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Carlson Blasts YouTube Over Censorship of Coronavirus Video – Townhall
Posted: May 4, 2020 at 3:43 am
There is disagreement in the medical community over how much longer many parts of the country should be under strict lockdown orders. In California, two Bakersfield-area doctors are pushing for Gov. Gavin Newsom to lift the order.
Their recommendation came after looking at the statistics from their urgent care facility, which they said showed coronavirus was similar to the flu. Other doctors in the state disagreed.
The video, which featured Dr. Daniel Erickson, was viewed millions of times but then was removed for violating YouTubes terms, which Fox Newss Tucker Carlson found to be the most troubling aspect of the story.
If there is one thing Americans need more of right now, it's informed debate, he argued, and that's exactly what authorities don't want.
Carlson's remarks came after YouTube removed ahighly circulated videofeaturing Dr. Daniel Erickson of Bakersfield, Calif. In the video, Erickson alleged that doctors were encouraged to link deaths to COVID-19 to amplify concerns about the pandemic. (FoxNews.com)
"Viewers of Erickson's video wereshocked and transfixed by this.Theyforwarded the videos tofriends, who forwarded it on totheir friends and suddenlymillions of people who spent thelast six weeks on a diet of'Tiger King' and internet memeswere watching sober-mindedmedical researchers reading fromcharts of statistics," Carlson said.
"Last night, the doctor's video was pulled off of YouTube. It wasn't an accident, YouTube admitted doing it. The company cited a violation of company guidelines and didn't apologize."
"When this is all over, its likely we'll look back on this moment, what YouTube just did,asa turning point in the way welive in this country, a sharpbreak with 250 years of law andcustom," Carlson said.
He noted that the video was made by a local news station and there was absolutely no reason to remove it other than the fact that it disagreed with those in power.
"It was a form of dissent from orthodoxy. YouTube and its parent company Google have now officially banned dissent," Carlson said.
YouTube's CEO Susan Wojcicki said Sunday that content considered "problematic" and that went against the World Health Organization's recommendations would be removed.
Carlson of course pointed out how absurd it was to follow that standard since the WHO has been wrong about the pandemic from the start, at first reassuring people there was no human-to-human transmission, that travel shouldn't be restrict, then saying face masks don't work.
"Those are lies and they were welcome on Google's platforms. Doctors who were treating patients with the virus, meanwhile, have just been banned," Carlson said. "So no. This is not about science Censorship never is about science, it's about power. Big technology companies are using this tragedy to increase their power over the population."
Editor's Note: Want to support Townhall so we can keep telling the truth about China and the virus they unleashed on the world? Join Townhall VIP and use the promo code WUHAN to get 25% off VIP membership!
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Big Tech Censorship is Dangerous , In Time Of Pandemics – The Jewish Voice
Posted: at 3:43 am
ByAshley Rae Goldenberg (American Greatness)
Modern reliance on technology has never been more evident than now. During the COVID-19 pandemic, modern technological advances have gone from conveniences to life-saving resources.
But not for everyone.
For people banned from tech platforms, the potential emergency resources these platforms provide are out of reach. Banned from Twitter? Reduced access to breaking news.Banned from Uber Eats? Good luck getting food while maintaining social distancing recommendations.Banned from PayPal,Venmo, orGoFundMe? Sending, receiving, and raising money for emergencies becomes a lot harder. Banned fromFacebook? Find another way to connect with loved ones during this difficult time. This is the reality for people whose political speech runs afoul of tech censors or who have been targeted by powerful groups for having the wrong political beliefs.
Groups like theSPLC,Color of Change,SumofUs, andSleeping Giantsgleefully try to get their political opponents banned from social media and cut off from payment processors. Tech companies arepressuredbyadvocacy organizationsandagenda-driven journalists.
When trying to get a wrongthinker kicked off social media or cut off from funding sources, organizations, journalists, and companies claim theyre helping people take a moral stand against bigotry. When Laura Loomer was banned from PayPal, the company toldNewsweek: Our decision and actions are values-based, not political.
However, the people pushing these bans, and enacting them, have trouble explaining exactly how it is moral to limit some peoples access to food because their opinions fall outside the mainstream. How is it moral to cut people off from their support systemsfrom their friends, families, and neighborsbecause they say things some people find offensive? How is it moral to take away peoples ability to pay their bills because their political views are on the fringe of current accepted norms?
In reality, these moves are meant to silence and punish politically unpopular opinions. This precedent creates a chilling effect on free speech. People have a right to say controversial, offensive, and even hateful things. American companies should realize now, more than ever, that they should not suppress the free exchange of thoughts and feelings, nor the exchange of resources, for expressing constitutionally protected speech.
Theres no question these are not normal times, but neither are the companies doing the banning merely private companies.
At a press conference, President Trump promoteda Google websiteto determine whether people should seek medical treatment for coronavirus. The website was created by Verily, a sister company to Google, under the umbrella of Alphabetbut a Googlelog inis apparently required. Meanwhile, Googlefires engineersover their opinions,bans peoplefrom YouTube, refuses to allowcertain adsto run, and, in extreme instances, and bansentire Google accounts. The White House has alsopartnered with Appleto create an app to track coronavirus information. At the same time,Apple bans appsfrom their app store,removes controversial podcasts, andblocks consumersfrom viewing chat messages that might contain offensive information.
Twitter, a platform relied on for breaking information and used by government officials and government services,removed a tweetfromThe Federalistafter it sharedan opinion pieceabout the best way to handle the coronavirus epidemic. Twitter alsoremoved tweetsby Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani for allegedly violating Twittersnew rulesabout discussing the coronavirus outbreak.
In January, remember, the World Health Organizationposted on Twitterthat China found no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus. That has been proven to be an utter lie, but the tweet still remains online. So do tweets claiming the virus originated inthe United Statesand blamingAmerican militaryfor spreading the virus to China.
The coronavirus epidemic is causing people across the world to reevaluate their principles. Perhaps its time to rethink the role large companies play in policing perfectly legalalthough sometimes controversialspeech. And perhaps its time for American companies to uphold the spirit of the First Amendment, especially when lives are at stake.
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One-Punch Man Fans Discover the Lengths the Manga Went to Avoid Censors – ComicBook.com
Posted: at 3:43 am
It is no secret that Japan censors some of its manga's most scandalous moments, but fans of One-Punch Man did learn recently how far the series has gone to outwit those guidelines. Over on Reddit, the conversation cropped up after a user pointed out an alleged instance of bypassed censorship which you can never unsee. So if you want to still be able to look at Puri Puri Prisoner without flinching, you better turn around now!
You can thank the user birdofnoel on Reddit for pointing out the rather salacious fact. The fan made a post on Reddit showing off One-Punch Man volume six which can be seen here. It is there fans can see Puri Puri Prisoner standing tall in all his muscular glory upon the volume's first page, but he is nude. As censorship laws dictate, the man's genitals are whited out to keep things kid-friendly... but artist Yusuke Murata found a way to rig the system.
Puri Puri Prisoner is on the other side off the volume's title page. On that title page, the text "One-Punch Man Vol. 6" can be found, and it is positioned strategically. That means if you were to, say, shine a light on this thin page that a secret image would reveal itself. It turns out the "6" on the title page is positioned so that it resembles the genitals which Puri Puri Prisoner had to obscure to appease the manga censors.
And if that is not equal parts genius and diabolical, then nothing is. Sure, this isn't the first time something like this has been done in manga, but fans are a bit surprised Murata went to such lengths. One-Punch Man isn't an ecchi series by any means, but its artist knows the tricks of that trade.
But before you go looking for this cover up, you will want to hit the pause button. The English version of volume six does not contain this secret, and the same goes for other translations from Brazil and beyond. It seems like this slip only made it past the first run or so of the Japanese volume, so Puri Puri Prisoner has been censored for good.
Did you ever notice this clever work around? Or do you wish you could unsee the One-Punch Man scene? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!
Disclosure: ComicBook is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.
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Bitcoin Is Not Cash For the World: Recap of Webit Fireside Chat with Roger Ver – Cointelegraph
Posted: at 3:43 am
On April 29, Cointelegraph participated in a fireside chat event organized by the Webit Foundation. The panel, with the title of Can blockchain be a solution for the upcoming economic crisis, featured Roger Ver from Bitcoin.com as the main speaker.
Like all events during the Coronavirus pandemic, the panel was held virtually, with its participants dialing in via video conference. The talk was hosted by Dr. Plamen Russev, executive chairman of Webit Foundation. The chat featured Roger Ver, Bitcoin.coms executive chairman, and Kristina Lucrezia Cornr, managing editor at Cointelegraph, as a Q&A moderator.
Vers answers at the panel can be summarized as a deep belief in freedom and libertarian economics. He believes these ideals to be the answers to the crisis at hand. He also focused on censorship an issue that has regained relevance amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
Ver was greatly disturbed by the harsh censorship policy enacted by Youtube in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He cited an example of two doctors who made statements going against the mainstream narrative behind the pandemic, and whose video was deleted a few days after it was published.
The policy is allegedly the culprit behind a new wave of bans to crypto content creators, which recently hit high-profile influencers like Tone Vays and Crypto Lark.
Ver explained his view against censorship:
I think the solution to people saying crazy or wrong things is other people being able to rebut those things, not massive censorship.
When discussing censorship, Ver also threw several jabs against the Bitcoin community, and said that his biggest regret throughout the years was not being even louder when speaking out against censorship in the cryptocurrency community.
This refers to 2015, when the moderators of the /r/Bitcoin Reddit forum began censoring any discussion relating to Bitcoin XT a proposal for larger blocks in Bitcoin (BTC) that can be considered as the ideological ancestor to Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
Ver holds a utilitarian view of the purpose of cryptocurrency, focusing heavily on its use as a censorship-resistant payment system. He emphasized that it is free trade that creates wealth in the world, while the lockdowns destroy the ability to trade freely and thus, the economy. He also considers the multi-trillion dollar stimulus package to be theft of a similar nature to counterfeiting money.
Cryptocurrency, as the freest form of money, would be the best tool to escape the governments excessive control, according to Ver. But he also believes that it can only happen when cryptocurrency is used for payments, which is something that Bitcoin is no longer useful for, he claimed:
The sad part about what everybody is calling Bitcoin today, it doesnt have those characteristics that made the early investors and adopters so excited about it early on. Most of those people are now working on things like Bitcoin Cash or Ethereum.
He claimed that most of its current supporters are either speculators betting on future speculation, or people who still didnt figure out that the project is no longer trying to be cash for the world.
You can check out the full panel by clicking on this link.
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Pankaj Tripathi on censorship in digital space: There are some people who just want to spread sansani – Cinema Express
Posted: at 3:43 am
Actor Pankaj Tripathi, who has tasted success on the big screen as well as the digital space, says that when it comes to the debate on web censorship, a dialogue is very important.
"Everything should have a debate because a dialogue is important. The storytellers get to tell their stories the way they want to, without the censors on the platform. They have freedom," opined Pankaj, who gained a major fan base as Guruji in Sacred Games and Kaleen bhaiya in Mirzapur.
However, not everything can be defended in the name of creative freedom, he feels.
"There are some people who just want to spread sansani (sensationalism). They too have some freedom because there are no censors. So, there are pros and cons of having censorship, and if there is a debate only then will people arrive at some conclusion," the actor pointed out.
On the acting front, Pankaj will next be seen in Kabir Khan's 83.
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Censorship in Zimbabwe: When fake news is true and official news is fake – Daily Maverick
Posted: at 3:43 am
Newspaper headline posters display the main headlines for the Zimbabwean daily newspapers. (Photo: EPA-EFE/AARON UFUMELI)
On 14 April ZBC News online, the official Twitter page of Zimbabwes only TV station, posted a video of President Emmerson Mnangagwa saying that he was aware of a false statement on social media saying he would be extending lockdown until 3 May. He said he would ask the Central Intelligence Office (CIO) to investigate it and that if the person responsible was caught they should get at least 20 years imprisonment for spreading falsehoods.
An example needs to be made, the President said.
The CIO operates under the Office of the President. Many of Zimbabwes abductions, extrajudicial murders and enforced disappearances are said to be committed by the CIO. The head (minister) of State Security which oversees the CIO, Owen Mudha Ncube, was recently added to the US sanctions list for Human Rights violations. Emmerson Mnangagwa himself was the minister responsible for the CIO during the Gukurahundi genocide that left 20,000 civilians dead in Matebeleland.
Hearing the president take the trouble to publicly threaten whoever wrote the statement with CIOs was unsettling. We all feared the worst not just for whoever the president was threatening but also for ourselves.
However, on Sunday 21 April, what was meant to be the last day of the lockdown, the president announced that he was extending it until 3 May 2020, just as the allegedly fake statement had said. This gave rise to several questions and suspicions. Had the statement truly been fake or was the president a victim of a leak from his office? Many wondered what the alleged falsehood mongerer would be charged with if found, now that the president had announced exactly what the statement had said he had decided.
Was this fake news after all and, will the fake news charge stick? people asked.
On 20 April the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) tweeted that they had arrested Lovemore Zvokusekwa for Publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the state as defined in section 31 (a) (i) of the Criminal law (Codification and reform) act Chapter 9:23.
As the president had stated in the video this crime attracts 20 years in jail and because the president had vowed to make an example of this case, there was an outcry from the public. Some questioned the word circulating in the charge.
Did Zvokusekwa produce the letter or had he just circulated it as hundreds of other Zimbabweans had when the letter fell into their inboxes and on their timelines?
Were they going to find and arrest everyone who had forwarded the letter?
Some argued that the law Zvokusekwa was being charged with had long since been ruled to be unconstitutional by the constitutional court in the case of Chimakure vs the Attorney General, rendering the arrest and charge an illegality and an abuse of Zvekusekwas rights. Some simply asked was it fake news that the lockdown had been extended when the president had in fact extended it?
All these questions did not stop the state from dragging Zvekusekwa before a magistrate on 20 April and remanding him in custody until 13 May a total of 23 days.
Something to be laughed at
The case of Zvokusekwa, whose surname in Shona ironically means something to be laughed at, illustrates a dangerous trend seen elsewhere. Covid-19 has provided an excuse to authoritarians to ramp up the stifling of dissent. The destination of choice has been attacks of freedom of expression and the media.
In Zimbabwe, starting with the case of the late Zororo Makamba, the first person to test positive in the country, the government has been accused of manipulating information on the true status of infections and its response to it. The digital or social media space has been the go-to alternative for a country hungry for information. It has also been a revolutionary space for government criticism, exposure of corruption and other excesses and demands for accountability. That, it seems, is the space the government has its eyes on.
But it faces a dilemma.
The government itself needs the digital media space for its own propaganda. The national broadcaster, ZBC, maintains a Twitter handle which it actively uses to churn out propaganda. On the page they post stories about everything the president does as well as stories highlighting the generosity and benevolence of the president and the first lady.
For years the Zimbabwean government has used twin devilish and draconian pieces of legislation to stifle political activity and dissent and public criticism: the Public Order and Security Act (Posa) and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).
The former, in requiring police permission for public gatherings, has been used to stop opposition from holding its rallies, while the latter has been used to intimidate and prevent journalists from doing their work. When he tried to show potential Western investors that he and his government were different from the late former president Robert Mugabe, Mnangagwa promised to repeal the two laws. Replacement drafts have been tabled but are no different. Meanwhile, Posa was used in August 2019 to stop opposition protests.
Code for repression
It is now clear that while all attention has been focused on Posa and AIPPA, the real devil is in the Criminal Code used to arrest Zvokusekwa which is equally draconian but carries far more severe penalties.
The obvious glee by the president in announcing to a nervous nation his eagerness to set his dreaded CIO on a citizen and then send that citizen to jail for spreading falsehoods demonstrates the importance of this piece of legislation in the repression toolbox of the regime. The governments intention to use the Criminal Code to turn up its autocratic volume during the lockdown was exposed by the Permanent Secretary of Information hours before the publication of the regulations establishing the lockdown, when he threatened that people would soon see themselves in jail for spreading falsehoods.
The Covid-19 statutory instrument did not disappoint, importing verbatim the entire provisions of the code related to criminalising the publication of falsehoods. What seemed lost to the government, which does not seem to respect its own laws, let alone its own courts, is that this entire provision of the Criminal Code was struck down by the constitutional court in the Chimakure case six years ago. The Minister of Justice cited in the case at the time was none other than Emmerson Mnangagwa, now president. Nothing demonstrates the levels of lawlessness and lack of accountability more than this. This is clearly a government that does not consider itself bound by anything or accountable to anyone.
War on digital democracy
It is clear that digital or social media will continue to be a new battleground for repression in Zimbabwe.
In the wake of Covid-19, the disastrous policy failures in the governments response have been accompanied by allegations of shocking levels of procurement-related grand corruption and abuse of Covid-19 aid. Last week it was reported that a company run by (the presidents son) Collins Mnangagwas business partner, Delish Nguwaya, was awarded a $60-million contract to deliver pharmaceuticals related to Covid-19. The story was broken in digital media.
The Minister of Finance announced a programme to provide livelihood support via cash transfers to vulnerable households. The contract to disburse this money was awarded to a telecoms company closely linked to the political elite.
To make matters worse, the process to determine who is eligible for the government funding remains clouded in mystery. The only explanation the Minister of Finance gave was that they used a complex algorithm to select beneficiaries. With such opaque explanations and poor accountability, it is clear that even this money is likely to have been looted. In Covid-19 the government has found a new golden goose for its voraciously corrupt appetite.
In all this, the digital and social media space stands fast in ensuring that these scandals come to light, that the president is called to answer for his videos threatening citizens, the Minister of Health is asked to explain his policies and reports on Covid-19 and the Minister of Finance is asked to justify how government money is spent.
The power of digital and social media to counter state propaganda was also witnessed last week when the secretary of information posted this tweet:
We received 65 Zimbabweans from the UK. Available place of quarantine is Belvedere Teachers College. They are refusing this accommodation demanding hotels. Govt cant afford. Why come from a Covid-19 hotspot during a lockdown & demand posh facilities at stretched public cost?
The returnees managed to expose the government lying by posting videos from the college where they were quarantined showing that the reason why they were asking to be moved to a better place was that there was no running water and more than 20 people were sharing just two toilets. The plan to deceive the public about why the returnees were rejecting the quarantine facility backfired terribly. The videos, by default, also served to expose the dire conditions under which students at the teachers college have been living in for years.
With a crumbling and discredited state media enterprise, the government needs the digital space. It will continue to need it for its propaganda, for PR exercises for the president and first lady and for Covid-19. But, with its tendency to capture and monopolise everything, it has yet to find a formula to control the digital media space beyond unconstitutionally switching off the internet. It has also yet to find a legal way to stop Zimbabweans from sharing information that exposes its failures besides provisions of the Criminal Code struck down by the constitutional court but brazenly used to detain a civilian for almost one month.
In all this, it remains clear that if ever the falsehoods law was constitutional and anyone needed to be jailed, it would be the government and its litany of propagandists. It also highlights that in crying only for Posa and AIPPA to be repealed, citizens have ignored a greater danger the devil is in the Criminal Code.
It is unacceptable that the president of Zimbabwe, who himself has never spent a single day in custody for any of his crimes from genocide to looting minerals in the DRC and running down Zanu-PF companies as alleged by Mugabes administration before the coup can arrest and threaten a man with 20 years in prison for circulating fake news that turned out to be true. DM/MC
Thandekile Moyo is a writer and human rights defender from Zimbabwe. For the past four years, she has been using print, digital and social media (Twitter: @mamoxn) to expose human rights abuses, bad governance and corruption. Moyo holds an Honours degree in Geography and Environmental Studies from the Midlands State University in Zimbabwe.
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YouTube and Twitter censor medical research center’s UV therapy after NY Times journalist probe – Reclaim The Net
Posted: at 3:43 am
While the rest of the world might be struggling in the darkness of a global health saga, with livelihoods and even lives under threat this is turning into Big Techs moment to shine.
After years of media and political elites trying to whip these powerful tools of data collection and mass surveillance into just the right shape the coronavirus pandemic has given tech giants a guise under which to do their thing unchecked by anyone except some independent media outlets and blogs, and incredulous social media users.
One such incident involves Aytu BioScience, which on Aril 20 announced it had entered an exclusive worldwide partnership with Cedars-Sinai to develop the Healight Platform Technology.
Dr. Ruchi Mathur of Ceders-Sinai announced this in a tweet the same day, saying, Weve already shown that the Healight kills bacteria. Now we show that it can also kill coronavirus.
Double your web browsing speed with today's sponsor. Get Brave.
Mathur also provided a link to a Yahoo News article announcing the deal.
But as of this writing, Aytu BioSciences video on YouTube has been banned, while its Twitter account was also temporarily suspended.
As it turned out, all it took to deplatform a company that just partnered with a renowned medical and academic center like Ceders-Sinai in order to try bring potentially life-saving treatment to the world was a (politically) disgruntled New York Times reporter.
The reporter, Davey Alba, said on Twitter on April 25 that she reported a video promoting Heatlight to YouTube because it was proving to be very popular and shared on social networks by people asserting that it backs up Trumps idea throwing it out there that UV rays kill coronavirus. The research and video was posted before Trumps comments.
YouTube quickly obliged and removed the video, according to Albas tweet. It was in the meantime confirmed that the video has been deleted, with a shocking message replacing it saying the content violates YouTubes guidelines.
On April 26, Twitter user @ShoreProgress shared the news of this case in a tweet adding that Twitter had also decided to suspend Aytu BioSciences account, apparently for no other reason than to spite US President Donald Trump.
(The user backed the claim of the Twitter account suspension with a screenshot but it seems that the social giant has changed its mind and that the account is back online, at least for now.)
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One more thing Taiwan got right about the virus: Its name – Washington Examiner
Posted: at 3:43 am
In the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, President Trump referred to the virus as the China virus and the Chinese virus. But in a press briefing on March 18, the president got pushback from the media. A reporter asked why he was calling it the "Chinese virus" when there were reports of bias against Chinese Americans.
Trumps immediate response (because it comes from China), as well as his references to Chinas conspiracy theory implicating the U.S. military, made everything clear. But in the days following, he changed his wording to COVID, COVID-19, the virus, and sometimes plague.
So what about Taiwan? I ask this question because the small, vibrant democracy is effectively independent of China yet mostly Chinese in ethnicity. Not surprisingly, Taiwanese people would also have a problem with the term Chinese virus. Instead, government officials have long been using Wuhan virus and Wuhan coronavirus interchangeably with more general names. They are also reminding the world where the virus started.
Dr. Alexander Chieh-cheng Huang is a professor and former deputy minister of the Taiwanese governments Mainland Affairs Council. He also served as a senior consultant at Taiwans representative office in Washington. When I asked his thoughts on the virus language, Huang noted its political nature.
I guess everyone knows well that using Wuhan matches the anti-China public sentiments stirred up since 2019, when Beijings image in Taiwan had drastically deteriorated due to Xi Jinpings one country, two systems statement and the anti-extradition movement in Hong Kong lingering even after Taiwans 2020 presidential campaign," he said.
As it becomes clearer that Chinas censorship and cover-ups exacerbated this crisis, officials in the United States could follow Taiwans example. Lets call it the "Wuhan virus" to memorialize the human tragedy that China's authoritarian government has created. Lets call it the "Wuhan virus" to remind us of continued vigilance against the lack of transparency in China.
Dr. Li Wenliang of Wuhan tried to send warnings through Weibo, Chinas Twitter, that there was a mysterious and deadly outbreak afflicting patients and medical providers. Wuhan police threatened criminal charges against Li, who later succumbed to the virus himself and died. There was an uncommon public uprising in China over the doctors treatment. People began calling for freedom of speech and an end to government censorship. Eventually, the central government ruled that Wuhan police acted unlawfully and inappropriately. While there is evidence that Beijing also engaged in a cover-up of sorts, it is clear that the crackdown on speech started in Wuhan.
Wuhan residents were trying to get the word out. They were trying to say that the true death toll in their city was far higher than reported. They pointed to thousands of urns being shipped to the city. Far worse has also been alleged. One famous Wuhan resident, writer and poet Fang Fang, was posting daily reflections and revelations during Wuhans lockdown. She openly criticizes the local government, even as censors and trolls harass her to this day. In response to Fang Fang and people like her, Beijing passed tougher legislation on March 1 to control online content. Finally, last month, Beijing acknowledged that the toll in Wuhan was underreported. But considering the government's track record, even those numbers may not be accurate.
Wuhan authorities have still not closed the wet markets, where many health officials believe the virus was first transmitted.
Although we will probably never know, intelligence officials reportedly believe that there is a high possibility that the virus may have come from a Wuhan research lab. Lax security and standards could have resulted in an infected official or animal before the virus got out later into the community.
Taiwans early detection of something wrong in Wuhan and its strong mitigation efforts have won the island praise. It got one more thing right the name.
Dr. Guy Redmer is an English professor and author currently teaching in Taipei, Taiwan.
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One more thing Taiwan got right about the virus: Its name - Washington Examiner
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Tucker Carlson Reports on California Doctors, YouTube are Trying to Censor over COVID Views – The Jewish Voice
Posted: at 3:43 am
Recently The Jewish Voice ran a story about 2 doctors in California, who disagree with the quarantines , who stated that EMS is over-counting COVID-19 deaths and in detail described their data and the science of immunity. The doctors videos on youtube went totally viral, with over 6 million people watching them
Youtube began to take down the videos , even the original interview and news clip which was done by KERO 23, an ABC affiliate. You tubers keep re-posting them and as of now, we linked to 3 compete videos of Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi.
These are medical doctors, who held a press conference, big tech, does not believe you deserve to hear their studies and experiences.
The censorship being perpetrated by You Tube is out of control. They no longer act like a platform, they are officially publishers, that decide what you can see and not see. YouTube should be forced to declare themselves PUBLISHERS, which would hold them accountable for everything they PUBLISH. You Tube wants it both ways, they want to claim they are a platform to avoid any legal responsibility from the user content and at the same time, want to select what you are allowed to see. You cant have it both ways.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson reported on this topic last night. and discusses censorship and the power of big tech. He does a wonderful job. Watch below:
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Tucker Carlson Reports on California Doctors, YouTube are Trying to Censor over COVID Views - The Jewish Voice
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Obesity prevented in mice treated with gene-disabling nanoparticles – Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Posted: May 1, 2020 at 3:52 pm
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Strategy uses particles to target gene in specific immune cells
Using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry to identify fat (white) in the body, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found excessive fat in a mouse that had consumed a high-fat diet for six weeks (left). The mouse on the right ate the same diet, but the researchers blocked the activity of a gene in specific immune cells, resulting in that mouse not becoming obese.
Disabling a gene in specific mouse cells, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have prevented mice from becoming obese, even after the animals had been fed a high-fat diet.
The researchers blocked the activity of a gene in immune cells. Because these immune cells called macrophages are key inflammatory cells and because obesity is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation, the researchers believe that reducing inflammation may help regulate weight gain and obesity.
The study is published May 1 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Weve developed a proof of concept here that you can regulate weight gain by modulating the activity of these inflammatory cells, said principal investigator Steven L. Teitelbaum, MD, the Wilma and Roswell Messing Professor of Pathology & Immunology. It might work in a number of ways, but we believe it may be possible to control obesity and the complications of obesity by better regulating inflammation.
When people are obese, they burn fewer calories than those who are not obese. The same is true for mice. But according to co-first author Wei Zou, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of pathology & immunology, the researchers found that obese mice maintained the same level of calorie burning as mice that were not obese after the research team deleted the ASXL2 gene in the macrophages of the obese mice and, in a second set of experiments, after they injected the animals with nanoparticles that interfere with the genes activity.
Despite high-fat diets, the treated animals burned 45% more calories than their obese littermates with a functioning gene in macrophages.
Exactly why this prevented obesity in the mice isnt clear. Co-first author Nidhi Rohatgi, PhD, an instructor in pathology, said it appears to involve getting white fat cells which store the fat that makes us obese to behave more like brown fat cells which help to burn stored fat. The strategy is a long way from becoming a therapy, but it has the potential to help obese people burn fat at rates similar to rates seen in lean people.
A large percentage of Americans now have fatty livers, and one reason is that their fat depots cannot take up the fat they eat, so it has to go someplace else, Teitelbaum said. These mice consumed high-fat diets, but they didnt get fatty livers. They dont get type 2 diabetes. It seems that limiting the inflammatory effects of their macrophages allows them to burn more fat, which keeps them leaner and healthier.
Zou W, et al. Myeloid-specific Axsl2 deletion limits diet-induced obesity by regulating energy expenditure. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, May 1, 2020.
This work was supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases; the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Grant numbers HL1388163, AR064755, AR068972, AR070975, HL38180, DK56260, P30 DK52574, P41 EB025815, HL073646, DK102691, AI019653, DK109668, DK056341, AR046523, DK111389 and P30 AR074992. Additional funding from the Physician-Scientist Training Program at Washington University School of Medicine and the Childrens Discovery Institute.
Washington University School of Medicines 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.
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