The Times of India, a media outlet previously very skeptical of Big Pharma, is reporting from the South African Medical Association that officials are puzzled about the hype around Omicron.

The variant has only produced mild symptoms in regional patients with very little impact.

JOHANNESBURG: “The new Omicron variant of the coronavirus results in mild disease, without prominent syndromes, Angelique Coetzee, the Chairwomman of the South African Medial Association told sputnik news on Saturday.” … “We will only know this after two weeks. Yes, it is transmissible, but for now, as medical practitioners, we do not know why so much hype is being driven as we are still looking into it.” (read more)

Occam’s Razor – The new variant is being hyped because international governments need it to be hyped.  The biggest threat to politicians and the global financial system attempting to Build Back Better via enlarged government spending, is not COVID; the biggest threat is anger from the citizenry over the inflation the government spending and buying of debt is creating.

What is the quickest way to eliminate the political risks due to inflation? Shut down demand.  Lock down economies, turn the valves closed on economic demand and then watch price increases slow down.

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When you are at war, you target the enemy supply lines.  A cunning move by the smart Panda targets Joe Biden’s domestic inflation vulnerability.

Beijing can see Joe Biden under internal political attack caused by massive domestic inflation.  China also knows Biden is weak strategically, handcuffed by the leftist demand for climate change / energy policy, and Beijing can see the administration trying to deflect from the consequences of their economic and energy policy.

After the U.S-China summit, used by cunning panda to size up the potential for backlash, anything China can do to further gain dominant position is now just a matter of easy chess moves on the board of dependency.

Business Insider – China’s strict COVID-19 quarantines are making it difficult for ships to change crews, contributing to lags in the shipping process that could worsen the supply chain crisis.

The country has a zero-Covid policy and is imposing ever more stringent containment measures as it tackles its latest wave of outbreaks. On Halloween night, for example, 30,000 people were locked inside Shanghai Disneyland after just one COVID-19 case was detected. And in the northern city of Shenyang, arriving overseas travelers face a 56-day quarantine.

Now, the export hub is imposing mandatory quarantines of up to seven weeks — around 49 days — for Chinese seafarers returning from overseas, Bloomberg reported. These take place in designated facilities and are typically paid for by the employers, according to information posted on various China shipping websites.

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President Donald Trump called in to Fox Business yesterday [LINK] for an extensive interview about the current state of the U.S. economy, gas prices, energy policy and the Biden administration’s COVID response.

President Trump told FOX Business’s “Varney & Co.” he had hoped President Biden would do well in managing the coronavirus, but pointed out that “significantly” more Americans have died from the virus under Biden’s watch than his own “despite all of the vaccines and the therapeutics” that are now widely available. Trump emphasized his position on the vaccine, “I want people to go out and want to get [vaccinated], but I don’t want to force it into them.”  WATCH:

Watch the latest video at foxbusiness.com

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Wow, 72 hours ago no one even heard the name Omicron variant.  Now, in less than three days, a variant has been identified, global travel has been halted, states of emergency have been declared, and now we see a pharmaceutical company announcing the variant specific vaccine trial that will begin in the U.S. in a few weeks.  This government relationship with Big Pharma is certainly generating some fast action, eh?

If a person was cynically inclined; while knowing governments’ need to control inflation yet cannot raise interest rates or stop purchasing debt because current legislative spending continues – a remarkable control option would be to halt demand; and a person might think this was suspicious, or something.

Nov 26 (Reuters) – Novavax Inc said on Friday it had started working on a version of its COVID-19 vaccine to target the variant detected in South Africa and would have the shot ready for testing and manufacturing in the next few weeks.

The company’s COVID-19 shot contains an actual version of the virus’ spike protein that cannot cause disease but can trigger the immune system. The vaccine developer said it had started developing a spike protein specifically based on the known genetic sequence of the variant, B.1.1.529.

Novavax’s vaccine received its first emergency use approval earlier this month in Indonesia followed by the Philippines. Other vaccine developers, including Germany’s BioNTech SE and Johnson & Johnson, have said they are testing the effectiveness of their shots against the new variant, which is named Omicron by the World Health Organization (read more)

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We originally outlined the new COVID-19 variant along with the international motives of the science community for delivering it HERE.  Previously the new worrisome, 10 spike, vaccine resistant variant was called “The B.1.1.529 variant“.  However, those types of names do not work well for larger fear narrative distribution.  As a result, the international scientific community has given it the name “Omicron“.  Perhaps the “Merry Christmas” variant would be culturally insensitive.

Globally, and not coincidentally –politically– the greatest challenge to those in power is a massive rise in direct inflation.  What is the quickest way to eliminate the political risks due to inflation?  Shut down demand….. lock down the economies… turn the values closed on economic activity, and then watch oil prices plummet.

As the science is told, Omicron originated in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.  Government officials around the world have responded to the Omicron variant by banning travel from those countries.  The U.K and Australia kicked off the latest round of fear porn with their travel bans.  Subsequently, fellow EU nations Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Malta all announced imminent entry bans to all travelers who’ve entered South Africa and surrounding nations in the past two weeks.

In North America, Canada will be “banning the entry of foreign nationals…that have traveled through southern Africa in the last 14 days,” due to the new coronavirus variant Omicron, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said at a news conference Friday. (link)  And right on cue the Biden administration joins the effort:

WHITE HOUSE – “This morning I was briefed by my chief medical advisor, Dr. Tony Fauci, and the members of our COVID response team, about the Omicron variant, which is spreading through Southern Africa. As a precautionary measure until we have more information, I am ordering additional air travel restrictions from South Africa and seven other countries. These new restrictions will take effect on November 29. As we move forward, we will continue to be guided by what the science and my medical team advises.” (more)

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If the report from Axios is accurate, the nomination of communist Saule Omarova to Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is sunk.

However, this could also be viewed as an Overton window maneuver where the next radical nominated will be only slightly less communist, and thereby gain appointment.

AXIOS – […] In phone call on Wednesday, Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), all members of the Senate Banking Committee, told Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) — the panel’s chairman — of their opposition. They’re joined in opposing her by Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). (more)

Senator Mark Warner’s opposition is a little unusual. Perhaps this is a downstream consequence of the recent Virginia election.  Regardless, at least this is one nomination that did not get through.   So far, Biden’s economic, energy and finance policies have been disastrous for Main Street; unfortunately, that also looks like a feature not a flaw.

A big win for medical privacy and the principles of freedom.  Ford, General Motors and Stellantis have agreed the United Auto Workers union members will not be forced to take the mandatory vaccine as a condition of employment.  [UAW Announcement] Additionally, the vaccine status of the workers will remain private with a policy of private and voluntary disclosure.

UAW – At a meeting Monday evening, the COVID-19 Joint Task Force, comprised of the UAW, Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, has aligned on a policy of voluntary and confidential disclosure of vaccination status for UAW members. Each company will provide additional communication to employees on how, where and when to report their vaccination status.

In addition to encouraging members to disclose their vaccination status, the Task Force continues to urge all members, coworkers, and their families to get vaccinated and get booster vaccinations against COVID-19, while understanding that there are personal reasons that may prevent some members from being vaccinated, such as health issues or religious beliefs.

After reviewing the status of CDC and OSHA guidelines, the Task Force also decided it is in the best interest of worker safety to continue masks in all worksites at this time. (read more)

This helps swing the pendulum back toward the American worker.

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Eh, this is awkward… and simultaneously so typical of the current administration.   The White House trotted Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to the microphones today to tell the DC stenographers how brilliant, beneficial and strategically necessary it is to release 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to lower gasoline prices.  The enthusiastic Energy Secretary read the script, gave her talking points and then took questions.

However, after spending 15 minutes talking about the strategic brilliance of the 50 million barrel release, one of the stenographers accidentally asked: “that said, how many barrels of oil do U.S. consumers use every day?”…   Granholm paused, looked down and said: “I don’t have that number in front of me, I’m sorry“…  WATCH:

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♦ The amount we are giving you is so incredible and brilliant it will make everyone’s lives better.  The best ever.

♦ How much do we need?

♦ I don’t know. We didn’t get that information.  But the amount we are giving is awesome.

Yup, that’s the Biden administration encapsulated.

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Apparently the people behind Joe Biden realize the ridiculous prices at the gas pump are going to be a major political issue for them in the next election. As a result, they have decided to release 50 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve (SPR), enough for approximately 3 days of demand. [Announcement Here]

The strategic reserve is intended as an emergency supply in the event of war or national crisis that demands we have some insurance measures to protect ourselves. The SPR is the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil, and the oil stocks are stored in underground salt caverns at four storage sites in Texas and Louisiana.

The oil in the strategic oil reserve was previously paid for by taxpayers. What Biden is doing right now is giving reserve oil to energy companies who then turn around and refine it into gasoline for taxpayers to purchase. We get to buy it twice, and Biden wants to be thanked for doing it.

The Biden administration is going to lower gas prices for taxpayers by allowing taxpayers to purchase their own oil.  Brilliant!

In related news, the Biden administration also held a call today [LINK] to announce their plan to ease inflation by printing more money.

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NBC ran an interesting segment on how to cope with the massive inflation and additional costs caused by Joe Biden.  Given the collapsing state of the U.S. economy, and crushing price increases for products created by White House policy, the administration previously suggested we should lower our expectations.

NBC takes the ‘lower expectations‘ theme to entirely new levels.  I’m not sure they thought through the meaning of Thanksgiving prior to the suggestions; however, Biden’s NBC stenographers have a few interesting recommendations.

The first suggestion is don’t buy the Thanksgiving day turkey, it’s too expensive.  The second odd suggestion to save money is do not invite friends of family to dinner.  WATCH:

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