Covid Politicized

* My column in  BusinessWorld , October 11, 2021.  The Philippines’ lockdown is turning 19 months long this week. The “two weeks only” lockdown imposed on March 16, 2020 became two months, and is now approaching two years. One more proof that once government restrictions are created, they will hardly go away. RISING DEATHS, DECLINING BIRTHS The mandatory social distancing, restriction on mobility, and prohibition of big parties have greatly affected the people’s health and social events like weddings. I checked the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) deaths and births data and the numbers are somewhat surprising. One, there was no excess mortality in 2020 over 2019. There were, in fact, 6,314 less deaths in 2020 compared to 2019. Two, excess mortality showed big time in the first half of 2021. There were more deaths in January to June 2021 than the same months in 2020 and 2019 — 72,218 more than 2020 and 52,489 more than 2019. March to May 2021 saw 61,000 to 69,000 deaths per month.

Early this evening I was one of several speakers and reactors. Aside from the ppt presentations by Doc Jody and me, discussions were spontaneous, free flowing and focused, what a night. Anyway here is my ppt. The other speakers and contributors were Docs Marivic Villa, Homer Lim, Iggy Agbayani, Jade del Mundo. Sir George Barcelon asked several useful questions. Great hosting and moderation job by boss Mari Kaimo, Eli Abella and Francis Abraham.

Yesterday I was one of the resource persons at the 2nd public hearing of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability chaired by Cong. Michael Edgar Aglipay. The meeting started 1pm and ended about 4:30pm, I was called and spoke around 4:10pm, then Doc Jody Dalmacion also of CDC Ph spoke after me. I submitted this ppt to the Chairman and Committee Secretariat before the hearing started. But since I was called late and with limited time and Chairman Aglipay said they already saw my ppt, I did not show this anymore and just articulated verbally the five false predictions of Octa. Earlier at the hearing, Congw. Stella Quimbo asked many questions at OCTA President, Prof. Ranjit Rye of UP Political Science, why they have no economist in their company, and that UP School of Economics has a world-class Health Economics lab and research institute, yet Octa did not bother to tap it. Earllier, Fr. Austriaco of OCTA butted in and wanted to speak and that he's based in the

Among my favorite climate and energy blogs is No Tricks Zone,  https://notrickszone.com/ , owned by Pierre Gosselin, an American living in Germany. Daily articles with lots of data about climate and energy alarmism but occasionally Pierre would post or get guest writers about the new fad in the world – vaccine mandates, implicit or explicit, thanks Pierre. I am reposting below some recent articles posted in his blog. Enjoy. ------------- (1) Bombshell Study: Vaccine Protection Against COVID Infection And Viral Load ‘Vanishes’ Within 6 Months  By Kenneth Richard on 3. September 2021  https://notrickszone.com/2021/09/03/bombshell-study-vaccine-protection-against-covid-infection-and-viral-load-vanishes-within-6-months/ Reports of plummeting vaccine effectiveness against current COVID-19 variants are proliferating. A new study assesses the viral load and risk of infection with COVID-19 is the same for a fully vaccinated person as it is for an unvaccinated person within just 180 days after