Australia update: Melbourne, Victoria.

Being careful not to post too frequently ...

Today's construction workers rally/protest turned to shyte in a hurry. Far right wing and anti-vaccination protestors, took over. Violence and chaos ensued.

(sources: news.com.au)




Riot and tactical response officers
(Victoria Police Critical Incident Response Team)

Hundreds walked off the job, highways invaded, traffic halted ... glass bottles, water bottles, projectiles ... a riotous assembly.

And another big union stepped into the foray, on the side of the workers.

Quoting a news.com.au article
********
The Victorian Building Industry Group of Unions (BIGU) said in a statement.

“The (BIGU) maintains the view that the construction industry would have voluntarily reached high levels of vaccination without a heavy-handed approach,” the statement read.

“This heavy-handed mandate by the chief health officer, which was implemented with no notice, has only served to drive many people towards the (anti-vaxxer) movement.”
********

</chris>

^^^^^^

Shouldn't the riot police be arresting each other for "Failure to wear a mask properly in public"?

Study: COVID-19 Hospitalization Numbers Might Be Significantly Inflated

https://www.theepochtimes.com/..._campaign=2021-09-21

A recent study shows that the COVID-19 hospitalization numbers in the United States might be highly exaggerated—almost half of the hospitalized patients only show “mild” symptoms, which means they might be admitted to the hospital due to reasons that aren’t related to COVID-19.

The study (pdf), https://assets.researchsquare....a23.pdf?c=1631889328

conducted by Harvard Medical School, Tufts Medical Center, and the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, is a preprint report that is awaiting peer review.

“With widespread vaccination, the current definition of COVID-19 hospitalizations includes progressively more mild or incidental diagnoses, for example, cases identified prior to surgery or prior to discharge, rather than hospitalizations due to severe COVID-19,” the study reads.

The study pointed out that with routine, and often mandatory, COVID-19 screening testing of all admissions, the number of hospitalizations caused by the CCP virus may be “substantially” overestimated.

“In a pediatric population, 41 percent of reported admissions associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection were for reasons other than COVID-19, rates similar to those found when the simple definition of moderate to severe disease was applied in our cohort,” the study of the older population continues, citing two previous studies.

Both pediatric studies, which have already been peer-reviewed and published in May, reached similar conclusions. One claimed that most hospitalized children who tested positive for COVID-19 were asymptomatic or had a reason for hospitalization other than COVID-19. The other study concluded that “45 percent [of] admissions were categorized as unlikely to be caused by SARS-CoV-2.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s surveillance network COVID-NET defines a COVID-19 hospitalization as any patient admitted to the hospital within 14 days of a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of CCP virus infection, regardless of the reason for the admission.

The new study’s authors analyzed electronic records for more than 47,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals across the country. Hospitalized patients who required oxygen supplementation or had blood oxygen levels below 94 percent would be classified as having moderate to severe disease. Others were considered mild or asymptomatic.

These criteria were adapted from the COVID-19 severity score of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and were selected based on the ability to be captured from electronic health records, the study reads. The median age of the patients analyzed in the report was 71.1, the study notes.

The study suggested that the CDC should consider updating the definition of COVID-19 hospitalizations so as to differentiate hospitalizations “caused by” COVID-19 from hospitalizations “associated with” COVID-19.

The study also reported that the availability of COVID-19 vaccines has helped reduce the proportion of moderate-to-severe COVID-19 hospitalizations. Meanwhile, the proportion of COVID-19 infections has been shifting to be dominated by the Delta strain.

According to the CDC, the latest 7-day average for COVID-19 hospitalizations for Sept. 11 to 17 is 83,829. The highest 7-day average was 123,845, recorded in January.

CDC officials didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

It had to be “Far right wing and anti vaxxers”. Couldn’t be your fellow citizens sick and tired of being controlled and manipulated.

What is the significance of the bright green on the rifle, and the orange magazines, in the last photo (above)? Less lethal?

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
What is the significance of the bright green on the rifle, and the orange magazines, in the last photo (above)? Less lethal?

The buttstock tube seems to be an air cylinder, so it must be a painball-type weapon. Perhaps a pepper ball gun?

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
What is the significance of the bright green on the rifle, and the orange magazines, in the last photo (above)? Less lethal?

Yes, less lethal.

It’s a pepper ball gun, LTL.

In Melbourne, Australia, the fury over vaccine mandates is exploding
By Andrea Widburg

The Australian state of Victoria, the capital of which is Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, has seen some of the world’s most draconian COVID rules. The latest order, mandating vaccines for the construction industry along with a two-week industry-wide shutdown, sparked huge, violent protests from trade unions. Most strikingly, union members turned against their own union boss.

The Daily Mail described the frenzy of two days of protests (with “tradies” referring to the trade unionists):

Hundreds of construction workers and anti-vaxxers took to the streets for the second consecutive day on Tuesday - many of them distraught after a tradesman took his own life at a construction site earlier in the day.

Demonstrators sung Advance Australia Fair and chanted ‘f*** the jab’ in protest against mandatory vaccination orders for the industry, and Premier Daniel Andrews’ decision to shut the industry down for two weeks, amid soaring case numbers.

The protest began outside the boarded up head office of the construction union, the CFMEU, which was badly damaged by violent demonstrations just 24 hours before.

More than 100 police officers walked up Swanston Street in pursuit of the crowd, with officers warning demonstrators on a loudspeaker to turn back.

[snip]

It comes as Victoria recorded 603 new cases on Tuesday, the highest daily tally in the current outbreak and since August 2020, bringing the number of active cases to 6,000.

[snip]

Read More

The Melbourne protesters are also using encrypted platform Telegram to call for an end to lockdowns, mandatory mask orders and the immediate reopening of the construction industry.

Three of the demands called for Victoria’s leading figureheads in its pandemic response to stand down - Premier Daniel Andrews, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton.

[snip]

Their final demand was for the ‘mass distribution of invermectin [sic], Vitamins C, D and Zinc’ as alternative treatments for Covid-19.

Writing at The Conservative Treehouse, Sundance explains just how serious these protests are, insofar as they’ve seen union members turning against their own union boss:

As he was attempting to hunker down in his office headquarters, union boss John Setka physically came under attack from his own union membership over his political relationship with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

This is the U.S. equivalent of AFL-CIO members launching a violent uprising against former union President Richard Trumka; and then Trumka running to Joe Biden for help and protection from his own membership.

The CFMEU members are the heavy-hitting blue-collar construction and dirty fingernail workers, and the leadership of the CFMEU are the thug-like mobsters who run the union.

Just like the AFL-CIO or UAW in America, the union leadership in Australia is politically corrupt and disconnected from the members they serve. Earlier today (AU-time), the union members organized to confront the union leadership.

[snip]

This is a very interesting development. If the heavy-hitting labor unions start striking back against government leadership they previously supported and installed, the entire dynamic of power shifts. We must keep watching this closely because this is also the dynamic we could see play out in the United States, only on a much larger scale.

Fear is a powerful motivator. For 18 months, ordinary people across the West have handed their freedoms over to their governments in exchange for the promise that those same governments will do everything necessary to keep us safe. However, we’re not safe.

As events in Australia cast into high relief, what we’re seeing isn’t safety but, instead, a massive realignment, not along political lines but along the lines of insiders versus outsiders: On the one side are the elites, who benefit from their increasingly draconian rules (either gaining money or power, or both); and, on the other side, the rest of us, who are seeing our livelihoods destroyed, our children and their mental health destroyed, our freedom gutted, and our bodily integrity now the subject of mandates that we inject marginally-tested substances in our arms knowing that they may badly harm us, as opposed to being allowed to treat an illness with medicines that have safely been used for decades.

The Australians, like Americans, have long been used to being a free people. However, because the restrictions imposed in certain Australian states are even more extreme than those imposed in Democrat-run cities and states, the Aussies are ahead of us when it comes to explosive anger. It remains to be seen whether, now that Biden is pushing forward with an admittedly unconstitutional mandate to force vaccines on 100 million workers, Americans continue to be passive or also begin to agitate for the constitutional liberties.

https://www.americanthinker.co...es_is_exploding.html

quote:

Study: COVID-19 Hospitalization Numbers Might Be Significantly Inflated

Common sense: All rational people know the numbers are inflated because we understand the difference between hospitalized DUE TO COVID, and hospitalized WITH COVID.

Chellim1, et al.,
My employer is telling us that providing vaccination status is not subject to HIPPA. If true, what law gives us the right to legally decline?

quote:

Originally posted by Jimineer:
Chellim1, et al.,
My employer is telling us that providing vaccination status is not subject to HIPPA. If true, what law gives us the right to legally decline?

HIPAA is the correct term.

HIPAA governs the release of your medical data to other providers without your consent. Dr Smith can't send up your medical chart to some data company. HiPAA doesn't restrict you company from asking for that medical information, but it does restrict the medical facility from providing it without your written authorization.


However HIPAA doesn't restrict people or employers from asking you about your medical conditions, it's not illegal, you have the option to refuse to provide it, and at that point they have the right to release you from employment for not providing the information.

They have made it a condition of employment, so its on you to decide if you want to give them the information, and keep your job or be fired.

Imagine someone will file a suit against an employer for wrongful termination over this, if, they had an employment agreement when hired and had not signed an updated agreement that has provisions for asking health related questions that you agree to.

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/index.html

quote:

However HIPAA doesn't restrict people or employers from asking about your medical conditions, it's not illegal, you have the option to refuse to provide it, and at that point they have the right to release you from employment for not providing the information.

Yep. HRK is right. They can ask, you can decline. They can let you go... unless you have a contract. Most people are "at will" which means they don't have to keep you. But, they aren't entitled to your personal health information. You have to voluntarily give it to them. Or decline.

At some point they are going to have to decide how far they want to push it. They may back down, or they may fire you. It probably depends on how much of the work force is willing to stand up to this. They probably can't fire everyone and stay in business. On the other hand, if it's just a few they might.

You can answer the question, if you want, and still seek an exemption, which they may or may not grant.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

Study: COVID-19 Hospitalization Numbers Might Be Significantly Inflated

Common sense: All rational people know the numbers are inflated because we understand the difference between hospitalized DUE TO COVID, and hospitalized WITH COVID.

So let's see....

>>> The number of 'cases' is total BS given how its generated and that the number means virtually nothing.
>>> The number of Covid deaths is utter BS as we've seen continual examples of how its been manipulated.
>>> The number of hospitalizations is total BS by a factor of half given how its accumulated.

So to summarize, 'nothing' being supplied by the government is accurate, relevant, or should be relied upon in any way by the American people.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
So to summarize, 'nothing' being supplied by the government is accurate, relevant, or should be relied upon in any way by the American people.

You already knew this, but a) this is not limited to COVID-19, and b) same as it ever was.

quote:

Originally posted by cjevans:
Australia update: Melbourne, Victoria.

Being careful not to post too frequently ......

CJ, you'll get no grief from me on you amount of posting. Your one guy in a big place and I hope you and yours are not the miner's canaries.

I'll not sit comfortable and eat good seed, pretending our future is secure, while chirping songs of derision at you.

I am rather fond of the convicts.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:...same as it ever was.

Apropos.

Navy SEALS Told They Won’t Be Deployed Without COVID Vaccine
September 20, 2021

Hundreds of Navy SEALS are risking being blocked from deployment after failing to get vaccinated, according to a lawyer and pastor counseling them.

As reported by Just the News, the number of SEALS involved in the dispute with the Pentagon amounts to as many as a quarter or more of all active members, a loss that could impact military readiness.

Some SEALS were given a deadline to get the vaccine and have sought a religious exemption.

“My clients include several Navy SEALS who are a small part of a large group of SEALS and other military members who are being asked to choose between their faith and their ability to serve our nation,” R. Davis Younts, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force reserves and a lawyer representing several of the operators, said. “They have been told that if they seek a religious accommodation, they likely will no longer be able to serve our country as Navy SEALs and have been given an arbitrary deadline to comply with the vaccine mandate.”

“My clients need time, and we are seeking at least a 90-day extension to [the] vaccine mandate compliance deadline they have been given,” he continued.

Similarly, Pastor Jeff Durbin, who has been ministering to the special operators for weeks, said between a quarter to a third of all active-duty SEALS are involved in the dispute with the Pentagon, including some who already have COVID-19 immunity because they recovered from the disease.

“There are hundreds of Navy SEALs who have not been vaccinated, do not want to take the vaccine, or who have had and recovered from COVID and have the benefit of natural immunity,” Durbin told Just the News. “A large number of SEALS that I am speaking on behalf of are facing the very difficult decision that even with a legitimate religious exemption that is based upon their commitments to Christ, the Gospel, God’s Law, and the Constitution, they will no longer be Navy SEALs.”

“They are essentially being asked to make a decision between their commitments to the lordship of Christ and their careers as Navy SEALs,” he continued. “Our country should be very concerned about what this would do to military readiness. Losing hundreds of Navy SEALs because of their legitimate and sincerely held Christian beliefs could be devastating to us as a nation.”

https://humanevents.com/2021/0...thout-covid-vaccine/

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

Study: COVID-19 Hospitalization Numbers Might Be Significantly Inflated

Common sense: All rational people know the numbers are inflated because we understand the difference between hospitalized DUE TO COVID, and hospitalized WITH COVID.

Absolutely agree. That same lesson needs to be extended to interpretation of the VAERS information to differentiate death DUE TO VACCINE and death WITH VACCINE. As I've said many times, I don't agree with mandates. The only reason one should need to decline is "I'd prefer not to". No need for hyperbolic bullshit all over the internet.