It’s Friday! Today’s roundup includes: the Biden mandate begins to emerge from the fog of confusion; a Tallahassee court upholds Florida’s vaccine passport ban; Biden reacts to DeSantis’ invitation to California container ships; the Chicago police department pushes back on mandates; experts start to concede that Covid isn’t going anywhere for a long time; the FDA committee hauls out its rubber stamp; Joe Rogan interviews CNN doctor Sanjay Gupta; data shows experts witlessly killed even more people through their lockdown policies; and Florida’s numbers are among the best in the country.

🗞*COVID NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞

🔥 The invisible Biden mandate is starting to emerge from the exhaust of Biden’s war-on-employees machine. The U.S. Dept. of Labor reported yesterday that the “initial text” of the “emergency temporary standard” for the federal vaccine mandates for private companies employing 100 or more workers has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget as part of the rulemaking process. Media widely reported that “an adviser to the Biden administration” said the new rule would allow companies to use a testing option instead of vaccination, but will not recognize any exemptions for natural immunity.

Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida responded to the news, saying, “We will contest it immediately. We think (the state has) standing.” He said the challenge would be filed in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Personally, I expect there to be a tremendous amount of litigation over Biden’s OSHA mandate, maybe 50 states’ worth, and some federal judge somewhere will grant an injunction, because that’s how this works now.

👨‍⚖️ Yesterday, the Circuit Court in Leon County denied a First Amendment challenge to the state’s vaccine passport ban. The opinion’s conclusion says, “Prohibiting businesses from requiring patrons to provide documentation certifying Covid-19 vaccination or post-infection recovery may or may not be a good idea. Notwithstanding, this decision belongs to the state’s policymaker—the Florida Legislature.”

Sound logical, to me.

✈️ Yesterday, extreme weather — possibly caused by Hurricane Brandon — continued to hamper American Airlines. Only American. The airline had to cancel 216 flights and delay 519 others. What could be happening? I guess we’ll never know.

Meanwhile reporters — showing that they’re about as sharp as a sack of wet mice — continue to credulously report whatever the airlines say next about what’s causing all the cancelled flights and delays.

🚢 Two days after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis invited stranded California container ships to come to Florida — where ports are wide open — Joe Biden suddenly announced that, after all this time, the Port of Los Angeles will now start operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, instead of just work hours from Monday through Friday. I wonder what could have prompted Biden’s announcement?

💉 The Chicago police department’s union is pushing back against Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s vaccine mandate. Their union filed suit, and up to half of the officers are refusing to report their vaccine status, which is due today. The officers have been told that they’ll be placed on non-disciplinary unpaid leave if they fail to report their injection status. Unpaid leave sounds a lot like being fired. Will Mayor Lightfoot really fire half the police force tomorrow, leaving the deadliest city in the U.S. essentially unprotected over the weekend?

So smart. The smartness is just amazing. Really.

🔥 The Orange County register reported yesterday that “Vaccinated or not, everyone is likely to get COVID-19 at some point, many experts say.” Well, well, well. Now you tell us. The UC Irvine epidemiologist interviewed for the story said the notion that the injections can keep you from getting infected is “a dangerous fantasy.”

“We’re all going to get it,” he said.

The story has some pretty unintentionally hilarious material. For instance, it says, “Once upon a time, hopes were that most people could escape COVID-19 infection.”

Hahahahaha! Once upon a time! Like, back in the medieval days! Once upon a time? Come on, man, give me a break. It was like ten minutes ago.

“While initially we thought that we could aim for perhaps elimination of the virus, bringing it to very low levels, the delta variant has been a great example of how humble we have to be when we look at the future,” said Dr. Jorge Salinas, an infectious diseases expert at Stanford.

Whoopsies, wrong again. Experts’ reminder to self: be humble. I’ll have to remember that gag for whenever I’m badly wrong about things. I just need to be more humble next time. Not arrogant, like before.

“The vaccines, we now know, are not perfect,” said the quoted epidemiologist, putting his career at risk for failing to fully praise the injections. “Breakthrough cases are kind of a thing. And we’ve seen that many cases were asymptomatic even before the vaccines, and even more so after, and maybe even more so after we boost,” he continued.

Okay. We “now know” the safe and effective injections “aren’t perfect.” We learned that, the hard way. I wonder what else we’ll find out about the injections as we go along? Isn’t this exciting?

An immunologist quoted for the article predicts it’s going take TEN YEARS for infections to die down: “I think within a decade SARS-CoV-2 infection will not be so common,” he said.

So.

💉 Surprising exactly zero persons, after voting 16-3 a couple weeks ago AGAINST approving Pfizer’s booster shot, but then being immediately overridden by the FDA, the advisory panel voted yesterday 19-0 IN FAVOR of the Moderna COVID-19 booster shot for people age 65 and older (plus those with underlying medical conditions or who are at higher risk of exposure to the virus).

Rubber, stamped. See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

🔥 Joe Rogan interviewed CNN’s TV doctor Sanjay Gupta this week and, predictably, gave Gupta a hard time. Politely. Now, remember, Rogan is a Covid survivor, having had a symptomatic case a few weeks ago, which he successfully treated with ivermectin and monoclonals, among others. At the time, CNN ran 24x7 coverage claiming Rogan was taking a “horse dewormer” for his condition. More than once, Gupta yukked it up with CNN host Don Lemon about it.

So anyway, Rogan ran circles around the TV doctor during the interview. After asking his age (51), Rogan told Gupta, “you, statistically, would be more vulnerable to a breakthrough infection than a young child would be.” Gupta did everything he could to avoid admitting the point. Rogan pressed him, “so, you understand why parents aren’t worried about their young children, who have very low risk? Just like you’re not worried about catching it, being vaccinated? That seems reasonable, right?”

Gupta was flummoxed and started babbling about how 500 kids have died. Rogan, unperturbed, said, “yeah, that’s out of like, millions and millions of kids?”

Rogan also pushed Gupta about lying about taking horse dewormer. Rogan pointed out that he’d actually taken the human kind, prescribed by a doctor, not the veterinary kind. So it was a lie to say he was taking horse dewormer. Gupta flailed around and tossed a bunch of word salad while Rogan presses him to admit that CNN had lied. “They shouldn’t have done that,” Gupta finally admits.

While those parts, and a few other segments, were frustrating to listen to, there were some points of agreement. Later, for example, Gupta and Rogan discussed gain-of-function research, and Gupta was pretty open about the NIH’s splicing of language and how they are falsely trying to claim they weren’t funding it. Gupta also shared his skepticism about China’s conduct, their destruction of evidence, and the fact that Covid very well could have started in a lab.

All in all, I think it’s a probably a good sign that conversations like this are starting to happen, that people aren’t afraid to talk openly about these issues. Progress.

🔥 The latest figures show that, during the lockdowns of 2020, there were +30% more deaths from drug overdoses. In other words, by trying and failing to contain the viral public health crisis, the experts created ANOTHER crisis, and a lot of people died.

Thanks again, experts.

🦩 The Daily Wire reported yesterday that Florida’s rate of Covid infections is now the THIRD LOWEST IN THE COUNTRY. Take that, haterz! Florida’s 14-day change in infection rates was -48%. Only Alabama (-61%) and Hawaii beat us (-51%).

Northern states are seeing increasing rates, including Colorado (+32%), Vermont (+27%), Michigan (+26%), and Minnesota (+22%). They’d better get ready. Apparently, the media is catching on that Covid is a SEASONAL VIRUS. The AP reported yesterday that, “Health experts fear the next wave in Northern states as cold weather approaches. … many Northern states are still struggling with rising cases, and what’s ahead for winter is far less clear.”

What are Northern state governors doing to stop Covid?? They’d better do something, or they’re going to get the DeSantis treatment. Right? Hello? MacFly?

Have a fabulous Friday, and I’ll see you back here in the morning tomorrow.

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