News Round-Up: RFK Jr. Shuffles Up CDC Vaccine Committee, NY Looming Energy Disaster, and Corrupt Temperature Data Feeding Climate Fears
Every week, the editorial team of Freedom Research compiles a round-up of news that caught our eye, or what felt like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.
Over the past week, the following topics attracted our attention:
US: RFK Jr. appoints 8 new members to CDC's vaccine advisory committee.
New York’s self-inflicted climate and energy disaster.
Climate crisis? UK temperature records based on inadequate data.
Sweden: government seeks more power during emergencies.
Musk says he regrets some social media posts about Trump.
US: RFK Jr. appoints 8 new members to CDC's vaccine advisory committee
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Wednesday eight new members to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's independent vaccine advisory committee. On Monday Kennedy had removed all 17 sitting members from it. “On Monday, I took a major step towards restoring public trust in vaccines by reconstituting the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). I retired the 17 current members of the committee. I’m now repopulating ACIP with the eight new members who will attend ACIP’s scheduled June 25 meeting,” Kennedy posted on X.
The new members are Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Dr. Retsef Levi, Dr. Robert W. Malone, Dr. Cody Meissner, Dr. James Pagano, Dr. Vicky Pebsworth and Dr. Michael A. Ross.
All the new members have been vocally supporting evidence-based medicine, with some of them having been very critical of the government policies during the Covid crisis and bringing attention to the harms related to Covid vaccines.
“All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense. They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations. The committee will review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule as well,” Kennedy said.
New York’s self-inflicted climate and energy disaster
New York State has officially ordained the destruction of its electricity system and its economy by a mad dash towards energy utopia, as prescribed by the 2019 statute called the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act), Watts Up With That? writes. The Climate Act mandates a 70% of electricity generation from “renewables” by 2030. On top of that, NY is mandating conversion to electric heat by 2030 for most of the residential buildings having over 25,000 square feet of space.
The ultimate goal is for New York's electricity to be completely CO2-neutral by 2040 and for fossil fuels to be completely phased out by 2050. A more detailed plan is outlined in the 2022 implementation plan (Scoping Plan), but it does not include any serious feasibility or cost analysis. Therefore, critics, along with many homeowners, believe that the goals are unachievable and that this is more of an energy utopia. Pushing this through in any case could lead to an energy disaster in both the city and the entire state, as renewable energy may not be sufficient during the heating season and the grids may not be able to cope.
At the same time, one of the most important measures in New York's transition to renewable energy is the development of a 9,000 MW offshore wind farm near Long Island in the Atlantic Ocean. However, President Donald Trump temporarily suspended offshore wind energy projects with an executive order on January 20, with another order suspending many renewable energy subsidies.
New York has continued its work as if nothing had changed, and now President Trump also seems to have changed the course somewhat. For example, the Trump administration and New York State Governor Kathy Hochul are trying to reach an agreement whereby New York would no longer block natural gas pipeline projects and, in return, the federal government would allow one offshore wind energy project to proceed. However, even if the parties reach an agreement, this does not mean that New York's energy economy will be on solid ground.
It is also worth noting that from 2024, it will be prohibited to build new buildings up to seven stories high that use natural gas for heating, water heating or even cooking. The ban will come into force for larger buildings in 2027, and from then on, all new buildings in New York will have to use only electricity.
Climate crisis? UK temperature records based on inadequate data
Substantial evidence has emerged to suggest that the UK Met Office is promoting the political cause of Net Zero by having recently introduced supersensitive thermometers that can collect 60-second unnatural heat spikes, The Daily Sceptic reports. These spikes are used to promote constant clickbait ‘records’ and claim exaggerated atmospheric warming. Furthermore, it appears that these short-term ‘spikes’ are more common at ‘junk sites’ with massive internationally recognised ‘uncertainties”. Almost eight out of 10 of the Met Office’s nationwide temperature measuring stations are in the junk CIMO (Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observation) Classes 4 and 5 where possible errors can amount to 2°C and 5°C respectively.
On May 1st, the Met Office claimed a station at Kew Gardens recorded, at 2:59 PM, a temperature of 29.3°C. Promoted by the BBC, this was said to be the highest temperature ever recorded on this day in the UK. But the temperature was a massive 2.6°C higher than that recorded at 2 PM and no less than 0.76°C above the figure recorded a minute later on the hour. In fact the one minute plunge is similar to that found on July 19th, 2022, when a national record of 40.3°C at RAF Coningsby was set at a time when three typhoon jets were landing. This was later claimed to be a “milestone in UK climate history” by the Met Office.
Temperature recordings can move around from minute to minute; change, if it occurs, is generally around 0.1°C to 0.3°C. These changes do not affect old-style mercury thermometers but are picked up by the supersensitive electronic devices used by the Met Office since the 1990s. It is for this reason that the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) recommends averaging readings over five minutes to standardise data and remove short-term ‘noise’. For some inexplicable reason, despite playing a significant role in WMO deliberations, the UK Met Office does not appear to want to follow this sensible scientific advice. At Kew, on that May 1st, the hourly recordings showed a typical convex curve of temperature movement during the afternoon, recording seven readings from noon to 6 PM of 26.88°C, 26.93°C, 26.7°C, 28.54°C, 28.41°C, 26.09°C and 25.15°C. The 29.3°C record came out of the blue as did an earlier spike to 28°C at 1:28 PM.
Former geography teacher and a doctor of earth sciences Eric Huxter has been monitoring the high temperature rises recorded at Met Office stations, which, according to the country's meteorologists, are daily maximum temperatures or “extreme events.” Huxter cites Heathrow Airport as an example, which should be a CIMO class 3 observation point with an uncertainty of 1°C. However, the station's data suggests that it should be classified as a class 5 observation point, which is the lowest accuracy class. Kew Gardens, where the current “heat record” was recorded, is designated as a class 2 observation point with zero uncertainty. At the same time, this station often records extreme temperatures. However, according to Dr. Huxter, it frequently appears that an extreme temperature could possibly be due to short-lived gusts of wind blowing over from a nearby tropical greenhouse, one of the largest structures of its kind in the world.
Dr Huxter suggests therefore that the fact that poorer siting of temperature stations appears to produce spikier results illustrates the impact of the local environment over the regional. In other words, Class 1 sites with no nearby corruptions measure genuine air temperatures over a wide area, while Class 3, 4 and 5 stations do not. The Met Office has very few Class 1 sites and a very large number that fall into the junk categories. Even more to its discredit is a seeming inability (or disinterest) in improving the situation. In the last 30 years till 2024, the Met Office has opened 113 stations and among them, more than eight out of 10 are in Classes 4 and 5. Even worse is the revelation that over the last 10 years the percentage of junk sites opened is 81.5%, while over the last five years no fewer than eight out of the 13 opened new stations are unfit for purpose – purpose other than scaring the British public about an imaginary climate crisis, that is.
Dr Huxter does not deny the climate is changing and of late the temperatures have warmed. Nevertheless, his work is demonstrating that some of the claimed warming is caused by the use of electronic thermometers that record instant unnatural air temperature spikes. Since the 1990s, increases in recorded temperature are “consistent with the narrative of global warming, a.k.a. climate change”. In his view, it is becoming ever more apparent that this recorded increase “is an artefact of the change in observation method rather than a real change in temperature”.
Sweden: government seeks more power during emergencies
The Swedish government wants to have more power to act quickly in serious crises during peacetime, without having to wait for the approval of the parliament, The Nordic Times reports.
The proposal has been met with strong criticism from several sides, with people warning that it paves the way for abuses of power and risks undermining democratic principles.
A new bill proposes constitutional amendments that would allow quicker decisions on temporary measures in situations such as cyberattacks, natural disasters, or terrorist attacks.
The proposed changes to the constitution are said to be aimed at enabling the government to act more quickly in crises even in peacetime.
By delegating special powers from the parliament, the government will be able to issue temporary regulations that are valid for up to three months. However, these may not change or repeal the constitution.
In particularly urgent cases, the government will be able to take a so-called activation decision – a form of state of emergency – to take immediate action without the prior approval of the Riksdag. This is said to be relevant in events such as nuclear accidents, natural disasters, extensive spread of infectious diseases, terrorist attacks, major financial crises and extensive IT disruptions or cyberattacks.
The government itself claims that the reform is necessary to protect the society and safeguard democratic governance in emergency situations where crucial decisions must be made very quickly.
Musk says he regrets some social media posts about Trump
On Wednesday, Elon Musk posted on X that he regretted some of the social media posts he made about U.S. President Donald Trump during an explosive public dispute.
“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Musk posted on X .
Although no particular posts were mentioned, it is not hard to imagine which one Musk means. After leaving his position in the Trump administration as the head of department of government efficiency team, Musk was unhappy with a bill that increases government spending as his efforts were aimed at reducing it. During the public feud he accused of Trump being on the Epstein list.
“Time to drop the really big bomb,” Musk wrote on X back then. “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.” Minutes later, he followed up: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
Musk deleted the post some time later.