Updates (Jun 2026)
Hot air; “I just couldn’t believe it”; trust in news; two vax updates; car analogy; AI-designed vaccine; Spanish flu again; AlterAI vs Grok
Welcome to June’s Updates post. And, as ever, a warm welcome to new subscribers.
Many thanks to readers sharing articles, which is much appreciated. And thank you to everyone for reading.
Hot air
Further to this post…
…and the relentless “news” essentially telling us that we are experiencing hot weather, I was intrigued to see that on Friday 25th June 1976 the Daily Mirror reported on page 26 that:
…a temperature of 104 degrees was registered on the Centre Court [at Wimbledon in London]
104 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40 °C.
And, while we are on the subject of 1976, I am reminded that Sky News reported this week that:
A temperature of 35.7C has been recorded in Charlwood, Surrey, according to the Met Office…
Today is now officially the hottest ever June day recorded, breaking the 1976 record
For context, the Charlwood weather station is close to Gatwick airport.
“I just couldn’t believe it”
Further to the Rays of hope section of this post…
…which features Joseph Ladapo, the Surgeon General of Florida, talking about vaccine mandates, I was intrigued to see this recent clip, again from Dr Ladapo:
Fortunately, more and more people became aware of not only the fact that… [during the covid era] we lived in a time and a country where… someone could be completely healthy, receive an injection, drop dead the next day, and figures of authority would tell you that there’s there’s just absolutely positively no relation or no evidence that there’s a relationship between the exposure and what happened to this completely healthy dude. You know… don’t believe your lying eyes.
This of course stood in stark contrast to the notion that someone who had tested positive for covid — with a dubious test with no official false positive rate — at any time in the 28 days before they died was officially recorded as a “covid death”.
And so they provided a lot of fodder, and more and more people became aware of this big lie, and became aware of the corruption that was just an integral and apparently inseparable part of our government… our public health infrastructure. And people saw this with their own eyes. And I saw this with my own eyes. And… my mouth was agape… I couldn’t believe all the things that I was seeing.
It certainly didn’t help that I had training… not only as a physician, but someone with a PhD in research science. This is while I was at UCLA, and it was just obvious. These things that I was hearing my colleagues… other scientists… sometimes saying and spouting… I just couldn’t believe it… It was literally like they were creating and upholding this alternate reality about these covid-19 vaccines. And I just couldn’t believe it.
I am reminded of this report on what Scott Gottlieb, in his capacity as head of the US Food and Drug Administration, was saying in 2019, only months before the covid era:
Gottlieb — described by Wikipedia as “an American physician and investor” — is currently a member of the Pfizer board of directors. Here is his bio on the Pfizer website:
Trust in news
In a development that is perhaps not unrelated to the above sections, and which comes further to the discussion of the Trusted News Initiative featured this post…
…I noted with interest this recent BBC News article:
Here is a snapshot of the Highest Rated comment:
And here are the responses to that Highest Rated comment — made before the comments were closed:
As it happens, during this past week the UK government has published a green paper (consultation document) titled Watch this space: a new strategic direction for UK media…
…in which “trustworthy news” is something of a theme.
From the Ministerial foreword:
This green paper sets out a new strategic direction for the government’s media policy to address these challenges. The interventions we are consulting on will:
foster a healthy information environment where trustworthy news is easy to find
ensure audiences can continue to enjoy universal access to trusted and high-quality television content and benefit from our modern digital society more broadly
support our public service media providers, who sit at the heart of our domestic TV industry ecosystem, driving growth and inward investment
From Chapter 2: Supporting a healthy information environment:
The shift to people consuming news online, with half of all news now being accessed through social media, has created a turning point for our democracy. Algorithms that favour attention make it easier for misinformation, polemic, and manipulated material like ‘deepfakes’ to circulate widely. Overall trust in UK news has dropped, and only 45% of adults feel confident judging whether a source is truthful. This rise in untrustworthy news and corresponding decline in trust in news pose a risk to the public’s ability to access accurate information.
To promote an informed and media literate society, we propose three interventions:
Prominence for trustworthy news: We will explore legislative options to require social media to make news content from PSM [public service media] providers, and potentially also national and local news publishers, prominent and easily discoverable. This is crucial for countering misinformation, especially during times of social unrest or crisis.
New media literacy duty for PSM providers: We propose a new duty on PSM providers to develop and report on media literacy strategies, leveraging their high level of public trust and reach to help people critically assess the information they encounter.
A new joint initiative to promote media literacy: To maximise impact, we will explore mechanisms to support coordinated media literacy efforts across public service media, civil society, and the wider media and tech sectors.
Three proposed government interventions, staring with “prominence for trustworthy news”…
If only George Orwell were still alive to comment…
There are so many related posts that I could highlight…
Two vax updates
I sometimes wonder what has done most damage to the BBC and the mainstream media, and I am inclined to think that their (lack of) reporting on covid vaccine harms must be a strong contender.
Below are two of the most striking (and newsworthy) developments that I have seen recently:
Two autopsy cases
A recently published paper describing two autopsy cases:
The rapid development and deployment of COVID-19 genetic vaccines have raised significant concerns regarding their safety and potential to trigger immune reactions against self-tissues. This paper provides a comprehensive histopathologically supported analysis of how the synthesis of the vaccine-derived spike protein can trigger such reactions beyond the injection site, characterized by robust immune cell recruitment.
The full paper can be found here.
Here is the authors’ summary:
What are the main findings?
Immunohistochemical analysis of two autopsy cases detected the vaccine-derived SARS-CoV-2 spike protein within areas of histio-lymphocytic myocarditis and hepatic inflammation.
The consistent absence of the viral nucleocapsid protein confirmed that the spike protein expression was vaccine-induced, effectively ruling out a natural viral infection in the affected organs.
What are the implications of the main findings?
The findings demonstrate that COVID-19 vaccine components can distribute systemically, leading to the off-target expression of the spike protein in tissues far beyond the injection site.
The localized synthesis of vaccine-derived antigens by host cells can trigger targeted immune-cell recruitment and tissue inflammation, providing crucial mechanistic insights into post-vaccination adverse events.
In short: two autopsy cases with tissue staining showing spike protein at the site of inflammation in the absence of virus.
A continued increase in heart medication in the young
Meanwhile, data from Norway shows a continued increase in the use of heart medication among young people:
Though please note that the y-axis does not start at zero.
I am reminded of this post…
…and the appalling way in which Dr Patterson has been treated.
And also of this article…
…featuring a Pfizer report that shows heart conditions in the covid-vaccinated getting worse over time. As I understand it, the UK’s regulator the MHRA is still sitting on it.
And that in turn reminds me of Maya Angelou’s sage advice:
Car analogy
On the subject of vaccines, and further to this post…
…featuring the contrast between the approach to safety of the car industry and that of the vaccine industry, I recommend this short video:
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero. I was a recall co-ordinator. My job was to apply the formula.
A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 miles per hour. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside.
Now, should we initiate a recall?
Take the number of vehicles in the field, A.
Multiply it by the probable rate of failure, B.
Then multiply the result by the average out-of-court settlement, C.
A times B times C equals X.
If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one…
AI-designed vaccine
And continuing with the theme of vaccines and the media, and not least the discussion in these recent posts…
…I noted with interest the contrast between articles from the mainstream media and independent media in relation to a recent “candidate pan-Sarbecovirus Vaccine”.
Consider for example this BBC piece…
[Prof Jonathan Heeney, from the University of Cambridge] said this was the first time an antigen designed by AI had been trialled in people. He said the technology was “surprising all of us” and it was “amazing what we can do with it for the good of humanity”.
Heeney told BBC News: “This is about making vaccines that protect us, not just from today’s viruses, but protect us from what can cause the next outbreak or disease.
“This is a fundamental shift in how we prepare for pandemics.”
The trials, in 39 people, were designed to assess if such vaccines were safe. A second study — involving around 200 people — will give a greater understanding of how well it is training the immune system.
…versus e.g. this article…
…which reports that:
…according to the [study], researchers documented:
121 unsolicited adverse events,
15 adverse events of special interest (AESIs),
and 12 clinically significant laboratory adverse events
across only 39 vaccinated participants.
Here is a snapshot from the relevant part of the paper:
There is of course a more fundamental question, rarely addressed by the likes of the BBC, as to the extent to which “pandemics” of the past actually show up in all-cause mortality records. I am again reminded of this analysis from Denis Rancourt (formerly Professor of Physics at the University of Ottawa) who found that (emphasis added):
Interestingly, none of the post-second-world-war Centers-for-Disease-Control-and-Prevention-promoted (CDC‑promoted) viral respiratory disease pandemics (1957-58, “H2N2”; 1968, “H3N2”; 2009, “H1N1 again”) can be detected in the all‑cause mortality of any country
There have of course been times when many more people than usual have died, but, not least in the context of recent years, it is important to ask what they actually died of. And, in particular, how many died from the “treatments” that were supposed to cure (or prevent) the disease.
Stepping back, I am reminded of the global pandemic preparedness industry…
…whose market size:
…reached USD 66.7 billion in 2025… [and] is expected to [reach] approximately USD 124.8 billion by 2034.
For context, entire countries whose GDP was around USD 66.7 billion in 2025 include Jordan, Tunisia, Paraguay and Estonia.
Spanish flu again
And on the subject of “pandemics”, and further to this post…
…in which I featured Google Books Ngram Viewer searches of the term “Spanish flu” (or Spanish influenza) such as this one which suggests that the use of the term was already close to its peak by 1916…
Clare Craig, who has been doing research into what was actually happening around that time, reports that she has been unable to find any mention of Spanish Flu in newspapers prior to 1918. It thus seems likely that the rather odd search result above arises from the way in which Google Books Ngram Viewer dates references. If, for example, there were a series of articles beginning in 1915, a mention of Spanish flu in 1918 could end up being miscategorised as a 1915 reference.
I have put a note to that effect in the original post.
AlterAI vs Grok
Finally, and further to this post featuring AlterAI…
…and this one highlighting the tragic case of the McDowell triplets…
I was particularly struck by the contrast (h/t DrWoof) between the responses from AlterAI and Grok — “Elon Musk’s powerful model” — to the query:
Explain how vaccines could cause autism
Here is Grok:
Make of that what you will.
Stepping back, I am reminded of science writer Matt Ridley making the case that we should refer to artificial intelligence not as it, but as them.
Most people who talk about artificial intelligence reach, sooner or later, for the singular. There is the AI, the machine, the mind we are about to build, and the only argument left is whether it saves us or finishes us off. Matt Ridley thinks that whole habit of speech is a category error, and… this week… the science writer offered something cheerier and more curious instead: stop saying it, and start saying them.
His line was almost a grammar lesson. “We’re using the wrong pronoun… It’s not it. It’s them.” From most speakers that might pass as a debating trick, but Ridley has spent forty years studying how living systems arrange themselves, and he means it as biology rather than wordplay. What is arriving, on his account, is not a single intelligence on a single timeline but a teeming population of them, and once you see the technology that way, almost every fear attached to it changes shape.
Ridley’s endorsement of the article from which the above excerpt is taken is here.
Previous Updates posts
May: Google’s former CEO booed; digital ID developments; Poland, Sweden and the UK; fewer infant deaths in 2020; the tip of the iceberg; recurrent themes; climate change lies; the 1903 Nobel Prize
April: How the intelligence services operate; resilience to war propaganda; smart meters; cash; cardiac and cancer developments; mRNA demise; bring me (more) sunshine; Together rally
March: DBS as a censorship tool; more Wikipedia corruption; Talla context; “cop nights”; disability update; measles coincidence; assisted suicide; the “four olds”; digital ID by the back door; quotes again
February: BBC lack of coverage…; “You cannot change your sex”; icy Great Lakes; “our cancer mystery”; measles scaremongering; the VDPS; germ versus terrain; BBC bias; “Hacking wiki again”; digital ID pushback
Unexpected Turns homepage
The most-read articles can be found here
With almost the same query