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Governments Doubled Down on Lockdowns After Evidence Proved They Were Ineffective: Professor

A newly released essay by Douglas Allen, professor of economics at Simon Fraser University, examines why governments repeatedly used lockdowns during COVID-19 even after it became clear lockdowns were ineffective and “failed to isolate the virus and stop it from spreading.”

Lockdowns were sustained with political support, suggests Allen, and lockdowns had “many winners.”

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Charges Dropped Against Former MPP Randy Hillier Over Breach of COVID-19 Health Orders

A court has stayed a charge laid against former Ontario MPP Randy Hillier related to a May 2021 protest he was involved in, according to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF).

The JCCF said in a statement that the court on Jan. 3 stayed a charge against Hillier for breaching a public health order issued under the Reopening Ontario Act when he allegedly attended a protest in Barrie, Ontario, while he was still an MPP for Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston.

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More than 50,000 Canadians have died from COVID-19 since pandemic began

More than 50,000 Canadians have died after contracting COVID-19 since the pandemic emerged nearly three years ago, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) confirmed Monday — a sobering reminder that the virus remains a deadly concern.

The national death toll first crossed 50,000 last Tuesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and confirmed by a Global News analysis of provincial health data.

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Jacinda Ardern will need ‘more ongoing protection than any PM in NZ’s history’

Departing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will need more ongoing security and protection than any former New Zealand PM, according to political scientist and former intelligence worker Paul Buchanan.

“Let’s start by saying things have changed dramatically since the day John Key stepped down, and one might say fundamentally,” Buchanan said.

“The security requirements for ex-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern are going to be far tougher than any previous prime minister – by a lot.”

She should be exiled that will save money.

h/t Mauser

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Japan downgrades Covid amid vaccine safety concerns

The country is one of the most vaccine-sceptical in the world

The Japanese government is planning to downgrade the status of Covid-19, reclassifying the disease to the level of seasonal flu. Covid is currently at the second most serious threat level, on a par with tuberculosis and SARS, but after reclassification it would be at number 5 of 5. The move would mean the lifting of nearly all remaining restrictions, and would place barriers in the way of their reimposition. We could be close, it seems, after three wearisome years, to returning to something resembling the old normal.

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The Search for the Origin of Covid-19 Cannot Stop

Gain-of-function research and other factors have made pandemic risks truly existential. The world must take action.

The Covid-19 pandemic recently marked its third year. Life has seemingly returned to normal for people in many countries. But Covid itself lingers. Milder variants with significantly higher lethality rates than the seasonal flu circulate. Long-Covid symptoms still plague those afflicted. The official worldwide Covid death toll tops 6 million, while the excess-death count is above 20 million. Just weeks ago, China abandoned its zero-Covid policy overnight without proper preparation, inducing a catastrophe of millions dead under the Omicron wave, as many elders were not vaccinated. Japan recently recorded a new peak in Covid deaths as of December 2022. To paraphrase Yogi Berra — the pandemic ain’t over until it’s over.

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Laurier student wears lettuce mask to protest ongoing mask mandates

WATERLOO — In the spaces where strict COVID-19 mandates remain, anti-mandate protesters remain.

At Wilfrid Laurier University — one of five universities in Ontario where masks are still mandatory — some students are gearing up for an anti-mandate protest at the end of the month at Waterloo Town Square.

The demonstration is being planned by Kamil Bachouchi, a fourth-year philosophy student at Laurier whose posts have gone viral for wearing nonstandard masks to class — he has worn a scuba mask, a piece of romaine lettuce and a garbage bin in lieu of a standard medical mask.

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Nanotechnology Used in Covid Vaccines, 2,000 Foods, Goes Unlabeled

If you’re one of those people that can often be found in the food aisles of grocery stores reading labels and looking for ingredients you can’t pronounce and don’t want to eat, you’ve most likely noticed several ingredients that, unbeknownst to you, are made using nanotechnology—a process that converts silver, copper, gold, aluminum, silicon, carbon, and metal oxides, among other metals, into atom-sized particles that are one-billionth of a meter in size.

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Evidence of vaccine deaths is ever stronger yet officials look the other way

A FEW weeks ago we warned about a significant and very evident correlation between Covid-19 vaccination campaigns in 41 countries (Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, Chile, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan) and the excess mortality registered in weeks 10 to 35 (March to August) of 2022. We saw that in that period the excess mortality ranged between 3.7 per cent in Bulgaria and 25 per cent in Iceland, with a majority range of 5 per cent to 15 per cent (Spain had an excess mortality of 12 per cent). By means of a simple linear regression analysis Igor Chudov was able to show an extremely strong relationship between the administration of the third booster dose and excess mortality (the more booster doses are administered, the greater excess mortality); booster vaccination accounted for 40 per cent of the variation in excess mortality. The same analysis referring to complete vaccination (first and second dose) offered a similar result although with a lower explanatory power (27 per cent).

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Sorry but my heart just isn’t in it: Increase in ‘Kraken’ COVID-19 subvariant renews calls for booster shots

Public health officials are warning COVID-19 infections may increase in severity as the latest subvariant – known as XBB.1.5, or “Kraken” – spreads in Canada.

At a news conference in Ottawa on Friday, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the country’s health-care sector is still recovering, and while levels of influenza and RSV have returned to the seasonal norms, COVID-19 cases still fluctuate across Canada.

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Ontario doctors critical of COVID measures fail to stop medical college’s disciplinary hearings

Three doctors opposed to public health measures regarding COVID-19 failed to stop potentially practice-ending disciplinary hearings by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons.

An appeal by doctors Mark Trozzi, Patrick Phillips and Crystal Luchkiw, claiming the college is targeting “anti-vaxxers” and “anti-maskers,” and is unconstitutional, was rejected by a college tribunal.

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CDC Left Serious Adverse Events Off Post-Vaccination Surveys Despite Knowledge of Possible Link, Documents Show

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) didn’t include serious adverse events like heart inflammation on post-vaccination surveys even though the agency knew the issues could be linked to COVID-19 vaccines, documents show.

Even before the surveys were rolled out in December 2020 after the first vaccines were authorized, the CDC knew that myocarditis—a form of heart inflammation since confirmed as being caused by the Pfizer and Moderna shots—and other serious adverse events were of “special interest” when it came to the vaccines, according to a newly disclosed version of the protocol for the survey system.

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Family of woman who died after altercation with Toronto hospital guards launches $16-million lawsuit

The sister of a 43-year-old woman who died 16 days after an altercation with security at a downtown Toronto hospital has filed a $16 million lawsuit against University Health Network and the guards allegedly involved in her death, claiming that they used “excessive” and “unreasonable” force.

Stephanie Warriner, a mother of five originally from Scarborough, died on May 27, 2020 at Toronto Western Hospital after reportedly going into medical distress and suffering a cardiac arrest following a physical interaction with hospital security.

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