A Missouri health official is the latest vaccine proponent to be pushed out.
Christine ChungLauren McCarthy

Missouri’s top health official, a Republican who opposes mask and vaccine mandates but spoke approvingly of the Covid vaccine, was supposed to have been confirmed by State Senate by Friday.

Instead, conservative state legislators stonewalled the process earlier this week and Donald Kauerauf resigned on Tuesday, becoming the latest public health leader to be forced from office, as the politicized fight about masks, mandates and pandemic response rages on.

Mr. Kaeurauf had been appointed by Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, in July to lead the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services and had served in the position since September.

At a Monday hearing, Mr. Kaeurauf emphasized his opposition to mandatory masking and vaccination, but repeated his desire to see improvement in Missouri’s sluggish vaccination rate. Only about half of the state’s population has received two doses.

Mr. Kaeurauf’s statements in favor of vaccinations were apparently enough to doom his ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/us/d ... ccine.html

However, this one is not



And it's not just Saskatchewan

Hyperbole???

THE ANTI-VACCINE RIGHT BROUGHT HUMAN SACRIFICE TO AMERICA
Since last summer, the conservative campaign against vaccination has claimed thousands of lives for no ethically justifiable purpose.
By Kurt Andersen

In the early phases of the pandemic, as the coronavirus spread in the United States and doctors and pharmacists and supermarket clerks continued to work and risk infection, some commentators made reference—metaphorical reference, fast and loose and over the top—to ritual human sacrifice. The immediate panicky focus on resuming business as usual in order to keep the stock market from crashing was the equivalent of “those who offered human sacrifices to Moloch,” according to the writer Kitanya Harrison. That first summer, as Republicans settled into their anti-testing, anti-lockdown, anti-mask, nothing-to-worry-about orthodoxy, Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, said it was “like a policy of mass human sacrifice.” The anthropology professor Shan-Estelle Brown and the researcher Zoe Pearson wrote that people who continued to do their jobs outside their homes were essentially victims of “involuntary human sacrifice, made to look voluntary.” Meanwhile, people on the right likewise compared the inconvenience of closing down public places to ritual sacrifice.

I got in on the analogy too: After Donald Trump’s first big indoor pandemic campaign rally in June 2020, I made a crack on Twitter that for the 6,000 MAGA folks attending it was like a “human sacrifice to please the leader.” And indeed at least once during the month before the rally, Trump played the part of a gung-ho godlike king presiding over the glorious sacrificial deaths of his subjects. When asked, during an Oval Office encounter with the press, whether the nation will “just have to accept the idea that … there will be more deaths” as a result of his open-everything-up-now plan, he said, “I call these people warriors, and I’m actually calling now … the nation, warriors. We have to be warriors.”

“Warriors,” “mass human sacrifice”: These were high-pitched figures of speech studding a debate about our political economy—whether and how governments should intervene to keep people and businesses financially afloat, and how many lives were worth how much of a hit to the economy. Beneath the polemics this discourse was at least fundamentally rational, a weighing of social costs against social benefits.

Today, however, the economy is no longer in jeopardy; unemployment rates and salaries have returned to pre-pandemic levels; GDP per person is higher than it was at the end of 2019; personal savings are growing, and businesses are starting up faster than ever; corporate profits and stock prices are at record highs. And for more than a year, we’ve had astoundingly effective vaccines that radically reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19. All of which means that for a long time now the right’s ongoing propaganda campaign against and organized political resistance to vaccination, among other public-health protocols, has been killing many, many Americans for no reasonable, ethically justifiable social purpose.

In other words, what we’ve experienced certainly since the middle of 2021 is literally ritual human sacrifice on a mass scale—the real thing, comparable to the innumerable ghastly historical versions.

Anthropologists define ritual sacrifice as ...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... on/621355/

Have to admit that I'm not familiar with "the Maple"

Here’s What You Need To Know About The Far-Right ‘Freedom’ Convoy
A crowd-funded convoy of truckers that was initially launched to protest vaccine requirements for cross-border essential workers is due to arrive in Ottawa today and tomorrow.

A crowd-funded convoy that was ostensibly launched to protest vaccine requirements for cross-border essential workers is due to arrive in Ottawa today and tomorrow.


As explained by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, two organizers behind the convoy’s crowdfunding effort, which has raised more than $6 million via GoFundMe, are previously known figures in Canada’s far-right ecosystem.


Another organizer, B.J. Dichter, is a former Conservative Party of Canada candidate and a far-right People’s Party supporter. According to CAHN, Dichter claimed in 2019 that “Islamist entryism” is “rotting away at our society like syphilis.”


More recently, King stated that “the only way that this is going to be solved is with bullets."

Convoy organizers have tried to distance themselves from King, but in a video, King said ...

https://www.readthemaple.com/heres-what ... om-convoy/

And this appears to be a hard left site

Canada’s “Freedom Convoy” Is a Front for a Right-Wing, Anti-Worker Agenda
Workers in Canada’s trucking industry have suffered during the pandemic. The “Freedom Convoy,” a right-wing, pro-business social movement, purports itself to be the people’s champion of liberty — yet it could care less about the hardships and burdens of its fellow workers.
EMILY LEEDHAM

The so-called “Freedom Convoy” of truckers currently occupying Canada’s capital city claims to be a broad people’s movement concerned with the plight of workers — specifically truckers — who have suffered throughout the pandemic.

The convoy has received plaudits from the likes of Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson, sympathetic coverage from conservative media, and acclaim from some Canadian members of parliament. The Freedom Convoy’s GoFundMe has thus far raised $10 million in donations. Despite this wide recognition and support, the convoy presents itself as a scrappy coalition of working people who, fed up with the hardship they have undergone, are now speaking truth to power.

But a closer look at key “Freedom Convoy” participants reveals that many of the concerns of the protesters have little to do with workers’ rights or labor issues within Canada’s trucking industry. In fact, Convoy organizers have previously harassed workers on the picket line and ignored calls for support from ...

https://jacobinmag.com/2022/02/canada-f ... ti-vaccine

And now we hear that the whole thing is a false flag?



Conservatives loved the Canadian trucker convoy—until they became convinced it was a false flag
Paranoia runs so deep among some conservatives that even perceived victories are viewed with suspicion.
Mikael Thalen

Some conservatives have begun to view the so-called “Freedom Convoy,” which traveled across Canada in protest of COVID-19 restrictions, as an elaborate set-up aimed at damaging their movement.

The protest was sparked by truckers, who are now ...

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/trucker- ... onspiracy/

#1456

Not quite. The Cons supported the "convoy" (occupation of Ottawa) until the voter backlash.

Halting Progress and Happy Accidents: How mRNA Vaccines Were Made
The stunning Covid vaccines manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna drew upon long-buried discoveries made in the hopes of ending past epidemics.
Gina Kolata and Benjamin Mueller

Thousands of miles from Dr. Barney Graham’s lab in Bethesda, Md., a frightening new coronavirus had jumped from camels to humans in the Middle East, killing one out of every three people infected. An expert on the world’s most intractable viruses, Dr. Graham had been working for months to develop a vaccine, but had gotten nowhere.

Now he was terrified that the virus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, had infected one of his lab’s own scientists, who was sick with a fever and a cough in the fall of 2013 after a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca.

A nose swab came back positive for a coronavirus, seeming to confirm Dr. Graham’s worst fears, only for a second test to deliver relief. It was a mild coronavirus, causing a common cold, not MERS.

Dr. Graham had a flash of intuition: Perhaps it would be worth taking a closer look at ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/15/heal ... ccine.html

Just proves that there are crazies everywhere, not just in the US. This from down under.

Mark Parton, a Liberal member of the ACT Legislative Assembly, said he spent more than an hour talking with demonstrators at their campsite last week.

"I found it very difficult to have a coherent discussion with any of them because they genuinely believe that all elected members of any parliament will be arrested for treason," he told the ABC.

"And some of them genuinely believe that there will be a public execution.

"When you're faced with that sort of narrative, it's very, very difficult to have a sensible argument."

Mr Parton said everyone he spoke with believed that the official pandemic data was falsified "because every publicly elected official, every senior health official, is being bribed by 'big pharma' [pharmaceutical companies]".

Loonies.

Canberrans frustrated as COVID-19 vaccine protests continue to disrupt ACT in lead-up to parliament's return
Markus Mannheim

Canberrans are expressing growing frustration at disruptions caused by protests, which are expected to increase this week.

Thousands of demonstrators began gathering in Canberra last week to protest against COVID-19 vaccines and restrictions.

Police forced them to move on from an unlawful campsite near the National Library of Australia, but more protesters have arrived ahead of the beginning of parliamentary sittings.

Over the weekend, a convoy of demonstrators hampered traffic at Canberra Airport in an attempt to delay travellers.

Bus services were also diverted this afternoon as ...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-07/ ... /100809408

"The typical anti-vaxxer understates how hard vaccine research is while overstating their actual skills and experience in comprehending real scientific research. I suppose this is a perfect example of the Dunning-Kruger effect – a cognitive bias wherein people without a strong scientific background fail to recognize their actual ineptitude in the field and mistakenly overrate their knowledge and abilities as greater than it is.

On the other hand, I’ve done real scientific research that gives me a relatively decent background in vaccine science. And I’m going to state, without any remorse, that I am no Dr. Paul Offit, Dr. Peter Hotez, or any of the hundreds of researchers at the CDC and WHO. My background in vaccines is a result of my education, which is a lot more than a few hours on Google."

Vaccine science — why I do research better than anti-vaxxers

How many times have you read a comment from an anti-vaxxer that states, “I’ve done my vaccine science research, and it says vaccines are bad.” That comment seems to imply two things – that the anti-vaxxer believes they have done real vaccine science research, and those on the science/medicine side have not done real vaccine research.

What I’ve found is that the anti-vaxxer research into vaccine science is based on their Google University education rather than actual scientific education. Vaccine science is hard, and it cannot be done in a few hours searching for unimpressive memes.

The typical anti-vaxxer understates how hard vaccine research is while overstating their actual skills and experience in comprehending real scientific research. I suppose this is a perfect example of the Dunning-Kruger effect – a cognitive bias wherein people without a strong scientific background fail to recognize their actual ineptitude in the field and mistakenly overrate their knowledge and abilities as greater than it is.

On the other hand, I’ve done real scientific research that gives me a relatively decent background in vaccine science. And I’m going to state, without any remorse, that I am no Dr. Paul Offit, Dr. Peter Hotez, or any of the hundreds of researchers at the CDC and WHO. My background in vaccines is a result of my education, which is a lot more than a ....

https://www.skepticalraptor.com/skeptic ... i-vaxxers/

'Early version of Covid-19' is discovered in Chinese lab
Victoria Allen

Scientists have found traces of coronavirus that could bolster the theory that the pandemic began with a leak from a laboratory.

The discovery, from analysis of soil samples, suggests coronavirus may not have jumped from wildlife into humans naturally.

More evidence is needed, however, particularly relating to exactly when the virus entered the samples.

Scientists in Hungary found traces of a unique variant of coronavirus while examining DNA from soil from Antarctica that had been sent to the firm Sangon Biotech in Shanghai.

The researchers also found genetic material from ...

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/ea ... d=msedgntp

The news is very good for public health because it means the city’s single largest workforce is protected against a virus that stalks us.

The news is very bad for rabidly anti-vax-mandate Americans because it means the nation’s single biggest jab-or-job employer ultimatum went off with lots of complaining but without a hitch.

The vax and the ax: What comes next after NYC government’s successful employee COVID vaccination mandate
By DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL BOARD

This is the way New York City’s vaccine mandate protest ends: not with a bang but a whimper. Monday night came word that a paltry 1,430 municipal workers who refused to get vaccinated against COVID, out of more than 370,000 on payroll, were terminated after Friday’s deadline. That’s 0.4%, a number that gets a wee bit larger when you add in employees who quit or retired rather than get a potentially life-saving shot.

The news is ...

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny- ... story.html

Spotify Bet Big on Joe Rogan. It Got More Than It Counted On.
The deal that brought his podcast to Spotify is said to be worth over $200 million, more than was previously known. Accusations that he spreads misinformation have roiled the company.
Katherine Rosman, Ben Sisario, Mike Isaac and Adam Satariano

It was the deal that helped make Spotify a podcasting giant, but has now put the company at the center of a fiery debate about misinformation and free speech.

Spotify was already the king of music streaming. But to help propel the company into its next phase as an all-purpose audio juggernaut, and further challenge Apple and Google, it wanted a superstar podcaster, much as Howard Stern helped put satellite radio on the map in 2006. Spotify executives came to view Joe Rogan — a comedian and sports commentator whose no-holds-barred podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” was already a monster hit on YouTube — as that transformative star.

In May 2020, after an intense courtship, Spotify announced a licensing agreement to host Mr. Rogan’s show exclusively. Although reported then to be worth more than $100 million, the true value of the deal that was negotiated at the time, which covered three and a half years, was at least $200 million, with the possibility of more, according to two people familiar with the details of the transaction who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss it.

But in recent weeks the show that helped Spotify catapult into a market leader for podcasts has also placed it at ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/17/arts ... ation.html

My sixth-grader may never give up her mask. If only adults could be this grown-up
BY ROBIN ABCARIANCOLUMNIST

This is how the mask mandate is going in our house:

On Monday, the sixth-grader, who wore her surgical mask all day at school, including when she ran a mile in P.E., came home and plopped onto the couch to start her Mandarin homework.

“You can take off your mask now,” I said.

“I don’t want to!” she said. “It’s so comfortable.”

This is not unusual. My 11-year-old niece is better at following public health directives than most adults I know.

About 10 months ago, when we picked up our new puppy in Carlsbad, a far more politically conservative area than Venice, the maskless man of the house looked at my niece and said: “Can I ask you a question? Why are you wearing that mask?”

“I like to,” she replied. “It makes me feel safe.”

What could he say? Take it off, I don’t want you to feel safe?

He just shrugged.

Recently, when public health officials advised that ...

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2 ... super-bowl

If the link above doesn't work, try this

I did. It didn't work, either.

Strange

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2 ... DMQlNPrB9I

This opens for me (and I don't have a subscription)

Yes, late. We got several boxes of N95 masks at work after we had all bought our own and the surge subsided. Then, we got one free test at work. And yesterday, we got 2 more. They're just dumping the stuff we needed in December

We got our test kits/masks from our local library in November at no charge.

Science - that's where conspiracy theories go to die ....

New Research Points to Wuhan Market as Pandemic Origin
Carl Zimmer and Benjamin Mueller

Scientists released a pair of extensive studies on Saturday that point to a market in Wuhan, China, as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. Analyzing data from a variety of sources, they concluded that the coronavirus was very likely present in live mammals sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in late 2019 and suggested that the virus twice spilled over into people working or shopping there. They said they found no support for an alternate theory that the coronavirus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan.

“When you look at all of the evidence together, it’s an extraordinarily clear picture that the pandemic started at the Huanan market,” said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona and a co-author of both studies.

The two reports have not yet been published in a scientific journal that would require undergoing peer review.

Together, they represent a ....

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... igins.html