nivek
As Above So Below
Bill Gates warns 'we've NOT seen the worst of Covid': Microsoft billionaire says there is 'way above five percent' risk of pandemic generating more transmissive and 'even more fatal' Coronavirus variant
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates has warned there is a 'way above five percent' risk the world has not yet seen the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not the first time he has made such a prediction. In December 2021, he warned his millions of Twitter followers to brace themselves for the worst part of the pandemic having previously cautioned in 2015 that the world was not ready for the next pandemic. Gates also advised governments across the world to invest in a team of epidemiologists and computer modelers to help identify global health threats in the future. He called his plan the Global Epidemic Response and Mobilization initiative and said it should be managed by the WHO - the only body he claimed was capable to build and manage the 'top-notch' team of experts at a cost of around $1billion per year. 'The current WHO funding is not at all serious about pandemics,' Gates said, adding that 'less than 10 full-time people' were working on outbreak preparedness and 'even those people are distracted with many other activities'.
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Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates has warned there is a 'way above five percent' risk the world has not yet seen the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not the first time he has made such a prediction. In December 2021, he warned his millions of Twitter followers to brace themselves for the worst part of the pandemic having previously cautioned in 2015 that the world was not ready for the next pandemic. Gates also advised governments across the world to invest in a team of epidemiologists and computer modelers to help identify global health threats in the future. He called his plan the Global Epidemic Response and Mobilization initiative and said it should be managed by the WHO - the only body he claimed was capable to build and manage the 'top-notch' team of experts at a cost of around $1billion per year. 'The current WHO funding is not at all serious about pandemics,' Gates said, adding that 'less than 10 full-time people' were working on outbreak preparedness and 'even those people are distracted with many other activities'.
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nivek
As Above So Below
How the CDC bought YOUR data to enforce lockdown: Health agency paid firm $420,000 to track tens of millions of cell phones and see who went to schools and churches in the pandemic
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention paid for location data harvested from millions of cell phones to track compliance with COVID-19 lockdown measures, according to a new report. The CDC paid $420,000 for a year of access to the cell phone location data from the data brokerage SafeGraph, according to documents reported by Vice News on Tuesday. The data was aggregated, meaning that it was intended to show general trends rather than the movements of specific phones, however the move still set off alarm bells with some privacy advocates.
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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention paid for location data harvested from millions of cell phones to track compliance with COVID-19 lockdown measures, according to a new report. The CDC paid $420,000 for a year of access to the cell phone location data from the data brokerage SafeGraph, according to documents reported by Vice News on Tuesday. The data was aggregated, meaning that it was intended to show general trends rather than the movements of specific phones, however the move still set off alarm bells with some privacy advocates.
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nivek
As Above So Below
wwkirk
Divine
He really likes piping in on stuff he is not an expert on, doesn't he?Bill Gates warns 'we've NOT seen the worst of Covid': Microsoft billionaire says there is 'way above five percent' risk of pandemic generating more transmissive and 'even more fatal' Coronavirus variant
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates has warned there is a 'way above five percent' risk the world has not yet seen the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not the first time he has made such a prediction. In December 2021, he warned his millions of Twitter followers to brace themselves for the worst part of the pandemic having previously cautioned in 2015 that the world was not ready for the next pandemic. Gates also advised governments across the world to invest in a team of epidemiologists and computer modelers to help identify global health threats in the future. He called his plan the Global Epidemic Response and Mobilization initiative and said it should be managed by the WHO - the only body he claimed was capable to build and manage the 'top-notch' team of experts at a cost of around $1billion per year. 'The current WHO funding is not at all serious about pandemics,' Gates said, adding that 'less than 10 full-time people' were working on outbreak preparedness and 'even those people are distracted with many other activities'.
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michael59
Celestial
I was just thinking that as I read. Why am I suppose to care what some computer entrepreneur predicts? I predicted that I would live through a covid19 virus scare without any vaccine injections and I did.
Nobody cares about my prediction.
AD1184
Celestial
Another thing about Gates is that he pledged, along with his then-wife Melinda, to 'give away' 95% of his wealth in his lifetime, in 2010. Now, 12 years later, after a divorce, and at age 66, Gates is still ranked as the fourth richest man in the world, and his net worth appears to have more than trebled in that time. It seems then either that he was not sincere when he made his pledge, he has since reneged on the promise, or he is terrible at giving away his wealth.
nivek
As Above So Below
nivek
As Above So Below
Twitter allows White House to make ‘clearly false’ claim that COVID vaccine wasn’t available until Biden era
The Biden administration has claimed to fight misinformation at all costs, even establishing a "Disinformation Governance Board," and Big Tech outfits like Twitter have flagged posts they claim contain misinformation on important issues like coronavirus vaccines.
Yet while the White House shared bogus info itself on Thursday about vaccines, Twitter has yet to note the inaccurate message to many users.
"When President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available. In the last 15 months, the economy has created 8.3M jobs and the unemployment rate stands at 3.6% — the fastest decline in unemployment to start a President's term ever recorded," the White House’s verified Twitter account wrote.
Observers were quick to point out the COVID-19 vaccine was, in fact, available when Biden took office on Jan. 20, 2021. The same Twitter account even shared a video of then-president-elect Biden getting his second dose a week before Inauguration Day.
Biden has previously shared an image of himself receiving the first dose on Dec. 21, 2020.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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The Biden administration has claimed to fight misinformation at all costs, even establishing a "Disinformation Governance Board," and Big Tech outfits like Twitter have flagged posts they claim contain misinformation on important issues like coronavirus vaccines.
Yet while the White House shared bogus info itself on Thursday about vaccines, Twitter has yet to note the inaccurate message to many users.
"When President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available. In the last 15 months, the economy has created 8.3M jobs and the unemployment rate stands at 3.6% — the fastest decline in unemployment to start a President's term ever recorded," the White House’s verified Twitter account wrote.
Observers were quick to point out the COVID-19 vaccine was, in fact, available when Biden took office on Jan. 20, 2021. The same Twitter account even shared a video of then-president-elect Biden getting his second dose a week before Inauguration Day.
Biden has previously shared an image of himself receiving the first dose on Dec. 21, 2020.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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nivek
As Above So Below
North Korea's Explosive Covid Outbreak: 820,620 Cases In 3 Days
North Korea on Sunday reported 15 additional deaths from "fever" after the country recently announced its first-ever cases of Covid-19 and ordered nationwide lockdowns.
State media KCNA said a total of 42 people had died, with 820,620 cases and at least 324,550 under medical treatment. Leader Kim Jong Un has said the outbreak has caused "great upheaval" in North Korea.
KCNA reported that "all provinces, cities and counties of the country have been totally locked down and working units, production units and residential units closed from each other."
Despite activating its "maximum emergency quarantine system" to slow the spread of disease through its unvaccinated population, North Korea is now reporting large numbers of new cases daily.
North Korea confirmed Thursday that the highly contagious Omicron variant had been detected in the capital Pyongyang, with Kim ordering nationwide lockdowns. It was the government's first official admission of Covid cases and marked the failure of a two-year coronavirus blockade maintained since the start of the pandemic.
"The spread of malignant disease comes to be a great upheaval in our country since the founding of the DPRK," Kim said Saturday, referring to North Korea by its official name.
North Korea has a crumbling health system -- one of the worst in the world -- and no Covid vaccines, antiviral treatment drugs or mass testing capacity. It has previously turned down offers of Covid vaccines from China and the World Health Organization's Covax scheme, but both Beijing and Seoul have issued fresh offers of aid and vaccines.
The KCNA report did not specify whether the new cases and deaths had tested positive for Covid-19, but experts say the country will be struggling to test and diagnose on this scale.
The United States and South Korea have warned that Kim is preparing to conduct another nuclear test -- which would be the regime's seventh -- and that it could come any day. Analysts have warned Kim could speed up his nuclear test plans in a bid to distract North Korea's population from a disastrous Covid-19 outbreak.
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North Korea on Sunday reported 15 additional deaths from "fever" after the country recently announced its first-ever cases of Covid-19 and ordered nationwide lockdowns.
State media KCNA said a total of 42 people had died, with 820,620 cases and at least 324,550 under medical treatment. Leader Kim Jong Un has said the outbreak has caused "great upheaval" in North Korea.
KCNA reported that "all provinces, cities and counties of the country have been totally locked down and working units, production units and residential units closed from each other."
Despite activating its "maximum emergency quarantine system" to slow the spread of disease through its unvaccinated population, North Korea is now reporting large numbers of new cases daily.
North Korea confirmed Thursday that the highly contagious Omicron variant had been detected in the capital Pyongyang, with Kim ordering nationwide lockdowns. It was the government's first official admission of Covid cases and marked the failure of a two-year coronavirus blockade maintained since the start of the pandemic.
"The spread of malignant disease comes to be a great upheaval in our country since the founding of the DPRK," Kim said Saturday, referring to North Korea by its official name.
North Korea has a crumbling health system -- one of the worst in the world -- and no Covid vaccines, antiviral treatment drugs or mass testing capacity. It has previously turned down offers of Covid vaccines from China and the World Health Organization's Covax scheme, but both Beijing and Seoul have issued fresh offers of aid and vaccines.
The KCNA report did not specify whether the new cases and deaths had tested positive for Covid-19, but experts say the country will be struggling to test and diagnose on this scale.
The United States and South Korea have warned that Kim is preparing to conduct another nuclear test -- which would be the regime's seventh -- and that it could come any day. Analysts have warned Kim could speed up his nuclear test plans in a bid to distract North Korea's population from a disastrous Covid-19 outbreak.
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AD1184
Celestial
I've not done one rapid test the whole pandemic.
wwkirk
Divine
They're so insulated and well as controlled. Surprising they would be hit so hard.
AD1184
Celestial
They have been even more isolated since the start of the pandemic. They may have had a rather immunologically naive population. If the newer omicron strain breached their quarantine, then it could spread rapidly.
AD1184
Celestial
North Korea did not vaccinate its population, rejecting doses offered through the WHO's Covax programme. So if its population is completely unvaccinated, and they have not had a significant outbreak of Covid to date, it is little wonder that omicron is spreading like wildfire there.