Forever-Covid hurts young people’s health – and their futures

 My article in today's Irish Independent. The only mainstream media outlet in the world to allow the "Immunity debt" codswallop to be interrogated & debunked, from the start. Thanks to my lovely editor, Tom Coogan, & the Indo for not being afraid of salting the vibes🙏

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/tess-finch-lees-forever-covid-hurts-young-peoples-health-and-their-futures/a58161326.html

“Immunity debt” doesn’t exist, immune damage does. Children are sicker now than pre-pandemic – many with disabling chronic illnesses. This cycle of harm can only stop when we accept reality – there’s no off ramp without cleaning classroom air".

Trigger warning 1: The article contains photos of children wearing fun floral masks. Note to anti-maskers: It's never too late to embrace science.

Trigger warning 2: The masks featured are not respirators (ffp2/3 or N95s), therefore offering little or no protection against airborne viruses, including SARS-CoV-2.

Note to those upset by that: I don't get to choose the photos. Please direct complaints to the chief medical officer for  negligence & dereliction of duty to inform the public that covid is airborne & that cleaning indoor air & respirator masks are proven to protect against all airborne diseases.

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/tess-finch-lees-forever-covid-hurts-young-peoples-health-and-their-futures/a58161326.html

Excerpt:

"The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has just cited these studies as evidence that “immunity debt”, a theory to explain the global surge in non-Covid infections since pandemic restrictions were lifted, is being challenged by emerging evidence. BMJ documents the prevalence of bacterial infections, flare-ups of old viruses, and children being hospitalised with diseases not usually seen in young, healthy people.

In the report, Samira Jeimy, an immunologist at the University of Western Ontario, explained that as many infants and toddlers hospitalised with rare infections since 2022 weren’t born when pandemic restrictions were in place, they cannot be experiencing immunity debt.

They were, however, probably exposed to coronavirus, she said.

Prof Jeimy believes that people who are unwilling to consider the possibility of immune system damage are perhaps driven by a fear of what it might mean. As she told BMJ: “Nobody wants to be the one that says, ‘Yes, Covid-19 causes disability’.”

It’s the responsibility of Ireland’s interim chief medical officer, Mary Horgan, to disseminate these BMJ findings. Instead, children have returned again to overcrowded, under-ventilated classrooms amid yet another coronavirus wave, with hand sanitiser and Calpol as their only protections against the dangerous airborne disease".

And

"Ziyad Al-Aly, professor of medicine at Washington University, said: “We worry about kids’ educational attainment, forming friendships, sports. All these facets of normal development could be impaired in long-Covid. This may negatively affect children in their most formative years, leaving them scarred for life.”

Níl na páistí ceart go leor.

Watch Violet Affleck advocate for clean indoor air as a human right, as well as respirator masks, at the UN yesterday🔥

“We are told by leaders that we are the future. But when it comes to the ongoing pandemic, our present is being stolen right in front of our eyes.” 

Breaking: Israel Genocide Bonds Forced Out of Ireland!

Proud to have played a very small part in this big outcome💪 

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign has welcomed media reports today that Israel's genocide bond prospectus approval process has been moved to Luxembourg. 

IPSC Chairperson Zoë  Lawlor said: 

"Coming after a year of campaigning by Palestine solidarity activists, today is a huge victory for the people of Ireland who stand resolutely in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

"The Central Bank of Ireland has been forced by to end its shameful complicity in genocide. It has been forced to stop enabling Israel selling its genocide-funding bonds – to stop acting as the lynchpin of Israel’s fundraising in the EU.

"For a year the Central Bank of Ireland and the Irish government stone-walled all calls to end the facilitation of bonds which directly funded the genocide in Gaza, the forced starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza, the murder of over 62,000 people in Gaza, daily bombardment and forced displacement and the destruction of Gaza. Finally, this complicity in the funding of genocide has ended.

"People all over Ireland have won this victory for Palestine through marching and organising in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Councils from Dublin City to Kerry to Donegal demanded an end to the approval by the CBI of Israel Bonds. The ICTU, legal experts, opposition politicians, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Israel Bonds, civil society organisations and ordinary people in every town and village have called for the end of the shameful complicity of the CBI in the funding of genocide. We have been joined by amazing artists, musicians and writers in this campaign and very brilliant committed public representatives. From protests to complaints to parliamentary work, this is a huge victory for people power, and for the BDS Movement. 

"The IPSC welcomes the end of the Central Bank’s shameful role in approving Israel Bonds. We believe that the CBI should not have continued to enable Isarel to fundraise for genocide by transferring the prospectus to another competent authority. We ask that the Government confirm that Ireland will have absolutely no further involvement with Israel genocide-funding bonds. Specifically we ask the Government to clarify if Ireland remains the “home member state” for Israel Bonds under the transfer arranged by the Central Bank. And we reiterate the call from the Joint Committee's that the Irish government demand legislative change at EU to end the sale of these bonds throughout Europe.  

"Shamefully, however, many other areas of state complicity with the genocidal Apartheid state of Israel remain, and the IPSC calls for the Irish government to end the use of Shannon airport by the US military, stop the use of Irish airspace for transiting weapons to Israel, end the export of dual-use items, pass the Occupied Territories Bill in full, and join the Hague Group. 

"We are also sure that Palestine solidarity activists in Luxembourg will now take up the baton to cut off funding for Israel's criminal genocide in Gaza - and we will offer them any support we can.

"End Israel’s impunity - Sanctions Now!  Freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people!"