World sugar export troubles creates unique opportunity

While I have some sympathy with the thoughts below, I think he is misinformed. I think that subsidies to sugar marketing are a problem, but the big problem remains that the cost of production is much less in the tropics than anywhere in the USA.

Sugarcane is a tropical crop. It is a huge, fast-growing grass that is full of sugar. You just have to crush it and sugary water flows out of it. The American custom of getting sugar out of corn is much harder and more costly.

And there is never likely to be any shortage of sugar. Sugarcane is grown up and down the long East coast of tropical and subtropical Australia and, because sugarcane grows so quickly that could be greatly expanded almost overnight.

There is no doubt that American sugar would vanish overnight without political protection. And unsubsidized sugar from Australia and elsewhere would rapidly fill the gap. Australia did once subsidize its sugar exports but that is long gone. So the economically rational way forward for America would simply be to drop its subsidies and insist that any sugar imported must be unsubsidized.

Sadly, under such a system American sugar production would cease. And the uproar from existing American sugar producers would be huge. Change would therefore almost certainly be politically too difficult


Rick Manning

For years major U.S. domestic sugar users like the candy industry, have pushed for the elimination of the U.S. government sugar price support system with the goal of flooding the market with sugar from around the world.

Now Americans should realize why this was a spectacularly bad idea absent mutual agreements to end subsidies for major producers. India, the second largest exporter of sugar, has just announced that they are capping the amount of sugar they will export partially due to food shortage concerns.

This follows announcements coming out of Brazil, that the world’s largest sugar exporter is cancelling sugar export contracts, diverting their sugar cane to ethanol production. The Brazilian decision is driven by high energy prices, altering the amount of sugar available on the world market.

The good news is that U.S. sugar production remains strong, but the bad news is that in 2020, the U.S. accounted for 8.3 percent of the world’s sugar imports, about one–third of the total consumed in the States.

If not for robust American sugar production, the costs of foodstuffs containing the natural sweetener in our country would be skyrocketing, proving the value of not putting sugar market at the mercy of heavily subsidized foreign sugar exporters.

Interestingly, the limitations and retrenching of some of the world’s largest sugar producers creates a unique opportunity for the Biden administration to restore honesty to the international sugar market.

It is much easier to convince countries to end their sugar subsidies in an environment where they are restricting or ending balance of trade enhancing exports, than in the face of rapidly expanding subsidized export policies, and this provides the opening that many in favor of ending sugar subsidies intelligently have been waiting to occur.

Congressmen Dale Kildee (D-Mich.) and Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) have legislation which, if passed, would trigger a process for the U.S. government to end the domestic sugar program once the president certifies that major sugar exporting trade partners have agreed to end their price distorting subsidies.

Called Zero for Zero, the resolution has never been more pertinent as the choices being made by the top two sugar exporters provide an open door to negotiating away their subsidies.

Every American knows that systems seem to be breaking everywhere without any rational explanation. In the case of this one agriculture program, the global supply chain shock may just provide the foundation for ending it.

Wouldn’t that be refreshing if the calamitous Joe Biden term of office led to achieving one of American conservatives long-held goals – ending the sugar program and creating a level playing field for American farmers to compete.

https://dailytorch.com/2022/05/world-sugar-exports-roiled-creates-unique-opportunity/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=d76f3f7b-1b10-4179-8a0d-ed7a743f077d

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Canadians going hungry?

On the cusp of summer, the cold, hard edge of hunger is hitting North America. At a time when experts are warning about global food shortages, a new report from Canada says individuals living on government benefits are being forced to live with less.

Stephen Jones, 56, told the Toronto Globe and Mail that Canada’s inflation has forced him to change his shopping habits with an eye on price. Sometimes, even that is not enough.

“Sometimes, by the end of the month, before we’re getting to the due date for the money, I’m down to maybe just a very small meal once a day,” he said, according to the newspaper.

“I am almost on the verge of having to skip meals altogether in a day,” he said.

Jones is living on $1,200 a month in disability benefits (about $940 in U.S. currency), which have supported him for the past 15 years after he had to give up his career in finance due to debilitating depression. But times have changed.

Although at 6.8 percent, Canada’s April inflation rate trailed the 8.3 percent rate of the United States under the Biden administration, it was a 31-year high. Grocery prices rose 10 percent year over year; the highest spike since 1981, the Globe and Mail reported.

Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank, had about 160,0000 visits in March, a record high and a 134 percent increase compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to the newspaper.

“People have gotten to the end of their savings, they’re going into debt,” Neil Hetherington, chief executive officer at Daily Bread said, told the Globe and Mail. “And so they’re going to be turning to food banks even more.”

Jones knows his day will come. “I know that these places are very accommodating and non-judgmental, but there’s an element of shame in doing that,” he told the newspaper. “But at some point, yes, I am definitely going to have to go to a food bank,” he said.

Canadian agriculture expert Kim McConnell, of Okotoks, told Edmonton Journal columnist David Staples in April that many other Canadians are likely to find themselves in the same position. “There’s going to be a lot of hungry people,” she said.

Another expert, Valerie Tarasuk, a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto, told the Canadian Television Network last week that more and more of the country is likely to face food insecurity.

“As prices of basic commodities rise, it’s very worrisome to think that we have such a large swath of the Canadian population sitting in circumstances are insufficient to come up with the costs,” Tarasuk said.

https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/canadians-starting-go-hungry-food-prices-soar-barely-able-afford-one-meal-day

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Are the Democrats losing silicon valley?

Barack Obama’s White House hosted so many Google executives that it was seen as a satellite office. The company’s chairman Eric Schmidt campaigned vocally for Obama’s election, and during Obama’s eight years in power, a Google employee visited the White House on average once a week.

Democrat ties to Silicon Valley did not stop at a single company. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s number two, worked for the Clinton administration. Obama’s political strategist David Plouffe went on to work for Uber and Mark Zuckerberg’s charitable foundation. The former president’s press secretary, Jay Carney, is now a senior executive at Amazon.

Elon Musk’s Tesla survived in its early days partly through hundreds of millions of dollars of Obama-era loans.

But in recent months, the once-strong ties between US Democrats and Silicon Valley, the new heart of American corporate power, have broken down. In the last week, the tech industry’s two wealthiest individuals have attacked Joe Biden’s party, while a growing number of senior figures have questioned the administration.

“In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party,” Musk tweeted on Wednesday. “But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.”

Earlier this month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos launched a rare political intervention, attacking Biden over his record on inflation. In response to Biden calling for higher taxes on corporations to fight price rises, Bezos accused the US president of “misdirection”.

“Inflation is a regressive tax that most hurts the least affluent,” he added.

For years, Silicon Valley and its workers appeared to be natural allies of the US Left. The web’s pioneers boasted of libertarian ideals and the end of censorship, an antidote to conservative fears over violent video games and rap music that paralleled its rise. Its workers were primarily young, university-educated and socially liberal.

Santa Clara County, the home of Apple, Google and Facebook, voted for Republicans Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, but has swung blue in every presidential race since 1988.

It became a mutually beneficial relationship. For Democrats, Silicon Valley was the acceptable face of capitalism, mission-driven, vibrant and diverse, not to mention a huge source of funds. Silicon Valley donations to Obama in 2012 outpaced those to Mitt Romney roughly tenfold. In turn, the Clinton and Obama administrations brought light-touch regulation, such as the Section 230 protections that broadly granted legal immunity to social networks. In 2012, the Obama administration decided not to bring monopoly abuse charges against Google, and waved through acquisitions such as Facebook’s takeover of Instagram.

Tech’s Right-wing only occasionally stuck their head above the parapet. Former eBay boss Meg Whitman unsuccessfully ran for California governor as a Republican in 2010. When Peter Thiel, a PayPal founder and early Facebook investor, spoke in support of Donald Trump at 2016’s Republican National Convention, he became a pariah to much of the tech industry.

The Biden White House has been more hostile to tech companies and their owners, however. Biden has accused companies such as Facebook of “killing people” for not regulating Covid posts more strictly. He has also appointed a string of senior officials who have called for Big Tech to be broken up, such as Tim Wu and Lina Khan, two stars of the antitrust movement.

Biden has also strongly supported unions, putting him in conflict with the likes of Amazon and Tesla. The Tesla billionaire has also grumbled at Biden’s apparent reluctance to credit his company with driving the electric vehicle revolution, while heaping praise on Ford and General Motors.

In contrast, Trump cut taxes on the huge stashes of overseas funds that Apple, Google and Microsoft held, which were returned to grateful shareholders.

But it is Democrats’ tax policies that have caused the biggest stir among Silicon Valley’s wealthiest. Last year, US senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren proposed taxing the richest 700 Americans on their unrealised gains, such as the soaring value of their shares. The plan was scuppered by moderate Democrats but earned Musk’s ire.

“Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you,” he wrote in October. Later, he sold 10 per cent of his Tesla shares, resulting in a tax bill of about $US11 billion. “I’m paying the largest amount of tax of any individual in history,” he said.

Zach Graves, executive director of the Lincoln Network, a technology policy group, says: “There has always been a libertarian kind of flair in Silicon Valley, but sometimes that’s been more underground. They don’t wear it on their sleeve. The convention that Silicon Valley leans pretty strongly to the Left is right. But you do see notable exceptions.

“People have become more successful, maybe they have had their exit [a major payday such as an IPO]. They feel more comfortable in their political views.”

A string of top Silicon Valley investors such as Paul Graham, the Welsh born founder of Y Combinator, and Marc Andreessen, the head of one of Silicon Valley’s top venture firms A16Z, have become more outspoken about Left-wing censorship.

“It used to be that censorship was something the Right did, and free speech was something the Left were in favour of. But over the last few decades, banning ‘problematic’ ideas has become a huge component of Left culture,” Graham wrote last month.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/tech-billionaires-turn-on-biden-and-his-party-of-hate-20220520-p5amyn.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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How are doctors unravelling the mystery of long COVID?

Six months after physiotherapist Scott Willis became one of Australia’s first COVID-19 patients, something strange happened in a swimming pool. One moment he was doing laps, the next he could barely move his arms and legs. “I just ran out of steam. I can pinpoint it to the second,” Willis says. “If I didn’t have the rope to grab on to, if I’d been out in the ocean, what would have happened?”

That bone-deep exhaustion, which can hit suddenly or linger all day, is the most common sign of what has become known as long COVID, in which illness strikes again or drags on months after a COVID-19 infection. But about 200 other symptoms have been linked to it too – sometimes entirely new ones such as confusion and hallucinations, heart palpitations, seizures and sexual dysfunction. So-called long-haulers have likened the condition to “a living death”. Many are too tired to work – or get out of bed.

Millions of people have been affected by long COVID – even many of the clinicians treating it, such as Willis. And that list is only expected to grow. Some researchers expect long COVID cases in Australia to hit 10,000 by the end of the year. Yet, more than two years into the pandemic (and at least 18 months into the condition for Willis), long COVID remains something of a medical mystery.

Is it a new phenomenon or a syndrome like chronic fatigue on a bigger scale? Are some people more at risk of developing the condition than others? What might be going on in the body? And what treatments are being tried?

What is long COVID?

Not long after Willis first fell ill with COVID in Tasmania in early 2020, doctors on the other side of the world, at New York’s Mount Sinai Health Network, noticed something odd. Hospitals had been so overwhelmed during the pandemic’s first wave that Dr David Putrino had set up an app for Mount Sinai doctors to monitor less severe COVID patients remotely, including their oxygen levels. Some were still reporting symptoms months after getting sick.

Putrino says: “People would tell us, ‘Look, I don’t have these acute COVID symptoms any more, but I’m not myself. I’ve got heart palpitations. If I carry my groceries up the stairs, I’m knocked out for two days.’ That was our first inkling long COVID existed.”

Mount Sinai was then setting up a post-COVID recovery hub for patients they expected would need more time to recover – those with lung scarring and other organ damage from a particularly severe infection, or complications from long stays in intensive care. Dr Neha Dangayach, who runs neurological intensive care for Mount Sinai, says: “You can get neurological issues, delirium, or take a long time to bounce back from something like sepsis. But this was something else.”

Most of the patients, particularly those with neurological symptoms, had suffered only mild or moderate cases of COVID-19, and they hadn’t been hospitalised. Often their scans were normal.

Given the virus can affect so much of the body, it is perhaps not surprising that long COVID comes with a strange constellation of symptoms too.

As more cases emerged around the world, experts at Mount Sinai and elsewhere began looking for answers – and patients banded together online to share stories and push back against scepticism about the new condition.

Professor Gail Matthews and her colleagues at the Kirby Institute in Sydney were among the first to set up a long-COVID study, at St Vincent’s Hospital. Some patients, she says, will find themselves struggling with just one persistent COVID-19 symptom – a loss of smell and taste, for example. Others show signs their entire nervous system is affected.

COVID presents as a respiratory illness but samples of the virus behind it (SARS CoV-2) have been discovered all over the body – in the lungs, heart and other organs, including, in rare cases, the brain. It can cause clots and stroke, strange rashes, heart, kidney or liver failure, even inflamed, red “COVID toes”. Among survivors, the risk of cardiovascular disease is likely to remain high for months, even years.

Given the virus can affect so much of the body, Matthews says it is perhaps not surprising that long COVID comes with a strange constellation of symptoms too, “though I have found the neurological ones especially surprising”.

In late 2021, the World Health Organisation defined long COVID as occurring in people with “a history of probable or confirmed SARS CoV-2 infection, usually three months from the onset of COVID-19” with symptoms that last for at least two months and cannot be explained by anything else.

Putrino says that with so little understood about the condition, it is right for long COVID to remain a fairly broad church, ranging from those recovering from severe infections to people with sudden neurological symptoms down the road. (In rarer cases, someone may even be affected by both lingering complications and a flare-up of long COVID.)

“We don’t want anyone to fall through the gaps,” he says. “People need insurance cover, access to care. Of course, it also means people might have different treatment [paths]. Some might spontaneously get better, some might not.”

Who is affected by long COVID?

More than 500 million people have now had COVID-19 but no one knows how many long-haulers are among them (some researchers estimate it’s already more than 100 million). So far, while most COVID-19 patients seem to recover, it’s thought that at least 10 to 30 per cent of cases become ongoing – and the risk is about halved if you’re vaccinated. (Recent British data tracking long COVID suggests that fewer than a third of patients fully recover within a year of catching the virus.)

Mount Sinai’s long-COVID clinic has now treated more than 2000 patients, from the bed-bound to the “milder” cases of people who can still work “but they have to lie on the couch all night to recover from the day”, says Putrino. The average age is 45. “In fact, you’re less likely to show up at the clinic if you’re over 65. We don’t know why. And I think that there are a lot of people out there with long-COVID symptoms who don’t know it because they are, fortunately, mild. Some maybe didn’t even know they had COVID.”

Recently, when the hospital was recruiting patients for a clinical trial of those who had fully recovered from COVID, it hit a snag. “Sixty per cent of people who said they had recovered still had symptoms,” says Putrino. “They were like, ‘Oh yeah, I am fatigued, and my heart does beat fast and that never happened before’, whereas only 1 per cent of the control group who had never had COVID failed the symptom screen.”

Why do some vaccinated people catch COVID and how severe is it?

While you don’t need a severe case of COVID to develop the ongoing condition, one study suggests that having a high viral load (a lot of virus replicating in your system) during your initial infection can push up your risk of long COVID; as can type 2 diabetes, certain “auto-antibodies” that mistakenly attack the body instead of the virus, or a reawakened case of the usually fairly harmless Epstein-Barr virus many people catch in childhood.

There is also a skew towards women in the data. Matthews says: “That could be because women tend to go to the doctor more or because women have different immunology.”

Long COVID can emerge in children too, although as with a regular COVID infection, this is much rarer.

Researchers are not sure if long COVID rates have fluctuated as the virus mutates into different variants, but Putrino says he has found the symptoms fairly consistent between waves. “We’re still getting Delta long COVID into the clinic now. Omicron is only starting.”

Australia, along with many countries, does not track long COVID numbers. But in data released in April by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 42 of the more than 5000 COVID deaths then officially registered since the pandemic began were considered to be due to long COVID.

What might be causing it?

Such a broad spectrum of symptoms and patients makes long COVID a particularly puzzling knot to unpick for scientists. “You do have to be like detectives,” says Matthews.

She and her team have already found one smoking gun of sorts – significant biological markers of inflammation in the blood of people with ongoing symptoms compared with those who have fully recovered from COVID or from other mild coronaviruses that cause colds. These markers are cytokines – proteins that command the immune system’s defences during a viral attack. You might have heard of a cytokine storm where “overzealous” immune cells damage the body as they wage war on an infection, causing inflammation and sometimes serious harm in the fallout.

“We normally see lots of cytokines during acute infection, and then they go away,” says Matthews. “So this finding really validated that these people do still have something going on. And it explains some of the symptoms, the aches and pains, the fatigue.”

When we get sick, a lot of our symptoms are not caused by the virus directly but by the body’s immune system fighting back. (That’s why the aftermath of a COVID vaccine, which also activates the immune system, can sometimes feel like a short bout of the virus.)

Putrino says there has even been evidence of cytokine storms during otherwise mild or “silent” (asymptomatic) infections. “Suddenly, patients will present with blood clots because the [cytokines] were disrupting the usual clotting mechanism in cells.” And in very rare cases, infected children have presented with dangerous hyper-inflammation similar to toxic shock or Kawasaki disease.

Given COVID is a new virus to humanity, scientists say it makes sense that it stirs up such a strong immune reaction. But they are trying to determine why this appears to stay “switched on” or reawaken as it does in long COVID patients – in patterns that look remarkably similar to autoimmune conditions such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Could the virus be lurking in our bodies for longer than usual?

“Am I saying antivirals will cure all long COVID? Probably not. And, really, long COVID could be 10 different things.”

If the virus is still attacking or disrupting the body, perhaps hiding out in tissue or the gut, this could itself explain some symptoms. Researchers have been able to detect SARS-CoV-2 in patients’ faeces seven months after an infection and, at times during autopsy, viral particles in patient brains. Dangayach says one hypothesis is that SARS-CoV-2 could be infiltrating the brain stem (the control centre of the autonomic nervous system), causing inflammation or disrupting regular breathing and heart rhythms. Inflammation in both the brain and spinal cord (such as the kind that affects patients with the autoimmune condition multiple sclerosis) can be difficult to spot on regular scans. Some researchers now want to trial antivirals that attack the virus directly in long-COVID patients.

Of course, any lingering virus could be dead already – and just being misinterpreted by the immune system as a threat. “You could have people who still have spike proteins floating around, perhaps in their connective tissue, which then leads to chronic inflammation,” Putrino says. “Or you could be someone who just has persistent virus in their gut, and if you take an antiviral that virus will clear. But am I saying antivirals will cure all long COVID? Probably not. And, really, long COVID could be 10 different things.”

He points to research from Africa that has found persistent micro-clots in long-COVID patients, missed by regular tests but that appear to respond to medication. Dangayach says that not only can this trap inflammatory molecules, but blood vessel changes of this kind can affect the energy and oxygen levels in our cells.

At Yale University, another leader in long-COVID research, scientists put patients with persistent breathlessness but otherwise normal scans through more intensive testing and found that oxygen was not being extracted by the cells in their muscles properly, leaving them more exhausted. Meanwhile, the Mount Sinai team has noticed that long-COVID patients tend to breathe out less carbon dioxide than usual – generally seen in people hyperventilating.

“We have all these breadcrumbs, and sometimes they come together,” says Putrino. “If the cells can’t produce enough energy, they are producing less carbon dioxide too as a byproduct, so that might explain why it’s low in their expired air.”

Meanwhile, a healthy breath into the diaphragm stimulates the vagus nerve, the backbone of the autonomic nervous system, helping regulate breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and more. “If you do breath work, many people will show improvement, but that’s just treating a symptom,” says Putrino. “All of these signs could be just symptoms. We’re still hunting for the underlying pathology.”

Is it like an autoimmune disease or chronic fatigue?
One concern at the back of Putrino’s mind is that the virus has tipped some people, perhaps with an underlying susceptibility, into an autoimmune condition. These conditions are still being understood by science but often involve the body producing “auto-antibodies” that disrupt the normal functioning of the immune system. Sometimes, they are accompanied by dysautonomia, where the autonomic nervous system is out of whack.

Someone with dysautonomia might get heart palpitations, dizziness and breathlessness after exerting themselves, or even standing up suddenly, as the body’s flight-or-fight response is tripped. This is common among long-COVID patients, including roughly 70 per cent of those at the Mount Sinai clinic.

Some long-haulers speak of an “exertion threshold” beyond which they are engulfed by a storm of symptoms – fatigue, brain fog, breathlessness. Willis hit it in that swimming pool 18 months ago. He now helps train his physiotherapy patients to find their own long-COVID limits and gradually extend or manage them. “Sometimes, I feel like my legs will just give way,” he says. “I can’t walk. I’ve played sport all my life and I’ve never had this before.”

“We could be staring down the barrel of [more widespread] autoimmunity, people who had maybe felt off but always had normal blood work, until now.”

In the absence of clear data, many doctors are trying to learn more by seeing how patients respond to treatment. Putrino says autonomic nervous system rehab has given many of his long-COVID patients at least partial symptomatic relief – not only breathing exercises but wearing compression tights on the lower body to help regulate blood pressure, or sometimes taking salt to increase blood volume. “Still, it’s not a cure. We could be staring down the barrel of [more widespread] autoimmunity, people who had maybe felt off but always had normal blood work, until now.”

Of course, even before COVID-19, an unlucky few were known to develop mysterious conditions, including fatigue, after viral infections – from Ebola to the flu. There are even reports of this kind of “post-viral syndrome” after the world’s last great pandemic, Spanish flu in 1918. In the past year, scientists have found multiple sclerosis is probably caused not just by genetic predisposition but by this kind of rare immune response to a virus too – in this case Epstein-Barr, which most people catch but do not have such a reaction to. In those rare cases of people who do, it morphs into a degenerative autoimmune disease, shredding neurons, but, as long COVID appears to, it can also subside and then flare up again.

Meanwhile, many long COVID symptoms, including dysautonomia, mirror those seen in people with chronic fatigue syndrome, an under-researched area of medicine, according to many in the field. Chronic fatigue, which mostly affects women, is usually thought to be triggered by a viral infection (glandular fever, for example) and is characterised by debilitating fatigue that lasts for at least six months.

Many experts believe unravelling the mystery of long COVID will help unlock the underlying mechanisms behind many of these other disorders – not to mention overhaul our understanding of the immune system itself. Dangayash is not surprised that many chronic-fatigue sufferers feel vindicated by the focus on long COVID – never has a post-viral condition been studied on this scale. “Perhaps there is something going on that makes people susceptible to this kind of [autoimmunity]?”

Or it may be that COVID is especially good at stimulating post-viral conditions, Matthews says. “There may be something about the shape of the virus, the way it’s crumpled up and presents itself to the immune system, that really sets this off.”

Putrino agrees there is probably something about this SARS-CoV-2, whether it is its penchant for binding so well to ACE2 receptors (found throughout the body) or just “because it is so novel”. “But it seems to be affecting the immune system in a way that other viruses don’t necessarily do, or do far less frequently. We keep finding abnormal lab findings in people with long COVID, even if they’re not always the same signs.”

Does long COVID affect the brain?

At the Royal Melbourne Hospital, when COVID patients started returning with fresh neurological complaints – difficulty concentrating, memory concerns, insomnia and headaches – many found themselves at the door of neuropsychologist Associate Professor Charles Malpas. He has long worked with brain inflammation conditions such as MS, and is now among doctors trying to determine whether neurological symptoms of long COVID are caused by physical inflammation or damage in the brain itself or are flow-on effects of the condition elsewhere in the body.

So far, for the patients with milder long COVID who Malpas treats, it doesn’t look like direct damage – those who complain of memory lapses and brain fog can still pass cognitive impairment tests (although in Mount Sinai, Putrino says, many of his more severe cases cannot).

Studies have found inflammation and reduced blood flow in the brain of some long-COVID patients, which has also been seen in cases of chronic fatigue. But Malpas warns that we must be cautious when interpreting some studies published overseas that link COVID-19 to brain damage such as brain mass shrinkage and lower IQ scores, or even anecdotal cases of altered personality. Some patients recovering from severe COVID probably do have a form of brain damage caused by clots, neural inflammation or other complications of the infection, he says. But in most long-COVID patients there seem to be explanations elsewhere. “And we’re not really seeing things like impaired vision or weak limbs,” he says.

Brain fog, which Malpas describes as “the feeling of walking through mud while trying to think through a problem”, is common but can be intermittent, often brought on by exertion. (Willis says: “I find it comes on if I exercise too much; I can’t even tell my wife what I want for dinner.”)

The onset of insomnia or migraines post-COVID may also be to blame. “And when that’s treated, or the fatigue is managed then, typically, brain fog resolves as well,” Malpas says. “Still, that doesn’t mean other symptoms we’re seeing like anxiety don’t need treatment too.”

The brain is usually “the final frontier” for medicine, he says, and neurological symptoms often the hardest to pin to a root cause. “It’s a cognitive act to assess your own cognition. When people are bad, like with Alzheimer’s, they sometimes don’t report them at all. But there is a real danger too of dismissing symptoms as psychosomatic when they’re not.”

If there are structural or chemical changes happening in the brain (and elsewhere), it’s too early to say if they will be permanent. The brain is remarkably resilient in its ability to rewire and heal, after all. But Dangayach says even short-term signs of brain shrinkage underscore the urgent need for more research into long COVID. “Clearly, it’s not all in your head, right? In the 1970s, people thought MS was a psychiatric problem – it took decades to get where we are with treatments today. We shouldn’t make the same mistake.”

What is the treatment outlook?

In the 19th century, patients were expected to take a long time to recover from an illness and strict bed rest was often the tedious prescription of the day. In the modern era, doctors generally encourage us to get active again early into recovery, to ward off any other problems from staying put too long. But, in the case of COVID-19 – and particularly long COVID – exercise can have the opposite effect.

Willis, who is president of the Australian Physiotherapist Association, teaches fellow long-COVID sufferers to manage their energy budget wisely and scale up slowly, “things like vacuuming half a room at a time or not exercising on days you need to do the shopping”. His clients don’t fit one mould, although many were fit, healthy people before long COVID-19 hit. “This isn’t about fitness,” he says. Now, if they push themselves too hard, they’re often wiped out for days with a fresh surge of symptoms. “It can be one step forward, two steps back,” Willis says. “I, at least, can work and exercise. I can now swim 1½ to two kilometres before I hit my wall, [less than half] of what I used to. But I can’t get past that. Every time I think I can, I’m on my arse.”

Vaccination cuts the risk significantly. And some researchers are already testing or planning to test specific medications for long COVID.

Putrino reports only 10 to 15 per cent of his long-COVID patients feel they are now fully recovered but most have at least shown improvement, especially from autonomic nervous system rehabilitation (above). Since long COVID affects so many systems in the body, often in different ways, patients need support across disciplines, he says.

Vaccination cuts the risk significantly. And some researchers are already testing or planning to test specific medications for long COVID, say, to break up microclots, reduce viral reservoirs or inflammation in blood vessels, or to dampen the body’s immune reaction.

“When you don’t have a definitive answer, you treat the symptoms,” says Dangayach.

While the speed at which science developed safe, effective vaccines and treatments for the virus may have been extraordinary, Dangayach and Putrino say this new golden era of research funding has not flowed through into long COVID in the same way. And most countries are not tracking cases or ensuring insurers cover the condition. “It’s going to be a huge economic burden, not just a healthcare one,” Willis says.

“There was so much urgency and collaboration at the start,” Dangayach says. “But now is not the time to say, ‘We’ve had enough.’ Now, we’re in a survivorship crisis and the advances we make will decide health policy and outcomes for so many people hit by long COVID. We can’t step off the gas.”

https://www.smh.com.au/national/how-are-doctors-unravelling-the-mystery-of-long-covid-20220420-p5aeux.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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COVID-19 Is Treatable and Preventable With Vitamin D: Dr. Robert Malone

COVID-19 can be treated and prevented with vitamin D, according to the pioneer of mRNA vaccine technology and president of the Global COVID Summit, Dr. Robert Malone.

“There are virtually no deaths from this disease in people who have vitamin D levels in their blood above 50 ng/mL [nanograms per milliliter],” Malone said on EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program. “There’s actually many studies out now, including double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trials.”

A 2021 meta-analysis study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrients found that there was “strong evidence that low D3 is a predictor rather than just a side effect of the [COVID-19] infection” and suggested a serum vitamin D level “above 50 ng/mL to prevent or mitigate new outbreaks due to escape mutations or decreasing antibody activity.”

Malone explains that 50 nanograms per milliliter of vitamin D “seems to be the threshold where there’s a big change in mortality” according to the data he and other front-line doctors have looked at.

“Fifty [ng/mL] seems to be the cutoff where the curve goes from one to another, and when you get above that, it appears that virtually there is no mortality from COVID-19,” Malone said.

Other studies have shown that vitamin D has important functions beyond just bone health, which include regulating immune function and inflammation.

As early as 2010, a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial from Japan examining the impact of vitamin D supplementation on the occurrence of seasonal influenza A in children aged 6 to 15 between December 2008 and March 2009, “showed a significant preventative effect against influenza A.”

“Influenza A occurred in 18 of 167 (10.8%) of children in the vitamin D3 group compared with 31 of 167 (18.6%) children in the placebo group,” the authors wrote. “In children with a previous diagnosis of asthma, asthma attacks as a secondary outcome occurred in 2 children receiving vitamin D3 compared with 12 children receiving placebo.”

The participants received 1,200 international units of vitamin D3 daily, with no serious adverse effects, or a placebo.

With COVID-19, the fat-soluble vitamin or hormone has been found to prevent the disease, and reduce mortality and admission to the intensive care unit. People deficient in vitamin D were also found to be 14 times more likely to have severe or critical COVID-19, according to an Israeli study.

Regardless of the growing evidence of the effectiveness of vitamin D, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) does not recommend it for COVID-19 because they claim there is not enough data.

“There is insufficient evidence to recommend either for or against the use of vitamin D for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19,” the federal medical research agency wrote, citing only a small Brazilian study that found no significant difference in the length of hospital stay between the vitamin D group and the placebo.

About 240 hospitalized patients with moderate or severe COVID-19 were given either a single large dose of 200,000 international units of vitamin D or a placebo. Researchers said that their findings did “not support the use of a high dose of vitamin D3 for treatment of moderate to severe COVID-19.”

The NIH did mention that the study had several limitations due to its small sample size, enrollment of “participants with a variety of comorbidities and concomitant medications,” and the “time between symptom onset and randomization was relatively long, with patients randomized at a mean of 10.3 days after symptom onset.”

The NIH has not updated its recommendation since April 21, 2021, and did not respond to The Epoch Times’ inquiry on whether it will make an update as more trials have been published.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also not issued guidance to encourage vitamin D intake. In its “how to protect yourself & others” webpage, the CDC only recommends getting the COVD-19 injections, wearing a well-fitted mask, staying six feet away from others, and testing, among other things.

Vitamin D’s positive impact on the immune system, particularly in terms of infection prevention, was first discovered in 2006, according to Malone.

“I had a call out of the blue from a physician, an older retired physician who was an Army doc, he used to work for the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences … has intelligence community ties, and he was a long-standing DoD [U.S. Department of Defense] researcher in the area of respiratory disease, particularly influenza,” Malone said.

He added, “To the DoD, they have not forgotten about H1N1 in 1918 because there’s a strong case to be made, it was actually the soldiers coming back from the trenches that brought that virus with them into North America. So the morbidity and mortality associated with influenza is near and dear to the DoD’s heart and has been for decades.”

Malone said that the DoD researcher was involved in a study in the mid-2000s (pdf), analyzing the morbidity and mortality records from the “Department of Defense’s health system for warfighters” to determine what cofactors differentiated those debilitated by influenza from those who simply shrugged it off and continued to function.

“What he discovered was clear, statistically rigorous proof that vitamin D levels explain those differences,” Malone said, adding that the researcher was told by his superiors to present the data to Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Throughout the pandemic, Fauci’s message on how to prevent COVID-19 has for the most part been in line with the CDC’s guidelines. But on Sept. 9, 2020, he recommended vitamin D and C for immune health during an Instagram live interview with actress Jennifer Garner.

“So, if a child is deficient, there are two vitamins among the many … for example, if you are deficient in vitamin D, that does have an impact on your susceptibility to infection. So I would not mind recommending and I do it myself, taking vitamin D supplement,” Fauci said in response to a question on what mothers could do to boost their children’s immune systems. He also recommended giving vitamin C supplements as “it is a good antioxidant.”

Fauci would also share in an email several days later of the “6,000 international units [of vitamin D] per day” he was taking to Kari Hjelt, the head of innovation at Graphene Flagship. Hjelt then forwarded his email exchange with Fauci to John Campbell, a retired nurse educator, who shared it on his YouTube channel.

According to Malone, vitamin D “at sufficient levels, is necessary to support the health, particularly of your T-cell population.” T-cells have two basic functions: they coordinate the immune response and kill virus-infected cells.

Researchers from Denmark knew in 2010 that vitamin D was essential for activating our immune system defenses, and without it, the immune system’s killer T-cells would not be able to react to and fight off serious diseases in the body.

“When a T-cell is exposed to a foreign parthogen, it extends a signaling device or ‘antenna’ known as a vitamin D receptor, with which it searches for vitamin D,” Dr. Carsten Geisler, professor at the Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Copenhagen, said in a press release.

“This means that the T-cell must have vitamin D or activation of the cell will cease. If the T-cells cannot find enough vitamin D in the blood, they won’t even begin to mobilize,” he added.

Vitamin D deficiency affects over 1 billion people worldwide, including 42 percent of Americans, with darker complexion having a higher risk of vitamin D deficiency: 82 percent of blacks and 69 percent of Latinos have inadequate levels.

Malone says it is important that people don’t self-administer vitamin D before talking to their doctor and getting a simple blood test to measure the levels of vitamin D in their blood.

“It is important to get your blood levels tested,” Malone said. “You can get toxic from too much vitamin D and different people absorb vitamin D at different levels.”

Vitamin D toxicity, a rare condition, causes an accumulation of calcium in your blood and may cause symptoms that include nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, weakness, and high blood pressure. Kidney failure may later occur if calcium is deposited in the organs. Treatment involves stopping the supplements and giving intravenous fluids and certain drugs.

Similar to Malone, Dr. Dennis Walker, a radiologist, says that people taking vitamin D supplements should get their vitamin D levels checked six to eight weeks after beginning the supplement, adding that “for every 5,000 IU of D3 consider 100 mcg of K2” as vitamin K2 “helps to ensure calcium transported by the vitamin D is absorbed by bones rather than deposited in arteries.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/covid-19-is-treatable-and-preventable-with-vitamin-d-dr-robert-malone_4484667.html

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Monkeypox: Scientists find potential antiviral treatment

Scientists have found a potential antiviral treatment for monkeypox, though they said the disease remains a far less significant risk than Covid.

New research into past outbreaks of monkeypox in the UK identified a patient who had shortened symptoms after being treated with one of two antivirals designed for smallpox.

The study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases looked at seven patients treated for the virus between 2018 and 202.

It comes as the new monkeypox outbreak grew to 71 confirmed in Britain and 85 cases across eight countries in Europe.

Researchers said their study only covered a small sample group and said further investigations around the antiviral treatments were needed.

According to the findings, monkeypox was found within throat and blood samples of the patients. Five of the patients studied spent more than three weeks in isolation – up to 39 days – as they received prolonged positive PCR test results.

However the authors said this does not necessarily point towards airborne infection on a similar level to Covid. The tests used were PCR test which also do not detect infectivity.

“In our cases, it’s been with very close contact in households with children and parents having direct contact with each other rather than the necessary at a distance,” Dr David Porter, on of the authors of the report said.

There are currently no licensed treatements for monkeypox in humans. The only available drugs, identified in the study, were Brincidofovir and Tecovirimat, which have been approved in the USA for the treatment of smallpox in preparation for a potential bioterrorism.

Three of the patients looked at were treated with the antiviral brincidofovir, which was not found to be effective, and one patient treated with Tecovirimat for two weeks who shorter illness duration. One patient experienced a mild relapse 6 weeks after hospital discharge.

Between 2018 and 2019 four of the patients were treated for monkeypox in specialist units in England. Three of the cases were linked to west Africa and the fourth case was found in a healthcare worker who had been exposed to the virus.

Three further cases on monkeypox looked at in the study were reported in 2021 in a family travelling from Nigeria. One of these cases occurred in a child

Researchers noted the cases studied between 2018 and 2021 are not “dissimilar” to those currently being identified in terms of their spread.

The report said: “The disease course of the patients we report on were challenging and resource-intensive to manage, even in the high-income setting of the UK. Monkeypox outbreaks will continue to occur in west and central Africa, and health-care workers around the world must remain vigilant to the possibility of monkeypox in travellers presenting with fever and rash. Our observations in this small series support further research into antivirals to treat this neglected tropical disease.”

At a briefing held by the Science Media Centre on Tuesday, researchers warned against comparing the current outbreak of monkeypox to Covid.

Dr Jake Dunning, consultant in infectious dieases and high consequence infectious diseases at the Royal Free Hospital, said: “Covid as an emerging infection, is far more significant for society than the monkey pox... I think we have to be careful not to equate the two as well, so particularly in terms of transmission and pandemic risk.

“They are very different beasts in that sense. So I don’t want people thinking that just because we’ve had a Covid pandemic, every new emerging infection will also lead to a pandemic.”

Dr Hugh Adler, honorary research fellow at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Specialty Trainee in Infectious Diseases said unlike Covid, monkeypox was a “DNA virus”, which do not evolve rapidly so it is unlikely the current outbreak is a “sudden shift” in the virus’s behaviour

He added: “It’s more likely either a random event and or driven somewhat by human behaviour, in particular that travel is opening more widely again. But from their preliminary genomic data, there is no signal but also on what we know is the biology of monkeypox, where we would not predict that this that it would change that fast.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/monkeypox-antiviral-treatment-b2086206.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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Dramatic warning from Pfizer boss

Michael Yeadon was a scientific researcher and vice president at drugs giant Pfizer Inc. He co-founded a successful biotech. He was Pfizer’s head of allergy and respiratory research for 16 years.

When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, he became one of the most vocal critics of lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and mask mandates. In fact, Yeadon has emerged as an unlikely hero of the so-called anti-vaxxers, whose adherents question the safety of many vaccines, including the coronavirus.

Yesterday, he said that forced vaccines were a ‘crime against humanity’ in an interview with The Epoch Times.

Here’s what Yeadon states in a document he sent to The Epoch Times:

“It was never appropriate to attempt to ‘end the pandemic’ with a novel technology vaccine. In a public health mass intervention, safety is the top priority, more so even than effectiveness, because so many people will receive it.”

“It’s simply not possible to obtain data demonstrating adequate longitudinal safety in the time period any pandemic can last. Those who pushed this line of argument and enabled the gene-based agents to be injected needlessly into billions of innocent people are guilty of crimes against humanity.”

Yeadon further said that natural immunity has proven to be more effective in protecting against Covid-19 and that if he was in charge of the pandemic response, he would not have given the vaccine emergency authorization.

He also said that he would have forbidden children, pregnant women, and those who were already infected from getting the vaccine.

Yeadon said in a statement:

“I would have outright denied their use in children, in pregnancy, and in the infected/recovered. Point blank. I’d need years of safe use before contemplating an alteration of this stance.”

Yeadon has been fiercely attacked and criticized in the mainstream media after going against Biden’s regime narrative. He currently serves as the Chief Scientific Advisor to America’s Frontline Doctors and the Truth for Health Foundation.

https://2020conservative.com/what-the-president-of-pfizer-just-said-about-the-vaccine-is-absolutely/

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Over 17,000 Doctors Have Called For an end to present Covid policies

The Global COVID Summit, a gathering of 17,000 other physicians and medical experts from around the world, issued its fourth declaration on May 11, calling for the state of medical emergency to be lifted, scientific integrity to be restored, and crimes against humanity to be addressed.

The signatories claim that COVID policies enacted over the last two years “are the climax of a corrupt medical coalition of pharmaceutical, insurance, and healthcare institutions, as well as the financial trusts that dominate them.”

“They have infiltrated our medical system at every level, and are protected and supported by a parallel alliance of big tech, media, academics and government agencies who profited from this orchestrated catastrophe.”

This “corrupt alliance” continues, they state, “to advance unscientific claims by censoring data, and intimidating and firing doctors and scientists for simply publishing actual clinical results or treating their patients with proven, life-saving medicine.”

“These catastrophic decisions came at the expense of the innocent, who are forced to suffer health damage and death caused by intentionally withholding critical and time-sensitive treatments, or as a result of coerced genetic therapy injections, which are neither safe nor effective,” the signatories said.

According to prominent vaccinologist and physician Dr. Robert Malone, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was aware early on that the COVID vaccines could cause viral reactivation of diseases like varicella-zoster virus (shingles) in some patients, but chose not to disclose it.

“They knew about the viral reactivation,” Malone declared during a recent panel discussion hosted by Del Bigtree with fellow Global COVID Summit physicians Dr. Ryan Cole, and Dr. Richard Urso.

When the vaccinations were being put out, Malone, the original creator of mRNA and DNA vaccination technology, said he was “quite actively engaged” with senior FDA staff in the Office of the Commissioner. Dr. William DuMouchel, Oracle Health Sciences’ Chief Statistical Scientist, was among the group, he said.

Here’s what was said, regarding the early data on what risks were associated with vaccines:

“We were talking by Zoom on a weekly or twice a week basis.”

“This is the group that first discovered the signal of the cardiotoxicity. They also knew at that time—one of them actually had the adverse event early on of shingles. They knew that the viral reactivation signal—which the CDC has never acknowledged—was one of the major known adverse events.”

Malone told the panel that assuming the CDC and FDA were unaware of the risk of viral reactivation connected with vaccines because they remained silent was a mistake.

“They absolutely did know, and they did not acknowledge it. It’s another one of those things that is inexplicable,” he said.

Clinical researchers creating “these types of products,” according to Malone, are obliged to follow tight guidelines.

“You have to characterize where it goes, how long it sticks around, and how much protein it makes, or what the active drug product is. None of that stuff was done very well. It wasn’t done rigorously, and there was a series of misrepresentations about what the data were,” he said. “And the thing is, the FDA let them get away with it. They did not perform their function. They’re supposed to be independent gatekeepers.”

Normally, he pointed out, the FDA pays close attention to the process, and if there are any red flags, the research is halted.

“What happened here is the regulatory bodies gave the pharmaceutical industry a pass,” Dr. Malone said, adding that Big Pharma also “misrepresented key facts about their product.”

“On the basis of that, average docs just assumed that this was something that it wasn’t. They assumed that this was a relatively benign product that didn’t stick around in the body. All of that is false,” he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed new statistics on Friday indicating a total of 1,261,149 reports of adverse events following COVID-19 immunizations that were submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System between December 14, 2020, and May 6, 2022. (VAERS).

The data indicates that there were a total of 27,968 deaths and 228,477 serious injuries reported over that time period.

Despite these concerning safety signals, the FDA approved a booster dosage of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot for children 5 to 11 years old on Tuesday, despite evidence showing that the shots have little benefit for children and can cause major side effects including mortality.

https://2020conservative.com/over-17000-doctors-have-called-for-them-to-end-the-madness/

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Food crisis in Cuba

A nation of farms cannot feed itself. Under Fulgencio Batista Cuba exported food

HAVANA — Her 4-year-old was still asleep when Yohana Perdomo stubbed out her cigarette, grabbed her blue ration book and set out to find Cuba’s most prized product. “As good as gold,” she called it. She padded out the door in flip-flops, past the metal-roofed shacks warming in the morning sun, past the wall spray-painted: Viva Fidel + Raul.

And then she saw it: the local “bodega” that sold government rations. With no line in front. That could only mean one thing, Perdomo thought. “There’s no milk.”

It was one of the great promises of the 1959 Cuban Revolution. In a nation plagued by malnutrition, Fidel Castro pledged a liter of milk every day for every child. He enshrined a super-producing cow, Ubre Blanca, as a national hero. He was such a dairy nut that the CIA once tried to poison his daily milkshake.

Inside a state-run store in Havana are a photo of Fidel Castro and a painting of Cuba’s patron saint. The store won’t open for hours, yet even before the sun rises, people are waiting to get into the nearby market.

Today, as Cuba careens through its worst economic crisis in 30 years, milk is one of the most potent symbols of the country’s precarious state. Cubans have been hit by mass shortages of dairy and other basic goods, reflecting a confluence of setbacks: The coronavirus pandemic crippled the vital tourism industry. Then-President Donald Trump squeezed the island with extra sanctions, and President Biden held off on reversing them. Socialist ally Venezuela reduced aid and investment.

The result: A nation that imports 70 percent of its food has run desperately short of the cash to buy it.

Cubans wait in lines for hours to get a bottle of subsidized cooking oil or some chicken. “Since you wake up, you are always thinking, what can you eat, where can you find food?” said Perdomo, 28, a manicurist. Milk is among the hardest-to-find products. The government has continued to provide subsidized rations for young children and the sick. Beyond that, though, it has disappeared from most stores.

Spiking food prices and shortages are threatening to unleash turmoil in many countries, of course, but in Cuba the upheaval is well underway. Young people are fueling the biggest exodus to the United States since the 1980 Mariel boatlift. U.S. border agents have logged more than 114,000 apprehensions of Cubans since October. Perdomo’s 25-year-old brother-in-law, an air-conditioning technician named Esteban, is talking about joining them. “I don’t think we can live this way,” he said.

The Communist government, nervous that the shortages could pose risks to the one-party system, is trying to stimulate agricultural production. “We have to improve things quickly,” Johana Odriozola, the vice minister of economy, acknowledged in an interview. Protests over the lack of food and electricity swept the Caribbean island last July, and another hot summer is coming.

The frustration simmers in Perdomo’s neighborhood, a warren of tiny concrete block and wood homes in a riverside area of Havana called El Fanguito. Perdomo long ago gave up her morning cafe con leche. But her daughter is another story. Milk is Laurent’s entire breakfast, and as Perdomo returned home on that recent Wednesday, the girl was hungry. In her kitchen nook, the mother filled a baby bottle with boiling water, sugar and three scoops from her dwindling supply of milk powder.

“There’s enough milk for tonight,” Perdomo said, shaking the powder jar. “For tomorrow, we don’t know what we’ll do.”

The chain of calamities leading to Cuba’s milk shortage begins at farms like Victor Rojas’s bucolic spread, a 45-minute drive from Perdomo’s home. The 66-year-old farmer knows exactly what cows need to produce plentiful milk: fortified feed. But in state-run stores, there isn’t any.

FROM TOP: Raul Rodriguez, left, pours milk from his farm into a large community vessel, which Yosbel Bello Hernandez will deliver to the local cooperative. Victor Rojas deposits milk from his farm at the cooperative. Alberto Gonzalez has trouble finding fortified feed, which his cows need to produce milk.
“We give them whatever we find — grass, leaves from the banana trees,” Rojas said.

He remembers the glory days, when Castro created massive state-run dairy farms, and a glass of milk was cheap. “Anywhere you went, you could find it,” said the farmer, in a dirty blue shirt and rubber boots. “Because many things came from the Soviet Union.”

They included fertilizer, animal feed and genetic breeding supplies. When the Soviet Union collapsed, so did its subsidies. Cuba went from producing a million metric tons of milk in 1990 to 638,000 tons five years later.

Gradually, private farmers took over, but under the thumb of the Communist government. The state rented land to farmers and bought their produce, meat and milk at low, fixed prices — often falling behind in payments. “Since August, we haven’t been paid for our avocados,” Rojas said. And lately, the weather hasn’t cooperated. “There’s no rain,” he said.

He looked up at a nearby hill. A neighbor clip-clopped by on a horse-drawn cart. “There goes Osvaldo,” Rojas said. “He sold his cows. He couldn’t deal with the situation.”

Cuban authorities, anxious to jump-start the economy, have announced a series of changes. For the first time since 1968, thousands of Cubans have been allowed to register small- and medium-size businesses — a big expansion from an earlier “self-employment” program that led to a flowering of private restaurants. Dairy and beef farmers may now sell any output above their official quotas, at market rates. Officials have appealed on TV for Cubans to take advantage of a program to cultivate government-owned farmland for free.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2022/cuba-economy-milk-shortage/

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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Pandemic Lessons Learned

Earlier this month, The Lancet published an article titled “Shanghai’s life-saving efforts against the current omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic” by three renowned scientists at Shanghai’s top universities: Wenhong Zhang, Xinxin Zhang, and Saijuan Chen. The article praised the Chinese Communist Party’s draconian lockdown policy in Shanghai as “life-saving.”

Not long before that, however, Wenhong Zhang, then head of Shanghai’s COVID Control Experts Committee, spoke out in favor of coexisting with the virus.

“We cannot have the mindset of killing the virus at all costs. We must secure a normal life of our citizens, while at the same time controlling the spread of the virus,” he said publicly on March 24.

But what we have witnessed in Shanghai since April 5 is anything but “normal life” for its citizens. What changed? What made Dr. Zhang change his mind, from supporting living with the virus to killing the virus at all costs?

In a word, the CCP. The same regime that killed millions of its own citizens during peacetime and allowed SARS-CoV-2 to spread around the world in early 2020, is also capable of making people doubt what they see with their own eyes, deliberately peddling a falsehood, an evil practice that dates back to ancient China.

Zero-COVID Is Impossible

Under Xi Jinping, China has been implementing a zero-COVID policy to varying degrees since the beginning of the pandemic, using it to boost the regime’s “success” in controlling the spread of the virus as being superior to Western democracies.

The CCP not only has control of the movement of citizens and control of the media, it also attempts to control people’s thoughts.

However, it cannot control Omicron, despite its cruel lockdowns. In fact, Omicron is, like air, beyond the control of any government. Even World Health Organization director-general Tedros—an admirer of China’s handling of the virus outbreak at the beginning of the pandemic—said at a media briefing on May 10 that the WHO does not think China’s COVID policy is “sustainable considering the behaviour of the virus.”

“We have discussed about this issue with Chinese experts and we indicated that the approach will not be sustainable,” he said. “I think a shift would be very important.”

It seems Tedros is not trying to hide his opinion anymore. And at the same press briefing, WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan said: “We need to balance the control measures against the impact on society, the impact they have on the economy.” Sounds like Wenhong Zhang’s position in March.

Anyone with any microbiology or epidemiology training would look at the science of Omicron and conclude that zero-COVID in the era of this variant is impossible.

Why did Dr. Zhang change his mind, from a forward-thinking “live with the virus” position to the “zero-COVID” nonsense, and why did his two colleagues take the same stance?

Some choose to enforce the narrative of the CCP in the hope of being rewarded. I just hope that the authors of the Lancet propaganda piece did not write the article to get promoted.

I did my undergraduate at Fudan University, where Zhang Wenhong got his PhD and is now the director of a hospital affiliated with Fudan, and my master’s at Jiaotong University, where Saijuan Chen is director of the State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics and where Xinxin Zhang is a doctor in the chemistry department.

As an alumnus of these universities, I must say that I am deeply disappointed that for all the education and experience these doctors have, they chose to praise and validate the CCP’s incredibly misguided zero-COVID approach, calling it life-saving while it has actually cost many lives.

The three did so in the most damaging way, i.e., using their influence to have their CCP propaganda piece published in The Lancet as science—a masterstroke in this new era of scientific misinformation.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/pandemic-lessons-learned-deer-are-not-military-horses_4481983.html

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Are the Democrats losing silicon valley?

Barack Obama’s White House hosted so many Google executives that it was seen as a satellite office. The company’s chairman Eric Schmidt campaigned vocally for Obama’s election, and during Obama’s eight years in power, a Google employee visited the White House on average once a week.

Democrat ties to Silicon Valley did not stop at a single company. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s number two, worked for the Clinton administration. Obama’s political strategist David Plouffe went on to work for Uber and Mark Zuckerberg’s charitable foundation. The former president’s press secretary, Jay Carney, is now a senior executive at Amazon.

Elon Musk’s Tesla survived in its early days partly through hundreds of millions of dollars of Obama-era loans.

But in recent months, the once-strong ties between US Democrats and Silicon Valley, the new heart of American corporate power, have broken down. In the last week, the tech industry’s two wealthiest individuals have attacked Joe Biden’s party, while a growing number of senior figures have questioned the administration.

“In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party,” Musk tweeted on Wednesday. “But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.”

Earlier this month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos launched a rare political intervention, attacking Biden over his record on inflation. In response to Biden calling for higher taxes on corporations to fight price rises, Bezos accused the US president of “misdirection”.

“Inflation is a regressive tax that most hurts the least affluent,” he added.

For years, Silicon Valley and its workers appeared to be natural allies of the US Left. The web’s pioneers boasted of libertarian ideals and the end of censorship, an antidote to conservative fears over violent video games and rap music that paralleled its rise. Its workers were primarily young, university-educated and socially liberal.

Santa Clara County, the home of Apple, Google and Facebook, voted for Republicans Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, but has swung blue in every presidential race since 1988.

It became a mutually beneficial relationship. For Democrats, Silicon Valley was the acceptable face of capitalism, mission-driven, vibrant and diverse, not to mention a huge source of funds. Silicon Valley donations to Obama in 2012 outpaced those to Mitt Romney roughly tenfold. In turn, the Clinton and Obama administrations brought light-touch regulation, such as the Section 230 protections that broadly granted legal immunity to social networks. In 2012, the Obama administration decided not to bring monopoly abuse charges against Google, and waved through acquisitions such as Facebook’s takeover of Instagram.

Tech’s Right-wing only occasionally stuck their head above the parapet. Former eBay boss Meg Whitman unsuccessfully ran for California governor as a Republican in 2010. When Peter Thiel, a PayPal founder and early Facebook investor, spoke in support of Donald Trump at 2016’s Republican National Convention, he became a pariah to much of the tech industry.

The Biden White House has been more hostile to tech companies and their owners, however. Biden has accused companies such as Facebook of “killing people” for not regulating Covid posts more strictly. He has also appointed a string of senior officials who have called for Big Tech to be broken up, such as Tim Wu and Lina Khan, two stars of the antitrust movement.

Biden has also strongly supported unions, putting him in conflict with the likes of Amazon and Tesla. The Tesla billionaire has also grumbled at Biden’s apparent reluctance to credit his company with driving the electric vehicle revolution, while heaping praise on Ford and General Motors.

In contrast, Trump cut taxes on the huge stashes of overseas funds that Apple, Google and Microsoft held, which were returned to grateful shareholders.

But it is Democrats’ tax policies that have caused the biggest stir among Silicon Valley’s wealthiest. Last year, US senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren proposed taxing the richest 700 Americans on their unrealised gains, such as the soaring value of their shares. The plan was scuppered by moderate Democrats but earned Musk’s ire.

“Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you,” he wrote in October. Later, he sold 10 per cent of his Tesla shares, resulting in a tax bill of about $US11 billion. “I’m paying the largest amount of tax of any individual in history,” he said.

Zach Graves, executive director of the Lincoln Network, a technology policy group, says: “There has always been a libertarian kind of flair in Silicon Valley, but sometimes that’s been more underground. They don’t wear it on their sleeve. The convention that Silicon Valley leans pretty strongly to the Left is right. But you do see notable exceptions.

“People have become more successful, maybe they have had their exit [a major payday such as an IPO]. They feel more comfortable in their political views.”

A string of top Silicon Valley investors such as Paul Graham, the Welsh born founder of Y Combinator, and Marc Andreessen, the head of one of Silicon Valley’s top venture firms A16Z, have become more outspoken about Left-wing censorship.

“It used to be that censorship was something the Right did, and free speech was something the Left were in favour of. But over the last few decades, banning ‘problematic’ ideas has become a huge component of Left culture,” Graham wrote last month.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/tech-billionaires-turn-on-biden-and-his-party-of-hate-20220520-p5amyn.html

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23 May, 2022

CDC Advises Doctors to Be on Alert for Monkeypox as WHO Confirms Outbreaks in 11 Countries

This is one occasion when we oldies have the last laugh. We will not get this pox. Why? Because when we were young vaccination against smallpox was compulsory if we wanted to travel overseas. And poxes are related. Our vaccination against smallpox will protect us against monkey pox too

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an advisory on Friday asking doctors across the United States to be on the watch for monkeypox, as the World Health Organization has confirmed 80 confirmed cases across 11 countries.

Monkeypox is a viral disease typically endemic to central and western Africa, but since the start of May, dozens of confirmed cases have been reported in several countries outside of the continent. Many more suspected cases are being investigated.

The CDC is asking doctors to “be vigilant to the characteristic rash associated with monkeypox” and describes the rash as involving “vesicles or pustules that are deep-seated, firm or hard, and well-circumscribed,” adding that the lesions “may umbilicate or become confluent and progress over time to scabs.”

It adds that doctors should be more suspicious for the disease and consider it as a possible diagnosis if, in addition to having a characteristic rash, their patient has traveled to countries with recently confirmed cases of monkeypox; reports having had contact with anyone who had monkeypox, or suspected monkeypox, or have a rash similar in appearance to monkeypox; or is a man who regularly has close or intimate in-person contact with other men.

“Lesions may be disseminated or located on the genital or perianal area alone,” the CDC also stated in its advisory.

“Some patients may present with proctitis, and their illness could be clinically confused with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) like syphilis or herpes, or with varicella zoster virus infection,” the agency adds. Proctitis is inflammation of the lining of the rectum and can cause rectal pain, diarrhea, bleeding, and discharge.

Prior to May, cases outside of Africa were among people with a recent history of travel to Nigeria or contact with another person confirmed with monkeypox, the CDC noted. But there have been confirmed cases since the start of the month without a history of travel to Africa, the CDC noted, adding that the source of the cases “is unknown.”

Cases outside Africa have been reported in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and Canada, as well as across Europe including Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Belgium, France, and Germany. The number of confirmed monkeypox cases in the U.K., where the disease was first detected outside of Africa, has reached 20 as of May 20.

The CDC noted that in the case of the United Kingdom, there was a “temporally clustered group of cases involving four people who self-identify as gay, bisexual, or men who have sex with men.”

“Some evidence suggests that cases among [men who have sex with men] may be epidemiologically linked; the patients in this cluster were identified at sexual health clinics,” it stated. “This is an evolving investigation and public health authorities hope to learn more about routes of exposure in the coming days.”

The WHO said on Friday that the recent outbreaks across 11 countries so far are “atypical, as they are occurring in non-endemic countries.” It said there are about 80 confirmed cases and 50 pending investigations, with more cases likely to be reported in the near future.

“People who closely interact with someone who is infectious are at greater risk for infection: this includes health workers, household members and sexual partners,” the WHO stated.

Monkeypox starts off with flu-like symptoms that include fever, muscle aches, and fatigue, as well as swelling of the lymph nodes. Within days after fever, a rash appears on the face and body, which can also include the genital or perianal area, the CDC states. The incubation period—time from infection to symptoms—can range from 5 to 21 days.

The disease usually self-resolves with the symptoms lasting from 2 to 4 weeks, although severe cases can occur and can even result in death, with recent death rates being around 3 to 6 percent, according to the WHO.

The United States has one confirmed case of monkeypox in Massachusetts, the first this year. The CDC said it is working with the state’s health department to investigate the case. The patient involved has the West African strain of monkeypox virus, and is currently isolated, the CDC stated. He had recently traveled to Canada, where the first two monkeypox cases were confirmed late on May 19 in Quebec.

Another suspected monkeypox case is being investigated in New York City.

In 2021, the United States had two confirmed cases of monkeypox, one in Maryland and one in Texas. Both cases involved people who had recently traveled to Nigeria, where the virus is endemic.

The Biden administration on May 18 placed an order for millions of doses of a vaccine intended to protect against smallpox and monkeypox from Bavarian Nordic, a Denmark-based biotech company. The vaccine is approved under the name Jynneos in the United States, available to those at high risk of smallpox and monkeypox.

“Jynneos does not contain the viruses that cause smallpox or monkeypox. It is made from a vaccinia virus, a virus that is closely related to, but less harmful than, variola or monkeypox viruses and can protect against both of these diseases,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated in September 2021, at the time of the vaccine’s approval. “Jynneos contains a modified form of the vaccinia virus called Modified Vaccinia Ankara, which does not cause disease in humans and is non-replicating, meaning it cannot reproduce in human cells.”

According to the CDC, because the monkeypox virus is related to the virus that causes smallpox, the vaccine can protect people from getting monkeypox.

“Past data from Africa suggests that the smallpox vaccine is at least 85 [percent] effective in preventing monkeypox,” the CDC stated. “The effectiveness of [Jynneos] against monkeypox was concluded from a clinical study on the immunogenicity of Jynneos and efficacy data from animal studies.

“Smallpox and monkeypox vaccines are effective at protecting people against monkeypox when given before exposure to monkeypox. Experts also believe that vaccination after a monkeypox exposure may help prevent the disease or make it less severe.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/cdc-advises-doctors-to-be-on-alert-for-monkeypox-as-who-confirms-outbreaks-in-11-countries_4480916.html

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Australians dying of COVID while life-saving drugs go unused, doctors say

Top doctors have warned that vulnerable patients who test positive to COVID-19 are missing out on potentially life-saving antiviral treatments, with just a fraction of those at risk of serious disease having accessed the new drugs.

Figures from the federal health department show 1379 patients received antiviral medication Paxlovid through their GP in the first weeks in May, after the drug was listed on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme.

“We are still getting quite a number of deaths – and making sure people know antivirals are available is one way of trying to address this,” infectious disease physician Professor Allen Cheng said. “We don’t have many levers left to pull [to protect those at risk of severe illness]. It is easy for people to fall through the cracks”.

With tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases recorded each week, experts say a major awareness campaign is needed to make sure at-risk people know that highly effective treatments can help prevent severe disease if they are taken within five days of symptom onset.

There were more than 680,000 coronavirus cases recorded nationally in the first two weeks in May and 563 deaths.

Fourth ‘winter’ COVID vaccine recommended for people over 65

“Clearly not everyone eligible or those that would benefit are getting access to the treatments,” Cheng said. A major push is needed to make sure older patients with other risk factors, those with co-morbidities, people who are immunosuppressed and unvaccinated are aware treatments are available, he said.

Evidence from trials show that for every 10 to 20 patients treated with Paxlovid one person will be prevented from being hospitalised, Cheng said.

Paxlovid, a combination of the drugs nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, was listed on the PBS last month. Eligible adults who test positive to COVID-19 through a PCR or rapid antigen test can access the treatment from their local pharmacy with a GP prescription.

Paxlovid is available to people aged 65 or older, with two other risk factors for severe disease, or one factor for those aged 75 and over. It is subsidised for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander patients aged 50 or over with two other risk factors and patients who are moderately to severely immunocompromised.

Another antiviral drug, Lagevrio – the trade name for molnupiravir – was also listed on the PBS in March and has since been used to treat more than 15,000 patients, including about 7000 in NSW.

“Clearly not everyone eligible or those that would benefit are getting access to the treatments.”

President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Karen Price said doctors need to tell “eligible patients proactively that if they contract COVID-19 they should contact their GP”.

“A lot of people are sitting at home with a positive rapid test. We must make sure they know about the medication they can access which could stop them ending up in hospital.”

Australian Medical Association president Dr Omar Khorshid said an awareness campaign was needed for vulnerable people, especially because treatments were previously only available from hospital.

“If you get a positive test, and you’re at risk, a telehealth appointment is all that is needed to be assessed for treatment”.

“Paxlovid has many drug interactions, so it does take time for GPs to have a good grasp of who should be having antivirals. There are definitely barriers in accessing medication”.

Last month Health Minister Greg Hunt said the antiviral PBS listings would support the national plan to transition Australia’s COVID-19 response, which outlines steps to remove all remaining coronavirus restrictions in the community.

“This medicine will help reduce the need for hospital admission,” Mr Hunt said.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/people-dying-of-covid-while-life-saving-drugs-go-unused-doctors-say-20220519-p5amvs.html

************************************************

Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

**************************************************

CDC Advises Doctors to Be on Alert for Monkeypox as WHO Confirms Outbreaks in 11 Countries

This is one occasion when we oldies have the last laugh. We will not get this pox. Why? Because when we were young vaccination against smallpox was compulsory if we wanted to travel overseas. And poxes are related. Our vaccination against smallpox will protect us against monkey pox too

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an advisory on Friday asking doctors across the United States to be on the watch for monkeypox, as the World Health Organization has confirmed 80 confirmed cases across 11 countries.

Monkeypox is a viral disease typically endemic to central and western Africa, but since the start of May, dozens of confirmed cases have been reported in several countries outside of the continent. Many more suspected cases are being investigated.

The CDC is asking doctors to “be vigilant to the characteristic rash associated with monkeypox” and describes the rash as involving “vesicles or pustules that are deep-seated, firm or hard, and well-circumscribed,” adding that the lesions “may umbilicate or become confluent and progress over time to scabs.”

It adds that doctors should be more suspicious for the disease and consider it as a possible diagnosis if, in addition to having a characteristic rash, their patient has traveled to countries with recently confirmed cases of monkeypox; reports having had contact with anyone who had monkeypox, or suspected monkeypox, or have a rash similar in appearance to monkeypox; or is a man who regularly has close or intimate in-person contact with other men.

“Lesions may be disseminated or located on the genital or perianal area alone,” the CDC also stated in its advisory.

“Some patients may present with proctitis, and their illness could be clinically confused with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) like syphilis or herpes, or with varicella zoster virus infection,” the agency adds. Proctitis is inflammation of the lining of the rectum and can cause rectal pain, diarrhea, bleeding, and discharge.

Prior to May, cases outside of Africa were among people with a recent history of travel to Nigeria or contact with another person confirmed with monkeypox, the CDC noted. But there have been confirmed cases since the start of the month without a history of travel to Africa, the CDC noted, adding that the source of the cases “is unknown.”

Cases outside Africa have been reported in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and Canada, as well as across Europe including Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Belgium, France, and Germany. The number of confirmed monkeypox cases in the U.K., where the disease was first detected outside of Africa, has reached 20 as of May 20.

The CDC noted that in the case of the United Kingdom, there was a “temporally clustered group of cases involving four people who self-identify as gay, bisexual, or men who have sex with men.”

“Some evidence suggests that cases among [men who have sex with men] may be epidemiologically linked; the patients in this cluster were identified at sexual health clinics,” it stated. “This is an evolving investigation and public health authorities hope to learn more about routes of exposure in the coming days.”

The WHO said on Friday that the recent outbreaks across 11 countries so far are “atypical, as they are occurring in non-endemic countries.” It said there are about 80 confirmed cases and 50 pending investigations, with more cases likely to be reported in the near future.

“People who closely interact with someone who is infectious are at greater risk for infection: this includes health workers, household members and sexual partners,” the WHO stated.

Monkeypox starts off with flu-like symptoms that include fever, muscle aches, and fatigue, as well as swelling of the lymph nodes. Within days after fever, a rash appears on the face and body, which can also include the genital or perianal area, the CDC states. The incubation period—time from infection to symptoms—can range from 5 to 21 days.

The disease usually self-resolves with the symptoms lasting from 2 to 4 weeks, although severe cases can occur and can even result in death, with recent death rates being around 3 to 6 percent, according to the WHO.

The United States has one confirmed case of monkeypox in Massachusetts, the first this year. The CDC said it is working with the state’s health department to investigate the case. The patient involved has the West African strain of monkeypox virus, and is currently isolated, the CDC stated. He had recently traveled to Canada, where the first two monkeypox cases were confirmed late on May 19 in Quebec.

Another suspected monkeypox case is being investigated in New York City.

In 2021, the United States had two confirmed cases of monkeypox, one in Maryland and one in Texas. Both cases involved people who had recently traveled to Nigeria, where the virus is endemic.

The Biden administration on May 18 placed an order for millions of doses of a vaccine intended to protect against smallpox and monkeypox from Bavarian Nordic, a Denmark-based biotech company. The vaccine is approved under the name Jynneos in the United States, available to those at high risk of smallpox and monkeypox.

“Jynneos does not contain the viruses that cause smallpox or monkeypox. It is made from a vaccinia virus, a virus that is closely related to, but less harmful than, variola or monkeypox viruses and can protect against both of these diseases,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated in September 2021, at the time of the vaccine’s approval. “Jynneos contains a modified form of the vaccinia virus called Modified Vaccinia Ankara, which does not cause disease in humans and is non-replicating, meaning it cannot reproduce in human cells.”

According to the CDC, because the monkeypox virus is related to the virus that causes smallpox, the vaccine can protect people from getting monkeypox.

“Past data from Africa suggests that the smallpox vaccine is at least 85 [percent] effective in preventing monkeypox,” the CDC stated. “The effectiveness of [Jynneos] against monkeypox was concluded from a clinical study on the immunogenicity of Jynneos and efficacy data from animal studies.

“Smallpox and monkeypox vaccines are effective at protecting people against monkeypox when given before exposure to monkeypox. Experts also believe that vaccination after a monkeypox exposure may help prevent the disease or make it less severe.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/cdc-advises-doctors-to-be-on-alert-for-monkeypox-as-who-confirms-outbreaks-in-11-countries_4480916.html

************************************************

Australians dying of COVID while life-saving drugs go unused, doctors say

Top doctors have warned that vulnerable patients who test positive to COVID-19 are missing out on potentially life-saving antiviral treatments, with just a fraction of those at risk of serious disease having accessed the new drugs.

Figures from the federal health department show 1379 patients received antiviral medication Paxlovid through their GP in the first weeks in May, after the drug was listed on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme.

“We are still getting quite a number of deaths – and making sure people know antivirals are available is one way of trying to address this,” infectious disease physician Professor Allen Cheng said. “We don’t have many levers left to pull [to protect those at risk of severe illness]. It is easy for people to fall through the cracks”.

With tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases recorded each week, experts say a major awareness campaign is needed to make sure at-risk people know that highly effective treatments can help prevent severe disease if they are taken within five days of symptom onset.

There were more than 680,000 coronavirus cases recorded nationally in the first two weeks in May and 563 deaths.

Fourth ‘winter’ COVID vaccine recommended for people over 65

“Clearly not everyone eligible or those that would benefit are getting access to the treatments,” Cheng said. A major push is needed to make sure older patients with other risk factors, those with co-morbidities, people who are immunosuppressed and unvaccinated are aware treatments are available, he said.

Evidence from trials show that for every 10 to 20 patients treated with Paxlovid one person will be prevented from being hospitalised, Cheng said.

Paxlovid, a combination of the drugs nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, was listed on the PBS last month. Eligible adults who test positive to COVID-19 through a PCR or rapid antigen test can access the treatment from their local pharmacy with a GP prescription.

Paxlovid is available to people aged 65 or older, with two other risk factors for severe disease, or one factor for those aged 75 and over. It is subsidised for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander patients aged 50 or over with two other risk factors and patients who are moderately to severely immunocompromised.

Another antiviral drug, Lagevrio – the trade name for molnupiravir – was also listed on the PBS in March and has since been used to treat more than 15,000 patients, including about 7000 in NSW.

“Clearly not everyone eligible or those that would benefit are getting access to the treatments.”

President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Karen Price said doctors need to tell “eligible patients proactively that if they contract COVID-19 they should contact their GP”.

“A lot of people are sitting at home with a positive rapid test. We must make sure they know about the medication they can access which could stop them ending up in hospital.”

Australian Medical Association president Dr Omar Khorshid said an awareness campaign was needed for vulnerable people, especially because treatments were previously only available from hospital.

“If you get a positive test, and you’re at risk, a telehealth appointment is all that is needed to be assessed for treatment”.

“Paxlovid has many drug interactions, so it does take time for GPs to have a good grasp of who should be having antivirals. There are definitely barriers in accessing medication”.

Last month Health Minister Greg Hunt said the antiviral PBS listings would support the national plan to transition Australia’s COVID-19 response, which outlines steps to remove all remaining coronavirus restrictions in the community.

“This medicine will help reduce the need for hospital admission,” Mr Hunt said.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/people-dying-of-covid-while-life-saving-drugs-go-unused-doctors-say-20220519-p5amvs.html

************************************************

Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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