With Barrister-at-Law Tracey O’ Mahony
This week The Advertiser spoke again to Barrister-at-Law Tracey O’ Mahony with regard to a number of issues concerning our fundamental freedoms going forward. Tracey will outline the importance of removing the Covid-19 emergency laws in Ireland, removing the EU Digital Certificate for travel and she also highlights the nefarious circumstances around The World Health Assembly‘s Pandemic Response Plan.
Tracey is hoping that after reading her summaries of these issues you will contact your TD’s and MEP’s in an effort to finally force them to apply some logic when voting on upcoming decisions, that are having a drastic effect on our basic freedoms.
Before you read Tracey’s discussions I would like to make you aware of a comprehensive study in relation to these issues, by the prestigious academic institution – Johns Hopkins University.
The recent study runs directly counter to the leading narratives used to justify the burdensome school closures, business shutdowns, stay-at-home orders, movement restrictions etc. Of course you will not have seen anything about this study in the mainstream media, but you can have a look at the 62 page document online once you use an uncensoring search engine. The Johns Hopkins study says ‘ill-founded’ COVID lockdowns did more harm than good. The researchers say lockdowns had no noticeable effect on reducing COVID-related deaths but had a “devastating effect” on economies and social ills.
“We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures, and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality.”
The use of lockdowns is a unique feature of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns have not been used to such a large extent during any of the pandemics of the past century.
However, lockdowns during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic have had devastating effects. “They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy,” the report said.
These costs to society must be compared to the benefits of lockdowns, which our meta-analysis has shown are marginal at best. Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument.
The study was written by Jonas Herby, Lars Jonung and Steve H. Hanke of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health and the Study of Business Enterprise.
The following is a link to the full study:
https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2022/01/A-Literature-Review-and-Meta-Analysis-of-the-Effects-of-Lockdowns-on-COVID-19-Mortality.pdf
I would like to thank Tracey for her time in accumulating the following information and submitting it to us in The Advertiser. Given the conclusions from the above study and the points outlined by Tracey I would hope many of you would realise how important it is, for us both as Irish Citizens and members of The EU, to do what we can to end these measures that have shown to have a profound negative effect on our lives.
At the end of the article you will find contact details for our TDs and MEPs and I urge you to encourage those with our voting privileges to vote for the people they govern, rather than any irrational agenda.
Barrister Tracey O’ Mahony…
I want to briefly discuss 3 topics with you today:
• the first is an Irish lobby campaign asking you to write to your TD’s to ask them to vote no to the extension of the Covid-19 emergency power laws before the 31st of March 2022;
• the second is an EU lobby campaign asking you to write to Irish MEP’s to ask them to vote no to a proposed 12 month extension to the EU Digital Certificate for travel; and
• the third is to inform you that the World Health Assembly (which is the forum through which the WHO is governed by its 194 member states, including Ireland) intends to create an agreement which will stipulate how member states and other countries must fight pandemics into the future.
Irish lobby campaign asking you to write to your TD’s
As you will be aware, on the 22nd of January 2022, all COVID-19 restrictions (enacted under the Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19 (Amendment) (No.2) Act 2021, with the exception of face coverings) were revoked through Statutory Instrument 27 of 2022. The Health and Criminal Justice Act is due to expire on the 31st of March 2022 unless extended by both Houses of the Oireachtas. In order to ensure that piece of legislation is not extended past the 31st of March, we are asking members of the public to once again lobby their TD’s.
It is worth reiterating that if this piece of legislation is not extended all laws around lockdowns, closure of businesses, face masks, fines and penalties, and domestic vaccine passports will expire and if the Government want to reintroduce any such laws again, they would have to bring a new Bill before the Dail and thereafter the Seanad.
EU lobby campaign asking you to write to Irish MEP’S
Please be advised that the European Parliament is seeking an extension of the EU Digital Green Certificate to the 30th of June 2023, noting that this regulation was due to expire at the end of June 2022. This is the regulation that has been used to restrict travel across the EU unless the person is vaccinated, recently recovered or tests negative for COVID-19.
In circumstances where you do not intend to travel outside of Ireland for the foreseeable, you might be asking yourself why you need to worry about the extension of this regulation. The reason you should worry is because the longer this regulation remains in place the more normalised disclosing private medical information becomes and it also leaves open the door for governments to reintroduce the vaccine pass for domestic use.
With regard to the extension of the EU Digital Certificate, the European Parliament published its proposal in this regard on the 3rd of February 2022. I will briefly highlight some of the important statements made in this proposal:
• Since its adoption, the EU Digital Certificate has been successfully rolled out across the Union, with more than 1 billion certificates issued by the end of 2021;
• Almost all Member States also use the EU Digital Certificate for domestic purposes, with studies estimating that its use has resulted in increased vaccination uptake;
• By 31 January 2022, the three non-EU European Economic Area countries, Switzerland and 29 other third countries and territories are connected to the EU Digital Certificate system, with more expected to join in the future;
• The EU Digital Certificate system has been recognised as one of the key digital solutions to restore international mobility, with the International Air Transport Association urging countries to adopt the EU Digital Certificate as the global standard;
• Persons participating in clinical trials that have been approved by Member States’ ethical committees and competent authorities should be able to receive an EU Digital Certificate.
These may be issued by the Member State where the dose is administered regardless whether the participants have received the COVID-19 vaccine candidate or the dose administered to the control group to avoid undermining the studies;
In relation to using the digital certificate for domestic use the proposal states: –
“The Commission does not propose to extend the scope of Regulation 2021/953 as far as the domestic use of EU Digital Certificates is concerned. As noted in Recital 48 of Regulation 2021/953, Member States may process personal data contained in EU Digital Certificates for other purposes, if the legal basis for the processing of such data for other purposes, including the related retention periods, is provided for in national law, which must comply with Union data protection law.
Regulation 2021/953 thus neither prescribes nor prohibits the domestic use of EU Digital Certificate, which remains within the remit of Member States and subject to judicial control by national courts.”
I hope this statement alone motivates you to lobby your MEPs. When the EU Digital Certificate was voted through the European Parliament in April 2021, every MEP, every politician, every mainstream media outlet said it would never be used for domestic purposes, but now the European Parliament are confirming in an official document that the EU Digital Certificate Regulation does not prohibit the use of the covid pass for domestic use.
Also, given some of the extracts highlighted earlier in relation to the European Parliament’s desire to establish the EU Digital Certificate as the global standard as they continue to get more countries and territories connected to the system – there should be no doubt that EU Digital Certificate is intended to remain in place for the long term.
Probably the most infuriating part of the proposal is the statement that the regulation “positively affects the fundamental right of freedom of movement and residence under Article 45 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union”. This is a complete manipulation of language with the suggestion being that freedom is enhanced through use of the EU Digital Certificate as it facilitates travel, rather than restricts it.
In order to extend the period of operation of the EU Digital Certificate until June 2023, Members of the European Parliament will have to vote to pass it in the majority before the 30th of June 2022 – in light of same we are asking members of the public to contact Irish MEP’S today to ask them to vote No to any such extension.
World Health Assembly: Pandemic Response Plan
The World Health Assembly have confirmed their intention to establish an international treaty (which would likely have the weight of law) stipulating how member states and others would be required to fight pandemics into the future.
On the 1st of December 2021, the WHO stated “In a consensus decision aimed at protecting the world from future infectious diseases crises, the World Health Assembly today agreed to kickstart a global process to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument under the Constitution of the World Health Organization to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.”
The WHO website goes on to confirm the following: “Under the decision adopted today, the INB will hold its first meeting by 1 March 2022 (to agree on ways of working and timelines) and its second by 1 August 2022 (to discuss progress on a working draft). It will also hold public hearings to inform its deliberations; deliver a progress report to the 76th World Health Assembly in 2023; and submit its outcome for consideration by the 77th World Health Assembly in 2024.”
According to the European Council whatever convention, agreement or other international instrument is agreed upon, would be legally binding under international law. The European Council also states that the proposal will be guided by a spirit of collective solidarity. Make no mistake, the term collective solidarity quite simply means the common good. Collective solidarity means that a small group of elite politicians and leaders will forcefully decide what is best for us all and anyone with such a mindset will never be persuaded otherwise and will always be a danger to individual freedom. Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the term the common good has been weaponised to coerce individuals to give up their freedom. Be under no illusion that our politicians have used this term as a tool of manipulation to push every totalitarian law they wanted through the Dail over the past 2 years with little or no opposition.
After the 1st of March 2022 meeting, we will have a better idea of the timetable around the publication of this pandemic response plan, and this will allow us to initiate a coordinated attack both at an Irish and EU member state level. Suffice to say there is a global agenda afoot to put in place a pandemic response plan that would likely be legally binding on Ireland into the future, and which would see the rights of the individual sacrificed for some politicians definition of the common good.
The only positive to be drawn from this news is that for once we have time on our hands to coordinate and proactively manage this process.
Kerry TDs Contact Details
M. Healy-Rae – michael.healy-rae@oireachtas.ie – 064 668 5782
D. Healy-Rae – danny.healy-rae@oireachtas.ie – 064 668 5315
Pa Daly – pa.daly@oireachtas.ie – 066 712 9545
Norma Foley – norma.foley@oireachtas.ie – 066 716 9052
Brendan Griffin – brendan.griffin@oireachtas.ie – 066 979 5666
Irish MEPs Contact Details
Seán Kelly – sean.kelly@ep.europa.eu
Billy Kelleher – billy.kelleher@ep.europa.eu
Deirdre Clune – deirdre.clune@ep.europa.eu
Grace O’Sullivan – grace.osullivan@ep.europa.eu
Mick Wallace – mick.wallace@ep.europa.eu
Barry Andrews – barry.andrews@ep.europa.eu
Ciaran Cuffe – ciaran.cuffe@ep.europa.eu
Clare Daly – clare.daly@ep.europa.eu
Frances Fitzgerald – frances.fitzgerald@ep.europa.eu
Luke Ming Flanagan – lukeming.flanagan@ep.europa.eu
Chris MacManus – chris.macmanus@ep.europa.eu
Colm Markey – colm.markey@ep.europa.eu
Maria Walsh – maria.walsh@ep.europa.eu
