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Tuesday, December 28, 2021
Thursday, December 16, 2021
Vaccine passports are not only unreliable, they’re dangerous
Evidence that vaccinated people can and do contract and spread the virus undermines the rationale of vaccine passports
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By Gwyn Morgan
Contributor
Troy Media
The
creation of multiple COVID-19 vaccines in an astonishingly short period
was a stunning achievement by the biotech industry. The vaccines were
approved for “emergency use” in just a few months, rather than the eight
to 10 years normally required of previous vaccines.
Most Canadians were more than willing to accept that risk.
According to federal government data,
over 85 per cent of Canadians 12 and older are now “fully vaccinated,”
including yours truly. This has been hugely important in reducing the
dreadful carnage in care homes and deaths of others with weakened immune
systems.
And
yet, we’re not as far along as we had hoped to be. Just last spring,
rapidly diminishing COVID infection rates seemed to indicate the
pandemic was nearing an end. As summer turned to fall, however, the more
contagious Delta variant gained a foothold. Soon, case numbers and
hospitalizations were rising again.
That
increase was widely blamed on the unvaccinated, creating a division
that’s torn at the social fabric of our nation. These days, you’re
either a vaccinated ‘good Canadian’ or a villainous ‘anti-vaxxer,’
forbidden from working in the public service, going to restaurants, gyms
or sports events, or using public transportation.
In
a flagrant violation of the basic Canadian rights and freedoms that we
all cherish, the prime minister issued an edict forbidding air travel,
even for those with a negative COVID test.
Increasingly,
however, it’s becoming evident that the facts don’t justify a binary,
zero-one distinction between vaccinated and unvaccinated. As we
double-vaxxed are learning, to our disquiet, vaccination doesn’t provide
the protection against the virus we had counted on.
It’s
now clear that fully-vaccinated persons are getting and transmitting
the virus. A coach and 10 players of the fully-vaccinated Ottawa
Senators hockey team tested positive for the virus. These players then infected their families.
Similarly, hundreds of Canadian soldiers who participated in a training exercise at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa had to be quarantined after a COVID-19 outbreak. A spokesman for the military said “everyone participating in exercise was fully vaccinated.”
Ontario’s
Dec. 10 COVID report that the vaccinated accounted for 57 per cent of
new cases confirms the stark new reality that vaccine passports are not
only unreliable, they’re dangerous. When I began research for this
column, I was puzzled as to why those ‘protected’ by being vaccinated
would worry about catching the virus from the unvaccinated. Now it’s
those vilified unvaccinated who need to worry about the reverse.
Yet
the vaccination establishment powers on, with children as young as five
being coaxed with candy into rolling up their sleeves – despite the
fact that healthy children who contract the virus almost never get
seriously ill.
Just
17 Canadians under age 19 have died of the virus in the past 18 months,
and most had serious comorbidities. That number is roughly the same as
the pre-pandemic 12-month average for the seasonal flu. And we don’t yet
know the extent of more serious side effects, such as myocarditis. The
virus vaccines were approved for “emergency use.” Where’s the child
emergency?
Meanwhile, startling new research, financed by Pfizer and published in the Lancet Medical Journal, found
the protection level of the Pfizer vaccine administered to most
Canadians drops to less than 50 per cent after just five months. Waning
efficacy of vaccines has health officials authorizing a third and even
fourth booster shot.
No
one knows if the protection period will continue to wane, but it seems
increasingly clear that trying to hold back the virus with vaccines sets
up an endless booster-shot gerbil wheel.
If never-ending booster shots aren’t the answer, what is?
A study
published in the journal Nature found that many people who have
recovered from SARs-CoV-2 will make antibodies against the virus for
most of their lives. This ‘natural immunity’ effect is comparable to
that developed for measles and other viral diseases. That explains why
Germany treats recovered persons the same as fully vaccinated.
That
begs an important question I believe health authorities need to answer:
Since the vaccinated people who contract the virus experience only mild
symptoms, why keep giving booster shots rather than letting the much
more sustainable natural immunity effect achieve the ‘normal’ we all
long for?
Clear
evidence that vaccinated people can and do contract and spread the
virus undermines the fundamental rationale of vaccine passports.
And
yet, in never-never land, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – fresh from
COP 26, where he pledged to lead the world off fossil fuels – has
announced he intends to also lead the world out of the COVID pandemic
with the creation of a “global vaccine passport.”
The
70 per cent of Canadians who didn’t vote for him might be hoping his
quixotic global mission takes him a long way from our shores.
Gwyn Morgan is a retired business leader who has been a director of five global corporations.
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Thursday, December 9, 2021
Monday, November 29, 2021
Peroxide -- Source: Arham. Detox for Body-mind-soul.
Peroxide was invented during WWI.. It was used to save and help cleanse the needs of our troops and hospitals.
Sunday, November 14, 2021
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
Canada announced agreement with Novavax to produce vaccine in Montreal
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Novavax applies to WHO for emergency listing of COVID-19 vaccine
Saturday, October 16, 2021
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Health Canada suspends licence, issues recall for hand sanitizer containing 'elevated levels' of methanol
Saturday, October 9, 2021
Friday, October 8, 2021
Merck’s New COVID Drug
Merck’s New COVID Drug Is Making News — How Does It Compare to Ivermectin?
In his latest video, John Campbell, Ph.D., compared ivermectin, whose use as a COVID treatment has been widely criticized by mainstream media, with Merck’s new COVID drug, Molnupiravir, which is garnering positive media coverage.
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/john-campbell-mercks-covid-molnupiravir-ivermectin/
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Sunday, September 19, 2021
Saturday, September 11, 2021
Monday, September 6, 2021
Saturday, August 28, 2021
Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Monday, August 9, 2021
Sunday, August 8, 2021
Friday, August 6, 2021
Thursday, August 5, 2021
Sunday, August 1, 2021
Saturday, July 31, 2021
How to Make Mulch - Make Your Own Mulch - Best Mulches
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Canada launches its first national vaccine injury compensation program
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Sunday, July 18, 2021
Thursday, July 15, 2021
8 people injured, widespread damage reported after tornado touches down between Barrie and Innisfil
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Tuesday, July 6, 2021
Monday, July 5, 2021
Friday, July 2, 2021
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
Thursday, June 24, 2021
Sunday, June 20, 2021
Saturday, June 19, 2021
Thursday, June 17, 2021
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Landmark Agreement for Desert Control to Accelerate Climate-Smart Agriculture, Food Security, and Sustainable Forestry
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
Monday, June 7, 2021
Friday, June 4, 2021
Value Blueprints Research Brief Explores Patient-Driven Value Element Framework to Identify Factors Most Important to Patients
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
New Book "Cyber Security Essentials for Small Businesses" Published; Technology Service RealTechPros Launched to Help in the Fight Against Small Business Cyber Attacks
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Thursday, May 6, 2021
Recal, a Company Specializing in Mindful Adventure Travel, Launches as a Remedy for Work-Induced Stress and Burnout
Monday, May 3, 2021
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Friday, April 23, 2021
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
AstraZeneca advice from national panel delayed by new data on COVID-19 and variants
Monday, April 19, 2021
Friday, April 16, 2021
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Don’t be so quick to condemn processed foods
Don’t be so quick to condemn processed foods
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Played
an essential role in offering edible, safe and nutritious foods to all
Canadians, yet food processing remains misunderstood
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By Sylvain Charlebois
Professor in Food Distribution and Policy
Dalhousie University
Processed
foods exist so we can save time, money and energy. They’ve made our
food systems more efficient over the years. It’s all about convenience.
But
in recent years, the health attributes of processed foods have
increasingly come under scrutiny for a variety reasons, biased and
unbiased. Many reports by professional organizations and interest groups
have been unkind to processed foods, causing many consumers to believe
that they should be avoided at all costs.
A
fascinating study to be released in April, published in Trends in Food
Science and Technology, looked at the underlying basis of the food
classification systems used to determine what food is processed. Over
400 publications were screened for definitions of processed food.
The
study argues that food classification systems used around the world,
including in Canada, were mostly designed to examine the relationship
between industrial food products and health.
The
study shows clearly that there’s no consensus on what factors determine
the level of food processing. In fact, the concept of ‘processing’ is
considered by the authors of the study as a chaotic conception, largely
concerned with technical processes.
While
Canada’s Food Guide recommends that we stay away from ultra-processed
foods, our classification system doesn’t include quantitative measures.
Instead, it implies a correlation between industrial processing and
nutrition. That’s right – there’s no direct relationship between
processed food and their nutritional value.
The
anti-ultra-processing pundits will be quick to indicate that those are
the foods to be condemned and banned from the marketplace. This movement
against ultra-processed foods is largely motivated by a classification
system called NOVA.
The
study didn’t provide any clarity or justification for the use of the
NOVA system. The system looks at additives and other features associated
with overeating, but it doesn’t include proper nutrient profiling and
other formerly assessed nutritional aspects of food.
Food
processing is a complex issue. Although it has played an essential role
in offering edible, safe and nutritious foods to all Canadians, food
processing remains largely misunderstood.
Based
on the study, we can only assume that the rationale used by Health
Canada to support Canada’s Food Guide and discourage Canadians from
consuming ultra-processed foods aren’t well articulated or evidenced.
The study argues that the subjective rhetoric often used by public
health officials about nutrition is rather inappropriate for use in
policy.
Processed
foods have played an important socio-economic role in the last few
decades. Some have argued that without processed foods, gender
inequalities would be more predominant than they are now.
Knowing
women have historically spent more time in the kitchen on average than
men, women have been able to play a much larger role in our economy by
having access to pre-processed foods. Many decades ago, most of the food
processing occurred in the kitchen, accomplished largely by women.
More
needs to be done on gender equality, of course, but food processing has
certainly not been an obstacle to our quest to have a more equitable
society. This shouldn’t be forgotten.
We
need to make sure we avoid pompous misconceptions and properly educate
ourselves on what food processing means. Many believe processed foods
can only lead to a more obese and unhealthy society.
Certainly,
some processed foods shouldn’t exist. But processing has a particularly
important economic role within our food systems. It reduces waste
across the supply chain and allows food costs to remain at reasonable
levels for Canadians by using better technologies and knowledge.
In
countries where access to technologies is limited, food waste and price
volatility at retail tends to cause major challenges. Food processing
provides stability across the food supply chain.
Instead
of using guilt or value-laden terms, consumer understanding can only
grow by appreciating the healthiness of food products we eat and buy
every day.
The
study simply recommends that we need to improve the scientific basis
for food classification systems and to support consumer understanding.
Otherwise,
ideology and nutritional elitism will continue to mislead the public
and our policies will unceasingly misguide consumers in their food
choices.
Dr.
Sylvain Charlebois is senior director of the agri-food analytics lab
and a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University.
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Monday, April 12, 2021
Friday, April 9, 2021
Renowned Artist Elizabeth Cameron Lauder Has Second Art Book Published
Monday, April 5, 2021
Friday, April 2, 2021
How Canada botched its campaign for vaccines
How Canada botched its campaign for vaccines
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The
proven determinants of scientific progress – collaboration, a plan,
guaranteed funding, transparency – are nowhere to be found
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By Susan Martinuk
Research Associate
Frontier Centre for Public Policy
The
Human Genome Project (HGP) stands as one of mankind’s most remarkable
achievements. Its significance is easily equal to, or even eclipses,
James Watson and Francis Crick’s discovery of DNA’s helical structure,
or Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon.
The
goal was to determine the position and function of the more than
100,000 genes that comprise the 23 chromosomes of human DNA. It was a
massive endeavour and the challenge was so overwhelming that it could
only be accomplished by the global collaboration of scientists.
In 1990,
a $5-billion publicly-funded plan was established under the auspices of
national research councils in the United States and the United Kingdom.
A 15-year timeline was set and the chromosome pairs were sectioned and
sent to laboratories around the world.
The
collaboration was a gamble that paid off in spades: the HGP was
completed in 13 years (not 15) and at a cost of $3 billion (not $5
billion).
The
group was led by Dr. Francis Collins, an American geneticist who is now
head of the National Institutes of Health. Years ago, I heard him give a
speech in which he jokingly (and probably quite rightly) referred to
the HGP as the “only government project to ever be completed earlier
than scheduled and under budget.”
The secrets to this multi-layered (financial, bureaucratic and scientific) success?
Collaboration. A plan. Guaranteed funding. Transparency.
So where are these proven determinants of scientific progress today?
We’re
in a pandemic and, so far, there has been far more competition than
collaboration in the race to create, manufacture and distribute enough
vaccines to immunize all of humanity. As many as 23 vaccines have been approved by various countries and more than 60 others are in some stage of development or clinical trials.
A
vaccine is, ultimately, the only solution to this pandemic. Former U.S.
president Donald Trump may have eschewed masks, but his administration
shifted $18 billion
into a rapid vaccine development program called Operation Warp Speed.
These funds have supported seven drug manufacturers, including $2.5
billion for Moderna Therapeutics and almost $2 billion for Pfizer.
Perhaps that’s why these companies delivered some of the first, safest,
most effective vaccines.
Instead
of funding vaccine development, Canada’s leaders decided to pay
“volunteers” by providing, without proper scrutiny, almost $1 billion to
their ethically challenged friends at WE Charity and giving billions
more to ensure the survival of almost every industry – except vaccine
research and development.
This decision has not been without consequences.
Although Canada
made agreements to obtain the most vaccine doses (more than four times
our population) of any country, it has become abundantly clear that the
big drug companies are in no hurry to deliver them, signed agreements or
not.
In
contrast, countries that pumped billions of dollars into research
efforts (like the United States and the United Kingdom) began receiving
their allotted doses long ago. While they’re quickly getting vaccines
into arms, Canada is tumbling downward on lists that rank nations by the
progress of their vaccine rollout.
To be fair, Canada did make an international contribution of $440 million
to the World Health Organization’s vaccine partnership. Half of the
money was to secure vaccines for us; the other half was to assist in
creating a global vaccine cache for underdeveloped nations. But as our
vaccine delivery schedules turned into a gong show, Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau decided that Canada should dip into the global vaccine
bank to withdraw vaccines that were set aside for the poor.
At home, attempts to fund the development of a Canadian-made vaccine were anemic and impractical, at best. Initially, just $23 million was provided for domestic vaccine research and payouts were capped at $5 million per group.
Later,
$192 million was made available to vaccine manufacturers – but only as a
reimbursement for expenses. That fund has only recently increased to
$468 million. Such minuscule contributions, coupled with no money
upfront, are not nearly enough to assist Canadian biotech companies in
managing the financial risks of developing a vaccine.
Finally,
most government decisions and contract negotiations have been conducted
in secrecy. It was only recently that Canadians realized the federal
government had, months ago, appointed a vaccine task force
to advise on policy. Names were withheld from the public (until
uncovered by the media), meetings take place in secrecy and details of
contracts with private corporations are not released. Actions and
decision-making on a national level have only been open and transparent
if we pretend this is the Soviet Union, circa 1962.
Yet this is the group that apparently controls Canada’s pandemic destiny.
So
much for collaboration. A plan. Funding. Transparency. Sadly, these
proven characteristics of scientific progress are nowhere to be found in
Canada.
Susan
Martinuk is a research associate with the Frontier Centre for Public
Policy and author of a soon-to-be-released book, Patients at Risk:
Stories that Expose Canada’s Health-care Crisis.
|
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Cheesy Polenta Lasagna with Meat Sauce
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Thursday, March 25, 2021
Ballooning sunshine list a slap in the face to taxpayers
A
10 per cent across-the-board pay cut for all government employees
receiving over $100,000, would save taxpayers more than $2.5 billion
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By Jay Goldberg
Interim Ontario Director
Canadian Taxpayers Federation
While most Ontarians were barely getting by during lockdowns, the bill for Ontario top bureaucrats ballooned in 2020.
There’s
still 800,000 Ontarians looking for a job. So, it must be jarring for
them to see Ontario’s sunshine list, which discloses the municipal and
provincial government employees making more than $100,000 per year,
increased by 23 per cent in 2020. Among those high government rollers, 74 made more than $500,000 last year.
So much for being all in this together.
As
Ontarians struggled to pay their Hydro bills, six top bureaucrats at
Ontario Power Generation raked in more than $800,000. The highest earner
was the President and CEO who brought in $1.2 million. The total bill
for these six bureaucrats was nearly $6 million.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
While
tens of thousands of Ontario’s children were kept home from school for
months on end, the number of teachers making more than $100,000 still
doubled to over 29,000.
More than a dozen hospital presidents and CEOs received half a million dollars or more.
Surely some of that money could have been used for tax relief or could have been sent to the front lines of the pandemic.
While
Ontario’s government sunshine list grew, many workers outside of
government lost their jobs, took pay cuts or saw their hours reduced
substantially. There’s still nearly 75,000 Ontario businesses at risk of closing their doors for good, according to research from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
For
those that suggest that these exorbitant government salaries may be
warranted, government employees make more than 10 per cent more than
their equivalent private-sector counterparts, according to the Fraser Institute.
Struggling
families and businesses need relief and we can’t afford to pay more
bureaucrats six-figure salaries while the province is locked down. If
Ontario’s municipal and provincial governments implemented a 10 per cent
across-the-board pay cut for all government employees receiving over
$100,000, taxpayers would save more than $2.5 billion. Not only should
Premier Doug Ford reduce government labour costs to relieve some of the
burdens facing struggling taxpayers, but he’ll need to tackle this
expense to pull the province out of its sea of red ink.
The
provincial deficit is about $40 billion, and its debt is fast
approaching the $400-billion mark. With labour costs making up half
of the government’s pre-COVID-19 budget, Ford has little hope in
balancing the books and paying down the debt unless he’s willing to take
some air out of his government’s ballooning labour costs.
For
unemployed Ontarians who saw the government sunshine list expand in
2020, the news must have felt like a harsh slap in the face.
Even
if the government’s finances were in good shape, giving salary
increases to government employees in the midst of an economic crisis is
tone deaf. And Ontario’s finances are a mess.
It’s
not fair to ask the tens of thousands of Ontarians who just lost their
job or took a pay cut to pay higher taxes because government employees
haven’t shared in the downturn. Governments need to address their labour
costs and the first place they should start is at the top of the
bureaucrat pyramid.
Jay Goldberg is the Interim Ontario Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
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Monday, March 22, 2021
Thursday, March 18, 2021
Jubilant HollisterStier, Eli Lilly Enter COVID-19 Treatment Collaboration - Contract Pharma
Lilly’s drug, Bamlanivimab, has been granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the FDA for emergency use as a treatment of COVID-19 and will be manufactured at Jubilant HollisterStier’s Spokane, WA facility.
“We are delighted to partner with our customers and contribute towards the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Pramod Yadav, chief executive officer, Jubilant Pharma Limited. “Our CMO business, an established player in the North American market, has strong capabilities in the manufacturing of sterile injectables—both liquid and lyophilization—and we are committed to continue exceeding expectations of our customers in this business.”
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Eli Lilly's COVID-19 antibody shows it can prevent the disease. But will doctors use it?
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Policy uncertainty continues to hurt Canada’s mining industry
To attract the investment required to develop resources, mitigating the risks of policy uncertainly needs to be a top priority
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By Jairo Yunis
and Elmira Aliakbari
The Fraser Institute
The
COVID recession has hurt Canada’s natural resources sector, with supply
disruptions, commodity price declines and greater uncertainty regarding
future demand. Not surprisingly, capital investment in the Canadian
mining industry has dropped to its lowest level since 2009.
Of
course, business investment should be a key pillar of Canada’s economic
recovery, as the governor of the Bank of Canada recently stated in a speech delivered to the Vancouver Board of Trade. Amid these conditions, government policies are critically important in attracting much-needed investment. And according to our recent survey, policy uncertainty continues to hurt several Canadian provinces in the eyes of mining investors.
Every
year mining investors are surveyed around the world to determine which
jurisdictions are attractive—or unattractive—for investment based on
government policies and geological potential. The survey spotlights
policies (taxes, duplicative regulations, availability of labour and
skills, etc.) that impact investment decisions. The most attractive
jurisdictions in the world match their mineral potential with a
competitive policy environment and/or overcome a lack of mineral
potential with solid policies.
This year, three Canadian provinces—Saskatchewan (ranked 3rd), Quebec (ranked 6th) and Newfoundland & Labrador (ranked 8th)—are in the top 10 most attractive jurisdictions for mining investment.
However,
despite the relatively strong performance of these provinces compared
to international competitors, several provinces with enormous potential
continue to struggle because of poor government policies.
Consider
British Columbia. This is a textbook example of how a jurisdiction
endowed with abundant mineral resources can become unattractive for
investment due to poor policies. Based on pure mineral potential, B.C.
ranks 10th out of 77 mining jurisdictions. On mining policy, however, B.C. ranks 41st. When taking into account both mineral potential and policies, B.C. ranks 17th.
Given
B.C.’s poor performance in the survey, the province would benefit from
resolving its ongoing policy issues. For instance, 78 per cent of survey
respondents cited disputed land claims as deterrents to investment in
B.C. and 75 per cent cited “protected areas.”
Similarly, Ontario, which was the 7th most attractive jurisdiction for mining investment in 2017, this year ranked 20th. On policy factors alone, the province went from ranking 20th in 2017 to 31st
in 2020. Like in B.C., investors view Ontario’s ongoing issues with
disputed land claims and protected areas as major policy factors
hindering the province’s mining competitiveness.
This
trend continues with Quebec, which ranked in the top 10 most attractive
jurisdictions worldwide this year. However, the province’s strong
performance is largely driven by improved investor perceptions of the
province’s mineral potential. When considering government policy factors
alone, Quebec ranks 17th,
suggesting room for improvement, with investors noting Quebec’s
uncertain regulatory regime, disputed land claims and protected areas.
Indeed,
uncertainty around disputed land claims and protected areas are among
the top two greatest deterrents to investment in every Canadian province
included in the survey. If mining investors are uncertain whether they
can access land for exploration and production, they’ll be hesitant to
invest.
Clearly,
governments can’t solely rely on their jurisdiction’s mineral potential
to attract investment. In reality, policy uncertainty matters to
investors and if provincial governments hope to attract the investment
required to develop these resources, mitigating these risks should be
their top priority.
Jairo Yunis and Elmira Aliakbari are analysts at the Fraser Institute.
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