Live Recording of The Big Issue & The Protagonists on The World Today.

Fire Ant Eradication: Who's Counting the Cost?

We've seen this before - Overzealous Government officials trampling the rights of citizens to achieve what might appear on the surface to be a laudable public policy objective but which on closer examination - is ultimately impossible and even extremely harmful. Think Covid19, think Net Zero, think Renewable Energy and now you can add to the list The National Fire Ant Eradication Program. Individuals and scientific experts questioning the objective and high cost of this program have been bullied, arrested or declared conspiracy theorists. Some have been broken and communities have been divided. And again, mainstream media willingly engaged in this demonisation without asking the obvious questions. Why and who benefits?

Mike Ryan Host

GUESTS:

Sarah McGuire is a Samford Valley resident, accountant, and piano teacher who became a public spokesperson on fire ant policy after aerial pesticide spraying was carried out over her community, including areas without confirmed fire ant activity.

Dr Conny Turni is a senior scientist working for 22 years in the field of microbiology, researching respiratory disease causing bacteria in the intensive livestock industries.

Hour 2: Industry Funding and Conflicts of Interest : American Academy of Paediatrics (Aap)

The American Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last week cancelled grants the AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PAEDIATRICS (AAP) totalling $18-$20 Million.

Robert Malone from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a U.S. federal body said the department had good reasons to cut the grant funding and listed some of the previous recommendations the organization has made. AAP recommended and continues to recommend gender-affirming care for children, which includes medical interventions that have been halted in other countries like the UK after the Cass Report concluded there was "no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress." The AAP also publicly opposed the HHS's recent actions and released its own independent guidance on childhood immunizations, which differs from the federal recommendations in several ways including recommendation for COVID-19 Vaccination: The AAP recommends that all children aged 6–23 months receive a complete COVID-19 vaccine series.

The Childrens Health Defence an American nonprofit group mainly known for anti-vaccine advocacy called it a necessary reboot: the CDC removed the AMA, and several other major medical associations from ACIP workgroups—criticizing them as "special interest" entities prone to bias.

The organizations responded in a joint statement, claiming the decision is "irresponsible, dangerous to our nation's health, and will further undermine public and clinician trust in vaccines." They called on the Trump administration to reconsider the decision.
The AAP, the major professional organization representing 67,000 paediatricians in the U.S. It has however overseen the rising rates of chronic illness and medication of American children over recent decades. It is also a lobbying organization that spends up big.

The organization's funding for that work comes, in part, from annual contributions from corporate sponsors, including vaccine manufacturers Moderna, Merck, Sanofi, Abbott Laboratories, GSK and CSL Seqirus.

Mike Ryan HOST

GUESTS:

Dr Rosamond Jones is a retired Consultant Paediatrician with a special interest in neonatal intensive care and paediatric HIV. Dr Jones has served on the Advisory Committee of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit and on the Education & Training committee of the RCPCH.

Alix Mayer is a passionate advocate for health freedom and parental rights. She is Chairman and President of the Free Now Foundation, one of California's leading law non-profits defending medical freedom.

Dr Gerry Waters was temporarily Struck off by the Irish Medical Council for refusing to administer covid-19 vaccines. He remains suspended and is in a long running Legal dispute with the Council for a return of his license.

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About: The Protagonists is a panel of three or four, which presents hot-topic discussions on politics, business, newsmakers, global trends, present-day conflicts, and dangers and challenges facing our world.

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