Big vaccine change for Australian children aged under six

I don't like this at all. It is normal to give young kids vaccines but the Covid vaccines have a lot of troublesome side effects -- so they could seriously harm immature immune systems. And the vaccines are of dubious efficacy against Omicron anyway. So why take the risk?

There is also a long history of risks being understated in safety studies -- some things not being counted, for instance -- so the study reported below is not very reassuring

Australia‘s medical regulator has approved the use of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for children aged under five.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration examined a North American clinical trial before making its decision on infants and children.

Moderna’s product, called Spikevax, has until now only allowed for people aged over six. Those people can get two doses of the vaccine, 28 days apart. People over 18 can also get it as a booster.

After Tuesday’s announcement, children as young as six months will be able to get the vaccine. Those under six years old will be recommended two Moderna doses.

The concentration of the vaccine’s active ingredient will be lower in doses given to small children.

The North American trial was conducted across several sites and involved 6000 participants aged between six months and six years old.

“The study demonstrated that the immune response to the vaccine in children was similar to that seen in young adults (18 to 25 years) with a favourable safety profile,” the TGA said.

“Clinical trials also showed that the safety profile in children is similar to that seen in adults. Most adverse events seen in clinical trials in children aged up to six were mild to moderate and generally reported after the second dose.

“These included irritability/crying, redness and/or swelling at injection site, fatigue, fever, muscle pain and axillary (groin) swelling or tenderness,” the TGA said.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/big-vaccine-change-for-australian-children-aged-under-six/news-story/fccb6dc5c1924c64561fc5bdd1e22b7f

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Urgent warning issued to millions of Australians with student debt - with payments set to SOAR again

Millions of Australians still paying off their student loans will be hit with yet another increase in repayments amid the spiralling cost of living crisis.

Millions of former university students will be stung with a $2.7billion interest bill after annual indexation rates surged from 0.6 per cent to 3.9 per cent.

The soaring interest rates mean graduates with HECS or HELP debts will pay an extra $923 on top of the average loans repayment of $23,685.

Indexation is a formula applied to student loans that have been unpaid for more than 11 months after the student has graduated.

It maintains the real value of a loan by adjusting it in line with changes in the cost of living, which is measured by the consumer price index.

The rate is closely tied to inflation, which rose to 5.1 per cent in the March quarter.

The surging borrowing rates comes as students feel the pinch from increasing costs of living, affecting the cost of petrol, groceries and electricity.

Graduates hoping to secure a home loan will also be impacted as banks consider outstanding HECS or HELP debt when deciding how much to lend.

Data from the Australian Taxation Office has revealed student debt has more than doubled in the last seven years with just under three million students owing a total of $69billion to the government.

Students graduating in the next three years could be hit even harder by surging indexation rates after the former Liberal government axed taxpayer subsidies for arts, law or business courses from 2021.

Graduates are required to start making payments on their HELP loans when they earn more than $48,361 - with the minimum wage just $42,000.

In May, students with HECS or HELP were warned they would soon be slugged with the highest increase in repayments in 10 years.

As a result, former students may choose to start making voluntary repayments towards their debt to bring the total down and decrease the interest rate.

Experts however said it would be foolish to pay HECS debt early because it's the cheapest loan a person will ever receive.

Pivot Wealth founder Ben Nash told Nine.com.au the indexation rate was concerning because it exceeded current wage growth.

'When you look at it against the wage growth, which is annualised at 2.4 per cent, you can see that it is challenging at a rate higher than the growth in wages,' he said.

'So it means that people are going to have to pay more of their salary to have the same impact'.

Mr Nash said the numbers shouldn't discourage people from seeking higher education because it's likely the indexation rate will average out to about two per cent over 10 years.

'It's only slightly positive because the cost is still going up, but the HECS increases are not as high as increases in a lot of other goods and services,' he said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11022969/HECS-debt-Warning-former-university-students-loan-payments-set-soar-added.html

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Cost of living crisis is caused by 'fool' politicians who are pursuing 'green dreams' and printing money, says MP turned TV host

Sky News TV host Cory Bernardi says the world's global cost of living crisis has been 'caused entirely by politicians' pursuing 'green dreams'.

Inflation, war and supply chain issues have triggered skyrocketing prices of groceries, mortgage repayments, electricity bills and fuel - with the conservative commentator pointing to the 'fools' in power around the world.

'The cost of living crisis is a global phenomenon that's caused entirely by politicians. Do not believe when they try and shift the blame to Russia or China or someone else,' the former politician said on Sky News.

'The fools that run this country and other western nations have chased green dreams that have jacked up the price of power.

'They've printed money fuelling inflation, they've campaigned against domestic manufacturing capacity which has led to supply shortages,' the Sky News host added. 'And we could go on and on and on,' he said.

Prices are soaring as the nation stares down a perfect storm of Covid and spiralling fuel and power bills while flood-ravaged farmland sees food prices skyrocket.

The battle against inflation is being fought globally - and although Australia's hurting, the 5.1 per cent inflation rate here is still among the best in the world.

China has so far emerged almost unscathed while most other countries suffer the hangover of Covid stimulus packages which have overheated the global economy.

In New Zealand, inflation is currently running at 6.9 per cent and has brought some families to the brink of starvation as they struggle to cope with the soaring prices.

Despite being the original source of Covid, China has kept inflation down to a near world-best 2.5 per cent, just behind Saudi Arabia's G20 nations-topping 2.3 per cent.

But although they've kept inflation under control, Beijing now faces an embarrassing and damaging recession and the end of their much-lauded 'economic miracle'.

The Communist superpower has seen a dramatic slump in its GDP after massive Covid shutdowns in Shanghai devastated production lines and exports.

On Friday, China admitted its GDP shrunk 2.6 per cent in the last quarter and was up only 0.4 per cent year on year, compared to previous annual growth of 5-6 per cent.

Unless production bounces back in the next quarter, it will send the country into a technical recession, ending decades of soaraway growth since 1976.

In Australia, the current 20-year high inflation rate of 5.1 per cent is widely expected to worsen when the latest figure is released on July 27, possibly hitting 6.3 per cent.

In a double whammy, the runaway inflation is causing interest rates to rise, adding hundreds of dollars to mortgage payments for families across the country, while wages lag behind and the cost of living soars.

But among G20 countries, Australia's inflation rate still ranks sixth-best, far ahead of struggling allies like the US and UK, both on 9.1 per cent, with even economic superpower Germany on 7.6 per cent.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11022929/Cost-living-crisis-caused-politicians-according-former-Liberal-MP.html

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Gender quotas bite Labor hard

If racial discrimination is bad why is discrimination in favour of women good? Why should we not select the best person for the job?

According to The Australian over the weekend, Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Queensland Labor government is set to ‘force’ (politely nudge?) three of its male MPs to resign so they can balance out the gender quotas in preselection.

What is it they say? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

The alleged looming threat of coerced resignation is being made in line with the Labor Party’s ‘Affirmative Action policy’ – also known as gender discrimination when viewed in the daylight. How else could you describe a policy that advocates hiring and firing based upon gender (no – wait – do they mean ‘biological sex’?) instead of merit?

45 per cent of Labor preselection have to be women. No, Labor haven’t worked out how to define ‘women’ yet, but that won’t stop them writing policy referencing women.

The Australian names the potential unlucky gents as Jim Madden, Mark Furner, Stirling Hinchliffe, and Peter Russo. That’s four, but in the case of gender equality, the more ‘women’ the better.

‘All male MPs are affected by the Affirmative Action rule – all should be aware of that,’ said one MP.

Which begs the question, why does Anthony Albanese exist?

With all the quota girls padding out Labor’s ranks, it remains baffling that they chose a – how do we hear it phrased by the Left? Oh yes. A ‘stale, pale, male’ to lead the party… There is no point arguing on merit, experience, or hard work – as Labor have established, it’s all about the chromosomes in 2022, and Albanese has an errant ‘Y’ that no amount of Women’s Weekly makeovers can fix.

Unsurprisingly, several of the male MPs waiting for the ‘shoulder tap’ have chosen not to criticise the policy and instead insist that they are ‘hard working’ and ‘concentrating on their electorate’. It’s almost as if Labor MPs want something outdated like ‘merit’ to come to their rescue. Why are they fighting against the ‘greater good’? Do they ‘hate women’? Is that why they refuse to do the manly thing and step aside?

Kate Flanders, Labor Party secretary clarified the situation.

‘The rules are there to change the culture and they have we have a very proud record of increasingly female representation in the Parliament. It is about moving the culture forward and identifying great women who want to run in those winnable seats and so that is certainly something we will be aiming to do in the 2024 round.’

That said, the rule insists on 45 per cent so, when push comes to literal shove, three blokes are going to get shoved.

Meanwhile, in the real world, most women despise the very notion of ‘gender’ policies that reduce women to statistical requirements. It is a system that parachutes unqualified women into positions at the expense of more suitable candidates. At the same time, the women who deserve their roles are forever tarnished with the ‘quota girl’ suspicion.

It’s lose-lose for women, underpinned with a bit of extra resentment from men who (quite rightly) feel that it is wrong to award someone a job because they make the office ‘look right’ to meet some arbitrary virtue goal.

In this case, the Labor men deserve what they get. The party was happy to push ‘gender quotas’ as an election-winning (allegedly) campaign – so they have to live with it. Or retire with it, as the case may be.

As an aside, when are the media going to start calling out ‘positive discrimination’ and ‘affirmative action’ for what it is – racism, sexism, morally bankrupt and outdated discriminatory garbage…?

https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/07/gender-quotas-bite-labor-hard/

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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