Here we are, C&C, the final Friday of 2022 (whew). One more C&C to go and the pandemic will have ticked over another year. Can you believe we’re going on THREE years of pandemic?

Your roundup today includes: record covid deaths in Japan are coincidental with another interesting record in that country; booster uptake plummets as the psyops recede; great news about Fauci’s career trajectory; masking poll shows we still have work to do; experts pin blame for Ohio measles outbreak on vaxx hesitancy; the FBI is hiring; and a BMJ study finds artificial sweeteners are the latest cause of heart attacks.

🗞 *THE C&C ARMY POST* 🗞

🪖 Multiplier reminder: yesterday we multiplied Libs of TikTok. If you missed it, join the C&C Army and take 30 seconds right now to donate any amount ending in a $2, however small. The link: Libs of TikTok Legal Defense Fund — Anedot.

I promise you’ll feel terrific after you join in.

🗞*WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞

🔥 Yesterday I reported about the record covid deaths in Japan this week — in spite of that country’s high vaccination rate (82%). During my research later in the day, I noticed another curious fact: Japan has the highest booster uptake. By a lot.

Covid vaccination has flatlined worldwide, everywhere but Japan. The U.S. comes in second, but is on a diving trajectory heading straight down. China is third place, but at very small numbers, especially relative to its population. The figures suggest those may just be the Chinese facing international jab mandates for travel and visiting foreign educational institutions. Everywhere else in the world the numbers are trivial.

The Tampa Bay Times recently ran a roundup of letters to the editor about the falling booster rates among Florida seniors. Most of the letters blamed Governor DeSantis, because he’s “anti science” or something, but the Times did run one letter describing a vaccine injury.

Six months ago, there’s NO WAY that lone anti-jab letter would have seen print. Progress.

Also, I don’t know who needs to hear this, but “science” is a skeptical method of investigation, not a collection of approved beliefs.

🔥 The New York Times ran a sensational, heartwarming, wonderful article yesterday headlined, “After Half a Century, Fauci Prepares for Life After Government.” The sub-headline expanded the joyful news, explaining “The nation’s top infectious disease expert, whose last day as a federal employee is Saturday, plans to write a memoir and wants to encourage people to go into public service.”

I gave myself a few minutes to bask in the glowing good news. Only one more day! After allowing myself that little treat, I got back to work.

He’s writing a memoir? As my own first book, maybe I should write a sarcastic anti-Fauci-memoir, to make a collectible set with Fauci’s. Mine could be an illustrated coffee table book, titled “Anthony & Me,” or “How to Become the World’s Most Hated Person in One Easy Step,” or “Showing Chairman Mao Who’s Boss,” or maybe “Why We Need Federal Agency Term Limits.”

Everything you need to know about the retiring human cockroach is contained in the article’s first sentence. I am not making this up. This is a literal quotation from the beginning of the Times’ hagiographic interview:

The walls in Dr. Anthony S. Fauci’s home office are adorned with portraits of him, drawn and painted by some of his many fans.

I missed my chance. I’d like to contribute something to that collection. 🪳

To her partial credit, reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg acknowledged Fauci as being both “most loved” and “most hated”:

It was a revealing glimpse into the psyche of America’s most loved and hated doctor as he wraps up more than half a century of government service at the National Institutes of Health.

That acknowledgement was the first and last critical element. She never got into the “hated” part. Rather, she next described how Fauci told the Times reporter something that — I fervently pray — is just one of the those things all retiring people say:

Dr. Fauci, who turned 82 on Christmas Eve, said he may be retiring, but he is not going away.

PLEASE go away.

Fauci said he was looking forward to writing his memoir, but wasn’t sure what it would look like, because he’s never written a book before.

I would much rather give a story of the whole me, from the time I grew up in the streets of Brooklyn to where I am right now. But I don’t know. I’ve never written a book before.

Um. I guess he’s not counting his previous tone-deaf effort that blew up on the launch pad, titled “Fauci: Expect the Unexpected: Ten Lessons on Truth, Service, and the Way Forward.” Maybe it doesn’t count, since the book was pulled before release or otherwise scrubbed from public view back in November, 2021. There’s been some chatter that it was really National Geographic’s book and not Fauci’s book. But here’s the first sentence from the book’s description on the webcached Amazon page:

Compiled from hours of interviews drawn from the eponymous National Geographic documentary, this inspiring book from world-renowned infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci shares the lessons that have shaped the celebrated doctor’s life philosophy, offering an intimate view of one of the world’s greatest medical minds as well as universal advice to live by.

Sounds great, huh? Bet you wish you’d gotten one for Christmas. Honestly, I was disappointed when it was taken off the stores, because I was really looking forward to ripping that disgusting book a new one.

All I can do now is criticize the unpublished book’s cover.

What on Earth is on the front of that mask? Gross. And why is he yanking on his mask string like that? Is that the approved removal method or something? It looks like it’s hurting his ears. And, are his eyes closed? Is he pensively reflecting on all the corpses he’s caused? Or is he looking down into his mask to see what he made?

I have SO many questions.

He’s going to teach us “lessons on truth?” For real? “Service,” I can see that one. He’s served himself and Big Pharma very well. Back when he wrote it, the “Way Forward” didn’t include retiring tomorrow, because he’s told any number of credulous interviewers that, barnacle-like, he planned to adhere to his job ‘at least’ through the pandemic.

Finally, even the first sentence of the failed book’s description is a lie. Fauci is not a “world-renowned infectious disease specialist.” What a joke, and an insult to real infectious disease specialists. Fauci hasn’t done ANY ground-breaking research. He hasn’t done any research at all. He’s a horrible bureaucrat.

Scott Atlas described in his book attending President Trump’s Covid task force meetings. Dr. Atlas would bring with stacks of studies with him, whereas Fauci would show up with nothing. Dr. Atlas said Fauci had no idea of the developing covid literature. But he’s a “specialist.”

The rest of the article is a series of softball questions triggering the sour taste of reflux, like “What do you think are the biggest health challenges we face?” Ugh. The words, “gain of function” make no appearance, nor do “Wuhan,” “EcoHealth Alliance,” “Peter Daszak,” or “95% effective.”

Goodbye, Tony, and good riddance. I wish I could say our long national nightmare is over, but I have a funny feeling that, like a bad penny, Fauci will turn up next on Moderna’s board of directors, or something equally apalling.

😷 An I&I/TIPP poll, taken online in early December, asked 1,351 U.S. adults whether masking kids under five is a “good idea.” The correct answer was, “hell no,” but results were mixed:

In the general population, given the margin of error, it’s 50/50 on the goodness of masking very young children. Even 42% of Republicans think it’s either a good idea or they’re not sure (24% + 18%). Forty-four percent of self-described conservatives agreed.

Even if masks somehow filtered covid virus particles, which they don’t, kids under 5 cannot properly wear masks. They pull their masks off, they constantly fiddle with and touch them, they drop them on the bathroom floor then put them back on. When young kids come home from school, their little masks are soiled and stained. The only study — from a University of Florida researcher — found all kinds of nasty germs on kids’ used masks — but not on their shirts.

But here you have it: more proof that a giant conspiracy isn’t a sufficient explanation for covid lockdowns and mandates. Even at this point in the pandemic, with everything we now know, with all the personal experience and all the data showing masks failed to flatten, bend, or otherwise affect the curve in any way, half the people STILL think we should strap them on to kids, who MOST need to see faces.

We need to face the fact that half of Americans WANTED the pandemic controls. To some extent, they STILL want controls. The sobering fact is, Team Reality’s job is not done. The good news is, look how much we’ve already accomplished despite unfavorable odds.

💉 Prominent Lithuanian TV host, author, and social media influencer Agnė Jagelavičiūtė, 42, died suddenly and unexpectedly this week. The family didn’t release a cause of death, but sources close to the family say it was “complications from pneumonia.”

You know what’s one of the “complications of pneumonia”? Pulmonary embolism — blood clots in the lung. Just saying.

💉 The Hill ran a breathless story yesterday headlined, “Ohio measles outbreak may be fueled by vaccine misinformation, health official says: ‘We’re all going to pay dearly’.”

They are really milking those Ohio measles cases. I wonder if it will be even worse than monkeypox.

I’ve previously reported that Ohio’s measles “outbreak” has not yet even reached 2014 levels. Still, they’re blaming it on some kind of new “vaccine hesitancy:”

“The vaccine hesitancy is something that we’re all going to pay dearly for the next several years from the COVID fiasco,” said Charles Patterson, the health commissioner for Clark County Combined Health District.

Sounds bad! But if you carefully read the article’s details, there have been zero deaths and only 32 hospitalizations ALL YEAR. Fewer than three a month. Of those, 27 either had “unknown” vaccine status or were too young to be eligible for the measles shots anyway. The unstated point seems to be that a Utopian level of zero-measles would definitely be achievable if only everyone would get their damned jabs.

But the perfectly reasonable question parents are asking themselves is, which is worse: the risk of measles or the risk of the shots? The article didn’t mention shot risks or side effects, at all.

You know the answer.

🔥 In case you’re in between jobs, the FBI is looking for new recruits! According to the job listing, the average public service salary range for altruistically snooping on your neighbors is between $78K to $153K, but supervisors can earn even more. It’s a good gig.

FBI @FBI

We believe a successful team is one that supports you, allows you to grow, and listens to you. That's what our teams and our work are all about at the #FBI. Find your team by applying today. #FBIJobs fbijobs.gov/special-agents…

2:02 PM ∙ Dec 28, 2022

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697Likes139Retweets

I noted the job description now includes monitoring social media:

A day for an FBI special agent might entail surveilling a subject in the morning, tracking terrorists’ online social activity before lunch, testifying in court in the afternoon, and addressing a public forum on identity theft in the evening.

The FBI and the other intelligence agencies are exploiting a legal loophole to spy on Americans. The Supreme Court has held that citizens have no right to privacy for things they say in public, which includes stuff we post on social media platforms. So federal agents are allowed to capture, collate, dissect and review anything people publicly post.

Just FYI.

Sounds like a lucrative career but unfortunately, it’s too late for me. The eligibility requirements say you have to apply by your 36th birthday. Age-ism.

Anyway, judging by the tweet’s comments, the FBI has a teensy-tiny image problem. For some reason.

🔬 A study published in the BMJ in September was titled, “Artificial sweeteners and risk of cardiovascular diseases: results from the prospective NutriNet-Santé cohort.”

The researchers studied 100,000 frenchmen and claim to have found an elevated risk of heart attacks among people who consumed more diet sodas and other sources of artificial sweetener. They noted that consuming regular sugar was also “recognised” as a major risk factor for health problems. So, damned if you do, et cetera.

It’s fair to say the study’s numbers were pretty close. For example, 346 sweetener-eating folks had cardiovascular diagnoses during the study, compared to 314 in the non-consumer cohort. Not a huge difference.

I can’t help but suspect this is another study helping flood the zone, so that anyone researching cardiac injuries will just throw up their hands and conclude “everything” causes heart attacks. It’s just impossible to know for certain.

Is anyone surprised that artificial sweeteners might not be good for you? It sure took them a long time to check. I guess that’s another unexpected benefit of the jabs, they’re making scientists check out all these other less-well-protected products.

This should be fun to watch. It’s the battle of the T-rexes: the sweetener industry versus big pharma. Get r-r-ready to r-r-r-r-rumble!

Have a fabulous Friday! I’ll be back tomorrow with the final C&C of the year. I’m planning to summarize the year and, Lord help me, make some predictions about 2023. Then, we’ll be back on January 2nd, to kick off the new year the right way.

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