A few days ago, I wrote in the Gato substack comments about the Covid Pass in my country of Lithuania.
In our country, it's called the Opportunity Pass.
Without the Opportunity Pass, you don't have the opportunity to participate in society. You cannot shop in any non-essential stores, go to any restaurant or bar, enter any public indoor spaces, enter banks for most issues, visit patients in medical facilities in most cases..... and many more restrictions.
I wrote an article about the fundamental transformation in society which has occurred in just the last month. The new regime has significantly altered both the concept of individual rights as well as the relationship between the individual and the state.
I posted the article in the substack comments. Many of you took the time to comment on it, link to it and forward it on, and to email me. I'd like to say thank you very much to all of you :-)
For those who haven't seen the article, take a look! (link at bottom of this comment)
And for those who already saw the article: I've updated it with pictures of how the Opportunity Pass works in practice, showing what you now have to do in order to enter shopping centers, hypermarkets, restaurants, and pretty much any indoor space. The pictures are eye-opening,
Also, although it's not a surprise, I've updated the article to reflect as well that my wife and I were both suspended without pay today from our jobs because we don't have the Opportunity Pass.
There's little protest here against the restrictions. Voices opposed to vaccine mandates are rarely featured in any mainstream media in our country. Principled opposition is twisted and caricatured by both the government and the media as far-right, anti-LGBTQ, conspiracy theorists, and neo-Nazis.
Opponents to vaccine mandates are muted with the dreaded label of "anti-vaxxers", which in our post-Soviet society is seen as a person who is irrationally fatalistic, mystical, illiterate, selfish, anti-modern, and anti-science.
This social stigmatization of opposition has worked. Protests are rare, opponents remain silent, and most people just meekly acquiesce to the new rules. People are now more afraid of the social stigma than of the virus itself.
The contrast with history is stark. Lithuania was occupied for decades by the Soviet Union. We fought for - and won - a revolution of independence 30 years ago.
But now, three decades later, our current population is apathetic about losing freedoms which the previous generation fought for.
We battled against the government-led propaganda and "Show me your documents!" authoritarianism of the USSR, only to acquiesce meekly in 2021 to a new regime of media-led propaganda and technocratic, fear-driven health authoritarianism of "Show me your Covid QR Code!".
I'd like to ask your help.
I'm not social media savvy. I have zero platform. I don't want personal publicity, I have no interest in building an online brand, and - despite suggestions of well-meaning people who've emailed me - I won't make videos of myself and my children to highlight the situation here. I'm not involved in politics. I'm just an ordinary person trapped in an absurd world.
In short, I'm not a political activist and I'm not a good marketing person. I mean, my favorite activity is foraging for mushrooms in the forest with my wife and children (it's mushroom season now; the chantarelles are heavenly!).
Last week, I posted the article on Reddit. In 11 hours on Reddit it drew eyeballs here in my country. But then Reddit banned the post and me (details on that in the article).
That's why I think that if I can draw more attention - this time, by asking for the help of strangers like you rather than relying on Reddit's huge in-built audience - it could have an impact.
So I'd appreciate if all of you could share the article and information on social media.
Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, whatever you think best... I'd appreciate any help to get attention to the Covid Pass restrictions here.
If you have any other ideas to draw attention to the Opportunity Pass regime in Lithuania - things you could do yourself, people I should contact by email, suggestions of other things I should do - please let me know, here or by email. I'd be enormously grateful.
And in a personal request to Gato: My wife and I have followed your writing for 18 months, from the bluebird days to here on substack. Your detailed analysis and experienced insight of medical trials has been extremely helpful to us. And on all Covid topics, I've found that you not only give clear explanations of complex issues, but using wit, satire, and a large handful of memes, you also show the absurdity and lack of logical thinking behind much of government policy and social norms. So that's why I'd like to share this information about my country with you. Based on both your topics of interest, as well as the deeper values which are reflected in your writing, I think you'll find the article interesting, particularly as it's a story which has received little attention in the English-language media. I'd deeply appreciate any help you could give to draw attention to the Covid Pass regime in Lithuania and Europe.
-----
My wife and I don't want to leave our country. We shouldn't have to become refugees from absurdity. It's our home, our language, our culture, our forests.
Instead, we'd like our society to find a way out of the madness, the authoritarianism, and the hate and othering that have somehow become acceptable. What we want is a way back to normalcy. I hope with our efforts, we can turn attitudes back to 2019. It was far from perfect then, but it was incomparably better than our present madness.
And then I can focus again on mushroom hunting instead of Covid Pass regimes. :-)
Your article has opened my eyes so much. I have an absolute pit in my stomach after reading your account.
What are you and your family going to do for work and money? You’re obviously so smart and educated, and your English is excellent. I hope you have a broad range of options to choose from right now.
You, your family, and your countrymen are all in my thoughts. This is a truly terrifying new world order.
Thank you for describing your experiences for us. I’ll be sharing this everywhere I can think of.
Thanks very much for your article on the "Opportunity Pass" in Lithuania. It sounds positively anti-scientific and fascistic. All this insanity over a piss-poor virus with an IFR of ~0.2%! These "public health" officials and politicians deserve prison time for this monstrous rescinding of our fundamental human rights!
I have one question regarding your posted comment: was there ever as draconian a pass program in existence in Lithuania when it was part of the USSR? I've never heard of such a thing; I'd appreciate you comparing the restrictions you're routinely experiencing with the "Opportunity Pass" to any similar restrictions you routinely experienced in Stalinist Lithuania. Thanks! I will definitely help to publicize your article.
It looks like the UK is abandoning plans for Covid papers, for now at least. I can only hope it starts a trend for everyone else to follow. Sad to hear an ex-soviet block country falling into authoritarianism - you're countries and others like you have a proud history that isn't taught in UK schools but should be remembered.
here's a way to get people to wake up and respond: Put small leaflets anywhere people shop or go. include 30 top links to the top information we all read.
Sorry if this sounds snarky, but I guess NATO membership isn't guaranteeing the expected freedoms. At least in Russia you can buy fake vaccine certificates.
Wow, so sad. I would have thought this would be seen as the very control your people fought to overthrow, but alas, many will go back to what was comfortable or what they've been brainwashed to believe.
We are far, far beyond this all being merely reprehensible. It is an ongoing human rights crime of biblical proportions. It has long since gone beyond partisan politics and entered the realm of pure malevolence. Those responsible should be facing not censure and ridicule but trials and capital punishment.
Good that they question the boosters, but this part is a little too clever for me: "...even in populations with fairly high vaccination rates the unvaccinated are still the major drivers of transmission and are themselves at the highest risk of serious disease. [16]"
Meanwhile, ref. 16 discusses risk of disease, but not transmission.
Krause and Gruber are still employed by the FDA, Krause through November. Both publish using their FDA office and titles. Krause appears co-author this Lancet piece and uses his FDA office and email for correspondence. FDA countering the White House??
I remember taking a PoliSci class where the prof. said that it was not so clear if the field could really be called a science. Who knew that 20 years later, most science would be political science (in the sense of politicized).
when the mengeles forcing humans to be lab rats say 'the shot is approved' they are using false authority. how does fda approve a shot that is short lived and has no safety conclusions? the eua is bogus for all the shots as well.
desantis wrote a counter order that imposes a $5000 fine on any business denying people in florida the right to decide if the fda is filled with criminals.
El gato… do you read any of Alex Berenson‘s stuff? He keeps pointing out a pretty grim picture of what’s going on in the UK which is highly vaccinated. Your take is quite a bit more positive for the vaccines. Can you explain the discrepancy? If I’m not mistaken he’s looking at some excess death issue.
he cites this, for example, which actually looks a bit better than what i'm seeing in the UK.
their high covid death figures do look worrying, but keep in mind that even with VE, you can get more deaths if you get more spread and we seem to be seeing the vaccinated show negative case protection.
this is a possibly confound in the data as well as if they are more likely to get and thus likely spread covid, and we know they can carry huge VL's from sample data, they might be acting as disease intensifiers especially for the unvaxxed by exposing them to high initial doses (which has long correlated to disease severity) because the vaxxed can carry such high doses without symptoms.
if this is so (and it's a hypothesis, not a proven fact) the vaxxed act not only as accelerators for disease spread, but for disease intensity.
this would mean that vaccination could account for an overall rise in severe cases and deaths, but would concentrated it in the unvaxxed.
perversely, this would read like vaccine efficacy on a societal level.
this is the issue with this kind of data. there are so many possible cross confounds.
but that idea that the vaccinated actually enhance the risk to the unvaxxed is not only possibly, but plausible with a vaccine this leaky and VL's so high in asympt vaxxed carriers.
biden and cabal are wrong to measure 'success' as % vaxxed! next they will make % boostered as the insane goal.
we should be analyzing excess death issues in tx and fl. the summer surge is not about % vaxxrd, nor burden on our hospitals. i saw death figures for tx and fl which are troubling bc the frail are not less vaxxed in tx and fl!
i think the breakthroughs are really very serious for people with compromised immune systems and co morbidities, they cannot depend on t and b memory.
that would argue for booster for aged frail and be okay bc old people have a very different longevity to abide with the unknown effects of the vaccine
i am over 70 and that is part why i am vaxxed i do not have that long and do not care to be 90 and in a nursing home.....
This is the kind of insight and information that *should* make those who are all, "punish the unvaxxed" shut the hell up. My guess? It will not do that. (I know, Bad Cat. I am way too pessimistic!) I will do better!
Please register a HUGE THANK YOU to Marion Grueber and Philip Krause (and to you el Gato, Alex Berenson, America's Frontline Doctors and a handful of others) for standing up FOR and WITH supporting data and facts.
Do you believe this to be the beginning of a true awakening among the masses with respect to COVID risk/benefit? Or just another blip of a warning that is ignored?
Same here. I think an anxiety existed before covid. Anxiety follows a familiar pattern of deception - First misidentifying the "threat". Doing this brings brings respectability, a sense of heroism, and the hope of relief if the threat can be mitigated. If this is the psychological dynamic, we should not expect this to end. As they get their way, they'll continue to revise the objective.
Yes. Even if the powers that be climbed off their loony-mobiles tomorrow (and I don't think they will), so much hate, division, and fear of others have taken hold of the population that we're in this for the long haul. This is a monster that has taken on a life all on its own.
This is good. The same arguments could be applied to mass vaccination of younger adults and children. Interesting whether this reflects a longer-term discomfort with FDA decisions.
the world has gone vaccine crazy. Unfortunately the less objective people are falling right into line because they are so afraid. the problem with all the vaccine efficacy studies is that they ignore the initial complications of vaccination. They also dont account for infection during the vaccination process.
the Pfizer 6 month randomized trial showed no benefit in survival. None. Zero.
Now Great Britain has decided to Vax the 11-15 year olds even though the advisory group advised against it. I hope we hold these people accountable.
A vindication for your initial call on their resignation, it would seem.
Still farcical. Their objection to the "boosters" is valid, but the are only making the objection because the boosters represent a novel violation of the orthodox, pseudo-scientific sacred quality of "vaccines." They are just behind the times. They are butt-hurt that no one else in the bureaucracy thinks the "vaccines" they so diligently rushed and suppressed VRBP review for are actually supposed to work.
A pair of fanatical, pro-vaxx clowns who can't grok that there's a new pope in town. They should be in front of the line at the Nuremberg Trial for these poisons, if we ever have one.
Hi Gato and Gato-pals,
A few days ago, I wrote in the Gato substack comments about the Covid Pass in my country of Lithuania.
In our country, it's called the Opportunity Pass.
Without the Opportunity Pass, you don't have the opportunity to participate in society. You cannot shop in any non-essential stores, go to any restaurant or bar, enter any public indoor spaces, enter banks for most issues, visit patients in medical facilities in most cases..... and many more restrictions.
I wrote an article about the fundamental transformation in society which has occurred in just the last month. The new regime has significantly altered both the concept of individual rights as well as the relationship between the individual and the state.
I posted the article in the substack comments. Many of you took the time to comment on it, link to it and forward it on, and to email me. I'd like to say thank you very much to all of you :-)
For those who haven't seen the article, take a look! (link at bottom of this comment)
And for those who already saw the article: I've updated it with pictures of how the Opportunity Pass works in practice, showing what you now have to do in order to enter shopping centers, hypermarkets, restaurants, and pretty much any indoor space. The pictures are eye-opening,
Also, although it's not a surprise, I've updated the article to reflect as well that my wife and I were both suspended without pay today from our jobs because we don't have the Opportunity Pass.
There's little protest here against the restrictions. Voices opposed to vaccine mandates are rarely featured in any mainstream media in our country. Principled opposition is twisted and caricatured by both the government and the media as far-right, anti-LGBTQ, conspiracy theorists, and neo-Nazis.
Opponents to vaccine mandates are muted with the dreaded label of "anti-vaxxers", which in our post-Soviet society is seen as a person who is irrationally fatalistic, mystical, illiterate, selfish, anti-modern, and anti-science.
This social stigmatization of opposition has worked. Protests are rare, opponents remain silent, and most people just meekly acquiesce to the new rules. People are now more afraid of the social stigma than of the virus itself.
The contrast with history is stark. Lithuania was occupied for decades by the Soviet Union. We fought for - and won - a revolution of independence 30 years ago.
But now, three decades later, our current population is apathetic about losing freedoms which the previous generation fought for.
We battled against the government-led propaganda and "Show me your documents!" authoritarianism of the USSR, only to acquiesce meekly in 2021 to a new regime of media-led propaganda and technocratic, fear-driven health authoritarianism of "Show me your Covid QR Code!".
I'd like to ask your help.
I'm not social media savvy. I have zero platform. I don't want personal publicity, I have no interest in building an online brand, and - despite suggestions of well-meaning people who've emailed me - I won't make videos of myself and my children to highlight the situation here. I'm not involved in politics. I'm just an ordinary person trapped in an absurd world.
In short, I'm not a political activist and I'm not a good marketing person. I mean, my favorite activity is foraging for mushrooms in the forest with my wife and children (it's mushroom season now; the chantarelles are heavenly!).
Last week, I posted the article on Reddit. In 11 hours on Reddit it drew eyeballs here in my country. But then Reddit banned the post and me (details on that in the article).
That's why I think that if I can draw more attention - this time, by asking for the help of strangers like you rather than relying on Reddit's huge in-built audience - it could have an impact.
So I'd appreciate if all of you could share the article and information on social media.
Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, whatever you think best... I'd appreciate any help to get attention to the Covid Pass restrictions here.
If you have any other ideas to draw attention to the Opportunity Pass regime in Lithuania - things you could do yourself, people I should contact by email, suggestions of other things I should do - please let me know, here or by email. I'd be enormously grateful.
And in a personal request to Gato: My wife and I have followed your writing for 18 months, from the bluebird days to here on substack. Your detailed analysis and experienced insight of medical trials has been extremely helpful to us. And on all Covid topics, I've found that you not only give clear explanations of complex issues, but using wit, satire, and a large handful of memes, you also show the absurdity and lack of logical thinking behind much of government policy and social norms. So that's why I'd like to share this information about my country with you. Based on both your topics of interest, as well as the deeper values which are reflected in your writing, I think you'll find the article interesting, particularly as it's a story which has received little attention in the English-language media. I'd deeply appreciate any help you could give to draw attention to the Covid Pass regime in Lithuania and Europe.
-----
My wife and I don't want to leave our country. We shouldn't have to become refugees from absurdity. It's our home, our language, our culture, our forests.
Instead, we'd like our society to find a way out of the madness, the authoritarianism, and the hate and othering that have somehow become acceptable. What we want is a way back to normalcy. I hope with our efforts, we can turn attitudes back to 2019. It was far from perfect then, but it was incomparably better than our present madness.
And then I can focus again on mushroom hunting instead of Covid Pass regimes. :-)
Thanks again to Gato and all the Gato-pals here.
Best wishes,
- Gluboco
The link to the article I wrote is:
https://txti.es/covid-pass/images
(My email is at the bottom of the article. Thanks! :) )
Your article has opened my eyes so much. I have an absolute pit in my stomach after reading your account.
What are you and your family going to do for work and money? You’re obviously so smart and educated, and your English is excellent. I hope you have a broad range of options to choose from right now.
You, your family, and your countrymen are all in my thoughts. This is a truly terrifying new world order.
Thank you for describing your experiences for us. I’ll be sharing this everywhere I can think of.
Thanks very much for your article on the "Opportunity Pass" in Lithuania. It sounds positively anti-scientific and fascistic. All this insanity over a piss-poor virus with an IFR of ~0.2%! These "public health" officials and politicians deserve prison time for this monstrous rescinding of our fundamental human rights!
I have one question regarding your posted comment: was there ever as draconian a pass program in existence in Lithuania when it was part of the USSR? I've never heard of such a thing; I'd appreciate you comparing the restrictions you're routinely experiencing with the "Opportunity Pass" to any similar restrictions you routinely experienced in Stalinist Lithuania. Thanks! I will definitely help to publicize your article.
Thank you for writing such an important account.
I am so sorry to hear about the suspension.
How could your countrymen and women forget so quickly? I am so sorry. Good Luck.
It looks like the UK is abandoning plans for Covid papers, for now at least. I can only hope it starts a trend for everyone else to follow. Sad to hear an ex-soviet block country falling into authoritarianism - you're countries and others like you have a proud history that isn't taught in UK schools but should be remembered.
here's a way to get people to wake up and respond: Put small leaflets anywhere people shop or go. include 30 top links to the top information we all read.
Sorry if this sounds snarky, but I guess NATO membership isn't guaranteeing the expected freedoms. At least in Russia you can buy fake vaccine certificates.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/06/25/russian-vaccine-skeptics-rush-to-buy-fake-covid-jab-certificates-a74348
Wow, so sad. I would have thought this would be seen as the very control your people fought to overthrow, but alas, many will go back to what was comfortable or what they've been brainwashed to believe.
We are far, far beyond this all being merely reprehensible. It is an ongoing human rights crime of biblical proportions. It has long since gone beyond partisan politics and entered the realm of pure malevolence. Those responsible should be facing not censure and ridicule but trials and capital punishment.
Good that they question the boosters, but this part is a little too clever for me: "...even in populations with fairly high vaccination rates the unvaccinated are still the major drivers of transmission and are themselves at the highest risk of serious disease. [16]"
Meanwhile, ref. 16 discusses risk of disease, but not transmission.
Krause and Gruber are still employed by the FDA, Krause through November. Both publish using their FDA office and titles. Krause appears co-author this Lancet piece and uses his FDA office and email for correspondence. FDA countering the White House??
now that they are leaving, they can speak their mind.
once they are out, look for them to be replaced by "company men."
peter marks is a fauci style fief builder. he's gonna pick politicos and loyalists.
I remember taking a PoliSci class where the prof. said that it was not so clear if the field could really be called a science. Who knew that 20 years later, most science would be political science (in the sense of politicized).
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/science/articles/pandemic-science
Not that this started with COVID.
political!!! the end game is your rights.
when the mengeles forcing humans to be lab rats say 'the shot is approved' they are using false authority. how does fda approve a shot that is short lived and has no safety conclusions? the eua is bogus for all the shots as well.
desantis wrote a counter order that imposes a $5000 fine on any business denying people in florida the right to decide if the fda is filled with criminals.
El gato… do you read any of Alex Berenson‘s stuff? He keeps pointing out a pretty grim picture of what’s going on in the UK which is highly vaccinated. Your take is quite a bit more positive for the vaccines. Can you explain the discrepancy? If I’m not mistaken he’s looking at some excess death issue.
can you lay out what specific claims you are referring to?
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/urgent-five-months-plunging-covid
he cites this, for example, which actually looks a bit better than what i'm seeing in the UK.
their high covid death figures do look worrying, but keep in mind that even with VE, you can get more deaths if you get more spread and we seem to be seeing the vaccinated show negative case protection.
this is a possibly confound in the data as well as if they are more likely to get and thus likely spread covid, and we know they can carry huge VL's from sample data, they might be acting as disease intensifiers especially for the unvaxxed by exposing them to high initial doses (which has long correlated to disease severity) because the vaxxed can carry such high doses without symptoms.
if this is so (and it's a hypothesis, not a proven fact) the vaxxed act not only as accelerators for disease spread, but for disease intensity.
this would mean that vaccination could account for an overall rise in severe cases and deaths, but would concentrated it in the unvaxxed.
perversely, this would read like vaccine efficacy on a societal level.
this is the issue with this kind of data. there are so many possible cross confounds.
but that idea that the vaccinated actually enhance the risk to the unvaxxed is not only possibly, but plausible with a vaccine this leaky and VL's so high in asympt vaxxed carriers.
It was his post urgent: Great Britain drops vaccine passport. Sorry I don’t know how to forward the actual post to you in this setting.
How many of the unvaxxed have natural immunity?
it's an interesting question.
so is "how many of the vaxxed do?"
would have been nice to still have the control arms of the RCT's to look at...
Control arms of RCTs? Whoa, there. That's actual science and therefore not allowed anymore.
If only
we had some
sort of agency able
to track that, she said, sarcastically.
the age and comorbidity spread has not changed???
one 'survival of fittest' operative is "do not kill the host"...
if vaccines do that for the bug that does not go lower harm......
or ade or why they pulled that chicken vaccine......
the answer has always been therapeutics!
the money and the lobby was in vaccines!
biden and cabal are wrong to measure 'success' as % vaxxed! next they will make % boostered as the insane goal.
we should be analyzing excess death issues in tx and fl. the summer surge is not about % vaxxrd, nor burden on our hospitals. i saw death figures for tx and fl which are troubling bc the frail are not less vaxxed in tx and fl!
i think the breakthroughs are really very serious for people with compromised immune systems and co morbidities, they cannot depend on t and b memory.
that would argue for booster for aged frail and be okay bc old people have a very different longevity to abide with the unknown effects of the vaccine
i am over 70 and that is part why i am vaxxed i do not have that long and do not care to be 90 and in a nursing home.....
This is the kind of insight and information that *should* make those who are all, "punish the unvaxxed" shut the hell up. My guess? It will not do that. (I know, Bad Cat. I am way too pessimistic!) I will do better!
Pessimistic? Or realistic? Only time will tell.
Please register a HUGE THANK YOU to Marion Grueber and Philip Krause (and to you el Gato, Alex Berenson, America's Frontline Doctors and a handful of others) for standing up FOR and WITH supporting data and facts.
Do you believe this to be the beginning of a true awakening among the masses with respect to COVID risk/benefit? Or just another blip of a warning that is ignored?
I am not the Bad Cat, but my loot is on "ignored blip," but my heart rides with "epic awakening" for the masses!
The optimist in me wants to disagree. But I have been disappointed many times over the last 18 months. My heart is in the same place.
Same here. I think an anxiety existed before covid. Anxiety follows a familiar pattern of deception - First misidentifying the "threat". Doing this brings brings respectability, a sense of heroism, and the hope of relief if the threat can be mitigated. If this is the psychological dynamic, we should not expect this to end. As they get their way, they'll continue to revise the objective.
Yes. Even if the powers that be climbed off their loony-mobiles tomorrow (and I don't think they will), so much hate, division, and fear of others have taken hold of the population that we're in this for the long haul. This is a monster that has taken on a life all on its own.
In the words of GK Chesterton, "A tyrant is not present until he is omnipresent."
Mine too. Very hopeful for Epic Awakening. Have you seen the reports of the football games and what the students are chanting?
This is good. The same arguments could be applied to mass vaccination of younger adults and children. Interesting whether this reflects a longer-term discomfort with FDA decisions.
The Lancet link no longer works
You can still find it on Wayback, for the time being: https://web.archive.org/web/20210913154101/https://www.thelancet.com/pb-assets/Lancet/pdfs/S0140673621020468.pdf
They were cowards to resign.
They should have stayed and told the truth, make Marks fire them.
They let much happen, and then ran
the world has gone vaccine crazy. Unfortunately the less objective people are falling right into line because they are so afraid. the problem with all the vaccine efficacy studies is that they ignore the initial complications of vaccination. They also dont account for infection during the vaccination process.
the Pfizer 6 month randomized trial showed no benefit in survival. None. Zero.
Now Great Britain has decided to Vax the 11-15 year olds even though the advisory group advised against it. I hope we hold these people accountable.
A vindication for your initial call on their resignation, it would seem.
Still farcical. Their objection to the "boosters" is valid, but the are only making the objection because the boosters represent a novel violation of the orthodox, pseudo-scientific sacred quality of "vaccines." They are just behind the times. They are butt-hurt that no one else in the bureaucracy thinks the "vaccines" they so diligently rushed and suppressed VRBP review for are actually supposed to work.
A pair of fanatical, pro-vaxx clowns who can't grok that there's a new pope in town. They should be in front of the line at the Nuremberg Trial for these poisons, if we ever have one.
Yeah, these aren't heroes, they're just annoyed that their little corner of authority got horned in on.
They may hate New Coke, but they'd still love to hold me down and give me a jab of Classic.
I love their snide "Given the data gaps..." and our need to "plan to gather reliable data". Indeed.