This week saw a unique event take place in the UK. The Better Way Conference held in Bath, England brought together a wide array of speakers who have serious reservations about the nature of the coronavirus crisis, the serious impact of covid restrictions and grave concerns about the damage being wrought to people's health by covid shots. This was a one of a kind event allowing a diverse range of people from different countries, backgrounds and perspectives to share and discuss information and ideas without fear of prejudice or discrimination.

As the world's media tries to turn everyone's attention to a new health threat - monkeypox - are we facing yet another wave of health tyranny? In our lead article this week, Rob Verkerk PhD shares his views on the monkeypox situation.

But covid has not yet left us. Read on for this week's curated content.

Pushbacks & positives!

• Mask mandates for healthcare workers in clinical settings in the UK could be dropped by NHS trusts from next week according to a source within the NHS that spoke to the Daily Sceptic. Such a change should also see the requirement for patients to wear masks in clinical settings being removed as well
• Leading scientists and healthcare policy experts together with the Indiana Attorney General, Rodd Rokita, have responded to the US Surgeon General's recent call for information on the spread covid misinformation. Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff aligned with Rokita to point the finger of blame at official government data and information as a key element of the spread of lies that have "...shattered the public's trust in science and public health..."
• South African based organisation, Sakeliga, is suing the South African government over its continued covid restrictions. It's asking the Court to declare the health regulations implemented recently, unlawful and unconstitutional and to set them aside. The Court action comes as the government ignored a letter sent by Sakeliga in regard to the implementation of the health regulations.

Origins

• Economist, Jeffrey Sachs along with co-author Neil Harrison, is calling for an independent investigation of the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes covid. Writing in PNAS they say large amounts of evidence held by federal agencies and universities have not been made available for "...independent, transparent and scientific scrutiny." They back up their assertions by highlighting a particular sequence of 8 amino acids that matches that of cells that line the human airway.

Restrictions

• South Australia is set to bring in the most despotic penalties for those ignoring covid restrictions seen to date. Under the Public Health Act legislation, people who ignore jab mandates or mask requirements in high-risk areas, such as healthcare, or who don't self-isolate when required, can be fined AUS $20,000 or face up to two years in prison. Businesses found breaking the rules could be fined a whopping AUS $75,000.

Children’s Health

• Children’s health and wellbeing has been severely damaged by the coronavirus crisis. New research from the UK’s Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) in conjunction with the University of York has found the restrictions instituted over the past couple of years have impacted children’s learning, communication and language skills along with their social, emotional and physical development. Children aged 4-5 were more likely to be experiencing issues
• The impact of the coronavirus crisis on children and young people's health is brought into stark perspective by new research from the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Paediatric Study Group (ANZICS PSG), published in JAMA Network Open. The study highlights a worrying increase in self-harming behaviours in young people aged 12-17. Hospital admissions increased significantly from 7.2 admissions per month in March 2020 to 11.4 admissions per month by August 2020. The authors of the study put the blame fairly and squarely on the restrictions brought in to tackle the coronavirus crisis.

Covid injections

• Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) a blood-clotting condition that can lead to serious neurological damage is associated with covid jabs. A major study published in Vaccines analysed over 1 million adverse event reports (AER) from 130 countries logged in Vigibase, the World Health Organization's (AER) reporting system warning of a safety signal in terms of CVT related to covid jabs. 90% of the reports related to those in a serious condition with 33% either not recovering or dying. Those receiving adenovirus vector vaccines were more likely to suffer CVT but mRNA jabs were also found to pose a risk
• A quarter of UK employers say they will implement no job, no jab policies in the coming year according to new research from the UK's Advisory, Concilliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS). Covid jab mandates would affect both existing and new staff. The good news is that over half of those surveyed said no to jab mandates with the remaining 25% remaining noncomittal
• A paper published in the Journal of Public Health Policy focusing on the ethics of mandating covid jabs by employers in the US features Anthony Fauci's wife, Christine Grady, as one of its authors. The paper outlines how it's ethically acceptable to pressurise employees into getting covid jabbed and shares a ranges of ways in which businesses can achieve this
• Prof Norman Fenton tweeted the result of a recent freedom of information request made in Sweden which confirms that those who die within 14 days of being covid jabbed are being officially counted as being jab-free leading to a distortion in the jabbed v jab-free mortality rate, which appears to be happening globally
• People who've been covid jabbed are more likely to be infected with omicron sub-variants BA.2.12.1 and BA.4/BA.5 as they can dodge jab-based immunity according to a new preprint study
• The Children's Health Defense reports that at least 10,000 reports of death or serious injury to the US adverse events reporting system (VAERS) have been deleted without explanation. The allegation comes from analyst, Albert Benavides, who's been analysing VAERS data since the start of the rollout of covid shots.
• Massachusetts is one of the most heavily covid jabbed states in the US. Writing in JAMA, researchers analysed excess mortality rates pre-pandemic, during the delta wave and subsequent omicron wave. The results paint a striking picture of the waning of supposed jab protections as excess mortality soared during both the delta, but particularly the omicron wave of covid in the state.

>>> Visit covidzone.org for our complete curated covid content during the coronavirus crisis