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Jan. 18, 2022 - Epoch Times
20:28
Covid Patients Being Transferred to “Quarantine Camps” in Australia; 3 Teens Escape | Facts Matter
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Good evening.
Do you remember how Australia was once a prison colony for the United Kingdom?
Well, just like a boomerang, people are saying that Australia has once again become a prison colony of a different sort.
Because not only have they, over the past year, enforced some of the most draconian lockdowns in the entire world, but also, they are now sending COVID patients to a place that they're calling a quarantine camp.
On the flip side, however, the state of Florida, which has by and large rejected both mask as well as vaccine mandates, it is now tied for having the lowest daily COVID cases per capita in all of the United States.
And then lastly, if you, for some odd reason, still have a Twitter account, maybe you just like all the censorship, well, there's more of it on the way.
That's because after Jack Dorsey stepped down and a new CEO took his place, new policies were instituted right away, which will likely restrict even further what Americans like you and me are and are not allowed to post.
And all the while, Twitter's stock price has been cratering to the ground ever since that announcement.
Let's go through it all together.
This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
And now let's begin today's discussion over in Australia.
And as I mentioned in the intro, you might remember how, in the 18th century, Australia was started as an actual prison colony for the Uniting Kingdom.
And history certainly does have a way of repeating itself.
Because not only have the lockdowns in Australia been some of the most heavy-handed on the entire planet, maybe the most heavy-handed outside of China, but also, at this very moment, they are transferring their COVID patients to actual quarantine camps.
That's right.
According to top Australian officials, after they identified nine cases of COVID in a community called Benjari, they have decided to send all of their COVID-positive patients who live in the Northern Territory to a quarantine camp in We're good to
they were allowed to leave their homes for five reasons.
To either go to work or school, to buy food or supplies, to exercise, to engage in caregiving, or if they wanted to go get vaccinated.
Those were the only reasons people were allowed to leave their homes.
However, after they discovered nine cases of COVID, well, here is what the chief minister had to say.
Residents of Benjari and Rockhole no longer have the five reasons to leave their homes.
Meaning, essentially, that those people can just stay at home.
Unless, of course, they test positive for COVID, in which case they will be transferred to a quarantine camp over in Howard Springs.
Here's specifically what Mr.
Gunnar said in regards to those camps.
It is highly likely that more residents will be transferred to Howard Springs today, either as positive cases or close contacts.
We have already identified 38 close contacts from Benjari, but that number will go up.
Those 38 are being transferred now.
Meaning that not only are COVID patients about to be transferred to this camp, but also anyone who's had close contact with them will be transferred as well.
Now, according to the official website of the Northern Territory Government, the people who are taken to either Howard Springs Or to another quarantine camp in that region, one called Alice Springs Quarantine Facility, if these individuals refuse to undergo testing, then they will have to remain in quarantine for at least 10 days, and the kicker is that they will have to do it at their own expense.
Now, about a week ago, the police commissioner of the Northern Territories, he confirmed to local media reporters that a 77-year-old man died while staying at the Howard Springs Quarantine Facility, although the police commissioner clarified that this man died from something other than COVID. Here's a statement from that police commissioner.
He was an international repatriate.
Obviously, he was a 77-year-old individual.
We're just looking at whether they had any existing other issues, but certainly, the initial advice is not indicating that it was a death relating to COVID. Alright, while we were editing that segment of the episode, we had a bit of an update.
Because besides this man who died within this camp, although according to the police commissioner, he definitely did not die of COVID, earlier today, three teenagers were arrested because they climbed over the fence and they fled the camp because they were being held against their will.
Now, these three teenagers in question, apparently they actually never tested positive for COVID themselves.
Instead, they had close contact with someone who later tested positive and they were stuck into the camp For that reason.
And then after they climbed over the fence, which actually happened at 4.40 a.m.
local time in Australia on Wednesday, they ran away.
However, according to the police commissioner, local police officers chased them down on foot, called them, apprehended them, and threw them back into the camp.
They were later tested for COVID. However, they tested negative, leading the chief minister of the Northern Territory, Mr.
Michael Gunner, who is again sort of like the governor of the Northern Territory, to say this, quote, Comfort indeed.
And according to the police commissioner, these three teenagers, after they were apprehended, they were not only thrown back into the camp, but the police commissioner also said two things.
One is that they're going to be increasing the CCTV coverage of the facility so that more escapes don't happen in the future, meaning that they'll install more surveillance cameras, which is great.
And then second of all, these three teenagers, they face potential fines each of $3,586 because they escaped and tried to get back their freedom.
And by the way, this is not the only incident of such a thing occurring.
In fact, several days ago, there was another case of a 27-year-old man who likewise ran, jumped over the fence, and ran away into a car that was waiting for him, and then they drove off.
However, in Australia, it's very hard to escape, and so that man was also apprehended several days later and thrown right back into the camp.
So generally, that has been what is going on in Australia.
However, if you can believe it, in neighboring New Zealand, which is, of course, the country that's right next to Australia, they have a lockdown policy, which is even stricter.
Because in New Zealand, after they had a single case of COVID, just one case in the entire country, they enforced a lockdown of the entire nation for several months.
Again, let me just repeat that.
After they had a single case of COVID throughout the entire country, they locked everything down for several months.
And only now, after several months, are they beginning to reopen.
Although I'll talk more about that in the studio.
Regardless, one of the only places in the world to have a similar draconian lockdown scheme, again outside of China, seems to be neighboring New Zealand.
New Zealand is of course right next to Australia.
And due to the magnanimity of their prime minister, just a few days ago, New Zealand lifted some of their restrictions and is now allowing people to not only visit their friends, but also to use their friends' bathrooms.
Here's a statement from the New Zealand prime minister.
And importantly, because I know this is a question many Aucklanders have, you can now see family and friends again in their homes and use the bathroom inside.
Luxury.
Now you might look at what's happening in Australia and New Zealand and you might think to yourself, well, you know what?
These reactions are warranted in order to stop the spread of the virus.
However, let's take a look at a state right here in America, which has taken the exact opposite approach of either Australia or New Zealand.
I'm, of course, talking about the state of Florida, which, as you might know, is governed by Mr.
Ron DeSantis and has, by and large, rejected both mask mandates as well as any type of vaccine passport schemes.
And so, how is Florida exactly doing right now?
Well, according to the latest government data which has been released, Florida is currently tied for having the lowest daily COVID cases per capita in all of the United States.
Let me just repeat that.
After rejecting both masks as well as vaccine mandates, and despite being one of the most populous states in the entire nation, Florida is now tied for having the lowest daily COVID cases per capita in all of America.
In fact, here's a statement from Governor Ron DeSantis' press secretary.
It just shows once again the success of Governor DeSantis' science-based and data-based policies.
He's always made decisions based on the data, and that continued even during the Delta surge this summer.
What he realized would help was not mask mandates in school or lockdowns, but provide treatment that actually works.
Now, if you'd like to see what that actually looks like broken down on a graph, here it is right here.
I'll put it up on screen.
That is the latest data from the CDC. It goes up until the end of November.
And as you can see, Florida down there has some of the lowest rates per capita in the entire country.
In fact, going up until the end of November, Florida averaged about 1,393 cases per day.
Which averages out to be about 6 cases per 100,000 residents.
Which, if you compare it to states like, let's say, Michigan, Michigan right now is averaging about 85 cases per 100,000.
Or states like New York, which have about 34 cases per 100,000.
So Florida, which has only 6 cases per 100,000, is obviously much lower than some of those other states.
Now, while he was in Brandon, Florida, which is a city in Florida, it's a city called Brandon, Florida, I don't know if they're even going to cover that.
But I see it happening.
And it was something that it was obviously predictable.
And so if you'd actually like to get a breakdown of what Florida did differently than the other states, here at the Epoch Times, we actually put together a phenomenal documentary.
It's called DeSantis.
You can find it over on Epoch TV. And it shows basically what route Governor DeSantis took compared to what other states took and sort of how the media treated him based on the decisions that he made.
And then the aftermath of That we are seeing now.
If you'd like to check that out, I'll throw a link to it in the description box below.
Otherwise, let's go back into the studio.
If you'd like to read more about what's happening either in the former British prison colony called Australia or on the flip side, what's happening over in Florida, I'll throw several links to those articles into the description box below this video for you to check out.
And all ask in return is that you take a quick, quick moment to smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
And now let's move on over and discuss how Twitter's new CEO explicitly stated that his platform will actually need to move beyond the freedom Of speech.
Oh, sorry.
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And now Roman in the studio, back to you.
And now let's move on over and talk about Twitter.
Now, if for some reason you still have a Twitter account, perhaps you like the censorship, well, there appears to be more of it on the way.
That's because just two days ago, there was a bit of shakeup in terms of management.
Specifically, Mr.
Jack Dorsey, who was one of Twitter's initial founders, he suddenly released this letter right here, indicating that he is stepping down as the CEO effective immediately.
And then furthermore, in this letter, he named his successor.
Here's part of what Mr.
Mr. Jack Dorsey wrote, quote, I've decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders.
My trust in Parag as Twitter CEO is deep.
His work over the past 10 years has been transformational.
I'm deeply grateful for his skill, heart, and soul.
It's his time to lead.
So the man that is mentioned in this statement Parag Agarwal.
He is formerly Twitter's chief technology officer, and now he is Twitter's new CEO. And so, you might now be wondering, which direction will Twitter take under this new management?
Because again, if you've been following the story of big tech censorship for a little while now, then you likely know that Twitter is at the forefront of the censorship game.
I mean, as a super emblematic example of that, you might remember how during the 2020 election cycle, Twitter completely banned the sharing of the Hunter Biden laptop story, Which was a bombshell report.
It was incredibly relevant to the election.
The sources were actually tight.
And yet, not only was the story buried, but also the New York Post was quite literally frozen out of the platform for daring to report on it.
And then, as a cherry on top, shortly after the election, shortly after the 2020 election, there was a survey which was conducted in the seven battleground states, and they asked people who voted for Joe Biden a very simple question.
And that question was whether if they knew about the Hunter Biden scandal before the election, would they still have voted for Joe Biden?
And almost 10% of the respondents, exactly 9.4 to be specific, they said that they would not.
Meaning that if they knew about the Hunter Biden story before the election, they would actually not have voted for Joe Biden.
That is amazing.
And it's actually one of the many, many examples of anti-conservative bias that has been reported coming out of Twitter.
And so the big question now is that with a change of leadership, with the change of CEOs, will Twitter change their course and censor people less?
Well, frankly, that is not looking like it'll be the case.
Because, for instance, when Mr.
Agarwal was being interviewed last year by the MIT Technology Review, which is a magazine, he said that free speech was no longer a focus for the company.
Here's again what Mr.
Agarwal said in an interview just a year ago.
Our role is not to be bound by the First Amendment, but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation, and our moves are reflective of things that we believe lead to a healthier public conversation.
The kinds of things that we do about this focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed.
How the times have changed indeed.
And Mr.
Agarwal, he has already begun to institute his new policies and reshape the platform.
Specifically, just one day after Jack Dorsey stepped down, Twitter announced a new policy which bans the sharing of any images or any videos of people without their explicit consent.
Meaning that if you are an undercover journalist like Project Veritas and you post an undercover video onto Twitter, well, that is now explicitly against their policies.
Meaning that, for instance, if you are an undercover journalist, And you record, for instance, a politician who reveals just a little bit of truth while he doesn't know that he's being recorded.
Well, that little bit of truth is now no longer going to be allowed on Twitter.
Specifically, if you go into their policy breakdown, into Twitter's policy breakdown, you will see that Twitter already had a range of things that were not allowed on their platform.
These were things like posting people's home addresses, their ID documents, their contact information, their financial information, and so on.
Basically, you were not allowed to dox people.
However, this is what they just added to that list of banned content.
Which naturally raises a lot of questions.
Because, for instance, if you are at a parade, at a protest, or at some other type of public gathering, and you take a video of what is happening, then technically, at least according to this new rule, you would have to go around and get the explicit permission of everyone at that protest before you can publish your video on Twitter.
And if this policy is actually followed, well, it'll give a new meaning to the phrase, the revolution will not be televised.
Regardless, as justification for why they implemented this new policy, here's what Twitter wrote as a part of a statement.
The misuse of private media can affect everyone, but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities.
Which, frankly, seems to be exactly in line with another tweet that was published by Twitter's new CEO back in 2010, in which he said this.
Very cool, Mr.
Parag.
Regardless, though, Twitter's stock price, if you've been following it, it has been just cratering for the past month and a half, and so we will just have to see whether these new decisions by the new management will change that trajectory or not.
I guess only time will tell.
If you'd like to read more about what's happening over at Twitter, I will throw the links to several articles about it into the description box below this video for you to check out.
And I would recommend that you click on them and check them out soon before YouTube changes their policy and determines that links like those are actually hate speech.
I actually don't think we are too far away from that.
In fact, I think the only thing that's stopping that from happening is when viewers like you smash that like button for the use of algorithm.
And now, since you've completed this episode of Facts Matter, I would highly recommend that you go on over to Epic TV and check out an awesome episode of The Nation Speaks in which Cindy digs into the truth behind the California looting spree.
Here's a trailer for that episode.
In this episode of The Nation Speaks, swarms of hammer-wielding thieves looting California luxury stores in brazen acts of organized robbery.
But why?
What's behind it?
We try to find out with author and professor Wilfred Reilly.
When you make crime less punished, less often punished, whatever the idealistic motivation might have been, you're very often going to see more crime.
Then in this week's America Q&A, we ask, what differences do you think there should be between citizens and residents of the United States?
We all live here.
We all pay taxes.
We go to work.
Obviously, voting rights.
Both should have quite an equal rights.
It should be legal if you're going to be considered a citizen.
No, it shouldn't be a difference.
Everybody who's here is here for a reason.
Next, it's Thanksgiving travel time and millions of flyers will pass through TSA checkpoints, a ritual that didn't exist two decades ago.
As the TSA turns 20, we ask top aviation security expert Jeff Price what's gone well and what needs to be done better.
It's much better than it used to be.
The three top threats we should be paying attention to are cyber, drones, and the insider threat.
Finally, in our second America Q&A, what do you think of YouTube's decision to hide dislike counts on its videos?
Tie, like, base what I'm going to watch.
If you don't like it, you just have to shut up.
Important videos, you know, it could matter a lot.
To spread more positivity.
The content creators themselves should be able to turn it off.
You're taking away, like, expression.
Be sure to watch the entire episode now available exclusively at epochtv.com, a new completely censorship-free premium subscription platform.
Brought to you by the Epoch Times.
See you there.
If you want to check out that awesome episode as well as all the other phenomenal content over on Epic TV, I'll throw a link to it.
It'll be right there at the very top of the description box.
I hope you click on it.
I hope you check it out.
I hope you subscribe.
And I hope that you join us on this journey of exploring this beautiful, beautiful world through honors journalism that is based in truth and tradition on a platform that is based upon not having censorship.
Again, that link will be right there at the top of the description box.
And then lastly, if you haven't already, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
Subscribe to this YouTube channel if you haven't already in order to get this type of honest news content delivered directly into your YouTube feed while YouTube still allows it.
Also, consider hitting that notification bell so you can actually be notified of any new videos as we release them.
And then lastly, if you have an Instagram account, consider following me at EpicTimesRoman.
I publish behind-the-scenes research as well as spicy memes.
And then until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times.
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