☕️ TOXIC ☙ Monday, August 28, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Study shows N95 masks rife with bad chemicals; 75% of pro-patient charities run by big pharma; Prigozhin dead; Speaker teases Biden impeachment; rocky NFL pre-season; refinery fire; Shokin; more!

Good morning, C&C, it’s Monday! Time for another terrific week of C&C. Your roundup today includes: Daily Mail cites mask study proving N95 masks contain toxic chemicals; study finds three quarters of so-called “patient advocacy” charities have been captured by big pharma; Prigozhin is dead after all but it’s still weird; House Speaker hints at Biden impeachment inquiry; NFL preseason rocky start with two different players collapsing during two separate games after mild hits; another major oil refinery fire makes THREE inside 12 months at the same refinery;  Shokin puts stuffing in the Biden Burisma Bribery case in first ever interview; Guinness World Records strips Lia Thomas’s ELEVEN world records in women’s swimming from the book;  and a Rob Schneider covid mask clip to tickle your Monday funny bone.

🗞💬 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 💬🗞

😷 This can’t be good for the narrative. The Daily Mail UK’s editors clearly aren’t looking forward to re-masking this Fall, since they ran a story this weekend headlined, “Mask study published by NIH suggests N95 Covid masks may expose wearers to dangerous levels of toxic compounds linked to seizures and cancer.”

Imagine that. Long mask syndrome.

The headline and the social media takes are a little overheated, like a person wearing a mask all day, so let’s figure out what the article really says and doesn’t say. Now remember, one of Science™’s sacred cows is the religious belief that masks are totally harmless, only a minor inconvenience at worst.

If you dare question that assumption, prepare to face the unholy wrath of the white-coat army.

The Mail’s article reported on an April study courageously published in the reckless journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, which is available on the NIH's journal aggregating website (but wasn’t originally published or endorsed by the NIH). In the study, researchers tested fourteen different N-95 masks (disposable masks) and washable cloth masks available online, and measured each mask’s TVOC levels.

TVOC is a whole category of toxic volatile organic compounds. The key words being, “toxic” and “volatile.”  TVOCs include chemicals like dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and dimethylformamide (DMF), which have been linked to liver injury and — of course — reproductive damage.

TVOCs can irritate the eyes, nose, and throat, can cause difficulty breathing and nausea, and can damage the central nervous system and organs (like the liver). Some TVOCs are carcinogenic.

The disposable masks tested included KFAD, KF94, and KN95 models, made from thermoplastics like polypropylene and polyurethane nylon. KFADs and KF94s filter 94% of particles, while KN95s filter 95% percent. These types of masks are considered the “gold standard” in disposables, short of powered respirator equipment.

Cotton masks, on the other hand, are now disfavored by Covidians, who consider them worse than useless. The CDC pushed cotton masks during the early pandemic, just cut-up an old t-shirt!, one of its earliest lies (among countless others), back while the bloated health agency was just gearing up its massive covid misinformation campaign. Much later the CDC and its army of evil talking dolls, I mean doctors, would backtrack on cotton and start insisting people purchase N-series masks, which look utterly ridiculous, like something you’re supposed to wear while sanding down a wood deck.

Anyway, the researchers found the ‘preferred’ disposable N-series masks contained up to fourteen times higher TVOC levels than did the cotton masks. The EPA recommends keeping TVOC levels below 0.5 parts per million in indoor air. The N-series sample with the highest level of TVOCs registered about 4.8 parts per million, more than eight times the recommended EPA limit.

So, brilliantly, N95 mask wearers are artificially boosting TVOC levels in their personal air to at least eight times the safe level, which explains the crisp chemical odor that mask-o-philes enjoy.

As you can imagine, all the new attention to this April study has the Branch Covidians stirred up worse than sprayed hornets. The most common complaint I’ve seen is that the researchers didn’t test all brands of disposable masks, as if they accidentally stumbled across the only brands manufactured with excess TVOC. I have to think this is a dumb interim placeholder complaint while they work on finding something better.

I won’t bother rebutting this stupid argument except to say two quick things. First, they’re right! Since the researchers didn’t test all brands of disposable masks, other brands could be even worse. And second, the stupidity of this argument actually proves the point about what happens cognitively when you wear disposable masks for too long.

Brain damage.

But keep in mind the researchers didn’t prove that anyone got injured. They tested masks, not mask wearers. What they proved is the mass produced N-series disposable masks contain toxic levels of dangerous chemicals. You can logically deduce the downstream effects though, of breathing those dangerous chemicals all day, day in, and day out.

What do you want to bet that, despite this scientific study, Covidians keep wearing their masks anyways? The article hinted at that insane rationale, by quoting a doctor who breezily explained, “all medical treatments have side effects.”

Oh. Thanks for telling us now.

🔥 Last week, MedPage Today ran a story headlined, “Top Patient Advocacy Orgs Have Industry Ties in Leadership, Study Shows.”  The sub-headline added, “Half had paid staff or executives with pharma and medical device conflicts of interest.”

In other words, Big Pharma has captured the pro-patient charities.

Patient Advocacy Organizations (PAOs) are charitable non-profits allegedly organized to represent patient interests. They include organizations like American Cancer Society, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, the Cancer Research Institute, and the Foundation Fighting Blindness — which were all found to have leaders with direct ties to big pharma.

According to a recent research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine, 75% of the 50 biggest PAOs in the U.S. have board members or senior leadership with ties to the pharmaceutical or medical device industry, in many cases working for industry and the charity at the same time.

Study co-author Shamik Bhat, BS, Yale School of Medicine, told MedPage, "the vast majority of these groups have not only financial ties, but now we can see that they also have deep integration in their boards, and their higher-up leadership, with industry."

The data wasn’t easy for the researchers to find. Regulations do not require nonprofits to disclose broad conflicts of interest like these. The study researchers had to scour personal websites and LinkedIn profiles to discover industry ties to PAO leadership. "Whether it's intentional or not, I think transparency for a lot of these patient advocacy organizations is a pretty significant weakness at the moment," Bhat noted.

You don’t say.

All in all, a completely unsurprising finding, and it explains a lot about how these groups all fell immediately in line with government policy during the pandemic, including opposing early covid treatments and pushing mandates, expensive deadly medicines, and the ventilator.

🚀 Russian investigators formally confirmed over the weekend that Wagner mercenary group boss Yvegeny Prigozhin was in fact killed in a dramatic private plane crash last week, dispelling rumors he was in hiding somewhere. It’s curious there were two opposing crashes last week:  Prigozhin’s, and also a training accident that killed “Juice,” Ukraine’s top jet fighter pilot, as I reported yesterday.

And, of course, both of those crashes, the high-profile Ukrainian crash and the high-profile Russian crash, followed a week of seeing five commercial airline pilots suffer sudden and unexpected heart attacks (three of whom died). I’m just saying. They’re dropping like mRNA-injected flies.

🔥 Fulton County’s new Trump indictment will face its first major challenge today, as Trump co-defendant Mark Meadows argues in Federal Court that the lawsuit should be taken away from Fulton County’s woke DA and moved to federal court, since federal law requires that federal officers accused of crimes while acting in their official federal capacities be tried only in a federal court.

It’s hard to imagine how the judge could find differently, but we’ll see. The judge will either rule today or take it under advisement, but not for long, because Fulton County DA Fani Willis is driving for an October 23rd speedy trial.

If Meadows wins, it’s pretty much a lock the other defendants will evacuate to federal court as well.

🔥 The AP ran a story yesterday headlined, “A House impeachment inquiry of President Biden is a ‘natural step forward,’ Speaker McCarthy says.”

The news was that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told Fox News this weekend that the House would “consider” beginning impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden when it returns for the Fall session after the August recess.

Yesterday McCarthy said, “If you look at all the information we have been able to gather so far, it is a natural step forward that you would have to go to an impeachment inquiry.”

It doesn’t sound much different but an impeachment inquiry is different from an impeachment proceeding.

An impeachment inquiry is the initial phase, where the House of Representatives investigates whether grounds exist to impeach the President. During this stage, committees are formed to gather evidence, interview witnesses, and review documents related to the alleged misconduct. It's a fact-finding process that determines if there's enough evidence to move forward with formal articles of impeachment.

McCarthy has previously noted that the House has stronger discovery powers under an impeachment inquiry than from one of its committees, such as the House Oversight Committee, which has been investigating the Biden Burisma Bribery case. An impeachment inquiry, McCarthy explained, “provides Congress the apex of legal power to get all the information they need.”

Seems sensible. We’ll see. It also seems like a really good time to start an impeachment inquiry, what with election season beginning to ramp up.

💉 This next report is a re-post from Sunday’s subscriber edition, upon request. With only eight minutes to go in the Dolphins-Jaguars preseason game Saturday night, rookie wide receiver Daewood Davis collapsed, motionless, after a pretty normal-looking tackle.

Commotio cordis!  Oh, wait. No hit to the chest. Concussion!

So anyway, after one single injury, NFL officials canceled the entire game and took Davis to the hospital. Video:

https://twitter.com/AndrewFazzolare/status/1695614072929054955

Fortunately, the team reported that Davis now seems to be doing fine and is following “concussion protocol.”  No official diagnosis or prognosis has been provided.

But — weirdly — the game’s cancellation was the second preseason game canceled for a bizarre player collapse so far this season — actually, so far in one week.

The media blamed both injuries on general “head and neck” injuries. Not according to doctors or even football officials, that’s just media speculation.

The other game was cancelled after Patriot cornerback Isaiah Boldon collapsed, motionless, after colliding with another Patriot player last Saturday during the New England Patriots—Green Bay Packers preseason matchup. The game was scrubbed with only 10:29 left on the clock. Video:

https://twitter.com/ZackCoxNESN/status/1693091932984004701

The Patriots have only reported Isaiah had “an injury.” Not even a head injury or a neck injury, just “an injury.” Apparently, the days are now over when players’ injuries are immediately reported in microscopic detail so that ardent fans (and bookies) can handicap the injury’s effect on the rest of the season.

Here was the initial report after Isaiah’s collapse:

The next day — after Isaiah was released from the hospital — the Patriots again officially reported, and again only reported “an injury.” Here’s the entire statement:

An injury? That’s it? I scoured Google news. There is not one single article about Isaiah, his injury, his condition, his prospects, nothing, after last Monday (the day after the injury). Since then, blackout.  There’s no news on whether Isaiah will return to play, which seems weird. How’s he doing in practice? Crickets.

So far, that makes two preseason games bizarrely canceled late-game after a vaguely-defined “injury” leaving the players lying motionless on the field in one week. I ask our football fanatics: when was the last time something like that happened? Two games canceled in one week during the fourth quarter after a single player injury?

The NFL is getting pretty delicate. It’s almost like they’re terrified the players are going to die and then they’ll be criticized for playing on, or something. Weird. I wonder what could have made the league feel that way?

🔥 Get ready for higher gas prices. Trending Politics ran a story Saturday headlined, “Third-Largest Oil Refinery in America is Shut Down After Catastrophic Fire.”

Garyville, Louisiana’s Marathon Petroleum plant, the third largest oil refinery in America, was partially destroyed in a catastrophic fire, making yet another industrial disaster under the Biden Administration. According to reports, the plant is still operating at reduced capacity.

It was the “third fire to hit the plant in less than a year.”  That’s not weird at all. Happens all the time, right? Maybe they need to hire a new fire safety chief or something. Just saying.

Diesel prices jumped by +5%, and gasoline futures are up about +4% on the news.

🔥 Fox News ran a story Sunday headlined, “Former top Ukraine prosecutor comes out swinging against Joe and Hunter Biden: Exclusive interview.”

On Saturday night, Fox became the first major news network to interview Ukraine’s former prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, who was infamously and summarily fired after Joe Biden gave Ukraine six hours to get rid of him or Biden would cancel a billion-dollar aid package to Ukraine. At the time, Shokin was investigating Ukraine energy company Burisma, where Hunter Biden was getting paid a million dollars a year to do nothing.

Totally coincidentally, and completely unrelated to the Bidens, Shokin’s replacement immediately terminated the Burisma investigation and cancelled Shokin’s request to freeze the company’s president’s assets. And Ukraine got the billion dollars, which had not been conditioned on firing anybody.

Among other things, Shokin told Fox that, based on his investigation, he 100% believes the Bidens received cash bribes. He pointed out that the investigation of Burisma began before he took office.

In a recent sworn interview, Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer testified that, after Shokin began closing in on Burisma, “Hunter called DC” to get help. Combined with all the House Oversight Committee’s findings, you pretty much already have the whole case right there.

The White House dismissed the former investigator’s remarks, saying that Shokin — not Biden — was the corrupt one. Nanny-nanny boo boo! The Biden Administration spokeswoman didn’t explain exactly what Shokin allegedly did or who was allegedly paying him for what.

Shokin pushed back when Fox asked about media reports and claims about his alleged corruption, insisting there hasn't ever been a single example given. "I would appreciate if any of these highly respectable publications could come up with a single instance or a single example of my personal corruption or any offense whatsoever allegedly committed by me," Shokin told Fox News.

There’s been a lot going on behind the scenes. Over the last few years, since being fired, Shokin was twice hospitalized for near-fatal cardiac arrests, and believes he was deliberately poisoned with mercury. In February of this year, he told Ukrainian media that he thought Joe Biden could be involved in his assassination attempts.

It’s probably just a conspiracy theory. It’s not like Shokin has dirt on the Clintons or anything.

🔥 The counter-revolution won another battle! Earlier this month, Essential Sports ran a story headlined, “International Outcry: Guinness Reverses Decision on Lia Thomas’ World Records.”

Complaints began in earnest after the Guinness Book of World Records recognized biological male Lia Thomas as the world record-holder in eleven separate women’s swimming categories. So last month, yielding to pressure, Guinness World Records declared that all records of Lia Thomas mentioned would have an asterisk.

But that wasn’t nearly good enough. The outraged pushback increased.

Guinness has already included all Thomas’s “records” in its 2023 edition, but this month assured readers that 2023 will be the only edition with Lia records. The next edition will not mention Lia Thomas, and the records will stand with the correct female holders. Out of the eleven records, Olympic silver medalist Emma Weyant will receive six of them and Riley Gaines will get the remaining five. (The 2024 edition will include an explanation for the discrepancy from the previous version.)

“Rather than add an asterisk, Guinness will vacate the record and give it, by default, to the next in line,” said Guinness Editor-in-Chief Joe Barron. “We regret that there had to be any discussion on the matter and look forward to putting it behind us.”

If only we could put this entire trans travesty behind us. But we’ll get there.

🔥 To kick your week off right, enjoy this hilarious standup clip from comedian Rob Schneider about the return of masks, which I’ll title, “Fauci the Mask Fairy.” Mild adult language warning.

https://twitter.com/RobSchneider/status/1694462453420327194

Hat tip: C&C commenters.

Have a marvelous Monday! Come on back tomorrow morning, y’all, for more delectable Coffee & Covid.

Consider joining with C&C to help move the nation’s needle and change minds.  I could use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope, if you can: https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/-learn-how-to-get-involved-

Twitter: jchilders98.
Truth Social: jchilders98.
MeWe: mewe.com/i/coffee_and_covid.
Telegram: t.me/coffeecovidnews
C&C Swag! www.shopcoffeeandcovid.com