Health
Trump names leading COVID skeptic Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as head of the NIH
From LifeSiteNews
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, leading COVID critic and co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, said he will ‘reform American scientific institutions’ to ‘make America healthy again’ after being nominated as NIH director by Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has nominated prominent lockdown critic and co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
On November 26, Trump released a statement expressing his excitement that “Dr. Bhattacharya will work in cooperation with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to direct the Nation’s Medical Research, and to make important discoveries that will improve Health, and save lives.”
Bhattacharya was one of the earliest and most notable critics of the draconian COVID response by most governments around the world. In October 2020 he co-authored The Great Barrington Declaration, which criticized the harmful lockdown policies. Bhattacharya is a professor of medicine, economics, and health research policy at Stanford University in California and the director of Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging.
READ: Stanford prof: COVID lockdowns are ‘biggest public health mistake we’ve ever made’
“Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will restore the NIH to a Gold Standard Medical Research as they examine the underlying causes of, and solutions to, America’s biggest health challenges, including our Crisis of Chronic Illness and Disease. Together, they will work hard to Make America Healthy Again!” Trump’s statement said.
“I am honored and humbled by President @realDonaldTrump’s nomination of me to be the next @NIH director,” Bhattacharya wrote on X. “We will reform American scientific institutions so that they are worthy of trust again and will deploy the fruits of excellent science to make America healthy again!”
Designated United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) RFK Jr. and tech mogul Elon Musk both congratulated Bhattacharya on his nomination on X.
The NIH is an important agency under the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), responsible for biomedical and public health research.
While not opposing the COVID shots outright, the Stanford professor and designated director of the NIH did call for an end to all policies “that discriminate[d] against the unvaccinated” in 2022.
With Bhattacharya, Trump has nominated another well-known critic of the draconian COVID regulations to his health policy team. RFK Jr. has been picked to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, with a particular focus on chronic illnesses and nutrition. The president-elect picked pro-life vaccine skeptic David Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Dr. Marty Makary, a skeptic of widespread lockdowns and pediatric COVID shots, to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, he also nominated pro-vaccine Dr. Janette Neishewat to the position of Surgeon General.
Business
Canadian health care continues to perform poorly compared to other countries
From the Fraser Institute
By Mackenzie Moir and Bacchus Barua
At 30 weeks, this year marked the longest total wait for non-emergency surgery in more than 30 years of measurement.
Our system isn’t just worsening over time, it’s also performing badly compared to our universal health-care peers.
Earlier this year, the U.S.-based Commonwealth Fund (in conjunction with the Canadian Institute for Health Information) released the results of their international health policy survey, which includes nine high-income universal health-care countries—Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, Canada continued to come in near or dead last on key measures of timely access. Most notably, Canada ranked worst for wait times for specialists and non-emergency surgery.
For example, whereas almost half (46 per cent) of Canadians surveyed indicated they waited two months or more for a specialist appointment, that number was just 15.1 per cent in the Netherlands and 13.2 per cent in Switzerland. And while one in five (19.9 per cent) Canadians reported waiting more than one year for non-emergency surgery, just half a per cent (0.6) of Swiss respondents indicated a similar wait. And no one in the Netherlands reported waiting as long.
What explains the superior performance of these two countries compared to Canada?
Simply put, they do universal health care very differently.
For example, the Netherlands, which ranked first on both indicators, mandates that residents purchase private insurance in a regulated but competitive marketplace. This system allows for private insurance firms to negotiate with health-care providers on prices, but these insurance firms must also accept all applicants and charge their policy holders the same monthly fee for coverage (i.e. they cannot discriminate based on pre-existing conditions).
In Switzerland, which ranked among the top three on both measures, patients must also purchase coverage in a regulated private insurance marketplace and share (10-20 per cent) of the cost of their care (with an annual maximum and protections for the most vulnerable).
Both countries also finance their hospitals based on their activity, which means hospitals are paid for the services they actually provide for each patient, and are incentivized to provide higher volumes of care. Empirical evidence also suggests this approach improves hospital efficiency and potentially lowers wait times. In contrast, governments in Canada provide hospitals with fixed annual budgets (known as “global budgets”) so hospitals treat patients like costs to be minimized and are disincentivized from treating complex cases.
It’s no surprise that in 2022, the latest year of available data, a lot more Swiss (94 per cent) and Dutch (83 per cent) reported satisfaction with their health-care system compared to Canadians (56 per cent).
No matter where you look, evidence on the shortcomings of Canada’s health-care system is clear. Fundamental reform is required for Canadians to have timelier care that matches what’s available in universal health-care countries abroad.
Health
Dr. Malone: Bird flu ‘emergency’ in California is a case of psychological bioterrorism
From LifeSiteNews
Contrary to initial reporting from corporate media, the WHO, and the apocalyptic mutterings of Dr. Peter Hotez, there continues to be no evidence indicating the circulation of a highly pathogenic version of bird flu in either animal or human populations.
What is the current threat assessment for Avian Influenza, and has it changed?
I previously established and published a brief baseline threat assessment for Avian Influenza on July 2, 2024. Four dominant parameters must be considered when assessing a potential infectious disease threat to human populations:
- Disease severity (a measurable objective truth)
- Mechanism of transmission and observed transmissibility (an experimentally testable objective truth)
- Evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission (a measurable objective truth)
- Assessment of anticipated future risk (subjective, speculative, and hypothetical)
Politicians and their allies (in BioPharma, academia, and other sectors) have a variety of conflicts of interest and agendas which are not aligned with objective, dispassionate assessment and response to public health and infectious disease issues, and cannot be relied upon to analyze and respond to these key parameters objectively.
An assessment of the conflicts of interest and political agenda(s) of California’s Gavin Newsom is beyond the scope of this analysis. Still, please remember that Governor Newsom clearly mismanaged and overreacted to the COVID threat, as did the World Economic Forum that trained and coached (coaches?) him as a “Young Leader” and clearly continues to influence his political postures.
Although California has remained under Democrat party control – in significant part consequent to “rank choice” voting policies – during the recent presidential election there was a clear shift and momentum toward the Republican party across the majority of the state.
California has a very large dairy industry, and I know that a leader in and representative of that industry has close connections to Newsom. The presence of the virus in Southern California dairy farms is widespread, with over 300 dairy herds testing positive in the last 30 days
Has the threat assessment circa July 2024 changed? Let’s revisit the basics:
Disease severity, December 2024
Disease severity continues to be mild, with the exception of one new case which apparently triggered Newsom to declare a state of emergency in California.
According to Newsweek, “A person in Louisiana was hospitalized in critical condition with severe respiratory symptoms from a bird flu infection, according to state health officials. The patient had been in contact with sick and dead birds in a backyard flock, according to the CDC. Louisiana health officials said the patient is older than 65 and has underlying medical conditions.”
Here is the current CDC threat summary
- H5 bird flu is widespread in wild birds worldwide and is causing outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows with several recent human cases in U.S. dairy and poultry workers.
- While the current public health risk is low, CDC is watching the situation carefully and working with states to monitor people with animal exposures.
- CDC is using its flu surveillance systems to monitor for H5 bird flu activity in people.
The CDC charts above document that the risk of H5 in humans is low, disease severity is low, and although massive testing has occurred, there are only 61 total “exposure” sources found from cattle, birds, and other mammals.
There are a total of three human cases picked up from the CDC flu surveillance program since February 25, 2024, and a total of 58 cases in the U.S., after testing almost 10,000 people who were exposed to infected animals.
In sum, the profile of disease severity has not changed since July 2024. As opposed to initial reporting from corporate media, dark warnings from the WHO and Dr. Tedros, and the apocalyptic mutterings of Dr. Peter Hotez, there continues to be no evidence indicating the circulation of a highly pathogenic version of this virus in either animal or human populations.
Mechanism of transmission and observed transmissibility
All reported U.S. transmission events involve human exposure in the context of intensive contact during animal husbandry or other known animal hosts, indicating that the mechanism of transmission remains intensive exposure to infected animals and animal carcasses. No change from July 2024.
Evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission
No evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, now or in the past with this currently circulating variant.
Assessment of anticipated future risk
This appears to be the crux of Newsom’s alarmist response involving the declaration of a “State of Emergency” for bird flu in California. A statement from the governor’s office characterized the move as a “proactive action to strengthen robust state response” to avian influenza A (H5N1), also known as bird flu.
“This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak,” Newsom said in a statement. “Building on California’s testing and monitoring system – the largest in the nation – we are committed to further protecting public health, supporting our agriculture industry, and ensuring that Californians have access to accurate, up-to-date information.”
He added, “While the risk to the public remains low, we will continue to take all necessary steps to prevent the spread of this virus.”
This statement demonstrates either a profound ignorance of the mechanism by which animal influenza viruses spread, including avian influenza, or the presence of a hidden agenda. With a wide range of animal reservoirs, including migratory waterfowl, there is no way that the state of California can prevent the spread of this virus.
READ: Australian doctor who criticized COVID jabs has his suspension reversed
Conclusion
There has been no significant change in the current threat assessment associated with Avian Influenza relative to July 2024. The CDC, which has recently been implicated in industrial-scale “PsyWar” deployment of psychological bioterrorism regarding COVID and has an organizational conflict of interest in promoting vaccines and vaccine uptake, characterizes the current public health risk as low.
My conclusion regarding the Newsom declaration of a “State of Emergency” for bird flu in California is that it is being driven by a hidden agenda. There are multiple hypotheses regarding what that hidden agenda may be, but Newsom’s statement that, “Building on California’s testing and monitoring system – the largest in the nation – we are committed to further protecting public health, supporting our agriculture industry, and ensuring that Californians have access to accurate, up-to-date information,” suggests that this declaration may, at a minimum, reflect advocacy by and for California’s infectious disease testing industry, which includes both academic and commercial components.
Reprinted with permission from Robert Malone.
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