Doc Robinson
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I forgot to highlight this key phrase:
[Drug X] may reduce the anxiety related to the decreased personal freedom and control.Use [Drug X] for coping with lockdowns – and don’t harsh my buzz
Some recent research about [Drug X]:
Increasing empirical evidence has presented [Drug X] as a buffering resource that enhances psychosocial adjustment…Thus, [Drug X] would seem to be a valuable resource for people in quarantine, as it facilitates coping with their distress and may reduce the anxiety related to the decreased personal freedom and control… Our results highlight the meaningful role of [Drug X] at times of high levels of stress and uncertainty, such as the outbreak of a pandemic. [Drug X] could thus be considered as responsible for activating a change mechanism that reduces psychological distress.
[Drug X] during the COVID-19 outbreak: coping with the psychological impact of quarantine
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09515070.2021.1881762A presidential candidate in the US was elected with a campaign that included giving free [Drug X] to anyone who wanted it.
“The ethics council on Thursday pointed out that it had to be clarified first whether vaccinated people might still be able to transmit the virus. Only if that were ruled out could any exemption from rules such as wearing masks in public places be considered.”
It should already be obvious that a vaccinated person might still be able to transmit the virus. The vaccine effectiveness is not 100%.
John Day: “…about 50% of people in the USA have or have had COVID-19 now.”
Back in December, the CDC was estimating that 91 million people in the US were already infected, for the period from February through September. That would mean almost 30% of the population, before the “second wave” hit. The number of official “cases” at the end of September was 7.5 million, so the CDC was estimating 83.5 million more people were infected in the US, beyond the official 7.5 million cases. For every official case, the CDC estimated an additional 11 uncounted infections, to give the total of 91 million infected by the end of September.
There have been an additional 19 million known cases in the US since the end of September, plus a presumably large number of uncounted infections. This adds up to more than one-third of the population (110 million plus the uncounted).
However, by January 15 of this year, the CDC estimate for total infections didn’t go up above their previous estimate of 91 million infections (for Feb through Sept), it went down to 83.1 million infections (for Feb through Dec).
The archived page from January 16, 2021, showing the 91 million infections estimate (Feb-Sept):
https://web.archive.org/web/20201201000000*/https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.htmlThe page as it looks today, showing the 83.1 million infections estimate (Feb-Dec):
https://web.archive.org/web/20201201000000*/https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.htmlAlong with a new president, the US got a decrease in the number of total Covid infections, which means more people who need to be vaccinated to acquire some immunity?
The Russian vaccine will be available in Mexico.
Sputnik V has a number of key advantages:
Efficacy of Sputnik V is 91.6% as confirmed by the data published in the Lancet, one of the world’s oldest and most respected medical journals; Sputnik V provides full protection against severe cases of COVID-19.
The Sputnik V vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors, which cause the common cold and have been around for thousands of years.
Sputnik V uses two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination, providing immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots.
The safety, efficacy and lack of negative long-term effects of adenoviral vaccines have been proven by more than 250 clinical studies over two decades.
The developers of the Sputnik V vaccine are working collaboratively with AstraZeneca on a joint clinical trial to improve the efficacy of AstraZeneca vaccine.
There are no strong allergies caused by Sputnik V.
The storage temperature of Sputnik V at +2+8 C means it can be stored in a conventional refrigerator without any need to invest in additional cold-chain infrastructure.
The price of Sputnik V is less than $10 per shot, making it affordable around the world.
MEXICO BECOMES THE FIRST COUNTRY OF NORTH AMERICA TO REGISTER SPUTNIK V VACCINE
https://sputnikvaccine.com/newsroom/pressreleases/mexico-becomes-the-first-country-of-north-america-to-register-sputnik-v-vaccine-/zerosum: “329 Deaths + 9,516 Other Injuries Reported Following COVID Vaccine, Latest CDC Data Show
…get the data from CDC and to present the link.”MedAlerts offers an alternative to the official VAERS search engine, CDC Wonder. Both are built from the government’s raw data, but MedAlerts has a better user interface, more powerful search capabilities, and more extensive reporting, making it the best VAERS search facility.
9,845 cases (deaths and other injuries)
An update on the Russian vaccine:
Covid-19: Russian vaccine efficacy is 91.6%, show phase III trial results
The findings, published in the Lancet, showed that the two dose regime of the viral vector vaccine was generally well tolerated with no associated serious adverse events and similar efficacy in those aged over and under 60.
The Gam-COVID-Vac, also known as Sputnik V, was tested at 25 hospitals and polyclinics in Moscow between 7 September and 24 November 2020. Just under 15 000 volunteers received the vaccine (of whom 1611 were aged 60 or over) and 4902 received the placebo (vaccine buffer composition).
The primary outcome was the proportion of participants with polymerase chain reaction confirmed covid-19 from day 21 after receiving the first dose. From 21 days after the first dose of vaccine (the day of dose two), the trial reported 16 covid-19 cases in the vaccine group (0.1%) and 62 cases (1.3%) in the placebo group. However, volunteers were only tested for covid-19 when they self-reported symptoms. The efficacy data therefore only includes symptomatic cases.
This equated to an overall efficacy of 91.6%. When broken down by age, the study reported efficacy as 91.8% in those 60 and over, 92.7% in those 51 to 60, 91.3% in those 41 to 50, 90.0% for those 31 to 40, and 91.9% for those aged 18 to 30.
The study also found that 14 days after the first dose, vaccine efficacy was 87.6%. Any time after the first dose, the efficacy was 73.1%. Researchers are now investigating a single dose regimen of the vaccine.
https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n309
The full report published in the Lancet:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00234-8/fulltext@ Polder Dweller
With just hours to go before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, Trump ally Sidney Powell dropped her remaining challenges to the presidential election results in Georgia.
Powell on Tuesday requested that the Supreme Court dismiss a case that she had appealed up to the high court in December…
Powell’s requested dismissal of her case in Georgia is puzzling. Has the Trump team given up or is there some other reason Powell requested the case be dismissed?
I’m guessing that instead of standing up to the system, Trump made a deal to go quietly to avoid impeachment conviction and to have the federal prosecutors go easy on him and his family.
• COVID19 Vaccine Developers Ask SEC to Help Keep Price Setting Secret
Reminds me of how Africans are being charged nearly 2.5 times more than Europeans for the same vaccine.
South Africa paying more than double EU price for Oxford vaccine
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/22/south-africa-paying-more-than-double-eu-price-for-oxford-astrazeneca-vaccineBelgian minister tweets EU’s Covid vaccine price list to anger of manufacturers
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/18/belgian-minister-accidentally-tweets-eus-covid-vaccine-price-listThe latest data from the CDC shows the under-50 age group has had 65% of the Covid cases, but less than 5% of the Covid deaths.
Re: that breakdown of cases in Massachusetts (shown above), and this reaction:
“Most infections are among the youngest. That doesn’t sound good.”This graph from the CDC shows a breakdown of cases by age, and the age groupings could give the impression that the older segments of society are being infected more than they actually are. One of the lines on the graph only covers 4 years (ages 14-17), while another line on the graph covers 35 years (ages 45-79).
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/figures/mm695152a8-F.gifSince June of 2020, the 18-24 age category has had the highest number of Covid cases per 100,000 persons. This is more remarkable when you realize this category covers only 7 years (18-24). The next older category (24-44) covers 20 years, and the category above that (45-79) covers 35 years.
Starting in July, the weekly cases for the age 14-17 category, covering only 4 years, is right up there with the older categories covering many more years.
If the three lines for the under-25 cases were combined into one line, then it would be clear that the case count for under-25s is much higher than the other categories. Yet, looking at total deaths (from all causes) in 2020, this under-25 category is showing no real increase above the previous five years.
“Just 0.04% Of Israelis Caught COVID19 After 2 Shots Of Pfizer Vaccine”
Supporting Ilargi’s “too early to draw conclusions”:
However, experts have cautioned that data from Israel is preliminary and could be misleading. With its vast variables and constantly changing scenarios, an entire society cannot act as a petri-dish for a vaccine trial.
“When you vaccinate nationwide, there’s lots of confounders,” said Eran Segal, a computational biologist at the Weizmann Institute. “This is not a trial. That’s the problem. We should be very cautious.”
Israel is currently suffering a debilitating third wave of infections, with a national lockdown unable to significant pushdown morbidity rates. The government blames high infection rates on the more transmissible British variant of the virus.
Vaccine data could be influenced by both the lockdown, which may decrease infections, and the British variant, which likely has the opposite effect, in confusing and contrasting ways.
Meanwhile, the first people to receive the vaccine – on which these studies have been taken – mostly come from vulnerable populations, who may have been more likely to take precautions, which also could skew the data. Preliminary research might show different results at different times as the number of people being vaccinated is continually changing, and hospitalisation usually occurs days after infection.
@ dalex,
Lots of comments and information about that July 2019 incident can be found here at TAE in the Debt Rattle from May 17, 2020.
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2020/05/debt-rattle-may-17-2020/“Newsom Signs Bill To Extend COVID-19 Eviction Protections Through June (LAT)“
The state is bailing out the landlords too, paying 80% of the unpaid rent.
By tapping $2.6 billion approved by Congress during the Trump administration, the Legislature is offering a rent subsidy that will pay landlords 80% of the total amount of rent in arrears between April 2020 and March 2021 as long as landlords agree to forgive the remaining 20% and not pursue evictions.
In cases in which landlords do not agree to forgive unpaid rent, the state would pay 25% of the rent in arrears.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-29/newsom-extend-covid-eviction-moratorium-june
Illargi: “very simple and cheap substances could have made [vaccines] obsolete.”
If those simple, cheap, and effective treatments were allowed to be recognized as such, then the vaccines would not have been able to skip the normally required years of safety testing before being widely distributed.
Instead of getting FDA approval after the vaccines are proven “safe”, the vaccines instead got Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), which is given “when certain statutory criteria have been met, including that there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives.”
An Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) is a mechanism to facilitate the availability and use of medical countermeasures, including vaccines, during public health emergencies, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. Under an EUA, FDA may allow the use of unapproved medical products, or unapproved uses of approved medical products in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions when certain statutory criteria have been met, including that there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives. Taking into consideration input from the FDA, manufacturers decide whether and when to submit an EUA request to FDA.
Once submitted, FDA will evaluate an EUA request and determine whether the relevant statutory criteria are met…
https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/vaccines/emergency-use-authorization-vaccines-explained
HerrWerner: “All I’m asking for is informed consent”
The consent seems to be manufactured, and the decision to get vaccinated is made before the “fine print” is provided to the recipient.
Below are some selected quotes from the FDA-required “Fact Sheet for Recipients and Caregivers” that is provided “to help make an informed decision about vaccination” before the Pfizer vaccine is injected.
(Emphasis added.)The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine is a vaccine and may prevent you from getting COVID-19. There is no U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved vaccine to prevent COVID-19.
It is your choice to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine may not protect everyone.
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine is an unapproved vaccine that may prevent COVID-19. There is no FDA-approved vaccine to prevent COVID-19.
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine is an unapproved vaccine.
The duration of protection against COVID-19 is currently unknown.
WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF THE PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 VACCINE?
Side effects that have been reported with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine include…There is a remote chance that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine could cause a severe allergic reaction.
These may not be all the possible side effects of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. Serious and unexpected side effects may occur. Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine is still being studied in clinical trials.
https://www.fda.gov/media/144414/download
COVID-19 Vaccine Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) Fact Sheets for Recipients and Caregivers
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/eua/index.html• Israel: 60% Drop In Hospitalizations For Age 60+ 3 Weeks After 1st Shot
Repeating a key part of that article:
“The decrease in hospital admissions is swift after vaccination, Maccabi suggests in its latest data, finding that hospitalizations start to fall sharply from Day 18 after people receive the first shot. Galia Rahav, head of infectious diseases at Israel’s largest hospital, Sheba Medical Center, described the data as “very important.” By Day 23, which is 2 days after the second shot, there is a 60% drop in hospitalizations among vaccinated people aged 60-plus, Maccabi revealed after monitoring 50,777 patients. It compared their hospitalization rate at that point with their hospitalization rate soon after receiving the vaccine, using 7-day moving averages.”
I tried to find a better explanation of this data, and it looks like the original report was taken offline, but somebody posted a copy of it elsewhere:
https://maurice.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Isreal-Maccabi.pdf
This article from Bloomberg does have a clear version of the graph:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-24/israeli-vaccination-drive-curbing-infection-and-hospitalizationThe hospitalizations are shown as the bottom line in the graph. On Day 4 (after receiving the first shot), the additional daily hospitalizations was 1.2 people out of the group of 50,777 vaccinated seniors (7-day average). On Day 14 (after receiving the first shot), the daily hospitalizations jumped up to 2.3 people (out of 50,777 people). Using the same logic as the headline above, this is a
92% Increase in Hospitalizations for Age 60+ 2 weeks after 1st Shot.Day 23 has 0.5 additional hospitalizations out of that group. Going from 1.2 people (Day 4) to 0.5 people hospitalized per day, out of a group of 50,777 vaccinated people, might not be very remarkable at all. There is no comparison to a control group. Were there stricter lockdowns imposed which could have affected the hospitalization rate? What were the changes in additional hospitalizations for the general public during that period? No mention of these factors.
Noirette: “Some in Israel are calling out the ‘great vax roll-out’ for what it basically is, a clinical trial.”
A story from a major newspaper in Florida, which seems to be trying to normalize the concept of the general public being guinea pigs for an unapproved vaccine:
Older Floridians: Guinea pigs for the safety and success of the COVID-19 vaccine
South Florida Sun Sentinel
JAN 22, 2021
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus/fl-ne-florida-seniors-covid-vaccine-guinea-pigs-ss-prem-20210122-6yv72cxkzzgndp7bwdeobwhk7y-story.htmlFlorida has given the vaccine to more seniors than any other state, making it ripe for real-time research on the people most vulnerable to the deadly virus.
Because so few elderly people were included in the vaccine trials, much remains unknown about how the vaccine will affect them. Answers may now come from Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis chose to give the vaccine first to nursing home residents and where nearly a million people over 65 have now been vaccinated.
Until now, research about the vaccine’s effect on older people has been minimal and short term.
There is not really a downside for seniors to be vaccinated. We don’t’ know how big the benefit is but there is not a downside… We don’t know enough to promise anything to a senior, but we do know it’s safer to be vaccinated than not.
More reasons why vaccine passports are a bad idea:
4. Since the vaccines are not 100% effective, a significant number of vaccinated people could still become infected and spread the virus to others.
5. Existing vaccines could be ineffective against new strains of the Covid virus.
Some reasons why vaccine passports are a bad idea:
1. “…doctors say it is possible vaccinated travelers could still potentially harbor the virus and sicken unvaccinated people… The vaccines in the U.S. right now have not proven that they decrease transmission, so the patient may still get mild or asymptomatic versions of the disease and they may then be able to transmit it”
2. “We also don’t know how long [vaccine] immunity lasts, so a vaccine or immunity passport could possibly give you a false perception of security from the virus that you might not have after a number of months.”
3. “…the World Health Organization recently said that it opposes vaccine requirements for travel because of equity issues in the current state of the global vaccine rollout… .Doctors have warned that one in four nations will not see any coronavirus vaccinations this year.”
The organization’s doctors are warning that a vaccine will not be a cure-all for travelers before there is global herd immunity — which will take years. WHO Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network chairman Dale Fisher said this month that global herd immunity will not occur by the end of 2021.
Requiring vaccines for travel is not a new concept: Many nations have long required inoculations against various types of illnesses, from yellow fever to polio, for entry. But because we know very little about the novel coronavirus and its current vaccines compared to illnesses that have come before, doctors say it is possible vaccinated travelers could still potentially harbor the virus and sicken unvaccinated people.
“The vaccines in the U.S. right now have not proven that they decrease transmission, so the patient may still get mild or asymptomatic versions of the disease and they may then be able to transmit it,” says Carlos Acuna-Villaorduna, an infectious-diseases physician at Boston Medical Center. “We also don’t know how long [vaccine] immunity lasts, so a vaccine or immunity passport could possibly give you a false perception of security from the virus that you might not have after a number of months.”
…Doctors have warned that one in four nations will not see any coronavirus vaccinations this year.
The argument against vaccine passports is growing
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2021/01/22/passport-vaccine-covid-flights-international/Summary of the articles I posted above:
Trial data had suggested the vaccine would be 89% effective after one dose, and this 89% number was used to justify the delaying of the second dose up to 12 weeks in the UK. However, real-world data from Israel shows only 33% efficacy after the first dose, instead of 89%.
Now the BMJ has an article about it:
Concerns have been raised over how much protection a single dose of the Pfizer BioNTech covid-19 vaccine provides, following reports from Israel that it is much lower than expected.
Professor Ran Balicer is a physician, epidemiologist and chief innovation officer for Clalit, the largest health care provider in Israel. He is also an adviser to the World Health Organisation.
“We compared 200,000 people above the age of 60 that were vaccinated. We took a comparison group of 200,000 people, same age, not vaccinated, that were matched to this group on various variables…” Prof Balicer said.
“Then we looked to see what is the daily positivity rate… And we saw that there was no difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated until day 14 post-vaccination.
“But on day 14 post-vaccination, a drop of 33% in positivity was witnessed in the vaccinated group and not in the unvaccinated… this is really good news.”
However, UK scientists said in December that trial data had suggested it would be 89% effective after one dose.
A document issued by the UK government’s vaccine advisers, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, to justify delaying the second dose for up to 12 weeks said: “Using data for those cases observed between day 15 and 21, efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 was estimated at 89%, suggesting that short term protection from dose 1 is very high from day 14 after vaccination.”
Has anyone seen any reported evidence of vaccine efficacy?
In an article published today by the journal Nature, preliminary studies in Israel are showing only 33% efficacy, instead of the 52% claimed by Pfizer, after the first dose.
Are COVID vaccination programmes working? Scientists seek first cluesIn a preliminary analysis of 200,000 people older than 60 who received the vaccine, compared with a matched group of 200,000 who did not, researchers found that the chances of testing positive for the virus were 33% lower two weeks after the first injection… Another analysis, by Maccabi Healthcare Services, found a similar trend, although neither study has been peer-reviewed.
…more than 75% of older people in Israel have been vaccinated
• 3rd of Recovered Covid Patients Return To Hospital In 5 Months, 1 In 8 Die
This was in the UK, for people having a bad enough case of Covid to be hospitalized by August 31. By then, there were 335,873 cases of Covid in the UK. About 40% of the Covid cases were hospitalized. About 40% of those hospitalized Covid patients (33,160) ended up dying in the hospital. Of those who didn’t die in the hospital before they were discharged, 12.3% of them (5,877) died within the 140 day followup.
“Compared with the general population, individuals in hospital with COVD-19 were more likely to be aged ≥ 50 years, male, living in a deprived area, a former smoker, and overweight or obese (Table 1). Individuals with COVID-19 were also more likely to be comorbid than the general population, with a higher prevalence of prior hospitalisation and all measured pre-existing conditions (most notably hypertension, MACE, respiratory disease and diabetes).”
Of those who had Covid badly enough to end up in the hospital, and then didn’t die in the hospital:
Post-discharge diagnoses of diabetes, MACE, CKD and CLD were made for 4.9%, 4.8%, 1.5% and 0.3% of individuals with COVID-19, respectively”
MACE: major adverse cardiovascular event
CKD: chronic kidney disease stages 3-5
CLD: chronic liver diseasehttps://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.15.21249885v1.full-text
Earlier this month, more data about the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccine trials was made public. The British Medical Journal BMJ addressed some sketchy aspects of this data by publishing an opinion piece by their associate editor Peter Doshi.
The biggest unknown seems to involve all the “suspected covid-19” cases in the trial participants, “20 times more suspected than confirmed cases,” which didn’t count against the vaccine’s effectiveness estimation. The “95% effective” vaccines could actually have a much lower “effectiveness” (down from 95% to only 19% or 29%) if all those “suspected covid-19” cases were actual covid-19 infections.
All attention has focused on the dramatic efficacy results: Pfizer reported 170 PCR confirmed covid-19 cases, split 8 to 162 between vaccine and placebo groups. But these numbers were dwarfed by a category of disease called “suspected covid-19”—those with symptomatic covid-19 that were not PCR confirmed. According to FDA’s report on Pfizer’s vaccine, there were “3410 total cases of suspected, but unconfirmed covid-19 in the overall study population, 1594 occurred in the vaccine group vs. 1816 in the placebo group.”With 20 times more suspected than confirmed cases, this category of disease cannot be ignored simply because there was no positive PCR test result. Indeed this makes it all the more urgent to understand. A rough estimate of vaccine efficacy against developing covid-19 symptoms, with or without a positive PCR test result, would be a relative risk reduction of 19% (see footnote)—far below the 50% effectiveness threshold for authorization set by regulators. Even after removing cases occurring within 7 days of vaccination (409 on Pfizer’s vaccine vs. 287 on placebo), which should include the majority of symptoms due to short-term vaccine reactogenicity, vaccine efficacy remains low: 29% (see footnote).
If many or most of these suspected cases were in people who had a false negative PCR test result, this would dramatically decrease vaccine efficacy.
Peter Doshi: Pfizer and Moderna’s “95% effective” vaccines—we need more details and the raw data
January 4, 2021
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/04/peter-doshi-pfizer-and-modernas-95-effective-vaccines-we-need-more-details-and-the-raw-data/Noirette: “Now, 2021, the enemies are once again Internal, “domestic terrorists” – though who exactly they are is not quite defined yet…”
“The FBI divides their counterterrorism priorities into four distinct categories: racially motivated violent extremism, anti-government/anti-authority extremism, animal rights/environmental extremism, and single-issue extremism. This distinction is important in understanding everything from choice of targets to which methods or techniques are used by those who chose to turn their beliefs into violent acts.”
Anti-government extremism is a loose-knit movement of right-wing groups including private paramilitary “militias,” Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, sovereign citizens, tax protesters, and “constitutional sheriffs.” It is often referred to as the Patriot Movement, but that label has faded in recent months as different factions have moved towards libertarian anarchy while other subgroups have adopted fascist themes and beliefs.
Over the years, sovereign citizen schemes have taken root in some left-wing groups including the Moorish Science Temple and prepper communities, and in the last two months, there has been a noticeable rise in left-wing private paramilitary groups…
In the past, the Ruby Ridge and Waco standoffs were the catalysts that drove Timothy McVeigh to terrorism. Such catalysts today could include heavy handed use of the American military on civilians/protesters, a street war that turned lethal, or the government using excessive force against what turned out to be an imaginary or exaggerated enemy. Anti-government extremists are aware that their plans for a revolution or “Civil War 2” require that catalyst…
Assessing the Threat from Accelerationists and Militia Extremists
Before the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism Committee on Homeland Security
July 16, 2020
JJ MacNab
https://homeland.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony%20-%20MacNab.pdf• At Least 23 Die After Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine In Norway
This is one of the risks of getting an unapproved mRNA vaccine injection. (There was not enough data for the FDA to actually approve the vaccine, instead they gave an “emergency use authorization.”)
The FDA briefing document about this vaccine indicates that people age 75 and over (6.9% of US population, 2019) were underrepresented in the Pfizer trials (only 4.3% of those who received the vaccine). Moreover, most of this “75 and over” group in the trials were only in their 70s (mean age 78, median age 77), when most of this age group (in the US population) are over 80, and about 30% of this age group (in the US population) is 85 or older.
From the medical authorities in Norway:
The large studies on Comirnaty [vaccine brand name] (BioNTec/Pfizer) did not include patients with unstable or acute illness – and included few participants over 85 years of age.
FDA briefing document, Demographics, Tables 4 and 5
https://www.fda.gov/media/144245/downloadUS population data
https://www.statista.com/statistics/241488/population-of-the-us-by-sex-and-age/• Lockdown ‘Ineffective’ Against Spread Of Covid-19, May Even Increase Risk
This study should be a game-changer, no?
It came from Stanford U, and has already undergone full peer review.Author affiliations
1 Department of Medicine, Stanford University Stanford, CA, USA.
2 Center for Health Policy and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
3 Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
4 Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
5 Department of Statistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
6 Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.“This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review”
Assessing Mandatory Stay-at-Home and Business Closure Effects on the Spread of COVID-19Results
…we find no clear, significant beneficial effect of mrNPIs [more restrictive non-pharmaceutical interventions] on case growth in any country.Conclusions
…we do not find significant benefits on case growth of more restrictive NPIs. Similar reductions in case growth may be achievable with less restrictive interventions.Discussion
…We do not question the role of all public health interventions, or of coordinated communications about the epidemic, but we fail to find an additional benefit of stay-at-home orders and business closures. The data cannot fully exclude the possibility of some benefits. However, even if they exist, these benefits may not match the numerous harms of these aggressive measures. More targeted public health interventions that more effectively reduce transmissions may be important for future epidemic control without the harms of highly restrictive measures.Persuasion campaigns directed at those who decided they don’t want to be injected with the mRNA.
“Because it’s not just their personal decision.”
The rates of refusal – up to 40% of frontline workers in Los Angeles county, 60% of care home workers in Ohio – have prompted concern and in some cases, shaming….
“We can’t just write off somebody’s decisions and say, well that’s their personal decision,” Robinson said. “Because it’s not just their personal decision, it’s an infectious disease.”‘I’m not an anti-vaxxer, but…’ US health workers’ vaccine hesitancy raises alarm
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/10/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy-us-health-workersIlargi: “Interesting, and positive, but do we know anything more than few weeks ago, when the WHO said that the vaccine doesn’t protect you from infection, or those around you from being infected by you? Because if that is still so, how can the vaccines stop the pandemic?”
I believe this is the WHO quote you are referring to, from the Debt Rattle 29 December.
The comments were made by WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan during what appears to have been a virtual press conference held Monday. A clip of the offending line has begun circulating on social media. “At the moment, I don’t believe we have the evidence on any of the vaccines, to be confident that it’s going to prevent people from getting the infection and passing it on,”
I think this could still be consistent with the predictions in the Nature article I posted above, since (ignoring potential side effects and unknown long-term effects of mRNA vaccines) the vaccinations could reduce the numbers of people who get the full-blown symptoms, and help build the “herd immunity” to a point where it’s similar to the common cold coronaviruses.
An interesting article, recently published by the journal Nature, makes the case that vaccines will stop the pandemic, but continued vaccinations will not be necessary because the Covid viruses will remain present in the population, with “overwhelmingly asymptomatic or mild” infections, like the four coronaviruses which cause the common cold.
“Continued presence of SARS-CoV-2 is akin to endemic HCoVs [common cold coronaviruses], where 60–70% population seroprevalence reflects a spectrum of immunity, dynamically maintained by intermittent reinfection and affords group protection from severe infection in the vulnerable. A large proportion of the population will be protected sufficiently and will reduce the viral shedding burden at any time to prevent large outbreaks.”
We’ve been infected with coronaviruses and “catching colds” since early childhood. The “common cold” coronaviruses are thought to have been more lethal in the past, until there was a “60–70% population seroprevalence.”
COVID-19 vaccinations have started. They will stop the pandemic. Citing recent data that are in line with immunological knowledge and predictions, combined with insights of common cold coronaviruses, we here set out the case that the maintenance of population immunity will not depend on continued vaccinations but on the endemic presence of SARS-CoV-2…
Immunity to human coronaviruses [HCoVs]
There are four known HCoVs that cause asymptomatic or mild upper respiratory tract infections similar to those generated by a collection of upper respiratory tract-targeting virus families. The broad pool of these common cold viruses can make us ‘catch a cold’ several times a year. The seroprevalence of the common cold HCoVs, initiated in early childhood, is widespread in adults, with reinfections separated by months, mostly without symptoms but with possible viral shedding. Similarly, SARS-CoV-2 infections are overwhelmingly asymptomatic or mild. Mild infections of the upper respiratory tract associate with modest antibody increases and several infection rounds may be required to prevent symptomatic disease.Will vaccines stop the pandemic? [Prediction: Yes] …A second important question is whether the vaccines will be effective against reinfection or even eradicate SARS-CoV-2. Here, we suggest both answers are most probably no.
Coronavirus vaccines have been used extensively to control infections in domestic animals. Inactivated or intramuscular parenteral vaccines induce high systemic levels of neutralizing antibodies and confer effective protection against disease. However, they have lower efficacy against mucosal CoV infections and do not prevent viral shedding.
Therefore, SARS-CoV-2 is likely to remain present in the population. The four common cold HCoVs are also thought to have had a more lethal history, possibly incorrectly identified as the cause of influenza pandemics in the past. Continued presence of SARS-CoV-2 is akin to endemic HCoVs, where 60–70% population seroprevalence reflects a spectrum of immunity, dynamically maintained by intermittent reinfection and affords group protection from severe infection in the vulnerable. A large proportion of the population will be protected sufficiently and will reduce the viral shedding burden at any time to prevent large outbreaks. The exception to this will be the reintroduction of the virus into communities in which SARS-CoV-2 is not endemic and/or who are not vaccinated. Infections from a young age and re-infections in later life will build up and maintain immunity. Importantly, those that have not been able to gain immunity via natural infection or vaccination will benefit from herd immunity, despite the virus residing in a largely asymptomatic population.
Endemic SARS-CoV-2 will maintain post-pandemic immunity
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-020-00493-9Some more ways the history of the Roman Empire might rhyme?
Before the emperor Constantine moved the capital from Rome to Constantinople (now Istanbul), the Roman empire had devolved to a tetrarchy, with four leaders controlling different parts and fighting among themselves, ending with civil war. Constantine battled his way to Rome and prevailed in the civil war to become the sole emperor.
The Civil wars of the Tetrarchy were a series of conflicts between the co-emperors of the Roman Empire…
Coming to a city near you?
China city offers cash for tip on test evaders
BEIJING (AP) — A city in northern China is offering rewards of 500 yuan ($77) for anyone who reports on a resident who has not taken a recent coronavirus test.
https://apnews.com/article/international-news-australia-brisbane-coronavirus-pandemic-queensland-2b20582d6393233e5f4e2706d7a444bfWhere is the next appeal [for Assange]? And when?
Craig Murray said that US appeal of the extradition denial is ” likely to be held in April in the High Court.”
No mention of when Assange’s appeal of the bail denial would be decided.The US government indicated they will probably appeal the verdict, and a bail hearing has been deferred until Wednesday to decide whether he will be released from Belmarsh pending the appeal – which court sources tell me is likely to be held in April in the High Court.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/01/julian-assange-imminent-freedom/
346 dead, criminal charges get settled with a fine, and most of the $2.5bn goes to airline companies.
Boeing to pay $2.5bn to settle criminal charges stemming from 737 MAX crisis
Dominic Gates of the Seattle Times points out that “Only $243.6 million, less than 10%, is a fine for the criminal conduct. And Boeing must pay an additional $500 million compensation to the MAX crash victim families. However, 70% of the $2.5 billion cited is compensation to airline customers that Boeing has already agreed to pay.”
https://leehamnews.com/2021/01/07/boeing-to-pay-2-5bn-in-settle-criminal-charges-stemming-from-737-max-crisis/This is from Craig Murray’s post today after Baraitser denied bail to Assange.
Magistrate Vanessa Bararitser walked into Westminster Magistrates Court No.1 at 10.12am this morning with the sunniest smile and most carefree disposition I have ever seen her adopt. Her shoulders appeared visibly lifted. She positively beamed at Clair Dobbin, counsel for the US government, as she invited her to put the case for the prosecution as to why Julian Assange should not be released on bail.Mrs Dobbin has one of those gloomy, presbyterian personalities that only fully comes to life when it has the chance to condemn somebody. There is nothing like a flat Belfast accent for a really rousing condemnation, and this was a collector’s item.
Julian Assange, she stated in tones that made plain she considered that name in itself to be suspicious and unsavoury, had shown he would go to great lengths to avoid extradition to the United States…
All of Julian’s team were optimistic before this hearing and it seems perverse that, a judgement against extradition having been made, Julian should continue to be held in high security prison pending the US government appeal. He has already been in jail for over 14 months just in the extradition matter, after the expiry of his unprecedentedly harsh sentence for bail-jumping.
In effect, having already served that sentence, Julian is now being punished again for the same offence, spending years in extreme prison conditions purely because he once jumped bail, for which he already served the full sentence.
The logic of holding Julian now is simply not there, given the current legal position is that he is not being extradited.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/01/both-tortuous-and-torturous/
Vaccination numbers are low in North Carolina, so the governor called in the National Guard to get more “needles into arms.” Could this be practice for when vaccinations are mandatory?
Most N.C. Nursing Home Workers Are Refusing COVID Vaccine
“North Carolina’s top public health official said Tuesday that most nursing home workers are refusing to take coronavirus vaccines being offered in a state that has now become one of the slowest in the nation to get doses into peoples’ arms.“
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/north-carolina/articles/2021-01-05/cooper-calls-in-national-guard-to-pick-up-vaccine-rollout“The N.C. National Guard has started to form six-member “immunization strike teams” that will travel the state to work at COVID-19 vaccine sites “to help North Carolina get needles into arms,” Brig. Gen. Jeff Copeland said Tuesday…
The National Guard teams are expected to work at least into April, working down the list of groups as they become eligible, Copeland said.
Copeland said the teams will work in urban areas with large medical facilities as well as in underserved rural areas…
Teams will consist of two combat medics and four administrative support members, Copeland said, with the medics administering the shots and the support staff entering patient information into computers and managing logistics.
NC governor activates National Guard to help with COVID vaccine distribution
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article248285010.html
