Archive for the ‘Activism’ Category

Turning Off Internet on Your Phone Improves Attention, Mental Health, and Well-Being in Just 14 Days

https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/turning-off-internet-on-your-phone

Turning Off Internet on Your Phone Improves Attention, Mental Health, and Well-Being in Just 14 Days

A randomized trial finds blocking mobile internet improved mental health more than antidepressants.
Jan 20, 2026

by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

As the world has become increasingly reliant on mobile computing technology for work and entertainment, few people stopped to consider the downstream consequences.

A recent randomized controlled trial found that simply removing mobile internet access—while still allowing calls and texts—can produce measurable improvements in psychological functioning in as little as two weeks. Researchers effectively turned smartphones into “dumb phones,” and the results were striking: improved sustained attention, improved mental health, and higher subjective well-being.

This was a month-long preregistered randomized controlled trial with a cross-over (waitlist) design, enrolling 467 iPhone users in the U.S. and Canada. Participants installed the Freedom app, which blocked all mobile internet access (Wi-Fi and cellular data) for two weeks, while still allowing calling, texting, and internet use on other devices like laptops or desktops. Outcomes were measured at baseline (T1), two weeks (T2), and four weeks (T3), allowing researchers to compare changes during restriction periods versus normal-use periods.

After two weeks without mobile internet, participants experienced significant improvements in subjective well-being (including life satisfaction and positive/negative affect), mental health (a combined index including depression, anxiety, anger, personality functioning, and social anxiety), and objectively measured sustained attention using the validated gradCPT task (d-prime accuracy). Notably, about 91% of participants improved in at least one of these core outcomes, suggesting that the effect was widespread rather than limited to a small subset.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Other studies have found:

  • Productivity gains — A 2023 field experiment at Carnegie Mellon University reported increases in task completion and focus duration with website blockers.[7]
  • Flow state and immersion — Research by Mark, Czerwinski, and Iqbal at Microsoft and the University of California, Irvine reported greater immersion and flow experiences among users of blocking tools.[6]
  • Design principles — A 2024 article in the International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction identified “undesign” features—limiting short‑term user agency to support long‑term focus goals—as central to the design of digital detox apps including Freedom.[8]
  • Cultural framing — A 2024 study introduced the concept of “disconnective media,” analyzing how Freedom commodifies temporary disconnection in contemporary work culture.[9]

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Category:

Activism, EMF, Psychological Aspects

Lyme Community Loses Three Leaders and Friends

Lyme Community Loses Three Friends

The Lyme community has recently lost three trail blazers: Dr. Alan B. MacDonald (pathologist), Dr. Alex Shikhman (rheumatologist & advocate), and Dr. Charles Crist (physician & advocate).

RIP – you will all be greatly missed.

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme

How Ticks Became Bioweapons

https://spectator.com/article/how-ticks-became-bioweapons/

How ticks became bioweapons

By Kris Newby

1/19/26

On December 18 last year, Donald Trump signed into law an order to “review and report on biological weapons experiments on and in relation to ticks [and] tick-borne diseases.” The investigation is long overdue but even so, the facts it uncovers will come as a shock to many. A growing body of evidence shows that during the Cold War ticks were tinkered with and used as delivery mechanisms for biological warfare agents. And these weaponized ticks may have been released both intentionally and unintentionally on an unsuspecting public by the US military.

Ticks and the diseases they transmit (such as Lyme) pose a growing threat to Americans, the military and to agriculture. Record numbers of tick bites have been reported in New York (in 2024), Maine (in 2024), and Wisconsin (in 2023). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates approximately 500,000 new cases of Lyme disease annually. About one-third of patients do not respond to recommended treatment protocols.

Bioweapons specialists infected ticks with pathogens to cause disabilityand death to potential enemies

If these microbes have been genetically altered, we need to know. If the military harmed civilians through irresponsible experiments, the government has an obligation to acknowledge and remedy those harms. And if the original outbreak near Lyme, Connecticut, in the 1970s resulted from a hostile foreign act, future biosecurity protections must be strengthened. Knowing the root cause of an epidemic is vital in developing treatment strategies, containing the outbreaks and preventing future ones. And then there’s the issue of what else ticks may be carrying. (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Sadly, Newby propitiates the ‘climate change’ myth regarding tick and disease proliferation.  This is a key point as there are only so many research dollars which are highly sought after.  By perpetuating a myth, we purposely limit those funds even further by funding research that has already been proven false.

The article does, however, go through the chronology of tick research as well as the fact researchers dropped these infected ticks on unsuspecting populations (Operation Mongoose, etc.)

Important excerpt:

….documents obtained by the CIA during the Cold War showed that the Soviets were conducting bioweapons-related experiments on ticks, including exploring ways to get ticks to reproduce more rapidly, selectively crossbreeding tick species so they could carry disease agents that caused tick-borne encephalitis and dropping infected ticks from aircraft and balloons. Intelligence reports on “entomological warfare” stoked fear and paranoia in the Pentagon, and the Cold War bug-borne weapons race began.

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Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks

U.S. Officially Withdraws From WHO

https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/america-officially-withdraws-from

America Officially Withdraws from the World Health Organization

With the Pandemic Treaty in place, the Gates Foundation and GAVI now fill the power vacuum as top funders — putting WHO member states in danger.
Jan 22, 2026

by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order initiating the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO, citing its COVID-19 failures, lack of reforms, and disproportionate U.S. funding.

Today, that one-year notice period has officially expired — and the United States has formally withdrawn from the WHO, leaving the Gates Foundation and GAVI to fill the power vacuum as top funders:

My heart goes out to all remaining WHO member states… now answering directly to the vaccine cartel.

It’s important to remember that in May 2025, the WHO officially approved the WHO Pandemic Agreement — setting the stage for fast-tracked experimental vaccines, top-down emergency mandates, digital vaccine passports, expanded cross-border surveillance, and coordinated censorship of dissenting scientists and physicians under the banner of “misinformation.”

Last month, the WHO exposed just how degraded it has become by releasing an embarrassingly weak autism-vaccine report. The McCullough Foundation — with ~0.007% of the WHO’s budget — produced a far more comprehensive and scientifically grounded analysis.

We can chalk up this official withdrawal as a major win for the public health of America.

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Category:

Activism, vaccines

AAP Hit With RICO Lawsuit for Vaccine Safety Fraud

https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-american-academy-of-pediatrics?

BREAKING: American Academy of Pediatrics Hit With Federal RICO Lawsuit for Vaccine Safety Fraud

AAP accused of operating a decades-long racketeering scheme that deceived America about vaccine safety for maximum profit.
Jan 21, 2026

by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

For decades, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has been treated like an untouchable authority on child health — the gold standard that parents, doctors, schools, and lawmakers were told to trust without question. But today, that image collapses. Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and multiple plaintiffs just filed a federal lawsuit alleging the AAP spent decades running a racketeering operation that sold parents false safety assurances about the childhood vaccine schedule.

This isn’t another “vaccine debate” lawsuit. It’s a RICO fraud case—the same legal weapon used against organized crime and the tobacco industry. The allegation is blunt and devastating: the AAP allegedly manufactured false certainty around vaccine schedule safety, shut down legitimate scientific scrutiny, and promoted sweeping assurances that were never validated through rigorous real-world safety testing—while operating within a system shaped by vaccine-manufacturer funding and financial incentives tied to high pediatric vaccination rates.

One of the most explosive points in the complaint is what it forces into the open. The cumulative childhood schedule has never been safety-tested the way any reasonable parent would assume it has. The lawsuit points to Institute of Medicine findings from 2002 and 2013 calling for more research and acknowledging the lack of proper vaccinated vs. unvaccinated comparisons. Yet the AAP continued portraying the schedule as thoroughly tested and unquestionably safe, shaping pediatric care nationwide through repetition, authority, and pressure—not proof.

The complaint also describes what parents have learned the hard way. This system doesn’t merely recommend vaccines. It demands compliance. Physicians who questioned the schedule or deviated from AAP protocols were professionally targeted, disciplined, and financially crushed. The message was clear: follow the script, or lose your career.

The lawsuit further argues that the AAP’s public reassurances were built on “theoretical” talking points that became institutional doctrine, including the infamous claim that infants could tolerate an extreme number of vaccines at once. According to the plaintiffs, this wasn’t evidence—it was marketing disguised as medical authority, repeated in clinics to silence questions and keep the assembly line moving.

Then there’s the part that makes it all make sense: money. The complaint highlights conflicts of interest and financial entanglements with vaccine manufacturers and aligned institutions. The AAP presents itself as independent and science-first, while operating in a world of corporate sponsorships, incentives, and industry relationships that would be unacceptable in any genuinely transparent public health organization.

This is why the lawsuit matters. It’s not about a single product. It challenges the entire protection racket that has propped up the pediatric vaccine industry for decades. AAP’s model has relied on one rule: the schedule is safe because we say it’s safe—and anyone who demands real proof gets smeared, censored, or destroyed.

The lawsuit seeks financial damages for the families and physicians harmed, demands disclosure of the lack of comprehensive safety testing behind the cumulative schedule, and aims to stop the AAP from making blanket, unqualified claims that the schedule is “safe and effective” as if that question has already been settled.

If this case advances, discovery alone could expose what the public has been denied for decades—and that would be a historic victory for medical transparency, informed consent, and accountability in pediatrics. For years, parents were told to “trust the experts,” while legitimate safety questions were mocked, censored, or punished. Now those questions are headed to the one place the system can’t silence them with talking points: federal court.  (See link for article)

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Category:

Activism, vaccines