Send in the Covid Army, Boys! By Bruce Bennett
The Australian government is getting down to business, calling in the aid of the cream of the “armed forces,” in the sense of putting a senior army officer to the head of Australia’s COVID-19 vaccination program, with a “military command and control structure” – their terminology, based upon Operation Sovereign Borders methodology, to “cut through” all that red tape nonsense (“circumvents the normal bureaucratic paths”) that liberal democracies have, to get results, fast. Look, here is a great article with all the info you need to know that we are secure, Covid safe, warm and peachy creamy in our cosy beds, in the green leafy suburbs.
The important thing is to deal with misinformation, you know those types who keep reporting on adverse effects and quoting overseas, so-called experts, who may have invented the mRNA technology, but still sow the seeds of doubt. ScoMo is certainly moving along, and before long, 700 percent of the population should be vaccinated, and all will return to normal, mass replacement level immigration can get back on line to keep Big Australia rich, the universities will be over-flowing with Asian students, you know, that sort of thing, business as usual, the great Australian dream in the flunky country. Keep up the good work ScoMo Bozo! You know that I am doing my best for the war effort. We all do what we can to help. Your job is not an easy one.
Look, if the buggers don’t get the jab, and still hold out after cutting welfare (no jab, no food; “Where Department of Health secretary Brendan Murphy cannot control the Department of Social Services, General Frewen has that power”), it is always a winner to put tanks on the street to get compliance, as China and Russia have shown. Do we have tanks? I mean fighting tanks with tracks? I know we have a few rusty rainwater tanks around the country, but that may not cut it.
"The appointment of a senior army officer to the head of Australia’s COVID-19 vaccination program was straight out of the Operation Sovereign Borders playbook.
Announcing the appointment on June 4, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Operation Sovereign Borders brought in a new organisational structure, overarching other government departments, to work on “a very big problem”.
“It worked on that occasion and I think moving that footing now will further improve how we’re working in the vaccination program,” the Prime Minister said.
Lieutenant-General John Frewen said his job was about more than bringing military logistics experience to the rollout.
“[Mr Morrison] saw what that military-style command and control structure can deliver in the way it can cut through all of that other process,” he told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
General Frewen had led the Australian Defence Force’s COVID-19 taskforce since March last year. At the beginning of the month, the Prime Minister decided to put him in charge of the country’s vaccination program in a bid to speed things up.
The brief is large. General Frewen is now in charge of vaccine resources, communications, and stakeholder engagement. He says there are three things that need to be done.
“There’s the supply of the vaccines, there is the ability to get them into people’s arms, and then there’s the public sentiment to have the public turn up.
“The supply of vaccines is the bit that is most fixed”.
Critically, his role circumvents the normal bureaucratic paths and allows him to instead deal directly with medical groups, the logistics and private medical companies involved in the rollout, including DHL and Aspen Medical, attend meetings with state and territory leaders, first secretaries, chief health officers, and report directly to the Prime Minister.
“I’m in all of these things now, and I’m a completely agnostic, fresh set of eyes. All I want is to get the vaccines to Australians as quickly as we can,” he said.
The Prime Minister was keen to have someone who could streamline the process between government departments, a source close to Mr Morrison said. Where Department of Health secretary Brendan Murphy cannot control the Department of Social Services, General Frewen has that power.
In practice, one of the first things he wants to do now he’s given states the forecast of vaccine deliveries to the end of the year is sit down with those leaders and work out a detailed delivery roadmap.
NSW has already offered that plan, and the General said he’s asked all the other states and territories to come back to him with their own versions.
“I’m going to sit everybody around the table and we are going to wargame the weeks and the months, and figure out how do we get there and how we need to adjust it,” he said.
One of his most challenging tasks will be taking back control of the narrative, and he’s concerned about misinformation. A national information campaign is coming, he said.
“We reckon at the moment 70 per cent of Australians will turn out for vaccine. They’ll get around to it, so we want to make sure we get them in the bag,” he said.
“Then there’s about 20 per cent who are still making up their mind. That’s the 20 per cent that we really will want to go after.”
The General is worried Australians have become too comfortable in our protected COVID normal.
“What’s happened in Victoria and now NSW is just a reminder that this thing is not for controlling, it’s for adapting to and living with,” he said.
“As a military guy I’ve been on lots of operations and those sorts of things and this is an adversary, and we’ve got to remember that the adversary gets a vote in our plans.”
That’s the sort of thinking we need; Covid as an invisible enemy as I think Donny Trump described it, before he was pushed over, sorry, fell, at “Warp speed.” And, let us not worry about whether or not this delegation of vast powers is legal.
Look, here is an example of material which is just not helpful, raising concerns about heart inflammation, based upon a study of US service members, who obviously do not have the robust hearts our fellows have. I ask you, even if true, does heart inflammation hurt you? And, what does any of this to do with rising sea levels and climate change, which the Biden administration is saying caused the Florida condo to collapse? What else is going to collapsed?
“A new study of U.S. service members found higher than expected rates of heart inflammation following receipt of a COVID vaccine. It’s a finding Defense Department researchers say should call attention to the condition, known as myocarditis, as a potential side effect of vaccinations.
In a study published June 29 in JAMA Cardiology, U.S. military physicians described 23 cases of myocarditis in previously healthy males who developed the condition within four days of receiving a COVID vaccine.
A total of 23 male patients (22 currently serving in the military and 1 retiree) with a median age range of 25 years were evaluated between January and April 2021 for acute-onset chest pain following vaccination with an mRNA COVID vaccine.
All military members were previously healthy with a high level of fitness. They were physically fit by military standards and lacked any known history of cardiac disease, significant cardiac risk factors or exposure to cardiotoxic agents.
Seven military members received Pfizer’s COVID vaccine and 16 received the Moderna vaccine. Each patient had a final diagnosis of myocarditis without infectious, ischemic or autoimmune etiologies identified. Diagnoses were reviewed and met the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) case definition criteria for probable myocarditis.
All patients presented with acute chest pain and significantly elevated cardiac troponin levels (10-fold to 400-fold the upper limits of their respective reference ranges) with symptom onset within 12 to 96 hours following COVID vaccination.
According to the study, physicians expected to find eight or fewer cases of myocarditis among the 436,000 male military members who received two mRNA doses. But 20 military members developed inflammation after their second dose, including 14 after the Moderna shot and six after the Pfizer shot. Three developed myocarditis after their first vaccine.
Cardiac symptoms resolved within a week of onset for 16 patients, but seven continued to have chest pain at the time of publication.
The researchers stated that while the true incidence of myocarditis is unknown at this time, the presentation pattern and clinical course suggest an association with an inflammatory response to vaccination.
The team concluded that increased attention to myocarditis as a potential adverse event following vaccination is warranted.
New study supports link between mRNA COVID vaccines and heart inflammation
A separate study published in JAMA Cardiology on June 29 investigated seven cases of acute myocarditis. Four cases occurred within five days of COVID vaccination between Feb. 1 and April 30.
All four patients had received the second dose of an mRNA vaccine and presented with severe chest pain, had biomarker evidence of myocardial injury, were hospitalized and had test results consistent with myocarditis.
“It is possible that these four cases of acute myocarditis represent a rare, potential adverse event linked to mRNA COVID-19 vaccination,” researchers wrote. “The findings from the present report raise the possibility of an association between mRNA COVID-19 vaccination and acute myocarditis.”
See, that is why there needs to be military control of the internet!
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