QED

An Ever-Mutating Strain of Anxiety

According to Henry Ergas (The Australian, July 16), “our population fatality rate from COVID … has been four times that due to the flu in its harshest seasons.” “¿Que”, as Fawlty Towers‘ Manuel might say. Deaths from COVID in the 16 months from the first death equals 912. Deaths from the flu in the twelve months of 2019 equalled 812. No evidence of arithmetic being a strong suit here, just more COVID misinformation. Feed for panic pimps. And, in passing, for those every-death-is-a-tragedy junkies, know that more than 169,000 Australians died of all causes in 2019.

But it’s not that but this, with a caveat to begin. I have no expert knowledge at all about germ theory, virology or epidemiology. To be frank, I’m not sure what the word ‘expert’ is doing in the foregoing sentence. No knowledge to speak of at all would be closer to the truth. Nevertheless, I did study economics, which apparently can make you a cited guru on climate science, witness Nicholas Stern and our own Ross Garnaut. Ergo, I see no reason why it should not also give me standing when it comes to germs and, to the germ of the moment, the dreaded virus.

A first thing to say is that in the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king. I observe around me such incredible ignorance that I sometimes have to quell an upsurge of hubris. C S Lewis (Mere Christianity) tagged pride as “the great sin.” I can only deflect my culpability onto Their ABC, which studiously inculcates ignorance in its listeners and viewers.

Incidentally, having tuned into BBC world news the other day I can vouchsafe that it, too, is spreading tendentious misinformation; in this case of “restrictive” voting laws in Texas and Australia’s laggardly performance in tackling, as Kevin Rudd would have us believe of climate change,  “the greatest moral challenge of our time.

I will start proper by showing how clever I am by noting that the Wuhan virus is no more invisible to the naked eye or silent to the ear than are other viruses. It’s not more sinister in those respects at least. Nor does it, or any of its Greek-lettered strains, specifically target people in Sydney’s southwest, as suggested by Brad Hazzard, esteemed minister for health in NSW. It has no guidance system onboard, no mind of its own.

Engaging in anthropomorphism might be forgivable among besotted owners of man’s best friend; not when it comes to germs. And not when it comes to frightening the daylights out of ABC viewers, even if you think they deserve it; nor out of what once were known as New Australians in southwest Sydney.

Having a rough acquaintance with evolutionary theory is also quite important for understanding viruses. Again, the theory of evolution is another missing link in the thinking of the average Jack and Jill. Mind you, in general, that’s no bad thing. What, yet another ancestral human species? Not one but two in June this year. “Nesher Ramla Homo type” in Israel and, the more evocatively named, “Dragon Man” in China. Hold the printing presses, more will certainly be on the way. Some artist has imagined the way Dragon Man might have looked. Sorry, but I have seen people like that today. No places, names or pack drill. Note, there’s money and academic vainglory in those dug-up old bones if they can be slotted into some imaginary evolutionary tree. Think Piltdown Man in order to remain sceptical as yet more discoveries are unearthed and publicised in the popular press.  Enough of my cynicism. Back to viruses.

Viruses self-replicate. Copying errors occur. Mutations result which can lead to alterations in a virus’s surface antigens – we all have seen those impressions of the virus looking rather like a colourful sea mine. The protuberances are proteins, I believe, on which the antigens sit. Apparently, our immune system recognises these antigens in fighting a virus. If the antigens change, our immune system – whether natural or bolstered by vaccination – might become ineffective.

It’s vital to understand that viruses don’t shift their genetic makeup to avoid our immune system. It’s evolution, you see. Mutations occur at random. Natural selection then determines the future. If a mutant strain can avoid our immune system, it multiplies and takes over and might do us in.

Go a stage further down the evolutionary track. Doing us in is terminal for the mutant strain. End of the game. Undertakers will be busy but only for short while. On the other hand, take the mutant strain that avoids our immune system but just makes us sick or, better still, has little or no serious effect. This latter strain is the one most likely to survive and thrive. It can grow among the community unchecked. And perhaps better still for it, and us, it might teach our immune system to fight off any new mutations which would have a more deleterious effect if they were ever to get a hold.

So far, not anxious. In general, nothing to fear, unless you are one of the first to contract the virus and die. Viruses become less lethal as natural selection has its way. Phew!

But hold on. I read from an authoritative medical source, of which I have since lost track, that if a virus does not fully succumb to an ant-viral treatment, a resistant strain may repopulate the host. Apparently, the remedy is to use multiple antivirals to limit the possibility of a resistant strain, wait for it, getting loose.

This brings me to the current experimental vaccines which are not vaccines in the sense of preventing people from subsequently getting the disease. We are told that vaccinated people can still get the disease and pass it on. In fact, I read a report on Friday morning that a woman in her forties in Queensland fell ill (“fell ill”) with COVID on July 13, having had her second jab of Pfizer in March.

That, by the way, in a nutshell, is why our freedom might become an historical relic. But to the point, what is being caught and passed on from those who have been fully vaccinated? Presumably, something which has a resistant genetic makeup. A resistant strain on the loose? I’m not sure. Did I mention I have had no medical or epidemiological training. I’m just a concerned citizen.

13 thoughts on “An Ever-Mutating Strain of Anxiety

  • STJOHNOFGRAFTON says:

    The reason for the jab is, obviously, not prophylaxis. The ulterior reason is to take advantage of coerced consent to an experimental medical device in order to implement then impose a passport to all activities. No passport, no freedom!

  • Ceres says:

    About a year ago the powers that be told us a vaccine could be years away and then hey presto, so many appeared, virtually overnight. It all doesn’t add up to me.
    The word rare keeps on appearing in relation to adverse effects/deaths in relation to the provisional jabs but there seem to be a worrying number documented. As you point out Peter, like penicillin, resistant strains to the vaccine also seem likely.
    So not only can freedom be a distant memory but Australia may be back to the Middle Ages.unless we find a Ron deSantis.

  • Bert White says:

    Orwell said: “To see what is under your nose is constant hard work.” And unfortunately, this is true of most non-Leftists in this Land that once had a promising future as a contributing member of the Western Alliance. The politically clueless, no matter if they understand the importance of free enterprise and the rest of the features of Western Civ, are no match for the vicious and lethal power-garnering tactics used by the Australian Left. And the Left now occupies the key command posts of all the public services and much of big business. And many non-Leftists who think they understand the political game obviously do not -because the Left has actually already won the war.

  • rod.stuart says:

    Many of the readers of Quadrant might have noticed a distinct similarity in the hysteria accompanying ‘climate change’ and Covid 19.
    While much of the hysteria around CC relates to “emissions”, it is a fact that there is simply no evidence whatsoever, and no rational reason to believe, that the gas CO2 has the least effect on the weather. Similarly, the number of “cases” of Covid-19, derived from positive RT-PCR tests, has simply no relationship with the number of people infected with the virus, or in fact any virus, if in fact such a virus exists at all. Don’t take my word for it. You can trust Kerry Mullis, the inventor of the RT-PCR test. A conservative estimate of the number of “positive” people actually infected is less tha 10%, A recent report from the UK states that less than 9% of “Covid deaths” are actually a result of death by Covid.

    The extent to which counter arguments to the official Party line are dismissed and cancelled really cause one to consider just what forces of Evil we are up against.
    If you are not familiar with the reasoning and logic of a Dr. Charles Hoffe or Lytton, British Columbia, it is not difficult to locate some of his interviews with an Internet search.

    Fundamentally he explains why he believes the experimental medical treatments (sometimes called ‘vaccines’) are really the deadly biological weapon rather than the virus itself. His rationale seems to be in concert with that of several other learned medical personnel; that Covid -19 is in fact a disease of the vascular system in its later stages, and it is the spike protein which damages the endothelial lining of blood vessels, and the mRNA treatment is intended to have cells manufacture this protein. The result is ‘micro clots’ in capillaries which are eventually lethal.

    He was very quickly relieved of his duties due to his analysis. i.e. the system cancelled him.

    Well, a couple of months after these interviews with Dr. Hoffe were published, the village of Lytton was literally obliterated from the map by an enormous wildfire. Investigators seriously suspect that this was, in addition to a heat wave, the work of arsonists.
    Coincidence?

  • pgang says:

    Ergas seems to have forgotten the Spanish Flu. What happened to him? He used to be the only sensible voice in the media.
    ‘It has no guidance system onboard, no mind of its own’. This is a very interesting observation Peter. It goes to the heart of the pagan view of nature that is now mainstream. When you look carefully at commentary on evolution it is obvious that the fall-back position is that evolution, rather than being chancy, is intuitively regarded as being self-guiding.
    So should we be surprised that there is an underlying strain of thought that this virus is somehow out to get us, when we believe that nature is in control of itself? And that this would only increase our irrational fear of it?
    Having rejected the true God our society is reverting to nature worship, as per the ancients – nature as the fearful, chaotic force of creation/destruction which must somehow be mollified by our sacrifices. Alice T and I have had this discussion before.
    And by the way, what you are describing is not ‘evolution’ but ‘adaptation’. It is a vital distinction that is always blurred in secular commentary. Evolution requires the fixation of novel and informative gene sequencing into an entire population. It is a much more binding concept, and the point over which creationists and ID proponents take issue. Language is important.

  • Rebekah Meredith says:

    pgang–thank you for your clarification. Those of us who claim the name of Christ do His cause no favours by straddling a fence. Either Genesis 1 is true, or it is a lie: it has to be one or the other. Almost infinite variety is possible in God’s creation, but it always reproduces “after its kind.” Evolution requires the changing of one kind into another–a biblical impossibility, and an unproved scientific hypothesis.

  • Peter Smith says:

    Thanks pgang. Obviously need to refresh my knowledge about evolution. Not as clever as I thought I was.
    Rebekah too, interesting comment which ties in with pgang’s. I recall (imperfectly) Francis Collins in the ‘Language of God’ giving a very weak example of what he called evolution. A fish in two different environments, I think it was, developing somewhat different physical characteristics because of different predators. And then there’s the well known black and white moth example. Both are clearly adaptations. The fish stays the same species of fish and the moth is the moth. They don’t turn into mice. What I find interesting about the settled theory of evolution is the way every “new discovery” is pounced upon as adding weight to the theory. Clearly, I agree, it is an “unproved scientic hypothesis.”

  • Daffy says:

    I wonder if Ergas is referring to CFR (case fatality rate) comparisons between flu and CV19. Absolute deaths are one thing, the CFR a completely other.

    Then what are ‘cases’ in this case. All medical tests have a false positive rate. I again wonder if the vast number of non-symptomatic positives indicates the false positive rate. If so the test would be highly unreliable.

    Pity we are not told. If you are interested in this area, Gerg Gigerenzer has some interested publications. Serious books, and articles, I mean, about statistical communication, not CV19.

  • brandee says:

    A good reference for our understanding might come from considering the roll of the ‘bat woman’, the laboratory researcher in the Wuhan Virus Research Laboratory from which COVID is reasonably thought to have spread.
    She was leading the research into bat viruses and was in receipt of funding from US experts such as immunologist Anthony Fauci. The lab was doing ‘gain of function’ research on bat viruses a work considered too risky to do in the US.

    Surely the UN must call for a moratorium on all such gain of function research.

  • lbloveday says:

    An interesting word “evolution”.
    .
    Mervyn Bendle uses it in his article thus:
    .
    “The warlike states of antiquity, Greece, Macedonia, and Rome, educated a race of soldiers; exercised their bodies, disciplined their courage, multiplied their forces by regular evolutions,……” (Quadrant’s spellchecker does not like the plural).
    .
    which sent me off to my hard copy Oxford Concise where I found a definition that might fit his usage:
    .
    “a change in the disposition of troops”. I figured it did not refer to the troops’ temperaments, so back to the Oxford Concise to check that usage of “disposition” – “the stationing of troops ready for attack or defence”.
    .
    Ain’t English a bugger!

  • Elizabeth Beare says:

    Peter, most people, even virologists, are working in the dark on Covid’s evolution, but the hope is that it will diminish in virulence as it increases in contagiousness, which is the usual pathway. I’m hoping.
    I’ve added another comment to your piece on 12th July re Dr. Hoffe’s theory re his six patients.
    I’m not discounting that peripheral capilliary clotting might be happening, but I’d welcome the view of haematologists and other vascular specialists re this. Dr. Hoffe seems not to consider any other co-morbidities of his six indigenous patients that may explain the d-dimer blood test results (infections and cancers can cause these to change too). Doctors with a ‘naturopathic’ bent tend to regard any drug or vaccine as an irreversible assault. Not saying he’s totally wrong, but caution seems in order re his theory.

  • Elizabeth Beare says:

    To clarify, it is the Canadian Dr. Hoffe’s theory re the mRNA vaccines, specifically Moderna/Pfizer, that I refer to. It has been doing the rounds of the internet, particularly taken up by anti-vax sites, which is not good in terms of treating it seriously, which shouold be done. If his theory has any legs, then vascular specialists should be called upon to comment. I haven’t read of any yet. Canadian medicos working in Covid wards and the Canadian health departments simply dismiss his limited observations and in some ways I bow to their better clinical knowledge while recognising they would have interests in promoting the vax.

  • Peter Smith says:

    Just caught your comments Elizabeth. Above my pay grade.
    To some extent I don’t care how safe or unsafe is the vaccine. I have no great concern about catching Covid (well over seventy but no morbidites that I know of, fit enough, not the least fat) and therefore I don’t want the vaccine. Having had shingles and not wanting it again I have had the shingles vax. Not antivax. Polio fine. Smallpox fine.
    How badly you don’t want to get what the vax is purportedly protecting you from motivates me. Mind you, the oral Covid vax being tested in Isreal might be worth waiting for and considering. Particularly as three quarters of those who died of Covid in Isreal in July (up to 21st) had been fully jabbed. Something to think about.

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