News Round-Up: WHO Digital Health Passport, Wide Success of Documentary Exposing Trans Ideology and Damning Assessment of Covid Lockdowns
News Round-Up: WHO Digital Health Passport, Wide Success of Documentary Exposing Trans Ideology and Damning Assessment of Covid Lockdowns
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:
Censorship threat on Twitter made an anti-trans documentary an overnight super hit
Study: locking up societies was a giant failure and had virtually no effect on Covid deaths
WHO develops global digital health passport with European Commission
Tour de France reintroduces Covid rules
Americans who cherish traditional values are in the minority
A Twitter censorship attempt on the documentary ended with the resignation of company executives and owner Musk's recommendation to watch the film
"What is a Woman?" is the title of a documentary about transgenderism and the ideology surrounding the issue that was released last summer. In the film, US conservative political commentator Matt Walsh embarks on a journey to ask the question "What is a woman?" from a variety of so-called "gender scientists", gender transitioners, doctors who support and advise sex change, and others. It goes without saying that Walsh opposes the whole ideology, and the cleverly constructed cinematic story, in which he puts his ideological transgenderist opponents in a rather silly position by asking very simple questions, nicely highlights the absurdity of the whole issue on-screen.
The film's distributor The Daily Wire – a conservative media platform in the United States – signed an agreement with Twitter that allowed for free viewing of the film for 24 hours last Thursday. However, on the same day, Jeremy Boreing, the head of The Daily Wire, announced, also via Twitter, that the social media platform had backed out of the deal. The reason, according to him, was that there were two instances of misgendering in the film.
“Specifically: in the film, a father refers to his 14-year-old daughter as “her,” and a store owner uses the “wrong” pronoun in a confrontation with a trans person,” Boreing explained.
Although Twitter had removed “misgendering” from their policy in April, The Daily Wire was told that such behaviour is still considered abuse and harassment. While Twitter did not explicitly ban the film from being published, it did plan to restrict its distribution and label it "hateful conduct".
Twitter users then started to share the film itself and the message about the attempted censorship. Twitter owner Elon Musk reacted, disagreeing with the decision of his company's employees to restrict the film's distribution. "Every parent should watch this," Musk wrote on Twitter, sharing the film with his more than 140 million followers. It is now one of the most watched documentaries of all time, with around 180 million views.
However, several Twitter executives resigned on the same day as the film was released – including Twitter's Vice President of Trust and Safety, Ella Irwin.
In-depth study: lockdwons were “a global policy failure of gigantic proportions”
Johns Hopkins University Professor of Economics Steve H. Hanke, Lars Jonung, Professor of Economics at Lund University in Sweden, and Jonas Herby, an economist in Denmark, revealed in a recent study that the 'lockdown' policy implemented to combat the coronavirus in the spring of 2020 essentially saved no lives. The researchers went through about 20,000 potentially relevant studies that could aid them assess the impact of the employed measures on mortality. After a multi-stage systematic screenings, 22 studies appeared usable for their meta-analysis.
The study shows that the 'lockdown policy' implemented during the first wave of the virus, in spring 2020, did not help prevent deaths caused by Covid-19. While around 6,000 deaths were averted in Europe, 4,000 in the United States and 1,700 in England and Wales, the figures are not significant. In England and Wales, for example, an average of 11,000 people die every week.
The study overturns a model published in March 2020 by Imperial College London, which estimated that lockdowns were expected to save 400,000 lives in the UK and 2 million in the US.
The authors of the study write that the so-called closures were "a global policy failure of gigantic proportions". The draconian measures did not have a significant impact on mortality, yet came at a significant social, cultural and economic price.
The said work has already been criticised. For example, it is pointed out that they are not public health experts or epidemiologists, but economists who ignored epidemiological studies.
The authors of the study also treat the concept of lockdown too broadly, according to critics.
World Health Organization sets up global 'health digital passport' based on EU Covid certificate
The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced a "landmark digital health initiative", as a cooperative of the European Commission, this Monday. The WHO says that alreadu starting in June this year it will take up the European Union (EU) system of digital COVID-19 certification to establish a global system that will help facilitate global mobility and protect citizens across the world from on-going and future health threats, including pandemics. According to the announcement, this is the first building block in the WHO's Global Digital Health Certification Network (GDHCN) which aims to develop a wide range of digital products and services for better health.
"Building on the EU’s highly successful digital certification network, WHO aims to offer all WHO Member States access to an open-source digital health tool which is based on the principles of equity, innovation, transparency and data protection and privacy," said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "New digital health products in development aim to help people everywhere receive quality health services quickly and more effectively," he added.
The EU's Covid certificate, also known as the vaccine passport, is a 'digital tool' that was used to deny millions of vaccine refusers access to a whole range of services, was demanded as a precondition of employment by numerous employers and used to restrict people's freedom to travel.
Dutch MEP Rob Roos called the cooperation between the WHO and the European Commission on the issue a worrying development. According to him, the WHO is not a government agency but is 80% funded by oligarchs and Big Pharma. "The Coronapass is a discriminatory instrument that has only created a false sense of safety," he said via Twitter.
"We cannot hand our national power over to a privately funded institution devoid of any democratic legitimacy," he mentioned in an earlier post on the WHO.
Tour de France reintroduces mask requirement because of Covid
The organisers of the famous Tour de France cycling race that starts in the beginning of July, are again planning severe restrictions this year because of Covid. For example, riders will be banned from signing autographs for fans in order to control the virus and limit its spread. Competitors and team members will also be banned from eating outside their hotel. This was allowed last year.
Masks will also be mandatory – competitors, team members and officials will have to wear masks inside the team areas. However, guests and journalists will only be allowed in the paddock at the start of the tour and there will be a general mask mandate in place there as well.
The fact that face masks are compulsory at the start and end of each stage was also communicated to all publications interested in covering the tour.
"I don't mind, as long as we protect our health," said French cyclist David Gaudu. "I'd rather wear a face mask than have everyone panic again due to the epidemic and see the riders out of action due to COVID-19," he added.
At the same time, studies confirm that face masks have no significant effect in limiting the spread of Covid or other respiratory viruses.
Recent survey: Americans who have traditional values have become a minority
According to a survey published in the United States this spring the number of Americans who appraise traditional values such as patriotism, religion and having children has plummeted. The poll, commissioned by the Wall Street Journal (reported here via NY Post), showed that patriotism is considered an important value by only 38% of respondents. In 1998, 70% considered patriotism important.
Religion was considered important by 39% of respondents this year. Twenty-five years ago, 62% said religion was important.
The number of Americans who say having children is important has dropped to 30% from 62% in 1998, according to the survey.
There has also been a drop in the number of people who think community involvement is very important – now just 27% thinks so, down from 62% just four years ago.
The number of Americans who think money is very important has risen from 31% 25 years ago to 43% now, according to the survey.