CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

[Heliobas Disciple]

Beijing tightens COVID restrictions as long holiday begins

Beijing residents will need clear COVID tests to enter public spaces, officials said Saturday, announcing fresh virus controls at the start of a Labour Day holiday muted by creeping infections in the capital.

medicalxpress.com

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Beijing tightens COVID restrictions as long holiday begins
April 30, 2022

Beijing residents will need clear COVID tests to enter public spaces, officials said Saturday, announcing fresh virus controls at the start of a Labour Day holiday muted by creeping infections in the capital.

The five-day break is typically one of China's busiest travel periods, but the country's worst COVID resurgence since early in the pandemic is expected to keep people home.

Faced with the highly transmissible Omicron variant, Chinese officials have doubled down on their zero-COVID policy, quashing virus clusters through mass testing and lockdowns.

Despite mounting economic costs and public frustration, the capital city announced it would further restrict access to public spaces after the holiday period.

Starting May 5, a negative COVID test taken within the past week will be needed to enter "all kinds of public areas and to take public transport", according to a notice on the city's official WeChat page.

For activities such as sporting events and group travel, participants will also need to show a negative COVID test taken within 48 hours, along with proof of "full vaccination," according to the new rules.

China reported more than 10,700 domestic COVID cases on Saturday, with most in economic engine Shanghai.

The eastern metropolis has been sealed off for around a month after becoming the epicentre of the latest outbreak.

Cases are trending downwards, yet frustration and anger is boiling in the city of 25 million where many have been ordered to stay at home for several weeks.

Shanghai officials said on Saturday that its new cases were all found among quarantined or restricted groups—signalling that community infections could be slowing.

They added that hundreds of companies on a "whitelist" have resumed work, with around 1,000 firms allowed to restart operations too, state media said.

In Beijing, cases nudged up to 54, according to the National Health Commission.

As the long holiday started, consumers in the capital were asked to show proof of negative COVID tests—from within 48 hours—to enter public areas such as malls, shops and scenic spots.

The city will make COVID testing free for residents starting Tuesday, authorities said.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Why the Pandemic-Industrial Complex Won't Go Away ⋆ Brownstone Institute

What’s stopping us in general, and public health authorities in particular, from finally putting an end to exhausting pandemic hysteria?

brownstone.org

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Why the Pandemic-Industrial Complex Won’t Go Away
By Debbie Lerman
May 1, 2022

According to the most reliable experts – those who have been correct in their interpretation of data throughout the Covid era, most prominently John Ioannidis of Stanford — the Covid pandemic is over.

Thus, Covid joins a long list of pathogens that coexist with humans and that we deal with in a focused and local manner, as necessary, if and when outbreaks occur. Like the flu. We do not test ourselves for these pathogens if we have no symptoms, we do not isolate people even if they do have symptoms, we do not expect the entire population to get vaccinated against these pathogens, and we do not obsessively track the rise and fall of cases in the population.

That’s where we should be with Covid right now. If the CDC announced tomorrow that the pandemic is over, here are some of the big changes we would see:

• There would be no more testing of vast swaths of the population. The results of these tests, unless you are trying to limit the spread of the disease or locate areas of particularly high infection — are meaningless: even if everyone in the population tests positive, there is no action we need to take. Everyone will be exposed to the virus at some point, and most of us already have been. Most people will not experience severe symptoms or die.
• There would be no more justification for any mask mandates anywhere – not on transportation, not in healthcare settings, not in schools. Individuals who feel more protected wearing a face covering could continue to do so, but nobody else would need to in relation to Covid. Ever. Remember: the justification for mask MANDATES is that when everyone wears masks it supposedly slows the spread of the disease. If we no longer care about how fast or slow or even if the disease is spreading, then mandates become meaningless. (This is not the same as saying masks work or don’t work, which is a different issue. Brownstone’s Masks section has important info on that subject.)
• There would be no reason for vaccine mandates, passports, or continued arguments about vaccinating children or anyone else. People who want to vaccinate themselves or their children can do so, and anyone who doesn’t is not posing any risk to anyone else.

Why, then, have all these things not happened already? Why, if the data and experts say the pandemic is over, does our behavior not reflect that reality? What’s stopping us in general, and public health authorities in particular, from finally putting an end to exhausting pandemic hysteria and reassuring everyone that we can move on? Who benefits from never-ending Covid?

The answer includes all the constituents of the pandemic-industrial complex: politicians, the public health bureaucracy, most of the media, the makers of masks, tests and vaccines, and a segment of the public whose own anxieties and obsessive virtue signaling map perfectly onto pandemic panic.

We find ourselves in a state of crazy limbo: There is no more acute threat from Covid (as Fauci himself admitted), yet we cling to responses whose only justification was to address the acute threat of Covid.

The reason, I would contend, is that the pandemic-industrial complex cannot and will not let go. If we leave the pandemic behind us, as it technically already is, then…:

…the politicians who have catered to their base by supporting the most draconian measures and demonizing anyone who questions them as science-denying baby killers, will have to find new reasons to portray their opponents as monsters. (Yes, I’m talking about you, so-called liberals. As a lifelong very left-leaning Democrat I am appalled by your shocking and ultimately disastrous pandemic groupthink.)

…the public health officials who have gained so much fame and adulation for finding ever more variants to track and reasons to remain vigilant will lose the spotlight and have to return to their anonymous and complicated day jobs in which they are supposed to address all aspects of what makes a population healthy. It’s so much easier to focus on just one disease! They will also have to face the public health catastrophes in terms of addiction, mental health, educational deficits, untreated conditions etc. that the all-encompassing, devastating war against Covid hath wrought.

…news outlets and online platforms will no longer be able to rivet audiences and target users with bleeding red maps, skyrocketing case counts, and doomsday predictions. The transition from Trump to Covid as a fool-proof attention-getter helped all media remain sensationally relevant. In fact, I would argue that for a large segment of the media, just as for the left-leaning parts of the country, fighting Covid almost seamlessly replaced fighting Trump, which is how the response to Covid became so hopelessly and destructively politicized.

…the multi-billion-dollar markets for masks, tests, and vaccines will significantly shrink, leaving what I imagine will become vast stockpiles of useless medicine and equipment. Stock prices and investor returns in related companies and industries will probably fall.

…all the people, most of them in the so-called liberal coastal cities, such as Philadelphia where I live, who have spent two years wearing more masks, getting more vaccines, advocating for more school closures, and feeling infinitely superior to anyone who suggests these measures are ineffective or bad, will have to find a new cause to get super anxious and super angry about.

That’s a lot of strong interests that need to be countered if we want to get back to normal. It’s a lot of pressure for public health leaders to go against if they want to come out with clear messaging about the end of the pandemic.

How do we lower that pressure from all the constituents of the pandemic-industrial complex so we can fully get ourselves back to some semblance of normalcy? I wish I knew.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Another Look at Covid Vaccine Studies ⋆ Brownstone Institute

All the observational studies which have been carried out with the Covid-19 vaccines suffer, apart from some of the well-known general biases, from exactly the same fundamental flaw: They show a decrease in “Covid-19-related” symptom-free or symptomatic cases, hospitalizations or deaths, but...

brownstone.org

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Another Look at Covid Vaccine Studies
By Manfred Horst
May 1, 2022

From the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the risk factors for severe forms and death from – or “with” – the respiratory virus called SARS-CoV-2 had been clearly identified: Advanced age, obesity, severe chronic comorbidities (other diseases, e.g. hypertension, diabetes, cancer).

For people without any of these characteristics, the risk of dying from (or even only “in relation with”) COVID-19 is very low and close to 0.

The vaccines are supposed to prevent severe disease and death; otherwise, they – and a fortiori their expedited approvals – would be entirely pointless.

At this point in time however, we still cannot possibly know whether they actually do. Martin Kulldorf is therefore entirely right when he demands in his recent article that the manufacturers “conduct a proper randomized clinical trial that proves that the vaccines reduce mortality.”

The design and execution of such a trial – in the high risk group (e.g. >65 years of age, plus at least one comorbidity), over a reasonable timeframe (at least 6 months), comparing overall (not only test-positive) mortality in a placebo to a verum-group – would have been (and would still be) straightforward and much less complex than the registration studies that were in fact carried out with these products.

How the trials were conducted is clearly stated in the protocols, publications, and FDA submissions: People who developed symptoms (the lists of these symptoms changed a little from one manufacturer to another, but they were all non-specific common cold or flu symptoms) underwent PCR testing. If – and only if – the test turned out to be positive (in the Pfizer study, this was the case in merely 170 out of more than 3,400 symptomatic patients), the endpoint of “symptomatic Covid-19” was considered as having been reached.

What these studies showed was that in people presenting with common cold or flu symptoms, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was detected significantly less frequently in the vaccinated than in the placebo group.

What was thus demonstrated was in no way a reduction in any clinically defined and distinguishable disease entity, but only in the number of positive tests for one particular virus of many which are known to cause the non-specific symptoms in question.

What was not demonstrated however, was a reduction in common cold and flu symptoms per se. Quite the contrary.

All the observational studies which have been carried out with the Covid-19 vaccines suffer, apart from some of the well-known general biases, from exactly the same fundamental flaw: They show a decrease in “Covid-19-related” symptom-free or symptomatic cases, hospitalizations or deaths, but they do not ask the question whether this decline in test-positive patients translates into an overall reduction of flu cases, of (atypical) pneumonias, of hospitalizations and deaths.
However, this is the clinically truly relevant question.

It is impossible to draw any firm conclusions from the data on the vaccines’ effect on general mortality which have been published up to now. The recent Danish analysis, apparently submitted to the LANCET, is again entirely correct when it argues “for performing RCTs of mRNA and adeno-vectored vaccines … comparing long-term effects on overall mortality.”

These RCTs (Randomized Clinical Trials) absolutely need also to, and above all, include a Placebo group, and not just compare the vaccines with each other though.

The apparent superiority of the DNA-vector vaccines, as reported by the Danish group, is based on very small numbers with little inherent reliability. Moreover, one needs to be extremely careful with post-hoc statistical analyses on clinical endpoints which had not been pre-defined for the trial(s) in question – this can very quickly become akin to “data dredging.”

Overall mortality has not been an endpoint in any of the Covid vaccine trials or studies so far. Conceptually, as the Covid mortality is part of the unavoidable mortality of the general population (we are not immortal, and on average we die at our average age of death), it may be impossible to demonstrate a general mortality benefit for the Covid vaccines – even more so as they do have potentially severe side effects.

But properly conducted clinical trials with relevant (“hard”) clinical endpoints are the only way to find out and conclude.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9mSG18q2WY
Bill Gates, pandemic book
14 min 32 sec
May 1, 2022

How to Prevent the Next Pandemic (Bill Gates) by Bill Gates is published by Allen Lane at £25 https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/wha... It's not likely, I don't want to be a voice of doom and gloom, but it's way above a 5% risk that this pandemic, we haven't even seen the worst of it Global Epidemic Response and Mobilization initiative Should be managed by the WHO, team of epidemiologists and computer modellers, dedicated, 2,000 to 3,000 the only body capable, top-notch team of experts, $55bn a year globally strengthening healthcare systems in low- and middle-income countries eradication [of] whole families of respiratory disease, which would mean no more coronaviruses like Covid – and even better, no more flu https://www.wsj.com/articles/bill-gat... https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas... What if we had invested $10 billion in energy projects in the developing world? In that case, the return would have been $150 billion. What about infrastructure? $170 billion. By investing in global health institutions, however, we exceeded all of those returns: The $10 billion that we gave to help provide vaccines, drugs, bed nets and other supplies in developing countries created an estimated $200 billion in social and economic benefits.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Setback for Shanghai's COVID-19 Battle; Beijing Focus on Mass Testing

www.theepochtimes.com

(fair use applies)

Setback for Shanghai’s COVID-19 Battle; Beijing Focus on Mass Testing
By Reuters
May 2, 2022

SHANGHAI/BEIJING—China’s commercial capital of Shanghai was dealt a blow on Monday as authorities reported new COVID-19 cases outside quarantine areas while Beijing pressed on with testing millions of its people.

Tough coronavirus measures in Shanghai have stirred rare public anger, with millions of the city’s 25 million people confined indoors for more than a month, some sealed inside fenced off residential compounds, and many struggling to secure daily necessities.

Shanghai residents breathed a sigh of relief at the weekend on news that no cases had been confirmed outside quarantine areas for two days, but bad news came on Monday with the report of the 58 new infections.

China reported 7,822 new COVID-19 cases and 32 new deaths on Sunday, the National Health Commission said on Monday. All of China’s 32 new deaths were in Shanghai.

The actual number of COVID-19 cases and deaths may be much higher. China’s COVID-19 data is difficult to verify, as the Chinese regime routinely suppresses or alters information.

New Focus on Beijing

China’s COVID-19 policy looks increasingly bizarre to much of the outside world, where many governments have eased restrictions, or thrown them off altogether, in a bid to “live with COVID.”

The Chinese regime has given no hint of deviating from its “zero-COVID” policy despite a mounting toll on the economy, and the ripples of disruption traveling out through global supply chains.

In the capital, home to 22 million people, authorities tighten COVID-19 restrictions over the five-day Labor Day holiday that runs through Wednesday, traditionally one the busiest tourist seasons.

Beijing, with dozens of daily infections in an outbreak now entering two weeks, has not locked down, instead relying, at least for now, on mass testing to locate and isolate infections.

Beijing’s restaurants are closed for dining in and some apartment blocks are sealed shut. The streets are quiet and the residents who do venture out have to show negative coronavirus tests to enter most public venues.

Authorities are tracking down close contacts of confirmed cases, warning them to stay at home and contact authorities, and calling on everyone to abide by lockdown rules.

Anger in Shanghai

Shanghai’s citywide lockdown since early April has caused worries about food and concern about being taken to crowded quarantine centers should they catch the virus.

Extreme measures taken to seal up residential compounds, including fencing up entrances of buildings, have prompted outrage.

Some residents have turned to social media to vent their frustration, some clanged pots and pans outside their windows, and others clashed with public health workers.

The song “Do you hear the people sing?” from the musical “Les Miserables” has become a popular protest anthem. On Saturday, an online video of a Chinese orchestra playing the song, with the musicians performing from their respective homes, went viral with nearly 19,000 shares before it was blocked.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Moderna Targeting Fall Release for Omicron Variant-Specific COVID-19 Boosters

www.theepochtimes.com

(fair use applies)

Moderna Targeting Fall Release for Omicron Variant-Specific COVID-19 Boosters
By Jack Phillips
May 1, 2022

A top executive at vaccine maker Moderna said that an Omicron- and subvariant-specific COVID-19 vaccine booster will be potentially released by the company in the fall.

“We announced a couple weeks ago a new, variant-specific booster that we’ve been testing, and we have an additional candidate, our lead candidate, in testing now that I believe is going to be even more superior,” Moderna Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton told CBS on Sunday.

“We are confident that by the fall of this year, we should have large amounts of that new booster vaccine that will protect against Omicron and other variants, and really protect Americans and people around the world as we go into the fall of 2022.”

Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)set a deadline of June for vaccine manufacturers to submit their respective formulas for variant-specific COVID-19 vaccines.

It comes after the company asked the FDA to authorize its vaccine for children under the age of 6. Burton told the outlet that the vaccine is only 37 percent in children aged 2 to 5 and 51 percent effective on children aged 2 and under. He said that because of the Omicron variant, the vaccine has a lower efficacy.

“What it means for parents or caregivers is that if they give the Moderna vaccine to these little kids, they would basically cut in half the risk of that children getting symptomatic COVID,” he claimed. “I know that 50 percent is often lower than what we’re used to seeing with our vaccine, but it’s because this study was conducted during a time of Omicron.”

Studies and data have shown that throughout the pandemic, small children saw the lowest hospitalization and death rates among all age groups. Elderly people and individuals with compromised immune systems have the highest COVID-19 death and hospitalization rates, according to data published by health agencies around the world.

And it is not clear how many American parents will want to vaccinate their children as data shows that only 28 percent of U.S. children in the 5 to 11 age group are fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that COVID-19 case numbers continue to remain vastly lower than the recent January 2022 peak. As of April 29, the 7-day average for U.S. cases stood at around 56,000, whereas on Jan. 15, the seven-day average was about 808,000.

On Tuesday, Pfizer asked the FDA to approve a third, or booster, dose for children aged 5 to 11....

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

San Diego Parents Sue School District Second Time Over School Vaccine Mandate

www.theepochtimes.com

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San Diego Parents Sue School District Second Time Over School Vaccine Mandate
By Matthew Vadum
May 1, 2022

The parents of four San Diego public school students are suing in federal court over the local school district’s requirement that forces students aged 16 and older to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The board of the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) first imposed the mandate in spite of parental protests in September last year but then delayed it, ordering its implementation in March. No religious objections to the mandate have been allowed, which legal experts say makes the mandate constitutionally suspect.

The latest legal complaint (pdf) in the case, Doe v. San Diego Unified School District, court file 3:21-cv-1809, was filed April 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

This is the second lawsuit brought by the plaintiffs. On Feb. 18 of this year, the Supreme Court decided not to intervene in the first lawsuit because the school district delayed enforcement of the policy, The Epoch Times reported. But the high court made its order “without prejudice to applicants seeking a new injunction if circumstances warrant.”

Two years into the pandemic, just about every other school district in the United States “has found a way to protect students from COVID-19 without banishing the handful of students with religious objections,” according to the newly filed complaint.

But not San Diego.

“Ignoring the pleas of thousands of parents, the Board of Education of the San Diego Unified School District voted to make vaccination from COVID-19 a requirement to attend school,” the complaint states.

And the mandate’s rules are discriminatory, the parents claim.

On any given day, the school district exempts 85 percent or more of its students, “for reasons ranging from medical accommodations (because they might have allergic reactions) to administrative convenience (because they had turned 16 a day after the semester started),” the complaint states.

“But SDUSD expressly forbids accommodations for religious believers like the Plaintiffs.”

Students of faith can opt to violate their religious beliefs or get expelled from school, kicked off sports teams, or be isolated from classmates and teachers, according to Paul Jonna, a special counsel for the Thomas More Society Special Counsel, a national public interest law firm that focuses on religious freedom.

“Our clients hold sincere religious beliefs that prevent them from taking any of the currently available COVID-19 vaccinations because they were either made or tested using aborted fetal cells,” Jonna said in a statement.

“However, SDUSD is completely ignoring our clients’ religious protections under the First Amendment by requiring that they comply with the illegal vaccine mandate, while not imposing the mandate on the vast majority of students, and allowing medical exemptions and religious exemptions for staff,” said Jonna, who is also a partner at LiMandri and Jonna LLP.

The school district’s vaccine mandate “was unconstitutional and unjustified from its inception. But the data available now makes it more clear than ever that SDUSD has no basis—in law or science—to refuse to offer religious exemptions,” Jonna said.

The CDC has acknowledged that COVID-19 survivors with natural immunity, such as the plaintiffs, “may have less risk of re-infection than those who acquired immunity through vaccination alone,” the legal complaint states.

“SDUSD’s own behavior, the behavior of other school districts across the country, basic science, and common sense all confirm that the school district has no compelling interest that requires the exclusion of Plaintiffs from school.”

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit temporarily blocked (pdf) the mandate on Nov. 28, 2021, only for the full circuit to later refuse to block the mandate.

Jonna also said that the Supreme Court’s reaction to the emergency relief petition to the original lawsuit in February shows that it’s watching the case and may be open to providing emergency relief in the future.

“We will be seeking injunctive relief at the federal district court promptly, and our legal team is poised and ready to seek appellate relief at the 9th Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court if necessary,” Jonna said.

The Epoch Times reached out to the San Diego Unified School District for comment but didn’t receive a reply by press time.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Moderna Says Its Vaccine for Ages Under 6 Will Be Ready for US Review in June

www.theepochtimes.com

(fair use applies)

Moderna Says Its Vaccine for Ages Under 6 Will Be Ready for US Review in June
By Reuters
May 1, 2022

WASHINGTON—Moderna Inc.’s chief medical officer said on Sunday the company’s vaccine for children under 6 years old will be ready for review by a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel when it meets in June.

Moderna sought emergency use authorization from the FDA on Thursday.

An advisory panel of experts to the U.S. drug regulator will meet in June to review the request.

“I think the FDA now have all of the core fundamental data they need to be able to begin an application review. So yes, we’re very confident,” Dr. Paul Burton, the company’s chief medical officer, said in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Moderna’s vaccine could be the first to win U.S. approval for children under the age of 5. Pfizer Inc. also expects to have its vaccine data for children under 6 ready by the June review.

Moderna’s vaccine is approved by the FDA for use in adults 18 and older. But it has yet to be approved for 6- to 17-year-olds in the United States despite gaining approval for that age group in Australia, Canada, and the European Union. U.S. regulators have asked the company for more safety data.

Burton said on Sunday the company is testing another booster shot that he believes will be superior to booster results the company announced on April 19. The booster shots target the Beta variant plus the original coronavirus.

Moderna expects to have large amounts of a new booster vaccine by this fall to protect against Omicron and other COVID-19 variants, he said.


~~~~~~~~~~~~

here's the interview on youtube referenced above:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47eEZxj4Nfc
Moderna's chief medical officer says kids' vaccine data will be ready for FDA by June
7 min 39 sec
May 1, 2022
Face the Nation

Dr. Paul Burton, Moderna's chief medical officer, says he is "absolutely confident" that data on the company's vaccine for young children will be ready for the FDA to review at its June meeting.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Factories in Shanghai Struggling to Resume Production Under Lockdown

www.theepochtimes.com

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Factories in Shanghai Struggling to Resume Production Under Lockdown
Workers are unable to get back to work
By Alex Wu
May 1, 2022

Shanghai has now been locked down for a month under the Chinese communist regime’s “zero-COVID” policy.
Daily life, manufacturing production, and supply chains have been severely disrupted.

Recently, Shanghai authorities have been pushing for the resumption of production in manufacturing, but the progress has been slow, and some enterprises are having difficulty resuming work under the indefinite lockdown, as workers are unable to get back to work.

Residents in Shanghai said that the damage to the economy will be long-lasting.

Chinese officials recently also claimed that a “dynamic clearing” COVID-19 pandemic control policy and economic development are not in opposition to each other.

On April 22, Shanghai officials said that 70 percent of the 666 whitelisted key enterprises have resumed work and production. But U.S. and European companies in Shanghai say they still face severe logistics and labor shortages under the lockdown.

Bettina Schoen-Behanzin, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China’s vice president and Shanghai chair told CNBC in a statement that although a “significant” number of members of the chamber are on the whitelist, “many companies still face the challenges of labor shortages and logistical difficulties,” estimating that less than 30 percent of members’ workforces are eligible to return to work because of the lockdowns.

A resident with the surname Wang in the Pudong district of Shanghai told The Epoch Times on April 30 that most companies in the city have not yet resumed work and production, despite the government’s order.

“The reason is that when you are locked at home, how do you resume work and production? It’s not open yet, what about the round-trip traffic? No bus, no subway. For example, a tobacco company, they say that the factory sends vehicles to pick up employees to work, but some communities don’t let people out. It’s very troublesome anyway,” he said.

Che Yunan (a pseudonym), an employee of Shanghai Electric Power Company, said that Shanghai has not yet returned to normal. “We have been issued a notice here that it would be possible to open on May 2. But if new cases are found in the community, they will postpone the lift of lockdown,” he said.

Che’s company has been locked down since the end of March. He said that people who have resumed work in the company are those who had been locked in the factory since then, and others were not allowed in.

Quanta (Shanghai) Computer Co., Ltd., which produces Tesla accessories and Apple laptops, is one of the first batch of 666 whitelisted enterprises in Shanghai to resume production. The company has eight factories in Shanghai and about 40,000 employees. Production was officially resumed on April 20. At present, its F1 and F3 factories have gradually resumed work, with about 15 percent of the workers returning.

The company’s employees revealed to The Epoch Times on April 19 that COVID-19 broke out in the dormitory of the company’s subordinate factory, thousands of workers were infected, and the employees were silenced by the factory when they sought help from the outside world.

The company’s production resumption plan, obtained by The Epoch Times, shows that the company’s COVID-19 cases “are not included in the social COVID-19 dynamic clearing plan,” which means the company’s cases are not counted in the official data of Shanghai. Lu Yong (a pseudonym), an employee of the company, told The Epoch Times on April 29 that the infected cases in the factory were counted at the beginning, but “there are too many infected people here, at least 10,000 now, so they are not reported anymore.”

On April 29, Liang Wannian, the expert group leader of the Chinese regime’s National Health Commission’s pandemic response team said that “dynamic clearing” COVID-19 pandemic control policy, economic development, and normal production and life are synergistic and do not oppose each other. “Zero-COVID” effectively protects and promotes economic development, and effectively guarantees the normal production and life of the people, he claimed.

Wang questioned the official’s claim, saying: “How can they synergize with each other? I don’t understand. Everyone is locked in the community, at home, how can you synergize? He is just shouting slogans. It is impossible to clear COVID-19 cases.”

“How can we get enough food from the government under the lockdown? How can they ensure the normal life of the common people? It [the regime] wants to resume production, and everyone is stuck at home, how to resume production and how to coordinate development? It’s just a slogan, he hasn’t done any social investigation at all, just talking nonsense in his office. Only when he goes to the factory and the community to see the life of the common people, he has the right to speak,” Wang said.

Gu Qinger, Gu Xiaohua, and Luo Ya contributed to the report.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

China’s Lockdowns of Tens of Millions Inflict More Pain on Global Supply Chains

www.theepochtimes.com

(fair use applies)

China’s Lockdowns of Tens of Millions Inflicts More Pain on Global Supply Chains
By Dorothy Li
May 1, 2022

Seeing China’s financial hub Shanghai, home to 25 million, come to a standstill amid more than four weeks of lockdown has made those in Beijing nervous. The capital city has detected growing COVID-19 outbreaks and has rushed to conduct mass testing in a bid to contain the virus.

Almost all 22 million inhabitants in Beijing completed three rounds of testing on April 30. The results may determine whether they will be destined to experience the same fate as those in Shanghai, where fenced-up people have been banging pans on their balconies at night to protest a month-long lockdown.

Shoppers in Beijing have rushed to stock up on food, just in case. Officials have closed schools, without specifying a reopening date, and more venues. Workers have set up blue metal barriers around residential blocks where infections have been recorded. A sign placed outside such a residential complex read, “Entry only. No exit.”

The scenes in Beijing are reminiscent of other Chinese cities battling the fast-moving Omicron variant. As the Chinese regime appears determined to contain the outbreak under its heavy-handed “zero-COVID” policy, lockdowns and mass testing—and the well-documented suffering that it causes—are likely to remain commonplace.

As of April 28, at least 26 cities across the country are currently in partial or full lockdown, covering some 78 million people, according to calculations by The Epoch Times based on notices by local authorities. These cities range from northern Baotou, a major supplier of rare earths, to eastern Yiwu, an export center that produces everything from Christmas trees to presidential campaign merchandise.

Those living in areas not under lockdown still face restrictions. The tech hub Hangzhou is testing its residents every 48 hours. About 12.2 million students and workers must provide proof of negative results if they want to take public transportation and enter schools or offices. Similar measures will be effective in Beijing after May 5, with officials at an April 30 briefing calling it “normalized nucleic acid tests.”

Foreigners Flee

The Chinese regime’s relentless zero-COVID fight has forced foreigners to rethink their lives in the international financial hub of Shanghai. The month-long closure of the city, home to numerous multinational firms, has left even white-collar professionals struggling with food shortage issues.

While many are allowed to walk around in their neighborhood now, concerns about being taken into quarantine remain. The city’s 25 million people will continue to take more tests until May 7, local officials said at a May 1 press conference. A positive result means separation from families and living in crowded quarantine facilities, with 24-hour lights and no hot water.

“Until the lockdown, I really couldn’t feel the authoritarian government, because you’re more or less free to do what you want,” said Jennifer Li, a foreigner who is making plans for her family to leave the city that has been their home for 11 years.

The regimes’ handling of COVID-19 “made us realize how human lives and human mental health is not important to this government,” she added.

The European Chamber of Commerce recently warned that the “number of foreigners in China have halved since the pandemic began and could halve again this summer.”

Economic Toll

The strict restrictions are also crushing economic activity. The gauge of manufacturing activity contracted at a steeper pace in April, reaching the lowest point since February 2020, when lockdowns halted industrial production and disrupted supply chains for the first time.

The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 47.4 in April from 49.5 in March, offering a first glimpse into the economic pain inflicted by lockdown measures.

Analysts from several investment banks have further cut their forecasts for the country’s economic growth rate as the lockdown in Shanghai drags on. The lowest is from Nomura, with a prediction of 3.9 percent, down from 4.3 percent previously, well below the official target of a 5.5 percent increase.

In a worst-case scenario, “China can expect a decrease in GDP by 53 percent if all cities are forced into lockdown,” Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow of global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told an April 26 virtual panel.

China’s yuan currency fell more than 4 percent in April, its biggest monthly drop in 28 years, while its stock markets have been the second-worst performers this year after sanctions-hit Russia.

The slowdown is likely to weigh on global recovery as the lockdown will hurt companies’ sales in China and ripple through the supply chain, said professor Yen Huai-Shing, deputy director of the Taiwan Chung Hua Institution for Economic Research.

Supply Chain Woes

Carmakers and phones are experiencing shortages of components sourced in China. The United States imports close to 18 percent of all products from China and 33 percent of electronics, according to official data.

U.S. giants, including Apple and Microsoft, have warned that China’s lockdowns have intensified global supply chain disruption and raises uncertainty about their business outlook.

A main source of the supply chain troubles has been from severe delays in transportation: frequent COVID-19 testing has disrupted the work of truckers and port workers. “Once the lockdown is lifted and economic activity once again springs to life, a pileup of products from accumulated orders will surge into the United States,” Sara Hsu, a clinical associate professor of supply chain management at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville wrote in The Diplomat. This means that the backlogs that Los Angeles and Long Beach ports experienced last year will happen again, she added.

Yen doesn’t see the supply chain disruptions ending soon.

“[China’s] COVID lockdown brings more uncertainty to foreign investors and damage to their confidence,” Yen told The Epoch Times.

She suggested that multinational companies should consider relocating their supply chain elsewhere. Some firms in the semiconductor hub of Taiwan have already started diversifying supply chains since 2018 during the U.S.-China trade war, Yen noted.

Unwavering in Zero-COVID

As zero-COVID batters the country’s economy, Chinese leader Xi Jinping on April 29 announced an infrastructure push to boost demand, a method Beijing used during the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 that created a mountain of debt. However, he didn’t provide key details including the amount of spending and the specific timeframe.

Still, Xi, who is seeking an unprecedented third five-year term in office this autumn, showed no sign of changing the course at Friday’s meeting of the 25-member Politburo, the center of power within the Chinese Communist Party led by Xi.

The leadership called for the country to “persist with dynamic zero,” according to the meeting summary released by the official Xinhua news agency, referring to another name of zero-COVID.

“For now, China is not getting out of the corner the president [Xi Jinping] has maneuvered the country into,” Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, told Swiss media outlet Market NZZ.

“They are prisoners of their own narrative. “It’s rather tragic: China was the first to get into the pandemic, and it’s the last to get out. And in the meantime, they’ve been telling the whole world that they’re the best.”

Luo Ya and Reuters contributed to the report.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Beijing shuts dine-in services for holidays to stem outbreak

Restaurants in Beijing have been ordered to close dine-in services over the May holidays as the Chinese capital grapples with a COVID-19 outbreak.

medicalxpress.com

(fair use applies)

Beijing shuts dine-in services for holidays to stem outbreak
May 1, 2022

Restaurants in Beijing have been ordered to close dine-in services over the May holidays as the Chinese capital grapples with a COVID-19 outbreak.

Authorities said at a news conference Saturday that dining in restaurants has become an infection risk, citing virus transmissions between diners and staff.

Restaurants have been ordered to only provide takeout services from Sunday to Wednesday, during China's Labor Day holidays.

Beijing began mass testing millions of residents earlier this week as it scrambled to stamp out a growing COVID-19 outbreak.

The political stakes are high as the ruling Communist Party prepares for a major congress this fall at which President Xi Jinping is seeking a third five-year term to reassert his position as China's unquestioned leader.

Beijing authorities reported 67 new infections on Saturday, taking the city's total to nearly 300 since April 22.

Authorities have also ordered parks, scenic areas and entertainment venue to operate at half capacity during the holiday period. Schools have also been ordered closed.

Several communities in the city's most populous Chaoyang district have been designated high-risk areas and will be subjected to mass testing on Sunday and Tuesday.

Beijing is trying to prevent a massive outbreak that could trigger a citywide lockdown like the one that has paralyzed Shanghai for more than three weeks. Millions of residents there have been under lockdown and food has run low at times, prompting heavy criticism despite government efforts to censor it.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Covid treatments: still struggling for mass uptake

Several treatments are now available to fight COVID-19 but tight timelines, unequal access and weakening effectiveness against new variants have limited their ability to blunt the worst of the pandemic.

medicalxpress.com

(fair use applies)

Covid treatments: still struggling for mass uptake
May 1, 2022

Several treatments are now available to fight COVID-19 but tight timelines, unequal access and weakening effectiveness against new variants have limited their ability to blunt the worst of the pandemic.

Antivirals

Antiviral drugs, which suppress the ability of the virus to multiply in the body's cells, treat an infection in its early stages, reducing the severity and duration of symptoms.

Last week the World Health Organization "strongly recommended" Pfizer's COVID-19 antiviral pill Paxlovid over rivals such as Merck's molnupiravir.

The recommendation was based on new trials showing Paxlovid reduced the risk of hospital admission by 85 percent, while molnupiravir has proved significantly less effective.

Even China, which has spurned foreign vaccines, conditionally approved Paxlovid in February, and Pfizer hopes to produce more than 120 million doses this year.

US President Joe Biden's administration said this week it would double the number of outlets where Americans can obtain the pills, which are reserved for at-risk patients.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who tested positive for COVID on Tuesday, is taking Paxlovid, according to her press secretary.

But even as production ramps up, the pill is still not being prescribed in large numbers in many countries.

In France, where Paxlovid is the only approved antiviral, only 3,500 courses have been prescribed out of 100,000 rolled out over the first three months of the year.

Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva, said COVID treatments were "vital" to save lives and reduce pressure on hospitals.

"These effective drugs have not been used enough, which is illustrated by the number of deaths still being reported," he told AFP.

"The main obstacle remains logistics," he added.

The treatment course for Paxlovid should be started within five days of symptoms appearing—a tight deadline that requires everything to go smoothly.

"People must think about doing a PCR test if they have symptoms or a risky contact, the doctor must prescribe the right medicine, the pharmacy must make it available within the short time required," Flahault said.

Antivirals also should not be taken by patients already on a range of other medications, which can limit uptake.

Other treatments

Monoclonal antibodies, which target the spike protein of the coronavirus, can be used either as a preventative measure for unvaccinated at-risk people or for hospitalised patients who need an antibody boost.

They have been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death by up to 80 percent, but must be administered by injection or infusion in hospital.

The main antibody treatments include AstraZeneca's Evusheld, Roche's Ronapreve, and GSK and Vir's Xevudy.

But these treatments also require tight timelines—and they are struggling to keep up with new variants.

"The monoclonal antibodies that were effective against the Delta variant are no longer effective against Omicron BA.1—and the one that remained effective against BA.1 is no longer effective against BA.2," Flahault said.

"It is rare in medicine that knowledge evolves at such a pace," he said, adding that it complicated prescribing such drugs.

Several countries have essentially abandoned Ronapreve due to the loss of effectiveness against Omicron.

And on Friday France's health authorities said they would no longer authorise Xevudy for patients with BA.2 because of the drug's "greatly reduced" effectiveness against the sub-variant, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of the country's infections.

The US meanwhile has doubled the recommended dosage for Evusheld to address its weakening effectiveness.

Unequal access, again

As was the case for COVID vaccinations, wealthy countries have had far greater access to treatments than poorer nations.

The inequity again sparked a debate about lifting waiving intellectual property rights—this time with more progress.

Last year Pfizer and Merck agreed allow some generic drugmakers to make cheaper versions of their drugs under a UN-backed scheme.

Pfizer signed a deal last month with 35 generic drugmakers in Europe, Asia, and Latin America to supply Paxlovid to 95 countries.

However last week the WHO called on Pfizer to go further, saying it was "extremely concerned" that for treatments low- and middle-income countries would again be "pushed to the end of the queue".

It also called on Pfizer to be more transparent about prices, with reports that a full Paxlovid course costs up to $530 in the US.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

I am posting this interview because at the end, Dr. Birx implied the vaccines may not work and as soon as she said that, the interview was cut off. .... hmm... You can watch the video at the link, but I also brought it over from youtube if you want to watch it from here.

Birx says U.S. should prepare for summer COVID-19 surge in South

Dr. Deborah Birx, who was former President Donald Trump's COVID-19 response coordinator, says she expects a COVID-19 surge in states in the South over the summer.

news.yahoo.com

(fair use applies)

Birx says U.S. should prepare for summer COVID-19 surge in South
Sun, May 1, 2022, 11:46 AM

Dr. Deborah Birx, who was former President Donald Trump's COVID-19 response coordinator, says she expects a COVID-19 surge in states in the South over the summer.

~~~~~~~~~~~

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP6WhZFVOG0
6 min 49 sec

Transcript: Dr. Deborah Birx on "Face the Nation"

The following is a transcript of an interview with Dr. Deborah Birx, former President Donald Trump's COVID-19 response coordinator, that aired Sunday, May 1, 2022, on "Face the Nation."

news.yahoo.com

(fair use applies)

Transcript: Dr. Deborah Birx on "Face the Nation"
CBSNews
Sun, May 1, 2022, 1:46 PM

The following is a transcript of an interview with Dr. Deborah Birx, former President Donald Trump's COVID-19 response coordinator, that aired Sunday, May 1, 2022, on "Face the Nation."

MARGARET BRENNAN: It's been more than a year since we last spoke with Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator during the Trump administration, and she told us about her time in the administration, spoke candidly about mistakes that had been made, especially with the CDC. And many of those details are recounted in her new book, "Silent Invasion."

Dr. Brix is here with us in studio.

Good morning to you, Doctor.

AMB. DEBORAH BIRX, M.D., FORMER WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR AND AUTHOR, "SILENT INVASION": Good morning, Margaret. Happy to be here.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I'm glad to see you again.

I want to talk about the book, but we did see you last night at the Correspondents Dinner. We were both there as guests of CBS.

These indoor gatherings are happening across the country now. Dr. Fauci said it was too dangerous for him to attend. How do you judge risk?

DEBORAH BIRX: I have to judge it every day because, like you, I have children under five, unvaccinated grandchildren, and I have a 93-year-old that lives in our house. So I have to constantly be aware of my risk, yet I have to work.

So, I completely masked last night because my assessment was there were probably, just by odds and science, probably 15 to 20 people infected, even though everyone was tested in the morning or within 24 hours. And so I just always know and then I keep testing. So I'll test every day for five days after an exposure. And I consider that an exposure. I tested this morning because I knew I was going to see you in person, unmasked.

And I think that's just what we need to do. If you have vulnerable people in your household, whether it's children or elderly, you have to continually assess your risk.

MARGARET BRENNAN: It -- thank you for the guidance on that. And, as you said, I'm aware of it because of my kids.
We're now at close to a million deaths. Infection rates are going up. Hospitalizations are going up. I think it was just about 18 percent on the week. Do you think we are done with these massive waves of infection?

DEBORAH BIRX: I like to look at the whole spectrum of the last two years. And so if you look at what we've been through, we went through a mini alpha variant surge in the same locations last year at this time. Then we went into that lull of May, where everybody thought it was over, and in middle of June, and then we had the predictable surge across the south.

And what you need to be looking at is global data. So I follow South Africa very closely. They're good about testing.
They're good about sequencing and find their variants. They're on an up slope again. Each of these surges are about four to six months apart. That tells me that natural immunity wanes enough in the general population after four to six months that a significant surge is going to occur again.

And this is what we have to be prepared for in this country. We should be preparing right now for a potential surge in the summer across the southern United States because we saw it in 2020 and we saw it in 2021.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Wow, that's not general consensus right now. That's a warning. You think that's what's coming for the south? Is it this new variant?

DEBORAH BIRX: Well, each of these surges have been a slightly different variant because, yes, our immune system wanes. Now, who is carrying the virus that participates in these surges? We are. Vaccinated individuals, as well as unvaccinated individuals. And we have to make it very clear to the American people that your protection against infection wanes. So, if you're going to go see your grandmother or someone that has metastatic breast cancer, or someone under treatment for Hodgkin's Disease or a family member with down syndrome, you need to test before you go. If that area is in a surge, and if you assessed your risk, like we did last night, and make sure that you're negative.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And so what you're seeing in South Africa, you do think is a lead indicator of what may be coming here?

DEBORAH BIRX: Correct. What has happened each time is we've had a summer surge across the south and a winter surge that cross -- that starts in our northern plains and moves down, accelerated by Thanksgiving and the holidays of Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. And that's predictable.

So now we have to figure out -- we have tools, better tools that we had a year ago. So, we have the tools now to enable every American to not only survive, but thrive. But that means every American has to have access to these tools. And our rural counties, those red counties that people keep talking about, they have lack of adequate health care.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

DEBORAH BIRX: Lack of primary physicians. Lack of individuals to counsel them about vaccines.

I went to Elko (ph), Nevada. They are three hours from a hospital that could take care of Covid. So, we have to be attentive to all Americans no matter where they live.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You, in your book, talk about some of these institutional issues. You're talking about at the state level, but also at the CDC, and Health and Human Services as well.

In your book you say there is no plan b then. And to this day there is still no plan b. There is no early warning system in this country.

Why hasn't this administration been able to fix it? Because you're not the only person who's said this.

DEBORAH BIRX: You know, I'm thrilled that over the last 12 months people have been giving more and more voice to it. To be frank, that's why I wrote the book because I felt like people weren't understanding what the issues were on the ground that were resulting in Americans not surviving.

Every American needs to be able to click on a website that shows them what is happening in their community with test positivity cases. And hospitalizations are great.

MARGARET BRENNAN: How do tests throw that off?

Sorry, I don't mean to get -- continue your thought.

DEBORAH BIRX: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Hospitalizations, that's what the CDC says focus on. You're saying, don't focus on it.

DEBORAH BIRX: Well, if you wait until hospitalizations, there is so much community spread that you cannot prevent it from getting into the nursing homes, into venerable family members, because we interact with each other. And so people are interpreting that the fact that they are vaccinated, or vaccinated and boosted, that they cannot be infected, that they're somehow invincible and they're carrying that virus into hospital rooms, into nursing homes, and into dining room tables where their vulnerable family members sit.

And let's be clear, not every vulnerable family member has an effective immune response either to the vaccine or the booster. And so we need to know if they're protected or not. And so we have to be able to utilize those antibody levels in some way.

I can tell you today, if your grandmother has no antibody, don't pretend -- don't think that there are cellular or there are other side of their immune system is going to protect them. They're going to need something else. We have those tools now. We have depo (ph), monoclonal antibody Evusheld. There are -- there are tools that we can use.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Doctor, thank you for your insights. We have to leave it there.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Did Pfizer Know that Paxlovid will NOT Work in the Vaccinated?

Also: Paxlovid was NOT Tested on Children, but FDA Approved it for Kids Anyway

igorchudov.substack.com

(fair use applies)

Did Pfizer Know that Paxlovid will NOT Work in the Vaccinated?
Also: Paxlovid was NOT Tested on Children, but FDA Approved it for Kids Anyway
Igor Chudov
12 hr ago

This article will show that:

• Pfizer likely knew that Paxlovid did not work in the vaccinated, and removed them from the EPIC-SR trial
• Paxlovid was not AT ALL tested on children in both trials, but the FDA approved it for children anyway.

Introduction

You can skip this introduction and head straight into the next section if you are familiar with the Paxlovid story. Briefly, I wrote the following article on April 13, pointing out that the Internet is full of stories of Paxlovid-treated patients relapsing and having Covid re-emerge on Day 10 of their illness.

Igor’s Newsletter​

Paxlovid, "Snake Oil" of the 21st Century?​

Paxlovid is a combination of a protease inhibitor Nirmatrelvir and a HIV medication Ritonavir. At $895, it is definitely going to be a moneymaker for Pfizer. But how well does it work for the patients? This is what we all heard: The first study, that lasted for four weeks only, reported amazing success and “89% prevention of severe symptoms”. That first s…​

18 days ago · 267 likes · 235 comments · Igor Chudov​

Much has happened since then (not all related to my post, of course). So much noise was made that the US government got interested!



Brian Mowrey wrote five excellent articles looking at the biomolecular mechanisms of why Paxlovid would not work and some aspects of the trial. Jessica Rose also wrote a Paxlovid article, looking at Paxlovid and bringing her highly relevant experience as a former HIV researcher. Peter Nayland Kust brought up the above story Federal Government is forced to urgently look into Paxlovid not working. Darby Shaw straight out asked, correctly, whether Paxlovid is a danger to the vaccinated. Much noise was also made on Twitter, including by yours truly, before Twitter suspended me.

Hundreds of stories are all over Twitter and Reddit. This one from yesterday 4/30/22:



Pfizer Purposely Excluded Vaccinated People from Trials. It had a Reason!

Two Pfizer trials for Paxlovid (High Risk and Standard Risk) had long lists of patients to exclude. Some, like HIV patients with complicated problems, are understandably excluded.

But why did Pfizer decide to exclude vaccinated people from the trials? That decision seems crazy since Pfizer intended to ”vaccinate the world” and have everyone vaccinated. So, considering that Pfizer knew about “breakthrough infections,” why did it decide to ban vaccinated people from both trials if it expected that most people would be vaccinated? Seems strange to exclude most people from being potential customers, no?

Well, it looks like Pfizer knew more than it disclosed. (hat tip, Dr. Buzz)

Jason Pogue @jpogue1​

@DrToddLee @ASPphysician @boulware_dr Looks like someone quietly removed vaccinated high risk patients from EPIC-SR. ​

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April 17th 2022​

16 Retweets46 Likes​

Actually, Pfizer did NOT want to exclude the vaccinated from at least one trial, EPIC-SR, from the start. In the beginning, EPIC-SR allowed vaccinated people with comorbidities. Original Epic-SR exclusion read:

Has received or is expected to receive any COVID-19 vaccine, except for participants with an underlying medical condition associated with an increased risk of developing severe illness from COVID-19. Participants with these conditions who are fully vaccinated are considered to be at lower risk of developing severe disease and are therefore considered eligible.​

So, according to the above, vaccinated patients with comorbidities were considered “standard risk” and were in the trial.
However, between March 9 and April 5 of 2022, Pfizer decided to change the criteria and excluded ALL vaccinated people:



What made Pfizer change this criterion? My speculative answer is that Pfizer knew that Paxlovid did not work in the vaccinated. Having failed to hit the target when it came to vaccinated people, Pfizer decided to remove them from the trial and “move the target,” so to speak. This way, the EPIC-SR study would end up being a “success,” technically.

They removed their main target market — the vaccinated — from the trial, to make sure that the trial looks good. Then Pfizer turned around and asked the FDA to sell the drug to the very people whom they consciously excluded from the trial.

Despite intentionally removing and ignoring vaccinated people in both trials, Pfizer asked for and received FDA approval for all patients, vaccinated or not. So now, Pfizer gets $895 per treatment course and makes a lot of money. Does this treatment benefit vaccinated patients? You decide.

Paxlovid was not tested in Children; FDA Approved Paxlovid for Kids Anyway

It gets worse. Both EPIC-HR and EPIC-SR excluded children under 18.



Despite not having tested Paxlovid for kids at all in these clinical trials, FDA authorized Paxlovid for children:



I am slightly puzzled by this. I mean, surely the FDA cares for our children, right? So wouldn’t it want to ask Pfizer to at least test Paxlovid for children? Of course, it is just a few million dollars for Pfizer. Not a big deal. But testing on children was not done at all, and the FDA recommended Paxlovid for children anyway.

Mind you, Paxlovid is not a little harmless vitamin pill. It is a repackaged HIV/AIDS medication blocking certain liver functions, combined with a radically novel protease inhibitor affecting intricate intracellular processes. Who knows how Paxlovid affects growing kids going through puberty? I surely do not know, but does anyone else?

Please let us know what you think about this FDA/Pfizer gambit.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Rheumatologist Robert Jackson: 40% of my 3,000 vaccinated patients report a significant vaccine injury

People who claim VAERS is unreliable are wrong. We see evidence all the time from the direct observation of doctors who are paying attention of absurdly high rates of adverse events.

stevekirsch.substack.com

(fair use applies)

Rheumatologist Robert Jackson: 40% of my 3,000 vaccinated patients report a significant vaccine injury
People who claim VAERS is unreliable are wrong. We see evidence all the time from the direct observation of doctors who are paying attention of absurdly high rates of adverse events.
Steve Kirsch
11 hr ago

Robert Jackson has been a doctor for 35 years. In his practice there are over 5,000 patients, around 3,000 got vaccinated with the COVID vaccines.

What makes him unusual is that he is not afraid to speak out about what he is seeing in his patients. This is because he’s too valuable to fire. He’s never seen anything like this in his career.

The results are stunning: 40% reported a vaccine injury; 5% are still injured.

Nobody can argue his numbers are anecdotes because they were confirmed in the EULAR database and published in the BMJ: 37% had adverse events and 4.4% of patients had a flare up of their disease after vaccination.

Also, he’s had 12 deaths following the jab. Normally in his patient base he’ll see 1 or 2 deaths a year. So if there is a question of whether all-cause mortality goes up or down after the jabs rolled out, his numbers make it crystal clear. This is aggregated data over dozens of doctors: a .33% excess mortality rate among his patients after the vaccines rolled out (i.e., the vaccines likely killed 1 in 300 people in his patient base). However, this is likely an undercount because he’s not the primary care physician.

This suggests a kill rate many times higher than the .2% we estimated from VAERS. However, these are deaths in rheumatology patients, so this may account for the higher estimate. But we are in the same ballpark as the death estimate from VAERS.

Of course, there COULD be an “unknown” thing that killed all these people. It would have to be massive and injected into all these patients to cause the symptoms observed. Wonder what else fits that description? Nobody will tell us.
Naturally, the CDC doesn’t want you to know any of this and they would prefer it if you didn’t watch the video.
Here is the video

Rheumatologist Robert Jackson: 40% vaccine injured; 0.33% dead

Robert Jackson has been a rheumatologist for 35 years. He's never seen a vaccine like this one. In this video he compares the COVID vaccines safety to other vaccines. He has 6,000 patients and typical

rumble.com

32 min 33 sec

Also, he mentioned that about 5% develop a new condition that makes them susceptible to clotting. He notes that their observations about the increased rates of side effects have been confirmed in the literature.

Mesenchymal stem cell derived exosome treatment

Dr. Jackson also talked about remarkable results after treating COVID-19 patients using a 30 minute infusion of mesenchymal stem cell derived exosomes. This is available for use by anyone today. It can be used on both hospitalized patients and long-haulers.

Comments from AMD

There are 5 important points to consider with this video, some which may not be evident to people who do not work in this field.

#1 Doctors tend to be very bad at catching adverse reactions (I'm presently working on an article explaining some of the key reasons for this is). I believe the primary reasons why Dr. Jackson has such a high rate of adverse reactions in his practice is because he asks his patients what happened to them following vaccination; most doctors don't. As a result he "catches" reactions most doctors would not catch.

#2 Rheumatology patients are more susceptible to having reactions to the vaccine than the general population (for example pre-exacerbation of an existing autoimmune condition was a common side effect found in the recent Israeli study of individuals receiving the booster). However these patients were excluded from the initial vaccine trials (as people at risk of negative effects are rarely studied in clinical trials as the companies don't want to increase the adverse event rates). This is particularly insidious here because autoimmune patients are typically the #1 group recommended to get vaccinated (because they are "immune suppressed" and hence need the extra protection).

#3 As he is a consultant rather than their PCP, he is most likely going to miss or not hear about most of the deaths that occur. The only way he can sort of catch it is if he remembers a patient who was scheduled for followup doesn't show up for 6 months and then thinks to check if they are still alive...and at that point its difficult to figure out the temporal correlation with vaccination. If he was their PCP he'd see a much higher rate. [this is why he only sees a couple of deaths per year instead of 5 or more -stk]

#4 There is an extreme shortage/demand for rheumatologists in the midwest (hence why he goes to so many hospitals in a wide area). This gives him a lot of wiggleroom other doctors don't have since he does not have a central employer, and each of the 8 who subcontract to him cannot afford to loose him. Hence there is no corporate that can force him to vaccinate or censor his speech. Very few doctors are in this situation.

#5 Antiphospholipid syndrome is a common cause of blood clotting in patients with autoimmune disorders. This provides an alternative mechanism to explain why so many blood clots are occurring and hence why Dr. Jackson is so concerned with screening his patients for this disorder.

I have had a few patients with COVID that exosomes were tremendously helpful for, but since they are costly, I've only used them on extremely ill people who tried home treatment I expected to be hospitalized and then die. One of my colleagues has treated a larger number of very ill patients pre-hospitalization and had the same result, along with many post hospitalization who had long haul covid who had immediate recoveries. I've looked at a lot of therapies. I believe exosomes are the most helpful, but there are cheaper ones that often help a great deal, so I'm more conservative with the exosomes due to trying to be price conscious for my patients.

Summary

If the vaccines are safe and effective, this video is impossible to explain. A 1 in 300 death rate for a vaccine that doesn’t kill anyone? Someone is lying to you.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Twitter censors Eli Klein

I analyze the Tweet in Question, and Klein gives his perspective

vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com

(fair use applies)

Twitter censors Eli Klein
I analyze the Tweet in Question, and Klein gives his perspective

Vinay Prasad
8 hr ago

In this guest post, Eli Klein, a NYC based covid19 commenter, describes being censored by Twitter for medical “misinformation.” The tweet in question was the following, which I will fact check here.



As far as I can see, there are 5 claims

1. Most immunocompromised people are not at high risk from COVID
2. Immunocompromised people existed before covid and will always exist.
3. Covid is a flu level risk to kids who aren’t vaccine-eligible
4. We’ve always accepted such risk.
5. Many, if not most kids have immunity already.

Consider the 5 points

1. Most immunocompromised people are not at high risk from COVID. Many people who self-identify as immunocompromised may have conditions that technically do not confer a high risk. The CDC has clearly defined a list of conditions for moderate or severely immunocompromised, but it is increasingly common for someone to say “I am immunocompromised” and have a condition that does not meet this list. For e.g., a mildly asthmatic 30 year old may self-identify as immunocompromised, but is no where near as high risk as an 80 year old. Moreover, Ben Mazur recently described in the Atlantic, mounting evidence suggests that vaccines do work— quite comparably— against severe disease even in immunocompromised individuals. At this point, most Americans are vaccinated or have had infection or both, making Mazur’s piece relevant. Finally, Klein claim is they are not at “high risk”— there is no well accepted definition of what high risk is. One might argue a CFR (case fatality rate) of 20% or more is high risk. Based on these considerations, it is clear Klein’s point of view is obvious defensible, and more to the point— likely correct.

2. Immunocompromised people existed before covid and will always exist- This is just obviously true


3. Covid is a flu level risk to kids who aren’t vaccine-eligible— we’ve always accepted such risk. Klein is correct of course. In fact, per the Financial Times…



4. We’ve always accepted such risk. True. We have historically accepted the flu and not closed schools in response.

5. Many, if not most kids have immunity already. True, and here are the CDC data to prove it.



Yet, Twitter censored Mr. Klein’s account and prohibited use for 7 days in punishment. This is the heavy handed and inappropriate censorship that has characterized Big Tech during the pandemic. They are simply not up to the task of medical censorship.

-Vinay Prasad, MD MPH


Now Eli Klein….

On April 20, 2022 my Twitter account @TbeEliKlein was suspended for 7 days for the following Tweet: “Most immunocompromised people are not at high risk from Covid. Immunocompromised people existed before Covid and will always exist. Covid is a flu level risk to kids who aren’t vaccine-eligible — we’ve always accepted such risk. And many, if not most kids, have immunity already.”

For context, the Tweet at issue was the 2nd in a thread that began with my statement that: “The CDC is now claiming the transportation mask mandate is needed to protect “immunocompromised or not yet vaccine-eligible” people from Covid.

This is shady and exaggerated language commonly used by radicalized extremists on the far left to justify indefinite restrictions.

My ridiculous suspension is evidence that Twitter’s “content moderation” can be highly inappropriate.

In fact, on April 19 The NY Times and The Atlantic published similar things to what I was suspended for Tweeting on April 20.

Numerous doctors, scientists, experts and others have reached out to assure me that the Tweet I was suspended for was completely accurate, or at worst, debatable, while it certainly was not “misleading and potentially harmful” as Twitter claimed.

Twitter seems to be making an assertion that the following is authoritative “Most immunocompromised people are currently at high risk from Covid.” But this isn’t a fact — it’s contested, and is more likely “misleading and potentially harmful” rhetoric than my censored Tweet. This claim exaggerates risk, while undermining Covid vaccines and treatments. It’s important to note that elevated risk is not “high” risk.

Immunity from Covid vaccines and prior Covid infection provide excellent protection against severe disease for most immunocompromised people. The vast majority of Americans are either vaccinated, have had Covid, or both.
Covid is a flu level risk to unvaccinated kids and CDC data indicates that most children have immunity already.

It’s outrageous that Twitter would suspend a rational, balanced, credible, centered non-extremist like myself, while promoting radicalized extremists spreading actual misinformation as “COVID-19: health experts.”
Twitter did not respond to my appeal.

-Eli Klein

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Ordinarily I like to go to the source of an article, but the source here is Financial Times and it's behind a paywall so I will post this summary from Gateway Pundit.

Bill Gates Warns: 'We've Not Seen the Worst of Covid' | The Gateway Pundit | by Cristina Laila

What does this guy know?

www.thegatewaypundit.com

(fair use applies)

Bill Gates Warns: ‘We’ve Not Seen the Worst of Covid’
By Cristina Laila
Published May 1, 2022 at 4:30pm

What does this guy know?

Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates says the world has not seen the worst of Covid yet.

“We’re still at risk of this pandemic generating a variant that would be even more transmissive and even more fatal,” Gates told the Financial Times. “It’s not likely, I don’t want to be a voice of doom and gloom, but it’s way above a 5 per cent risk that this pandemic, we haven’t even seen the worst of it.”

Last year it was revealed that Pentagon scientists working in a secretive united created a microchip to be inserted underneath the skin, that can detect Covid-19 before the body exhibits symptoms.

60 Minutes interviewed retired Colonel Matt Hepburn, an army infectious disease physician, who spent years with the secretive defense advanced research projects agency or DARPA, working on technology he hopes will ensure COVID-19 is the last pandemic.

Dr. Hepburn told 60 Minutes that the microchip is like a “check engine light.”

Creepy Bill Gates heard about this new technology and immediately threw millions of dollars at the project. This should surprise no one.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

He went to the private parties unmasked because he probably thought he wouldn't be seen and didn't want to go to the more public party with more press coverage. Or perhaps there is more risk at one party than the other -you know, science.... / sacrasm.

Maskless Fauci Attends White House Correspondents' Dinner Pre-Party with Masked Servants | The Gateway Pundit | by Cristina Laila

DC elites, liberal reporters and Hollywood degenerates attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night at the Hilton Hotel in DC.

www.thegatewaypundit.com

(fair use applies)

Maskless Fauci Attends White House Correspondents’ Dinner Pre-Party with Masked Servants
By Cristina Laila
Published May 1, 2022 at 3:30pm

DC elites, liberal reporters and Hollywood degenerates attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night at the Hilton Hotel in DC.

Joe Biden stayed up way past his bedtime last night and barely made it through his speech.

Fauci bailed on the WHCD because of “individual assessment” of personal risk…so he decided to attend the very crowded pre-parties.

A maskless Fauci posed for photos with liberal reporters.

Only the hired help wore masks, because science.

As long as the servants are masked, the virus won’t spread amongst the elite. It’s just good science. pic.twitter.com/PUOhepKmlJ​

​

— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) May 1, 2022​

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Posting this for Profit of Doom who asked me to post this for him.

My comment: This is an interesting hypothesis, but I the ages of the patients with hepatitis range from 1 yr to 16 years. I don't remember seeing an age breakdown, but clearly a 16 year old wasn't breastfed in the last year. And from the reports (if you choose to believe them to be accurate) none of the patients have been vaccinated. But this is the theory of this author:

Sudden rise of unvaccinated children with liver damage, were breastfed (by fully vaccinated mothers)

www.investmentwatchblog.com

(fair use applies)

Sudden rise of unvaccinated children with liver damage, were breastfed (by fully vaccinated mothers)
April 28, 2022 8:10 am by IWB

The recent and sudden rise of liver damage and hepatitis in children seems to be affecting those between the ages of 1mo – 4 years of age.

What they arent telling the public is that the majority of the cases are those under 4 years of age who are breastfed and who have been actively breastfed (within the last 12 months). The children are unvaccinated, but the breastfeeding mothers (in 100% of the cases) have been vaccinated with at least 2 doses.

The incidences of hepatitis is also hitting the 11 – 16 year old age group, with the majority of the cases in that group having been vaccinated with at least one dose.

www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2022-DON376

www.gov.uk/government/news/increase-in-hepatitis-liver-inflammation-cases-in-children-under-investigation

www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/acute-hepatitis-of-unknown-aetiology—the-united-kingdom-of-great-britain-and-northern-ireland

news.sky.com/story/amp/a-3-year-old-girls-fight-for-her-life-after-contracting-hepatitis-and-the-warning-signs-to-look-for-12595733

News headlines and mainstream media titles are stating that unvaccinated children are getting hepatitis and liver damage from an unknown cause (or speculating adenoviruses as the cause) but fail to mention that actual case data shows that the WHO classifies children involved in this issue fall under the ages of 0 – 16 years of age, that the majority of cases are in the 1 month – 4 year old age group, and that 100% of the cases in that age range are being active breastfed (or have been breastfed within the last 12 months) by fully vaccinated mothers.

Half of US parents financially support their adult children, survey finds – Investment Watch

Example of dumb moms who got vaxxed then breastfed more and longer:

www.health.harvard.edu/blog/wondering-about-covid-19-vaccines-if-youre-breastfeeding-202109032584

Also note the studies show the breastfeeding mothers suffered adverse reaction rates of 60%

www.news-medical.net/news/20210429/Study-of-180-breastfeeding-mothers-after-mRNA-COVID-19-vaccination.aspx

Disclaimer: This is a guest post and it doesn’t necessarily represent the views of IWB.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1521127825889284097

View: https://twitter.com/NYCHealthCommr/status/1521127825889284097

(fair use applies)

THIS IS A TWITTER THREAD:

Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, MD, PhD
NYCHealthCommr
10:01 AM · May 2, 2022

UPDATE: The current COVID-19 Alert Level in NYC is now medium. This means the COVID-19 risk is increasing in NYC.

With COVID-19 cases rising, NYC has entered the Medium risk alert level. Cases have now surpassed a rate of 200 per 100,000 people. As a practical matter, what this means for New Yorkers is that they must exercise even greater caution than they have the last few weeks.

If you are at a higher risk for severe disease due to age, underlying health conditions or because you are unvaccinated, consider additional precautions such as avoiding crowded indoor gatherings.

We continue to strongly recommend all New Yorkers wear a mask in public indoor settings. Get tested before and after any gatherings, and if you test positive, call your doctor or 212-COVID19 to get evaluated for treatment.

Vaccination and boosters are as critical as ever. If you’re eligible for your booster, please, get the dose now. The coming weeks will be critical to slowing the spread of COVID-19 and getting back to a Low risk level so we can more safely enjoy our spring.

The steps you take to protect yourself also protect others, especially those most vulnerable. We have the tools we need to beat back this virus. We are in this together. By incorporating these steps into our daily lives, we can continue to look out for one another and ourselves.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Judicial Watch: Pfizer/BioNTech Study Found Lipid Nanoparticles Materials Outside Injection Site in Test Animals - Judicial Watch

Johnson & Johnson relied on studies showing that vaccine DNA particles and injected virus particles were still present in test animals months after injection(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it received 466 pages of records from the Department of Health and Human Services...

www.judicialwatch.org

(fair use applies)

PRESS RELEASE

Judicial Watch: Pfizer/BioNTech Study Found Lipid Nanoparticles Materials Outside Injection Site in Test Animals
May 02, 2022 | Judicial Watch

Johnson & Johnson relied on studies showing that vaccine DNA particles and injected virus particles were still present in test animals months after injection​

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it received 466 pages of records from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regarding biodistribution studies and related data for the COVID-19 vaccines that show a key component of the vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), were found outside the injection site, mainly the liver, adrenal glands, spleen and ovaries of test animals, eight to 48 hours after injection.

Pfizer/BioNTech’s mRNA-based COVID vaccine relies on LNPs as a delivery system. Pfizer said in a January 10, 2022 press release that Acuitas Therapeutics LNP technology is used in COMIRNATY, the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Judicial Watch also received 663 pages of records from HHS regarding biodistribution studies and related data for COVID-19 vaccines, which show that Johnson & Johnson relied on studies showing that vaccine DNA particles and injected virus particles were still present in test animals months after injection.

The records also show that Johnson & Johnson, as part of its submission to the FDA for approval of its COVID vaccine, did not include studies of the spike protein encoded in the J&J vaccine.

Biodistribution is a method of tracking where compounds of interest travel in an experimental animal or human subject.

Judicial Watch obtained the records in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 1:21-cv-02418)) filed after the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease failed to respond to a June 8, 2021, FOIA request for:

[A]ccess to biodistribution studies and related data for the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines used to treat and/or prevent SARS-CoV-2 and/or COVID-19.​

The Pfizer records include a report, which was approved in February 2021, on the animal trials on the distribution of the Pfizer COVID vaccine in rat subjects, in a section titled “Safety Pharmacology,” the report notes, “No safety pharmacology studies were conducted with BNT162b2 [the BioNTech vaccine] as they are not considered necessary for the development of vaccines according to the WHO guideline (WHO, 2005).” Similarly, under “Pharmacodynamic Drug Interactions,” is “Nonclinical studies evaluating pharmacodynamic drug interactions with BNT162b2 were not conducted as they are generally not considered necessary to support development and licensure of vaccine products for infectious diseases (WHO, 2005).”

This Pfizer report notes that when lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) “with a comparable composition,” to that used in the Pfizer COVID vaccine were injected into rats, “Total recovery (% of injected dose) of LNP outside the injection site was greatest in the liver and was much less in the spleen, adrenal glands, and ovaries.” … “in summary” … “the LNP distributes to the liver.” In the detailed analysis, the report states, “Over 48 hours, the LNP distributed mainly to liver, adrenal glands, spleen and ovaries, with maximum concentrations observed at 8-48 hours post-dose. Total recovery (% of injected dose) of LNP, for combined male and female animals, outside of the injection site was greatest in the liver (up to 18%) …”

This same Pfizer/BioNTech study notes “No genotoxicity studies are planned for BNT162b2 [the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine] as the components of the vaccine constructs are lipids and RNA and are not expected to have genotoxic potential (WHO, 2005).” Similarly, “Carcinogenicity studies with BNT162b2 have not been conducted as the components of the vaccine construct are lipids and RNA and are not expected to have carcinogenic or tumorigenic potential.”

The conclusion of the study begins: “The nonclinical program demonstrates that BNT162b2 is immunogenic in mice, rats, and nonhuman primates, and the toxicity studies support the licensure of this vaccine.” The report notes that “boost immunizations” were also being tested on the animals in the trial. Also, “Vaccine-related microscopic findings at the end of dosing for BNT162b2 were evident in injection sites and surrounding tissues, in the draining iliac lymph nodes, bone marrow, spleen, and liver.”

Also included in the Pfizer records is a report, approved in January 2021, titled “Pharmacokinetics Tabulated Summary.” A table in the report shows the biodistribution of lipid nanoparticles containing mRNA used in the vaccine using rats as the clinical trial subjects reports LNPs accumulating after 48 hours, especially in the lymph nodes, ovaries, small intestine and spleen.

A summary of a study, approved in November 2020, of LNP mRNA distribution in rats, sponsored by Acuitas Therapeutics, notes that the concentrations of the LNP mRNA saw “levels peaking in the plasma by 1-4 hours post-dose and distribution mainly into liver, adrenal glands, spleen and ovaries over 48 hours. Total recovery of radioactivity outside of the injection site was greatest in the liver, with much lower total recovery in spleen, and very little recovery in adrenals glands and ovaries. The mean plasma, blood and tissue concentrations and tissue distribution patterns were broadly similar between the sexes and … did not associate with red blood cells.”

A September 2020 “Confidential” appendix to the clinical trial studies submitted for the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine (BNT162b2), titled “Justification for the absence of studies in CTD Module 4 (part of 2.4)” notes under “Safety Pharmacology” that “No safety pharmacology studies were conducted as they are not considered necessary according to the WHO guideline (WHO, 2005).”

And under “Pharmacodynamic Drug Interactions,” is written: “Nonclinical studies evaluating pharmacodynamic drug interactions were not conducted as they are not generally considered necessary to support development and licensure of vaccine products for infectious diseases (WHO, 2005).”

Under the heading “Genotoxicity,” is: “No genotoxicity studies are planned for BNT162b2 as the components of the vaccine constructs are lipids and RNA that are not expected to have genotoxic potential (WHO, 2005).”

Regarding “Carcinogenicity (including supportive toxicokinetics evaluations)” is written:

Carcinogenicity studies with BNT162b2 have not been conducted as the components of the vaccine constructs are lipids and RNA that are not expected to have carcinogenic or tumorigenic potential. Carcinogenicity testing is generally not considered necessary to support the development and licensure of vaccine products for infectious diseases (WHO, 2005).​

In a “Confidential” Pfizer study, approved in April 2020, looking at four COVID vaccine variants, the company tested a vaccine with an RNA strand “that self-amplifies upon entering the cell.” It “encodes the Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDRP or replicase).”

In the same Pfizer study, the authors note that, “Although liver function tests will be carefully monitored during the clinical development of these vaccines, BioNTech’s prior clinical experience indicates that the distribution to the liver does not pose a safety concern.”

Also, the Pfizer study authors note, “Based on previous nonclinical and clinical experience with the three RNA platforms, a beneficial safety profile is anticipated, and may include transient local reactions (such as swelling/edema or redness) and body temperature increases.”

The Johnson & Johnson records include a 2007 study of the biodistribution of an intramuscular-administered adenovector-based viral vaccine using New Zealand white rabbits, which showed that the vaccine accumulated in “the spleen, iliac lymph node, and the muscle at the site of injection.”

A biodistribution table included as an appendix to the 2007 rabbit study showed that the vaccine DNA particles were still present in the iliac lymph nodes 91 days after injection.

A chart of pharmacokinetics data from a November 2020 report of a study on “VAC31518 JNJ-78436735,” the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, on rabbits shows collection of the injected virus particles in the spleen and iliac lymph nodes up to three months later, as well as particles found in the skin and muscle at the injection site.

In a November 4, 2020, report submitted to the FDA regarding the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine, the authors discuss the 2007 New Zealand rabbit study in which adenovirus-vectored vaccine is trialed, but note that “No pharmacokinetic or biodistribution studies have been conducted with AD26.COV2.S specifically.”

The report notes that metabolism, excretion, and pharmacokinetic interactions with other drugs were not studied in this trial because they are “Not applicable to vaccines.” It is also noted that “biodistribution studies have not been conducted with Ad26.COV2.S.”

A table in the report shows that the vaccine virus continued to appear in the rabbits’ iliac lymph nodes 180 days after injection.

A June 2020 “Pharmacokinetics Written Summary” for the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines notes that:

Ad26COVS1 (also known as VAC31518 or JNJ-78436735) is a monovalent, recombinant replication-incompetent adenovirus type 26 (Ad26) vectored vaccine encoding a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Spike protein…. No specific pharmacokinetic studies have been performed with Ad26COVS1. However, to assess distribution, persistence, and clearance of the Ad26 vector (platform), biodistribution studies were conducted in rabbits using two other Ad26-based vaccines encoding [redacted] and [redacted] antigens…. [T]he available biodistribution results are considered sufficient to inform on the biodistribution profile of Ad26COVS1, for which the same Ad26 vector backbone is used.​

“These documents show why many Americans have concerns about whether the novel COVID vaccines that were developed at such an accelerated pace were tested properly and thoroughly,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

​

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Shanghai Lockdowns Used to ‘Test People’s Stress Tolerance Levels’, Insider Says

www.theepochtimes.com

(fair use applies)

Shanghai Lockdowns Used to ‘Test People’s Stress Tolerance Levels’, Insider Says
By Ben Liang and Kane Zhang
May 3, 2022

Despite having Vice Premier Sun Chunlan overseeing the process of eliminating COVID from Shanghai, the situation has not been going as smoothly as Beijing would have expected.

With a population of 26 million people, Shanghai is now going into its fifth straight week of city-wide lockdown in accordance with Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s “Dynamic zero-COVID” policy, an extreme and aggressive form of lockdown aimed to eliminate coronavirus transmission.

However, with rising levels of public outrage and wide-scale tragedies caused by such extreme measures, some officials claim that the perplexing situation in Shanghai stems from its political significance to Xi.

The Epoch Times recently interviewed an anonymous official of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who expressed the following views on the current situation in Shanghai, based on his knowledge of some inside information.

First, the extreme measures are to test people’s stress tolerance levels.

“Beijing is preparing for an isolationist foreign policy, potential implementation of martial law, and epidemic concentration camps. The situation in Shanghai is to test the people’s reactions and the effectiveness of its policies in maintaining stability in China,” the official said.

Second, “Lying flat” officials (those who do nothing) could collapse the regime.

“A declining economy causes less damage to the regime than CCP officials refusing to work more than the bare minimum required, which is what we’re seeing in Shanghai right now. Officials either refused to fully comply with Beijing, or they went far beyond what Beijing wanted.”

Thirdly, Omicron cannot be eliminated, the official said.

“Obviously, Omicron cannot be eliminated, just like how we never eliminated influenza. It’s impossible, and everyone knows it won’t happen. However, if we take the approach of coexisting with the virus, then it means Xi’s ‘Dynamic zero-COVID’ policy was a failure. That’s the biggest problem.”

Fourth, Li Qiang, a member of the CCP’s Politburo and current Party Committee Secretary of Shanghai, will have to bear the consequence.

“The Shanghai municipal government did call the CCP State Council to set up an ‘Epidemic Special Zone’ for the Shanghai outbreak. As the current Party Committee Secretary of Shanghai, Li would have to take the blame for all the extreme COVID-19 policies’ side effects, so he is trying to set up a special zone to enact a somewhat more flexible COVID-19 approach,” the official said.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Bill Gates Proposes Global Surveillance Pact With WHO to Spot Pandemic Threats

www.theepochtimes.com

(fair use applies)

Bill Gates Proposes Global Surveillance Pact With WHO to Spot Pandemic Threats
By Jack Phillips
May 2, 2022

Former world’s richest man Bill Gates called for a global surveillance team headed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to spot pandemic threats.

Speaking to the Financial Times over the past weekend, the Microsoft co-founder said that more money is needed to prevent a future pandemic from emerging. At the same time, Gates claimed that he believes WHO is the only organization that can run such an operation.

Gates warned that as the conflict in Ukraine dominates international policies, leaders shouldn’t lose focus on COVID-19, the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

“It seems wild to me that we could fail to look at this tragedy and not, on behalf of the citizens of the world, make these investments,” Gates told the paper. “The amount of money involved is very small compared to the benefit and it will be a test: can global institutions take on new responsibilities in an excellent way, even in a time period where U.S.-China [relations are] tough, U.S.-Russia is extremely tough?” he also asked.

Gates then claimed that “less [sic] than 10 full-time people” are working on pandemic preparedness at WHO, saying that “those people are distracted with many other activities.”

“The current WHO funding is not at all serious about pandemics,” added Gates, who is due to release a book titled “How to Prevent the Next Pandemic.”

Since the start of the pandemic, Gates has repeatedly touted vaccines. But in February 2022, the billionaire asserted that the Omicron COVID-19 variant moved faster than vaccines in creating a higher level of natural immunity.

“Sadly, the virus itself, particularly, the variant called omicron, is a type of vaccine, that is, it creates both B-cell and T-cell immunity, and it’s done a better job getting out to the world population than we have with vaccines,” he said at the time. “That means the chance of severe disease, which is mainly associated with being elderly and having obesity or diabetes, those risks are now dramatically reduced because of that infection, exposure.”

In 2020, former President Donald Trump said the United States would halt funding to WHO and said that the U.N. health organization “failed in its basic duty and it must be held accountable.” WHO, he added at the time, promoted the CCP’s disinformation about COVID-19, which likely led to a more significant outbreak than would have otherwise occurred amid reports that WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has a cozy relationship with the Chinese regime.

Later, WHO again courted controversy after it blamed animals for the initial COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, amid allegations that the virus may have emerged from a top-security bioresearch laboratory located in the city. The WHO largely based its report’s conclusion on the organization’s own investigative efforts in January and February 2021 as critics noted that the CCP played a role in the probe.

The Epoch Times has contacted WHO for comment.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Federal Panel Recommends Against Use of Ivermectin to Treat COVID-19

www.theepochtimes.com

(fair use applies)

Federal Panel Recommends Against Use of Ivermectin to Treat COVID-19
By Jack Phillips
May 2, 2022

For the first time, a federal health panel has recommended against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19, despite reports that it’s successfully been used to treat the illness.

In a statement published last week, the National Institute of Health’s COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel said that as the “safety and efficacy of ivermectin for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 have been evaluated in clinical trials and observational cohorts,” it “recommends against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19, except in clinical trials.”

Ivermectin, which is generally well-tolerated and has mild side effects, was primarily developed to treat several tropical diseases and parasites, including onchocerciasis, helminthiases, and scabies. But since the start of the pandemic, some COVID-19 patients said they saw positive results after taking the drug. Meanwhile, a Japanese study published in January suggests the drug has an antiviral effect against the Omicron variant, although another clinical, peer-reviewed study found the medication “did not prevent” severe instances of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel said it doesn’t recommend ivermectin after evaluating the “results of several randomized trials and retrospective cohort studies” among COVID-19 patients.

“Most of these studies, especially studies completed earlier in the pandemic,” according to the board, “had incomplete information and significant methodological limitations, which made excluding common causes of bias difficult. Many of these studies have not been peer-reviewed, and some have now been retracted.”

Meanwhile, the panel said there are several drugs that “now have demonstrated clinical benefit for the treatment of COVID-19,” further rendering ivermectin—which is a relatively inexpensive drug—unnecessary.

Over the course of the pandemic, a number of mainstream news outlets described the drug as a “horse dewormer,” despite its decades-long usage among people to treat parasites and other tropical diseases. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also courted controversy with a Twitter post last year that used similar language, amid reports that some people were using the livestock version of the drug.

Despite the federal government’s recommendations against the drug, some states have approved legislation allowing its usage. In March, the New Hampshire Legislature passed a bill allowing its purchase without a prescription. Similar measures are being considered in Alaska, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Indiana.

“House Republicans sent a clear message today that we support expanding options for the treatment of COVID,” state Rep. Leah Cushman, a Republican, told The Epoch Times at the time.

Side effects of the drug include confusion, loss of control over body movement, weakness, low blood pressure, seizures, gastrointestinal distress, dizziness, vision symptoms, or rash.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euZxczXTvSM
Northern hemisphere good news
23 min 11 sec
May 2, 2022
Dr. John Campbell

Covid symptom tracker data https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qsd4... Cases down in all age groups and regions R = 0.8 One in 20 people currently infected (government cases about 20% of infections) https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk Symptoms Runny nose, 84% Fatigue, 72% Sore throat, 69% Sneezing, 69% Headache, 68% Persistent cough, 57% Hoarse, 49% Chills or shivers, 37% Joint pains, 34% Dizzy, 32% Fever, 31% Brain fog, 29% Sore eyes, 27% Altered smell, 26% Muscle pains 23% Lower back pain, 23% Swollen glands, 21% Skipped meals, 19% Ear ringing, (Tinnitus) 19% Diarrhoea Tinnitus N = 5,000 Couple of days Exacerbation Moderate / intermittent 50% of weeks or months Cancer, menopause, childhood viral hepatitis

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Coronavirus Particles Likely Travel Farther Than Thought – Infectious Up to 200 Feet

A study raises questions about how far droplets, like those that carry the virus that causes COVID-19, can travel before becoming harmless. A modeling study raises concerns about how far respiratory droplets may travel before becoming harmless, such as those that transmit the virus that causes CO

scitechdaily.com

(fair use applies)

Coronavirus Particles Likely Travel Farther Than Thought – Infectious Up to 200 Feet
By Tom Rickey, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
May 2, 2022

A study raises questions about how far droplets, like those that carry the virus that causes COVID-19, can travel before becoming harmless.

A modeling study raises concerns about how far respiratory droplets may travel before becoming harmless, such as those that transmit the virus that causes COVID-19. Is it possible for virus-carrying airborne particles to stay infectious for more than 200 feet, or more than the length of a hockey rink?

Experiments going back to the 1930s suggested that respiratory droplets, such as those produced by a sneeze or cough, have two paths. Either they are large and heavy, tumbling to the ground with little possibility of infecting another person, or they are small and light. Or they’re so small and light that they dry up nearly instantly, allowing them to stay airborne but rapidly become harmless. The dryness prevents “enveloped” viruses such as coronaviruses from spreading.

However, a recent study by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory offers a third possibility: microscopic respiratory particles may stay wet and airborne for longer periods of time and travel further than previously thought.

“There are reports of people becoming infected with a coronavirus downwind of an infected person or in a room several minutes after an infected person has exited that room,” said Leonard Pease, the corresponding author of the study. The findings were published in the February issue of the journal International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer.

“The idea that enveloped virions may remain well hydrated and thus fully infective at substantial distances is consistent with real-world observations. Perhaps infectious respiratory droplets persist longer than we have realized,” Pease added.
The PNNL team took a long look at the mucus that coats the respiratory droplets that people spew from their lungs.
Scientists know that mucus allows many viruses to travel further than they otherwise would, enabling them to journey from one person to another.

Conventional wisdom has been that very small, aerosolized droplets of just a few microns, like those produced in the lungs, dry out in air almost instantly, becoming harmless. But the PNNL team found that mucus changes the equation.
The team found that the mucus shell that surrounds respiratory droplets likely reduces the evaporation rate, increasing the time that viral particles within the droplets are kept moist. Since enveloped viruses like SARS-CoV-2 have a fatty coating that must be kept moist for the virus to be infectious, the slower evaporation allows viral particles to be infectious longer.

The team estimates that droplets encased in mucus could remain moist for up to 30 minutes and travel up to about 200 feet.

“While there have been many factors proposed as variables in how COVID spreads,” said Pease, “mucus remains largely overlooked.”

Authors of the paper include Pease and Nora Wang Esram, Gourihar Kulkarni, Julia Flaherty and Carolyn Burns.

Viral journeys between offices

The focus on mucus helps address another question: how the virus moves in a multiroom office building.

Hitching a ride within respiratory droplets is the first step for the virus to become airborne and infect those who breathe it in. Chemist Carolyn Burns had the task of creating artificial, respiratory-like droplets to study how the particles moved from room to room.

Ultimately, Burns settled on two substances to carry artificial virus-like particles. One was bovine mucus; the other was sodium alginate, a compound derived from brown seaweed. The compound is commonly used as a thickening agent in foods like ice cream and cheese.

The team used an airbrush to disperse droplets in one room of a multiroom laboratory building. Together, the droplets and airbrush simulated a person’s coughing fit, releasing particles for about one minute in a source room. A team led by Alex Vlachokostas and Burns measured droplet levels in two adjoining rooms with controlled building ventilation.

The team’s experimental findings, published on January 19, 2022, in the journal Indoor Air, echo the findings of its previous modeling study, published last year in the journal Building and Environment.

The scientists found that both low and high levels of filtering were effective at reducing levels of respiratory droplets in all rooms. Filtration quickly cut down the levels of droplets in the adjoining rooms—within about three hours, to one-third the level or less without filtration.

The team also found that increasing ventilation rapidly reduced particle levels in the source room. But particle levels in the other connected rooms jumped immediately; levels spiked 20 to 45 minutes later with vigorous air changes increasing the spike. Ultimately, after the initial spike, levels of droplets in all the rooms gradually dropped after three hours with filtration and after five hours without it.

The scientists say that increased air exchange for crowded spaces may be beneficial in certain situations, like large conferences or school assemblies, but in normal work and school conditions, it may actually increase transmission rates throughout all rooms of a building.

“If you’re in a downstream room and you’re not the source of the virus, you probably are not better off with more ventilation,” said Pease.

Authors of the Indoor Air paper include Burns, Vlachokostas and Pease as well as Timothy Salsbury, Richard C. Daniel, Daniel P. James, Julia E. Flaherty, Nora Wang Esram, Ronald M. Underhill and Gourihar Kulkarni.

Both projects were funded through the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory, a consortium of all 17 DOE national laboratories focused on response to COVID-19, with funding provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The projects are among several studies at PNNL to learn more about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19.

References: “A missing layer in COVID-19 studies: Transmission of enveloped viruses in mucus-rich droplets” by Leonard F. Pease, Na Wang, Gourihar R. Kulkarni, Julia E. Flaherty and Carolyn A. Burns, 9 November 2021, International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer.

DOI: 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2021.105746

“Experimental evaluation of respiratory droplet spread to rooms connected by a central ventilation system” by Alex Vlachokostas, Carolyn A. Burns, Timothy I. Salsbury, Richard C. Daniel, Daniel P. James, Julia E. Flaherty, Na Wang, Ronald M. Underhill, Gourihar Kulkarni and Leonard F. Pease, 19 January 2022, Indoor Air.

DOI: 10.1111/ina.12940

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Researchers Discover Pathways to Severe COVID-19 in Children – Paving Way for Earlier Diagnosis and Treatment

Researchers have uncovered the blood clotting and immune protein pathways that are activated in severe cases of COVID-19 in children, enabling the possibility of earlier diagnosis and more targeted treatments. The study led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and the University of

scitechdaily.com

(fair use applies)

Researchers Discover Pathways to Severe COVID-19 in Children – Paving Way for Earlier Diagnosis and Treatment
By Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI)
May 2, 2022

Researchers have uncovered the blood clotting and immune protein pathways that are activated in severe cases of COVID-19 in children, enabling the possibility of earlier diagnosis and more targeted treatments.

The study led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and the University of Melbourne and published today (May 2, 2022) in the journal Nature Communications, has identified disease mechanisms in children with COVID-19 who present with multisystem inflammatory syndrome, where different body parts can become inflamed including the heart, lungs, and brain and acute respiratory distress syndrome, a type of lung disease.

MCRI researcher and University of Melbourne PhD student Conor McCafferty said the main triggers for severe COVID-19 in children were blood clotting and how proteins in the immune system reacted to the virus.

“Children are in general less susceptible to COVID-19 and present with milder symptoms, but it remained unclear what caused some to develop very severe disease,” he said.

“Our research was the first to uncover the specific blood clotting and immune protein pathways impacted in children with COVID-19 who developed serious symptoms.”
For the study, blood samples from 20 healthy children were collected at The Royal Children’s Hospital and samples from 33 SARS-CoV-2 infected children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome or acute respiratory distress syndrome were collected from the Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, Greater Paris University Hospitals.

Professor Damien Bonnet, from the Hôpital Necker–Enfants Malades, Greater Paris University Hospitals, said collecting samples to further describe the mechanisms of these syndromes and establishing worldwide collaborations were considered key issues to improve treatment and outcomes.

The research found 85 proteins were specific to multisystem inflammatory syndrome and 52 proteins were specific to acute respiratory distress syndrome. Both syndromes are major potential outcomes of severe COVID-19.
Mr. McCafferty said the discoveries were possible due to proteomics, an experimental approach that allowed the researchers to investigate almost 500 proteins circulating in the blood at once.

Data shows 1.7 percent of reported pediatric hospitalized cases of COVID-19 included admission to the Intensive Care Unit. Children with COVID-19 who present with multisystem inflammatory syndrome also show similar clinical features to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome such as fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, skin rash and conjunctivitis, making it difficult to quickly diagnose patients.

MCRI Professor Vera Ignjatovic said the results provided an understanding of the processes that underly severe COVID-19 in children, which would help in the development of diagnostic tests for early identification of children at risk, as well as therapeutic targets to improve the outcomes for those with severe cases.

“Knowing the mechanisms associated with severe COVID-19 in children and how the blood clotting and immune systems in children react to the virus will help diagnose and detect acute COVID-19 cases and allow us to develop targeted treatment,” she said.

Researchers from the Australian Proteome Analysis Facility in Sydney also contributed to the study.

Reference: “‘Pathophysiological pathway differences in children who present with COVID-19 ARDS compared to COVID-19 induced MIS-C” by Conor McCafferty, Tengyi Cai, Delphine Borgel, Dominique Lasne, Sylvain Renolleau, Meryl Vedrenne-Cloquet, Damien Bonnet, Jemma Wu, Thiri Zaw, Atul Bhatnagar, Xiaomin Song, Suelyn Van Den Helm, Natasha Letunica, Chantal Attard, Vasiliki, Karlaftis, Slavica Praporski, Vera Ignjatovic and Paul Monagle, 2 May 2022, Nature Communications.

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29951-9

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

COVID-19 research campaign moves from basic science to antiviral drug design

Developing new drugs that remain potent against emerging variants of COVID-19 is essential to stopping the spread of the highly contagious disease and protecting human health.

medicalxpress.com

(fair use applies)

COVID-19 research campaign moves from basic science to antiviral drug design
by Jeremy Rumsey,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
May 2, 2022



ORNL researchers have developed hybrid molecules in an effort to design new drugs to treat COVID-19. The experimental molecules combine components from drugs used to treat hepatitis C (boceprevir) and the original coronavirus outbreak (GC-376). Here, the BBH-1 hybrid molecule binds to the SARS-CoV-2 enzyme to block the virus’s ability to reproduce. Credit: ORNL/Jill Hemman

Developing new drugs that remain potent against emerging variants of COVID-19 is essential to stopping the spread of the highly contagious disease and protecting human health.

After more than two years studying SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are now designing and testing small-molecule antivirals that block the virus's ability to reproduce. Along with their collaborators at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), France, the researchers showed that their antiviral molecules are similarly as effective as some of the leading drugs on the market today.

The antiviral molecules, called hybrid inhibitors, are made from repurposed drugs used to treat hepatitis C and SARS-CoV (the coronavirus that broke out in 2002).

The team's encouraging research results, published in the journal Nature Communications, indicate the novel antiviral molecules are worth further development for potential use as new drugs to treat various forms of the virus.

"From the beginning, our research has revolved around the main protease, which is an enzyme inside SARS-CoV-2 that enables the virus to reproduce. If you shut down the protease, you shut down the virus," said Daniel Kneller, the paper's lead author.

The SARS-CoV-2 main protease is shaped like a Valentine's heart. On its surface are pockets that can bind long chains of amino acids expressed by the virus. The protease is responsible for cutting, or dividing, those chains, which is how the virus reproduces.

To better understand how the protease works, the researchers used a combination of X-rays and neutron experiments at ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) and High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) to create a comprehensive 3-dimensional map of every atom in the protease structure. Next, they charted the vast network of hydrogen bonds that hold the protease together.

They also plotted the location of each pocket where the cutting process occurs and discovered the sites where the amino acid chains get cut are electrically charged. Knowing the positive, negative, and neutral electrical charges of the amino acid sites is key to designing antiviral molecules that bind tightly to the protease structure. The more tightly the molecules bind, the more effective they are at stopping the protease.

With the experimental data in hand, the researchers pivoted to investigating antiviral hepatitis C drugs that could potentially be redesigned, or repurposed, to block the SARS-CoV-2 protease. The team studied three hepatitis C drugs approved by the Federal Drug Administration—boceprevir, narlaprevir, and telaprevir. Neutron scattering experiments revealed that the SARS-CoV-2 protease has the unique ability to shape-shift and alter its electrical charge states to conform to whatever drug molecule is being introduced. The unforeseen discovery had not been predicted by computer simulations and provided another key piece of insight into designing new drug molecules that bind specifically to the target.

Putting it all together

"This study is the culmination of everything we've learned up to this point. In it, we took the best parts of the hepatitis C drugs and created three new molecules and tested them on SARS-Cov-2's protease," said Kneller.

Each drug molecule has what's called a warhead that links directly to the amino acid site where the natural chemical reaction would occur. Ideally, when the warhead binds to the amino acid site, the resulting combination of the enzyme and the inhibitor should closely represent the natural one.

"What we found in our previous studies is that when the telaprevir binds, the warhead has a neutral charge and actually faces away from the special amino acid site where interactions would be strong," said ORNL senior scientist Andrey Kovalevsky. "So this time, we designed hybrid inhibitors to provide the exact linkage we needed to establish tight interactions between the inhibitors and the protease."

This time, neutron scattering experiments were conducted using the LADI-DALI beamline at the ILL nuclear reactor to expedite the measurements of the molecular binding interactions between the three hybrid inhibitors and the SARS-CoV-2 protease. Because neutrons are nondestructive and highly sensitive to light elements such as hydrogen, they provide a powerful tool for studying complex biological processes.

"Neutrons enabled us to see for the first time these very strong binding interactions the hybrid molecules form with the protease. These specific features of their design could be incorporated in the development of new drugs that would potentially be more effective against viral replication," said ILL instrument scientist Matthew Blakeley. "No other experimental technique can provide this level of detail, which is precisely what is needed to truly understand how these molecules work."

Additional experiments were performed by researchers at the National Institutes of Health using in vitro enzyme kinetics to study the inhibitors in test tube solutions. These tests also confirmed strong binding interactions, which were closely comparable to some of the leading COVID-19 drugs now on the market.

Samples of the inhibitor molecules and SARS-CoV-2 protease used in the experiments were synthesized and developed at ORNL's Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) and Center for Structural Molecular Biology.

"We've shown tremendous capabilities in our ability to provide fundamental knowledge about an emerging disease and apply that to expediting the timeline to realizing effective treatments," said Kovalevsky. "This is a big step forward not only in fighting COVID-19, but hopefully our research will translate to similar challenges we may face in the future."

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

COVID-19: How vaccination and previous infections also help fight against omicron

The omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has caused another major wave of infection worldwide. This is because even vaccinated individuals or those who had contracted a previous variant of the virus can become infected with omicron. Nevertheless, severe courses are relatively rare. Scientists at the...

medicalxpress.com

(fair use applies)

COVID-19: How vaccination and previous infections also help fight against omicron
by University of Freiburg
May 2, 2022


Boosted vaccine- and infection-induced spike-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell responses. a,b, Number, location and percentages of spike-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell responses to OLPs that are detectable in SARS-CoV-2 vaccinees after the second versus after the third dose of Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine (bnt162b2, measured 2–4 weeks after vaccination) (a) and in SARS-CoV-2 convalescent individuals who subsequently received a single dose of Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA boost vaccination (bnt162b2, measured 2 weeks after vaccination) (b). The heatmaps depict the data of one representative individual each. Targeted epitopes with sequence variations in Omicron/B.1.1.529, BA.1 are marked in red. c,d, Vaccinees and convalescent individuals with CD8+ (c) and CD4+ (d) T-cell responses within and outside highly conserved selective sweep regions in the spike protein are shown. Statistical analysis was performed with a two-sided Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test. Credit: Nature Microbiology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41564-022-01106-y

The omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has caused another major wave of infection worldwide. This is because even vaccinated individuals or those who had contracted a previous variant of the virus can become infected with omicron. Nevertheless, severe courses are relatively rare. Scientists at the Medical Center–University of Freiburg have now broken down in detail how the cross-variant protection against infection or severe disease progression arises. The researchers published their results on April 28, 2022 in the online edition of the journal Nature Microbiology.

"We were able to show in our study that memory T cells formed after vaccination or infection with an earlier SARS-CoV-2 variant can also recognize the omicron variant very well and protect against a severe course of infection," explains co-study leader Dr. Maike Hofmann, who heads a research group in the Department of Internal Medicine II at the Medical Center–University of Freiburg. Hofmann will be awarded the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize by the German Research Foundation next week for her research. "The binding ability of the antibodies to the omicron variant is greatly reduced. Therefore, even after a vaccination booster, they protect only quite briefly against infection with the omicron variant," Hofmann adds.

Immune response differs in vaccinated and recovered individuals

The scientists also investigated possible differences in the immune responses of the recovered and the vaccinated. "Both groups have a broad T-cell response: in recovered individuals, the T-cells recognize multiple viral proteins. In the vaccinated, the immune response is essentially directed against the spike protein, which is, after all, made from the mRNA vaccine in the body and then causes the immune response. The T-cell response against the spike protein is broader and stronger in vaccinated individuals than in recovered individuals," reports co-study leader Prof. Dr. Christoph Neumann-Haefelin, head of the Gerok Liver Center at the Medical Center–University of Freiburg. "If recovered persons are vaccinated, T-cell responses also turn out to be more diverse, thus increasing protection against severe disease progression in future infections," says Neumann-Haefelin.

Two of the first authors of this work are the two young scientifically active physicians Dr. Julia Lang-Meli and Dr. Hendrik Luxenburger. They are supported, among other things, by the "Clinician Scientist" program IMM-PACT at the Medical Center–University of Freiburg, which is funded by the German Research Foundation. It allows young physicians to be released for research. "These important results have only been possible thanks to the close networking of clinic and research," emphasizes Prof. Dr. Robert Thimme, Medical Director of the Department of Internal Medicine II at the Medical Center–University of Freiburg.

"In the public perception, the immune response against SARS-CoV-2 is often reduced to the formation of antibodies. The study that has now been published makes a significant contribution to providing a more complete picture of immune protection in the context of SARS-CoV-2," says Prof. Dr. Lutz Hein, Dean of the Medical Faculty at the University of Freiburg.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Taking lessons from 1918 flu pandemic, new article shows that plant-based diets reduce risks of severe COVID-19

Plant-based diets support immunity, which may decrease the risk of severe COVID-19 infection, according to a new article by researchers at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and published today by the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. The article explores lessons learned...

medicalxpress.com

(fair use applies)

Taking lessons from 1918 flu pandemic, new article shows that plant-based diets reduce risks of severe COVID-19
by Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
May 2, 2022

Plant-based diets support immunity, which may decrease the risk of severe COVID-19 infection, according to a new article by researchers at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and published today by the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. The article explores lessons learned from the H1N1 influenza outbreak of 1918.

"In looking for solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic, we found important lessons in the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 1918–1919," reports Hana Kahleova, MD, Ph.D., director of clinical research at the Physicians Committee and author of the article. "During that pandemic, the best outcomes were reported by a Seventh-day Adventist seminary, where a plant-based diet of grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables was provided."

Other recent studies comparing nutrition to COVID-19 outcomes show similar results with plant-based diets supporting a lower risk for moderate-to-severe COVID-19 symptoms. One study with almost 600,000 participants showed that those with a high consumption of fruits and vegetables had a reduced risk of COVID-19 of any severity by 9% and a reduced risk of severe COVID-19 by 41%. Another study in health care workers who were frequently exposed to COVID-19 in their clinical practice has demonstrated that those who reported being on a plant-based diet had a 73% lower risk of moderate-to-severe COVID-19.

Plant-based foods are rich in nitrates and antioxidants which support heart health and improved immunity against respiratory infections.

Dr. Kahleova also recently published the results of a clinical research study conducted by the Physicians Committee that found a plant-based diet helped hospital workers in Washington, D.C., improve their health and quality of life during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Based on the lessons from 1918 and the recent nutrition research in COVID-19, it seems probable that a healthful plant-based diet is a powerful tool to decrease the risk of severe COVID-19," Dr. Kahleova says. "For this reason, plant-based nutrition should be promoted as one of the key public health measures in reducing the spread of COVID-19 and fighting today's pandemic."

 

[ainitfunny]

Yes, of course I believe this, which perfectly intersects with your agenda to prohibit meat allegedly to "save the earth" so OF COURSE WE HAVE TO CONVINCE THE PEOPLE THAT THE PANDEMIC WILL GET THEM IF THEY EAT MEAT!! FEAR! FEAR! FEAR!
B***S*** !

 

[Dozdoats]

Moderna Poised to Commit Infanticide - LewRockwell

Moderna is officially coming for toddlers and infants under five. The company submitted a formal request with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), claiming the vaccine is 51% effective among toddlers under two and 37% effective in the two to five-year-old range. Instead of the standard...

www.lewrockwell.com

Moderna Poised to Commit Infanticide
By Martin Armstrong

Armstrong Economics

May 3, 2022

Moderna is officially coming for toddlers and infants under five. The company submitted a formal request with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), claiming the vaccine is 51% effective among toddlers under two and 37% effective in the two to five-year-old range. Instead of the standard two-100 microgram doses, the youngest among the population will receive two 25-microgram doses.

“I think it is likely that over time they will need additional doses. But we’re working on that,” Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Paul Burton stated.

They will continue to force vaccines on everyone in the population. There is no telling the long-term effects of injecting a gene-altering medication into a baby, but Big Pharma is willing to risk lives for profits and government is will risk lives to retain control over a scared and uninformed population. Only 475 children under five have died from COVID, according to the Associated Press. There is absolutely no need for a vaccination for this demographic.

There are reports of babies dying through breast milk contaminated with the vaccination. Countless top doctors have warned against vaccinating children in general. Even the World Health Organization has even admitted that healthy adolescents do not need boosters, despite Pfizer filing a claim to have theirs approved for the five to twelve-year-old kids. Not to be outdone, Pfizer said it will have a vaccine for babies by the summer.

Since parents are reluctant to destroy their child’s development, the powers that be will continue to force mandates. They will push for universal passports to document everyone, including the youngest, most vulnerable members of society. They want us to inject ourselves repeatedly from birth until death for a virus that even Fauci no longer calls a pandemic.

Reprinted with permission from Armstrong Economics.

 

[Tristan]

New Book Packed With Evidence on Hushed COVID-19 Treatments

www.theepochtimes.com

(fair use applies)

New Book Packed With Evidence on Hushed COVID-19 Treatments
Recent studies confirm effectiveness of treatments like zinc, ivermectin—just like Dr. Colleen Huber said 2 years ago
BY Kristen Fischer
April 30, 2022

Recent developments in treating COVID-19, especially in terms of existing therapeutics, are validating what doctors like Colleen Huber knew all along: masks, distancing, ventilators, and vaccines couldn’t resolve the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, Huber, a naturopathic medical doctor based in Arizona, published “The Defeat of COVID: 500+ Medical Studies Show What Works & What Doesn’t.” The book details research on COVID-19 treatments and strategies—everything from zinc and hydroxychloroquine to social distancing and masking. She shares studies that explore the effectiveness of the various treatments, preventative measures, and interventions.

The book pays homage to doctors who have tried to promote early treatment using existing medications, vitamins, and supplements—folks like Dr. Vladimir Zelenko and the America’s Frontline Doctors team.

Some of the treatments that many doctors recommended after reviewing the available research include ivermectin, zinc, Azithromycin (Z-Pak), vitamins D and C, as well as turmeric, quercetin, and melatonin.

Many doctors were met with aggressive responses when they endorsed such treatments—or even sought more research to explore their effectiveness on COVID-19. Some doctors had their careers threatened and the mainstream media accused many of them of spreading “misinformation.”

“Countless more scientists and physicians and journalists around the world have faced ostracism by their peers when attempting to objectively view and disseminate data regarding COVID-19 and its impacts,” Huber wrote in the book.

Now, two years after the pandemic began, Huber sees more evidence coming out that the aforementioned treatments are quite effective in treating COVID-19. This comes as the government largely continues to push the vaccine despite reports that it’s not as effective as originally stated and vaccine injury cases mount.

Intel Core i5-6500
The Defeat of COVID: 500+ medical studies show what works & what doesn’t By Colleen Huber, 2021

Defeating COVID Head-On

Huber did more than compile a book of research about all the treatments somehow underreported by government and media. She actually treated COVID-19 patients—in person—throughout the pandemic.

“None of the people who came to me with COVID were hospitalized or needed urgent care or died. Not even one person. All recovered uneventfully,” Huber told The Epoch Times.

In Arizona, where Huber is licensed, naturopaths are primary care physicians required to learn, and then licensed to practice, conventional medicine as well as clinical nutrition, botanical medicine, clinical psychology, minor surgery and more. While some states license naturopathic doctors and have strict requirements, others do not.

In Arizona, these doctors are specialists in holistic diagnosis and natural therapeutics. “These physicians are trained to seek out the least invasive intervention required to effect a cure. Often, this is possible with diet counseling and lifestyle modification,” notes the Arizona Naturopathic Medical Association website.

Sharing Information

Even though her book is circulating, Huber said many people have not seen it. In general, people don’t know how easy it is to treat the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19.

“COVID is easily defeated, very easily defeated,” said Huber. “I knew that back in early 2020, but not everybody did.”

In the book she says SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 “don’t stand a chance against vitamin D or zinc or vitamin C or hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin.”

Huber, who sees the book as a “public service,” hopes people are waking up to the fact that there’s plenty of evidence supporting the solutions in the book.

“I think many people have begun to see that they were lied to by authority figures,” Huber said.

She believes people desire the vaccine less after seeing how many people actually got it, and hearing about how many vaccinated individuals wound up getting the virus. More information continues to pour in about the dangers of the COVID-19 vaccine, such as it’s links to clots, heart inflammation, and cancer. Now we are also hearing about the harms of treatments like Remdesivir.

“Mainstream narrative credibility is sinking very quickly,” she said.

I kinda get the idea that "Defeating the disease Head-on" wasn't the plan, wouldn't ever be the plan, and maybe, just maybe, would have ruined 'The Plan'.

 

[thompson]

Mandatory Mask Theater Returns, CDC Announces Long Term Extension for Biden Transporation Mask Mandate, No Expiration Date, Planes, Trains and Busses - The Last Refuge

Previously a federal judge overturned the federal mask mandate for transportation, thereby allowing travelers to make their own choices. The DOJ has appealed that decision after the CDC said it wanted the mask mandate to remain in place. The status of that litigation is unknown. Today, the CDC...

theconservativetreehouse.com

Mandatory Mask Theater Returns, CDC Announces Long Term Extension for Biden Transporation Mask Mandate, No Expiration Date, Planes, Trains and Busses

May 3, 2022 | Sundance | 156 Comments

Previously a federal judge overturned the federal mask mandate for transportation, thereby allowing travelers to make their own choices. The DOJ has appealed that decision after the CDC said it wanted the mask mandate to remain in place. The status of that litigation is unknown.

Today, the CDC has announced a semi-permanent extension of the federal transportation mask mandate with no expiration date noted. [Announcement Here] That means all travelers on airplanes, trains, busses and ridesharing will be required to wear facemasks again, including inside the terminals and operational hubs of those transportation nodes, pending the outcome of the DOJ appeal to the federal court.

CDC Announcement – “At this time, CDC recommends that everyone aged 2 and older – including passengers and workers – properly wear a well-fitting mask or respirator over the nose and mouth in indoor areas of public transportation (such as airplanes, trains, etc.) and transportation hubs (such as airports, stations, etc.).

[…] This public health recommendation is based on the currently available data, including an understanding of domestic and global epidemiology, circulating variants and their impact on disease severity and vaccine effectiveness, current trends in COVID-19 Community Levels within the United States, and projections of COVID-19 trends in the coming months.

[…] “CDC continues to recommend that all people—passengers and workers, alike—properly wear a well-fitting mask or respirator in indoor public transportation conveyances and transportation hubs to provide protection for themselves and other travelers in these high volume, mixed population settings. […] Additionally, it is important for all of us to protect not only ourselves, but also to be considerate of others at increased risk for severe COVID-19 and those who are not yet able to be vaccinated. Wearing a mask in indoor public transportation settings will provide protection for the individual and the community.” ~ Rochelle Walensky, CDC Director

If the Biden administration lose the court appeal to reinstitute the mask mandate, this announcement by the CDC would appear to be moot, they couldn’t enforce it. However, if the Biden administration is successful in their appeal, the mandatory mask wearing returns.

Put another way….. If the Biden administration lose the appeal, the people wearing masks will be the COVID worshippers. If the Biden administration win their appeal we all have to wear them.

The mandate created by Joe Biden did not have legal structure. It was a dictatorial fiat that exceeded the capacity of the executive branch to create. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle found the CDC exceeded its statutory authority with the mask mandate and violated the rules that guide CDC regulations. {LINK} After Joe Biden arbitrarily announced the federal transportation mandate, the CDC triggered enforcement of the mask mandate without any required time for public feedback on a new regulation.

Congress could easily write a law authorizing mechanisms for the CDC and TSA to use in enforcement of a federal Transportation mask mandate; but they won’t – because the public doesn’t support it. However, the Biden administration doesn’t care about majority public opinion, they are fine-tuned to push virtue signaling as a political strategy.

The White House is very committed to all their mandates around COVID-19, the mask mandate is no different. From the perspective of the professional political left, the theater of forced mask wearing represents the visible power and authority of government to rule the lives of the irrelevant proles.

Any pesky legal rulings, that seek to reduce or remove the power of government, are viewed by the left as arbitrary and insignificant efforts to block their almighty power of government. They can choose to wear a mask if they want, but that’s not really the issue behind the mask mandate. The true power of the left is in the ability to force everyone to comply to their whims regardless of individual freedom.

The Covidians who define themselves by their adherence to the dictates of the U.S. government, will be happy with this position from the CDC today. They worship at the altar of COVID science and use masks as an expression of their sanctimonious feeling of superiority. However, in an election year where the overwhelming majority of the American people have had enough of this political science, this CDC position may fuel an even more angry response.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Coronavirus | Just The News

justthenews.com

Mandatory Mask Theater Returns, CDC Announces Long Term Extension for Biden Transporation Mask Mandate, No Expiration Date, Planes, Trains and Busses - The Last Refuge

Previously a federal judge overturned the federal mask mandate for transportation, thereby allowing travelers to make their own choices. The DOJ has appealed that decision after the CDC said it wanted the mask mandate to remain in place. The status of that litigation is unknown. Today, the CDC...

theconservativetreehouse.com

Mandatory Mask Theater Returns, CDC Announces Long Term Extension for Biden Transporation Mask Mandate, No Expiration Date, Planes, Trains and Busses

May 3, 2022 | Sundance | 156 Comments

Previously a federal judge overturned the federal mask mandate for transportation, thereby allowing travelers to make their own choices. The DOJ has appealed that decision after the CDC said it wanted the mask mandate to remain in place. The status of that litigation is unknown.

Today, the CDC has announced a semi-permanent extension of the federal transportation mask mandate with no expiration date noted. [Announcement Here] That means all travelers on airplanes, trains, busses and ridesharing will be required to wear facemasks again, including inside the terminals and operational hubs of those transportation nodes, pending the outcome of the DOJ appeal to the federal court.

CDC Announcement – “At this time, CDC recommends that everyone aged 2 and older – including passengers and workers – properly wear a well-fitting mask or respirator over the nose and mouth in indoor areas of public transportation (such as airplanes, trains, etc.) and transportation hubs (such as airports, stations, etc.).

[…] This public health recommendation is based on the currently available data, including an understanding of domestic and global epidemiology, circulating variants and their impact on disease severity and vaccine effectiveness, current trends in COVID-19 Community Levels within the United States, and projections of COVID-19 trends in the coming months.

[…] “CDC continues to recommend that all people—passengers and workers, alike—properly wear a well-fitting mask or respirator in indoor public transportation conveyances and transportation hubs to provide protection for themselves and other travelers in these high volume, mixed population settings. […] Additionally, it is important for all of us to protect not only ourselves, but also to be considerate of others at increased risk for severe COVID-19 and those who are not yet able to be vaccinated. Wearing a mask in indoor public transportation settings will provide protection for the individual and the community.” ~ Rochelle Walensky, CDC Director

If the Biden administration lose the court appeal to reinstitute the mask mandate, this announcement by the CDC would appear to be moot, they couldn’t enforce it. However, if the Biden administration is successful in their appeal, the mandatory mask wearing returns.

Put another way….. If the Biden administration lose the appeal, the people wearing masks will be the COVID worshippers. If the Biden administration win their appeal we all have to wear them.

The mandate created by Joe Biden did not have legal structure. It was a dictatorial fiat that exceeded the capacity of the executive branch to create. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle found the CDC exceeded its statutory authority with the mask mandate and violated the rules that guide CDC regulations. {LINK} After Joe Biden arbitrarily announced the federal transportation mandate, the CDC triggered enforcement of the mask mandate without any required time for public feedback on a new regulation.

Congress could easily write a law authorizing mechanisms for the CDC and TSA to use in enforcement of a federal Transportation mask mandate; but they won’t – because the public doesn’t support it. However, the Biden administration doesn’t care about majority public opinion, they are fine-tuned to push virtue signaling as a political strategy.

The White House is very committed to all their mandates around COVID-19, the mask mandate is no different. From the perspective of the professional political left, the theater of forced mask wearing represents the visible power and authority of government to rule the lives of the irrelevant proles.

Any pesky legal rulings, that seek to reduce or remove the power of government, are viewed by the left as arbitrary and insignificant efforts to block their almighty power of government. They can choose to wear a mask if they want, but that’s not really the issue behind the mask mandate. The true power of the left is in the ability to force everyone to comply to their whims regardless of individual freedom.

The Covidians who define themselves by their adherence to the dictates of the U.S. government, will be happy with this position from the CDC today. They worship at the altar of COVID science and use masks as an expression of their sanctimonious feeling of superiority. However, in an election year where the overwhelming majority of the American people have had enough of this political science, this CDC position may fuel an even more angry response.

I don't think the CDC can "mandate" masks now that they lost in court (unless overturned on appeal). This is a 'recommendation'. I wonder if the airlines will mandate it in accordance with the recommendation. I think, but could be wrong, that a private company can ask for masks, but the gov't can't force it unless the court ruling is overturned on appeal.

HD

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

MIT study finds COVID vaccines 'significantly associated' with jump in emergency heart problems

Israeli data on 16-39 year-olds adds fuel to campaigns against coerced jabs. Italian court strikes down mandate, and U.S. pilots accuse FAA of ignoring severe adverse reactions among pilots.

justthenews.com

(fair use applies)

MIT study finds COVID vaccines 'significantly associated' with jump in emergency heart problems
Israeli data on 16-39 year-olds adds fuel to campaigns against coerced jabs. Italian court strikes down mandate, and U.S. pilots accuse FAA of ignoring severe adverse reactions among pilots.
By Greg Piper
Updated: May 3, 2022 - 11:32pm

COVID-19 vaccination was "significantly associated" with a 25% jump in emergency medical services (EMS) for heart problems in 16-39 year-olds in Israel, whose vaccination rate is among the world's highest, according to a peer-reviewed study by MIT researchers.

Published last week in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, the study found no association with COVID infections, however.

"While not establishing causal relationships, the findings raise concerns regarding vaccine-induced undetected severe cardiovascular side-effects and underscore the already established causal relationship between vaccines and myocarditis, a frequent cause of unexpected cardiac arrest in young individuals," the study says.

The research adds more fuel to the legal and grassroots campaigns against compelled vaccination.

An Italian administrative court deemed a vaccine mandate on nursing students unconstitutional, citing nearly 10,000 reported deaths from various COVID vaccines in the European Medicines Agency's EudraVigilance monitoring system, but referred the case to the country's Constitutional Court. (The new MIT study also mentions EudraVigilance.)

Published in late March, the 53-page ruling only drew attention in the U.S. last week when an anti-vaccine mandate group translated a portion. Just the News ran the ruling through Google Translate, which said in part the reported death count exceeds the "normal and, therefore, tolerable" risk permitted under vaccine mandates.

https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2022-05/Italian-court-ruling-vaccine-mandate.pdf

Meanwhile, American Airlines pilot Robert Snow blamed his cardiac arrest six minutes after landing a 200-passenger flight April 9 on his compelled vaccination in November. "I will probably never fly again" due to FAA health criteria for pilots, he said in a video from the ICU in Dallas. "This is the actual result of the vaccine for some of us."

Anti-mandate pilot group U.S. Freedom Flyers accused the Federal Aviation Administration of turning a blind eye to the risks of adverse events from COVID vaccines, both to pilots jabbed against their will and crew and passengers on their flights.

The FAA didn't answer Just the News on whether it's investigating the Snow incident, and if not, how it differs from other health-related incidents it would investigate, but pointed to an FAQ on COVID vaccines for pilots and air traffic controllers.

"The FAA's Federal Air Surgeon determined in December 2020 and February 2021 that pilots and air traffic controllers can safely receive the Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson vaccine," the agency said in a prepared statement. "The FAA has seen no evidence of aircraft accidents or pilot incapacitations caused by pilots suffering medical complications associated with COVID-19 vaccines."

U.S. Freedom Flyers is "informally" collecting adverse event reports from pilots and working with doctors, statisticians and scientists to come up with good estimates of their frequency, cofounder Joshua Yoder told Just the News Tuesday. "We know we have a major problem on our hands" quantifying the problem.

Yoder recently told the Vaccine Safety Research Center that cardiologist Peter McCullough, formerly vice chief of internal medicine at Baylor University Medical Center, told him around 30% of pilots would be sidelined if they were screened for vaccine-induced heart conditions with McCullough's recommended protocol.

The MIT study's corresponding author is management professor Retsef Levi, also a member of Israel's Public Emergency Council for the Coronavirus Crisis. He and McCullough both spoke at the Academy for Science and Freedom inaugural conference on censorship in science in March.

The study notes Israel's Ministry of Health has already assessed a myocarditis risk in 16-24 year-old males of between 1 in 3,000 and 1 in 6,000 after the second mRNA dose, and 1 in 120,000 for under-30 males.

The study analyzed calls to the Israel National EMS data system from Jan. 1, 2019 through June 20, 2021. This represents a 14-month "normal period" before the pandemic, 10-month pre-vaccination, dual-wave "pandemic period," and six months of vaccination.

The breakdown shows how cardiac arrest (CA) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) calls, confirmed on site by first responders, "change over time with different background conditions and potentially highlight factors that are associated with the observed temporal changes."

Researchers excluded CA calls related to trauma, overdose or suicide, and the protocols were the same for the full 30-month study period, "allowing for a consistent comparison between the call counts during the baseline, pandemic, and vaccination periods."

The vaccine rollout period for 16-39 year-olds, January-May 2021, coincided with the third COVID wave in Israel. It showed a "statistically significant increase of over 25%" for both kinds of calls compared to the same period in 2020.

For CA specifically, there was "no statistically significant difference in the respective call volume" between full-year 2019 and 2020. For ACS, the "significant relevant increase" in that full-year period (15.8%) was outpaced by the January-May 2021 increase (26%).

The researchers said the January 2021 increase "seems to track closely the administration of 2nd dose vaccines," while a second observed increase starting April 18 "seems to track an increase of single-dose vaccination to individuals who recovered from COVID-19 infections." (The Israel Ministry of Health approved the latter for ages 16 and up in early March 2021.)

Females unexpectedly had a higher jump in calls: 31% for CA and 41% for ACS, compared to increases for males of 25% CA and 21% ACS. This may indicate a "potential underdiagnosis or under-self-reporting of myocarditis in females," according to the study, which was exempt from review by MIT's Institutional Review Board.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Rand Paul vows he'll get committee chair, lead COVID origins probe if GOP takes Senate in midterms

Kentucky senator has long questioned the origins of the virus, as well as the U.S. government's relationship to gain-of-function research.

justthenews.com

(fair use applies)

Rand Paul vows he'll get committee chair, lead COVID origins probe if GOP takes Senate in midterms
Kentucky senator has long questioned the origins of the virus, as well as the U.S. government's relationship to gain-of-function research.
By Sophie Mann
Updated: May 3, 2022 - 3:18pm

Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, who has doggedly challenged public health establishment policies and narratives associated with COVID-19, says he'll lead a Senate investigation into the origins of the virus if Republicans win control of the chamber in November.

Paul made the statement over the weekend at a rally in which he also told the crowd he'll be the chairman of the Senate Health committee.

"When we take over in November, I will be chairman of a committee, and I will have subpoena power," Paul said. "And we will get to the bottom of where this virus came from."

When the minority party takes control of a congressional chamber, the chairmanship historically goes to whoever was the top minority member on that committee. The current ranking member is North Carolina GOP Sen. Richard Burr, who is not seeking reelection.

It was unclear Tuesday morning whether Senate Republican leadership has promised the post to Paul, who is a medical doctor.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's communications director, David Popp, did not respond Tuesday to a question by Just the News about whether leadership had promised Paul the post.

Since the first virus cases were reported, Paul has attempted to learn whether Chinese researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology genetically modified a virus that then leaked from the lab and caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
"If you look at the evidence, overwhelmingly, not 100%, but overwhelmingly, the evidence points to this virus being a leak from a lab," Paul said this past weekend.

Paul has frequently clashed with Dr. Anthony Fauci over what the lawmaker has framed as a coordinated attempt by various members of the federal public health establishment to cover up the U.S. connection to the Wuhan lab as well as the consequences of gain-of-function research. Fauci has always denied that the government funds or has funded gain-of-function research in China.

The Chinese government has consistently stonewalled attempts from foreign governments and international bodies to investigate the origin of the virus. Paul, as head of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, would likely push for a more aggressive effort to get to the bottom of the virus outbreak.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

COVID-19 Vaccine Can Trigger Acute Hepatitis: Case Report

www.theepochtimes.com

(fair use applies)

COVID-19 Vaccine Can Trigger Acute Hepatitis: Case Report
By Gabrielle Stephenson
May 3, 2022

A recent case report about a man who received an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine suggests that taking the vaccine “may trigger immune-mediated hepatitis,” researchers wrote.

The case report does not indicate how common such a case would be, although researchers said that such a scenario is recognized as a “rare adverse event not identified in early trials.”

The report, published in the Journal of Hepatology in late April, describes the case of a man in Germany aged 52 who developed acute hepatitis—liver inflammation—two to three weeks after having received an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech (the BNT163b2 vaccine).

Researchers said they found that highly-activated T cells “accumulate and are evenly distributed in the different areas” of the man’s liver after he took the COVID-19 vaccine and developed acute hepatitis. T cells are a type of white blood cell that comprise a key part of the immune system. These cells focus on fighting new infections.

The patient experienced nausea and fatigue about 10 days after his first dose of the vaccine, and was subsequently found to have acute hepatitis. The hepatitis resolved on its own after about three days. He had a second dose of the vaccine 41 days after his first dose. Symptoms of nausea and fatigue returned 20 days later—he was given an oral steroid medication and initially improved. He relapsed 39 days later, after which he was successfully treated with systemic immunosuppressive therapy that also included steroids. The man’s liver function tests “subsequently normalized within 8 weeks.”

Researchers said the man’s immune response to the COVID-19 vaccine may have contributed to his liver inflammation. The COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer “may trigger immune-mediated hepatitis by mechanisms linked to vaccine-induced cellular immunity,” they said in the case report.

Within the T cells that were found in the liver, the scientists observed “an enrichment of T cells that are reactive to SARS-CoV-2, suggesting that these vaccine-induced cells can contribute to the liver inflammation in this context.”

Specifically, the type of T cell called CD8 T cells “represented the most abundant immune cell subset” found in the liver. “Our analysis highlights that activated cytotoxic CD8 T cells including vaccine-induced spike-specific CD8 T cells could contribute to disease pathogenesis,” researchers wrote.

“Based on their strong enrichment … we speculated that CD8 T cells could be drivers of the hepatic inflammation.”
The authors called the case one that appears to be autoimmune hepatitis, but is not.

“Autoimmune-hepatitis-like disease after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 is now recognized as a rare adverse event not identified in early trials,” they wrote. “The widespread use of the vaccine with administration of hundreds of million doses worldwide raises also questions of causality vs. coincidence.”

The authors wrote it is important to differentiate autoimmune hepatitis from hepatitis triggered by immune responses after COVID-19 vaccination; the former requires lifelong immunosuppressive therapy in many patients, while the latter is possibly transient, they noted.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Study Claiming Unvaccinated Increase COVID-19 Risk for Vaccinated Based on 'Flawed' Modelling: Experts

www.theepochtimes.com

(fair use applies)

Study Claiming Unvaccinated Increase COVID-19 Risk for Vaccinated Based on ‘Flawed’ Modelling: Experts
By Isaac Teo
May 3, 2022

A team of experts from different fields, including medical statisticians and a medical anthropologist, has rebutted a recent article published in a Canadian medical journal that defends the use of COVID-19 vaccine mandates by claiming that a mathematical model shows unvaccinated people increase the risk of infection among the vaccinated.

“It is especially problematic that a modelling paper so detached from reality contains such explicit and strong condemnation of ‘the unvaccinated,’” said James Doidge, a senior medical statistician from the UK’s Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre, along with his fellow contributors, in a reply posted on the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) website on April 28.

“The potential for this work to foster social division and misplaced anger and blame is at odds with public health ethics.”

The experts were responding to the article, titled “Impact of population mixing between vaccinated and unvaccinated subpopulations on infectious disease dynamics: implications for SARS-CoV-2 transmission,” published by a group of Canadian scientists in the CMAJ on April 25.

The article argued that vaccinated people who mix with those who are not vaccinated have a significantly greater chance of being infected than those who stick with people who have received the shot.

In contrast, unvaccinated people’s risk of contracting COVID-19 drops when they spend time with people who are vaccinated, because they serve as a buffer to transmission, according to the mathematical model used in the study.
The study concluded that the choice to get vaccinated can’t be thought of as merely personal, but is something to be done collectively for the sake of public health.

“The choice of some individuals to refuse vaccinations is likely to affect the health and safety of vaccinated people in a manner disproportionate to the fraction of unvaccinated people in the population,” the article said.

‘Oversimplification’

Doidge and his team disagreed with the study’s conclusion. He argued that the model used in the study is “founded on an assumption that even the authors don’t believe,” in a tweet on May 1.

The team of experts said the article presented an “oversimplification of a complex epidemiological, social, and bioethical issue.”

“The findings are predetermined by the authors’ own model design choices; something that should never occur in science. That the authors make strong ethical and political claims that feed existing social polarization makes the flawed design even more problematic,” they said.

The model categorizes people into three groups, namely: susceptible to infection, infected and infectious, and recovered from infection with immunity. The study’s authors treated immunity after vaccination as an “all-or-none phenomenon,” which means people who receive the shots are assumed to enter the model in the immune state whereas those who didn’t will continue to be labelled as susceptible to infection.

The model does not take into consideration waning immunity.

“By ignoring waning immunity (from both vaccination and prior infection), the authors have constructed a model in which herd immunity always occurs, leaving some residual proportion of the population uninfected indefinitely,” Doidge and his team said, questioning how the omission of scientific facts would influence the outcome of the mathematical model.

The article additionally asserts that “nonvaccination is expected to result in amplification of disease transmission in unvaccinated subpopulations” and “heightens the risk of vaccinated populations,”—a theory the experts disagreed with.

“In this hypothetical scenario, it is a foregone conclusion that if one group with high baseline immunity is mixed with another group of lower baseline immunity then a greater proportion of the high-immunity group will become infected before herd immunity is achieved, than if they had not mixed,” the team wrote. “This is nothing more than dilution.”

The team argued that using the same logic, the model will produce a “flawed” conclusion should the immunity of the unvaccinated be set to a higher value in the calculation.

“The model contains two crucial parameters: ‘vaccine efficacy’ and ‘baseline immunity in unvaccinated’. If these are set to any combination where the latter is higher, then the findings are reversed; the vaccinated increase risk for the unvaccinated. Obviously, both conclusions are similarly flawed,” they said.

‘Thinly Veiled Hate Speech’

Dr. Byram Bridle, a viral immunologist and associate professor at the University of Guelph, said the article is “only thinly veiled hate speech under the guise of science,” filled with “massive errors.”

“Most of the people that remain ‘unvaccinated’ are not ‘anti-vaccine’ by any stretch of the imagination,” said Bridle in his newsletter published on Substack on April 26.

“Due to critical thinking and following the science, they are not in support of the current crop of COVID-19 jabs. Remember, the definition of a vaccine was changed to accommodate these jabs. They are nothing like any of the historically mandated vaccines, such as those used in the childhood immunization series.”

Bridle said the article has incorrectly assumed that COVID-19 vaccines offer full immunity against the virus and that the booster shots provide restored protection against the Omicron variant.

“Yet the ‘real world’ data clearly show that the boosted sub-population is being diagnosed with disproportionately more cases than the ‘not fully vaccinated’ group, which includes the ‘unvaccinated’ and people who received a single dose,” he said, citing the number of COVID-19 cases by vaccination status from the website of the Ontario Ministry of Health on April 26.

“Why would someone want to take a booster and more than double their risk of getting diagnosed with COVID-19?!?”

Bridle also noted that the article did not mention the safety issues surrounding the vaccines, and that it assumed the baseline immunity among the unvaccinated to be only 20 percent when another peer-reviewed paper “estimate[d] that between 90 percent and 99 percent of adults show positive antibody reactivity for SARS-CoV-2 spike, RBD, or the N antigen.”

Doidge and his team said the authors not only did not consider the “vast difference” in health care demand between an 18-year-old and a comorbid 80-year-old in the modelling, but their calls for vaccine mandates failed to acknowledge that these same policies “helped to ignite nation-wide protest.”

“The combination of deeply flawed modelling, moral condemnation and politicisation should be sufficient to retract a paper published in Canada’s preeminent medical journal,” they said.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

German Study: Number of Those Suffering Severe Complications After Taking COVID Vaccine Is 40 Times Higher Than Previously Recorded | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hoft

A new German study with around 40,000 participants concluded that severe complications after receiving the COVID vaccine.

www.thegatewaypundit.com

(fair use applies)

German Study: Number of Those Suffering Severe Complications After Taking COVID Vaccine Is 40 Times Higher Than Previously Recorded
By Jim Hoft
Published May 3, 2022 at 7:22pm

A new German study with around 40,000 participants concluded that severe complications after receiving the COVID vaccine.

The study found that those suffering serious complications is 40 times higher than previously recorded.

NEW – “The number of severe complications after vaccination against Sars-CoV-2 is 40 times higher than previously recorded by the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI),” a study with around 40,000 participants by the Berlin Charité concludes.Corona-Impfung: Charité-Forscher fordert Ambulanzen für Impfgeschädigte | MDR.DE​

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) May 3, 2022​

Germany’s MDR.de reported:

“The number of severe complications after vaccination against Sars-CoV-2 is 40 times higher than previously recorded by the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI),” a study with around 40,000 participants by the Berlin Charité concludes.​

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A study on side effects after corona vaccinations is being carried out at the Charite in Berlin. Professor Harald Matthes is leading the study and is calling for more contact points for those affected.​

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The number of serious complications after vaccinations against Sars-CoV-2 is 40 times higher than previously recorded by the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI). This is one of the results of a long-term observational study by the Berlin Charité. Study director Professor Harald Matthes is now calling for more contact points for those affected.​

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Study with around 40,000 participants​

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The study “Safety Profile of Covid-19 Vaccines” (“ImpfSurv” for short), which focuses on the effects and side effects of the various vaccines, has been running for a year. Around 40,000 vaccinated people are interviewed at regular intervals throughout Germany. Participation in the study is voluntary and independent of how the vaccines work in the subjects.​

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One result: eight out of 1,000 vaccinated people struggle with serious side effects. “The number is not surprising,” explains Prof. Dr. Harald Matthes, head of the study: “It corresponds to what is known from other countries such as Sweden, Israel or Canada. Incidentally, even the manufacturers of the vaccines had already determined similar values in their studies.” With conventional vaccines, such as against polio or measles, the number of serious side effects is significantly lower.​

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my comment:​

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Link to article run through google translate:​

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Corona-Impfung: Charité-Forscher fordert Ambulanzen für Impfgeschädigte | MDR.DE

An der Charite in Berlin wird eine Studie zu Nebenwirkungen nach Corona-Impfungen durchgeführt. Professor Harald Matthes leitet die Studie und fordert mehr Anlaufstellen für Betroffene.

www-mdr-de.translate.goog

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