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Debt Rattle October 18 2021

Oct 182021

October 18, 2021 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 7:50 am Finance Tagged with: Christmas, DOJ, hospitalizations, Israel, ivermectin, metaverse, Pentagon, unvaxxed, vaxxed 55 Responses »

M. C. Escher Meeting (Encounter) 1940

• Covid Infection In Vaxxed 40-49 Yr Olds Double The Unvaxxed Rate (DS)

• Over 90% Of A Hospital’s Admissions Were Vaccinated For Covid-19 (Siri)

• What Happens If Israel Fails The Stress Test? (Geert)

• White House Tells Governors to Get Ready to Vaccinate Young Kids (CHD)

• 40% Of California State Workers Are Unvaccinated Despite Newsom’s Order (ZH)

• Pentagon Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Vaccine Mandates (ET)

• Ron Johnson Slams DOJ Probe Of Parents’ School Board Protests (JTN)

• Facebook Announces 10,000 EU Jobs To Build ‘Metaverse’ (Y!)

• MPs Back Challenge To Boris Johnson On Vaccine Passports (Exp.)

• Bare Shelves, No Holidays… At Last, A Biblical Kind Of Christmas (Cumming)

• Who Do You Blame When You’ve Killed The Scapegoat? (Fintan O’Toole)

Ivermectin works in Tokyo..

And in Indonesia.

Indonesia ramped up ivermectin production and the government assured national distribution and fair prices. IVM is considered by the government a COVID medicine.

But Singapore has the same pattern as Taiwan: very low infection rates, but then the vaccines came…

McCullough
https://twitter.com/i/status/1448336581358665733

Effectiveness Hits Minus-109%

• Covid Infection In Vaxxed 40-49 Yr Olds Double The Unvaxxed Rate (DS)

In the latest Vaccine Surveillance report from Public Health England (PHE) the Covid infection rate in double-vaccinated people in their 40s went above 100 per cent higher than in the unvaccinated for the first time, reaching 109 per cent. This translates to an unadjusted vaccine effectiveness of minus 109 per cent.

Vaccine effectiveness continues to drop fast in all over-18s, hitting minus 85 per cent for those in their 50s, minus 88 per cent for those in their 60s and minus 79 per cent for those in their 70s. Vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation and death continues to hold up in all age groups, though with some signs of decline, particularly among older people. There is still nothing from Government sources acknowledging this failure of the vaccines against infection, its implications for policy and analysing what might be behind it.

We’ve seen Deborah Conrad.

• Over 90% Of A Hospital’s Admissions Were Vaccinated For Covid-19 (Siri)

A concerned Physician Assistant, Deborah Conrad, convinced her hospital to carefully track the Covid-19 vaccination status of every patient admitted to her hospital. The result is shocking. As Ms. Conrad has detailed, her hospital serves a community in which less than 50% of the individuals were vaccinated for Covid-19 but yet, during the same time period, approximately 90% of the individuals admitted to her hospital were documented to have received this vaccine. These patients were admitted for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to COVID-19 infections. Even more troubling is that there were many individuals who were young, many who presented with unusual or unexpected health events, and many who were admitted months after vaccination.

One would think that after an association was identified by a healthcare professional, our health authorities would at least review this finding, right? Sadly, when Ms. Conrad reached out to health authorities herself, she was ignored. My firm then sent a letter to the CDC and FDA on July 19, 2021 on Ms. Conrad’s behalf (see letter below), yet neither agency has responded. Even worse, when doctors came to Ms. Conrad for assistance with filing VAERS report for their patients, the hospital prohibited her from filing these reports. That the CDC and FDA failed to respond is arguably not surprising – they have been cheerleading this vaccine for months. Admitting almost any harm now would be akin to asking them to turn a gun on themselves. This again highlights the importance of never permitting government coercion and mandates when it comes to medical procedures.

“..it is reasonable to expect booster injections to only enable the virus to more rapidly evolve resistance to the vaccines..”

• What Happens If Israel Fails The Stress Test? (Geert)

It is well known that, regardless of any induced antigen (Ag)-specific adaptive immune response, all vaccines (including mRNA vaccines) have an adjuvant effect: they stimulate innate immune effectors, some of which have antiviral activity and/or facilitate adaptive immunity (2, 3, 4). Without going into mechanistic detail, there is no doubt that some of these innate, nonAg-specific immune responses have a short-lived antiviral effect. This could already explain why booster doses in the population described above can prevent viral infection while recalling anti-spike Abs. It may also be tempting to assume that these recalled Abs are now responsible for enhanced protection from both infection and disease.

However, from an immunological viewpoint, it is difficult to understand how a rapid recall of the very same anti-S Abs in a previously vaccine-primed population would now all of a sudden enable better protection from infection and disease. If innate immunity is indeed the confounder, then the outcome of long-term surveillance studies would look very different. Given the more potent neutralizing Abs booster shots are generating against variants (5), the S(pike)-directed immune pressure in the population will only continue to rise while still failing to curtail the spread of the predominantly circulating highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 variant (e.g., Delta variant). On the contrary, it would be reasonable to assume that upon an additional booster shot the more potent Abs further contribute to selecting S-directed immune escape variants and, therefore, turn the previously primed population in an even more fertile breeding ground for the highly infectious Delta variant.

As vaccine-elicited Ab responses have a much longer duration (and can be memorized) than that induced by short-term innate immune activation, and as vaccinal Abs suppress the functional capacity of pre-existing CoV-reactive innate Abs, short-term vaccine-mediated innate immune protection against viral infection or disease does not automatically imply a positive effect of the vaccine on viral infection or morbidity rates in the longer term. Interpretations from scientists who only conduct short-term surveillance studies in vaccinees, the majority of whom are adults or elderly, lead to erroneous, although peer-reviewed conclusions such as: ‘Although vaccines are less effective against asymptomatic disease (*) or against transmission than against severe disease, even in populations with fairly high vaccination rates the unvaccinated are still the major drivers of transmission and are themselves at the highest risk of serious disease’ (6).

This clearly illustrates their lack of understanding of the contribution of innate immunity in providing short-term protection after vaccination, and in the more durable protection of young and healthy unvaccinated age groups. Based on all of the above, it is reasonable to expect booster injections to only enable the virus to more rapidly evolve resistance to the vaccines. This evolution would be dramatically expedited by vaccinating and boosting more and more younger age groups.

No FDA approval, but “..the Biden administration has already purchased 65 million doses of pediatric COVID vaccines..”

• White House Tells Governors to Get Ready to Vaccinate Young Kids (CHD)

In a private phone call Tuesday with the nation’s governors, the White House told states to prepare to vaccinate children as young as 5 by early November. A White House official said the call was made in anticipation of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine being cleared for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in the coming weeks for children ages 5 to 11. According to NBC News, the Biden administration purchased 65 million pediatric doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine — enough to vaccinate an estimated 28 million children who would be eligible should the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approve Pfizer’s request to vaccinate the younger age group. In anticipation of a green light from the FDA, the administration began planning vaccination efforts with states, pharmacies and medical groups.

The administration told providers in a planning document last week the vaccine for children will be delivered to thousands of sites within one week of FDA authorization. The pediatric Pfizer vaccine will be distributed in 100-dose packs. Each dose is one-third of what is given to adults, and will be free through sites enrolled in a federal program that guarantees the shots are provided at no cost. Some states are planning to provide the vaccine through schools. “We’ve secured plenty of supply, and we’ll be putting in place an allocation, ordering and distribution system similar to what we’ve used for the other vaccines,” said Biden’s White House COVID coordinator, Jeff Zients, on a phone call, obtained by ABC News, with governors.

“It is distressing to hear that the Biden administration has already purchased 65 million doses of pediatric COVID vaccines,” said Dr. Elizabeth Mumper, pediatric physician and CEO of the Rimland Center for Integrative Medicine. “Vaccinating children is not the way out of the pandemic.” In an email to The Defender, Mumper said she hopes the White House will consider the following data:

• 99.998% of patients under the age of 18 survive COVID
• COVID “vaccines” have not undergone adequate long-term safety studies
• According to the latest available data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, as of Oct. 1, there have been a total of 21,298 reports of adverse events, including 1,284 rated as serious and 22 reported deaths (two of the 22 deaths were suicides) in the 12- to 17-year-old age group
• healthy adolescents given COVID “vaccines” have experienced blood clots, myocarditis, abnormal menses, neurologic symptoms and extreme fatigue
• most COVID cases are spread from adults to children — children are not a significant threat to the elderly and vulnerable

“..a third of all hospitals in the state are experiencing critical staffing shortages because engineers, janitorial staff, respiratory therapists, nurses, midwives, physical therapists, and technicians have either staged strikes or have left the job over the mandate.”

• 40% Of California State Workers Are Unvaccinated Despite Newsom’s Order (ZH)

This might come as a surprise, but 40% of California state employees are unvaccinated despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s directive to mandate the jab or be subjected to regular testing. Newsom issued this new directive in July following a surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. At the time, he said, “We are now dealing with a pandemic of the unvaccinated, and it’s going to take renewed efforts to protect Californians from the dangerous Delta variant.” Still months later, less than two-thirds of state workers, or 62%, were vaccinated, according to The Sacramento Bee. The figure is much lower than the state’s overall rate of 72%. Human Resources Department spokeswoman Camille Travis said her agency has only compiled 89% of state employee vaccination status.

She said the data so far suggests some state employees weren’t compelled to get jabbed after Newsom’s directive. Some of the state’s largest departments shared vaccination rates: 52% of California Highway Patrol employees, 60% of Department of Motor Vehicles employees, and 60% of prison employees have received the shots. California Department of Transportation has the highest with 70%. Newsom’s mandatory jab, or be forced to regular testing for state employees, is less stringent than those of health care workers who have been forced to get the vaccine unless they had a medical exemption or religious claim.

One emerging drawback of mandatory jabs, with no consideration for regular testing nor naturally-acquired immunity, are reports that a third of all hospitals in the state are experiencing critical staffing shortages because engineers, janitorial staff, respiratory therapists, nurses, midwives, physical therapists, and technicians have either staged strikes or have left the job over the mandate. Director of Medical Ethics, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty of the University of California, Irvine, challenged the constitutionality of the hospital’s vaccine mandate regarding individuals who have recovered from COVID and have naturally acquired immunity and was immediately placed on leave. There’s no room to debate science as only the government can decide what’s best for state employees.

“..Attorneys argued in the suit that no COVID-19 vaccine is available in the United States that has received full licensing and approval..”

• Pentagon Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Vaccine Mandates (ET)

Service members from all five branches of the U.S. military, federal employees, and federal civilian contractors have joined in a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Defense over its COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The 24 plaintiffs “face a deadline under the Federal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate to receive a COVID-19 vaccine that violates their sincerely held religious beliefs, and have been refused any religious exemption or accommodation,” according to Liberty Counsel, the Christian legal firm that filed the lawsuit. The lawsuit (pdf), filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, lists President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as defendants.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to issue a temporary restraining order (pdf) to prevent the COVID-19 vaccine mandates from taking effect, and ultimately issue an injunction to prevent the Pentagon from enforcing the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Biden on Sept. 9 issued an executive order requiring almost all federal employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment. Regular testing isn’t an option. Civilian federal employees and contractors have until Nov. 22 to be fully vaccinated. Austin issued a memorandum on Aug. 24 saying that all military service members must receive a COVID-19 vaccine, after which all the branches of the military announced various deadlines for its troops to be fully vaccinated, regardless of whether they had previously survived a bout of COVID-19, and threatening suspensions or other disciplinary actions if service members don’t have a pending exemption request or fail to comply.

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have set a Nov. 28 deadline for their active-duty service members; reservists have until Dec. 28. For the Army and the Air Force, the deadlines for active-duty service members are Dec. 15 and Nov. 2, respectively, and deadlines for National Guard and Reserve members are June 30, 2022, and Dec. 2, 2021, respectively. U.S. Coast Guard members have until Nov. 22 to be fully vaccinated. [..] Attorneys argued in the suit that no COVID-19 vaccine is available in the United States that has received full licensing and approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and as such, cannot be mandated.

Austin, in his memo on Aug. 24 (pdf), stated that the mandatory vaccinations “will only use COVID-19 vaccines that receive full licensure from the [FDA] in accordance with FDA-approved labeling and guidance,” attorneys noted, arguing that “additional military documents reveal that the Department of Defense is not following its own directive” and is using vaccines under emergency use authorization [EUA] “because there is no FDA approved vaccine available.” Austin’s memo came a day after the FDA issued full approval for future Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines, which will bear the Comirnaty label. The latter vaccine wasn’t available in the United States as of Oct. 12, The Epoch Times reported previously.

“Show up peacefully. Be respectful. But be insistent. Demand that the school boards follow your wishes. Not the wishes of Joe Biden and his cast of characters.”

• Ron Johnson Slams DOJ Probe Of Parents’ School Board Protests (JTN)

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin says Attorney General Merrick Garland‘s order to have the FBI investigate parent protests of school policies is “outrageous” and a “method of intimidation.” “He is saying they are intimidating school board members. No, it is the attorney general of the United States that is intimidating people exercising their rights to free speech and the right to petition their government,” Johnson said in an interview aired Sunday on the Cats Roundtable with John Catsimatidis show on WABC radio in New York. Garland announced recently the FBI would be investigating comments made by parents during contentious school board meetings over curriculum issues such as critical race theory and transgender pronouns.

The Wisconsin Republican, who is up for reelection next year, encouraged parents not to be intimidated and to continue to press for the policies they want for their children. “I tell people in Wisconsin, if you don’t want critical race theory; if you don’t want the 1619 project taught to your children, don’t let it be,” he said. “Show up peacefully. Be respectful. But be insistent. Demand that the school boards follow your wishes. Not the wishes of Joe Biden and his cast of characters.”

“..meetings in a virtual room where they all appear as cartoonish 3D versions of themselves..”

• Facebook Announces 10,000 EU Jobs To Build ‘Metaverse’ (Y!)

Facebook on Monday announced plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union to build the “metaverse”, a virtual reality version of the internet that the tech giant sees as the future. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been a leading voice in Silicon Valley hype around the idea of the metaverse, which would blur the lines between the physical world and the digital one. The technology might, for example, allow someone to don virtual reality glasses that make it feel as if they’re face-to-face with a friend — when in fact they are thousands of miles apart and connected via the internet. “The metaverse has the potential to help unlock access to new creative, social, and economic opportunities. And Europeans will be shaping it right from the start,” Facebook said in a blog post.

“Today, we are announcing a plan to create 10,000 new high skilled jobs within the EU over the next five years.” The European hires will include “highly specialised engineers”, but the company otherwise gave few details of its plans for the new metaverse team. “The EU has a number of advantages that make it a great place for tech companies to invest — a large consumer market, first class universities and, crucially, top quality talent,” the blog post said. [..] Facebook bought Oculus, a company that makes virtual reality headsets, for $2 billion in 2014 and has since been developing Horizon, a digital world where people can interact using VR technology. In August it unveiled Horizon Workrooms, a feature where co-workers wearing VR headsets can hold meetings in a virtual room where they all appear as cartoonish 3D versions of themselves.

“If we start down this road the future is dark.”

• MPs Back Challenge To Boris Johnson On Vaccine Passports (Exp.)

Campaigners for the Together Declaration petition, already signed by almost 110,000 people including more than 200 church leaders and representatives of businesses and groups, fear that the UK Government will be pushed into agreeing to a so-called plan B to bring in new restrictions over the winter. It follows warnings by chief medical officer Chris Whitty last week that the NHS will “experience an exceptionally difficult winter” this year. Already this has been taken as an indication that pro-lockdown scientists working for the government will push for vaccine passports which have been introduced by Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland and the Labour government in Wales. Already, Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, which represents backbench Conservative MPs has signed the declaration.

He said: “‘Vaccine passports would set an alarming precedent where our medical records become public and some people are subjected to discrimination as they seek to go about their everyday lives. Surely that isn’t the kind of society that we want to create?” Another senior Tory MP, Sir Desmond Swayne added: “It is contrary to all our values and traditions to have to prove that we have undergone a medical procedure to go about our lawful business. “It is coercive and discriminatory, the abandonment of liberal values; a frightful precedent to set. I am appalled that a Conservative government could contemplate such a measure. If we start down this road the future is dark.” Campaigners will meet former minister Steve Baker, deputy chairman of the powerful Covid Recovery Group (CRG), and other Parliamentarians tomorrow before unfurling a 40m banner in Parliament Square.

[..] Robert Dingwall, former government advisor, and professor of sociology from Nottingham Trent University, who has carried out extensive research on the use of vaccine passports said: “Vaccine passports are a tech industry idea in search of a problem. In terms of public safety, they have little to offer. “Vaccinated people have a high degree of protection from their own vaccination. They also still have a potential to infect other people. By now, anyone who wants to be vaccinated has had an opportunity to do so.

“There won’t be any turkeys, or at least not dead ones.”

• Bare Shelves, No Holidays… At Last, A Biblical Kind Of Christmas (Cumming)

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” says Jo at the start of Little Women. BoJo is going one better. This Christmas, not only will there be no presents, but there will be no anything. After cancelling Christmas altogether last year, this time around he is creating a kind of half-Christmas, Christmas methadone, to ease us back into the festival. There is nothing the man will not do to get himself compared to Churchill. Thanks to his foresight and the happy accidents of the global economy, we will be able to wallow in our beloved blitz spirit, making do and mending, with a safe low dosage of consumerism to tide us over.

There will be no PlayStation 5 under where the Christmas tree used to be. There will be no jokes in Mrs Brown’s Boys, as usual, but none in the Christmas crackers either. There’s no petrol or HGV drivers, of course, but correspondents also report shortages of tennis balls, merlot, white bread, sardines, M&S chicken kievs, fish sauce, frozen apple strudel, tinned sardines, spring onions, fire alarms, an effective opposition, chocolate Hobnobs, cat vaccines, cat worming pills, bubble bath, Leon fish-finger wraps, marmalade, butter beans, dog-poo bags, goats, crisps, decaf coffee, bulbs (plant), bulbs (light), pigs, blankets, pigs-in-blankets, roofing lead and Harry Potter merchandise, especially wands. The last is hard to take; usually there are more wands than you can shake a stick at.

On the off-chance you manage to get to 25 December with a full tank and are able to dodge Insulate Britain’s armed roadblocks, you’ll arrive at houses that are too expensive to heat. The environmentalists ought to be encouraging the free movement of cars this Christmas; there are few people more persuasive on the subject of double-glazing than a chilly mother-in-law. There won’t be any turkeys, or at least not dead ones. There are plenty waddling around in barns, but there’s nobody to slaughter them. For the handful that do make it to Bernard Matthews’ big barn in the sky, there’s nobody to drive them to the shops. In a delicious irony, there are shortages of everything except shortages. Like it or not, this is what leadership looks like.

“Frost demanded that the EU agree to rewrite completely the Northern Ireland protocol of the withdrawal treaty that Johnson hailed in October 2019 as a “fantastic deal for all of the UK”.

• Who Do You Blame When You’ve Killed The Scapegoat? (Fintan O’Toole)

Last week, Boris Johnson, with his paintbrush and easel at his holiday villa in Marbella, touched up his self-portrait as the reincarnation of Winston Churchill. Meanwhile, another bodysnatcher, Johnson’s Brexit tsar, David Frost, was also in sunny Iberia. In Lisbon on Tuesday evening, he channelled the intellectual father of modern conservatism, the 18th-century Irish writer and politician Edmund Burke. Frost demanded that the EU agree to rewrite completely the Northern Ireland protocol of the withdrawal treaty that Johnson hailed in October 2019 as a “fantastic deal for all of the UK”. His speech was entitled, in imitation of a famous Burke pamphlet, “Observations on the present state of the nation”.

In case his audience somehow failed to make the connection between the former chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association and one of the greatest political thinkers these islands has produced, Frost reminded them – how could they have forgotten? – that he had previously given a speech entitled “Reflections on the Revolutions in Europe”. Geddit? For those who did indeed get it, the first response was surely to sigh, like the ghost in Shakespeare’s tragedy, “O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there”. The second was the dizzying feeling that the “present state of the nation” is that of a skydiver, free-falling downwards from Burkean conservatism into pure Tory anarchism. In his Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke wrote that “good order is the foundation of all good things”.

Somehow, when his soul was transmigrating to be born again in Brexit Britain, that bit got lost in translation. Disorder is now the royal road to all the good things that will come to those who keep the Brexit faith. Tearing up international treaties is, like the mass culling of pigs and fruit rotting in the fields, merely a manifestation of the creative chaos from which the new universe of “Global Britain” will emerge. It is rather unfortunate that the ground on which this big bang is set to explode, Northern Ireland, is a place that knows all about big bangs and the misery of chaos. And even more so that it is a place held together by one of those documents that Johnson and his government now hold in such contempt: an international treaty, the Belfast agreement of 1998.

Before Frost gave his speech on Tuesday, he knew full well that the EU was about to put forward a generous, sensible and very helpful set of proposals to deal with the difficulties in the practical implementation of the protocol. These proposals, unveiled on Wednesday, give civic and business leaders in Northern Ireland pretty much everything they have asked for to make the new arrangements work smoothly. Anticipating this EU move to calm everything down, however, Frost and Johnson chose to pre-empt the solutions by creating a new problem, one they know to be insoluble. They have hyped up an issue that no one in business or trade in Northern Ireland gives a damn about: the role of the European court of justice (ECJ) in any potential disputes about the interpretation of EU law. Deprived of the movement of sausages as a casus belli, they grasped another dubious foodstuff – the red herring.

Earplugs
https://twitter.com/i/status/1449965542916374529

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The Vaxx is Dead. Now What?

Oct 082021

October 8, 2021 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 1:38 pm Finance Tagged with: boosters, early treatment, effective, hospitalizations, media, Moderna, Pfizer, politicians, prophylactics, vaccines, vaxx 40 Responses »

René Magritte Pandora’s box 1951

Pfizer Covid Jab ‘90% Effective Against Hospitalisation For At Least 6 Months’, says a recent Guardian headline. Do you remember 1 year ago or so, when these things were first reported on? We were told things like 95% effective against infection, nobody talked about hospitalization, and nobody ever mentioned a time limit.

I’m not sure if they are just moving goalposts or if maybe a whole new and different game has been started, but those changes in wording are stark. Effectively, we’ve been sold one narrative for a year and are now finding out that it was never true. It’s just that the propagandists, like the Guardian, are not yet ready to catch up with the changes. Here’s thinking that will change.

Meanwhile, a few billion people have been injected with substances that essentially don’t do what we were told they would. As for the effectiveness against hospitalization, that’s murky at best. For instance because in the US, as of August 7th 60% of hospitalizations were among fully-vaccinated individuals. But protection vs severe disease is the last leg the vaccine fanatics have to stand on, and they will protect that leg with all they got. Until they no longer can.

And even this article admits “Effectiveness against all Covid infections fell from 88% within a month of having two doses to 47% after six months..” OK, so after 6 months they’re useless. You wouldn’t get a EUA for 47%. But what do things look like after 3 months?

https://www.humetrix.com/powerpoint-vaccine.html

As you can see, things already get worse after a few weeks. Let’s be generous and say the substances are “effective” for 3 months. Of course, minus the first two weeks, when they are known to increase infection risk. That leaves 10 weeks of “effectiveness”. And after 6 months there’s nothing left. Says even Reuters.

Covid Vaccine Antibody Levels Drop ‘Nearly 10-Fold’ After About Six Months

A preliminary study this week claimed to have found a steep reduction in the number of coronavirus-fighting antibodies in patients roughly half a year after they received the COVID-19 vaccine. Researchers “analyzed blood samples from 46 healthy, mostly young or middle-aged adults after receipt of the two doses and again six months after the second dose,” Reuters reported this week. The study indicated that “vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine induces high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the original vaccine strain, but these levels drop by nearly 10-fold by seven months,” two of the researchers told the news wire.

The study, which has not yet been certified by peer review, comes amid growing talk of the possible need for a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine to ensure a robust immune response. The study determined that “administering a booster dose at around 6 to 7 months following the initial immunization will likely enhance protection against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.”

Enhance protection? Or kill it? You be the judge. The Exposé looked at the latest report available from the UK Health Security Agency, which has recently replaced Public Health England. Its conclusion:

Covid-19 Vaccine Negative Effectiveness As Low As Minus 86%

The efficacy of all available vaccines combined is as low as – 85.71% within the 40-49 age group, and as high as – 3.4% in the 30-39 age group. This shows that the Covid-19 vaccines are making people more susceptible to catching Covid-19, rather than preventing cases of Covid-19 by the claimed 95%. By combining the numbers provided for all age groups over the age of 30, we have been able to calculate an average vaccine effectiveness of – 47.69%, and we’re definitely seeing this in the number of confirmed cases by vaccination status.

Between week 36 and week 39 of 2021 there were 41,149 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the unvaccinated over 30’s, 14,649 confirmed cases in the partly vaccinated over 30’s, and a frightening 243,373 confirmed cases in the fully vaccinated over 30’s. The new UK Health Security Agency report proves without a shadow of a doubt that the Covid-19 vaccines do not work, and actually make the recipients worse.

So, as I asked, now what? For the moment, the push for the vaccines is only getting stronger. People are being fired left right and center, including long term and dedicated health care professionals. Freedoms and rights continue to be taken away, and increasingly so. But people will start to see some of the real numbers, no matter how hard you try to hide them.

So as a politician or media person, you better try and stay ahead of the game. A huge number of people have died because, in order to get the authorizations for the vaccines, all prophylactics and early treatments had to be banned. And now the vaccines begin to actively kill many more. There is no way you can keep that hidden. And there’s no way you can keep pushing the vaccines when they kill those who are inoculated.

In many countries, the campaigns for booster shots are getting fired up. They will only make things worse, and fast. Ever more people will become spike protein factories, as their immune systems are no longer capable of dealing with the increasing amounts of spikes their own bodies produce. While the time the boosters provide “protection” will shorten. If you get a booster today, you’re likely to need another one around Christmas.

If I were a politician, I would be getting very worried about this. And I would probably look for someone to blame it all on, so I don’t get blamed myself. Maybe I would say Pfizer and Moderna have misled me, or my own experts. But I wouldn’t wait till fingers inevitably begin to point in my direction. Just saying.

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Debt Rattle September 15 2021

Sep 152021

September 15, 2021 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:40 am Finance Tagged with: boosters, coup, FDA, hospitalizations, Israel, mandate, Milley, vaccine 64 Responses »

Vincent van Gogh Café, le soir, Arles 1888

• The Meaning of the FDA Resignations (Tucker)

• Considerations In Boosting Covid-19 Vaccine Immune Responses (Lancet)

• 1 In 7 Vaccinated Americans Have Dumped Friends Over Covid-19 Jabs (RT)

• Unvaccinated US Covid Patients Cost $5.7 Billion To Treat In Last 3 Months (F.)

• Ordeal by Narrative (Kunstler)

• Nearly Half Of ‘COVID Hospitalizations’ This Year Have Been Mild Or Asymptomatic (ZH)

• Israel Health Ministry Chief Says Covid Spread Reaching Record Heights (ToI)

• Israel Increases Hospital Staff to Fight COVID Surge (Haaretz)

• Suspensions Put Strain On Greek Health System (K.)

• France Health Worker Vaccine Mandate Comes Into Effect (G.)

• Bring In Measures Soon Or Risk 7,000 Daily Covid Hospitalisations – Sage (G.)

• Harrowing Account Of NSW ‘Hospital At Home’ Program (News.au)

• White House: 75% Of Adults Have At Least One Covid-19 Vaccine Dose

• Contaminated Pfizer Vaccines Reported In Several Japanese Cities (ZH)

• Milley Secretly Called Chinese Officials Out Of Fear Trump Would ‘Attack’ (Fox)

• CNN and WaPo Finger Milley as Leader of Military Coup Against Trump (CTH)

Something’s afoot. Can’t imagine these two will be the only ones.

“This is a deep problem for actual scientists working within the bureaucracy because they know for sure that all of this is a pretense and that the government cannot win this war on the virus.”

• The Meaning of the FDA Resignations (Tucker)

Now to the striking resignation of two top officials at the FDA who were in charge of vaccine safety and administration. It was the Director and Deputy Director of the Office of Vaccines Research, Marion Gruber and Phillip Kause. They gave no reason for their departure, which is scheduled for October and November. The case is fascinating because 1) people rarely resign cushy government jobs unless a higher-paying, higher-prestige job in the private sector awaits, or 2) they are being pushed out. It’s rare for anyone in a position like to to resign over a principled matter of science. When I first read that they were going, I figured something else was up. These days, extremely weird things are going on within the Biden administration.

Even though his approval ratings are sinking, the president has to pretend that he has all the answers, that the science behind his mandates and virus war is universally settled, that anyone who disagrees with him is really just a political enemy. He has gone so far as to denounce, demonize, and legally threaten red-state governors who disagree with him. This is a deep problem for actual scientists working within the bureaucracy because they know for sure that all of this is a pretense and that the government cannot win this war on the virus. They simply cannot preside over more false promises, especially when the whole of their professional training is about accessing the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. So what can they do? In this case, it appears they had to get away before they dropped a bombshell.

The bombshell is called “Considerations in boosting COVID-19 vaccine immune responses.” It appears in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet. The two top officials are among the authors. The article recommends against the Covid booster shot that the Biden administration, following Fauci’s advice, is suggesting as the key to making the vaccines work better and finally fulfill their promise. Fauci and company are pushing boosters because they know what is coming. Essentially we are going the way of Israel: most everyone is vaccinated but the virus itself is not being controlled. More and more among those hospitalized and dying are vaccinated. This same trend is coming to the US. The boosters are a means by which government can save face, or so many believe.

The trouble now is that the top scientists at the FDA disagree. Further, they think that the push for boosters is courting problems. They think the current regime of one or two shots is working as well as one can expect. Nothing is gained on net from a booster, they say. There just isn’t enough evidence to take the risk of another booster, and another and another. The authors knew this article was appearing. They knew that signing it under the FDA affiliation would lead to a push for their resignations. Life would get very difficult for both of them. They got ahead of the messaging and resigned before it came out. Very smart.

The signed article goes even further to warn of possible downsides. They point out that boosters might seem necessary because “variants expressing new antigens have evolved to the point at which immune responses to the original vaccine antigens no longer protect adequately against currently circulating viruses.” At the same time, there are possible side effects that could discredit all vaccines for a generation or more. “There could be risks,” they write, “if boosters are widely introduced too soon, or too frequently, especially with vaccines that can have immune-mediated side-effects (such as myocarditis, which is more common after the second dose of some mRNA vaccines, or Guillain-Barre syndrome, which has been associated with adenovirus-vectored COVID-19 vaccines.”)

Here’s the article Jeffrey Tucker was talking about.

Among the authors are Marion Gruber and Philip Krause, director and deputy director of the Office of Vaccines Research and Review at FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), who just resigned.

Conclusion: boosters are not needed. But take a look at Gamma in that graph.

Question: why did they resign only after approving Pfizer?

• Considerations In Boosting Covid-19 Vaccine Immune Responses (Lancet)

A new wave of COVID-19 cases caused by the highly transmissible delta variant is exacerbating the worldwide public health crisis, and has led to consideration of the potential need for, and optimal timing of, booster doses for vaccinated populations.1 Although the idea of further reducing the number of COVID-19 cases by enhancing immunity in vaccinated people is appealing, any decision to do so should be evidence-based and consider the benefits and risks for individuals and society. COVID-19 vaccines continue to be effective against severe disease, including that caused by the delta variant. Most of the observational studies on which this conclusion is based are, however, preliminary and difficult to interpret precisely due to potential confounding and selective reporting. Careful and public scrutiny of the evolving data will be needed to assure that decisions about boosting are informed by reliable science more than by politics.

Even if boosting were eventually shown to decrease the medium-term risk of serious disease, current vaccine supplies could save more lives if used in previously unvaccinated populations than if used as boosters in vaccinated populations. Boosting could be appropriate for some individuals in whom the primary vaccination, defined here as the original one-dose or two-dose series of each vaccine, might not have induced adequate protection—eg, recipients of vaccines with low efficacy or those who are immunocompromised2 (although people who did not respond robustly to the primary vaccination might also not respond well to a booster). It is not known whether such immunocompromised individuals would receive more benefit from an additional dose of the same vaccine or of a different vaccine that might complement the primary immune response.

With friends like that ….

• 1 In 7 Vaccinated Americans Have Dumped Friends Over Covid-19 Jabs (RT)

Many Americans have been jettisoning friends from their lives during the Covid-19 pandemic, and for those who have chosen to get vaccinated, views on the jabs are often the relationship-breaker, a new poll has shown. The survey, conducted earlier this month by researcher OnePoll, showed that 16% of respondents have ended at least three friendships in the past year and a half. About 14% of vaccinated Americans said they have severed relationships with friends who chose not to get inoculated against the virus. In fact, vaccinated respondents were nearly four times as likely as those who don’t intend to get the jabs – 66% to 17% – to have ended friendships during the pandemic. The poll showed that 97% of vaccinated people consider their former friends to be “full-blown anti-vaxxers” and said they could never get them to understand the importance of getting the shots.

Covid-19 vaccination is one of the most divisive issues driving a wedge between Americans. The 14% who cited the jabs as the reason for ending friendships compared with 16% who blamed political differences and 15% whose former pal was dating an ex-mate. Other reasons included discovering their friends were liars (7%) and having a friend make up stories about them (12%).Hollywood has apparently blessed the idea of dumping friends who decline to get vaccinated. Actress Jennifer Aniston – ironically, a star of the television series ‘Friends’ – said last month in an InStyle magazine interview that she had ended relationships with people who refused to get jabbed or chose not to tell her their inoculation status. “It’s a real shame,” she said. “I’ve just lost a few people in my weekly routine.”

The level of vaccine vitriol has escalated in recent weeks. Radio host Howard Stern recently blasted “all the s**theads in our country who won’t get vaccinated” and said those who don’t get the jabs should be denied hospital beds if they get sick. “Stay home, die there with your Covid,” he said. OnePoll said 81% of Democrat survey respondents were fully vaccinated, compared with 64% of Republicans and 69% of independents. About 57% of Republicans and 41% of Democrats said society is “too critical” of unvaccinated Americans. Tolerance for vaccine autonomy is waning in America, as President Joe Biden last week ordered all businesses with 100 or more employees to force their workers to get the shots. “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,” Biden said of unvaccinated Americans.

Forbes moves into desperate propaganda.

“The vast majority of hospitalizations and nearly all deaths from Covid-19 are in unvaccinated people. The huge surge in demand for what few medicines are licensed to treat Covid-19 in the U.S. has triggered nationwide shortages and rationing of scarce supplies.”

• Unvaccinated US Covid Patients Cost $5.7 Billion To Treat In Last 3 Months (F.)

Preventable costs associated with treating unvaccinated American Covid-19 patients amounted to at least $3.7 billion in August and $5.7 billion since June, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, as the disease rips through people who elected not to get free and highly effective vaccines. Around 187,000 Covid-19 hospitalizations could have been easily prevented by vaccination in August, research by Kaiser found, up from 68,000 in July and 32,000 in June. These preventable hospitalizations over the past three months cost the U.S. healthcare system around $5.7 billion, Kaiser estimates based on the average Covid-19 hospital bill of approximately $20,000.

The “ballpark figure is likely an understatement of the cost burden from preventable treatment of Covid-19 among unvaccinated adults,” according to the report, which noted significant variations in costs across the country, a “conservative” estimate of the proportion of Covid-19 patients who hadn’t been vaccinated and studies indicating a potentially much higher average cost than the $20,000 used (one cited put the figure at around $42,200). There are also “substantial” costs for outpatient Covid-19 treatment, the report said, though this was not factored into the analysis.

Due to laws preventing insurers from charging unvaccinated people higher premiums, the Kaiser report said the bill will fall on everyone as they will pay only “a small share of the cost” directly. This means a greater burden on the taxpayer and the risk of higher insurance premiums for businesses and workers, the report said. The costs of being unvaccinated are on the rise, however, with some employers charging higher insurance premiums to employees foregoing vaccination and others making it a condition of work. They are also facing elevated costs for healthcare as insurance companies walk back the waivers on out-of-pocket costs for Covid-19 hospital care introduced earlier in the pandemic.

The Covid-19 vaccines used in the U.S. are proven to be safe and highly effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death from Covid-19, including against the delta variant. They are also supposed to be free and have no out-of-pocket costs. Despite being readily available for months, some states still have very low vaccination rates and many have still not hit the target of partially vaccinating 70% of adults that President Joe Biden set for early July. While breakthrough infections are rare, they can and do happen, though vaccines slash the risks of long Covid, hospitalization and serious illness. The vast majority of hospitalizations and nearly all deaths from Covid-19 are in unvaccinated people. The huge surge in demand for what few medicines are licensed to treat Covid-19 in the U.S. has triggered nationwide shortages and rationing of scarce supplies.

“..the distinguished American public servant will live out his last days in exile among the swooping fruit bats and grinning crocodiles, to the music of toucans screeching in the silk-floss trees (Chorisa speciosa).”

• Ordeal by Narrative (Kunstler)

Has doctor Anthony Fauci booked passage to Paraguay yet? Like, on a smallish container barge registered in Cote D’Ivoire, conveying a six months backlog of cars stolen out of Essex County, New Jersey, for detailing and re-sale way up that lazy river to Asunción? The captain has a comfortable guest cabin, price negotiable, but better bring your own food. The US Intel Community will not find the good doctor down there because they will not bother looking for him. And so, the distinguished American public servant will live out his last days in exile among the swooping fruit bats and grinning crocodiles, to the music of toucans screeching in the silk-floss trees (Chorisa speciosa).

Anyway, that’s my fantasy du jour. Walt Disney had it right: America’s fate would be a descent into pure fantasy as the final product of our many twentieth century triumphs. It is increasingly difficult, for instance, to sort fact from fantasy in Dr. Fauci’s magnum opus: the Covid-19 pandemic, starting from the premise that it actually exists. There was some kind of rumpus in Wuhan, China, in January of 2020… folks dropping dead in their tracks on the sidewalks (captured on closed circuit TVs)… folks getting the doors to their apartments welded shut… and then what? Not much indication of further freak-outs inside China since back then. Perhaps the virus has been raging over there all the while, but a million here, a million there, do you really notice the attrition in a land of 1.4 billion? Or did they just switch off that groove on their narrative machine? The CCP can do that, I hear.

Back in the USA, where you’d have to subtract a billion and then-some in population, something was surely killing folks, though, overwhelmingly, most of those folks were already sick, and old, pretty much in the check-out zone. In 2020, the death of old and sick people was declared… impermissible! Death suddenly had no place in the exceptional order of things American. (Ask old Uncle Walt, who reportedly had his head and its gelatinous contents cryogenically frozen, in expectation of future re-animation via science magic! Still waiting for him to come back….)

Of course, the new medical rules-of-engagement circa 2020 included the denial of early treatment with known common anti-viral drugs for folks coming down with early symptoms of the mystery illness. So, while pretending to object to the implacable fact of death — a certainty of the human condition, according to science — we killed a whole bunch of people by withholding treatment. And concurrently, we rolled out the vaccines promising to “protect everybody” only to learn that it provided other, even more diabolical, routes to death.

This is why I don’t believe the CDC has been undercounting Covid deaths.

• Nearly Half Of ‘COVID Hospitalizations’ This Year Have Been Mild Or Asymptomatic (ZH)

A brand new study is calling into question how reliable and meaningful of a number of “patients hospitalized with Covid-19” in the U.S. is. Covid hospitalizations – the most common metric heard when discussing the seriousness of the pandemic – may not be nearly as meaningful of a number as many once thought. And don’t take it from us: The Atlantic published a stunning piece on Tuesday citing a new study that suggests “almost half of those hospitalized with COVID-19 have mild or asymptomatic cases”. The Atlantic had formerly called Covid hospitalizations “the most reliable pandemic number,” last winter. Now, after a nationwide study of hospitalization records was release, the publication is walking back its fervor on that statement.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School, Tufts Medical Center, and the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System took on the task of trying to figure out how serious Covid cases were in those hospitalized, and how many people counted as Covid hospitalizations were actually in the hospital for Covid, versus getting a Covid test after being admitted for something else. The study “analyzed the electronic records for nearly 50,000 COVID hospital admissions at the more than 100 VA hospitals across the country,” The Atlantic wrote. It “checked to see whether each patient required supplemental oxygen or had a blood oxygen level below 94 percent” in order to try and determine if cases met the NIH’s threshold for “severe COVID”.

What the study found was that from March 2020 to January 2021, 36% of Covid cases in the hospital were mild or asymptomatic. From January 2021 to June 2021, during the Delta variant’s spread, that number rose all the way to 48%. For vaccinated hospital patients, the number rose to a stunning 57%.

Safe and effective.

• Israel Health Ministry Chief Says Covid Spread Reaching Record Heights (ToI)

Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash said Tuesday that the current wave of coronavirus infections is surpassing anything seen in previous outbreaks and that he is disappointed that a recent downward trend appeared to be reversing. Ash’s remarks via video call to the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee came as Health Ministry figures showed that over 10,000 new COVID-19 cases were diagnosed the day before and that the positive test rate was climbing. Pointing out that there is an average of 8,000 new infections each day, with occasional peaks over 10,000, he said, “That is a record that did not exist in the previous waves,” including the massive third wave at the end of last year.

Ash expressed some pessimism, though he observed that, belying fears, there wasn’t a large spike in infections following last week’s Rosh Hashanah holiday — the Jewish New Year — or the opening of the school year at the beginning of the month. After bringing daily infections down to little more than a dozen a day in June, Israel has been battling to control a resurgence of COVID-19 in what has been its fourth wave of infections since the start of the global pandemic. “A week ago we were in a clear downward trend; in recent days we’ve been seeing that decline stop, and the virus reproduction number is [again] above 1,” Ash said of the so-called R number, which indicates how many people each virus carrier will infect. Values above 1 show that the outbreak is growing, below 1 that it is shrinking. “I hoped that we would see a clearer drop, but we are still not seeing it,” he said.

The boosters work.

• Israel Increases Hospital Staff to Fight COVID Surge (Haaretz)

Israel’s hospitals learned on Tuesday that they would receive funding to take on an additional 600 doctors and 1,500 nurses if the government’s forecasts are correct and the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients reaches 4,800 in the next month, with half of them being serious cases. But many health care leaders warned that the extra staff won’t have a profound impact anytime soon because it will take time for them to be trained in treating COVID-19 patients in the midst of a crisis. Their contribution will only be felt only weeks, if not months, after they are hired. Even if the new hires can get up to speed quickly, many doctors said the number of new staff that the government is offering isn’t enough to cope with the growing patient overload – and that is going to affect the quality of care.

Dr. Eytan Wirtheim, CEO of the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva and chairman of the Union of Hospital Directors, told an Israel Medical Association conference on Thursday that the staff additions were critical and that “it’s important that we begin today to fill all these jobs and shifts.” He said that in addition to the extra personnel, hospital chiefs had unsuccessfully sought an additional 300 beds for intensive care patients, 800 for internal medicine units and at least 300 for geriatric internal medicine wards. IMA Chairman Prof. Zion Hagai said the extra medical personnel would not help seriously ill patients in the current COVID-19 wave. “If anyone thinks that we have increased our capacity for new patients, the fact is we have changed nothing – we’ve just added beds without the ability to treat patients,” he told the conference. “What are they thinking? That they can just push a button and out comes a trained physician who can begin to work? Experienced nurses also need to be trained before they can enter coronavirus wards.”

The PM bribes kids with 50 gigs of free data, to take a shot that won’t do them any good but can cause severe damage for the rest of their lives. Criminal.

• Suspensions Put Strain On Greek Health System (K.)

The suspension of unvaccinated doctors and other health workers in effect since September 1, meant as a warning and as an incentive to get inoculated, have resulted in personnel shortages across the public health system. According to the Health Ministry, some 5,500 health workers and other personnel at public hospitals have been suspended, with another 1,000 told they can’t work at primary healthcare centers. The problems are more acute in places with few personnel to begin with, such as on several islands, according to the union of state hospital employees. On the island of Naxos, for example, both surgeons, one of two microbiologists, two out of five lab technicians, two out of seven cleaners and five out of 30 nurses have been suspended. On the smaller island of Amorgos, four out of eight employees are not going in to work.

Newly appointed Health Minister Thanos Plevris tried to put a good spin on the situation. “There are certainly some dysfunctions – I want to be upfront – but those are manageable,” he responded Tuesday to a parliamentary inquiry by SYRIZA MP Andreas Xanthos, health minister in the previous leftist-led government. “We consider that, as the days pass and personnel that get vaccinated resume their duties, and with the activation of three-month contracts [with private sector healthcare providers], even these dysfunctions will be eliminated,” he added. In fact, officials are worried enough that they are considering relaxing the terms of the suspension, allowing personnel who have taken one of the two required vaccine doses back to work. No final decisions have been made about this.

The problem with health workers points to a more general issue concerning the reluctance of people to get vaccinated. Despite all sorts of enticements, incentives and ceaseless messaging, just 56% of the population is fully vaccinated. This drops to 49% for people aged 18-24, who are increasingly getting sick from the Delta variant of the coronavirus. And at schools, which opened Monday and are feared to become new bases for the spread of the disease, less than one in four 12- to 17-year-olds are vaccinated. It remains to be seen whether Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ promise over the weekend of 50 gigabytes of free data for the smartphones of 15- to 17-year-olds will provide any kind of inducement.

This is going to be fun to watch.

• France Health Worker Vaccine Mandate Comes Into Effect (G.)

The French government faces a stand-off with tens of thousands of health workers and carers Wednesday over a new rule requiring them to receive a Covid-19 vaccine or face suspension without pay, AFP reports. Starting Wednesday, hospital staff, ambulance drivers, retirement home workers, private doctors, fire service members and people caring for the elderly or infirm in their homes – some 2.7 million people in total – must be able to prove they have had at least one shot of a vaccine. President Emmanuel Macron issued the ultimatum two months ago, but tens of thousands of carers remain unvaccinated.

One of France’s biggest public sector unions, the hardline CGT, has warned of a “health catastrophe” if the government suspends large numbers of health workers and bars private-sector doctors from practising. Defiant health workers have joined opponents of a new coronavirus “health pass” required for entry to restaurants, cafes and museums at weekly protests held across France in the past two months. On Tuesday, a few hundred people attended a union-led demonstration outside the health ministry in Paris.

Where are the boosters?

• Bring In Measures Soon Or Risk 7,000 Daily Covid Hospitalisations – Sage (G.)

Between 2,000 and 7,000 people a day could be hospitalised with Covid in England next month unless the government urgently implements a “basket of measures”, government scientific advisers have warned as Boris Johnson made clear he hopes to avoid fresh restrictions. The prime minister confirmed on Tuesday that Covid passports, the return of mandatory mask-wearing and advice to work from home would be kept in reserve as the government’s “plan B”, to be introduced if the NHS is at risk of being overwhelmed. But newly published modelling from experts on the Sage advisory committee warn the government not to wait too long, with cases, hospitalisations and deaths all higher than a year ago despite the success of the vaccination programme.

Speaking alongside Johnson at a Downing Street press conference, the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, also said experience of battling the virus showed “you have to go earlier than you think you want to, you have to go harder than you think you want to”. He said the UK was now at a “pivot point” where, if the situation worsens, it could do so rapidly. Modellers on the Sage committee expect cases to rise in the coming months after almost all restrictions were lifted this summer, documents show. Daily hospitalisations could plausibly peak at 7,000 in England next month, far surpassing the winter peak, which reached 4,500 UK-wide, according to the updated modelling. Currently about 1,000 people with Covid are being admitted to UK hospital wards each day.

But if enacted early enough, before a rise in cases becomes sustained, even light-touch measures could be sufficient to keep infections flat and prevent a damaging fresh wave of hospitalisations, the Sage documents say. “With the current levels of high prevalence combined with unknown behaviours, the burden on health and care settings could rise very quickly,” the scientists warn. They say “it could be a very difficult winter ahead” if acute Covid combines with other pressures such as long Covid, other infections like flu, or co-infection causes more serious illness. Even though 81% of UK adults are double-jabbed, nearly 6 million are unvaccinated and vulnerable to the highly-transmissible Delta variant now most Covid restrictions have been lifted.

There’s a dark world down under. Good thing they banned IVM.

• Harrowing Account Of NSW ‘Hospital At Home’ Program (News.au)

The wife of a Sydney man stricken with Covid-19 has given a harrowing account of how the “hospital at home” program is operating revealing her husband was told to remain at home even when he was coughing up blood. The family, who spoke to news.com.au on the condition of anonymity, have raised serious concerns over the “call centre” approach to caring for patients which often involves call centre operators, not doctors or nurses, running through checklists of symptoms with patients. Doctors have raised concerns about the “hospital in the home” Covid treatment system after more than 15 people died at home since August 1. NSW has been left with little choice other than to rely on the hospital at home program after the number of Covid infected patients ballooned and the number of people in hospital and ICU continues to rise.

There are currently over 14,000 people with “active” Covid infection in NSW and the vast majority are being left alone at home to battle the illness. In the case of the 37-year-old man whose family spoke to news.com.au, he was “fit and healthy” and had no underlying conditions. “He is incredibly fit and healthy, a rugby player, he’s very into his health and his diet and fitness and doesn’t have any pre-existing health issues,’’ his wife said. “My husband was diagnosed on September 2. He had really mild symptoms at that point. He received a text. He was told to isolate. And they told him to stay home. They said they would call him every day,’’ she said. “But he didn’t have a GP contacting him. We just had NSW Health Unit contact which was like a call centre. He never really saw a doctor at all. He did have one phone call with a doctor.”

In the first week, she said she was given a list of things that would require her husband’s case to be escalated or taken to hospital. The woman is trapped in Victoria where she was trying to help him over the phone. “If you’ve got freezing cold skin and you can’t warm up no matter what you do. If you’ve got shortness of breath, chest pain, infrequent urination, and if you’re coughing up blood. So those are the things. We felt in good hands at that point. Then, he started to deteriorate,’’ she said. A week ago on Sunday, he started “coughing up blood and having respiratory distress”. “We monitored that overnight and on September 6, we called NSW Health to tell them that he was presenting with one of those symptoms, requiring hospitalisation along with shortness of breath,’’ the man’s wife said.

And that’s where the fun starts.

• White House: 75% Of Adults Have At Least One Covid-19 Vaccine Dose

Three-fourths of U.S. adults have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, a White House official announced on Tuesday. White House COVID-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar marked the milestone in a tweet, saying the country “just hit” 75 percent of adults with at least one shot. He said that from Sunday through Tuesday, 1.51 million doses have been administered, with 681,000 newly vaccinated and 105,000 additional doses, while noting that there is “as usual, lower reporting over the holiday weekend,” referring to Labor Day. The U.S. reached the 75 percent threshold about a month after hitting 70 percent. Previously, President Biden had hoped to achieve the 70 percent mark by July 4.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s online tracker, last updated Saturday, showed that 74.8 percent of U.S. adults received at least one dose and 64 percent were fully vaccinated. The rate of vaccinations has picked up in recent weeks as the highly transmissible delta variant spreads throughout the country, leading to increased case counts, hospitalizations and deaths. The U.S. administered more than 939,000 vaccine doses on Saturday after a steady rise since mid-July, when the pace was closer to 500,000 a day, according to Our World in Data. Still, only slightly more than half of the overall U.S. population is fully vaccinated: 53 percent are fully vaccinated and 62 percent have received at least one dose.

Are the Japanese the only ones looking?

• Contaminated Pfizer Vaccines Reported In Several Japanese Cities (ZH)

Several cities in Japan have reported ‘white-colored floating substances’ in Vials of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, according to Bloomberg. The vials came from lot FF5357, where white contaminants were first reported by Kamakura City in Kanagawa prefecture. On Tuesday, two more cities – neighboring Sagamihara and Sakai City in Osaka prefecture reported contaminated vials, however there were no reports of adverse reactions. In Sagamihara, white substances were reported at three different vaccination sites on Sept. 11, 12 and 14. The cities told Bloomberg that they will ask Pfizer for an analysis. Last month Moderna came under fire after black contaminants were found in multiple vials of their Covid-19 vaccine in Japan, causing the Japanese Ministry of Health to pull 1.6 million doses of the vaccine. According to NHK, “black substances” were found in syringes and a vial, while pink substances were spotted in a different syringe.

“According to Pelosi, she spoke with Milley that day about “available precautions” to prevent Trump from engaging in military action.”

• Milley Secretly Called Chinese Officials Out Of Fear Trump Would ‘Attack’ (Fox)

During the final months of former President Donald Trump’s term, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley made two phone calls to Chinese officials in fear that Trump would create conflict with the communist nation, a new book has claimed. In the book, authored by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa, it is alleged that Milley made two secret phone calls, both to his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army. The book alleges that the phone calls took place prior to the 2020 presidential election on Oct. 30, 2020, and two days after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, on Jan. 8, 2021.

According to the book, Milley contacted Li after he had reviewed intelligence that suggested Chinese officials believed the United States was planning an attack on China amid military exercises in the South China Sea. “General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be OK,” Milley told him during the first call, the book said. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.” The book, excerpted in the Washington Post, also stated that Milley told Li that he would warn him in advance should America decide to “attack.” “Gen. Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time,” Milley added, as reported by the book, “Peril,” which is set to be released next week. “It’s not going to be a surprise.”

The authors of the book also claim Milley contacted Li a second time to reassure him that the U.S. would not make any type of advances or attack China in any form, as Milley promised, “We are 100% steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.” Those phone calls, according to the book, were never mentioned to Trump, as Milley believed his mental state had declined following the election, something about which he shared his thoughts in a phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Jan. 8, the same day he called Li the second time. According to Pelosi, she spoke with Milley that day about “available precautions” to prevent Trump from engaging in military action.

“They are using the opportunity of this book by Woodward and Costa to hit Milley, place the blame for Afghanistan in his lap, and make him the scapegoat so that Joe Biden and the other participants can avoid further scrutiny. ”

• CNN and WaPo Finger Milley as Leader of Military Coup Against Trump (CTH)

Today CNN, via Bob Woodward and The Washingon Post, via Robert Costa collaborate on a designed hit against one of the key corrupt actors on Team Two, Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley. CTH previously said this was coming: “Look for Joint Chief’s Chairman Mark Milley to be the guy who gets canned to protect Joe Biden. Mark Milley knows this is likely.” The framework of the CNN article is that General Milley: …”called a secret meeting in his Pentagon office on January 8 to review the process for military action, including launching nuclear weapons. Speaking to senior military officials in charge of the National Military Command Center, the Pentagon’s war room, Milley instructed them not to take orders from anyone unless he was involved.

“No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I’m part of that procedure,” Milley told the officers, according to the book. He then went around the room, looked each officer in the eye, and asked them to verbally confirm they understood. “Got it?” Milley asked, according to the book. “Yes, sir.” ‘Milley considered it an oath,’ the authors write. The framework of the Washington Post article paints Milley as even more rogue. A power hungry operator of the industrial military complex, defying civilian oversight:

[…] In a pair of secret phone calls, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army, that the United States would not strike, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa. One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that unseated President Trump, and the other on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the Capitol siege carried out by his supporters in a quest to cancel the vote. The first call was prompted by Milley’s review of intelligence suggesting the Chinese believed the United States was preparing to attack.

That belief, the authors write, was based on tensions over military exercises in the South China Sea, and deepened by Trump’s belligerent rhetoric toward China. “General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” Milley told him. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.” In the book’s account, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport they’d established through a backchannel. “General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.”

[..] You think CNN and the Washington Post only recently came to the understanding that General Mark Milley was a corrupt, politically motivated actor, working on behalf of the interests of the Deep State [4th Branch]? Of course not. They are using the opportunity of this book by Woodward and Costa to hit Milley, place the blame for Afghanistan in his lap, and make him the scapegoat so that Joe Biden and the other participants can avoid further scrutiny. Their play is transparent.

Moth
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The Risks to the Fully Vaccinated

Jun 242021

June 24, 2021 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 5:32 pm Finance Tagged with: asymptomatic, breakthrough, CDC, deaths, Doc Robinson, hospitalizations, symptomatic, unvaccinated, vaccinated 15 Responses »

Vincent van Gogh Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) 1888

A bit out of the ordinary, I thought I’d give you a piece from our Comments section yesterday, by highly appreciated commenter “Doc Robinson”. Partly because he spent a lot of time weaving it together from the CDC website, and partly because it’s relevant and even somewhat shocking.

To see that vaccinated people are hospitalized, and die, at an almost twice higher rate than non-vaccinated people, is something that at least deserves much more attention. We have that attention at the Automatic Earth. And sure, we get it, more vulnerable people are more likely to have been vaccinated, but still: a lot of less-vulnerable people have been, too, by now in the US.

And the vaccine story is being heavily skewed towards the “it’s all safe” point of view by media, industry, politics et al. But how reliable is that point of view, and how much of it is just propaganda? Let’s try and find out. You read the data, and you make up your mind. That’s all we ever asked. In that same vein, this is not meant as a definitive thing, we’re just asking questions.

Doc Robinson:

Nearly 4,000 Fully Vaccinated People in Massachusetts Positive for COVID-19

Data for such “breakthrough cases” is being selectively released, and with major spin. I assembled some of the limited data that is available, and made some very rough estimates. It doesn’t look good for the vaccinated.

Among those who get a Covid-19 infection that’s symptomatic, the fully vaccinated (breakthrough cases) have a significantly higher likelihood of hospitalization than the unvaccinated. And looking at the resulting deaths as a percentage of the number of those hospitalized with a Covid-19 infection, the fully vaccinated are dying at a significantly higher rate than the unvaccinated.

Percentage of Symptomatic cases which are Hospitalized:

Unvaccinated 5.8%
Vaccinated 9.4%

Deaths as a percentage of Hospitalized cases:

Unvaccinated 10%
Vaccinated 19%

Below is the data and math behind my estimates (for the US).

For the Unvaccinated:

Covid-19 Symptomatic Illnesses from Feb 2020 to March 2021 (CDC estimate) = 97.1 Million

Covid-19 Hospitalizations from Feb 2020 to March 2021 (CDC estimate) = 5.6 Million

Percentage of Symptomatic cases which are Hospitalized = 5.6/97.1 = 5.8%
(This is the same percentage as for Feb-Dec 2020 when almost zero percent of the population was fully vaccinated.)

Covid-19 Deaths through March 2021 = 0.569 Million [Worldometer]

Deaths as a percentage of Hospitalized cases (unvaccinated) = 0.569/5.6 = 10%

For the Fully Vaccinated:

Using CDC data through April 30
“A total of 10,262 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough infections had been reported from 46 U.S. states and territories as of April 30, 2021. Among these cases, 6,446 (63%) occurred in females, and the median patient age was 58 years (interquartile range = 40–74 years). Based on preliminary data, 2,725 (27%) vaccine breakthrough infections were asymptomatic, 995 (10%) patients were known to be hospitalized, and 160 (2%) patients died. Among the 995 hospitalized patients, 289 (29%) were asymptomatic or hospitalized for a reason unrelated to COVID-19… 28 (18%) decedents were asymptomatic or died from a cause unrelated to COVID-19.” [CDC data through April 30]

Number of Symptomatic breakthrough cases = 10,262-2,725 = 7,537

Number of Symptomatic breakthrough cases which are Hospitalized = 995-289 = 706

Percentage of Symptomatic breakthrough cases which are Hospitalized = 706/7,537 = 9.4%

Hospitalized (symptomatic) breakthrough cases resulting in death from Covid-19= 160-28 = 132

Deaths as a percentage of Hospitalized (symptomatic) cases (fully vaccinated) = 132/706 = 19%

Using CDC data through June 14

Hospitalized COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases reported to CDC as of June 14 = 3,538
Fatal COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases reported to CDC as of June 14 = 671

Deaths as a percentage of Hospitalized cases (fully vaccinated) = 19%

Links to the data used in my comment above:

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/health-departments/breakthrough-cases.html

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7021e3.htm

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20210201052324/https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html

For clarification, the disadvantages of vaccination shown in my comment above are only related to Covid-19 infections, and don’t include any hospitalizations or deaths due to adverse reactions from the vaccines.

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