Notes from the edge of civilization: June 9, 2024
WHO's pants are on fire; Indonesia's strong-arm vaccination tactics; New York's congestion charges on ice—for now; and California's fast food workers suffer from minimum wage hike.
Combating mis- and disinformation was a big item on the agenda at the recent World Health Assembly in Geneva.
In a hilarious twist of irony, just days after the assembly the World Health Organization was caught spreading fake news, claiming that someone in Mexico had died from bird flu.
The Mexican resident identified with contracting A(H5N2) bird flu in Mexico died due to chronic diseases and not the virus, Mexico's health ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Earlier this week, the World Health Organization said it had confirmed the first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with A(H5N2) avian influenza in Mexico.
"The diseases were long-term and caused conditions that led to the failure of several organs," the ministry said citing specialists.
The 59-year-old man identified with bird flu suffered from a chronic kidney disease, diabetes and arterial hypertension over the past 14 years, according to the statement.
The ministry added that there is no evidence of person-to-person transmission of the A(H5N2) virus stemming from the case.
Rumor has it flames were seen coming from WHO Director Tedros’ pants.
Readers know the fear cycle around a new “deadly pandemic” has been amping up in recent weeks. If you missed info about that, we took full note of it a few days ago in our purposeful genuflect towards a seminal hard rock mockumentary:
Yep — vaccines are already being produced for the new pandemic, and public health “experts” like Eric Feigl-Ding are already recommending stocking up on scandal-ridden, ineffective drugs like Tamiflu. Big Pharma will get its payday no matter what.
If it feels like we’re living in a mockumentary, you wouldn’t be wrong. Remember the simple mantra: DO NOT COMPLY.
Staying with health (because we can NEVER AGAIN fall into the same Corona-trance of 2020-2022), the desire to get needles into arms and vilify “anti-vaxxers” was on full display at the World Health Assembly, as illustrated by Dr. Ian Brighthope in a Substack this week. He pointed to a speech by Indonesia’s minister of health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, who talked about how that country used several sketchy tactics to increase vaccination rates:
These included offering free food, enlisting religious leaders to promote vaccination, using military and police forces, and employing psychological and emotional tactics to overcome social and religious refusals. Sadikin emphasized the importance of understanding local culture in vaccination efforts. Despite his background as a nuclear physicist and banker, he was chosen to lead Indonesia's COVID-19 response, raising questions about the qualifications needed for health policy leadership.
Frankly, we saw a similar approach in the collective West. For example, the ‘jabs for flab’ (our moniker) Shake Shack program, touted by former New York City mayor, Bill DeBlasio (“Did you say free french fries?”). It suggests clearly that our politicians think we’re pretty stupid. In case you didn’t already know, the sanctity of your life is worth more than free beer, free lottery tickets, or *grimace* free french fries.
Since we’re talking about New York, let’s stick with it. Earlier in the week, the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, announced she was shelving plans for congestion charges that were going to take effect in Manhattan at the end of this month. The announcement was unexpected and has left people wondering what will now happen to the expensive equipment already purchased and installed for the purpose.
“The suspension of congestion pricing will leave New York City with a great deal of expensive equipment for which it now has no use,” says the New York Times.
In preparation for the rollout, the M.T.A. signed a contract with a Nashville-based company to install equipment related to the plan across Manhattan at a cost of more than $500 million.
That equipment included E-Z Pass readers and overhead structures called gantries, which would have monitored which cars were entering the congestion pricing zone and billed drivers accordingly. The governor’s about-face on congestion pricing means none of that equipment is now needed.
It is not clear what will happen to any of that equipment, or to the $500 million contract signed by the authority.
What is clear, however, is that a $15 toll is political suicide in this economy. Don’t forget that Hochul will face re-election in 2026. No doubt she has also been closely watching the debacle playing out in London, where the much-hated Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) was rolled out in 2019 and expanded in 2023.
Although London’s mayor Sadiq Khan recently won re-election, ULEZ has been a disaster for his administration. Activists have destroyed hundreds of installed cameras across London and FOIA data recently revealed that the city is owed £218 million in unpaid fines. Worse yet, there is now more congestion than ever. According to a recent article in the Spectator: “In 2023, motorists spent an average of 45 per cent of their journey time stuck in jams, up from 37 per cent in 2019.”
While Hochul has put the congestion pricing plan on hold for now, it likely isn’t going away completely. Still, many working class New Yorkers are grateful for the reprieve.
“Hell yeah!” said Tony Robinson, a self-employed chauffeur, according to the New York Post. For many, the toll would amount to about an hour’s work at New York’s $16 an hour minimum wage. “How do I make money?” asked 32-year-old Eli, who buys and sells shoes across the city.
“How do I make money?” is a question many Californians will be asking themselves now that the state has hiked minimum wage to $20 an hour. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Fast Food and Counter Workers account for 23.81 of every 1,000 workers in California.
Since Governor Newsom’s new law went into effect in April, fast food restaurants across the state have reportedly slashed nearly 10,000 jobs. Franchises are struggling to cut labor costs and raise prices to survive, according to the California Business and Industrial Alliance.
This week, the trade group took out a full page ad in the California edition of USA Today, “showcasing the detrimental impact of California’s recent minimum wage hikes for fast-food restaurants.”
The ad lists mock ‘obituaries’ of restaurants that have been harmed, including 48 locations of Rubio’s, hundreds of Pizza Hut locations, five Cinnabons, and five Auntie Anne’s, among many others.
The ad quotes California businessman Harshraj Ghai, who owns 180 fast food restaurants across the state. Ghai says he will slash workers’ hours and expedite the rollout of self-service kiosks at his 140 Burger King franchises to cut labor costs in response to the minimum wage hike. “We can’t move fast enough on this,” Ghai said.
For what it’s worth, here are the obituaries. Have a great week!
I guess we're seeing the pendulum starting to swing back the other way with the failure of coercive vaccination programs. The embarrassing video of mayor Bill DeBlasio was censored in my country for some reason, but that failed too. The cracks in the dam are widening it seems, and a flood of bad publicity is threatening to drown the petty criminals and tyrants who thought they could threaten, coerce and fool us into compliance. They didn't see that the internet is not completely controllable, and the damning truths are leaking out and not going away.
The restaurant chains that are threatened by the new minimum wage aren't healthy places to eat. Personally I don't eat at any of them. The cheap food available at fast food restaurants is a big contributor to obesity and the declining health of both the body and the brain.