A "housekeeping" note

The internet is a very changeable place.  Articles and pix that are up there today may have vanished tomorrow.  Blogspot is unusually good in that regard.  Blog posts of mine back to 2002 are still up there.  

So pictures are the big weakness there.  Some of the pictures I put up were not hosted by blogspot so have disappeared.  That is not much of a big deal as very few people are likely to go back to read my old posts.  The posts will normally be accessed via Google searches only.

So I have gone through my posts here back to the beginning of 2019 and replaced all missing posts by backups.  I do have backups for all my posts.  So in the most unlikely event that anyone is interested in pictures before 2019, I will gladly supply the missing pic

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Analysis of first Covid-19 cases suggests Wuhan market was origin of outbreak and WHO report was wrong

New research has put forward “strong evidence” that a Wuhan market was the source of the Covid-19 pandemic and suggests the World Health Organisation may have got a crucial timeline wrong.

The study from University of Arizona evolutionary biology Professor Michael Worobey was published in the prestigious journal Science and casts doubt on the theory the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory.

Prof Worobey combed through hospital records, media reports and other data about the earliest Covid-19 cases to investigate the origins of the virus.

He now believes the first known case was a woman who worked as a seafood vendor at the market, not a 41-year-old accountant as suggested by the WHO in its report on the origins of the virus.

He noted the male accountant, who lived 30km south of Huanan Market in Wuhan and had no connection to it, said in a media interview that his symptoms started on December 16, not December 8 as the WHO appears to suggest.

This is backed by hospital records and other data.

The mix-up appears to relate to an earlier medical emergency the man experienced on December 8 which Prof Worobey suggests was actually due to a dental problem.

In a later interview, the man said he believed he had got infected with Covid while in hospital (possibly at the time of his dental emergency) or on public transport on the way home.

This would make a female seafood vendor, who got symptoms on December 11, almost a week earlier, the first Covid case.

Prof Worobey tweeted that his research “dramatically changes the picture put forward by the joint China-WHO study report” which focused on the 41-year-old accountant as being the first case.

He said the man’s case had been used by “lab leak proponents to argue that the virus could not have emerged at the market” as the man had not visited it.

“It has led claims that the pandemic started at the BSL4 facility of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, since it is near where this guy lived and shopped,” Prof Worobey tweeted. “Turns out he just had a dental problem on December 8.”

Prof Worobey said in his paper most early symptomatic cases were linked to Huanan Market, specifically where raccoon dogs were caged and “provides strong evidence of a live-animal market origin of the pandemic”.

Wrongfully identifying the accountant as the first reported case of Covid has been used to discredit the “natural origin” theory that the virus was passed to an animal host before spreading to humans (possibly at the market). Instead it fanned theories the virus was created in a lab and accidentally leaked into the community.

Prof Worobey said he was confident the accountant’s case “loomed large” in US President Joe Biden’s intelligence community review, leading the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to favour the lab leak idea and for other agencies to have “low confidence” in the idea of a natural origin of the virus.

But Prof Worobey said “you can’t explain away the preponderance of early cases linked to Huanan Market”.

“Many have dismissed the idea of the virus emerging at the market by arguing that all the focus by epidemiologists on the market led to lots of cases being identified there, while a vast number of cases elsewhere in the city were missed. This is just not true,” Prof Worobey tweeted.

“The pattern was there in the very first hospitals that noticed the outbreak, *before* epidemiologists even started looking for cases. “And this means that in all likelihood the pandemic started at the market.”

Prof Worobey believes the strength of his article is that it draws on “firsthand accounts” including audio/video recordings of doctors, hospital administrators and patients like Zhang Jixian, Xia Wenguang, Wei Guixian, Chen Honggang, Ai Fen and Yuan Yufeng.

It is not the first time the WHO report has been called into question, with The Washington Post discovering several problems with data, including the wrong virus sequence IDs for three early patients.

The WHO report published in March this year found “no firm conclusion” could be made about the role of the Huanan market to the origins of the Covid outbreak but also that a laboratory incident was “extremely unlikely”.

However, World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later backflipped, saying the organisation was premature to rule out that a leak from a lab in Wuhan could have caused Covid-19 pandemic.

He called on China to be more co-operative in the next phase of investigations into the pandemic origins, demanding more access to raw data.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/analysis-of-first-covid19-cases-suggests-wuhan-market-was-origin-of-outbreak-and-who-report-was-wrong/news-story/7b703d39278695f92c79bda0d522f340

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Masks On Airplanes

by Jeffrey Barke, M.D.

I recently traveled across the country to Hillsdale, Michigan. My wife and I sat for five hours each way on airplanes with a mesh mask pressed across our faces. It made the absurdity of the mask mandate we live under both clear and depressing

I am sure most of the passengers on the planes were either COVID-19-vaccinated or COVID-19-recovered. While few speak about the thousands of people who have had COVID-19 and survived, they are turning out to be an important group in the ongoing battle against the virus. I myself am COVID-recovered after a bout with the disease a couple of months ago. I now have natural immunity to the disease.

Forcing someone like me to wear a mask makes no scientific or health sense. There are no studies to show that mask-wearing on an airplane can stop a respiratory viral illness. If that were the case, we would expect pilots always to wear masks while in the cockpit. But they don't. Maybe the recirculated air on airplanes keeps them safe from onboard viruses. Furthermore, if mask-wearing on an airplane were critical to preventing the spread of the disease, why are we allowed to remove our masks for extended periods of time while eating and drinking? I wish someone would pose that specific question to Dr. Fauci.

The requirement to wear a mask when entering or exiting a restaurant, but leaving it off while eating and drinking, also makes absolutely no sense. Do the authorities suppose that the COVID-19 virus stops seeking new hosts to infect only when we are unmasked but not eating or drinking? Do these bureaucratic geniuses really believe that the virus plays fair, observing equivalent rules to those invented by the Marquess of Queensberry for boxing? I think the COVID-19 virus is more likely to play by Fight Club rules!

The CDC recently acknowledged that it does not have any data showing that naturally immune COVID-recovered people can get and spread the disease to others. Despite this, the CDC discriminates against these people by insisting that they be fully vaccinated in addition to wearing a mask to function in society.

Since the CDC is requiring these measures, you would think it would have a mountain of evidence to support such a draconian policy. It doesn't. The science, in fact, shows just the opposite. It shows that natural immunity is strong, durable, and broad-based. Strong means that natural immunity protects against a COVID infection better than immunity produced by a vaccine. It is why we do not see COVID-recovered patients getting COVID again.

While it is common to see COVID-vaccinated people getting COVID and even requiring hospitalization, COVID-recovereds stay healthy. Multiple studies have confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 behaves much like SARS-CoV-1 as well as many other viral illnesses such as chickenpox, measles, mumps, rubella, etc. That is, these diseases provide long-lasting immunity to those who have been infected.

I had chickenpox as a child. I got it because my mom walked my brother and me down the street to a neighbor's house where the kid who lived there had the illness. Our dad, a physician, wanted to have us exposed and to deal with the disease under controlled conditions and when it is mild. This was circa 1970, prior to a chickenpox vaccination being available.

Many scientists expect SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — to behave similarly. COVID-recovered patients appear to be immune to all SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the delta variant. This broad immunity occurs because those who contract COVID-19 have exposure to the entire virus. This is in major contrast to the vaccine, which creates immunity to just the spike protein of the virus, thus limiting the immunity and making it much easier for the virus to break through the vaccine-induced immunity.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/utter-orwellian-stupidity-masks-airplanes

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Low COVID incidence in Africa

According to the Associated Press, scientists are “mystified” by what’s happening in Zimbabwe as it relates to Wuflu.

A nation with a population of 14.8 million people and a vaccination rate of less than 6 percent recorded a total of 33 COVID deaths.

Now one of my friends who is a world-renown economist argued that Africa doesn’t keep good statistics, implying that most Third World countries aren’t as diligent as the U.S. for example.

However, the AP interviewed a number of people who were shopping in a township outside Harare, almost none of whom were wearing masks. So Zimbabweans don’t seem very afraid of the dreaded Wuflu or any of its cousins, ergo Delta, Lambda, or Mu.

The article references one man who declared that the virus was “gone”. He then asked the reporter, “when did you last hear of anyone who has died of COVID-19?”

In the spirit of the WHO and other Fraudcian ruses, the man that he carries a mask in his pocket because the police demand bribes from people without masks or they are threatened with arrest. Still he declared that he rarely puts it on.

When the coronavirus first emerged last year, health officials feared the pandemic would sweep across Africa, killing millions. Although it’s still unclear what COVID-19’s ultimate toll will be, that catastrophic scenario has yet to materialize in Zimbabwe or much of the continent.

Scientists emphasize that obtaining accurate COVID-19 data, particularly in African countries with patchy surveillance, is extremely difficult, and warn that declining coronavirus trends could easily be reversed.

But there is something “mysterious” going on in Africa that is puzzling scientists, said Wafaa El-Sadr, chair of global health at Columbia University. “Africa doesn’t have the vaccines and the resources to fight COVID-19 that they have in Europe and the U.S., but somehow they seem to be doing better,” she said.

Evaluating medical “experts” in the AP article, you get a general idea surrounding this revelation that Africa is practically Wuflu-death-free, except for South Africa. Get it?

The country with the most money has the most Wuflu. But the experts say that of all the African countries, South Africa is “civilized” and therefore reporting real stats. The other countries are not.

The second theory reminds me of Jimmy the Greek speaking of the “big buck slave”. Thus, some scientists wonder if African people are more hearty than their non-African counterparts. However, that theory flies in the face of American scientists pushing the notion that Blacks in America are more likely to die from Wuflu. Perhaps “African-Americans” are as hearty as their Motherland counterparts? I’d love to see that racial debate in academia.

Finally, there is a third theory that suggests Africans, and in this case Zimbabweans are not in the demographic for Wuflu to kill them.

According to AP, the average age of people in Zimbabwe (for example) is roughly 20 because life expectancies are much lower. Ergo, younger people are less likely to die from the disease. Research that for yourself, though I have trouble believing this.

Regardless of the excuse, there are some things missed. For example, Africans could have already contracted the disease and have the antibodies. This would have created herd immunity, something Fauci the Fraud and others in the U.S. and elsewhere avoid discussing.

In truth, Africa is what the entire world would look like if elitists and bureaucrats had not weaponized this scamdemic

https://theblacksphere.net/2021/11/covid-gone-in-africa/

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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)

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Better than a vaccine? AstraZeneca's preventative antibody drug slashes risk of falling ill with Covid by 83% and protection remains high after six months

An antibody drug developed by AstraZeneca cuts the risk of falling ill with Covid by more than 80 per cent, according to trial data which suggests it could offer longer-lasting immunity than the drug giant's jab.

The cocktail, which is equally effective when given as a preventative or a treatment, offers hope to elderly and vulnerable people who respond less well to vaccines.

AstraZeneca today published results from a six-month study of its Evusheld therapy, delivered as two injections at the same time.

A single course offered 83 per cent protection against symptomatic Covid after six months in unvaccinated vulnerable people. This is much higher than current vaccines, which are given as two doses and wane significantly within months.

AstraZeneca's own jab falls to just 40 per cent protection against symptoms at six months, and Pfizer and Moderna's drop to around 60 per cent.

The phase III study of Evusheld tested the cocktail on people with medical problems or conditions which put them at risk of not responding to vaccines.

Patients undergoing chemotherapy, which reduces the effectiveness of the body's immune system, or taking immunosuppressive drugs following an organ transplant are among those who don't always get the full protection from jabs.

In a separate study, which gave the cocktail to people after they caught Covid, it was shown to reduce the risk of severe illness by 88 per cent. Experts hope it will protect against hospitalisations and deaths for up to 18 months.

Britain is believed to have a million doses of Evusheld on order. But it is unclear how much the therapy will cost.

The US has invested £350million in supporting the research and manufacturing of the drug and has secured 100,000 doses, with the option to purchase up to 1m.

Results from the latest trial, which involved 5,200 participants, showed those who received the antibody were 83 per cent less likely to develop Covid symptoms than people who got a placebo.

Three quarters of the trial participants had a health condition which put them at high risk for severe a Covid infection if they were to become infected.

There were no deaths or severe cases of the virus in the cohort which got Evusheld, compared to two deaths and five severe Covid cases in the placebo group.

All participants were unvaccinated. They will be followed for 15 months to explore how long protection might last.

AZD7442 is made from two long acting antibodies, tixagevimab and cilgavimab.

These antibodies have been developed from B-cells donated by patients who recovered from a Covid infection.

B-cells are a type of white blood cell forming part of the body's immune system and generate antibodies.

Antibodies are a type of protein found in blood which binds to and neutralises foreign substances like bacteria and viruses preventing them from harming healthy cells.

However, after an infection has passed, the level of antibodies in the body eventually decreases.

So in AZD7442, scientists modified the two antibodies to last longer than conventional ones.

This is what gives the treatment the long-lasting protection of up to 12 months according to Astrazeneca.

Evusheld, a monoclonal antibody therapy also called AZD7442, contains two types of lab-made antibodies, and is given to patients via an injection into the arm, similar to some vaccines.

It is made by extracting the proteins from patients who have recovered from the virus, and then manipulating them in a lab to make them last longer than natural antibodies.

They bind to the virus' spike protein — which it uses to invade cells — to stop an infection, or to prevent the virus from multiplying when it does infect.

Antibodies are created by the immune system in response to the virus, either through vaccination or natural infection, in order to help the body fight if off in the future.

The current vaccines train a person's body to recognise Covid, but the immune system still needs to produce its own antibodies. The latest therapy skips that process, making the antibodies readily available.

In some immunosupressed people, their immune systems are so weak that even after vaccination, their body struggles to mount a response. AstraZeneca said the drug is primarily meant to help these patients and other at-risk individuals.

But at some point a wider group could benefit, it said, such as military personnel on tours of duty or cruise ship passengers.

The company also released an analysis of a separate trial of Evusheld, showing the antibody treatment led to better outcomes for people who caught the virus.

A trial of 903 people, 90 per cent of which were classified as being at high risk due to them having underlying conditions, who caught Covid showed those who were given Evusheld three days after symptoms started had a 88 per cent reduced chance of developing severe Covid or dying from the virus compared to people who got a placebo.

Professor Hugh Montgomery, an intensive care specialist based at University College London and lead researcher on the trial, said: 'These compelling results give me confidence that this long-acting antibody combination can provide my vulnerable patients with the long-lasting protection they urgently need to finally return to their everyday lives.

'Importantly, six months of protection was maintained despite the surge of the Delta variant among these high-risk participants who may not respond adequately to vaccination.'

AstraZeneca estimates 2 per cent of the global population has a condition meaning they are at risk of not being fully protected by a Covid vaccine.

The company's executive vice president Mene Pangalos said: 'These new data add to the growing body of evidence supporting AZD7442’s potential to make a significant difference in the prevention and treatment of Covid.

'We are progressing regulatory filings around the world and look forward to providing an important new option against SARS-CoV-2 as quickly as possible.'

Professor Penny Ward, an expert in pharmaceutical medicine at Kings College London, welcomed the results of both trials but added they needed to stand up to independent analysis. 'Regrettably neither study has been published in full and thus our ability to assess these data is limited,' she said.

'AZD are encouraged to publish the complete trial data and detailed results as rapidly as possible to enable prescribers to understand how best to use the product in practice.'

Professor Ward said, if the results are confirmed, AZD7442 could potentially become a key part of protecting immunocompromised Britons from Covid. 'This antibody cocktail is, uniquely, capable of offering long lasting protection from COVID to patients that are immunosuppressed and may not have responded effectively to vaccination,' she said.

'If may yet come to be considered an important adjunctive treatment for cancer patients and others needing immune-suppressing therapy for other diseases.' 'Let us hope a good supply of this product has been secured for use in the UK.'

AstraZeneca has already asked the US for emergency use authorisation for AZD7442 as preventative treatment for Covid.

While the company has not confirmed if it was seeking similar approval to use it in the UK it has stated it is 'discussing' trial data with health authorities.

It is unknown how much a dose of AZD7442 will cost if the drug is approved for use, but AstraZeneca famously sacrificed billions in profits by only selling its Covid vaccine at-cost.

That decision was hailed by the World Health Organization which called the affordable jab a 'vaccine for the world'.

AstraZeneca became a household name in 2020 due to its work with Oxford University in developing one of the the four Covid vaccines currently approved for use in the UK.

By the end of September there have been about 50million Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs administered in the UK, comprising of both first and second doses of the vaccine.

A number of drugs aimed at helping people infected with Covid recover have been found to help patients since pandemic ripped across the world in 2020.

One of these is dexamethasone, a steroid, found to cut the risk of death in severely infected Covid patients by 35 per cent, a made by UK scientists.

Another is Ronapreve, which like AZD7442 has been developed from the antibodies of recovered Covid patients.

The drug, made by Regeneron, was found to slash the risk of death or hospitalisation in people with severe health conditions by 70 per cent.

Ronapreve was approved for use in the UK on August 20 but NHS medics have struggled to get supplies of the drug for their patients despite it being available in the US since November.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10215933/AstraZeneca-antibody-drug-works-prevent-COVID-19-longer-term-studies.html

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Booster shots needed for some travellers

One of Australia’s leading vaccine experts argues Covid-19 booster shots should not be mandatory - but some international travellers will need to get them.

Aussie travellers are being warned they may need Covid-19 booster jabs in order to get into a growing list of countries that includes Austria, Croatia, Switzerland, Vietnam and Israel.

But while Covid-19 booster shots should be “strongly recommended” for Australians flying overseas, they should not be made mandatory here, according to one of the country’s leading vaccine experts.

University of Sydney Professor Robert Booy said mandating a third jab was “not palatable to the public, not practical, and not needed – you get substantial protection from two doses”.

There had “already been enough opposition to mandating the first two doses,” he said.

But Australians heading overseas should talk to their GPs, and a third jab was “strongly recommended,” particularly if they were going to areas with bad outbreaks such as Austria and Germany, Prof Booy said.

With studies showing most Covid-19 vaccines declining in efficacy over time, a growing cohort of countries is adopting expiry dates for their equivalent of our vaccine passports. This could mean if an Australian traveller’s second jab is outside the expiry period, they will need to get a third jab to enter the country.

For incoming tourists, Israel insists upon a jab within the preceding six months, while Austria, Croatia, Switzerland and Vietnam have opted for 12 months.

From mid December, France will require those aged over 65 to have had a booster shot in order to get into public venues, while in the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has specifically mentioned booster shots when discussing future international travel arrangements.

Asked on the Insiders program on Sunday about the Morrison government’s position on boosters for international travellers, Health Minister Greg Hunt said they were recommended but not compulsory.

“The advice at this stage of Professor Murphy’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Group is that you’re regarded as fully vaccinated with two doses,” Mr Hunt said.

“Everything is always under review, but there’s no plan to change that requirement at this stage. But as we’ve done throughout, we’ll continue to follow the medical advice.”

Prof Booy said there was some suggestion it might be a better long-term strategy for fully vaccinated people to forego a booster shot and eventually get the virus. This would increase their “mucosal protection” – but studies on this were still ongoing. “We’ll have a lot more clarity on that in six months,” he said.

Booster shots have been offered to immunocompromised Australians since October 11, and all adults since November 8.

As of Wednesday, 298,841 Australians had received a third dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/coronavirus/booster-shots-needed-for-some-travellers/news-story/768edd771544ba82e801195328a05f34

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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)

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Taiwan suspends second round of pfizer cοvid vаccines for children due to heart problems

Despite cautionary voices from medical professionals, the Biden administration is doubling down on efforts to force vаccinations on everyone. There is no discussion about natural immunity. There are few people talking about the potential side effects of the CΟVID vаccination either.

Recently, developments in Taiwan may cement parent’s concerns. Taiwanese officials have suspended the second round of the Pfizer CΟVID vаccinations. They removed their approval for a second dose until grave concerns about the health risks for teenagers is addressed.

Taiwan made its decision despite continued efforts in the United States’ to coerce children to “get the jаb”. The head of Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center officially suspended future shots for ages 12 to 17 amid grave concerns over the risk of myocarditis.

The Pfizer vаccine is linked to 75 percent of the myocarditis cases. Despite alarming evidence that puts young teenagers at a 10 times higher risk of developing heart problems after the second dose, U.S. officials are still pushing vаccinations.

Other nations, such as Hong Kong, have altered their vаccine recommendations because of these serious health risks. However, the United States, where much of the data is being produced, has done nothing. The liberal Biden administration is recklessly focused on one thing.

They want to force every single American, including children, to get a CΟVID shot regardless of the potential consequences. It’s about enforcing a government mandate, not the health and safety of the people. The evidence is obvious. CΟVID is not about the science.

It never has been. The pandemic has produced a convenient way to enforce governmental control over every aspect of our lives. Now, senseless CΟVID policy, not the virus itself, is creating another potential health crisis; this time for our children.

https://steadfastclash.com/the-latest/taiwan-suspends-second-round-of-pfizer-c%ce%bfvid-v%d0%b0ccines-for-children-due-to-heart-problems/

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COVID Vaccines Are Shots In The Dark

We’re in a medical era of “just shut up and take it.” At its intellectually incurious root is not ignorance. It’s fear - sold in the most effective propaganda campaign since the nation’s push to buy war bonds during World War II.

Unlike the war bond campaign when Americans got to celebrate victory for their efforts, COVID has no end. Just more hysterics and new, moving metrics from masks to shots to booster shots and back to masks again. There will be no ticker tape parades celebrating the end of the war on COVID. Unlike World War II, Americans aren’t of a shared mind or goal. Hell, the goal isn’t known or understood or even achievable.

Most Americans initially got their COVID shots in good faith over the last year thinking they were doing their part to stop the spread and keep themselves well just as they did with vaccines for polio, mumps, rubella, etc. I’ve had those vaccines and so have my kids. But we didn’t all still get mumps, rubella, and polio afterward. That was kind of the deal when my kids were screaming their heads off as toddlers at the clinic. A one and done thing. Maybe a booster as teens or adults, but that’s it.

The COVID shot isn’t that.

Simply stopping to ask questions or deciding to wait leads to shaming from your relatives, your friends, and even some family doctors. A future Hall of Fame football star was treated worse than an accused witch from Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 simply because he didn’t want a shot. At least those women got a trial before their convictions by the unscientific, panicky lunatics of their era.

Those of us who’ve endured COVID, never had a shot and lived to tell the story still aren’t well known even though there’s millions of us. It might surprise you to learn the CDC has no meaningful study of the lasting effects of our natural immunity. Nor do they keep any studies related to spread among that same group.

Wouldn’t that be something we’d all like to know? Given the unbelievably high number of breakthrough cases in Europe and in states like Vermont where the overwhelming majority of folks have had the shot – wouldn’t we benefit from a study of a control group which has successfully battled it without medicine?

“The Ottawa Senators Have a 100% Vaccination Rate – and 40% of the Team Has Tested Positive for Covid” screamed a recent Wall Street Journal headline. “…even with blanket immunization, pandemic disruptions are far from over” they reported. Included in the story was a subtle suggestion we should all be nervous as we host our own indoor holiday parties no matter our vaccination status.

Huh? What are we doing? What sense does any of this make? When will the “shut up and get the shot” cult admit what we know is true. This isn’t working as sold. There are a great many therapeutics working very well and more coming online. In the overwhelming majority of cases, no one diagnosed with COVID needs to die or even see the inside of a hospital – shot or not. Virtually no child will be severely infected.

https://townhall.com/columnists/chrisstigall/2021/11/18/covid-vaccines-are-shots-in-the-dark-n2599281

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OSHA Suspends the Implementation and Enforcement of Biden's Vaccine Mandate

After a series of court rulings halting President Joe Biden's vaccination mandate for private companies, OSHA has officially suspended the implementation and enforcement of the requirement. The mandate was scheduled to go into effect January 4, 2022.

"On November 12, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a motion to stay OSHA's COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard, published on November 5, 2021 (86 Fed. Reg. 61402) ("ETS"). The court ordered that OSHA 'take no steps to implement or enforce' the ETS 'until further court order,'" the OSHA website states. "While OSHA remains confident in its authority to protect workers in emergencies, OSHA has suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the ETS pending future developments in the litigation."

After a lawsuit was filed by a number of state Attorneys General, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay on November 6, 2021, and said the mandate has "grave statutory and constitutional issues."

The stay was then upheld.

The White House has maintained the mandate is constitutional. President Biden has told employers and companies to ignore the court ruling and proceed with implementation.

The White House on Monday said businesses should move forward with President Joe Biden’s vaccine and testing requirements for private businesses, despite a federal appeals court ordering a temporary halt to the rules.

“People should not wait,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during a briefing. “They should continue to move forward and make sure they’re getting their workplace vaccinated.”

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2021/11/17/after-court-rulings-osha-will-pause-implementation-of-vaccine-requirements-n2599230

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IN BRIEF

Imagine that: DOJ whistleblower documents suggest Merrick Garland lied about the targeting of parents as domestic terrorists (The Federalist)

Pro-open-border spending bill drops key child tax credit requirement that could pay out billions to illegal immigrants (Fox News)

Swamp Doctor Anthony Fauci decries “misplaced perception” about individual rights superseding “societal safety” (RealClearPolitics)

Even the ACLU says FBI raid of Project Veritas founder O'Keefe’s home threat to “press freedom” (Just the News)

Surge in fentanyl seizures show cartels taking advantage of lax border policies (Free Beacon)

Adding insult to injury: Welcome packet reveals concierge travel service for illegals courtesy of nonprofits (Just the News)

Tone-deaf DHS chief Alejandro Mayorkas: “I give myself an A for effort” (Washington Times)

Not good enough: Biden administration to announce a diplomatic boycott of 2022 Beijing Olympics (OutKick)

Sailors who choose not to be vaccinated will absurdly be discharged (Fox News)

Washington, DC, to relax masking. Is the end in sight? (National Review)

Janet Yellen: U.S. could default soon after December 15 (The Hill)

Cost of Thanksgiving Dinner rises twice as fast as wages (Daily Signal)

Good: School places professor on leave after interview defending “minor-attracted persons” (Fox News)

Washington, DC, murder rate hits 16-year high (National Review)

Only 32% plan to drive on Thanksgiving, citing fuel costs (Washington Times)

Pulpit panic: Half of Protestant clerics looking for exits (Washington Times)

House Freedom Caucus elects Scott Perry as new chairman (The Hill)

“What on earth is happening right now?” Video surfaces of Jen Psaki two years ago laughing at Joe Biden’s gaffes (Not the Bee)

Certification of controversial Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline suspended by Germany (AP)

Canada’s chief health officer says Christmas caroling is too dangerous and that people should open their windows during holiday gatherings (Not the Bee)

Policy: How the Federal Reserve keeps stoking inflation (The Federalist)

Policy: American companies must stop helping China become a military powerhouse (The Federalist)

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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)

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How effective are Covid boosters? British findings

Since September all over-50s and the clinically vulnerable – 32million Britons in total – have been eligible for third doses. Yesterday this was extended to all those aged 40 to 49, an extra eight million, who can book their jabs from Monday. Individuals can only have their booster dose once six months has passed since their second.

How effective are boosters?

They are incredibly effective at topping up immunity, slashing the risk of infection by an extra 80 per cent compared with not having a booster. They are also likely to offer even greater protection against hospitalisation and death.

Yesterday the UK Health Security Agency published the first real-world data on protection offered by boosters, based on the cases of 271,000 over-50s. Two weeks after receiving a booster dose, protection against symptomatic infection increases to 94 per cent. This reverses the decline in protection six months after the second dose, when it drops to 44 per cent for the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab and 63 per cent for the Pfizer jab.

Since September all over-50s and the clinically vulnerable ¿ 32million Britons in total ¿ have been eligible for third doses (stock image) +2
Since September all over-50s and the clinically vulnerable – 32million Britons in total – have been eligible for third doses (stock image)

Will under-40s get boosters?

Given the remarkable success of boosters at slashing the risk of infection, it seems likely that other age groups will soon be offered boosters as well. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation are monitoring data to see if immunity is waning in under-40s, and will make a recommendation in due course.

Will I need my booster to travel abroad?

Boris Johnson said third doses will soon be added to the NHS Covid App and be essential to go abroad without the need to quarantine. However, this is unlikely to be implemented until next summer.

The Prime Minister yesterday warned 'storm clouds' of infection are gathering over Europe, forcing nations back into restrictions, with the concern Britain could be next. Officials are also worried about record pressures on the NHS, with the ambulance service in particular in crisis. Ministers believe boosters are vital to prevent a hospitalisations surge that could topple the NHS this winter.

How many people have had boosters?

The programme got off to a slow start but is now accelerating, with record numbers delivered last week. So far 12.8million people in the UK have had boosters out of around 20million who are eligible. About two thirds of eligible over-50s have had their booster, rising to three quarters of eligible over-75s. But this means millions remain vulnerable as their immunity wanes.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10206229/How-effective-Covid-boosters-need-one-travel-abroad.html

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Vaccinated people are still in danger

I've been following practically every development on this god-forsaken thing for nearly two years now. Two freaking years! And there is nothing more obvious to me than the fact that the government's touted savior, aka the vаccine, is not doing what it's supposed to.

That's not just my opinion either, this was even recently admitted by Dr. Anthony Fauci himself.

Yahoo reported:

On Nov. 12, White House CΟVID adviser Anthony Fauci, MD, went on The New York Times’ podcast The Daily to discuss the current state of the coronavirus in the U.S. According to Fauci, officials are now starting to see some waning immunity against both infection and hospitalization several months after initial vaccination. The infectious disease expert pointed toward incoming data from Israel, which he noted tends to be about a month to a month and a half ahead of us in terms of the outbreak.

“They are seeing a waning of immunity not only against infection but against hospitalization and to some extent death, which is starting to now involve all age groups. It isn’t just the elderly,” Fauci said. “It’s waning to the point that you’re seeing more and more people getting breakthrough infections, and more and more of those people who are getting breakthrough infections are winding up in the hospital.”

As a result of these findings, Fauci warned that vaccinated people should get their booster shot, as it might actually be more important than health officials first realized. “If one looks back at this, one can say, do you know, it isn’t as if a booster is a bonus, but a booster might actually be an essential part of the primary regimen that people should have,” he said on The Daily.

Fauci went on to say, “I think … that the boosting is gonna be an absolutely essential component of our response, not a bonus, not a luxury, but an absolute essential part of the program.”

https://steadfastclash.com/the-latest/dr-fauci-admits-what-we-all-know-about-the-v%d0%b0ccine-says-v%d0%b0ccinated-are-in-great-danger-today-video/

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Little Evidence Supports Use of Cloth Masks to Limit Spread of Coronavirus: Analysis

Cloth masks are of little use against COVID-19, according to a recently published analysis.

While federal health authorities and a slew of jurisdictions require or recommend wearing masks as a way to limit the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, a trio of researchers pored over the studies often cited by the officials and found they were poorly designed and offered scant evidence in support of mask usage.

Many of the studies are observational, opening them up to confounding variables, the researchers said in their analysis (pdf), which was published on Nov. 8 by the Cato Institute.

Of 16 randomized controlled trials comparing mask effectiveness to controls with no masks, 14 failed to find a statistically significant benefit, the researchers said. And of 16 quantitative meta-analyses, half showed weak evidence of mask effectiveness, while the others “were equivocal or critical as to whether evidence supports a public recommendation of masks,” they said.

“The biggest takeaway is that more than 100 years of attempts to prove that masks are beneficial has produced a large volume of mostly low-quality evidence that has generally failed to demonstrate their value in most settings,” Dr. Jonathan Darrow, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and one of the researchers, told The Epoch Times in an email.

“Officials mulling mask recommendations should turn their attention to interventions with larger and more certain benefits, such as vaccines. Based on the evidence currently available, masks are mostly a distraction from the important work of promoting public health.”

One study (pdf) that’s widely cited by mask proponents, of rural villages in Bangladesh, found that surgical masks appeared to be marginally effective in reducing symptomatic COVID-19 but that cloth masks weren’t, Darrow and his colleagues noted. The other real-world randomized controlled trial examining mask effectiveness, conducted in Denmark, didn’t find a statistically significant difference in infections between the masked and unmasked groups.

“The remainder of the available clinical evidence is primarily limited to non-randomized observational data, which are subject to confounding,” the researchers said, including accounting for other differences in behavior among those who don’t wear masks.

They did note evidence that masks reduce droplet dispersion, although cloth masks are unlikely to capture the particles even if worn properly.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers can’t wait for higher-quality evidence to support masking, but from an ethical standpoint, they should “refrain from portraying the evidence as stronger than it actually is,” the researchers concluded.

Some outside experts’ views align with the researchers, including Dr. Martin Kulldorff, senior scientific director of the Brownstone Institute.

“The truth is that there has been only two randomized trials of masks for COVID. One was in Denmark, which showed that they might be slightly beneficial, they might be slightly harmful, we don’t really know—the confidence interval kind of crossed zero,” he said. “And then there was another study from Bangladesh where they randomized villagers to masks or no masks. And the efficacy of the masks for reduction of COVID was something between zero and 18 percent.

“So either no effect or very minuscule effect.”

Some experts, though, say the existing evidence does support masking recommendations, and several reacted strongly to the new analysis.

The analysis drew some pushback, including from Kimberly Prather, director of the National Science Foundation Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment. Prather noted on Twitter that researchers say masks reduce the amount of virus in the air and believes that runs counter to their conclusions.

Darrow responded by saying the amount of virus in the air was a surrogate, not a clinical endpoint.

“The amount of pathogen in air (to be inhaled) directly determines the dose. This is directly linked to risk,” Prather said. “Or can you explain how less virus in the air could be higher risk? It’s equivalent to saying that less pathogen in drinking water is higher risk so don’t filter water.”

“If the theory diverges from what you see in real life, which one do you believe?” Darrow said.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/little-evidence-supports-use-of-cloth-masks-to-limit-spread-of-coronavirus-analysis_4102824.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)

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CDC makes surprising admission about unvaccinated spreading Covid after recovering from virus

The Center for Disease Control is the United States’ go-to source for critical advice.

However, these trusted medical professionals have wavered and wobbled on policy mandates so often, no one trusts them anymore. It’s with good reason. One key question about this pandemic centers around the immunity gained by those who have recovered from COVID.

No one at the CDC, or within the liberal news media, will discuss it. Anyone wanting to gauge their need for a COVID vaccination, based on any degree of natural protection, must dig for data.

As breakthrough cases of C?VID infiltrate the v?ccinated population, another question has arisen. The CDC says that v?ccinated and unvaccinated people should keep wearing masks. Their reasoning is that despite being protected from severe medical consequences, vaccinated people can still infect others.

But why is no one willing to openly talk about those who have gained natural COVID immunity? Is it possible for someone with natural COVID immunity to contract and then spread the virus? A New York attorney is pushing this same question.

In a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) filled in September, this attorney asked for specific documents. He wanted to know if any unvaccinated individual, who had acquired COVID immunity from having it, had transmitted SARS CoV-2 to another person when reinfected.

The response that the attorney received from the CDC might surprise you. The CDC said, “A search of our records failed to reveal any documents pertaining to your request. The CDC Emergency Operation Center (EOC) conveyed that this information is not collected.”

The next logical question would seem to be, “why not”? Why is the leading agency for infectious diseases not keeping infection data across all spectra of the pandemic? Or is it just that the CDC doesn’t warrant any aspect of natural immunity to be of value.

But the CDC consistently doubles down on how it’s only acquired via population v?ccination percentages. No one will talk openly about the wealth of studies which have shown natural immunity to multiple times more effective than the v?ccination.

If people begin to realize that if they’re healthy, they can get COVID and recover. People will begin to live their lives without a fear of reprisal for being one of the “unvaccinated”. When people understand they may not need a vaccination, that’s like thumbing their nose at Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates.

https://steadfastclash.com/the-latest/cdc-makes-surprising-admission-about-unv%d0%b0ccinated-spreading-c%ce%bfvid-after-recovering-from-virus/

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Are rare vaccine reactions being brushed off by doctors?

A disturbing report from Australia

Dan Petrovic describes himself as an avid “pro-vaxxer” who has long advocated vaccines to his more hesitant friends – so it was a “comedy twist” when he was the one who suffered a rare side effect.

The marketing executive, 42, spent six weeks after his second Pfizer shot with constant chest pains, which his GP ultimately said was likely a mild case of pericarditis, or inflammation of the lining around the heart.

On September 18, four days after his jab, Mr Petrovic began to feel unwell while watching TV. “I can’t lean to the left side, I feel a bit short of breath,” he said. “It’s just like constant pain and palpitations. It doesn’t go away. Imagine enduring six weeks of that.”

Mr Petrovic, the managing director of search engine marketing firm Dejan, said he was bemused that for “six weeks of pain, they classify it as subtle and mild”. “This wasn’t a little bit of pain, this hits really hard and it was lingering for a long time,” he said.

“It’s a debilitating condition – can’t work, can’t walk, can’t walk up and down the stairs, can’t play with my daughter.”

After weeks of “ping pong” between appointments and $3000 in medical costs, he has now largely recovered with only a “little bit of pain” once a week.

While he still doesn’t regret taking the vaccine, Mr Petrovic says one thing concerns him. Neither his cardiologist nor his GP would submit an adverse event report to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

After his experience, he fears that the TGA, which monitors adverse vaccine reactions, may not be getting the full picture. “I asked my doctor, ‘Are you going to submit this to the TGA as suspected pericarditis?’” Mr Petrovic said. “He said, ‘You can go online to do it. I’m too busy.’”

Similarly, his cardiologist, having ruled out more serious myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart itself, would not submit a report as he didn’t “see any damage” on his scans.

“Shouldn’t this be mandatory for medical practitioners?” Mr Petrovic said. “There’s a big difference between a doctor report and a patient self-report. I cannot make a medical diagnosis, I’m not a practitioner.”

He did submit his own, which now appears in the Database of Adverse Event Notifications – the TGA’s anonymised list of raw, unconfirmed reports – but it’s unclear whether his case is included in the regulator’s overall numbers of pericarditis.

“My problem is that I have absolutely zero visibility into how my submission of an adverse effect has been treated, collected, processed and classified,” he said.

In its weekly safety report, the TGA lists cases assessed as “likely” myocarditis, as well as a larger number that are “suspected”.

Among likely cases, those classified as “level one” are “confirmed to be myocarditis based on strong clinical evidence including the patient’s symptoms, and results of tests and imaging”.

Mr Petrovic stresses he is still a strong supporter of vaccination against Covid-19. “The pamphlet was saying [the risk of rare heart inflammation] is one in 100,000 – even if it was one in 10,000 I would have gone ahead and done it anyway,” he said. “I was willing to accept the risk to protect the community.”

But he is concerned – from a data perspective – about what appears to be a lack of rigorous protocols for medical practitioners to report adverse events.

“I believe every doctor, every medical professional, when a patient complains of a complication after a vaccine, they should make a report,” he said.

Even if the doctor is not 100 per cent convinced the reaction is connected to the vaccine, he argues, the TGA should still be receiving this “dirty data”.

“I don’t appreciate working with bad data,” he said. “Bad data means bad science. To me that’s not OK. In my profession I work with data – if I have bad data I make bad decisions for clients, and that’s just marketing. In health there is an even bigger responsibility.”

Mr Petrovic worries that people being brushed off by health practitioners only fuels mistrust and conspiracy theories. “The public cannot lose trust and confidence in science and the scientific method,” he said.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/too-busy-are-rare-vaccine-reactions-being-brushed-off-by-doctors/news-story/043bc0eadc5e15aa17a94ea6e3362130

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Biden Vax Mandate Thwarted Again

The American people have been very clear in recent months in regard to their feelings about the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. You see, this is a nation of bodily autonomy, and there is no love for the idea that the federal government could or should mandate what we put into our bodies.

This is why the White House’s vaccine mandate has been such an irreparably opposed issue, not only from a public standpoint, but from a legal one as well.

A federal appeals court in New Orleans has halted the Biden administration’s vaccine or testing requirement for private businesses, delivering another political setback to one of the White House’s signature public health policies.

Their ruling appeared to be fairly common sense.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, helmed by one judge who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and two others who were appointed by President Donald Trump, issued the ruling Friday, after temporarily halting the mandate last weekend in response to lawsuits filed by Republican-aligned businesses and legal groups.

Calling the requirement a “mandate,” the court said the rule, instituted through the Labor Department, “grossly exceeds OSHA’s statutory authority,” according to the opinion, written by Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt and joined by Judges Edith H. Jones and Stuart Kyle Duncan.

“Rather than a delicately handled scalpel, the Mandate is a one-size fits-all sledgehammer that makes hardly any attempt to account for differences in workplaces (and workers) that have more than a little bearing on workers’ varying degrees of susceptibility to the supposedly ‘grave danger’ the Mandate purports to address,” they wrote.

This certainly isn’t the first time that the Biden vaccine mandate has been under litigious criticism, and there is little doubt that it also won’t be the last.

https://flagandcross.com/biden-vax-mandate-thwarted-again-this-time-by/

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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)

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Getting Through the Next Six Months of COVID

By Thomas T. Siler, Jr., MD

As we finish 18 months of COVID-19 pandemic, what will we see in the next six months? There will be a massive push to get everyone vaccinated with more battles and punishments for noncompliance. Government, public health authorities, the media, and big pharma will lead the charge. Experimental vaccination will be pushed because those in power can feel their narrative of fear slipping away and they don't have much time left to push the vaccines.

People are beginning to realize that COVID-19 is not extremely dangerous to the healthy below age 70. Cases and deaths are going down in spite of attempts to inflate cases with faulty tests and inflate deaths with a faulty definition of who dies from COVID-19. More people are understanding that Dr. Fauci was involved with the creation of the virus in Wuhan and is not telling the truth.

Many states are doing better with no lockdowns, masking, or vaccine mandates. The understanding is growing that the experimental vaccines do not prevent infection or transmission of the now prevalent Delta variant.

Breakthrough infections and possible vaccine injury are now showing that even the fully vaccinated can be hospitalized and die. Sweden, England, and Israel report that the vaccinated have more serious illness and death. The vaccinated who thought getting their two shots would be the end of it, are realizing they will be fired from their job if they don't take booster #3, #4, #5, etc.

People are beginning to realize that mRNA vaccine safety is not as good as they were told. If children are vaccinated (not a good idea) it is likely there will be more vaccine injuries than any prevention of illness and death from COVID-19. Information is coming out about safe ways to treat COVID-19 early and thus avoid hospitalization with Ivermectin and monoclonal antibodies.

Our country needs a change in strategy to get through the next six months regarding COVID-19 measures. It is obvious now that more vaccination will not end COVID-19 and is not necessary to get us to herd immunity. More vaccination into the pandemic will lead to more variants and endless boosters that have not worked well and have side effects.

The shift that needs to be made is away from universal vaccination as the only answer and toward early treatment. COVID-19 will become endemic (sporadic cases without massive spikes) and both the unvaccinated and vaccinated need to be ready to treat those cases. Unfortunately, our public health authorities, the mainstream media, the medical community, and the pharmaceutical companies are not going to lead this change. We, the people, must lead this change.

So how to survive the winter of 2021-22? Remember, I am a doctor, but I am not your doctor. All these recommendations must be taken to your doctor for actual treatment. Do not treat yourself at home based only on what I say!

If you have already had a COVID-19 infection you do not have to worry. Studies from Israel show it is very unlikely you could catch COVID-19 again.

I would not get the vaccine as there are some observational studies that say you might be at more risk for side effects from the vaccine and you are protected from COVID-19 anyway -- your natural immunity is the best defense.

If you are not vaccinated for whatever reason, you can be ready to treat yourself at home especially if you are at high risk.

If you are fully vaccinated (whatever that means now), please don't be complacent and believe you are protected completely. Look at the studies cited above and be ready to treat yourself at home. Please investigate the side effects that are being seen with the vaccines currently, before you take more boosters.

Those who choose to treat at home must get their medicine before they get sick. There can be long waits now for oral medications that, unfortunately, are not readily available in the United States.

Consider these protocols from Frontline Critical Care Alliance :

1) Have a conversation with your primary care doctor about treatment of COVID-19. If you were ill with COVID-19, would he/she treat you with Ivermectin?

There are over 60 studies on the flccc.net website showing that Ivermectin works and is the favored early treatment right now. If they would not, then I would find a way to get this medication in your house before you get ill. America's Frontline doctors and Dr. Stella Emmanuel can help you with a phone visit and mail order pharmacy.

Frontline Critical Care Alliance has a list of doctors in your area that prescribe Ivermectin. Vladamir Zelenko has treatment and prevention protocols on his website. Ivermectin is available over the counter in many countries. If you know someone traveling or living overseas, they may be able to get it for you.

Again, take this only under a doctor's care and supervision. If you decide not to take this oral treatment early, then call your doctor when you get ill with COVID-19 and get monoclonal antibody IV for treatment. This outpatient IV treatment can reduce your symptoms and chances of being in the hospital with very few side effects. Treatment is not with Ivermectin alone but can include:

2) Make sure your Vitamin D level is good before you get ill. Several studies show Vitamin D can help your immune system fight off COVID-19.

Your doctor can check this level with a blood test. Vitamin D 5,000 units a day for a week if you get ill.

3) Vitamin C 1,000-2,000 mg daily for a week when ill

4) Aspirin 325 mg a day provided no other contraindications (talk with your doctor) when ill

5) Melatonin 10 mg at bedtime (may make you drowsy) for a week when ill

6) Zinc 100 mg a day for a week when ill

7) Anti-viral mouthwash from provodine-iodine or others

8) Quercetin 250 mg a.m. and p.m. (may interact with Ivermectin check with your doctor). Full protocols on flccc.net.

Other second and third-line medications can be used under a doctor’s care.

Take charge of your medical care and don't walk in fear of COVID-19!

Despite what you have heard from the "experts," COVID-19 is treatable early in the disease course.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/11/getting_through_the_next_six_months_of_covid.html

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New cases surge in most vаccinаted state in the country

There are a handful of states that have very high vаccination rates in our country and at the top of the list is the state of Vermont. With that being the case, I have a question...

Knowing this fact, how does one explain the massive surge in new cases in the state of Vermont? And when I say a surge, I'm talking about new highs, even higher than last summer or winter.

In Vermont, nearly 72% of residents are fully vаccinated against CΟVID-19 — more than any other state, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. At the same time, it has the 12th-highest rate of new CΟVID-19 cases over the last week, state data released Tuesday shows.

Vermont has seen a “significant” increase in CΟVID-19 cases in the past week, Mike Pieciak, commissioner of the state’s Department of Financial Regulation, said during a press briefing Tuesday.

The seven-day average for CΟVID-19 cases rose 42% as of Tuesday, according to state data. Vermont does more testing than nearly any other state, though testing only increased 9% during the same period. The statewide positivity rate also increased 30%, with the seven-day average positivity rate just under 4%. The number of new cases increased by nearly 700 in the past week, state officials said Tuesday.

https://steadfastclash.com/the-latest/new-cases-surge-in-us-state-in-most-v%d0%b0ccin%d0%b0ted-in-the-country/

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Missouri Governor Considering Unemployment for People Fired for Refusing COVID-19 Vaccines

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said his administration is considering providing unemployment benefits for individuals who are fired over federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

“You see what Iowa just did,” Parson told news outlet The Center Square on Thursday. “I think we want to make sure civil rights or civil liberties are being exercised. If somebody has [a] religious conviction, we want to make sure that’s upheld … whatever that takes. And if it’s for health reasons, we want to include that, too.”

The Republican governor was referring to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Oct. 29 having signed a bill that guarantees state workers who are trying to obtain a medical or religious exemption to the vaccine the ability to get unemployment benefits if they’re fired for refusing the vaccine.

Parson stopped short of guaranteeing unemployment benefits for those who lost their jobs only because they declined vaccinations.

“If those people are going to lose their jobs, which I don’t think they should … but evidently there’s a little bit of a problem as to what everybody’s view is on those civil rights issues,” Parson said. “So we want to be prepared for that if they go down that road.”

Parson, whose administration has filed several lawsuits against federal vaccine mandates, said he believes it’s unfair that workers who made critical impacts during the early stages of the pandemic lose their jobs now due to their vaccination status.

“People have been out there for 18 months on the front lines and all of a sudden you’re going to say they’re not worthy do their jobs anymore is problematic,” the governor said. “I don’t care where they work or who they are because, during the heat of the battle, we won with them.”

The New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, rule targeting private businesses with 100 or more people. That rule, which was unveiled last week and goes into effect on Jan. 4, stipulates that workers at such firms either get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing and mask-wearing.

Dozens of states, so far, have filed legal challenges against the OSHA rule, which also would levy harsh penalties of thousands of dollars for each violation.

“While I would have much preferred that requirements not become necessary, too many people remain unvaccinated for us to get out of this pandemic for good. So I instituted requirements … and they are working,” President Joe Biden said in a statement explaining the mandate.

The Biden administration also handed down a mandate for companies with contracts with the federal government and healthcare facilities that receive any Medicare or Medicaid funding. Unlike the mandate for private businesses, those requirements do not have a weekly testing option.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/missouri-governor-considering-unemployment-for-people-fired-for-refusing-covid-19-vaccines_4101529.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)

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Note

I have just put up on my Food & Health blog a report that stymies the food freaks



Sweden again charts novel COVID path with no-test stance for the vaccinated

Sweden has seen a sharp decline in COVID-19 testing this month, just as much of Europe contends with surging infection rates, after its health agency said vaccinated Swedes no longer need get tested even if they have symptoms of the disease.

The stance by the health agency has rekindled criticism the country has once again broken ranks with its neighbours and has led to some of Sweden's regions no longer providing free testing for all.

COVID-19 testing fell by 35% last week compared to a month earlier. That places Sweden in the bottom of the European Union along with countries like Germany, Spain, Poland and Finland, according to Our World in Data.

The health agency argues the resources for testing could be better used elsewhere and that there is no need to test those who are fully vaccinated as they have a low risk of getting sick and are less likely to spread the disease.

However, the timing of the decision, just as Europe is heading in to the winter season, has baffled some scientists. One recent newspaper column said, "Sweden is once again in the dark" about the spread and ability to break disease chains.

"The number of cases is low in Sweden, but considering how the outside world looks like with lots of cases in Europe, I think you should have waited with this decision," said Anders Sonnerborg, professor in clinical virology and infectious diseases at Karolinska Institutet.

"I have a hard time seeing that waiting a few months would be a major intervention in people's lives," he said.

Health Agency official Sara Byfors on Thursday defended the decision saying testing would still be at high enough level to catch trends and that testing had never caught all cases.

"If we see that the spread of infection increases and that it becomes a problem then we are prepared to reverse our decision," she told a news conference.

The number of hospitalizations and patients treated at intensive care units have started to creep up in recent weeks but are still the lowest in the European Union per capita, according to Our World in Data.

Sweden's handling of the pandemic has stood out, shunning lockdowns throughout the health crisis and instead relying on voluntary measures based on social distancing and good hygiene.

The country's number of deaths per capita since the start of the pandemic is several times higher than those among Nordic neighbours but also lower than in most European countries that opted for strict lockdowns.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/sweden-again-charts-novel-covid-path-with-no-test-stance-for-the-vaccinated/ar-AAQATjZ?ocid=chromentpnews

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Thousands of people died needlessly from COVID-19 because Fauci and Birx stuck to 'irrational' lockdown policies rather than protecting the most vulnerable, medical specialist says in new book

Strict lockdowns pushed by White House advisers Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx failed to stop the vulnerable dying from COVID-19, while families suffered and children lost out on their education, according to a forthcoming book by Trump adviser Dr. Scott Atlas.

And the former Stanford radiologist offers an unsparing account of dysfunction and political paralysis that allowed Trump's two most high-profile scientific advisers to publicly contradict the president and hijack the response.

'A Plague Upon Our House: My Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from Destroying America,' is published on November 23 by Bombardier.

'People were dying from the virus, and the lockdown policies were not preventing the deaths,' he writes in a copy obtained by DailyMail.com

'The simple logic of assuming you could stop the spread of, and some said eliminate, a highly contagious virus by shutting down society after millions had been infected was worse than nonsensical.

'The idea of stopping all businesses and closing schools while quarantining healthy young people at little risk from a disease in order to protect those aged seventy and over - that is simply irrational.'

His account will reignite some of the most contentious debates of the past year over how to handle COVID-19, and attract fresh accusations that he is peddling misinformation.

Although the U.S. has made progress with vaccinations, the death toll is still ticking up and currently stands at more than three quarters of a million people.

Atlas was a divisive and controversial figure as soon as he was brought into the White House in August last year, apparently as a bulwark to the influence of Fauci and Birx.

Critics said he was appointed more for his appearances on Fox News than any infectious disease expertise he would have picked up as a radiologist.

He had already published essays arguing that lockdowns were harming public health through their impacts on missed medical appointments, the harm of school closures, mental health effects and other negative outcomes.

And his book describes how he repeatedly clashed with Birx and Fauci - the public face of the White House response. Not only were their lockdowns harming the economy, he says, but they failed to protect America's most vulnerable people.

'By the time I arrived, lockdowns had already been implemented throughout the country for months—including strict business restrictions and school closures as well as quarantines of healthy, asymptomatic people,' he writes.

'Those lockdowns were continually pushed, successfully, by Drs. Fauci and Birx to nearly all governors and throughout the media. 'Those policies - the Birx-Fauci lockdowns - were widely implemented, and they were destroying America’s children and families.

'Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of deaths kept piling up, including tens of thousands of elderly Americans - their policies were in place and were failing.'

Throughout, he portrays his role as critical thinker, asking awkward questions of the conventional wisdom while his opponents sought to block the president's wishes.

Why, he asks, were scientists developing and promoting White House policy when their role should have been to offer advice and expertise to the nation's elected leaders.

Instead, Atlas says he pushed for reopening coupled with shielding of those at risk.

Testing and isolating healthy people, he said, was a waste of time and resources, and compounded a culture of fear.

Leaks quickly suggested he was pushing for a policy of 'herd immunity,' essentially by letting the virus spread until the level of natural immunity meant the coronavirus had nowhere left to go.

He denies that is what he was proposing, instead describing how he once described the principle of 'herd immunity' in a meeting. 'Not once did I advocate allowing infections to spread - not in that meeting nor in any other meeting, and never to the president,' he says.

Throughout, he expresses frustration that the White House coronavirus task force was dominated by the views of Fauci and Birx - even as they advocated policies that contradicted Trump's stated desire to reopen schools and businesses.

Trump's inner circle, he writes, seemed reluctant to rock the boat and reduce the power of two advisers that were popular with the public ahead of the election.

'They had let Birx and Fauci tell governors to prolong the lockdowns and school closures and continue the severe restrictions on businesses - strategies that failed to stop the elderly from dying, failed to stop the cases, and destroyed families and sacrificed children,' he writes.

'The closest advisers to the president, including the VP, seemed more concerned with politics, even though the task force was putting out the wrong advice, contrary to the president’s desire to reopen schools and businesses.'

The result, he says, was dangerous and confusing mixed messaging from the White House.

Atlas resigned in November, shortly before his term was due to end.

Since then Fauci has been a target of Republicans, who accuse him of flip-flopping in his recommendations and of misleading the public over 'gain-of-function' research that they say may have triggered the pandemic.

Both have been unstinting in their criticism of Atlas.

In recent closed-door testimony to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, Birx accused Atlas of using incomplete information to draw dangerous conclusions.

'I was constantly raising the alert in the doctors’ meetings of the depth of my concern about Dr. Atlas’ position, Dr. Atlas’ access, Dr. Atlas’ theories and hypothesis, and the depths and breadths of my concern,' she said.

She also confirmed that she refused to attend meetings where he would be present.

'I felt like by my presence and my discussions with him, by even legitimizing my responses to him, that I was giving his theories credibility,' she said

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10193133/People-died-COVID-19-Fauci-Birx-stuck-irrational-lockdown-policies-says-Atlas.html

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Nederland announces partial lockdown as cases surge past 16,000 a day

As of Saturday night, the Netherlands, following an announcement from Prime Minister Mark Rutte, will be plunged into a three-week partial lockdown.

Mr Rutte described it as “a very unpleasant message with very unpleasant and far-reaching decisions” but that it was necessary to “deliver a hard blow to the virus”.

The new restrictions are not a hard lockdown; shops and restaurants will stay open but must adhere to curfews as well as social distancing and vaccine certificates while four guests are still allowed in the home. Cinemas and theatres will remain fully open.

The country of nearly 18 million is at nearly 85 per cent fully-vaccinated among its adult population.

However, the Netherlands ditched most restrictions on September 15 when it had only achieved a 77 per cent vaccination rate among eligible adults. It dumped social distancing and functioned as normal, albeit with vaccine certificates required for entry into most places.

The Saturday announcement makes it the first Western European country to descend back into lockdown for the winter.

Other European countries are following similar trajectories, however, with Denmark and Austria also having to reintroduce restrictions to some parts of society.

https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/closures/netherlands-announces-partial-lockdown-as-cases-surge-past-16000-a-day/news-story/d1ddf4ef94edc2ea6b96e25aee47be1e

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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)

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Dying of COVID or with it? Pathologists take on conspiracy theorists

This is all very well but relies on all involved medical personnel as acting with complete propriety. Where an autopsy or a CT scan has been conducted there can be no doubt of the diagnosis.

But how often are autopsy or CT scan results available? In a busy emergency ward such procedures can easily be omitted. The cases of people dying in accidents who are said to be covid victims cast a particularly troublesome light upon the rigor of covid diagnoses. Are such diagnoses invariably accompanied by an autopsy or scan? It seems unlikely.

The authors below are talking about best practice but the issue is how often best practice is followed. There are good reasons to believe that it often is not

Conspiracy theorists claim doctors are inflating the pandemic’s death toll by putting COVID-19 on the death certificate of everyone who died with the virus. But – the theory goes – they didn’t die from COVID, they died with COVID.

But the head of pathology at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine has autopsied dozens of patients with COVID-19.

And on her table, she says, the signs of the virus are clear. “Absolutely, it is very obvious. The post-mortem CT [scan] changes are striking. The appearances of their lungs in the autopsy rooms are striking.”

The claim that COVID-19 death counts are over-inflated has been a regular go-to for conspiracy theorists and lockdown opponents throughout the pandemic.

A diverse group has promoted the idea, including former US president Donald Trump.

The claims are standard boiler-plate for conspiracy theorists, who often rally around the belief that powerful people in society are trying to deceive the public for their own benefit, says Mathew Marques, who lectures in social psychology at La Trobe University.

“Rarely is there a new conspiracy theory that is surprising, when they all follow the same structure or pattern – lay beliefs about a secretive group of often powerful actors engaging in a malevolent plot against a society,” he says.

In hospitals, it is easy to work out if a person has died from COVID-19 – they wouldn’t be in an ICU ward on a ventilator otherwise. The Institute of Forensic Medicine handles harder cases: people who died suddenly in the community while they had COVID-19.

In many cases, like car accidents, the cause of death is obvious. In others, it requires a lot more work. The team runs a computerised tomography (CT) scan, and then if needed conducts an autopsy.

The most obvious signs a person has died from COVID-19 – not with it – are seen in the lungs, says forensic radiologist Dr Chris O’Donnell.

On a CT scan, the lungs are typically a dark black void – the scanner’s representation of space filled with oxygen.

In people who die of COVID-19, “that air is completely replaced by inflammatory tissue that fills up the air sacs and stops the exchange of oxygen,” says Dr O’Donnell.

“They struggle to breathe and even when they do get a breath in, none of the air they breathe can get into their blood because their lungs are blocked full of this inflammatory tissue. They die of lack of oxygen.”

In the disease’s early stages, the CT scan shows the lungs clouding over with inflammatory tissue. Radiologists refer to this as “ground glass”.

In late-stage disease, the virus has completely filled the lungs with inflammatory tissue. “We call that a white-out, when there’s no air in the lung,” Dr O’Donnell says.

These cases are clear-cut and are added to the pandemic’s official death toll. But when it is clear after autopsy that COVID-19 did not contribute to death, they are not added, Dr O’Donnell says.

“That’s our role: to look into these cases more thoroughly. We’re working to find the real truth, whether people have died of COVID or whether it’s something else.”

https://www.smh.com.au/national/dying-of-covid-or-with-it-pathologists-take-on-conspiracy-theorists-20211111-p5982e.html

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Duke, UNC scientists identify new antibody for COVID-19 and variants

Only in mice so far but very hopeful

A research collaboration between scientists at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has identified and tested an antibody that limits the severity of infections from a variety of coronaviruses, including those that cause COVID-19 as well as the original SARS illness.

The antibody was identified by a team at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) and tested in animal models at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Researchers published their findings Nov. 2 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

“This antibody has the potential to be a therapeutic for the current epidemic,” said co-senior author Barton Haynes, M.D., director of DHVI. “It could also be available for future outbreaks, if or when other coronaviruses jump from their natural animal hosts to humans.”

Haynes and colleagues at DHVI isolated the antibody by analyzing the blood from a patient who had been infected with the original SARS-CoV-1 virus, which caused the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s, and from a current COVID-19 patient.

They identified more than 1,700 antibodies, which the immune system produces to bind at specific sites on specific viruses to block the pathogen from infecting cells. When viruses mutate, many binding cites are altered or eliminated, leaving antibodies ineffectual. But there are often sites on the virus that remain unchanged despite mutations. The researchers focused on antibodies that target these sites because of their potential to be highly effective across different lineages of a virus.

Of the 1,700 antibodies from the two individuals, the Duke researchers found 50 antibodies that had the ability to bind to both the SARS-CoV-1 virus as well as SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

Further analysis found that one of those cross-binding antibodies was especially potent – able to bind to a multitude of animal coronaviruses in addition to the two human-infecting pathogens.

“This antibody binds to the coronavirus at a location that is conserved across numerous mutations and variations,” Haynes said. “As a result, it can neutralize a wide range of coronaviruses.”

With the antibody isolated, the DHVI team turned to researchers at UNC who have expertise in animal coronaviruses. The UNC team, led by co-senior author Ralph S. Baric, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and microbiology and immunology at UNC-Chapel Hill, tested it in mice to determine whether it could effectively block infections, or minimize the infections that occurred.

They found that it did both. When given before the animals were infected, the antibody protected mice against developing SARS, COVID-19 and its variants such as Delta, and many animal coronaviruses that have the potential to cause human pandemics.

“The findings provide a template for the rational design of universal vaccine strategies that are variant-proof and provide broad protection from known and emerging coronaviruses,” Baric said.

When given after infections, the antibody reduced severe lung symptoms compared to animals that were not treated with the antibody.

“The therapeutic activity even after mice were infected suggests that this could be a treatment deployed in the current pandemic, but also stockpiled to prevent the spread of a future outbreak or epidemic with a SARS-related virus,” said David Martinez, Ph.D., a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Epidemiology at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

“This antibody could be harnessed to prevent maybe SARS-CoV-3 or SARS-CoV-4,” Martinez said.

https://uncnews.unc.edu/2021/11/02/covid-19-antibody/

Journal article: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abj7125

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AstraZeneca’s new Covid treatment: what is it and how does it work?

Australia’s drugs regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), has granted “provisional determination” to pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for a long-acting antibody cocktail which has shown promise in preventing Covid-19 in adults.

Provisional determination is an early step in the drugs approval process and means AstraZeneca can now submit further data to the TGA from human trials about how the treatment works and its safety. Once the TGA has scrutinised the data, and if it is satisfied with it, it may grant Evusheld “provisional approval” for use in Australia in limited circumstances. Further data must be collected and given to the TGA even if this occurs.

This treatment consists of two laboratory-made antibodies, tixagevimab and cilgavimab. These antibodies bind to the spike protein of the virus, stopping the virus from entering the body’s cells and causing an infection.

Because each of the antibodies attach to different parts of the protein, using them in combination may be more effective than using either alone. It is also hoped this will offer good protection against variants, since the virus would have to mutate in multiple ways to escape both antibodies’ actions.

Evusheld is being considered for use as a Covid-19 preventive in Australians aged 18 years and older. In August, AstraZeneca released the results of a trial of the treatment involving 5,197 participants from the US, UK, Spain, France and Belgium who did not have Covid-19. Seventy-five per cent of participants had comorbidities, including medical conditions that often mean vaccination is weak or ineffective. Two-thirds of participants received Evusheld, and the rest were given a placebo.

The trial found Evusheld reduced the risk of developing symptomatic Covid-19 by 77% compared to the placebo. There were no cases of severe Covid-19 or related deaths in those given Evusheld. In the placebo group, there were three cases of severe Covid-19, which included two deaths.

The results now need to be replicated more widely in further trials, which is why regulators such as the TGA require AstraZeneca to submit ongoing data.

Is it a vaccine?

No. A vaccine trains the body’s immune system to respond to the virus if a person becomes infected in the future. Evusheld provides antibodies directly to the body via two intra-muscular injections administered consecutively. It immediately targets and neutralises the virus, preventing the virus from entering cells and causing an infection in the first place.

If approved, Evusheld will be the first long-acting antibody available for Covid-19 prevention in vulnerable populations who are unable to mount an adequate immune response to the virus from vaccination alone, for example people with cancer, and some elderly people.

Associate Prof Nada Hamad, a haematologist in Sydney, said Evusheld and similar treatments under development are designed to fill a gap left by vaccines, and by antibody treatments like Sotrovimab.

Sotrovimab is given to people already diagnosed with Covid-19 who are at high risk of developing severe disease. Sotrovimab needs to be administered early after someone is diagnosed to be effective.

“But Sotrovimab is very short-acting,” Hamad said. “It just lasts as we wait for the virus to dissipate. Once you get over the virus, the treatment doesn’t hang around in your body.

“Evusheld is a longer-acting antibody, and the hope is it will prevent the infection.”

Clinical trials to date show Evusheld may provide six to 12 months of protection from the virus. This is significantly shorter than vaccines. Even though the protection offered by vaccines does slowly wane over time, they are still effective at preventing severe disease, death and hospitalisation months down the track.

“Evusheld and similar treatments being examined should be seen as a major advancement in protecting the very vulnerable, but not a vaccine alternative,” Hamad said.

Evusheld also takes longer to administer, is more expensive, needs to be given by a trained doctor or nurse, and patients may need longer monitoring afterwards than the 15 minutes required for a vaccine. It is not something that can be quickly given in a pharmacy or hub, so it is not ideal for widespread, fast rollout, Hamad said.

Plus, further data from ongoing trials is still needed, while the efficacy and safety of the vaccines are now well known.

Evusheld has also shown promise in preventing severe disease when given early as a treatment to those infected with Covid-19, similar to Sotrovimab.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/health/medical/astrazenecas-new-covid-treatment-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work/ar-AAQy0HJ

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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)

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