Episode #624: November 30, 2021

Topics covered:

• US deaths from Covid-19 are up in 2021 compared to 2020, but it’s not for the reasons Alex thinks. The deaths that are happening are predominantly among the unvaccinated

• The latest life expectancy numbers are from 2020, and they do reflect a drop that was largely affected by Covid-19

• There is a history of cardiac problems among soccer players that predates Covid-19. See here, here, and here for examples

• Alex interviews Australian MP George Christensen, who seems to be developing a bit of a right-wing media grift, including a heavily promoted SubStack and trying to make money through the Amazon affiliate program using his SubStack

• Christensen has been called the “Member from Manila” due to his very frequent travel to the Philippines

• Christensen laments how there aren’t enough people in the government standing up for true freedom, but is also retiring from government next year, leaving the government with one less advocate for “true freedom”

• The claim that you can’t get a “decent job” in Victoria unless you’re vaccinated doesn’t seem true

• The vaccine mandate in Queensland has a lot of exemptions

• If there’s a “vaccine apartheid” going on, it has to do with lower-income countries not having access to vaccines, not George’s grievances

• NYT article about the issues related to Covid-19 and the indigenous community

• The government in the Northern Territory and the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of Northern Territory have said that the stories about people being taken to quarantine camps are not true

• There are quarantine facilities in Australia, but they don’t sound at all like how George describes them

• Alex misrepresents a story about a Forbes headline

• Alex misrepresents one study about Covid vaccines

• Alex misrepresents a second study that isn’t even about Covid vaccines, but he seems to be claiming it is, even though it was from August 2017

• Alex misrepresents an article titled The Tangled History of mRNA Vaccines

• Alex pretends that fear-mongering about “cultural Marxism” isn’t explicitly anti-Semitic

• Alex pretends he’s not doing an infomercial for his satellite phone sponsor while doing an infomercial for his satellite phone sponsor