Pasta News Network - New Zealand

I wrote and said publicly last year there was a non-negligible but real chance she would retire just before Christmas or early this year before the resumption of Parliament and in time for a new Labour leader to prepare for the election. I saw a retirement as possible, in part because of the intense pressures of the job over her five years in charge, and in part because Ardern has, bit by bit, ruled out many new policy areas for Labour.

She also knew she had become personally and viscerally unpopular with a section of the electorate, some of whom are swinging voters able to bring in a new Government. But it’s fair to say this is a surprise and a complete shock to most. It completely throws open the prospects for this year’s election, which is now set to be on October 14. I said it was possible, but never believed it was probable. It’s still a shock.

Short but honest, with a serve of nuance by Bernard Hickey.

He told Morning Report the first thing that went through his mind when he heard of Ardern's decision was respect for the job she had done.

However, her decision has not changed anything for ordinary New Zealanders. This week had seen a record low level in business confidence and a 32-year high in food prices.

"It's going to get worse, it's going to get more painful and they need a government that's going to get things done for them so they can get ahead," Luxon said.

Politically safe but very valid points are made by Luxon in this particular article.

This is a story about influence, the media and Cardinal George Pell. For decades, as he climbed the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, he also worked assiduously to cultivate the press, especially Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp papers.

He dined with journalists and wrote a regular tabloid column. He would frequently telephone opinion writers and introduced his editor to the pope. Above all, he knew the importance of the media to his ambition and his style of politics.

The day after Pell’s death, The Australian published 20 swooning articles, and another 26 up to the middle of this week. More will be there today.

"Convenient." - Rorschach

A basic tenet of public health practice is that it is underpinned by evidence and human rights.Has public health been replaced with something else over time?We look at the use of propaganda published as “science” and consider whether science, academia and medicine have been misappropriated.

"What was revealed to me in the past 2.5 years is the decades of control and techniques that the pharmaceutical industry has, to corrupt science … Science is horrifically corrupted … I learned about the history of the pharmaceutical industry … a documented criminal industry … its entire business model rests on destroying what are called repurposed or generic drugs." ~ Dr Pierre Kory

Likewise currently 203 results for "the benefits of COVID vaccines outweigh the risks" on a large collection of papers that likely would not have been published without this "disclaimer"

Worth reading in full.

From 2020:

These arrangements have all the hallmarks of an autocratic technocracy. "Autocratic" because political power has been concentrated in the hands of a small group of people (in this case, the executive) absent the checks and balances that normally control the exercise of that power. The role of parliaments have been marginalised; inter- and intra-government review is abridged (if it exists at all); the oversight courts provide generally is not being accessed; and civil society and the media have largely been circumspect in their criticisms.

And "technocracy" because of the dominant role played by medical-scientific experts. Extensive legislative and executive decision-making authority has been delegated to these experts – directly in some jurisdictions, indirectly in others. Severe restrictions on an individual’s freedom of movement, association, and to earn a livelihood have been declared by them, or on their advice. How many times have we heard Prime Minister Scott Morrison, or a premier, say they have to follow the medical advice?

Nothing much has changed unfortunately. Experts have not updated their knowledge since 2020, nor have they abdicated their emergency powers completely.

From 2018:

A video compilation proving that countless local news networks read the same exact scripts around the United States is a chilling reminder of the Orwellian, heavily controlled nature of mass media. Even more chilling: The media coverage of this video.

Yes, what is happening in this video is indeed “extremely dangerous to our democracy”. The viral video, posted online by Deadspin, mashes together segments from a variety of television stations owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group – the largest television station operator in the United States. Dozens of newscasters, reduced to the state of word-parroting drones, are seen reciting the same script, one that obviously came from “above”. The creepy, Orwellian vibe emanating from the video and its clever editing clearly highlights the fact that mass media is owned by a few mega-companies.

In a twist of irony, the script read by the newscasters ominously warns viewers about “fake and biased news circulating on social media”, the same way Big Brother frowns against “thoughtcrime” in Orwell’s 1984.

"Our greatest responsibility is to serve our valued community." -Sinclair Script

Yukihiro Takahashi, the influential musician, drummer, and vocalist who co-founded Yellow Magic Orchestra, has died, The Japan Times reports. Takahashi underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor in August 2020. The following year, he revealed he was suffering from additional health problems. Takahashi was trying to recover at his home in Karzuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, but he caught pneumonia in early January and it worsened, according to Japanese publication Sports Nippon. Takahashi was 70 years old.

Saraba, Takahashi-san.

Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic agent that has gained attention as a potential COVID-19 therapeutic. It is a compound of the type Avermectin, which is a fermented by-product of Streptomyces avermitilis. Bifidobacterium is a member of the same phylum as Streptomyces spp., suggesting it may have a symbiotic relation with Streptomyces. Decreased Bifidobacterium levels are observed in COVID-19 susceptibility states, including old age, autoimmune disorder, and obesity. We hypothesize that Ivermectin, as a by-product of Streptomyces fermentation, is capable of feeding Bifidobacterium, thereby possibly preventing against COVID-19 susceptibilities. Moreover, Bifidobacterium may be capable of boosting natural immunity, offering more direct COVID-19 protection. These data concord with our study, as well as others, that show Ivermectin protects against COVID-19.

One of the few papers that links Ivermectin with gut biome health.

From what I've learned so-far, a happy gut biome is very advantageous to the immune system.

By December 2022, the BA.4 strain was no longer circulating, and BA.5 accounted for less than 25% of circulating SARS-CoV-2 strains, having been partially replaced by more immune-evasive strains, such as BQ.1, BQ.1.1, BF.7, XBB, and XBB.1.

What lessons can be learned from our experience with bivalent vaccines?

Fortunately, SARS-CoV-2 variants haven’t evolved to resist the protection against severe disease offered by vaccination or previous infection. If that happens, we will need to create a variant-specific vaccine. Although boosting with a bivalent vaccine is likely to have a similar effect as boosting with a monovalent vaccine, booster dosing is probably best reserved for the people most likely to need protection against severe disease — specifically, older adults, people with multiple coexisting conditions that put them at high risk for serious illness, and those who are immunocompromised. In the meantime, I believe we should stop trying to prevent all symptomatic infections in healthy, young people by boosting them with vaccines containing mRNA from strains that might disappear a few months later.

As penned by Paul A. Offit, M.D., CDC panel member.

From 2020, Peter McCullough et al.:

A multipronged therapeutic approach includes 1) adjuvant nutraceuticals, 2) combination intracellular anti-infective therapy, 3) inhaled/oral corticosteroids, 4) antiplatelet agents/anticoagulants, 5) supportive care including supplemental oxygen, monitoring, and telemedicine. Randomized trials of individual, novel oral therapies have not delivered tools for physicians to combat the pandemic in practice. No single therapeutic option thus far has been entirely effective and therefore a combination is required at this time. An urgent immediate pivot from single drug to SMDT regimens should be employed as a critical strategy to deal with the large numbers of acute COVID-19 patients with the aim of reducing the intensity and duration of symptoms and avoiding hospitalization and death.

Meanwhile, vaccines were pushed. Common off-label products demonised. People died due to hubris and politics.

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is used as a supplement for fighting infectious disorders. Many disorders, including COVID-19 and cancer, harmfully disrupt the levels of bacteria that naturally reside in the gut, which may contribute to symptoms. The aim of the study was to understand whether high-dose vitamin C could improve the types of bacteria in the human gut. To do this we characterized the gut bacteria before and after 23 individuals took vitamin C, as prescribed by their respective physicians. We observed that vitamin C increased levels of a gut bacterium called Bifidobacterium which has positive health benefits, including fighting infection. This study suggests the possibility that vitamin C could be successful for improving infection outcomes, possibly even COVID-19, partially because it improves the gut bacteria present.

To acompany Sabine Hazan's Ivermectin paper.

You get through at least a kilogram of raw carrots every day; the whites of your eyes and your skin have turned yellow; and you panic if you discover that your carrot supply has dried up. If you recognise these symptoms, you are probably addicted to raw carrots. It's rare but it does occur. A Czech psychiatrist described three cases some decades ago.

Two Papers, Three case studies, with references. One titled "The Orange People".