or claimed. It can be earned, given or lost only. In the latter, it must and should be demanded and the demand must be backed up when challenged (and that is obviously my understanding of it - an arab would and should explain it differently).
And Rand? She sheared all of that off, cut it out completely.
Maybe that's the appeal for libertarians and liberals, futurists and modernists: instead of all the thorny, infected, third rail-style issue of culture and ethnicity and race and so on, they can just safely ignore it for simpolified childish pastiches?
there's stuff that's natural to admire in one's adolescence but if someone still likes her at 60 then failure to launch is detected,
adolescence is a grimly-hilarious family adventure in muslim cultures. even the most educated western-admiring intellectual parents--especially the fathers--react to a kid's natural maturation process as a sin against god. you don't find very many fully-functional adults over there--or any over here they've moved to.
to be sure, plenty of western parents all throughout history have beaten the crap out of their maturing kids for the sin of maturing, too. but that's considered really bad form and not something one likes to admit to.
It’s funny because I’ve covered a lot of shifts the last two years of my darted co workers, they seem to suffer from one thing after another, one seems to have a forever cold.
it is a funny thing, isn't it? i have a history of auto-immune conditions (hay fever, asthma, blepharitis) and yet i think i've only had the flu twice over the past 43 years despite being a public-transit commuter for a great deal of that time and despite winter season general stuffiness, not too many colds. if vitamin c and ginger tea can't mitigate it, i might as well just give up and die.
Look up the history of RSV... It was a chimp virus and would have stayed one, but noooo, we had to mess around with sick chimps while messing about with the polio "vaccine". Now kids around the world get sick, thanks to yet another own goal by Murica. https://www.nvic.org/disease-vaccine/rsv/history-in-america
Nirsevimab has been approved by the EMA but not specifically recommended by German vaccine regulators, that will come in the spring. Same story with the Abrysvo vaccine for pregnant women.
"The immunity deficit that ravaged the youngs after the end of pandemic measures"
This implies that lockdowns and other silliness genuinely stopped the spread of every virus except the one actually intended - they clearly had no effect on COVID at all.
I find it extremely difficult to believe that they had no effect on COVID but magically stopped/reduced the spread of everything else.
To what extent are there serious data that really demonstrate these reported post-lockdown surges/spikes in other viruses? If they indeed did happen - maybe this is more plausibly explained by massive immune-sysyem damage in 80%+ covid-jabbed populations including multiply-jabbed kids? On top of that there has been massive ramp up in the jabbing of kids (and adults) against flu, RSV and many other things where we never previously used to jab kids - e.g. no kids in UK were plied with flu Jan's prior to covidian era and I never heard of UK kids having RSV jabs before either (and now they are mass jabbing UK kids with chickenpox vax which I don't remember having been used previously in UK). Given that many of these jabs don't seem to work, and many kinds of jabs historically have been followed by spikes in the disease they were supposed to stop, I suspect these additional jabs have significantly contributed to the mayhem.
I'm 49 and my retarded GP surgery has just been sending me text messages asking me to come for an MMR vaccine to "protect against measles"!! Meanwhile kids are being offered pneumococcal jabs which have always been only given to the very elderly in UK - and another new one here is meningococcal for kids - I know USA been turning their kids into porcupines for many years, but most of these were not routinely given in UK until this recent insanity.
I find it extremely difficult to believe that lockdowns suppressed any of these viruses at all. Mass quarantined never worked historically for other diseases, and clearly never worked for covid.
[I massively appreciate your writing and am long-time subscriber - just querrying this particular point - it also kindof undermines the lockdown-skeptic position potentially]
Yes, my understanding of these things was transformed by Midwestern Doctor's substack blog and then reading the "Dissolving Illusions" book - haven't got around to finishing "Turtles" yet. Some of the recent ICAN litigation has also been illuminating.
We are in a "5th" wave here in NZ.. Media having some fear porn activity but not gaining much traction. Meanwhile my neighbor just got her 3rd booster after reading the newspaper and immediately got Covid for the 3rd time. "could have been worse if I didn't get it"
It's almost as though there's some sort of obscure connection between them and the press.
That said, the quality of "medical correspondents" has been declining for years. I used to read "New Scientist" magazine (in UK) and it used to contain many useful and thought provoking articles but over the last few years the in house science correspondents have been replaced by younger, cheaper versions whose only skill seems to be a regurgitation of whatever new and dubious miracle discovery/drug/vaccine/climate change cure they read about.
Covid/jabs/wokeism/climate change has been a godsend for them.
No doubt they all stay at home googling their time away. Gone are the days of any actual investigative journalism.
It's really remarkable how mich of the world is run by these one-trick ponies. They really are automatons.
If indeed our civilization is sophisticated and advanced, it is covered from head to toe in barnacles that make it appear like a monstrously stupid animal.
civilization doesn't get more sophisticated and advanced than, say, the height of the roman empire. after that it's just fancier technology but human nature remains as it ever has. all the wisdom already been written. the rest is just repackaging by each new generation of grifters.
If there is mRNA in these vaccines, what Germany will get is more stillbirths, dead or badly injured mothers and kids, and the whole panoply of symptoms....Operation Population Redux rolls on....
Couldn’t agree more, the excess death stats are now out and available for most countries. Every time the excess deaths rise sharply is immediately following the latest jabs. Robust studies, proof positive, the mRNA jabs cause death.
More fear porn for the sheeple.
Masks up, jab up.
Masktards to the rescue 😆
Local hospital here in Ontario Canada just went full masktard. I guess they don't trust real science. Makes you full of confidence if you happen to have to be treated there, doesn't it?
Yes. As someone else observed, and their logic seems sound: Apparently medical science has been negligent for decades, perhaps over a century, in that they rarely if ever required every living breathing entity that enters a medical facility to wear a piece of cloth over their face. A skeptic might inquire why such a disease-preventing accessory was not more widely used, except for very limited purposes like a surgeon not sneezing into an open incision in the operating room. It's almost as if it was well known that wearing a mask was of very limited value in preventing the spread of airborne pathogens.
Are Europeans using the TRIPLEDEMIC fear porn terminology like they are in America?
Talk to your doctor about protecting yourself against the TRIPLEDEMIC of COVID, RSV, and FLU.
TRIPLEDEMIC: Because Big Pharma wants to triple their profits. One shot, two shots, three shots, floor.
A new Siring has been developed that shoots like a shotgun .It was needed because of the many countless sub variants .One shot does it all .The new shots protecting against global warming is almost ready ,brought to you by PFIZER . Right now I feel a bit chilly ,so I will get myself a shot of SCHNAPS .
I keep getting emails from Medicare cheerily informing me I need to get my flu shot.
What about covid shot reminders this year compared to the past? Medicare is one of the organizations with the database to see the damage if they have anyone there interested. Not pushing covid shots like they did in the past would deserve attention.
Me too. They can GFT.
Yuri. I'm from Canada and yes, that term is being used once again.
And in between this fear porn we're also getting lots of commercials about getting the shingles vaccine and the one for pneumonia.
And if you really want to be adventurous why not try Ozempic for weight loss. Never mind the diabetics who apparently need this for their condition.
I believe the two most powerful financial industries are the Military Industrial Complex followed by the Pharmaceutical Industry.
Nice, Yuri! I'm keeping that one.
Haven't heard it. But I dont watch the news.
But I recall other fantastic story: the FLURONA! Flu and covid viruses were combining to create the ultimate virus that would destroy us all. Didnt last too much, though. It was promising.
Media has big incentives to catastrophize illness between preying on fear psychology to increase eyeballs plus making big pharma advertisers very happy. Government money for mockingbird media operations is icing on the cake.
The only reason for the “RSV wave” is because they’ve got a new Vx to sell.
Yep. They sell disease, not drugs. Once people buy the disease, the drugs sell themselves
Rob. Your comment made me remember about a book called Selling Sickness by Alan Cassels. It is about the role of the pharmaceutical industry in creating and marketing illness. I confess I haven't read his book but have followed him for years.
He is an independent Health policy researcher and as of 2015 he held an adjunct faculty position in the Faculty of Human and Social Development at the University of Victoria, B. C. Canada.
I haven't managed to find anything about him since covid. Up until then he wrote great critiques about the flu vaccine, shingles vaccine and the hpv vaccine to name a few. He wasn't a fan of any of them.
Brilliant!!
The only reason we have RSV at all is due to the polio vaccine...
Soon ah will be donna wid de sillies ob de world, de sillies ob de world, de sillies ob de world....for they're goin to meet wid God.
we have Roku tv, but too cheap to pay for commercial free for most of our apps, so we do endure endless commercials for HIV drugs, kissing men, and scary RSV commercials targeting olden people and there are the celebs wearing two bandaids.
It is disgusting. We use the time to get up and walk around the house. We only watch about two hours of tv every night. The HIV ones are the most offensive, but ALL DRUGS on commercials now. They do not try to sell house hold products or foods because they are too expensive. Taco Bell does advertise their horrid food
Drug pushing is so obnoxious
Paying extra for ad-free is an incredible bargain. The people making ads are loathsome creatures that should not be trusted with access to your mind even if just in the background.
I agree but we use the time to tend to kitty box scooping and other stuff.
TV is such trash anyway. We either find something current and not nauseatingly woke, or we watch old shows - pre 2016 at least
Rosemary. Still loving your thread on this. The commercials are so long during shows there's no doubt there would be time to clean the cat pan lol. I must confess that while I don't pay for commercial free TV programming, my husband does.
During my first marriage of 36 years I didn't have that luxury and I must admit that I got lots of chores accomplished during the commercials. I never watched them. Used the interludes to my advantage.
I hate commercials and will do anything to avoid them. Because we have an overpriced cable service we can PVR any program with commercials and then when we watch them we can Fast forward through the commercials. The odd time we forget and are amazed by how many commercials they can cram into an ever lengthening timeslot. Some are as short as 15 seconds and yet manage to have their say. It feels like an assault on the senses.
As for enjoying old shows we've been enjoying many series pre 2016 as well. We both have a fondness for British productions.
yes hubbs and I have also watched a lot of old British tv shows. We have Britbox and will probably never let that one go.
Rosemary B. We also have Brit Box and are really enjoying it. We've had it about 9 months. It's a keeper.
Why don't you watch black and white oldies without sound .?My wife does .,that way she does not talk back .
I can't make any claims for the quality of my mind 🤡but I'm one of those rarities -- a U.S. citizen who watches substantially zero TV or other video. This has been true since my early 40s. The few exceptions were when there was a live-in girlfriend with a TV habit. I still miss some of my old shows, some even still running (e.g. Simpsons) but I just can't bring myself to even watch them streaming.
I haven’t had normal TV at home for more than 15 years, maybe longer. I use Plex (it’s free) to watch everything. I store all my media myself, never have to watch a single commercial, and nothing can be taken away from me. It’s fantastic.
Gilligans Island, McHales Navy.... I have seen them again. Quite silly the second time around.
Ohhhh so many fun old shows.
Really, even some old Johnny Carson shows
This doesn't apply to streaming services like Hulu, but the United States and New Zealand are the only two countries in the world that allow pharmaceutical advertising on broadcast TV.
I admit I haven't investigated, but I suspect the restriction extended to all media, except specialist publications (e.g. readership was medical professionals.)
And I admit, I haven't investigated either, but I don't think the federal government has regulatory power over streaming services.
We’re being treated to a barrage of the adverts with people rushing to get their free vaccine to be shingles ready. It only used to be just the flu jab advertised on tv for public to go get, now they don’t want you to get trampled on in the stampede for the shingles one they show.
The scrounging adverts never stop where you can make a free will with certain charities in exchange for leaving them a slice of your estate.
The latest updated one for stroke victims informing us strokes strike at any age, then up pops a young primary age child to tug the begging bowl’s heartstrings.
Of course they would have never had the audacity to roll out a child in previous years because it wasn’t common in children until the darting commenced.
RSV vax too.
Black face commercials on T.V are in fashion now Every ad. must have one with a white women in it .
I remember that on Hulu. They did a study on straight men seeing other men kissing and it physiologically induced the fight or flight response. It wasn't a "social convention" to not want to see it, but rather a wiring. I have the visceral response of covering my eyes or looking away.
That's really interesting and explains what I have occasionally witnessed in my husband. A visceral sort of disgust. Thank you for that insight.
I do that when I see people in muzzles.
my husband comes out with a great big "YUCKKKK" and "disgusting"
Yep. And yet the far left would call that "homophobic." It's not.
I still think it could be cultural indoctrination.
It could, except the study took that into consideration. They talked to people from different cultures. From those who are the most prejudiced to others who were the most open minded...and they all had similar responses.
Jimmy G--would you, could you, provide the source for this study? I have just now told my husband of these comments.
https://www.psypost.org/2017/06/straight-mens-physiological-stress-response-seeing-two-men-kissing-seeing-maggots-49217
Thanks so much!
Rosemary B. Loved your comments on this post. I totally agree about being too cheap to pay for commercial free apps. However there is one I finally succumbed to. A music streaming app for 120 dollars a year. I love music. It's how I feed my soul. Because I am 73 I don't really need any more " stuff" when it comes to birthdays and Christmas so now I ask my husband for a years subscription to my music streaming service every year at Christmas. It's the gift that keeps on giving for me. And he loves it. It makes it easy for him and we are both happy with the results.
yes, I have XM radio app. I love it. I have it on my tv, in my car and on my laptop.
We should be neighbors!!
And people easily forget how recent is the advertising of prescription drugs. I can't recall the source, but the claim is that the USA and New Zealand are alone in the world that permit direct-to-consumer marketing of Rx drugs. In the USA, only since late 1990s.
Hurr durr I'm a journalist: "TSUNAMI of infections crashes over Bavaria, leaving hospitals OVERWHELMED; "We are running out of beds", warn doctors ominously, with "potentially grim consequences""
They lost me in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic when they warned "EXPONENTIAL CASES." They made the mistake of showing the numbers, which were incremental. I even looked up the word "Exponential" just in case, as someone who is math challenged, I was missing something.
Emergencies provide the perfect cover for taking away rights and money laundering schemes. So they have embraced the idea of emergency by design.
Hospitals running with low bed counts is emergency by design. Open borders are also emergencies by design. Many more examples out there.
Great transfers of wealth too.
Disaster Capitalization in action.
Maybe they should tell people to stop going to the hospital with colds.
Soooo 2019, don't you think?
No it's the new normal .
I did not know that Bavaria is located by the ocean where a Tsunami might hit it .I was worried that a tornado of Whyrusses will hit it as it is doing now .
Imagine if Eugyppius lived in Florida where there could be a Sharknado of cases.
Considering Germany shuttered its nuclear power plants due to an earthquake off the coast of Japan and the tsunami following it, I wouldn't be too surprised.
Not tossing stones either. Here, feminists and other ________ think our reactors can explode like a-bombs.
And then there's the incessant TV commercials ("adverts" to others) that continually bombard us with the availability of the newest potions! "Get your flu vaccine now! Available at no charge at your neighborhood Big Box Behemoth Pharmacy!"
To which I reply (to no one in particular): STFU!!!
AND LEAVE THE KIDS ALONE.
RioRosie. I do that all the time. My husband can't understand why I'm yelling at the TV lol. It's that or put my fist through it which isn't an option for me being the kind of person I am.
Right now in Canada we are being bombarded with commercials discuised as health community messages to get our shots.
However I've noticed it's rare that the media reports on the uptake of the covid shots. In an effort to promote their uptake they are urging people to get a covid booster and a flu shot and for good measure consider one for RSV. We have slick commercials with charming children and comforting grandfather's, extolling the virtues of embracing their recommended health measures. Oh and don't forget to wash your hands!
Agree! The commercials recommend the covid booster, flu shot, RSV and pneumonia. Oh yes, and how about a shingles shot, too!
Jeez, these people are so HAPPY to jab everyone with everything Perfectly gleeful!
Friends have advised the shingles shot. I'd like to get it but I hesitate to let anyone near me with a needle!
Imagine that: a vaccine for pneumonia which is bacterial. Sounds like a con job to me.
When one of my kids was not yet two, about 11 years ago, she got RSV pretty bad. I was freaked out, but the doctor gave us a nebulizer and a pamphlet and told us to go home. I can only imaging what they would say now.
MEGA. It sounds like both you and the doctor did the right thing. Commen sense prevailed.
so strange that i've made it to the rapidly-tarnishing part of my golden years, including the 18 years (plus conception prep and gestational time) where i was primarily responsible for protecting the health of my child, without ever once hearing about rsv.
of course, from the very earliest moments of childraising i always had on hand a bottle of hyland's 25mg vitamin c tablets which dissolved instantly on the tongue and were safe for even the tiniest babies, and i administered them before and after every vaccination and at the slightest sign of any derangement of the bodily humors. they weren't a magic preventative; my kid still got plenty of normal childhood illnesses, and that's not surprising considering the time we spent together and separately on crowded public transportation. but he never, so far as i can tell, got rsv.
but neither did any other kid i ever heard of and i'm sure plenty of them were highly un-supplemented. strange.
My son had RSV as a baby, and they told me that's what led to his childhood asthma and follow-on problems (in hindsight, it occurs to me to wonder if that's true). Nevertheless, I am absolutely not in favor of a vaccine. Most people get this when they are children, which is as it should be for a robust immune system.
did he by any chance also have a childhood tonsillectomy?
i had mine out when i was eight and developed severe cat-triggered asthma in my early 20s (though previous contact with cats hadn't bothered me). years later i read of studies correlating tonsillectomies with later development of asthma.
the immune system is a very tricky critter. i think doctors often flail around when trying to explain asthma and will stick a tail anywhere on the donkey.
fyi my own asthma seems closely tied to times of extreme stress and that's when the cats will get close to killing me. but i haven't used any asthma medicines in decades now, and when i visit friends who have cats, i pre-dose with vitamin c, carry some with me and bring along a couple of black teabags for emergency use (theophylline naturally present in tea is a component of asthma drugs).
No tonsillectomy, no.
Most interesting, SCA--the theophylline aspect (as I just swallowed the last of my cup) before touching this keyboard--don't suffer from asthma, though
it's a great thing to know. in an emergency situation where time matters and one is waiting for more professional assistance, serving a good strong mugful of black tea can be a useful trick (when there's no time to steep it, use multiple teabags!)
It will be interesting to see (I should live so long) whether those who had the varicella vax as children (mine suffered the real deal) will have more or less of shingles as they age.
i was relieved my kid had chickenpox a year or so before the varicella vax came out. i would not have felt comfortable allowing him to get such a new therapeutic.
and funny thing about shingles. i am not young and had chickenpox as a kid. in jan. 2020 i came down with shingles--mostly in my scalp. i tried to pretend for a couple of days that it was just a case of lazy hygiene and then i saw a small patch of blisters on my neck.
it was mostly held in check by 18,000 or so mgs. of vitamin c daily. i only went for medical assistance because the shooting pains in my scalp and ears were getting a little tiring. if i'd known of the miraculous properties of aspirin 500mgs taken two at a time every six hours, i'd've saved myself the trouble (and the horrible valtrex i was persuaded to take too). by the time i started on the anti-viral i really was on the way to recovery.
the lesson herein: therapeutic doses of vitamin c work wonders. but you must take that sufficiently-therapeutic dose.
SCA. Was really interested in your experience with shingles. Like you I am not young and had chicken pox as a child. And no shingles vaccine for me ever. So far, I have been lucky but realize its a possibility. I know two people who had shingles, one in his early twenties, and one in his sixties. Based on research I had done, I mentioned the use of tea tree oil as a possible solution. It appeared to work for both of them, particularly in the case of the older person.
I'm not a fan of aspirin but was intrigued by your experience and the results you achieved using them.
I'm an advocate for vitamin C but normally restrict myself to 2000 units daily. Your comment on vitamin C and shingles was interesting.
Thanks for sharing. Since I have no intention of ever taking the shingles vaccine I'm always interested in ways to cope with it should I ever get it.
it was a very interesting experience. who gets that in their scalp? it was so miserable that i poured skin lotion on my head and massaged it in to relieve some of the symptoms (a natural lotion full of aloe and other soothing herbal ingredients).
in my view aspirin is a miracle drug. in the back-and-body formulation--500mgs with caffeine taken 2 tablets at a time--it's the only thing that works on my migraines. (that was the gift of the menopause fairy and i wish she'd take it back.) and strangely, the lower dose tablets--325 mgs taken 3 at a time--are not sufficient. that extra 25 mgs is the magic.
the urgent care place i went to for the shingles because the pain had gotten very tiring told me that taking an anti-viral was a good idea since shingles so close to the brain can result in encephalitis. valtrex is a very nasty drug with horrible warnings about side effects and i will never know if i was a moron to take it, since i was already getting better, or if the vitamin c was so detoxifying that it really didn't matter.
i can tell you that my own experience with any acute illness or infection (blepharitis is like a toad curse but that's another story) has demonstrated that *sufficient* vitamin c taken throughout the day during the course of the affliction is a miracle drug. each person must discover the dose that is therapeutic for them. but it's not gonna be as little as the competent medical authorities will tell you. the instructions i got for the recuperation phse of my recently-broken arm said "500mg vitamin C' daily" and i just laughed at that. but hey. at least they acknowedged the value!
I know plenty of covid vaccinated kids here in Northern Virginia that have had RSV recently!! at least 10 in my circle
we sure fucked up the natural rhythm of things during this plague era.
I’ve two teenagers and never heard of it until recently.
Both of mine played out all day the minute they could walk in all weathers. They had daily sessions of digging in the muck and getting generally filthy building that immune system.
Parents these days have an obsession with never wanting their children ever to be ill, our bodies do not work that way.
My own two are pretty robust and have the odd cold now and again, it’s a standing joke at with our gp that we go years without stepping foot in that place.
Parents just need to understand sometimes kids are sick and medicating for the sake of it should not even enter your head.
My father always used to say you sleep yourself better, we were taught to sleep and sweat it out to speed up the bodies healing process, I’ve taught my own two the same whenever either isn’t well they head off to bed themselves
what works against sleeping yourself better was the pre-plague era mentality of bosses that you drag yourself in to work unless you are in fact dead. and the need of working parents to have kids be able to go to school.
plus the abysmal school times exacerbated by bus schedules. if adults and children could actually stay home and rest when ill--or when feeling like illness was gonna hit you hard the next day--the populace would stay a lot healthier.
Can confirm this empirically.
Up until the mid-1990s, we had as part of our public health insurance that you didn't lose any pay for the first two sick-days off, no doctor's diagnosis required. This was of course abused by some to have three-day weekends so they didn't have to go to work still hung over on monday morning. Maybe parts of a percent, if that.
Still, it was blown up into a political talking-point and so was changed into no pay at all for the first two sick days, plus private employers got the right to demand a signed diagnositc from an MD.
Effects:
1) Overloading public MDs and public health care centers with people needing that silly slip of paper for a normal sniffle. Not handing in such a slip in due time (which still is undefined to this day) is cause for termination. According to randian and neoliberal dogma (the politicians who enacted this were self-proclaimed fans of Ayn Rand) this makes for better workers.
2) Driving up overall sick leave numbers by tens of percents, because parents working in education and child care who would otherwise stayed home had to go to work, spreading infections among the students - and vice versa; you would lose pay the same way if you stayed at home with kids with the sniffles, virtually the same rules as for adults.
(You can imagine the negative net-effect this has had on the economy, both for individuals and for the state and nation.)
3) People with chronical conditions preventing them from working but who haven't been granted early retirement and state pension have to hand in a doctor's slip with a "new" diagnosis every three months. Each such slip equals one hours work for a doctor, and we have about 35 000 such "chronics". 4 slips per year per person equals 140 000 work hours for MDs lost to what essentially is paperwork.
According to the same neoliberal randian politicans, this will help get these people to "re-enter the work force". Yeah, my 64 year old neighbour, a former specialist welder, who's suffered multiple strokes will surely be able to compete on today's labour market, yah betcha.
Fucking Randians, they are even more moronic than communists.
i truly struggle to understand this admiration for a deranged russian jew whose driving motivation was rage at the impoverishment of her family because of the russian revolution.
this is the basic human need for a cult to join--any cult, no matter how ridiculous, so long as one could quote doctrine and get someone to nod wisely back at you, preferably after sufficient rounds of drinking.
Yeah - I mean, her I understand. I know how angry I am about what our home-grown commies-and-such have done and are trying to do, and while bad they have a ways to go to equal Lenin and Trotsky and their gang.
But her literary achievements... it's 'Mein Kampf'-levels of bad writing.
I think she serves well as an example of what happens when a western idea (modernism and futurism in her case) is filtered through a very different cultural lens; jewish/russian and then reflected back on its originator-culture and how it is re-interpreted.
Contrast and compare with what Lenin did with Engels' ideas on economy for a similar example, or the US Founding Fathers and friends re: french and british philosphies of state, society and economy.
An original idea is after all evolved in a specific context, where everyone understands it (agrees with is a different matter) on cultural instinct - humour is a very good example of this. And some ideas do speak to universal and fundamental things - almost all cultures have "Mulla Nasrin"-style stories f.e. even without any arabic cultural influence. And of course, some ideas are so unique they are almost impossible to translate idiomatically - just compare [Respect] in a germanic cultural context with corresponding arab interpretation of it. In the first, it is something that cannot be demanded, bought or claimed. It can be earned, given or lost only. In the latter, it must and should be demanded and the demand must be backed up when challenged (and that is obviously my understanding of it - an arab would and should explain it differently).
And Rand? She sheared all of that off, cut it out completely.
Maybe that's the appeal for libertarians and liberals, futurists and modernists: instead of all the thorny, infected, third rail-style issue of culture and ethnicity and race and so on, they can just safely ignore it for simpolified childish pastiches?
there's stuff that's natural to admire in one's adolescence but if someone still likes her at 60 then failure to launch is detected,
adolescence is a grimly-hilarious family adventure in muslim cultures. even the most educated western-admiring intellectual parents--especially the fathers--react to a kid's natural maturation process as a sin against god. you don't find very many fully-functional adults over there--or any over here they've moved to.
to be sure, plenty of western parents all throughout history have beaten the crap out of their maturing kids for the sin of maturing, too. but that's considered really bad form and not something one likes to admit to.
It’s funny because I’ve covered a lot of shifts the last two years of my darted co workers, they seem to suffer from one thing after another, one seems to have a forever cold.
it is a funny thing, isn't it? i have a history of auto-immune conditions (hay fever, asthma, blepharitis) and yet i think i've only had the flu twice over the past 43 years despite being a public-transit commuter for a great deal of that time and despite winter season general stuffiness, not too many colds. if vitamin c and ginger tea can't mitigate it, i might as well just give up and die.
Look up the history of RSV... It was a chimp virus and would have stayed one, but noooo, we had to mess around with sick chimps while messing about with the polio "vaccine". Now kids around the world get sick, thanks to yet another own goal by Murica. https://www.nvic.org/disease-vaccine/rsv/history-in-america
Yeah, always a new name for a seasonally occuring affliction.
Last time I had a flu shot was in, maybe, 2011.
Got the flu that year.
Never jabbed since.
Take care of your immune system, and it will serve you well.
It's not really natural
Is Germany using Nirsevimad as a prevention against RSV before infection? It is not exactly a vaccine, I think it is antibodies.
Here in Spain, they are using it.
Nirsevimab has been approved by the EMA but not specifically recommended by German vaccine regulators, that will come in the spring. Same story with the Abrysvo vaccine for pregnant women.
disgusting
Does R.S.V. stand for recreational sports vehicle ??
It stands for Really Stupid Vaccine research.
https://www.nvic.org/disease-vaccine/rsv/history-in-america
Hell, yeah!
"The immunity deficit that ravaged the youngs after the end of pandemic measures"
This implies that lockdowns and other silliness genuinely stopped the spread of every virus except the one actually intended - they clearly had no effect on COVID at all.
I find it extremely difficult to believe that they had no effect on COVID but magically stopped/reduced the spread of everything else.
To what extent are there serious data that really demonstrate these reported post-lockdown surges/spikes in other viruses? If they indeed did happen - maybe this is more plausibly explained by massive immune-sysyem damage in 80%+ covid-jabbed populations including multiply-jabbed kids? On top of that there has been massive ramp up in the jabbing of kids (and adults) against flu, RSV and many other things where we never previously used to jab kids - e.g. no kids in UK were plied with flu Jan's prior to covidian era and I never heard of UK kids having RSV jabs before either (and now they are mass jabbing UK kids with chickenpox vax which I don't remember having been used previously in UK). Given that many of these jabs don't seem to work, and many kinds of jabs historically have been followed by spikes in the disease they were supposed to stop, I suspect these additional jabs have significantly contributed to the mayhem.
I'm 49 and my retarded GP surgery has just been sending me text messages asking me to come for an MMR vaccine to "protect against measles"!! Meanwhile kids are being offered pneumococcal jabs which have always been only given to the very elderly in UK - and another new one here is meningococcal for kids - I know USA been turning their kids into porcupines for many years, but most of these were not routinely given in UK until this recent insanity.
I find it extremely difficult to believe that lockdowns suppressed any of these viruses at all. Mass quarantined never worked historically for other diseases, and clearly never worked for covid.
[I massively appreciate your writing and am long-time subscriber - just querrying this particular point - it also kindof undermines the lockdown-skeptic position potentially]
It may come as no surprise to you : the measles vaccine is known to cause measles, it has been known to do so since 2014.
Yes, my understanding of these things was transformed by Midwestern Doctor's substack blog and then reading the "Dissolving Illusions" book - haven't got around to finishing "Turtles" yet. Some of the recent ICAN litigation has also been illuminating.
We are in a "5th" wave here in NZ.. Media having some fear porn activity but not gaining much traction. Meanwhile my neighbor just got her 3rd booster after reading the newspaper and immediately got Covid for the 3rd time. "could have been worse if I didn't get it"
Your last sentence says it all.
It's almost as though there's some sort of obscure connection between them and the press.
That said, the quality of "medical correspondents" has been declining for years. I used to read "New Scientist" magazine (in UK) and it used to contain many useful and thought provoking articles but over the last few years the in house science correspondents have been replaced by younger, cheaper versions whose only skill seems to be a regurgitation of whatever new and dubious miracle discovery/drug/vaccine/climate change cure they read about.
Covid/jabs/wokeism/climate change has been a godsend for them.
No doubt they all stay at home googling their time away. Gone are the days of any actual investigative journalism.
There are a few good journalists left. Find them and support them.
It's really remarkable how mich of the world is run by these one-trick ponies. They really are automatons.
If indeed our civilization is sophisticated and advanced, it is covered from head to toe in barnacles that make it appear like a monstrously stupid animal.
civilization doesn't get more sophisticated and advanced than, say, the height of the roman empire. after that it's just fancier technology but human nature remains as it ever has. all the wisdom already been written. the rest is just repackaging by each new generation of grifters.
I read that as One PRICK Tonies. Fauci is such a turd
Be glad it's only one.
If there is mRNA in these vaccines, what Germany will get is more stillbirths, dead or badly injured mothers and kids, and the whole panoply of symptoms....Operation Population Redux rolls on....
Couldn’t agree more, the excess death stats are now out and available for most countries. Every time the excess deaths rise sharply is immediately following the latest jabs. Robust studies, proof positive, the mRNA jabs cause death.