Making sense of the world through data
The focus of this blog is #data #bigdata #dataanalytics #privacy #digitalmarketing #AI #artificialintelligence #ML #GIS #datavisualization and many other aspects, fields and applications of data
Quite an interesting viewpoint about Europe. I do not know if we can agree with everything but definitively original. What if Alex Krainer is right and truly Trump and Putin are discussing a global agreement? It sounds farfetched but the night is always darkest before dawn so who knows? The preparation for WW3, according to crumbling European powers or a new world architecture according to the US and Russia? The second option looks so much more attractive. It doesn't mean that countless people are not working on the first option, just that they could lose. Worth contemplating?
10? It could be a joke if this wasn't so serious. In fact it is a very good thing that the FDA recognizes the problem at last. The push-back will be so strong that they must be double sure about the cases they are talking about.
But the problem as we highlighted over the years was not about a few "dead" people, almost all vaccines, like it or not, have some case of "adverse reaction" this is unavoidable. The issue was that we were administering a "vaccine" which was mostly untested and which risk for the immune system of many people was know to be extremely high with countless cases of "turbo Cancer", strokes and heart attacks as a consequence.
The statistics of Covid have been buried over the last 3 years, and because the consequences are still ongoing, it becomes easier over time to say that the problem we have a societal more than Covid related, although unmistakably the inflection point in many cases was in 2021, just as we started implementing the vaccine policies. Coincidence?
The
Food and Drug Administration's top overseer of vaccine policy on Friday
told employees that at least 10 American children died "after and
because of receiving" a Covid-19 vaccine. In a 3,000-word memorandum first reported by PBS,
Dr. Vinay Prasad, director of the FDA's vaccine division, also
committed to implementing changes to the FDA's evaluation of vaccine
efficacy and safety, and encouraged dissenting employees to find a new job.
“This is a profound revelation,” Prasad wrote. “For the first time, the US FDA will acknowledge that COVID-19 vaccines have killed American children.” Prasad
said the conclusion about children dying from Covid-19 vaccines was
reached after he and other FDA staffers undertook a multi-month, "detailed analysis of deaths voluntarily reported to the [Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System] system (VAERS)."
That effort focused on 96 deaths that occurred between 2021 and 2024, and said "no fewer" than 10
of them were caused by the vaccines. "If anything, this represents
conservative coding, where vaccines are exculpated rather than indicted
in cases of ambiguity. The real number is higher." He added,
"It is horrifying to consider that the US vaccine regulation, including our actions, may have harmed more children than we saved. This requires humility and introspection."
A hematologist-oncologist and former Cal-San Francisco professor, Vinay Prasad is the nation's top vaccine regulator (Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OHSU)
Prasad slammed the coercive nature of policies that insisted on Covid shots for children:
"Healthy young children who faced tremendously low risk of death were coerced, at the behest of the Biden administration, via school and work mandates, to receive a vaccine that could result in death.
In many cases, such mandates were harmful. It is difficult to read
cases where kids aged 7 to 16 may be dead as a result of covid vaccines
...
FDA has never requested the manufacturers demonstrate in randomized fashion that vaccinating children improves...outcomes.
The available randomized data in children is deeply limited, and
broadly negative for symptomatic infection, as discussed in prior
ad-coms. Furthermore, COVID-19 was never highly lethal for children,
and now MIS-c [Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children] has
decreased drastically, and the harms, to kids, are comparable to many
respiratory viruses for which we do not provide annual immunization."
Prasad
-- a hematologist-oncologist -- was among several outspoken critics of
the Covid-19 regime that moved into key public health posts
after Trump took office in January. Others include Robert F. Kennedy, Jr
as Health and Human Services secretary, Dr. Marty Makary as FDA
commissioner and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as Director of the National
Institutes of Health.
Friday's memorandum emphasizes that VAERS likely understates vaccine-triggered mortality:
"When it comes to vaccine deaths, VAERS is passively reported. It requires a motivated person, often a doctor, to submit the information. The submission process is tedious and most people who start the form give up along the way. Many more deaths may be unreported."
To
minimize future vaccine-driven deaths, Prasad said the FDA "will take
swift action regarding this new safety concern" and "will demand
pre-market randomized trials assessing clinical endpoints for most new
products." Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Prasad repeatedly
sounded alarms about public health interventions that were imposed
without rigorous efforts to seek evidenceof their risks and rewards. This has been a central theme in his body of work; he also authored a book, "Malignant: How Bad Policy and Bad Evidence Harm People with Cancer."
Prasad
said the FDA will also "revise the annual flu vaccine framework," which
he called "an evidence-based catastrophe of low quality evidence." He
also acknowledged that "[FDA has] not been focused on understanding the
benefits and harms of giving multiple vaccines at the same time." He ended the memo by urging staffers who aren't comfortable with the new approach to resign:
"I
remain open to vigorous discussions and debate on these topics, as I
have always been. I am open minded to modifications or
alterations...Some staff may not agree with these core principles and
operating principles. Please submit your resignation letters to your
supervisor and CC my deputy Katherine Szarama...for those who choose to remain...I look forward to working with you."
Prasad's
pointed statement about vaccine-caused deaths comes ahead of this
week's meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s
vaccine committee. The draft agenda for the meetings on Dec 4 and 5 includes FDA policy on giving hepatitis B vaccines to newborn babies, and the entire children's immunization schedule. The meetings are open to the public via live webcasts.
It's noteworthy that major media outlets that obtained a copy of Prasad's memorandum have only provided short quotations from it,
seemingly seeking to undercut Prasad's assault on the Covid regime
those same outlets unquestioningly supported. You can read the entire 3,000-word memo at The Brownstone Institute, a site originally launched to scrutinize Covid policies.
Dr.
Robert Malone, a Covid vaccine critic with credentials in mRNA
technology, hailed Prasad's memorandum as a historic milestone. "I am stunned, gobsmacked by his letter," he wrote at Malone News. "The significance and importance of this letter in the context of US and global vaccine policy cannot be overestimated. This is a revolution, the likes of which I never expected to see in my lifetime. The Washington Post called me a liar for stating what is now official FDA policy and truth."
Of course, vaccines were just one of many public health policies of the Covid era that may have done far more harm than good. With a Pandora's box of policy side-effects
that include impaired child development, learning loss, a surge in
mental breakdowns, soaring juvenile suicide attempts, increased drug and
alcohol abuse, increased domestic violence and higher drug
overdoses, it's increasingly clear that, in its coercive, ham-handed
approach to Covid-19, public health didn't err on the side of caution, but rather erred on the side of catastrophe.
Wait, what? Are the people at Volkswagen aware that Europe is waging economic war on China? Could they let industrial efficiency take the better of their sound judgement to do what is right?
Only in retrospect will we know what would have been the right decision at the right time but this sounds suspiciously like "business as usual" when the political class is saying "Game over!"
Now, let's play the devil's advocate for a second: Does it really make sense for Germany to wage economic war on China at this late stage, just as for Japan, when almost all the cards are in Chinese hands? Conversely, can Europe harm China? Yes, probably to some extend but just as was the case for Russian energy at the cost of destroying its own growth.
In early 2025, I predicted that we would see major economic changes during the year. They are taking place right now although most countries are still able to paper over the cracks. Let's see for how long. Not much longer to my opinion.
Volkswagen
says it can build an electric car entirely in China at roughly half the
cost of producing one in Germany, helped by quicker development, lower
labor expenses, easier battery sourcing and a more efficient supply
chain, according to FT.
After
heavy investment in its new R&D base in Hefei, which includes more
than 100 labs for software, hardware and powertrain testing, the company
says it can now validate software, hardware and full vehicles at the
same time.
According to VW’s China
technology chief Thomas Ulbrich, the facility gives engineering teams
“an entirely new level of integration,” allowing them to shorten
decision cycles and speed up innovation. VW says the development
timeline for new Chinese EVs is about 30 per cent shorter than the
traditional 50-month process.
FT writes
that the carmaker intends to introduce around 30 EV models in China
over the next five years as it tries to regain momentum in the world’s
largest auto market, where competition from domestic EV makers has
eroded its earlier dominance.
Although
the strategy began as “in China, for China,” executives say the company
is now considering exporting Chinese-built models and applying
Chinese-led advances to its global operations.
Other
European manufacturers, such as Renault, are also trying to match
China’s rapid development pace by simplifying components and relying
more on local engineering talent.
Still,
VW stands out for the scale of its investment, committing almost €4bn
in China since 2022 through efforts including its partnership with Xpeng
and its funding of Horizon Robotics, with which it is developing an AI
chip for autonomous-driving features.
These
moves come as VW continues to cut costs in Germany, where high
production expenses and weak European demand have led to a plan to
reduce its domestic workforce by 35,000 by 2030.
Will Japan be the first canary to fall in the Western financial coal mine?
It looks more and more likely as John Mearssheimer explains below, as the country finds itself squeezed between the industrial might of China and the political and financial might of the US.
The stupidity of the new Prime Minister, Takaichi to meaninglessly confront China with Taiwan is a game where almost every move is a losing one. Even the US has not been so explicit about Taiwan in spite of a much larger and credible military so why should Japan step ahead in the confrontation? Could it be the same desperate move as we see in Europe? When face with the prospect of bankruptcy, what do you do? Double down of course!
The analysis of Mearsheimer is clear, what is not yet is the outcome of the gamble. But gamble it is and with precious little cards to play against China.
The 18th of December may be a momentous date for Europe if the Union decides to confiscate the money owned by Russia and frozen on its account at Euroclear.
Russia has probably already written of the 180 billion dollars on the account, so the risk is entirely on the custodian side as Euroclear, if it accepts the European dictat, would completely destroy its credibility and may quickly see a huge segment of the transactions cleared on the exchange move away to more reliable climes.
This could mark the beginning of the downfall for Europe. The European leaders are both imbeciles and desperate, so let's hope powerful people behind the curtain understand what is at stake and can stop the madness. Such a move would be a short reprieve for Ukraine although it would not weaken Russia nor change the outcome of the war. What it would do is accelerate the downfall of Europe and finally oblige the continent to face the prospect of bankruptcy and financial reconstruction.