Jun 262021
 


John French Sloan South Beach Bathers 1908

 

Half Of New Israel Covid-19 Cases In Last Month Were Fully Vaccinated (INN)
Covid Success Stories Australia, Israel Impose New Curbs (Y!)
Long-lived Macrophage Reprogramming And Inflammasome Activation (Embo)
Canadian Group Calls for Off-Label Use of Early Treatment Drugs (CovExit)
Ivermectin: Can a Drug Be “Right-Wing”? (Taibbi)
Most Americans Believe Vaccinated Should Be Required To Wear Masks At Work (F.)
US Doesn’t Have the Data to Calculate Transmissibility Or ‘Herd Immunity’ (TSN)
Children Using Fruit Juice For ‘False Positive’ Covid Tests (LEcho)
Some GB Olympic Athletes Still Refusing To Have Covid Vaccine (G.)
Narrative Soup (Kunstler)

 

 

 

 

Mercola-Seneff

 

 

“..an additional 3,133 people contracted Covid-19 from those vaccinated individuals.”

Half Of New Israel Covid-19 Cases In Last Month Were Fully Vaccinated (INN)

Israel’s campaign to promote the coronavirus vaccine – now focusing on young teens – is going full steam ahead, in spite of statistics presented by government officials showing that half of those recently infected with Covid-19 were fully vaccinated, Behadrey Haredim reports. Head of Public Health Services, Dr. Sharon Alray-Price, revealed the disturbing facts at a media presentation on Wednesday. According to her data, of the 891 cases of coronavirus confirmed in the last month alone, half had received both doses of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine. According to a report on Channel 12, in the months since the vaccines were rolled out, 6,765 people who received both shots have contracted coronavirus, and epidemiological tracing has revealed that an additional 3,133 people contracted Covid-19 from those vaccinated individuals.

The 6,765 represent a little more than one percent of the total number of those vaccinated, which now stands at over 5,100,000. It is clear that officials were already aware that the vaccine does not provide sufficient protection, as quarantine regulations for those returning from abroad have recently been changed, requiring even those fully vaccinated to self-isolate upon return from certain countries. In addition, military intelligence has been warning of such a scenario at least since January, when a report was published that suggested a mass vaccination campaign would lead to vaccine-resistant strains of Covid-19 emerging. Also on Wednesday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett convened a panel of experts together with the heads of the various health service organizations in the country.

“Our aim at the present moment, first and foremost, is to protect Israeli citizens from the Delta strain that is running amok around the world,” Bennett said at the meeting. “As we do so, we will endeavor to limit the impact this has on daily life in Israel. Therefore, we have decided to take immediate action in order to avoid paying a heavier price at a later stage. It all depends on us. If we are meticulous in adhering to the guidelines and behaving responsibly, we will overcome this – together.”

Read more …

Success is relative.

Covid Success Stories Australia, Israel Impose New Curbs (Y!)

Australia and Israel, which had been successful in fending off Covid-19, reimposed restrictions on Friday as cases surged of the highly contagious Delta variant which also threatened Africa with a brutal third wave. The centre of Australia’s largest city Sydney entered lockdown, a shock for a population that had returned to relative normality after months of recording very few local cases, while vaccination success story Israel reimposed indoor mask-wearing less than two weeks after it lifted the measure. And in Fiji, another country that saw early successes against the virus, health authorities admitted for the first time that Covid transmission is widespread in the community.


While vaccination campaigns have helped bring down infections in numerous — mostly wealthy — countries, the rise of the Delta variant which first emerged in India has led to fears of new waves of a virus that has already killed nearly 3.9 million people. In Australia, which has been one of the most successful nations in containing the coronavirus after shutting its borders, around a million people in four eastern and central Sydney neighbourhoods were ordered to stay home for at least a week. Sixty-five infections have been reported in a flare-up linked to a limousine driver infected about two weeks ago when he transported an international flight crew from Sydney airport to a quarantine hotel. The premier of the state of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, called it the “scariest period” since the pandemic began.

Read more …

Walter M Chesnut @Parsifaler:

“A paper published on June 16, 2021 proves my hypothesis that the spike protein therapies are sensitizing recipients to the Spike Protein super-allergen of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The SARS-CoV-2 S-protein, a surface exposed viral receptor binding protein and important as vaccine antigen triggers NLRP3 inflammasome activation and cytokine secretion selectively in COVID-19 patient-derived macrophages. SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to reprogramming of human macrophages providing an intracellular landscape that allows for rapid inflammasome assembly.

The findings reveal that SARS-CoV-2 infection causes profound and long-lived reprogramming of macrophages resulting in augmented immunogenicity of the SARS-CoV-2 S-protein, a major vaccine antigen and potent driver of adaptive and innate immune signaling. The implications are that when the virus reemerges in the fall (and perhaps even as soon as this summer, with new variants circulating) the host will have a devastating NLRP3 inflammasome activation, resulting, I believe, in the hospitilization and death of millions of individuals throughout the world. I urgently implore that the sensitization of the world population to the S-Protein be stopped immediately.”

Long-lived Macrophage Reprogramming And Inflammasome Activation (Embo)

Innate immunity triggers responsible for viral control or hyperinflammation in COVID-19 are largely unknown. Here we show that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (S-protein) primes inflammasome formation and release of mature interleukin-β (IL-β) in macrophages derived from COVID-19 patients but not in macrophages from healthy SARS-CoV-2 naïve individuals. Furthermore, longitudinal analyses reveal robust S-protein-driven inflammasome activation in macrophages isolated from convalescent COVID-19 patients, which correlates with distinct epigenetic and gene expression signatures suggesting innate immune memory after recovery from COVID-19.


Importantly, we show that S-protein-driven IL-β secretion from patient-derived macrophages requires non-specific monocyte pre-activation in vivo to trigger NLRP3-inflammasome signaling. Our findings reveal that SARS-CoV-2 infection causes profound and long-lived reprogramming of macrophages resulting in augmented immunogenicity of the SARS-CoV-2 S-protein, a major vaccine antigen and potent driver of adaptive and innate immune signaling.

Read more …

Common sense.

Canadian Group Calls for Off-Label Use of Early Treatment Drugs (CovExit)

A new Canadian group, the Canadian Covid Care Alliance, has issued an information package for doctors and patients, geared at facilitating the off-label prescription of early treatment drugs for COVID-19. This call is made despite guidelines, at the federal and provincial levels, recommending against most forms of early treatment of the disease. “Health Canada, and the provincial Colleges of Physicians, do not prohibit physicians from prescribing any medications that are “off-label”. Many physicians fear that prescribing ivermectin or any medication for COVID-19 is not permitted. We would like to assure you that this is not the case. Informed consent is the process by which physicians may prescribe any medication deemed appropriate. To assist you with that, we have provided a sample “Informed Consent” form that you may use or modify as per your discretion.”

After reviewing how Ivermectin can be used in early treatment protocols, the letter addressed to doctors comments on the question of drug availability and on safety. “Ivermectin can be obtained from some compounding pharmacies. The branded version of ivermectin (StromectolTM) is on long- term backorder in Canada. Thus, most pharmacies will not have supply. If you do not know of a local compounding pharmacy, contact the Canadian Covid Care Alliance ([email protected]) and we may be able to assist you. …” “Ivermectin has an exceptional safety profile, being used for approximately 40 years in billions of patients. It is on the list of essential medicines by the World Health Organization. Physicians who have been treating COVID-19 patients with early therapies can all attest to its efficacy and safety, with dramatic reductions in hospitalizations. We feel that all primary care physicians should feel comfortable treating their patients early. Recovered patients are grateful patients.”

There are two consent forms included, one for Ivermectin and one for Fluvoxamine. Both consent forms include the following introductory paragraphs: “In Canada, there are currently no recognized standard outpatient therapies for persons infected by SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19 disease. The current standard of outpatient care is supportive: i.e., stay home and isolate, drink fluids, take acetaminophen for fever. Should one’s condition progress with worsening symptoms such as difficulty breathing, then one should go to the hospital.” “There are numerous studies suggesting benefit with the use of certain medications that have been on the market for many years, but do not have an official indication for COVID-19 disease.”

After providing info on the drugs, including potential side effects, the proposed consent forms conclude: “Because use of ivermectin(/fluvoxamine) is “off-label”, meaning Health Canada does not officially recognize the use of this medication for the treatment of COVID-19, signed written consent is required before taking this medication. Your signed consent indicates that you understand you are taking the medication “off-label” for COVID-19, and that beneficial results are not guaranteed.”

Read more …

Has Taibbi read any of the scientific reports? Or is this just about politics?

Ivermectin: Can a Drug Be “Right-Wing”? (Taibbi)

Hospitals fought hard, hiring expensive law firms, at times going to extraordinary lengths to refuse treatment even with dying patients who’d exhausted all other options. At Edward-Elmhurst hospital in Chicago, a 68 year-old named Nurije Fype was admitted, put on a ventilator, and again, as all other treatments failed, her family got a judge to order the use of ivermectin. Lorigo claims the hospital initially refused to obey the court order, which led to the filing of a contempt motion, which in turn led to a pair of counter-motions and another confrontation before another befuddled Judge named James Orel. “Why wouldn’t this be tried if she’s not improving?” the Chicago Tribune quoted Orel as saying. “Why does the hospital object to providing this medication?”

“He basically said, ‘What do you have left?’” Lorigo recounts. “No one would administer the ivermectin. It’s as safe as aspirin, for Christ’s sake. It’s been given out 3.7 billion times. I couldn’t understand it.” Stories like these aren’t proof the drug works. They don’t even really rise to the level of evidence. People recover from diseases all the time, and it doesn’t mean any particular treatment was responsible. Short of the gold standard of randomized controlled trials, there’s no proof. However, anecdotes have a power all their own, and in the Internet age, ones like these spread quickly. Lorigo estimates he now gets “10, 15, 20” calls and emails a day. At this level, at the bedside of a single Covid-19 patient who’s already received the full official treatment protocol and is failing anyway, the decision to administer a drug like ivermectin, or fluvoxamine, or hydroxychloroquine, or any of a dozen other experimental treatments, seems like a no-brainer. Nothing else has worked, the patient is dying, why not?

Telescope out a little further, however, and the ivermectin debate becomes more complicated, reaching into a series of thorny controversies, some ridiculous, some quite serious. The ridiculous side involves the front end of Lorigo’s story, the same story detailed on this site last week: the censorship of ivermectin news that, no matter what one thinks about the evidence for or against, is clearly in the public interest. Anyone running a basic internet search on the topic will get a jumble of confusing results. YouTube’s policies are beyond uneven. It’s been aggressive in taking down videos containing interviews with people like Kory and doling out strikes to independent media figures like Bret Weinstein, but an interview with Lorigo on TrialSite News containing basically all of the same information is still up, as are clips from a just-taped episode of the Joe Rogan Experience that feature both Weinstein and Kory.

Moreover, all sorts of statements at least as provocative as Kory’s “miraculous” formulation in the Senate still litter the Internet, many in reputable research journals. Take, for instance, this passage from the March issue of the Japanese Journal of Antibiotics: “When the effectiveness of ivermectin for the COVID-19 pandemic is confirmed with the cooperation of researchers around the world and its clinical use is achieved on a global scale, it could prove to be of great benefit to humanity. It may even turn out to be comparable to the benefits achieved from the discovery of penicillin…” There clearly is not evidence that ivermectin is the next penicillin, at least as far as its effects on Covid-19. As is noted in nearly every mainstream story about the subject, the WHO has advised against its use pending further study, there have been randomized studies showing it to be ineffective in speeding recovery, and the drug’s original manufacturer, Merck, has said there’s no “meaningful evidence” of efficacy for Covid-19 patients.

However, it’s also patently untrue, as is frequently asserted, that there’s no evidence that the drug might be effective. This past week, for instance, Oxford University announced it was launching a large-scale clinical trial. The study has already recruited more than 5,000 volunteers, and its announcement says what little is known to be true: that “small pilot studies show that early administration with ivermectin can reduce viral load and the duration of symptoms in some patients with mild COVID-19,” that it’s “a well-known medicine with a good safety profile,” and “because of the early promising results in some studies, it is already being widely used to treat COVID-19 in several countries.”

Read more …

“..although 66% of Americans believe employees have a right to know if their co-workers have been vaccinated, 60% assert their vaccine status is “no one’s business but my own.”

Most Americans Believe Vaccinated Should Be Required To Wear Masks At Work (F.)

More than half of U.S. adults (57%) believe masks should be mandated for employees working at on-site locations, even if they have been vaccinated against Covid-19, according to an American Staffing Association survey released Thursday. Compared to white Americans (50%), both Hispanics (64%) and Blacks (70%) are more likely to feel that face coverings should be required at the workplace. Younger adults and parents of children under 18 are also more supportive of mask requirements at on-site locations. The survey also discovered that although 66% of Americans believe employees have a right to know if their co-workers have been vaccinated, 60% assert their vaccine status is “no one’s business but my own.” The survey was conducted from June 10–14 by the Harris Poll among 2,066 U.S. adults.

“While government officials are rolling back Covid-19 requirements throughout the country, many workers aren’t ready to give up their masks just yet,” said Richard Wahlquist, president of the American Staffing Association. “As brick-and-mortar workplaces reopen, workers are anxious about being around their colleagues once again. Employers must clearly communicate what steps they are taking to make their workplaces safe for their employees as they reopen.” In mid-May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that fully vaccinated Americans no longer need to wear masks indoors or socially distance in most cases.

At a White House briefing explaining the modified recommendations, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, cited a range of studies showing the vaccines are highly effective at stopping the spread of the virus and preventing severe illness. However, Thursday’s ASA survey reinforces the findings from a Monmouth University poll released Wednesday, which found 38% of Americans, including 41% of respondents who are already vaccinated, said their masking habits remain largely unchanged despite the updated guidance from the CDC advising it was safe to abandon masks in most places. [..] 0.8%. That’s the percentage of the Americans killed by the coronavirus last month who were fully vaccinated, according to an AP analysis of available government data.

Read more …

“..American society is driving to “Herd Immunity” collectively with each jab. But how can this be the case when the actual effectiveness of the vaccines in preventing transmission of the virus (transmissibility) isn’t actually known?”

US Doesn’t Have the Data to Calculate Transmissibility Or ‘Herd Immunity’ (TSN)

Again, the premise in the 70% POTUS directive: that American society is driving to “Herd Immunity” collectively with each jab. But how can this be the case when the actual effectiveness of the vaccines in preventing transmission of the virus (transmissibility) isn’t actually known? That’s right; at present, it’s not known just how effective the vaccines are at preventing transmission. If in fact transmissibility was known, that is to say that based on extensive study scientists could measure the COVID-19 vaccines’ were 50%, or 70% or 20% effective, then biostatistical calculations can be programmed into algorithms which will predict the segment of the populace that would need to have been inoculated to reach that milestone called herd immunity.


However, to actually achieve this goal necessitates granular data heretofore not known nor currently available. That is, what is the reduction in viral transmissibility rates for each vaccine? Scientists must be able to measure, quantitatively as well as aggregate mean calculations concerning just how effective each vaccine actually is in preventing person-to-person transmission. But presently, these data aren’t known. Moreover, these vital underlying data (transmissibility rates), a fundamental prerequisite to perform the calculations that could lead to the herd immunity target assessment, were not required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for neither clinical studies nor licensure. Rather, the FDA was concerned with disease prevention as an urgent endpoint, with an emphasis on hospitalization and death.

Read more …

The Science.

Children Using Fruit Juice For ‘False Positive’ Covid Tests (LEcho)

A school has sent a warning message to parents after children “discovered” using fruit juice created a false positive on coronavirus tests. Gateacre School in Belle Vale sent out an email to parents on Wednesday, June 24, warning them to be “vigilant” whilst their children are taking lateral flow Covid tests. The email was sent after it came to the attention of teachers, pupils had “discovered” placing droplets of orange juice or other fruit juice on a lateral flow test gave a false positive result. On Monday, June 21, Gateacre School told pupils in Year 7, 8, 9 and 10 not to attend school while staff carried out track and trace work after a number of students tested positive for Covid-19 over the weekend. The school told the ECHO there is no evidence their pupils have been misusing the tests.


The email read: “Nationally, some school students have discovered that placing droplets of orange juice or other fruit juice on an LFD test gets a false ‘positive’ result. In light of this, can you be extra vigilant when your child is doing their LFD tests. Also, remind them that a positive LFD test must be followed by a confirmatory PCR test.” One parent said they received the email and a text message from Gateacre and were left concerned after knowing the school had “a few positive tests lately”. The parent added: “Makes you think, are some of the children doing this ?” Headteacher Gareth Jones insisted the message was sent after they were made aware of students in “other schools in the country” obtaining void or positive results by pouring orange juice onto Covid tests.

Read more …

Logic: human rights are not helpful.

“People have got the right to choose, and we have to respect that. But it’s not necessarily that helpful.”

Some GB Olympic Athletes Still Refusing To Have Covid Vaccine (G.)

The British Olympic Association is still trying to convince some athletes to get vaccinated against Covid-19 before the Tokyo Olympics next month, the BOA chief executive, Andy Anson, said. The BOA said this month that it was on track to ensure all athletes and staff were fully vaccinated before the Olympics. The Tokyo Games, delayed last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, will begin on 23 July. “We’re trying to convince them it’s the right thing to do,” Anson told the BBC on Friday. “People have got the right to choose, and we have to respect that. But it’s not necessarily that helpful.” Japan has largely avoided the kind of Covid-19 outbreaks that have devastated other countries, but its vaccine rollout was initially slow and the medical system has been pushed to the brink in some places.


Many Japanese remain sceptical about the possibility of holding even a scaled-down Games safely during the pandemic. Organisers have excluded foreign spectators and limited the number of domestic ones for the event. Anson said the Athletes’ Village in Tokyo will be “probably the toughest environment in sports at this time”. “We are putting in place very strict protocols along with the organisers to make sure, to the fullest extent possible, we follow the rules of isolation, distancing, and just keeping in our own ‘semi bubbles,’” he said. On Wednesday, a second member of Uganda’s Olympic delegation, an athlete, tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in Japan.

Read more …

“Joe Biden”

Narrative Soup (Kunstler)

In fact, there is one legal review of the 2020 balloting currently underway in Arizona, at the order of the Arizona State Senate, as it should be because, according to the US constitution, elections are a prerogative of the fifty states’ legislatures. It’s not “a narrative.” It’s as official as can be, and they have every right to do it, and there’s a fair chance that it will uncover both ballot fraud and voting machine fraud. I suppose all that seems “baseless” if you refuse to look. Also, this week a judge in Georgia approved a process to unseal roughly 145,000 mail-in ballots in Fulton County (the Atlanta metro region) to inspect them for fraud. The ruling stems from a lawsuit against the county that alleges evidence of fraudulent ballots and improper counting. “Joe Biden” won the state by a mere 12,000 votes.

Other states, notably Pennsylvania, are taking action toward their own 2020 vote audits, and through the proper legislative channels. The “incontrovertible evidence” of a fair and honest election is the fraud at issue. There are only assertions that it would be wrong to even look for it, and it’s hard to imagine a weaker argument. So, the politburo behind “Joe Biden” is running scared. The New York court’s action against Mr. Giuliani is just a peevish act of political desperation aimed at disabling a legal adversary. That and Attorney General Merrick Garland’s threat to shut down the Arizona audit on specious “civil rights” grounds are just attempts to create distractions for a regime that begins to apprehend it is whirling around the drain.

As “Joe Biden” fades altogether from the scene, the country will have to grapple with the real problems it faces, not hobgoblins of racism, misogyny, white supremacy but how to cope with a dwindling energy supply and a falling standard of living, and how to remain civilized. We’re doing a good job of destroying the institutions that make civilization possible, especially law and the courts.

Kamala

Read more …

 

We try to run the Automatic Earth on donations. Since ad revenue has collapsed, you are now not just a reader, but an integral part of the process that builds this site. Thank you for your support.

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in virustime. Click at the top of the sidebars to donate with Paypal and Patreon.