COVID-19
Containment, curfews, and the use of the health pass are now a thing of the past. The scientific council, responsible for guiding the government’s health policy, is dissolved.
Hélène de Lauzun —
The health ministry originally feared as many as 10 million doses would have to be thrown out, until it emerged that the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine can be stored for longer than initially thought, downgrading the estimated waste to 3 million doses.
Bridget Ryder —
“It’s not particularly about COVID, but about recognizing the patterns we are creating. I think that is the main topic in the film: people need to start seeing the patterns and recognize how they are being copied with every new global threat.”—Marijn Poels
David Boos —
Vaccines targeting the BA.1, BA.4, and BA.5 strains of the Omicron variant are in developmental stages, but the European Medicines Agency is not certain all will be approved by September.
Bridget Ryder —
The 2-hour documentary “Pandamned”by Dutch filmmaker Marijn Poels is a colossal undertaking aiming to summarize and assess overall socio-political developments of the past few years.
David Boos —
The symbolism of this vote is obvious: it is the first time since the beginning of the pandemic that the government faced major opposition on its health policy in the National Assembly.
Hélène de Lauzun —
Less than half a year after its introduction in February, the Austrian government has announced that the mandatory COVID vaccination will soon be a thing of the past. The opposition calls people to remain watchful though.
David Boos —
Under two ordinances, the sites of different religious confessions were forced to remain closed precisely during the times that worshipers normally gathered—mosques on Fridays, synagogues on Saturdays, and churches on Sundays, in all three cases from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Bridget Ryder —
In the latest push to come up with new COVID measures, Germany is considering the introduction of an automatic mask mandate in the period “from October till Easter” in the years ahead,” a measure compared by leading politicians of the SPD to using winter tires.
David Boos —
New studies exposing the dangers of the COVID-19 vaccines are published on a weekly basis. But, along with the mounting number of vaccine-related side effects, they are routinely met with silence by the media and politicians.
David Boos —
An Italian court awarded a compensation of €77,468 to the family of a 32-year old who died last year as a result of the COVID-vaccination, setting a precedent for the many similar cases currently in courts.
David Boos —
While I agree with the aims and even admire the methods of the protesters of 2019 to 2020, it is likely that when China does assume full control of the Hong Kong territory, they will have made things worse.
Roger Watson —
During COVID-19 school closures, classes took place online, and most digital platforms used tracking technologies that trailed children both inside their virtual classrooms and beyond, across the internet, over time. These various trackers were impossible to avoid or erase even if the child users or their parents were aware that it was happening.
Bridget Ryder —
The WHO is seeking to amend the International Health Regulations and impose a global pandemic treaty, both of which would grant the global health body new far-reaching powers that would allow it intervene in the affairs of nation-states in the event of a future pandemic.
Robert Semonsen —
No totalitarian state can firmly establish itself without identifying its enemies, those who are deemed to be dangerous for both state and society. This time, the scapegoats are the unvaccinated.
Christophe Buffin de Chosal —
The squatting phenomenon is not fuelled by desperate people seeking shelter, but by gangs that often intentionally usurp lived-in homes.
Bridget Ryder —
Two different COVID summits took place within two days. At the same time that an alliance of physicians and scientists called for the restoration of scientific integrity and an end to national emergencies, EU President Ursula von der Leyen warned against future pandemics.
David Boos —
The Valneva CEO does not intend to give up, as he explains that he regularly receives a very large number of requests from Europeans looking for a traditional vaccine solution against the COVID-19 virus.
Hélène de Lauzun —
In Poland, the vaccine campaign has not been as successful as expected. As a result, the government has a stock of 25 million unused vaccines, while an additional 67-70 million doses have been ordered.
Hélène de Lauzun —
Matt Hancock’s performance as Britain’s Health Secretary exhibited all the wisdom of a man trying to prevent a burglary by welding the cat flap shut, but leaving the front door open.
Harrison Pitt —
The Spanish will be, along with the Japanese, the only citizens of a large, developed economy who will end 2022 poorer than in 2019. Although Spain’s economic growth rate for 2022 is higher than both the global and Eurozone average, growing more than anyone is not enough, after having fallen further than everyone else.
Bridget Ryder —
Actual usage of the app for reporting and tracking cases was extremely low. Throughout the two years of the pandemic, just over 1% percent of the 11.6 million cases officially diagnosed in Spain were then reported on the application.
Bridget Ryder —
The German Ethics Council released a statement criticising politics and media for their crisis management during the pandemic, calling for measures to be “democratically legitimised,” while conveniently forgetting how the Ethics Council helped shape those very measures they now criticise.
David Boos —
The Great Covid Panic
by Paul Fritjers, Gigi Foster & Michael Baker
Austin: Brownstone Institute, 2021
Roger Watson —
“At what moment does the direction of travel of the Machine become so obvious, so intolerable, so frightening, that you can no longer acquiesce?” Kingsnorth asked. “What is the breaking point?”
Jonathon Van Maren —
A coalition of 36 MEPs spanning the entirety of the Left-Right spectrum have signed onto an initiative which, among other things, calls for the immediate resignation of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who’s accused of playing a central role in a “gigantic Covid-19 scientific fraud.”
Robert Semonsen —
There has long been an agreement among Swedish economists that government should exercise prudence in terms of fiscal policy. This agreement may be evaporating.
Sven R. Larson —
Despite recent reports and studies showing the diminishing effect of booster vaccinations, German government officials are still preparing a series of proposals for mandatory vaccinations. The vote is scheduled for early April.
David Boos —
At the very moment when the Christian Gospel, with its life-giving and hopeful message of the triumph of life over death, and of light defeating darkness, so desperately needed to be heard, there seemed to be silence from those charged with preaching that Good News.
Fr. Benedict Kiely —
Austria’s government is once more changing personnel: after its third chancellor in two years, it will now also see its third minister of health, following the departure of Wolfgang Mückstein.
David Boos —
Shaping public opinion is very hard without social media—and it is made worse when one is in conflict with social media. And because of such tendencies, which tend to dominate on the big platforms, public opinion eventually morphs into one single mold or mindset. It is ‘groupthink’ par excellence.
Christof Zellenberg-Zellenberg —
The Prime Minister’s announcement offered some promise of relief, but the reality remains that a great number of people, those over the age of fifty, are still held hostage to the government’s COVID mandates.
Tristan Vanheuckelom —
Hayek’s ingenious arguments against a centrally run economy are equally devastating to the idea of a centrally run bio-security state.
Harrison Pitt —
Confidence in politics is dropping drastically and the Austrian elite begin to resemble the naked emperor, flaunting his new clothes.
Christian Machek —
The European agency that regulates pharmaceuticals is looking into reports of changes in menstrual cycles associated with COVID-19 vaccines.
Bridget Ryder —
Protesting to assert our rights might give us a solution Achilles didn’t have when he contested Agamemnon’s authority. But we also lack something Achilles had—heroism—and so we find ourselves powerless.
Titus Techera —
With a vaccination rate of 88% over the age of 12, Italy has deemed it necessary to enforce a new mandate barring unvaccinated citizens over the age of 50 from going to work. The new mandate is scheduled to last until June 15th, while at the same time other COVID measures are being relaxed.
David Boos —
In his first extensive interview after being banned from participating in the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic confirmed that missing major tournaments for not being vaccinated is “a price he’s willing to pay.”
David Boos —
“People died, it’s been a very hard time. Corona cast a shadow over our lives and sometimes divided us to the bone,” Dutch Health Minister Ernst Kuipers said as he announced the lifting of COVID restrictions, to begin February 18th.
Tristan Vanheuckelom —
The consulting firm of the 21st century could well be the new face of the Soviet control commission—a machine with fixed codes and pre-formatted processes designed to mask facts and the banality of postmodern sovereignty.
Hélène de Lauzun —
While many European nations are loosening their COVID-restrictions, Germany and Austria have been holding on to their mandates. But calls for loosening the grip on freedom might finally be heard.
David Boos —
After discovering the Omicron variant last November, Dr. Angelique Coetzee faced heavy criticism from scientists and politicians in Europe for calling the variant a “mild disease.” Some three months later she is proven right and refuses to be silenced.
David Boos —
Opinions on the effectiveness of vitamin D in preventing severe infections of COVID have been divided for a long time. A new study from Israel, however, delivers overwhelming data to support a correlation theory.
David Boos —
I spent part of the Christmas Season in the American state where I spent most of my childhood: Vermont. Known today primarily for its left-wing political culture and socially progressive Washington delegation, it wasn’t always so. And the tragic story of Vermont farmer, Romaine Tenney, encapsulates the fate of the little state nearly perfectly—while serving […]
A. M. Fantini —
Canada’s continental offspring are mobilizing for one single aim—a large, co-ordinated, pan-European presence in Brussels, home to the EU’s main institutions, on Monday, February 14th.
Tristan Vanheuckelom —
A COVID law proposed by Poland’s ruling PiS party has been rejected by the Polish Parliament. While opponents of COVID restrictions celebrate, some members of the opposition predict the downfall of the PiS.
David Boos —
As other European countries reduce their COVID regulations, Austria has gone the other way. As of February 5th, Austria became Europe’s first country with mandatory COVID vaccination rules for all adults. But the implementation of the rule remains a challenge.
David Boos —
Health is to the political class what money is to bankers: an inexhaustible source legitimation of their exercise of power.
Anthony Daniels —
United under the ‘European Freedom Convoy 2022’ banner, similar movements are now springing up across the continent. They plan to take to the streets in their respective capitals on the 7th of February, and to descend on Brussels on the 14th.
Tristan Vanheuckelom —
“It’s starting to be time to open up Sweden again. The pandemic is not over but on its way into a whole new phase,” the prime minister said, noting that the decision to ditch restrictions was prompted by an improved understanding of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Robert Semonsen —
Just days after the world entered its third year of the pandemic, Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) announced that her government would end all COVID-19 restrictions by mid-February.
Robert Semonsen —
It is interesting that far-reaching, global policy measures concerning the administration of specific medical products to the general population should so endear themselves to wealthy artists.
Carlos Perona Calvete —
We are in a situation in which a democratic decision-making process has been abandoned in favour of deferral to the ‘experts’ chosen by the media. This cannot be good.
David Boos —
The revelations about Downing Street’s parties are beginning to have political consequences. Some legislators of Johnson’s own party “will push for a non-confidence vote” should it turn out that he lied to Parliament.
Sven R. Larson —
This weekend’s protests, which follow massive demonstrations organized last week by the pan-European pro-democracy group Europeans United, saw tens of thousands of demonstrators rally in Austria, France, Germany, Spain, and the Czech Republic to challenge heavy-handed restrictions and oppose mandates.
Robert Semonsen —
Ahead of planned demonstrations against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and oppressive restriction measures set to take place over the weekend in France and Austria, US Embassies in Paris and Vienna have issued demonstration alerts, calling on US citizens to avoid the vicinities of the protests.
Robert Semonsen —
Following a recommendation from the Danish Epidemic Commission, the government had decided that COVID-19 “should no longer be categorized as a socially critical disease” after January 31st, 2022.
Tristan Vanheuckelom —
Two factors contribute to the decline in the consolidated budget deficit: the tapering of pandemic-related stimulus spending and the gradual return of economic activity to pre-pandemic normal.
Sven R. Larson —
The considerable uptick observed, according to the security authorities, was not caused by an increase in extreme-Left or extreme-Right activity, but by an increasingly tense social climate which—amid the COVID-19 pandemic—has taken hold of German society.
Robert Semonsen —
From Stockholm to Paris to Barcelona to Helsinki, EU governments braced themselves as citizens—singing anthems, waving national flags, and shouting slogans—gathered in the main squares and marched along the major thoroughfares to express their dissatisfaction with the current order.
Robert Semonsen —
The new law, the brainchild of the center-right ÖVP and the Greens and opposed by the FPÖ, allows citizens’ vaccination status to be checked by police. Fines for infractions will range from €600 to €3600.
Tristan Vanheuckelom —
The fact that a Western, formally democratic European country is being upbraided—however gently—by the human rights group, is something Europeans are rather unused to.
Tristan Vanheuckelom —
Shortly after some 3,000 people gathered in front of the National Assembly last Wednesday in Sofia, tempers flared, and demonstrators—comprised heavily of supporters of the irredentist-nationalist Revival party—clashed with police and stormed towards the parliament, coming just several meters away from the main entrance.
Robert Semonsen —
During a weekend interview, Thomas Haldenwang, the president of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, called anti-lockdown protesters, vaccine skeptics, and so-called ‘lateral thinkers,’ “enemies of the state” who “fundamentally reject the democratic state.”
Robert Semonsen —
In an editorial piece titled “We Failed,” Ekstra Bladet, a traditionally center-left Danish tabloid newspaper, confessed that the publication—along with the wider mainstream liberal press—hadn’t been “vigilant enough” in questioning narratives put forward by government authorities.
Robert Semonsen —
Monsignor Cirulli justifies these extreme measures by relying on the words of Pope Francis, who sees vaccination as an “act of love.” The deliberate obstruction of the distribution of the sacraments to the faithful in times of peril, however, raises questions. The bishop has attracted a lot of criticism for this decision, which for the moment remains purely local.
Hélène de Lauzun —
The CCP is little more than an international crime syndicate with political affectations. Knowing what is going on in China is dependent on sifting through their official lies, deflections, and ‘dezinformatsiya.’ The fact is, we just don’t know what unleashed monster they’re running from in Xi’an. All we know is that the CCP is lying about it.
Benjamin Harnwell —
Reporting on the link between palm oil and cancer is just one example of how the mainstream media avoids fair and balanced reporting, and squelches moderate voices. Some media, besides pushing an ideological agenda, try to make money by stirring up fear.
Pieter Cleppe —
I promised myself that I would ignore the global panic that has taken the world over (one might say it has ‘gone viral’) and substituted itself for every other known psycho-pathology. But the U-turn by the international commentariat was too much of a gift to satire to be missed.
James Bogle —
Liberté d’inexpression: nouvelles formes de la censure contemporaine
by Anne-Sophie Chazaud
Paris: Editions de l’Artilleur, 2020
Hélène de Lauzun —
Never has libertarianism, a notoriously loud creed, been so hushed in its concern for liberty.
Harrison Pitt —
The Pandemic shall mutate into oblivion sometime relatively soon. When it does, we will all be left with the aftermath. Wrecked economies, shuttered businesses, and life opportunities lost are only a small part of it all. Worse still are the questions that may be asked. When the rulership had us put on our masks, they took off theirs. The experience of the past two years make plain a reality only a few saw before: the modern citizen has only those rights his rulers deign to give him, and these may be taken away at any time. In a word, the myth of democracy is dead.
Charles A. Coulombe —
While the risk of spread to humans is low, when it does break out, the impact can be lethal. As of October last year, the World Health Organization had confirmed 863 cases of H5N1 in people, 456 of whom died, around the world since 2003.
Tristan Vanheuckelom —
“Following a French Government decision, on 28/12/2021, unless they hold French residency, British citizens are now considered third country citizens and can no longer transit France by road to reach their country of residence in the EU,” a statement on the Eurotunnel website warned.
Bridget Ryder —
The challenge before us is to decide whether we believe in a universe created by a loving God who called us into being and who has destined us for eternal Communion with Himself, or whether we think we can only be ‘free’ by making ourselves like God and imposing our will on our body and the world?
Gabriele Kuby —
“Blanket booster programmes are likely to prolong the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than ending it,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. He reasoned that until vaccination reached around the world, the virus would only have more opportunity to spread and mutate. “No country can boost its way out of the pandemic,” Tedros added.
Bridget Ryder —
The choice for tougher measures for unvaccinated people a few days before Christmas will have a direct impact on the presidential campaign, as it invites the candidates to take a stand on this particularly divisive issue.
Hélène de Lauzun —
It seems that both the architects of the Brave New World and the serfs who live in it actually fear the state of nature found in the Rousseauian paradise. In fact, we have a profound aversion to nature. Rather than acting like animals, we feel a kind of queasiness not only when we witness the more animal-side of human life, but even when we witness animals acting like animals.
Sebastian Morello —
Widely ignored by the establishment press, the annual Party Congress of Germany’s Social Democratic Party—which is the Federal Health Minister’s party—has been funded by Pfizer, which is projected to rake in €32 billion this year through sales of its COVID-19 vaccine.
Robert Semonsen —
It is hoped that Novavax’s protein-based, and thus more traditional, vaccine could persuade holdouts who worry about the current mRNA vaccine’s safety profile to take the plunge. It would add a fifth vaccine to the EU’s arsenal, next to those of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
Tristan Vanheuckelom —
EU leaders discussed their response to a pandemic situation that’s quickly evolving. “Urgent administration of booster shots” and “overcoming vaccine hesitancy,” which also entails “addressing disinformation,” remained primary goals, though it was agreed to “take forward the implementation of COVID-19 therapeutics via joint procurement.”
Tristan Vanheuckelom —
Researchers involved in both studies pointed out that their findings are in line with the established science of vaccination—naturally acquired antibodies provide the widest breath of immunity and repeated vaccination with a particular strain of a virus can decrease immunity to other variants.
Bridget Ryder —
About 44,000 Austrians gathered at the capital’s Heldenplatz once more last Saturday to protest their government’s measures to combat the ongoing COVID pandemic.
Tristan Vanheuckelom —
Cardinal Müller, former bishop of Regensburg, has condemned globalist financial elites, calling them individuals who view the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic as a window of opportunity to “implement their agenda.”
Robert Semonsen —
What galvanized the protestors ranged from resistance to masking, objection to the controversial COVID Safety Ticket (CST), which allows only those in the vaccinated, testing negative, or newly recovered categories to enter most public spaces, to the specter of mandatory vaccination–for now, limited to those in care and health services.
Tristan Vanheuckelom —
Pascal Arimont, Belgian MEP, said that a petrol bomb was thrown under his children’s bedroom windows while the family was at home.
Tristan Vanheuckelom —
The closer one gets to the source of policy, the less explicitly things are expressed, so I did not expect to find so direct a formulation in print. All the same, it is now worth digging into what is really intended by this conceptual guiding light of ‘resilience.’
Carlos Perona Calvete —
Pre-pandemic, I flew at least one long-haul flight a month and regularly clocked 150,000 air miles annually for the previous twenty years. It was novel for my wife to see me ‘in a flap’ over simple things like checking in online and fretting over the contents of my bags.
Roger Watson —
“I am here because I am against forced vaccinations. I am for human rights, and the violation of human rights should be stopped,” one demonstrator said. “We are protecting our children,” said another.
Robert Semonsen —
The case—in which a court in Wallonia declared a regional government’s COVID pass to be illegal—could set a precedent for the legality of COVID passes across Belgium.
Robert Semonsen —
European Union Commission chief Ursula von der Leyden’s said on Wednesday that it was time to “think about mandatory vaccination.” In her personal opinion, “it is understandable and appropriate to lead this discussion now.”
Bridget Ryder —
Bullying a part of the population into undergoing a certain medical procedure is a poor precedent, given the dystopian applications of the instrument that one can imagine.
Pieter Cleppe —
On Monday, Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn said all Germans will be “vaccinated, cured or dead” by the end of this winter. Currently, about one-third of Germans—67.5%—are unvaccinated, at a time when the country is experiencing the ‘fourth wave’ of the pandemic, with record-high levels of COVID cases. “Probably by the end of this winter […]
Often referred to as “the most vaccinated place on earth,” the British-owned territory, which is situated on the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsula, has witnessed the number of COVID-19 cases consistently rise throughout the fall months, leaving many questioning the vaccine’s efficacy in preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission.
Political and military leaders in Austria have called for massive protests against the government’s new anti-COVID lockdown measures.
Speaking on the lockdown, Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) said that measures will be enforced by police on an “unprecedented scale.” Those who break the rules risk fines of up to 1,450 euros.
Official figures from the Spanish government have revealed that in 2020, year one of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 4,000 people took their own lives—the highest number recorded since records began in 1906.
There are numerous instances of international organizations, such as the OECD and the WHO, not asking for—and in some cases even suppressing—input from those with different opinions. Is this “cancel culture” among multilaterals?
Pieter Cleppe —
“There is a sufficient reason to believe that such person is not suitable for the position”, the Latvian government wrote.