CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

[Heliobas Disciple]

Japan's PM Kishida isolates with COVID-19, cancels travels

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and canceled his planned travels while he isolates and recuperates. Kishida developed a slight fever and cough late Saturday and a PCR test for the coronavirus was positive, said Noriyuki Shikata, the cabinet...

apnews.com

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Japan’s PM Kishida isolates with COVID-19, cancels travels
By YURI KAGEYAMA
today

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and canceled his planned travels while he isolates and recuperates.

Kishida developed a slight fever and cough late Saturday and a PCR test for the coronavirus was positive, said Noriyuki Shikata, the cabinet secretary for public affairs at the prime minister’s office.

“Prime Minister Kishida is isolated inside his residence,” he told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The 65-year-old prime minister was on summer vacation last week and was scheduled to return to work Monday. It’s not clear where or how he was infected.

Kishida won’t go in person to a conference on African development later this month in Tunisia but will participate online. He also postponed his trip to the Middle East.

Cases of coronavirus infections have been surging recently in Japan, although most people — including Kishida — have been vaccinated. Other world leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and recovered.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

I was just wondering this this morning reading all the different new and reemerging diseases we've seen this year and then I saw this article so posting it here even though it's not really about covid.

There Will Be Pestilences: Authorities Don't Understand Why So Many Vile Diseases Are Suddenly Erupting Around The World

Why are we seeing so many unusual outbreaks of disease in 2022? Coming into this year, there was just one major outbreak that everyone was talking about. But then 2022 came along, and all of a sudden it seemed like there was a new disease in the news every month. First, an eruption of the ...

endoftheamericandream.com

(fair use applies)



There Will Be Pestilences: Authorities Don’t Understand Why So Many Vile Diseases Are Suddenly Erupting Around The World
Michael Snyder
August 21, 2022

Why are we seeing so many unusual outbreaks of disease in 2022? Coming into this year, there was just one major outbreak that everyone was talking about. But then 2022 came along, and all of a sudden it seemed like there was a new disease in the news every month. First, an eruption of the bird flu spread like wildfire and that resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of our chickens and turkeys. Then monkeypox took the world by storm. It has spread to nearly 100 different countries, and it is now the worst monkeypox outbreak in history by a very wide margin. And now more weird diseases are popping up. Earlier this month, I wrote an article about the appearance of “Langya henipavirus” in China and the case of polio that was just detected in New York, and in this article I will be telling you about even more strange outbreaks that are deeply alarming global authorities.

For example, a very mysterious virus that is being called “the tomato flu” has started to spread in India…

Doctors in India have sounded the alarm over a new virus dubbed ‘tomato flu’ that has infected dozens of children.​

​

The infection was spotted in May in the southern state of Kerala and it is feared to be a new variant of hand, foot, and mouth disease.​

There are a couple of things about this that caught my attention right away.

First of all, I think that it is very noteworthy that this has happened in India. There are more than a billion people in that nation, and many of them live in extremely overcrowded urban areas.

Secondly, this is yet another disease that causes sores on the skin. In fact, the sores can actually grow until they are “the size of a tomato”…

The infection gained its name because it causes an ‘eruption’ of red painful blisters across patients’ bodies that ‘gradually enlarge to the size of a tomato’.​

​

Most patients also suffer high fever and intense joint pain, but fatigue, sickness and diarrhoea have also been reported.​

Could you imagine having sores that grow to be the size of tomatoes all over your body?

I get grossed out just thinking about that.

We are being told that this disease appears to be “very contagious”, and at this point there is no known cure…

There is currently no test or treatment for the virus.​

​

Medics say all patients should be isolated for five to seven days from symptom onset and told to rest, drink plenty of fluids and take paracetamol.​

Right now, authorities have no idea where this disease came from or why it has suddenly erupted.

And that should deeply concern all of us.

Meanwhile, three people have already died in Tanzania from an outbreak of a disease known as “leptospirosis”…

A deadly outbreak of an unknown disease in Tanzania has been identified as leptospirosis, health officials said.​

​

More than 20 cases, including three deaths, have been reported in the southern Lindi region, with patients exhibiting symptoms similar to Ebola or Marburg virus diseases — fever, headache, fatigue and bleeding, especially from the nose, according to health officials. Preliminary results from laboratory testing earlier this month had ruled out Ebola and Marburg viruses as well as COVID-19, making the illness a mystery — until now.​

Since this particular outbreak is limited to a particular geographic area, hopefully it can be contained.

Because this is a disease that doesn’t sound fun at all. The following information about leptospirosis comes from the CDC…

Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease that affects humans and animals. It is caused by bacteria of the genus Leptospira. In humans, it can cause a wide range of symptoms, some of which may be mistaken for other diseases. Some infected persons, however, may have no symptoms at all.​

​

Without treatment, Leptospirosis can lead to kidney damage, meningitis (inflammation of the membrane around the brain and spinal cord), liver failure, respiratory distress, and even death.​

Elsewhere in Africa, it appears that there is yet another outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo…

The Democratic Republic of Congo is investigating a suspected case of Ebola in its violence-wracked east, the World Health Organization said Saturday, just weeks after the end of a previous epidemic.​

​

The DRC early last month declared its latest Ebola outbreak over, more than two months after the virus re-emerged in the northwestern Equateur province.​

​

There were four confirmed cases and one probable case—all of whom died—in what WHO said was the country’s 14th outbreak since the disease was discovered there in 1976.​

The good news is that Ebola has never spread very easily among humans.

So we have never seen a true global outbreak of the disease.

But we didn’t think that there would ever be a true global outbreak of monkeypox, and now thousands upon thousands of people are deeply suffering all over the world.

Authorities can’t seem to explain why monkeypox has changed so dramatically.

And they also can’t seem to explain why so many strange diseases have been suddenly breaking out all over the globe this year.

Even here in the United States, really weird things are happening. For instance, we just learned that an 8-year-old boy in Nebraska was just killed by a “brain-eating amoeba”…

An 8-year-old boy has died in Nebraska after reportedly becoming infected with the brain-eating amoeba. If confirmed, this would be the first case in the state ever recorded and suggests the Naegleria fowleri is expanding further north in the U.S.​

​

The boy, Easton Gray, was likely exposed to the amoeba when he went swimming in the Elkhorn River near Valley—a community located west of Omaha—on August 8, according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.​

We were warned that this era in history would be a time of great pestilences, and it is happening right in front of our eyes.

And unfortunately, what we have experienced so far is just the beginning.

Every single day, mad scientists are monkeying around with the most virulent diseases ever known to humanity in secret labs all over the planet.

And in many of those cases, they are purposely trying to make those diseases even more deadly.

It is often said that “accidents happen”, and I have a feeling that we are going to see a lot more “accidents” in the days ahead.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Polio in US, UK and Israel reveals rare risk of oral vaccine

LONDON (AP) — For years, global health officials have used billions of drops of an oral vaccine in a remarkably effective campaign aimed at wiping out polio in its last remaining strongholds — typically, poor, politically unstable corners of the world.

apnews.com

(fair use applies)


Polio in US, UK and Israel reveals rare risk of oral vaccine
By MARIA CHENG
yesterday

LONDON (AP) — For years, global health officials have used billions of drops of an oral vaccine in a remarkably effective campaign aimed at wiping out polio in its last remaining strongholds — typically, poor, politically unstable corners of the world.

Now, in a surprising twist in the decades-long effort to eradicate the virus, authorities in Jerusalem, New York and London have discovered evidence that polio is spreading there.

The original source of the virus? The oral vaccine itself.

Scientists have long known about this extremely rare phenomenon. That is why some countries have switched to other polio vaccines. But these incidental infections from the oral formula are becoming more glaring as the world inches closer to eradication of the disease and the number of polio cases caused by the wild, or naturally circulating, virus plummets.

Since 2017, there have been 396 cases of polio caused by the wild virus, versus more than 2,600 linked to the oral vaccine, according to figures from the World Health Organization and its partners.

“We are basically replacing the wild virus with the virus in the vaccine, which is now leading to new outbreaks,” said Scott Barrett, a Columbia University professor who has studied polio eradication. “I would assume that countries like the U.K. and the U.S. will be able to stop transmission quite quickly, but we also thought that about monkeypox.”

The latest incidents represent the first time in several years that vaccine-connected polio virus has turned up in rich countries.

Earlier this year, officials in Israel detected polio in an unvaccinated 3-year-old, who suffered paralysis. Several other children, nearly all of them unvaccinated, were found to have the virus but no symptoms.

In June, British authorities reported finding evidence in sewage that the virus was spreading, though no infections in people were identified. Last week, the government said all children in London ages 1 to 9 would be offered a booster shot.

In the U.S., an unvaccinated young adult suffered paralysis in his legs after being infected with polio, New York officials revealed last month. The virus has also shown up in New York sewers, suggesting it is spreading. But officials said they are not planning a booster campaign because they believe the state’s high vaccination rate should offer enough protection.

Genetic analyses showed that the viruses in the three countries were all “vaccine-derived,” meaning that they were mutated versions of a virus that originated in the oral vaccine.

The oral vaccine at issue has been used since 1988 because it is cheap, easy to administer — two drops are put directly into children’s mouths — and better at protecting entire populations where polio is spreading. It contains a weakened form of the live virus.

But it can also cause polio in about two to four children per 2 million doses. (Four doses are required to be fully immunized.) In extremely rare cases, the weakened virus can also sometimes mutate into a more dangerous form and spark outbreaks, especially in places with poor sanitation and low vaccination levels.

These outbreaks typically begin when people who are vaccinated shed live virus from the vaccine in their feces. From there, the virus can spread within the community and, over time, turn into a form that can paralyze people and start new epidemics.

Many countries that eliminated polio switched to injectable vaccines containing a killed virus decades ago to avoid such risks; the Nordic countries and the Netherlands never used the oral vaccine. The ultimate goal is to move the entire world to the shots once wild polio is eradicated, but some scientists argue that the switch should happen sooner.

“We probably could never have gotten on top of polio in the developing world without the (oral polio vaccine), but this is the price we’re now paying,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “The only way we are going to eliminate polio is to eliminate the use of the oral vaccine.”

Aidan O’Leary, director of WHO’s polio department, described the discovery of polio spreading in London and New York as “a major surprise,” saying that officials have been focused on eradicating the disease in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where health workers have been killed for immunizing children and where conflict has made access to some areas impossible.

Still, O’Leary said he is confident Israel, Britain and the U.S. will shut down their newly identified outbreaks quickly.

The oral vaccine is credited with dramatically reducing the number of children paralyzed by polio. When the global eradication effort began in 1988, there were about 350,000 cases of wild polio a year. So far this year, there have been 19 cases of wild polio, all in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Mozambique.

In 2020, the number of polio cases linked to the vaccine hit a peak of more than 1,100 spread out across dozens of countries. It has since declined to around 200 this year so far.

Last year, WHO and partners also began using a newer oral polio vaccine, which contains a live but weakened virus that scientists believe is less likely to mutate into a dangerous form. But supplies are limited.

To stop polio in Britain, the U.S. and Israel, what is needed is more vaccination, experts say. That is something Columbia University’s Barrett worries could be challenging in the COVID-19 era.

“What’s different now is a reduction in trust of authorities and the political polarization in countries like the U.S. and the U.K.,” Barrett said. “The presumption that we can quickly get vaccination numbers up quickly may be more challenging now.”

Oyewale Tomori, a virologist who helped direct Nigeria’s effort to eliminate polio, said that in the past, he and colleagues balked at describing outbreaks as “vaccine-derived,” wary it would make people fearful of the vaccine.

“All we can do is explain how the vaccine works and hope that people understand that immunization is the best protection, but it’s complicated,” Tomori said. “In hindsight, maybe it would have been better not to use this vaccine, but at that time, nobody knew it would turn out like this.”

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeBzRKTLeSQ
Who suggested that lockdowns are the explanation for current excess mortality?
20 min 19 sec
Streamed live on Aug 20, 2022
Vejon Health

There have been a few news reports linking the excess mortality statistics across the UK to the effect of lockdown. While there may be an impact, why now and should there be more detailed analysis to clarify specific causes. Looking at excess mortality across the UK and Europe. What could be the cause? https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps

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

Who suggested that lockdowns are the explanation for current excess mortality?

Objective scientific analysis of data is required to understand the patterns being noted across Europe and the UK. To conclude this is because of lockdown without that analysis being done is misinformation. The major possibilities are: Lockdown effects for the older population

philipmcmillan.substack.com

(fair use applies)

Who suggested that lockdowns are the explanation for current excess mortality?
Dr Philip McMillan
20 hr ago

Objective scientific analysis of data is required to understand the patterns being noted across Europe and the UK. To conclude this is because of lockdown without that analysis being done is misinformation.

The major possibilities are:

• Lockdown effects for the older population
• Complications from severe COVID-19
• Unanticipated COVID vaccine complications

View the interactive Euromomo graphs here >


Image taken from an article in the Sun newspaper >

“During lockdown people with dementia or severe mental illness had a higher risk of death without confirmed COVID-19.”​

Read paper here >

“There was no significant difference in the frequency of the major causes of death in the first wave of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in Norway compared with corresponding periods 2010–2019.”​

Read paper here >

It should be noted that this research in Norway is focused on a short period of time and so the impact of lockdown cannot be adequately measured.
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/491dfd7b-6147-42f8-bea0-f3eecb663101_1280x720.png
Is anyone going to discuss the elephant in the room?

Why should the potential impact of broad population level covid vaccination not be included in the analysis of increased excess mortality across the world?

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

From the THIS TAKES THE CAKE file. UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE that of all people Deborah Birx is saying this. (after all the trust she herself squandered with the deliberate misrepresentations (in her own admission to congress that she based them on 'hope') that she gave about the vaccines when they came out. We live in bizarro land.

YOU WILL HAVE TO GO TO THE LINK TO WATCH:
1 min 31 sec

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561368312981905413

View: https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1561368312981905413?s=20&t=5kjRBvd0dK5obImZTmMa_A


Face The Nation@FaceTheNation11:03 AM · Aug 21, 2022

“The way you rebuild public trust is be transparent,” says Dr. Birx on how the CDC can help its reputation. “Recommendations that are created out of lack of transparency, and out of a black box where you can't really follow the logic is what leads to fracturing in trust.”







The entire interview is on youtube, you can watch it here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eXF9j9hVMQ
Full interview: Dr. Deborah Birx on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan"
13 min 36 sec
Aug 21, 2022
Face the Nation

Watch the full version of an interview with Dr. Deborah Birx, former White House COVID-19 response coordinator, that aired on August 21, 2022, on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Cops called on a 4 year old for the crime of going unmasked

When you don't teach people scientific uncertainty, you create zealots

vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com

(fair use applies)


Cops called on a 4 year old for the crime of going unmasked
When you don't teach people scientific uncertainty, you create zealots
Vinay Prasad
15 hr ago

When I first saw the video, I thought it was a hoax. Of course, it is bad policy to mask a 4 year old. It has no good data supporting it, runs counter to WHO and UNICEF guidance, and worst of all— in the year 2022— nearly all kids have had and recovered from COVID already, so what would the point be?

But, even I thought, there is no person stupid enough, cruel enough to escalate this issue to the police. If a rare 4 year old is non compliant, I am sure they will make some exemption. Only when multiple news outlets confirmed the veracity of the story, did I watch the video, which I suggest you do. Terrible.

Principal for @mvwschools called police on a four-year old for not wearing a mask. The officer was cordial and understanding, but the child could not stay. The child has missed school most of this week. There is no state or county school mask mandate where this school resides.
August 18th 2022
1,612 Retweets3,416 Likes
VIDEO AT LINK

Here is it on youtube

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuPX2zZO3tg
1 min 37 sec


There are several issues. First is: What is the evidence to support masking a 4 year old? Second is: What are the tactics and lengths one would go to in order to make it happen? I think we can agree that even mask proponents should have basic common sense: Even the most ardent proponent should think: I am going to ask kids to do this. If someone has a lot of difficulty, or struggles, I will let it go. And, I am not going to escalate this to involve police officers.

Yet, this didn’t happen. Why? Because too many scientists have been dishonest about the evidence base. The principal who called the police has lost the ability to put this policy choice in perspective. She cannot understand the relative importance (at best/ upper bound) because she has been the victim of non-stop propaganda. As such, she believes these lengths are necessary, proportionate and justified. That is surely wrong.

In contrast, Singapore’s Prime Minister has announced that kids will not be wearing masks in school. He says, “"is crucial for learning and development" and "Children do need to be able to see the facial expressions of their teachers and of each other." Watch this clip

Anthony LaMesa @ajlamesa
Listen to Singapore Prime Minister @leehsienloong explain why he feels children should stop masking at school and reassure parents that it's safe to stop: "For schools, in particular, we should not need masks in class." NDR 2022: Masks to be optional in most places, including schoolsFollow us on YouTube: http://bit.ly/FollowSTRead the full story: https://str.sg/wDq7Masks will soon be required only on public transport and in healthcare se...youtu.be
August 21st 2022
6 Retweets39 Likes


Contrast the Singapore prime minister with the disgraceful statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics, who appear to have forgotten everything about childhood development as well as common sense. Unfortunately, they are not a high quality scientific organization— that criticism was true long before the pandemic.

American Academy of Pediatrics @AmerAcadPeds
Babies and young children study faces, so you may worry that having masked caregivers would harm children’s language development. There are no studies to support this concern. Young children will use other clues like gestures and tone of voice. healthychildren.org/English/health…

August 12th 2021
697 Retweets1,653 Likes


It will someday be important for a full transparent accounting of errors. Some of those errors will be inaction, but most will be irrational zealotry. Long after it even made precautionary sense.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Evil: British Columbia trying to force unvaccinated mother's to repay maternity leave pay

Believe it or not, but British Columbia remains one of the few places that has kept vaccine mandates for public servants. And they are deadly serious about causing as much harm to their remaining unvaccinated employees as possible. Case in point, a local Prince George newspaper, MYPGNOW, broke

jestre.substack.com

(fair use applies)


Evil: British Columbia trying to force unvaccinated mother's to repay maternity leave pay
Jestre
23 hr ago

Believe it or not, but British Columbia remains one of the few places that has kept vaccine mandates for public servants. And they are deadly serious about causing as much harm to their remaining unvaccinated employees as possible.

Case in point, a local Prince George newspaper, MYPGNOW, broke this story last week. The story is about a group of new mothers who went on maternity leave prior to the implementation of the vaccine mandates. The Government of British Columbia is demanding they be vaccinated before returning to work. If they miss their return date, they will be terminated and the government wants them to repay the salary they received while on maternity leave, which may be the first time in history the NDP government has shown any sort of fiscal restraint. Oh, and it seems they have to repay the salary within a year.

Yes. BC is the same province whose data showed no statistically significant differences in deaths by vaccination status in their last reading, a trend that was consistent with the even smaller differences in the months before, and absolutely no proof of vaccine efficacy to speak of.

Simply put, there is no policy rationale to keep the mandates in place. Even the provinces own vaccination policy for public servants shows that fact. The questions and answers as to why the policy is in place states:

Throughout the pandemic, the BC Public Service has aligned its response to support the overall provincial pandemic response and has followed the guidance of the Provincial Health Officer (PHO). Implementing the COVID-19 vaccination policy is consistent with that direction and is one additional measure to ensure our workplaces are as safe as possible. We also recognize that we have a role to play in supporting the provincial effort to increase vaccination rates to protect the health of our colleagues and our communities.​

While all employees must comply with the policy, some individuals may find doing so personally challenging. All employees are reminded that, regardless of our views on vaccination or this policy, we have an obligation to treat one another with kindness, respect and professionalism and must adhere to our responsibilities under the Standards of Conduct at all times.​

The latter point is interesting. I cannot think of a way to frame the government’s continued mandate of a vaccine policy on their employees as anything but arbitrary, malicious, and evil. But more interestingly, the policy states that:

The policy will be in effect until general public health concerns regarding COVID-19 are reduced to a level, prescribed by government, to enable workplaces to operate without COVID-related restrictions.​

Which is an interesting statement especially since BC dropped its vaccine passport system on April 8th and according to the government “wearing a mask is a personal choice”. Thus, the “general public health concerns” have obviously been “reduced to a level, prescribed by government, to enable workplaces to operate without COVID-related restrictions”.

And I did notice the policy is silent on whether the vaccines continue to work or not. But the implicit assumption of the policy is that vaccines are effective; thus, the writers of the policy did not feel the need to articulate the fact that the policy only makes sense if that assumption was correct at the time and continues to be correct. Again, the provinces own data shows that it is not effective.

Where is the rationale for maintaining the policy then?

I’ll repeat the answer: there is none.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

"Ba.5 Booster" is Medical Quackery, Promoted by Covid Vaccine Charlatans

Everything fits the definition of "Quackery" and "Charlatans"

igorchudov.substack.com

(fair use applies)


"Ba.5 Booster" is Medical Quackery, Promoted by Covid Vaccine Charlatans
Everything fits the definition of "Quackery" and "Charlatans"
Igor Chudov
10 hr ago

I was reading a Wikipedia article on “Quackery”, and uncomfortably realized that it describes sellers and promoters of “Covid vaccines”.

Quackery is an old term, involving dishonest or confused persons selling treatments that are untested and are not working: The old term “snake oil” describes such quack treatments.

Wikipedia:

Common elements of general quackery include questionable diagnoses using questionable diagnostic tests, as well as untested or refuted treatments.​

Everything checks out, right? Questionable tests, untested and known-not-to-work treatments, describe Covid response and Covid vaccines perfectly.

Here’s the definition of quackery from the FDA, per Quackwatch (archive):

The FDA defines health fraud as “the promotion, for profit, of a medical remedy known to be false or unproven.”​

I have no interest in reciting thousands of articles about how Covid vaccines do not work, could never work, are unproven, and so on, as I have no interest in wasting my readers’ time — we all know that by now.

Here’s a new and interesting example, though.

COVID charlatans are now promoting an untested “Bivalent Booster”, which will make them a lot of money, but is completely unproven and will NOT work.

Ba.5 Booster as Medical Quackery

White House “Covid response coordinator” and chief Covid charlatan Dr. Ashish Jha is promising us that an “updated” Ba.5 booster will be available in several weeks.

You would think that before being given to tens of millions of people, this novel booster would undergo extensive testing, right?

Guess what: the “Ba.5 variant vaccine” did not even exist as of the end of June 2022! The idea of it was raised at the FDA meeting on June 29, 2022, when “updated boosters”, based on a long-extinct Ba.1 variant were presented by Pfizer and Moderna. The presentation left much to be desired:

However, the updated shots did not perform as well against BA.4 and BA.5, though the immune response was still strong.​

(As an aside, this sounds nonsensical. How can “updated shots” not perform against Ba.5 if “the immune response was still strong”? Well, the term immune response refers to counting antibodies, known as immunobridging. The antibodies were there! However, just like electrolytes in Idiocracy, those antibodies do not actually prevent Covid and are only good for counting).

So, the FDA experts decided to dispense with the Ba. 1-based booster, since it does not work anyway, and do a Hail Mary pass and instead develop a booster based on Ba.5. This decision was based on a hunch, involved exactly zero scientific data, and was adopted despite two FDA advisers voting NO.

This spur-of-the-moment decision-making, in the utter absence of any data, is all it takes the FDA charlatans to decide that instead of a non-working Ba.1 fall booster, they would instead develop a totally untested Ba.5-based booster, to be given to tens of millions of Americans.

If this kind of decision-making is not medical quackery, then what is?

The decision was made and the Ba. 5-based booster will soon be produced in September or October. Last July, the federal government already ordered and committed to pay for

• 66 million doses of Moderna Ba.5 boosters
• 105 million doses of Pfizer Ba.5 boosters

Please appreciate the insanity of how disproportionate is the size of these orders. In the USA, only 107 million people received boosters. Now the federal government orders 171 million doses of “updated boosters”. That is two-thirds MORE than the number of people who agreed to take boosters up to date (107 million). Isn’t it obvious that they will never find 171 million people to take what they purchased?



Our federal Covid charlatans, obviously, do not care that the Ba.5 booster has not seen any testing, or that the Federal government is overpaying for the doses it will never dispense. They are happy to split the money and that’s what matters.

But wait, it gets worse!

UK Orders Ba.1-based “Updated Boosters”

Covid charlatans in Britain managed to outdo even their US counterparts.

The US FDA experts, at least, refused to accept the Ba. 1-based booster as they saw it does not actually work. So, what did COVID vaccine makers do with the Ba.1 booster that they planned on selling? That’s right, they found another buyer: the UK.

The UK agreed to buy the Ba.1 booster based on the reasoning OPPOSITE to what the US FDA employed. Remember, the FDA said that since Ba.1 booster does not work against Ba.5, let’s discard it and use a Ba.5 booster. UK’s MHRA did not even bother asking whether Ba.1 booster will work against Ba.5 and adopted the Ba.1 booster anyway. This infographic might help:



So, Covid charlatans in these two countries used flawed reasoning that led them to seemingly opposite decisions: one country decided to adopt Ba.5 shots based on zero evidence, whereas another country decided to adopt Ba.1 shots based on zero evidence of them working.

Neither Booster will Work

The irony of the situation is that neither of the boosters will work. Why? The reason is that Ba.1 is long extinct, and Ba.5 will likely also fade away before the “boosters” are deployed this fall.

The plan to use either booster is to inject people with boosters against variants that most vaccinated people already were sick with. What exactly would such injections accomplish?



There will be another variant to circulate in the fall. What that variant will be, is not yet known. But this will be precisely the variant to avoid any remaining “Ba.5 immunity” or “Ba.1 immunity”, and the additional booster shots will not help with that.

Ba.5 Boosters may be Uniquely Dangerous

Our insightful reader Doorless Carp pointed out an article about a very important aspect of Ba.5 variant’s spike protein: it has 63 times greater affinity for ACE2 receptor than the original spike protein. Therefore, Ba5 spike protein, codon optimized for endless mRNA transcription, may bind to so many ACE2 receptors as to “trigger inflammation, thrombosis and vasoconstriction”.

See this also:

Things Hidden in Complexity​

Omicron BA. 5 Spike is bad vaccine target​

I try to write something every day but had to deal with legal stuff today, so tomorrow I might not write anything, an FYI of some sort. Earlier today, the writer Doorless Carp commented on my yesterday’s piece with the link to the following paper. One of the few other writers I actively read, encourage you to check out…​

Read more​

5 days ago · 32 likes · 23 comments · John Paul​

Conclusion​

Is this really “science” or “evidence-based medicine”? Or is this quackery promoted by charlatans?

Where is the “evidence”, as in “evidence-based”?

Please tell us what you think!

 

[StarryEyedLad]

Cops called on a 4 year old for the crime of going unmasked

When you don't teach people scientific uncertainty, you create zealots

vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com

(fair use applies)


Cops called on a 4 year old for the crime of going unmasked
When you don't teach people scientific uncertainty, you create zealots
Vinay Prasad
15 hr ago

When I first saw the video, I thought it was a hoax. Of course, it is bad policy to mask a 4 year old. It has no good data supporting it, runs counter to WHO and UNICEF guidance, and worst of all— in the year 2022— nearly all kids have had and recovered from COVID already, so what would the point be?

But, even I thought, there is no person stupid enough, cruel enough to escalate this issue to the police. If a rare 4 year old is non compliant, I am sure they will make some exemption. Only when multiple news outlets confirmed the veracity of the story, did I watch the video, which I suggest you do. Terrible.

Principal for @mvwschools called police on a four-year old for not wearing a mask. The officer was cordial and understanding, but the child could not stay. The child has missed school most of this week. There is no state or county school mask mandate where this school resides.
August 18th 2022
1,612 Retweets3,416 Likes
VIDEO AT LINK

Here is it on youtube

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuPX2zZO3tg
1 min 37 sec


There are several issues. First is: What is the evidence to support masking a 4 year old? Second is: What are the tactics and lengths one would go to in order to make it happen? I think we can agree that even mask proponents should have basic common sense: Even the most ardent proponent should think: I am going to ask kids to do this. If someone has a lot of difficulty, or struggles, I will let it go. And, I am not going to escalate this to involve police officers.

Yet, this didn’t happen. Why? Because too many scientists have been dishonest about the evidence base. The principal who called the police has lost the ability to put this policy choice in perspective. She cannot understand the relative importance (at best/ upper bound) because she has been the victim of non-stop propaganda. As such, she believes these lengths are necessary, proportionate and justified. That is surely wrong.

In contrast, Singapore’s Prime Minister has announced that kids will not be wearing masks in school. He says, “"is crucial for learning and development" and "Children do need to be able to see the facial expressions of their teachers and of each other." Watch this clip

Anthony LaMesa @ajlamesa
Listen to Singapore Prime Minister @leehsienloong explain why he feels children should stop masking at school and reassure parents that it's safe to stop: "For schools, in particular, we should not need masks in class." NDR 2022: Masks to be optional in most places, including schoolsFollow us on YouTube: http://bit.ly/FollowSTRead the full story: https://str.sg/wDq7Masks will soon be required only on public transport and in healthcare se...youtu.be
August 21st 2022
6 Retweets39 Likes


Contrast the Singapore prime minister with the disgraceful statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics, who appear to have forgotten everything about childhood development as well as common sense. Unfortunately, they are not a high quality scientific organization— that criticism was true long before the pandemic.

American Academy of Pediatrics @AmerAcadPeds
Babies and young children study faces, so you may worry that having masked caregivers would harm children’s language development. There are no studies to support this concern. Young children will use other clues like gestures and tone of voice. healthychildren.org/English/health…

August 12th 2021
697 Retweets1,653 Likes


It will someday be important for a full transparent accounting of errors. Some of those errors will be inaction, but most will be irrational zealotry. Long after it even made precautionary sense.

I said this in another thread earlier, and it bears repeating here:
People have got to stop sending their kids to these indoctrination centers.

They don't care about your kids! They only care about the federal funds they get for kids in seats at their 'school'!

 

[MinnesotaSmith]

Unless the commies used hot batches mainly in noncommie-run states, the fauxines are going to wipe out way more commies than Americans:

 

[jward]

Dr Aseem Malhotra
@DrAseemMalhotra
6h

Yes, I KNOW it’s Fox News but listen to the facts being stated in this news clip. Should at the very least make us all stop and think outside the box. Stop and think outside the Pharma fuelled narrative.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561582636870549504

View: https://twitter.com/DrAseemMalhotra/status/1561582636870549504?s=20&t=OTQ_PsFty0Yr4QhYLwGwDw

 

[Zoner]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561215619164524547

View: https://twitter.com/RajlabN/status/1561215619164524547?s=20&t=BtWyPjAIVTxCf2YC-0G6Dw

 

[psychgirl]

Dr Aseem Malhotra
@DrAseemMalhotra
6h

Yes, I KNOW it’s Fox News but listen to the facts being stated in this news clip. Should at the very least make us all stop and think outside the box. Stop and think outside the Pharma fuelled narrative.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561582636870549504

View: https://twitter.com/DrAseemMalhotra/status/1561582636870549504?s=20&t=OTQ_PsFty0Yr4QhYLwGwDw

Well, at least Tucker is trying to inform his audience little drips at a time.
We need the faucet turned on as high as it will go but I’ll take the “drip, drip, drip”

 

[Zoner]

Two replies on that (alarming) thread:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561493387789885442

View: https://twitter.com/flowermusickids/status/1561493387789885442


I WON’T vote 4 Harris/Buttigieg/AOC in 2024 @flowermusickids
Replying to @mildanalyst
7:20 PM · Aug 21, 2022

I read the article you linked to. The author is reporting a reproductive time of 2 days, high viral loads, & an incubation of 2ish days too. Not good

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561570992736067584

View: https://twitter.com/flowermusickids/status/1561570992736067584


I WON’T vote 4 Harris/Buttigieg/AOC in 2024 @flowermusickids
Replying to @flowermusickids and @mildanalyst
12:28 AM · Aug 22, 2022

I’m seeing many (justifiably) alarmed by the stats in the report. Here’s a translated section of this part of the report for those curious:

View attachment 358816

I'm looking to see how deadly this variant is. Hopefully it is just highly infectious. But according to Geert one of these variants will get into the lower depths of the lungs and become deadly especially to the immune-compromised vaxxed. Dr. McMillan thinks BA. 2.75 is the variant that kills and calls it DELTACRON. But so far, there is no news on that. And McMillan has taken off focusing on Long Covid, so no news from him on BA. 2..75.

I also see Geert more focused on Monkeypox and not inoculating children. His warnings were for early July so maybe he just is waiting. Maybe his timing was off, although he did have a two month window from early July.

BA. 2.76 seems to spread through the air. If that is true and it combines with a deadly strain, the world is in big trouble.

 

[jward]

I'm not sure society could survive the faucet on full blast; people are showing signs of being increasingly emotionally fragile, and the road is only rockier up ahead..

 

[Zoner]

Recently there was a Newsmax article posted about ivermectin being ineffective.
Someone posted about the flaws in the study and I can’t locate it within the thread can anyone help me?

 

[psychgirl]

Recently there was a Newsmax article posted about ivermectin being ineffective.
Someone posted about the flaws in the study and I can’t locate it within the thread can anyone help me?

I remember the article being mentioned but was so annoyed I blew right past it…I’m sorry!
Someone here will know.

 

[Zoner]

I remember the article being mentioned but was so annoyed I blew right past it…I’m sorry!
Someone here will know.

Thanks maybe HD can remember the poster and I could look it up that way

 

[Zoner]

Thanks maybe HD can remember the poster and I could look it up that way

I found it. Thanks all

 

[Crusty Echo 7]

Bill Melugin
@BillFOXLA

LA continues to outdo itself.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561138022258683904

View: https://twitter.com/BillFOXLA/status/1561138022258683904?s=20&t=6WI0HSFlnbufrcvHiww53w

At this rate they’ll be looking for monkeypox right after San Francisco…

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Dr Aseem Malhotra
@DrAseemMalhotra
6h

Yes, I KNOW it’s Fox News but listen to the facts being stated in this news clip. Should at the very least make us all stop and think outside the box. Stop and think outside the Pharma fuelled narrative.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561582636870549504

View: https://twitter.com/DrAseemMalhotra/status/1561582636870549504?s=20&t=OTQ_PsFty0Yr4QhYLwGwDw

If I was paranoid, or into woo, I'd think the MSM is getting the public ready for what the medical community figured out is coming in the next few months - ie: what Geert feared and predicted.

HD

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561215619164524547

View: https://twitter.com/RajlabN/status/1561215619164524547?s=20&t=BtWyPjAIVTxCf2YC-0G6Dw

WOW. Good find. BA2.75 taking off in India.

Going to screengrab the tweet image in case the tweet disappears...

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

I also see Geert more focused on Monkeypox and not inoculating children. His warnings were for early July so maybe he just is waiting. Maybe his timing was off, although he did have a two month window from early July.

In the video interview Geert did with New American (posted above in post #64,998) which was about Monkeypox and not vaccinating kids - at the end he said this -it goes to what you just said so I transcribed it in case you don't have time to watch the video, bolding the parts that are most relevant. He didn't specifically mention any variant or BA2.75 which I listen for. In my opinion only, I think he believed it would happen by now, but his timing could be off by a month or two. Note the underlined part where he implies monkeypox won't be an issue because the reservoir of potential infectees will be gone (ie they'll all be dead from the new strain of covid).


At 23:16 Veronica: This is what concerns regular people but which health care strategies would you recommend for decision makers to employ to truly contain the monkeypox outbreak?

At 23:30 Geert: Well, between you and me Veronica, I don't think that monkeypox will be the real problem. I maintain, I maintain that the worst problem ever is still SARS-Cov2, which you know, we've discussed this in the past, which is still evolving. Which according to my humble opinion is very close to completely breakthrough not only the innate immunity but also the adaptive immunity of the vaccinees. When that happens, unfortunately, you know, my fear is that there will be huge losses, right? OTOH, when that happpens the reservoir may shrink tremendously for, for example avian flu, for monkeypox, etc and the problem will be solved, right? Anyway, this evolution of the SARS-Cov2 is far more advanced than the monkeypox. The monkeypox has just started and I think we have not, there is no evidence yet, of more infectious variants. I don't know whether people are looking for it, most likely, but I can tell you, we will see them, they will start to pop up in a few weeks maybe from now, but I think the clock is especially ticking for the SARS-Cov2 , the new variants that I think are going to be completely resistant to any mechanism that is exhibited by the vacine induced antibodies. So it's all, if you like, a side effect, all this is a side effect of the mass vaccination campaigns. That's what it comes down to.

At 25:18 Veronica: So the smart thing to do would be just pulling covid vaccines from the market , stopping vaccinating people against covid and start distributing anti-virals that you mentioned (cross talk)

At 25:29 Geert: well the anti-virals is critical but I told you already, even if we stop the mass vaccination, if we stop it tomorrow, this strain is rolling. And we can not stop it. The only thing we can still do, really, and we should do, we must do, is protect our children. Make sure they don't get jabbed. Because they're the next generation. They are important for the herd immunity. They are important, you know, it's important to protect their health, they are very susceptible, they are in the process of developing, of training their innate immune system, you know, so far they've been protected by the mother in the womb through maternal antibodies, now they need to kick off their immune system and exactly at that very moment, six months, one year, we're going to intervene with this kind of immune intervention that is completely contraindicated and will prevent young children from developing their innate immune system and will make them extremely susceptible to SARS-Cov2 when the time comes that in fact the virus will become resistant to any kind of protection that for now is still provided against severe disease by the vaccine induced antibodies. ends at 26:43

 

[Zoner]

In the video interview Geert did with New American (posted above in post #64,998) which was about Monkeypox and not vaccinating kids - at the end he said this -it goes to what you just said so I transcribed it in case you don't have time to watch the video, bolding the parts that are most relevant. He didn't specifically mention any variant or BA2.75 which I listen for. In my opinion only, I think he believed it would happen by now, but his timing could be off by a month or two. Note the underlined part where he implies monkeypox won't be an issue because the reservoir of potential infectees will be gone (ie they'll all be dead from the new strain of covid).


At 23:16 Veronica: This is what concerns regular people but which health care strategies would you recommend for decision makers to employ to truly contain the monkeypox outbreak?

At 23:30 Geert: Well, between you and me Veronica, I don't think that monkeypox will be the real problem. I maintain, I maintain that the worst problem ever is still SARS-Cov2, which you know, we've discussed this in the past, which is still evolving. Which according to my humble opinion is very close to completely breakthrough not only the innate immunity but also the adaptive immunity of the vaccinees. When that happens, unfortunately, you know, my fear is that there will be huge losses, right? OTOH, when that happpens the reservoir may shrink tremendously for, for example avian flu, for monkeypox, etc and the problem will be solved, right? Anyway, this evolution of the SARS-Cov2 is far more advanced than the monkeypox. The monkeypox has just started and I think we have not, there is no evidence yet, of more infectious variants. I don't know whether people are looking for it, most likely, but I can tell you, we will see them, they will start to pop up in a few weeks maybe from now, but I think the clock is especially ticking for the SARS-Cov2 , the new variants that I think are going to be completely resistant to any mechanism that is exhibited by the vacine induced antibodies. So it's all, if you like, a side effect, all this is a side effect of the mass vaccination campaigns. That's what it comes down to.

At 25:18 Veronica: So the smart thing to do would be just pulling covid vaccines from the market , stopping vaccinating people against covid and start distributing anti-virals that you mentioned (cross talk)

At 25:29 Geert: well the anti-virals is critical but I told you already, even if we stop the mass vaccination, if we stop it tomorrow, this strain is rolling. And we can not stop it. The only thing we can still do, really, and we should do, we must do, is protect our children. Make sure they don't get jabbed. Because they're the next generation. They are important for the herd immunity. They are important, you know, it's important to protect their health, they are very susceptible, they are in the process of developing, of training their innate immune system, you know, so far they've been protected by the mother in the womb through maternal antibodies, now they need to kick off their immune system and exactly at that very moment, six months, one year, we're going to intervene with this kind of immune intervention that is completely contraindicated and will prevent young children from developing their innate immune system and will make them extremely susceptible to SARS-Cov2 when the time comes that in fact the virus will become resistant to any kind of protection that for now is still provided against severe disease by the vaccine induced antibodies. ends at 26:43

I was in Guatemala last week helping a little village with their broken water pump. I’m way behind. That is so kind of you to transcribe that piece of the interview for all of us to read. Ty ty I would’ve missed this if you hadn’t pointed it out. I really appreciate this.

So he hasn’t changed his mind not even a little bit.

Now I understand his focus and his message. For him herd immunity is the only thing that will defeat this disease and that’s possible only through the young not getting vaccinated.

All I can say is wow and thank you again.

 

[Zoner]

Looks like India is getting slammed with BA. 2.75

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561703850213531649

View: https://twitter.com/rajlabn/status/1561703850213531649?s=21&t=ZOpMrhHWBCcjlB7nSvNCMg

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

I usually post videos with the daily covid articles but this one is right on point so will post it now before I go hunting down the covid articles for the day. I haven't watched it yet, btw. Will watch it later hopefully.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLooTdeA4gc

BA.2.75 Evasion of Neutralizing Antibody Response
27 min 25 sec
Streamed live 5 hours ago SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.75
Drbeen Medical Lectures


In this preprint study from Ohio State University the researchers demonstrate the extent of immune escape by the BA.2.75. Let's review.

URL list from Monday, Aug. 22 2022

The neutralizing antibody escape of BA.2.75 in mRNA-vaccinated and BA.1-infected individuals

https://www.news-medical.net/news/202...

Evasion of Neutralizing Antibody Response by the SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.75 Variant

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.11...

Tracking SARS-CoV-2 variants

https://www.who.int/activities/tracki...

Complementarity-determining region - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complem....

Frontiers | Broadly-Neutralizing Antibodies Against Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Variants

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/...

Aug 22, 2022 at 4:24 PM
Reinfection with BA.2.75 unlikely after bout with BA.5, experts say
Becker's Hospital Review - Healthcare News...

Aug 22, 2022 at 4:27 PM
Roche launches COVID-19 test that detects and differentiates the emerging variant of interest BA.2.75

404 Page Not Found

404

www.prnewswire.com

 

[Zoner]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561070336476680192

View: https://twitter.com/mildanalyst/status/1561070336476680192?s=21&t=ZOpMrhHWBCcjlB7nSvNCMg

 

[Zoner]

So BA.2.75 is mutating. BA.2.75.2 has evolved.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561173635578068992

View: https://twitter.com/shannon_takla/status/1561173635578068992?s=21&t=0PrxZ0y2U6BPb7OZIDwyyA

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Fauci, face of U.S. COVID response, to step down from government posts

(Reuters) -Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease official who became the face of America's COVID-19 pandemic response under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, announced on Monday he is stepping down in December after 54 years of public service. Fauci, whose efforts to fight the...

news.yahoo.com

(fair use applies)


Fauci, face of U.S. COVID response, to step down from government posts
Julie Steenhuysen
Mon, August 22, 2022, 11:13 AM

(Reuters) -Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease official who became the face of America's COVID-19 pandemic response under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, announced on Monday he is stepping down in December after 54 years of public service.

Fauci, whose efforts to fight the pandemic were applauded by many public health experts even as he was vilified by Trump and many Republicans, will leave his posts Statement by Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. as chief medical adviser to Biden and director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Fauci, 81, has headed NIAID since 1984.

The veteran immunologist has served as an adviser to seven U.S. presidents beginning with Republican Ronald Reagan, focusing on newly emerging and re-emerging infectious disease dangers including HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Zika, monkeypox and COVID-19.

Fauci endured criticism from Trump and various conservatives and even death threats against him and his family from people who objected to safeguards such as vaccination, social distancing and masking that he advocated to try to limit the lethality of the COVID-19 pandemic. After defeating Trump in the 2020 election, Biden made Fauci his chief medical adviser.

"I definitely feel it was worth staying as long as I have. It is unfortunate, but it is a fact of life that we are living in a very, very divisive society right now," Fauci told Reuters on Monday.

Fauci said he never considered resigning due to the threats against him.

"I don't like the idea that I have to have armed federal agents with me. That's not a happy feeling. It's reality. And you've got to deal with reality," Fauci said.

Republican lawmakers including fierce critic Rand Paul, with whom Fauci tangled during Senate hearings, vowed on Monday to investigate him if they gain control of either the House of Representatives or Senate in November's congressional elections.

"As he leaves his position in the U.S. Government, I know the American people and the entire world will continue to benefit from Dr. Fauci's expertise in whatever he does next," Biden said in a statement. "The United States of America is stronger, more resilient and healthier because of him."

Fauci signaled his impending departure last month, telling Reuters he would retire by the end of Biden's first term, which runs to January 2025, and possibly earlier.

The United States leads the world in recorded COVID-19 deaths with more than one million COVID Data Tracker. In the first months of the pandemic in 2020, Fauci helped lead scientific efforts to develop and test COVID-19 vaccines in record time and took part in regular televised White House briefings alongside Trump.

Fauci became a popular and trusted figure among many Americans as the United States faced lockdowns and rising numbers of COVID-19 deaths, even inspiring the sale of cookies and bobblehead dolls featuring his likeness.

However, Fauci drew the ire of Trump and many Republicans for cautioning against reopening the U.S. economy too quickly and risking increased infections and for opposing the use of unproven treatments such as the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.

'A DISASTER'

Democrats accused Trump of presiding over a disjointed response to the pandemic and of disregarding advice from public health experts including Fauci. Trump in October 2020, weeks before his re-election loss, called Fauci "a disaster" and complained that Americans were tired of hearing about the pandemic. Trump even made fun of Fauci's off-target ceremonial first pitch at a Washington Nationals baseball game.

Fauci sometimes publicly contradicted Trump's statements about the pandemic. Fauci said on Monday that while he respects the office of the presidency, he felt he had to speak out "when things were said that were outright untrue and quite misleading."

"I didn't take any great pleasure in that," Fauci said.

Paul frequently attacked Fauci during Senate hearings on the pandemic.

Fauci has accused Paul of spreading misinformation. Paul on his website has accused Fauci of "lying about everything from masks to the contagiousness of the virus." Fauci during one hearing noted that Paul placed fundraising appeals on his website next to a call to have him fired.

Fauci said staying on until December allows for a search for a new director of NIAID, an institute with an annual budget exceeding $6 billion, and the appointment of an acting chief. Fauci also said he wanted to remain to help address an expected autumn upswing in COVID-19 infections.

Fauci made clear that while he will be leaving government service, he will not be retiring. He said in the future he hopes to use his expertise to help inspire a new generation of doctors to pursue careers in public health, medicine and science.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

China says COVID has exacerbated decline in births, marriages

China's National Health Commission said COVID-19 has contributed to the decline in the country's marriage and birth rates that has accelerated in recent years due to the high costs of education and child-rearing. Many women are continuing to delay their plans to marry or have children, it said...

news.yahoo.com

(fair use applies)


China says COVID has exacerbated decline in births, marriages
by Farah Master in Hong Kong and Albee Zhang in Beijing
Mon, August 22, 2022, 9:58 PM

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's National Health Commission said COVID-19 has contributed to the decline in the country's marriage and birth rates that has accelerated in recent years due to the high costs of education and child-rearing.

Many women are continuing to delay their plans to marry or have children, it said, adding that rapid economic and social developments have led to "profound changes".

Young people relocating to urban aeas, more time spent on education and high-pressure working environments have also played their part, it added.

Demographers have also said that China's uncompromising "zero-COVID" policy of promptly stamping out any outbreaks with strict controls on people's lives may have caused profound, lasting damage on their desire to have children.

"The coronavirus has also had a clear impact on the marriage and childbirth arrangements of some people," the commission said.

The comments were sent to Reuters via fax late on Monday in response to questions on the topic.

New births in China are set to fall to record lows this year, demographers say, with forecasts calling for a drop below 10 million compared to last year's 10.6 million babies - a level 11.5% lower than in 2020.

China had a fertility rate of 1.16 in 2021, one of the lowest rates in the world and below the 2.1 rate the OECD sees as necessary for a stable population. Having imposed a one-child policy from 1980 to 2015, China has acknowledged its population is on brink of shrinking - a potential crisis that will test its ability to pay and care for its elderly.

To counter the problem, authorities at national and provincial levels have over the past year introduced measures such as tax breaks, longer maternity leave, enhanced medical insurance, housing subsidies and extra money for a third child.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

U.S. CDC recommends use of Novavax's COVID shot for adolescents

The protein-based vaccine received emergency use authorization in July for use among adults in the United States, with health officials hoping it would drive uptake among those skeptical of messenger RNA shots from Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc. However, Novavax earlier this month halved its...

news.yahoo.com

(fair use applies)


U.S. CDC recommends use of Novavax's COVID shot for adolescents
by Amruta Khandekar
Mon, August 22, 2022, 11:37 AM

(Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday signed off on the use of Novavax Inc's COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents aged 12 through 17.

The recommendation follows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's authorization for the vaccine for the age group last week.

The protein-based vaccine received emergency use authorization in July for use among adults in the United States, with health officials hoping it would drive uptake among those skeptical of messenger RNA shots from Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc.

However, Novavax earlier this month halved its full-year revenue forecast, saying it does not expect further sales of its COVID-19 shot in the United States this year.

The company said it was late to the U.S. market and also pointed to softer demand in the face of a global vaccine supply glut.

So far 11,990 Novavax vaccine doses have been administered in the United States, according to latest government data.

The vaccine, which has already been cleared in countries such as Japan and Australia for use among adolescents, has also been plagued by manufacturing snags, regulatory delays and sluggish uptake in key markets such as Europe.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Pfizer seeks OK of updated COVID vaccine booster for fall

Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Monday to authorize its combination COVID-19 vaccine that adds protection against the newest omicron relatives — a key step toward opening a fall booster campaign. The Food and Drug Administration ordered vaccine makers to tweak their shots to target BA.4 and BA.5...

news.yahoo.com

(fair use applies)


Pfizer seeks OK of updated COVID vaccine booster for fall
LAURAN NEERGAARD
Mon, August 22, 2022, 10:57 AM

Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Monday to authorize its combination COVID-19 vaccine that adds protection against the newest omicron relatives — a key step toward opening a fall booster campaign.

The Food and Drug Administration ordered vaccine makers to tweak their shots to target BA.4 and BA.5 that are better than ever at dodging immunity from earlier vaccination or infection.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech aim to offer updated boosters to people 12 and older, and shots could begin within weeks if the FDA quickly clears the modified vaccine — a step not expected to require waiting on new studies.

Moderna is expected to file a similar application soon for updated boosters for adults. The U.S. has a contract to buy 105 million of the Pfizer doses and 66 million Moderna ones, assuming FDA gives the green light.

“It’s going to be really important that people this fall and winter get the new shots. It’s designed for the virus that’s out there,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said last week.

For now at least. BA.5 currently is causing nearly all COVID-19 infections in the U.S. and much of the world. There’s no way to know if it still will be a threat this winter -- or if another mutant will have replaced it.

The vaccines currently used in the U.S. still offer strong protection against severe disease and death, especially if people have gotten their recommended boosters. But those vaccines target the coronavirus strain that spread in early 2020 and their effectiveness against infection has dropped markedly as new mutants came along, particularly the super-contagious omicron family.

How would combo shots work? Sort of like a second-generation vaccine. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines contain the genetic instructions for the spike protein that coats the coronavirus, to train the immune system to recognize the real virus. The new combo doses will contain instructions for both the original spike target and the spike mutations carried by BA.4 and BA.5.

The news comes after Britain a week ago became the first in the world to authorize a different update to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines -- shots that add protection against the original omicron that struck last winter.

European regulators also are considering the original omicron versions by Moderna and Pfizer. The U.S. opted not to use that earlier tweak -- setting up a fall where different countries will be using different versions of booster shots to rev up protection against another possible winter surge.

In the U.S., the FDA will be relying heavily on scientific testing of prior tweaks to the vaccine recipe — rather than a study of the newest boosters that could take months — to decide whether to fast-track updated shots for fall.

Pfizer previously announced results from a study that found its earlier omicron tweak significantly revved up antibodies capable of fighting the first omicron version, called BA.1, and to a lesser degree the genetically distinct BA.4 and BA.5 omicron relatives. Its application to the FDA contains that data plus animal testing of the newest recipe update.

It's similar to how flu vaccines are updated every year without having to undergo large studies.

Pfizer and BioNTech expect to start a trial using the BA.4 and BA.5 boosters in the coming weeks, to shed additional light on how well tweaked shots work. Moderna has begun a similar study although full results wouldn't be available before a fall booster campaign.

“It's clear that none of these vaccines are going to completely prevent infection," said Dr. Rachel Presti of Washington University in St. Louis, a researcher with the Moderna trial.

But prior studies of variant booster candidates show “you still get a broader immune response giving a variant booster than giving the same booster” again, which should be helpful even if a newer omicron relative emerges, she added.

Pfizer and Moderna don't make the only U.S. vaccine options. Novavax makes a more traditional, protein-based shot — and U.S. health authorities just expanded its use for people as young as 12. Novavax also plans to offer a variant update later in the year.

 

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Judge Dismisses Ivermectin Lawsuit, Says Pharmacists Can Refuse to Fill Prescriptions

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit centered on pharmacists' refusals to fill prescriptions for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, ...

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Judge Dismisses Ivermectin Lawsuit, Says Pharmacists Can Refuse to Fill Prescriptions
By Zachary Stieber
August 22, 2022 Updated: August 22, 2022

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit centered on pharmacists’ refusals to fill prescriptions for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, ruling that the refusals were not illegal.

The arguments in the suit, centered on the right to self-determination, were wrong according to U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee.

“It is one thing to say that a patient has the right to refuse medical treatment. It is quite another thing to say that a patient has the right to force a medical provider to provide a particular type of medical treatment against his or her professional judgment. As far as the Court knows, not a single state has recognized such a right,” he said.

The conduct of the pharmacists who refused to fill the prescriptions were not “extreme and outrageous,” the threshold for intentional infliction of emotional distress, the judge also said, in part because when the refusals happened, “every major medical authority and government agency that had addressed the issue had said that ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine should not be used to treat COVID‐19.”

Even if the plaintiffs made plausible claims, the action was required to be dismissed because plaintiffs failed to provide expert testimony, and an extension for providing such testimony was turned down because the suit did not outline such claims, the ruling also stated.

“We appreciate the Court dismissing the Complaint. Our pharmacists have exercised their professional judgement with these prescriptions, including refusing to fill them, and we stand behind them on this issue,” Randy Hargrove, a Walmart spokesman, told The Epoch Times in an email.

Supermarket chain Hy-vee did not respond to a request for comment.

Complaint

William Salier, a Minnesota resident, contracted COVID-19 in October 2021 and experienced serious symptoms. He tried obtaining monoclonal antibodies from the state, but was unsuccessful. Attempts to get antibodies or ivermectin from a clinic in Iowa were rejected.

William Salier turned to Dr. Mollie James, who saw him in a telehealth session and wrote prescriptions for several drugs, including ivermectin. The prescriptions were sent to a Walmart in Minnesota.

But a pharmacist there called Karla Salier, William Salier’s wife, and informed her that Walmart would not fill the prescription because ivermectin “was not appropriate to treat COVID-19 patients,” according to the lawsuit.

When Karla Salier protested, the pharmacist “proceeded to lecture her about how Ivermectin was dangerous for her husband despite his doctor’s prescription, and he again refused to fill the prescription,” it says.

Dr. James called the pharmacist directly but the pharmacist still wouldn’t fill the prescription.

When Karla Salier fell ill with COVID-19, Dr. James prescribed her ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, but the same Walmart refused to fill the prescriptions.

A Hy-vee supermarket in the same town, Albert Lea, also rejected efforts to obtain the drugs, though the pharmacist there did fill other prescriptions from Dr. James.

The Saliers found the animal-use version of ivermectin and used it as a treatment.

They believe the drug helped their conditions rapidly improve.

The complaint alleged a violation of the couple’s common law right to self-determination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and tortious interference with the contract between the Saliers and Dr. James.

Motion to Dismiss

In its motion to dismiss, which was granted, Walmart said that Minnesota law does not confer the right to self-determination, that the Saliers did not adequately prove they suffered severe mental distress, and that its pharmacist complied with professional norms.

As proof, the defendant noted that the Iowa clinic also declined to give ivermectin to William Salier.

“The fact that other medical professionals acting independently took similar action suggests that Walmart’s conduct was not wrongful at all, and at the very least belies any claim that it was ‘so atrocious that it passe[d] the boundaries of decency and [was] utterly intolerable to the civilized community,'” it said, quoting a previous court ruling, adding that the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy said that a pharmacist could refuse to fill or refill a prescription “if, in the pharmacist’s professional judgement, there is a question as to the drug’s safety and/or efficacy.”

The corporation also said it did not interfere with the couple’s contact with Dr. James.

“The common law does not permit two parties to use a contract to impose duties on a stranger to the contract. Yet the Saliers allege nothing more than a passive refusal to assist. Moreover, even if the Walmart pharmacist’s mere refusal to fill prescriptions could be deemed a sufficient interference with a contract, the Saliers’ complaint itself demonstrates that it was not ‘without justification,’ as the tort requires. Because the pharmacist’s refusal to fill the prescriptions rested on his independent professional judgment, as Minnesota law permits, his conduct was justified,” the motion stated.

Possible Appeal

An expert affidavit was lined up but fell through, leading to the dismissal, said Marjorie Holsten, a lawyer for the Sailers.

If an appeal is lodged with the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, then one focus would be curing that issue.

“I think our chances in the Eighth Circuit are far better than they were before this particular judge,” Holsten said, noting that at one point the judge wondered why people would ever do anything that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says not to do, such as taking ivermectin for COVID-19.

“We found him just extremely hostile to our position,” she added.

 

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The Epoch Times | Breaking News, Latest News, World News and Videos

Get the latest breaking news, in-depth reporting, and insightful analysis on a wide range of topics, including politics, culture, and world events | The Epoch Times is a trusted source for real news and information that is free from influence and bias.

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Unusual Toxic Components Found in COVID Vaccines, ‘Without Exception’: German Scientists
By Enrico Trigoso
August 22, 2022

A group of independent German scientists found toxic components—mostly metallic—in all the COVID vaccine samples they analyzed, “without exception” using modern medical and physical measuring techniques.

The Working Group for COVID Vaccine Analysis says that some of the toxic elements found inside the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Moderna vaccine vials were not listed in the ingredient lists from the manufacturers.

The following metallic elements were found in the vaccines:

• Alkali metals: caesium (Cs), potassium (K)
• Alkaline earth metals: calcium (Ca), barium (Ba)
• transition metals: cobalt (Co), iron (Fe), chromium (Cr), titanium (Ti)
• Rare earth metals: cerium (Ce), gadolinium (Gd)
• Mining group/metal: aluminum (Al)
• Carbon group: silicon (Si) (partly support material/slide)
• Oxygen group: sulphur (S)

These substances, furthermore, “are visible under the dark-field microscope as distinctive and complex structures of different sizes, can only partially be explained as a result of crystallization or decomposition processes, [and] cannot be explained as contamination from the manufacturing process,” the researchers found.

They declared the findings as preliminary.

The findings “build on the work of other researchers in the international community who have described similar findings, such as Dr. Young, Dr. Nagase, Dr. Botha, Dr. Flemming, Dr, Robert Wakeling, and Dr. Noak,” Dr. Janci Lindsay, Ph.D., a toxicologist not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times.

“The number and consistency of the allegations of contamination alone, coupled with the eerie silence from global safety and regulatory bodies, is troublesome and perplexing in terms of ‘transparency’ and continued allegations by these bodies that the genetic vaccines are ‘safe,'” Lindsay added.

Helena Krenn, the group’s founder, submitted the findings to German government authorities for review.
“We had submitted it to the participants of the government and further addresses from newspapers with the platform open-debate.eu, only in Germany, Austria, and Suisse,” Krenn told The Epoch Times.

Two other important findings were that blood samples from the vaccinated had “marked changes” and that more side effects were observed in proportion to “the stability of the envelope of lipid nanoparticles.”

A lipid nanoparticle is an extremely small particle, a fat-soluble membrane that is the cargo of the messenger RNA (mRNA).

Methodology​

“Using a small sample of live blood analyses from both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, we have determined that artificial intelligence (AI) can distinguish with 100% reliability between the blood of the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. This indicates that the COVID-19 vaccines can effect long-term changes in the composition of the blood of the person vaccinated without that person being aware of these changes,” the study states.

The findings of acute and chronic physiological changes to the blood of those inoculated with the vaccines, consistently discerned via AI software, “also echoes the findings of many other researchers and support the contentions of contamination and/or adulteration,” Lindsay said.

“We have established that the COVID-19 vaccines consistently contain, in addition to contaminants, substances the purpose of which we are unable to determine,” their study says.

The group consists of 60 members, including physicians, physicists, chemists, microbiologists, and alternative health practitioners, supported by lawyers and psychologists.

The scientists claim that their results have been cross-confirmed using the following measuring techniques: “Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), Mass Spectroscopy (MS), Inductively Coupled Plasma Analysis (ICP), Bright Field Microscopy (BFM), Dark Field Microscopy (DFM) and Live Blood Image Diagnostics, as well as analysis of images using Artificial Intelligence.”

The analysts explain that they have been cooperating with other groups in different countries that have been executing similar investigations and have obtained results consistent with their own.

“The results from our analysis of the vaccines can, consequently, be regarded as cross-validated,” the summary report of their findings states.

“It should be acknowledged of course that [German Working Group’s] work is described as ‘Preliminary Findings,’ not yet published in a peer-reviewed journal and that chain of custody as well as the identity of many of these scientists is unknown. However, in this heavily charged and censored climate when it comes to any challenges to the ‘safety and efficacy’ of the genetic vaccines, I myself can attest to the difficulties in conducting the basic research, much less publishing that same research in a peer-reviewed journal, in order to get at these questions as well as disseminate the findings,” Lindsay said.

The Comirnaty vaccine from BioNTech/Pfizer exhibits a diversity and large number of unusual objects.

Astra Zeneca, Moderna, Pfizer, and J&J did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

 

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Medical Discovery: Plasma Myl9 Correlates to the Severity of COVID-19

Chiba University in Japan recently announced the results of a new study that found that the severity of ...

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Medical Discovery: Plasma Myl9 Correlates to the Severity of COVID-19
By Raven Wu
August 22, 2022

Chiba University in Japan recently announced the results of a new study that found that the severity of COVID-19 is highly correlated with the concentration of myosin light chain 9 (Myl9) protein in the blood. The findings could help hospitals determine which patient groups should be prioritized for admission and discharge, and thereby reduce the burden on the healthcare system.

A research team led by Chiba University Hospital announced on Aug. 1 that they published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences at the end of July that found the higher the concentration of Myl9 in the plasma of patients with COVID-19, the more severe the patient’s condition, and the longer the hospitalization time.

A large number of studies have found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus accumulates in the blood vessels of the lungs causing vasculitis (inflammation of blood vessels), the formation of microthrombi (small clots), and deposits of Myl9. The plasma level of Myl9 is elevated in such patients.

Researchers did post mortem analyses on three people who died from COVID-19, one from gastric cancer, one from a genetic disease, and tested 177 whole blood samples from living subjects.

Of the 177 living subjects, 123 were patients with COVID-19, from which they screened moderate and severe patients, and blood samples were collected from these individuals. In addition, blood samples were collected from severe patients once every 3 days, and a total of 400 blood samples were collected.

In order to facilitate the experiment for comparison, the researchers conducted blood tests on the remaining 30 healthy people, 9 patients with sepsis bacterial infection, and 15 patients who underwent cardiac surgery, to observe the changes in their plasma Myl9 concentration.

The results showed no significant increase in Myl9 concentration in 9 patients with sepsis bacterial infection or 15 patients undergoing cardiac surgery, however, the highest Myl9 concentration of 2,000 ng per mL (one ng equals one billionth of a gram) was found in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, which is more than 40 times the level found in healthy people.

In addition, the Myl9 concentration in one patient with COVID-19 at discharge was much lower than at admission, and also lower than the maximum Myl9 concentration during hospitalization. Some of the patients who died were found to have higher Myl9 concentration levels than at the time of admission.

In order to determine whether the severity of the disease in patients with COVID-19 was highly correlated with Myl9 concentrations in plasma, researchers conducted comparisons between 24 moderate and 27 severe patients, and found that severe patients had higher Myl9 concentrations than those with moderate disease, and that patients who died of COVID-19 had the highest concentration of Myl9 in their blood.

Comparing the Myl9 concentrations of patients at the time of admission and during hospitalization, a high positive correlation was found. And there was also a correlation between Myl9 concentration and the degree of hypoxia (low oxygen level in tissues) in the patients.

In addition, the researchers found a strong correlation between mortality from COVID-19 and the degree of pulmonary vascular damage, as they were able to detect arterial infiltrative microthrombi in the lungs of patients. The presence of numerous SARS-CoV-2 virus particles around the damaged pulmonary vessels was also found in patients who died.

The report concludes that Myl9 concentration levels in the blood can be a biomarker for determining the severity of COVID-19, and that measuring Myl9 levels in blood can help physicians determine whether those with COVID-19 are in the high-risk group, allowing them to receive intensive treatment earlier.

Kiyoshi Hirahara, a professor of immunology at the Graduate School of Medicine at Chiba University in Japan, told Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun newspaper on Aug. 2, “If we can develop a simple kit to measure Myl9 concentration, it will help us to decide which patients should be hospitalized first.”

 

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Regular physical activity linked to lower risk of COVID-19 infection and severity

Regular physical activity is linked to a lower risk of COVID-19 infection and severity, including hospital admission and death, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

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Regular physical activity linked to lower risk of COVID-19 infection and severity
by British Medical Journal
August 22, 2022

Regular physical activity is linked to a lower risk of COVID-19 infection and severity, including hospital admission and death, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

A weekly tally of 150 minutes of moderate intensity, or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity, physical activity seems to afford the best protection, the analysis suggests.

Previous research suggests that physical activity can lessen both the risk of infection and the severity of respiratory infections due, at least in part, to its ability to bolster the immune system.

The link between regular physical activity and COVID-19 severity is poorly understood, but probably involves both metabolic and environmental factors, say the researchers, who set out to try and quantify the threshold of physical activity that might be needed to lessen the risks of infection and associated hospital admission and death.

They searched 3 major research databases for relevant studies published between November 2019 and March 2022, and from an initial haul of 291, pooled the results of 16.

The studies included a total of 1,853,610 adults, just over half of whom (54%) were women. The average age of participants was 53.

Most of the studies were observational and were carried out in South Korea, England, Iran, Canada, the UK, Spain, Brazil, Palestine, South Africa and Sweden.

The pooled data analysis showed that, overall, those who included regular physical activity in their weekly routine had an 11% lower risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.

They also had a 36% lower risk of hospital admission, a 44% lower risk of severe COVID-19 illness, and a 43% lower risk of death from COVID-19 than their physically inactive peers.

The maximum protective effect occurred at around 500 Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET) minutes a week, after which there were no further improvements.

METS express the amount of energy (calories) expended per minute of physical activity, and 500 of them are the equivalent of 150 minutes of moderate intensity, or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity, physical activity.

The researchers caution that the analysis included observational studies, differing study designs, subjective assessments of physical activity levels, and concerned only the Beta and Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2 rather than Omicron, all of which may weaken the findings.

But there are plausible biological explanations for what they found, they say. Regular moderate-intensity exercise may help to boost the body's anti-inflammatory responses, as well as cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, all of which may explain its beneficial effects on COVID-19 severity, they suggest.

They conclude: "Our findings highlight the protective effects of engaging in sufficient physical activity as a public health strategy, with potential benefits to reduce the risk of severe COVID-19.

"Given the heterogeneity and risk of publication bias, further studies with standardized methodology and outcome reporting are now needed."

 

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Higher risk of blood clots in COVID-19 outpatients, largely reduced after vaccination

Researchers at NDORMS have studied the association between ambulatory COVID-19 and short-term risk of venal thrombosis and the clinical and genetic risk factors predisposing them to developing post–COVID-19 thrombosis.

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Higher risk of blood clots in COVID-19 outpatients, largely reduced after vaccination
by University of Oxford
August 22, 2022

Researchers at NDORMS have studied the association between ambulatory COVID-19 and short-term risk of venal thrombosis and the clinical and genetic risk factors predisposing them to developing post–COVID-19 thrombosis.

Ambulatory COVID-19 patients (those diagnosed as outpatients) face an elevated risk of venal thrombosis (blood clot in a vein) than the general population not affected by COVID-19, according to a new NDORMS study. But the risk was greatly reduced in fully vaccinated people with breakthrough infection.

Published in JAMA Internal Medicine the retrospective, population-based cohort study examined records of more than 400,000 participants from the U.K. Biobank. 18,818 were infected with SARS-CoV-2 identified by a positive PCR test in community settings, and these were matched against 93,179 uninfected participants according to age, gender and a series of clinical features.

Frank Xie, lead author, DPhil student and research assistant in pharmaco-epidemiology at NDORMS said, "Numerous hospital-based studies have demonstrated VTE in patients with severe COVID-19 who have been admitted for treatment. This was one of the first studies into ambulatory patients with the virus, and we've found that there is a substantially increased risk of VTE among this cohort of middle age and older patients."

Other clinical risk factors include older age, being male, and obesity. The team also identified genetic factors that predisposed patients to VTE. Factor V Leiden thrombophilia carriers (approximately 4% of the population) had an additional double risk of post–COVID-19 VTE compared with noncarriers, which was equivalent to the excess risk associated with an increase of 10 years of age.

"We did, however, find that the risk was significantly decreased for individuals who had been fully (two-dose) vaccinated," said Frank. "Reinforcing the need for vaccinations, these findings may help to turn the tide of vaccine hesitancy and restrictions on their use. It could also help healthcare providers re-evaluate how they attentively prioritize treatments such as prophylaxis for milder ambulatory COVID-19 patients to mitigate the risks of VTE."

 

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Those suffering from autoimmune diseases require a third coronavirus vaccination

Many patients suffering from an autoimmune disease such as rheumatism, ulcerative colitis or psoriasis must take medicine that affects their immune system. As the immune system also determines the effectiveness of vaccinations, some of those suffering from autoimmune diseases wonder whether it...

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Those suffering from autoimmune diseases require a third coronavirus vaccination
by Friedrich–Alexander University Erlangen–Nurnberg
August 22, 2022

Many patients suffering from an autoimmune disease such as rheumatism, ulcerative colitis or psoriasis must take medicine that affects their immune system. As the immune system also determines the effectiveness of vaccinations, some of those suffering from autoimmune diseases wonder whether it is safe for them to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 without incurring any complications as a direct result of the vaccine, and whether the vaccine will be just as effective and offer them protection for the same period as time as healthy people.

A large study at the Deutsches Zentrum für Immuntherapie (DZI) at Universitätsklinikum Erlangen has looked at this important issue in detail. The results have recently been published in the journal The Lancet Rheumatology.

In the prospective study, the interdisciplinary research team from DZI investigated a total of more than 3,700 patients and healthy participants who have received either two or three vaccines against coronavirus. The results allay the fears of those suffering from autoimmune diseases. Most of those who had the vaccination did not report any significant side effects, with no difference between the healthy participants and those suffering from autoimmune diseases. In addition, the majority of patients created antibodies to protect them against coronavirus. Another interesting and very important result is that generally speaking, people with autoimmune diseases generally have a weaker immune response after two vaccinations against coronavirus, and their vaccine protection generally wanes faster in comparison to the control group.

"Age and certain treatments can lead to the immune response in patients with autoimmune diseases waning faster than in others," emphasizes Dr. David Simon from Department of Medicine 3—Rheumatology and Immunology from Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, who led the study. Specifically, the study determined that "older patients lose their immune protection after the coronavirus vaccine faster than younger patients."

His colleague Dr. Koray Tascilar continues, "Some medications that aim specifically at certain immune cells such as T and B cells seem to reduce the effectiveness of the short and long-term immune response. It is therefore probable that this group in particular would benefit from a third vaccination soon after the second."

The study also indicated that the immune protection increased considerably in patients with autoimmune diseases who had a booster vaccination.

"Individual booster vaccinations definitely make sense," concludes Prof. Schett. "Adjusting vaccination schedules and offering an earlier booster vaccination may provide those suffering from autoimmune diseases with better protection."

 

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Study finds COVID vaccine mandates for nursing home staff effective

In the summer of 2021, states began announcing COVID vaccine mandates for nursing home staff as a strategy to improve vaccination rates and help control COVID infections in nursing homes. The mandates came with concerns about whether the requirement would lead to further staffing shortages if...

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Study finds COVID vaccine mandates for nursing home staff effective
by University of Rochester Medical Center
August 22, 2022

In the summer of 2021, states began announcing COVID vaccine mandates for nursing home staff as a strategy to improve vaccination rates and help control COVID infections in nursing homes. The mandates came with concerns about whether the requirement would lead to further staffing shortages if employees chose to leave their jobs rather than comply.

A nationwide team of researchers led by Brian McGarry, P.T., Ph.D., University of Rochester assistant professor of Medicine in Geriatrics and Aging, sought to understand the impact of these state-level mandates both on vaccination rates and on staffing levels. In addition, they looked at how county political preference, a factor strongly correlated with vaccine acceptance, affected the success of state mandates.

"Having a highly vaccinated staff is really a key piece of the mitigation strategy for keeping a very vulnerable population—the nursing home residents—safe from COVID infections and COVID deaths," McGarry said. "So policies that can improve vaccination rates among staff are very likely to have protective benefits for the vulnerable individuals there."

McGarry and his team examined data from the CMS COVID-19 Nursing Home Public File, which includes data submitted weekly from all Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing homes. They looked at nursing homes in 38 states where they could identify the mandate status and announcement date, where the mandate applied to all nursing home workers, and where county-level data from the 2020 U.S. Presidential election were available. Their sample included 26 states with no vaccine mandate, four with a mandate that included a test-out option, and eight with a mandate that did not include a test-out option.

Their study, published in JAMA Health Forum, found that the mandates were associated with increased vaccination rates among nursing home staff—with larger effects in Republican-leaning counties—but not with increased reports of staffing shortages.

"It looks like this policy really had its intended effect," McGarry said. "It boosted the vaccination rates among nursing home workers and didn't seem to lead to this unintended consequence of causing a mass exodus of employees from the nursing home industry in those states."

The researchers found that over a period of at least 10 weeks ending in November 2021, nursing homes in states with a mandate and no test-out option that would allow staff to submit to additional COVID testing instead of getting vaccinated had a 6.9 percentage point increase in staff vaccination coverage, and nursing homes in states with a mandate and a test-out option had a 3.1 percentage point increase in staff vaccination coverage. In Republican-leaning counties, nursing homes in states with a mandate and no test-out option saw a 14.3 percentage point increase in vaccination coverage compared to similar counties in non-mandate states. Their analysis found no significant increases in reported staff shortages.

During that same period, non-mandate states had consistently lower vaccination coverage and higher rates of reported staff shortages.

McGarry and his colleagues are continuing to evaluate the impact of vaccine mandates. They are looking more deeply into the impact of state and federal mandates on staffing levels by analyzing payroll-level data, and they are watching what has been happening nationwide as booster doses have become available.

The research team included Ashvin D. Gandhi from the University of California Los Angeles; Maggie Syme and Sarah D. Berry from Hebrew Senior Life in Boston; Elizabeth White from the Brown University School of Public Health; and David C. Grabowski from Harvard Medical School.

 

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Wastewater viral loads can provide advance warning of COVID-19 outbreaks

Scientists show that there is a close association between clinical cases of COVID-19 and viral loads in wastewater, with the viral loads picking up to two days before the cases were detected.

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Wastewater viral loads can provide advance warning of COVID-19 outbreaks
by Hokkaido University
August 22, 2022

Scientists show that there is a close association between clinical cases of COVID-19 and viral loads in wastewater, with the viral loads picking up to two days before the cases were detected.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics were held during July 21 and September 21, 2021, a time when the incidence and spread of COVID-19 was prevalent. Thus, a rigorous and multi-pronged testing approach was enacted in order to limit the spread of the virus while allowing the Games to proceed.

Following from previous research, a team lead by Associate Professor Masaaki Kitajima at Hokkaido University has shown the association between SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in wastewater and cases reported at the Olympic and Paralympic Village. Their findings were published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

The athletes and support staff at the Olympic and Paralympic Village were tested daily; in addition, wastewater in the sewage system was also sampled and tested (wastewater-based epidemiology, WBE) daily to determine viral loads. The results were reported to the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee.

In this study, the authors wanted to examine the association between clinically reported cases and viral loads in wastewater. They correlated the results of 360 samples collected from manholes in seven distinct areas of the village with confirmed COVID-19 cases obtained from the Organizing Committee, and with data of close contacts tests from a previous report.

The researchers found that SARS-CoV-2 was present in 151 wastewater samples—53 from the Olympics and 98 from the Paralympics. The number of confirmed cases was also higher in the Paralympics. The strongest correlation between SARS-CoV-2 RNA load in wastewater and the presence of clinical positive areas was found in areas that had maximum viral loads in wastewater in a three-day span (two days before to the day of clinical positive area).

The study suggests that WBE and clinical tests are complementary, and that the testing strategy played a role in preventing COVID-19 clusters in the Village. This study of one of the world's largest mass gatherings provides novel evidence on the implementation and use of WBE in communities where all members undergo daily testing, and could be used to trace and control COVID-19 clusters in the future.