Owen Jones explainer👇
Monday 29 January 2024
Tuesday 23 January 2024
Why are we still waiting on healthcare mask mandates to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infections?
My article in todays' Indo. Huge thanks to my incredible editor, Tom Coogan. A dolphin in a sea of sharks😇🌟
Excerpts
"In Ireland, despite last year being the worst on record for
hospital overcrowding and the resultant chaos that goes with that, the HSE’s
chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry invoked infection prevention control (IPC)
guidance, which put the burden of risk assessments on to individual healthcare
settings. The same IPC guidance, the UK’s Royal College of Nursing and the
British Medical Association have said, is now inconsistent with the WHO’s
guidance on universal masking in healthcare.
Sars-CoV-2 transmission
remains a global threat which requires decisive preventative action by
governments at a national level. The HSE’s clinical lead in emergency medicine,
Dr Gerry McCarthy, said recently that masks should be made mandatory in healthcare
settings to curb the rise in Covid cases. The duty of care lies with Health
Minister Stephen Donnelly to act now"
"....Sars-CoV-2 is a
level 3 biohazard which requires respiratory protective equipment for lab
workers. Yet, since the removal of universal masking, healthcare workers
elsewhere in hospitals are inhaling (becoming infected) and exhaling (infecting
others) with the same biohazard, with no protection whatsoever. This surely
contravenes the EC directive on the protection of workers from risks of
exposure to biological agents....."
"Writing in the Los
Angeles Times last week, renowned scientist
Professor Eric Topol described the global response to the pandemic as “make
believe”. He said: “There’s no getting over the pandemic until we recognise
reality and double down on research that will allow us to block infections and
achieve lasting, variant-proof immunity.”
In the
meantime, we must use the tools that we have at our disposal. Starting with the
immediate implementation of WHO guidance and mandating universal masking
(ffp2/3) in healthcare".
Within the next few days I'll be publishing - here - the detailed letter I sent to my health insurer putting them on notice (backed by science/evidence that a) I do not consent to myself or my family being infected with a preventable level 3 biohazard whilst accessing facilities procured by them & b) we require a list of covid aware/safe healthcare practitioners & facilities. I will be sending it to my local hospital boards also. Sources included. Watch this space👍
Thursday 18 January 2024
The ONLY way to prevent long-COVID is to prevent getting infected with COVID in the first place
According to the WHO, around 1 in 10 infections result in long-Covid, a disabling, chronic condition, for which there's no cure. Anyone, including children, can get long-Covid. Vaccination may help but it doesn't prevent long-Covid. Risk increases with every infection. The only way to avoid long-Covid is to avoid getting infected with covid. How? For starters: Wear a snug fitting ffp2/3 respirator mask😷💜
Dr Ziyad Al Aly long-Covid researcher & specialist: "The burden of long-Covid is on a par with the burden of cancer & heart disease...... ".."There are zero approved medications for the treatment of long-Covid. Zero"
Jordan's Long COVID story👇
Alicia's long COVID story👇
Children & teens are not immune from covid or long-Covid. Adults charged with their safety are exposing them to harm💔 If you're a parent, please join the community advocating for clean air in schools. As parents, our greatest duty, above all else, is protecting our children from harm. Specifically: being forcibly infected with a level 3 biohazard - in school.
Long COVID can present itself in many different ways - some symptoms include:
- Fatigue
- Shortness of breath
- Changes in smell or taste
- Chest pain
- Difficulty sleeping
- Anxiety or depression
- Headaches
- Cognitive dysfunction
COVID-19 infection also increases the risk of the following health conditions:
- Heart attacks, strokes or heart inflammation
- Blood clots in the lungs or elsewhere
- Diabetes or worsened control of existing diabetes
- Lung fibrosis or other lung problems
- Kidney damage
- Severe mental health issues
Saturday 13 January 2024
Global day of action for Palestine today: March from Garden of Remembrance (Ireland)
National Demonstration for Palestine to take place in Dublin TODAY Saturday 13 January
March part of a global day of action calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal war
Press Release, Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friday 12 January 2024, 4.45pm
Tomorrow, SATURDAY 13 JANUARY, there will be a National Demonstration for Palestine taking place in Dublin, organised by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign and supported by over 70 Irish civil society groups (full list below*). In what looks set to be the biggest Irish protest for Palestine in history, people will gather at 1pm at The Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square, and march to the Department of Foreign Affairs on St. Stephen’s Green.
The march is happening as part of global day of action calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people in Gaza, and comes against the backdrop of the ICJ hearings on South Africa’s genocide filing against Israel.
Speakers on the day will include Senator Frances Black, Palestinian scholar Rania Muhareb, legendary social justice activist Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey, retired pro-boxer Tyrone McKenna, ICTU President Justin McCamphill, Palestinian activist Walaa Ajjawi, and IPSC Chairperson Zoe Lawlor.
Speaking ahead of the march, Zoe Lawlor, IPSC Chairperson said: “This march - endorsed by scores of Irish civil society organisations from trade unions to community groups - has been called as part of the Global Day of Action for Gaza, and we will make this the biggest Palestine solidarity demonstration in Irish history! We encourage everyone who has protested with us before, and everyone who hasn’t but is silently outraged to come to Dublin and march to show your anger and your grief – let’s make our demands for action from the Irish government unignorable! Let’s raise our collective voice to demand an immediate end to Israel’s genocidal war, an end to Israel’s regime of apartheid, and to call for sanctions on Israel now, and freedom and justice for the Palestinian people!”
IPSC Vice Chair Fatin Al Tamimi, whose family members remain trapped in Gaza, said: “The live-streamed genocide that is being allowed to happen in Gaza is horrendous beyond imagination, and yet the Irish government won’t act to punish Israel – not a single sanction, not a single change in foreign policy, just words, words and more yet meaningless words. It won’t join South Africa’s ICJ genocide filing, call for Israel to be prosecuted under the genocide convention or even name Israel’s system of oppression as ‘Apartheid’. The people of Ireland, not least Palestinian-Irish citizens like myself, demand so much better. I urge everyone who can to join our march this Saturday to make our voices heard. No more business as usual with the genocidal apartheid state of Israel!”
Notes for Editors
* In addition to the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the full list of organisations that have endorsed the march are:
Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Union of Students in Ireland, Le Cheile - Diversity Not Division, Jews for Palestine - Ireland, Academics for Palestine, Adult Education Tutors for Palestine, Afri - Action from Ireland, Bloody Sunday Trust, Bray & District Council of Trade Unions, Cairde Palestine, Centre for Global Education, Comhlámh, Comhlámh Justice for Palestine, Community Action Tenants Union - CATU, Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Cross-Cultural Conversations, Dublin Council of Trade Unions, East Wall Here for All, Ecojustice Ireland, Gaza Action Ireland, Ireland Palestine Mental Health Network, Irish Anti-War Movement, Irish Artists for Palestine, Irish Football Fans Against Israeli Apartheid, Irish National Teachers' Organisation, Irish School Student's Union, Irish Social Workers and Social Care Workers for Palestine, Irish Sport for Palestine, Irish Traveller Movement, Lawyers Against Racism, Mothers Against Genocide, Mullingar 4 All, National Women's Council of Ireland, Palestinian Rights Institute, PalFest Ireland, Peace and Neutrality Alliance, Phibsboro for All, Psychologists for Palestine, Sadaka - The Ireland-Palestine Alliance, Shannonwatch, Socialist Lawyers Association of Ireland, Teachers' Union of Ireland, TCD BDS Campaign, TCD Students' Union, Teachers for Palestine, The People's Movement, Trade Union Friends of Palestine, UCD Students' Union, SIPTU, Unite the Union, Communication Workers Union, Friends of the Earth Ireland, Independent Workers' Union, Financial Justice Ireland, Praxis Artist Union, TUD Students' Union, Dublin 4 Gaza, Dublin Bay North for All, Balbriggan Palestine Solidarity, Access for All Ireland, Trademark Belfast, Left Bloc, Irish Lawyers for Palestine, Muslim Sisters of Eire, Mandate Trade Union, Kairos Ireland, Greystones Against Genocide, Dún Laoghaire for Palestine, Peadar Brown's Bar, Irish Pakistani Community Network, Kashmir Peace and Solidarity Council Ireland, Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland, Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre, Energy Services Union, and NCAD Students' Union.
ENDS
DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL - THIS ACCOUNT IS NOT MONITORED
For advance comment, interview or promo [NOT FOR PUBLICATION]
Zoe Lawlor, IPSC Chair: 087 950 4397
Fatin Al Tamimi, IPSC Vice Chair: 086 026 7721
Betty Purcell, IPSC Media Team: 087 259 6003
For liaison with spokespeople/speakers on the day [NOT FOR PUBLICATION]
Betty Purcell, IPSC Media Team: 087 259 6003
Karen Moyhinan, IPSC Media Team: 085 754 7874
DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL - THIS ACCOUNT IS NOT MONITORED
Friday 12 January 2024
The ICJ must Stop Israel's genocidal campaign & allow access for humanitarian aid
Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh at the Hague yesterday presenting evidence - already in plain sight - of Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza. Next up, the UK & US....
"The first genocide in history where it’s victims are broadcasting their destruction in real time in the desperate, so far vain hope, that the world might do something" 💔
UNICEF: "This is a war on children"
"The world should be ashamed"
"The evidence of genocidal intent is not only chilling, it's also overwhelming & incontrovertible"
Bombing Yemen, killing yet more innocents, was a willful act of provocation, moral bankruptcy, insanity & stupidity. War mongering is to go to dead cat for dead beat politicians. Power at any cost.
"Don't dissociate": 2024 looks set to be the year fantasy collides with reality. Buckle up.
New Year, new opportunities to help make the world a better place 💪💞
I've spent the past 2 weeks (Took time out over Christmas) reading & attempting to respond to messages from around the world in response to my last article about Jess, the 4 year old infected with SARS2 by her doctor and was hospitalised with RSV weeks later. Jess' case is not isolated. Messages were split predominately between healthcare workers' safety concerns & those of patients. All of whom share a fear of accessing healthcare facilities with absolutely no airborne protections in place. And, apart from being lone maskers, have no agency over their own safety.
Also in my inbox, the
usual anti-maskers who want to give me a good kicking/slapping. They’re the
same trolls whether I write about immigration, Brexit, genocide in Palestine & Sudan or masks. In the same way that
not everyone who voted for Brexit was racist, all the racists likely voted for
Brexit. Similarly, not all ant-maskers/science are racist but the racists do
seem overwhelmingly anti-maskers and anti-science. Public health policy, like
our streets, have been captured by far-right thugs.
Things must be bad because the WHO is worried: About rampant, uncontrolled transmission constantly spawning new, more immune escaping variants, such as JN1, worried that, even though we're currently experiencing one of the biggest all time pandemic surges, actual infections may be 2-19 times higher than reported. Since hardly any countries are testing, carrying out surveillance or reporting cases, the WHO cannot make accurate global assessments. Note to WHO: The decision to end the public health emergency of international concern (NOT the pandemic) enabled the dismantlement of surveillance systems. Note to world leaders: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
They're worried that repeat SARS2 infections might lead to cardiac, pulmonary, neurological impairment 5, 10, 20 years from now. There's still so much we don't know about this virus but what we do know is ALL bad. Very bad.
In recent days & weeks, the WHO has reminded the world that we remain in a SARS2 pandemic & issued guidance for universal masking in healthcare, as well as improved ventilation in crowded indoor spaces. How can that NOT include schools? It does. But where are the children's rights advocates? What has happened to parental duty, and feral instinct, to protect our kids from harm?
Parents, teachers, healthcare workers, mental health practitioners, public health advisors and opposition politicians, I know it's hard to tune into covid when you've tuned out for so long, but believe me when I tell you, it's not too late to start protecting yourself, your kids and your community. No matter how many infections you've had, you can limit further infections and potential for cumulative damage by wearing an ffp2/3 respirator mask (not the baggie blues) This incredible young woman nails it👇, Please watch & share widely🙏
"Don't dissociate" 💥🔥💓
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