☕️ Coffee & Covid ☙ Friday, May 13, 2022 ☙ OFF RAMPS 🦠

Pfizer dumps the 2nd-largest market in the world, or vice-versa; a new CO2 mask study surprises; Psaki on formula; the Twitter deal sputters; Netflix tries to go un-woke; warmongering; and more...

Happy Friday the 13th! On top of that, for all you conspiracy theorists, there’ll be a “blood moon” total lunar eclipse this weekend, one of the longest lunar eclipses in ten years. You see what this means, right? We are IN the movie now. Today’s roundup includes: Pfizer dumps India because it wants proof the shots work; a new mask study with surprising findings on CO2 levels; a blood moon live stream link; Jen Psaki shows her caring side; is the Twitter deal dead?; Netflix says less woke, more work; and Lindsay Graham excretes new warmongering talk.

🗞*COVID NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞

💉 A difficult to view Reuters article not reproduced in corporate media from last February reported that Pfizer dropped its Indian EUA vaccine application like a sizzling hyperdermic after the country’s regulator demanded Pfizer conduct local safety and immunogenicity trials. It’s over. These days, the vaccine is unavailable in both of the world’s biggest countries, India and China.

After meeting with Pfizer’s application team, the Indian drugmaker said it could not approve that shot due to side effects and Pfizer’s failure to propose a plan to complete safety trials. But Indian company Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd is running trials for Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, which is expected to be approved this month or next.

You might be wondering why Pfizer wouldn’t prove its safe and effective vaccine is safe and effective, but I get it. Since India is only the world’s SECOND LARGEST MARKET, why throw more money into trials in India? If Indians want Comirnaty, they can wait 75 years for the US trial data like everybody else.

Google doesn’t show ANY other corporate media article reporting the Reuters story in the year since it happened. So pass it on!

😷 A new May 11th Italian preprint study published on MedRxIV is titled, “Inhaled CO2 concentration while wearing face masks: a pilot study using capnography.”

I bet you’ll never guess what they found. After extensive testing, they found CO2 levels inside masks are perfectly safe and are equivalent to ambient levels outside the mask. Haha, just kidding. The researchers actually confirmed that:

Shortly after wearing surgical masks, the inhaled air CO2 approached the highest acceptable exposure threshold recommended for workers, while concerningly high concentrations were recorded in virtually all individuals when wearing [N95] masks. The CO2 concentration was significantly higher among minors and subjects with high respiratory rate.

I’m old enough to remember when some people were saying this two years ago. Too bad, a study like this could have been very helpful back during the mask wars. Narrative 3.0 continues developing, stand by.

🔥 For astronomy buffs, here’s a link to a live stream of the lunar eclipse this weekend:

🔥 I think Jen Psaki just lost her Humanitarian of the Year award. At a press conference yesterday:

REPORTER: “…if you can’t find formula and you need it for your baby to eat, what should they be doing?”

PSAKI: “We would certainly encourage any parent who has concerns about their child’s well-being to call their doctor or pediatrician. Next question.”

Let them drink cake! We must save Ukraine!

So there you have it, the official policy of the U.S. government. Docs, get ready, I hope you’ve stocked up on formula.

💉 Brett Sutton, the Chief Health officer of Victoria, Australia, now has symptomatic covid. He let everyone on Twitter know. And yes, he said the words, like a good little doggy.

Chief Health Officer, Victoria @VictorianCHO

I’m down with COVID. Feeling pretty rubbish, tbh. Razor blade throat and painful cough. Clearly not the same for everyone. Can’t imagine how it might have been - for me - without three doses of vax. Good on science. #winteriscoming

It IS weird though, that he’s only had three doses. I’m starting to think Sutton might be an anti-vaxxer.

🔥 I hate to say it, but I think the Elon-Twitter romance might be cold and dead and not know it yet. Musk tweeted today — this morning — that the deal is “temporarily on hold” while he requires Twitter to prove it has as many live accounts as it says it does: it claims that figure is over 95%. Which we all know is a lie. It can’t possibly prove that. So it looks a lot to me like a graceful way for Musk to bow out and get his money back; and I wouldn’t blame him one bit.

Elon Musk @elonmusk

Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users

reuters.comTwitter estimates spam, fake accounts comprise less than 5% of users -filingTwitter Incestimated in a filing on Monday that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter.

I did another check just before posting this. Musk has been twitter-silent since that announcement. So.

On the other hand, it is possible that this could just be Musk’s way of pushing back. There are some other signs the deal hasn’t collapsed yet. Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO announced a hiring freeze in light of the pending purchase. Also, two of the company’s top executives are suddenly exiting the company: head of consumer products Kayvon Beykpour, and revenue boss Bruce Falck. It wasn’t their idea. Beykpour explained on Twitter, “The truth is that this isn’t how and when I imagined leaving Twitter, and this wasn’t my decision. Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction.”

🔥 Netflix execs seem to — finally — be getting tired of trying to learn all the new pronouns and financially BLEEDING OUT. The Daily Wire ran an article on the struggling streaming service yesterday headlined, “Netflix Fires Major Warning Shot At Its Woke Employees With New ‘Culture Memo’.”

The article explains that an “updated Netflix Culture memo” includes a brand new section called “Artistic Expression” that says plainly it will NOT “censor specific artists or voices” even if employees consider the content “harmful.”

And check out this scrap of common sense breaking through: “If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you,” the memo states. It even adds later that employees might have to work on projects that they “perceive to be harmful,” and that if they have a hard time accepting their work assignments, they might want to consider working SOMEWHERE ELSE. Buh bye.

Netflix isn’t talking about Cuties. They’re talking about Dave Chappelle’s comedy special, which caused Netflix’s contingent of trans workers to walk out, I mean sashé out, or something, since Chappelle mocked trans wokabulary in his show.

It’s bizarre that something like this is even news, but, that’s where we’re at these days.

Variety:

🚀 *THE MINORITY REPORT* 🚀

🚀 Newsweek ran a story earlier this week headlined, “’Let’s Take Out Putin’: Graham Doubles Down on Ukraine War ‘Off-Ramp’.”

Apparently, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (SC), said Sunday that the goal in the ongoing Ukraine war should be to “take out” Russian president Vladimir Putin, insisting that there is “no off-ramp” with the Russian president remaining in power. “Putin must go,” Graham declared.

No off ramp for Putin, he MUST go. I wish they would just tell us we’re at war with Russia now.

In Sunday’s Fox News interview with Brett Baier, Graham warmed to his theme, insisting that there is “No off-ramp. So let me tell you why there’s no off-ramp…if we push the Ukrainians to give up half their country, then Putin wins. If we back off prosecuting Putin as a war criminal, all the laws on the books become a joke. If we don’t get this right, China will certainly invade Taiwan.”

When asked about Graham’s comments, Jen Psaki denied our goal is to take out Putin. She told reporters, “that is not the position of the United States government and certainly not a statement you’d hear come from the mouth of anybody working in this administration.” But isn’t it? Last month during a visit to Poland, Joe’s mouth excreted the statement, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”

I wonder what president Putin thinks about all this “let’s take out Putin” talk from senior members of the U.S. government. Probably nothing.

Have a terrific Friday and keep on fighting! I’ll see you back here tomorrow for the Weekend Edition.

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