Australia: Hundreds of patients died after catching COVID in Victorian hospitals, new data shows

When Dean's* father was rushed to hospital with a bad case of gastro in February, he assumed he'd be back on his feet in a few days.

Instead, he caught COVID, probably in the emergency department at the Monash Medical Centre, a major hospital in Melbourne's south-east. His 79-year-old dad became so unwell, so quickly, that Dean — who visited him in the infectious diseases ward wearing an N95 mask — was terrified he wouldn't survive.

"He was as sick as I'd ever seen him," said Dean, who was shocked that his father's COVID infection seemed to trigger symptoms of Huntington's Disease, a neurodegenerative condition he'd been diagnosed with many years earlier. "I'd say it was very touch-and-go. I've seen people with cancer a few days before they've died, and there was a look in his eye and he was completely emaciated. He couldn't speak, couldn't communicate — he was just croaking."

Dean was also shocked that most of the hospital staff were wearing surgical masks, some on their chin. It bothered him, he said, because surgical masks are much less effective at preventing COVID transmission than N95 respirators. "No one seemed to give a hoot about protecting themselves or the patients," he said. "From what I know about COVID, I believe all the staff in an infectious diseases ward should be wearing respirators … the fact that it is not standard is just bamboozling."

But perhaps he shouldn't have been so surprised. For months doctors and public health experts have been warning that too many patients are catching COVID in Australian hospitals with sometimes devastating consequences — though timely statistics are difficult to access because health departments do not publish them.

Now, new data shows thousands of patients caught COVID in Victorian public hospitals in the past two years — and hundreds died — fuelling concerns that hospitals are not taking strong enough precautions against airborne viruses, and calls for stronger leadership from the Department of Health.

Almost one in 10 patients who caught COVID in hospital died
Documents obtained by ABC News under Freedom of Information laws reveal at least 6,212 patients caught COVID in hospital in 24 months — 3,890 in 2022 and 2,322 in 2023. Of those, 586 died — almost six per week, on average — with men dying at a higher rate than women (11 per cent vs 8 per cent).

Though hospital-acquired infections and deaths declined in 2023 — in line with COVID mortality trends in the broader community — the proportion of patients who died after catching the virus in hospital hardly budged, dropping from about 10 per cent in 2022 to about 9 per cent in 2023.

It comes following the release of new research that shows screening hospital patients for COVID and staff wearing N95 masks can substantially reduce infections and deaths, saving the health system potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in the long term. Experts say the findings should spark a paradigm shift in the way hospitals approach COVID infection prevention — that's if the latest indicators of illness and death don't.

Too many patients are catching COVID in hospitals, doctors say
Hospitals have become a strange new battleground in the fight against COVID, with doctors and public health experts concerned that too many patients are catching the virus — and an alarming number are dying — as a result of inadequate infection control.

"The numbers indicate that there is a big problem here — these infections and deaths are potentially preventable," said Associate Professor Suman Majumdar, chief health officer for COVID and health emergencies at the Burnet Institute. "We're talking about a specific setting where people are sicker, more vulnerable and more at risk. We need to drastically reduce the risk of people catching COVID in hospital when they don't come in with it. I think we can all agree we can do better — that should be the starting point."

Alarmingly, the proportion of hospitalised COVID patients who caught the virus in public hospitals was much higher last year than in 2022 — up from 13 per cent to 20 per cent, on average — coinciding with a reduction in COVID screening and healthcare worker mask use across the state. Most Victorian hospitals began scaling back infection prevention measures in late 2022, when pandemic public health orders were revoked.

Now, because hospitals determine their own COVID policies, there is wide variation in how they approach the issue. For instance, in the past fortnight several health services — including St Vincent's in Melbourne and Barwon Health — announced they were no longer requiring staff to wear masks in clinical areas because community transmission had fallen (the latest available data shows it's increasing). Others dropped masking and scaled back testing months ago, while some still insist on routine testing and surgical mask use in particular wards.

With golden staph, 'we aim for zero'

"There's no consistency between health services," said Stéphane Bouchoucha, president of the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control and associate professor in nursing at Deakin University. "And there doesn't seem to be leadership from the Department of Health, saying, 'We want to reduce COVID infections in healthcare, therefore … we need to do universal testing, we need to mandate N95 masks for healthcare workers'."

As for the number of people catching COVID in hospital, Dr Bouchoucha said: "I think any hospital acquired infection is concerning". There isn't an "acceptable" number of golden staph or tuberculosis infections — "we aim for zero", he said. "So why don't we do that with COVID?"

He's not the only one asking that question. Staphylococcus aureus or golden staph bloodstream infections can be life-threatening, which is why hospitals track and report them and aim to prevent them using hand hygiene strategies — it's part of hospital accreditation standards and there are targets in every state. But there are no targets or reporting requirements for COVID, Dr Majumdar said.

As a point of comparison, he said, there are about 600 staph aureus bacteraemia infections in Victoria each year, with a similar death rate to COVID hospital-acquired infections. "So why aren't we applying the same mindset and measures for airborne infections such as COVID and influenza?"

At the hospital level, there are several possible answers. Many health services, under huge financial pressure, have rolled back COVID mitigations to try and save money — sometimes against the advice of their own infection prevention leads. Many hospital executives also subscribe to the myth that COVID is "just a cold" and does not warrant taking serious action against, while others have acted on complaints that staff are "sick of wearing" masks.

"Many people are telling me they're tired of wearing masks and some patients are saying they're tired of seeing their carers in masks, as well," Professor Rhonda Stuart, director of public health and infection prevention at Monash Health, told staff at an employee forum in February.

Professor Stuart pointed to a UK study that found removing a surgical mask wearing policy in some hospital wards did not significantly affect the rate of nosocomial COVID infections, or those caught in hospital. "I think we're starting to see that possibly happening across Monash at the moment," she said — "that maybe masks aren't making the difference in hospital-acquired infections".

Testing and N95s save lives and money

But the findings of a new preprint study pose a serious challenge to that claim. For the study, researchers from the Burnet Institute and the Victorian Department of Health, which funded it, used a mathematical model to simulate outbreaks in a hospital with various combinations of interventions in place: different kinds of masks worn or admission testing performed.

They also calculated the statewide financial costs of each intervention — N95 vs surgical masks, PCR vs rapid antigen testing (RAT), and patient bed costs and staff absenteeism — as well as the health outcomes for infected patients.

How scientists are protecting themselves from COVID
Three of Australia's leading COVID-19 experts share their personal safety strategies and reflect on what must happen if we're to blunt the growing health crisis the pandemic is causing — and prepare for the next one.

The results were striking: compared to staff wearing surgical masks and not screening patients on admission, the combination of wearing N95 masks and testing patients using RATs was the cheapest, saving an estimated $78.4 million and preventing 1,543 deaths statewide per year. Staff wearing N95s and screening patients with PCR tests was the most effective option, saving $62.6 million and preventing 1,684 deaths per year.

In other words, testing and wearing N95s to detect and prevent COVID can save lives and money because it reduces the costs of keeping patients in hospital for longer and replacing furloughed staff.

"I think it provides a very persuasive rationale that doing small things to reduce infections can add up to big positive impacts and cost benefits," said Dr Majumdar, a co-author of the study. "It then becomes an issue of how practical it is for hospitals to implement these interventions and change behaviours. We know improving ventilation, testing and wearing masks has been effective during the pandemic, so I don't think there's an argument to say it's not feasible or not worth figuring out how to do."

The Victorian Department of Health did not respond directly to questions about whether it would be acting on the study's findings, or if it was comfortable with current rates of illness and death in hospitals. "Since the pandemic began we have assisted health services to respond to increased impacts of COVID-19 — a roadmap to guide hospital responses was introduced and has remained in place since June 2022," a Department spokesperson said. "Modelling is one of many tools used when developing and evaluating healthcare policy."

Managing 'masking fatigue'

But hospitals don't always follow that "roadmap". Associate Professor Caroline Marshall, head of the Royal Melbourne Hospital's Infection Prevention and Surveillance Service, said her hospital uses a "hierarchy of controls" to prevent COVID transmission — strategies honed in the grim early years of the pandemic when patients and staff were infected in dizzying numbers.

Today, every patient is screened for COVID on admission with a PCR test — which few hospitals still do. COVID patients are generally cared for in single-bed negative pressure rooms by staff in N95 masks. Air purifiers are stationed around the hospital, an old building with not-so-great ventilation.

"To me … any sort of nosocomial infection is a disaster," Dr Marshall said. "So we do our utmost and we're not always successful, but we do as much as we reasonably can [to prevent them] based on the evidence we have and the factors we have to take into account."

One of those factors is the impact of masking on healthcare workers, who Dr Marshall said are "sick of wearing" N95 respirators because they're uncomfortable. At the moment Royal Melbourne Hospital staff must wear surgical masks in clinical areas unless they're caring for COVID, transplant or haematology patients, when N95s are required.

The decision to use surgical masks is influenced by a few things, Dr Marshall said, including the prevalence of COVID in the community, the severity of circulating variants, population levels of immunity and a new tolerance for risk among staff. "If a staff member wants to wear one for whatever reason, they can," she said. "But I think the reality is, at a practical level, you cannot continue to get staff to wear N95 masks forever."

Other infection prevention control experts disagree. For Dr Bouchoucha, masking fatigue is a challenge to be "managed", not succumbed to — including because addressing healthcare workers' concerns about respirator use improves compliance and patient safety. "It's definitely something to take into account," he said. "But we can mitigate it."

Catching COVID made Ruby sick and derailed her care
Many patients feel similarly. When Ruby* caught COVID in hospital earlier this year, she was fully prepared to feel terrible for a few days — but she didn't expect it to completely derail the care she was there to receive.

Ruby was admitted to Upton House, the adult psychiatric unit at Box Hill Hospital, in late January after experiencing family violence and a decline in her mental health. When she tested positive to COVID a few days later, she wasn't surprised: other patients with COVID were allowed to roam freely through the ward without masks, she said, and staff were either in surgical masks — many "below their nose" — or no masks at all.

"It made me really sick," said Ruby, who suffered mostly from gastrointestinal symptoms, brain fog and low mood. "I was pissed off that I'd caught COVID but I didn't realise it would affect my care as much as it did, and I was really shocked at the drop-off in psychiatric support as soon as I had it."

The exterior sign of the Box Hill Hospital, underneath which a bush of white flowers blooms next to a concrete staircase.
Ruby wasn't surprised when she tested positive to COVID during her admission at Box Hill Hospital.(ABC News: Patrick Rocca)
A doctor who prescribed Ruby antivirals dramatically reduced her dose of psychiatric medication without consulting her, she said, which triggered unpleasant side effects. Having COVID also meant her psychiatrist visited her less frequently than he was supposed to, she said, and if she went to the nursing station to ask for paracetamol, she was instructed just to go back to her room. "I also wasn't allowed to go to the kitchen for meals and my food was generally brought to me an hour late, cold, without cutlery," she said. "So most of the time I didn't eat."

Ruby was relieved to be discharged even though she was "in limbo" psychiatrically — feeling much worse than when she arrived — and still testing positive to COVID. "I can't imagine how hard it is to work in a psychiatric unit," she said, adding that the nursing staff were clearly very busy. "But there was a total lack of empathy and then as soon as I had a medical problem [COVID], absolutely no attention or compassion. Something as simple as not being able to get any Panadol was almost traumatic — even though I was in there for more severe trauma issues."

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Long COVID is not just destroying people's health. Behind closed doors, in homes across Australia and abroad, it is irreversibly changing relationships — sometimes for the better, too often for worse.

A spokesperson for Eastern Health told ABC News they were unable to comment on Ruby's case but said if a COVID outbreak occurs, "additional measures are put in place including requirements to wear N95 masks, reduced movement and access to certain wards and clinical areas, increased hand hygiene, taking breaks outside and meeting virtually where possible."

Monash Health also would not address specific questions about Dean's father's admission. "Monash Health provides N95 and surgical masks as part of its infection prevention precautions to protect its patients, visitors and staff," a spokesperson said. "Monash Health cares for COVID-positive patients … in single rooms with negative pressure or negative flow, in addition to requiring staff and visitors to wear appropriate PPE including N95 masks."

At least that's not what Dean observed. He's still upset that the hospital didn't alert him when his father tested positive to COVID, and that his dad blamed himself for catching it in the emergency department in the first place.

"In the whole time of his admission I only saw one staff member … wearing a respirator — I felt overdressed," Dean said. "I'm just horrified that vulnerable people go into a place where they expect to be safe and cared for but are given something that, in this case, potentially nearly kills them and there's no apology — not even acknowledgement."

ABC News requested interviews with infection prevention and control experts at Western Health, Barwon Health and Alfred Health — all declined.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-06/hundreds-died-catching-covid-victoria-hospitals-testing-masking/103784896

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Neurosurgeon, 37, and nurse, 54, claim they were left brain damaged and paralyzed from Covid vaccines - as they say they've been 'dismissed and gaslighted' as anti-vaxxers

Americans who claim they were badly injured by the Covid vaccines feel they are being ignored and gaslighted by the government.

Over 13,000 formal complaints about adverse reactions to the shots have been filed since 2021 - but only 19 percent have been reviewed.

And just 12 patients have been compensated at an average of about $3,600, a figure which some have called insultingly low given the debilitating health issues they have been left with.

Experts say that researchers who've tried to investigate the little-understood side effect profile of Covid vaccines have been blocked by government officials and scientists who fear that even entertaining the possibility that vaccines can cause harm would fuel the anti-vax, which become bigger and louder during the pandemic.

Still, people are suffering from a range of conditions that came on soon after getting their first shot, including brain damage, tinnitus, neurological syndromes, facial paralysis, heart trouble, and shingles.

Unlike several countries like Australia, Canada, and Denmark, which have centralized health records compiled on a single database, the US has no such thing, leaving scientists to sift through reports of mild to severe side effects, of which there are more than four million lodged to the CDC’s voluntary adverse reporting website.

Before Michelle Zimmerman, 37, had to say goodbye to her career as a neuroscientist, her regular 20-mile bike rides, and her lectures on the latest in AI, she had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in 2021.

No longer able to stand up on her own for long periods of time, and eventually diagnosed with brain damage, Dr Zimmerman had to move back in with her parents. She is convinced the vaccine she got came from a contaminated batch.

She told the New York Times: ‘When I let myself think about the devastation of what this has done to my life, and how much I’ve lost, sometimes it feels even too hard to comprehend.’

Dr Zimmerman submitted her application for the Covid vaccine compensation program in October 2021, but it took two years for that claim to be acknowledged by the federal government. She has yet to receive any help from government officials.

She is far from the only one who has submitted such a claim. The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), 13,116 claims have been filed, of which more than 10,000 are still in review.

Twelve claims have been compensated at an average of about $3,600. This is because the office recognizes so few side effects as stemming from the Covid vaccine.

Shaun Barcavage, a 54-year-old nurse practitioner in New York, said that merely standing up would make his heart race ever since he got his first Covid shot.

His symptoms suggested postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a condition in which the body cannot regulate the flow of blood properly, causing lightheadedness, fainting, and rapid heartbeat.

POTS has been tenuously linked to the vaccines, but more often with Covid infection itself.

Mr Barcavage, who in his career has worked on clinical trials for both HIV and Covid, said: ‘I can’t get the government to help me. I am told I’m not real. I’m told I’m rare. I’m told I’m coincidence.’

And Dr Gregory Poland, 68, who edits the journal Vaccine, has had a loud whoosing sound in his ears accompany every single second since he got his shot, and now fears never having a silent moment again.

His colleagues at the CDC did not take on his pleas for further research into the post-vaccine phenomenon.

Covid vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech as well as Johnson and Johnson – which is no longer available – have been credited with averted at least three million deaths in the US and around 20 million globally due to the virus.

But even the best vaccines are not perfect, and when given to more than 270 million Americans in nearly 677 million doses, adverse reactions are bound to crop up.

Scientists fear the minority of vaccine recipients who have experienced severe reactions that have upended their lives are being ignored by federal officials with the power to initiate and fund more research into the matter.

Dr Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist and vaccine expert at Yale University, said: 'At least long Covid has been somewhat recognized', added people complaining of post-vaccine injuries are 'just completely ignored and dismissed and gaslighted.'

Dr Janet Woodcock, who headed the FDA from January 2021 through February 2022 during a crucial time which which early vaccines and treatments were being reviewed, told the New York Times that she wished government officials would hear those people out.

She said: ‘I feel bad for those people. I believe their suffering should be acknowledged, that they have real problems, and they should be taken seriously.

‘I’m disappointed in myself. I did a lot of things I feel very good about, but this is one of the few things I feel I just didn’t bring it home.’

The understaffed office heading the complaints database has left suffering Americans feeling let down by what was meant to be a highly specific, high efficient means of recourse for Covid shot recipients.

Renee France, 49 of Seattle, developed a form of facial paralysis called Bell’s palsy causing one side of her face to droop, which can be a reaction to a viral infection as well as the flu vaccine. She also developed shingles that caused a severe rash that crossed her face and debilitated her for weeks.

She submitted her claim to the database two times but heard nothing back. Like many other patients, her doctor dismissed her fears that the symptoms were side effects of her Covid shot. People have complained of being brushed off and labeled anti-vax by family and friends, despite their support for vaccines.

Dr. Buddy Creech, 50, who led several Covid vaccine trials at Vanderbilt University and suffered tinnitus and racing heartbeat for about a week after each shot, said: ‘When our patients experience a side effect that may or may not be related to the vaccine, we owe it to them to investigate that as completely as we can.’

Countries that store patient data in a single place have conducted more extensive research into side effects simply because they can spot them easier.

The CDC’s adverse events reporting system is voluntary, so anyone can file a report, and the reports are not verified by the agency as being true or unbiased.

In addition to poring over the CDC system, researchers have to sift through insurance claims, and even then there are gaps.

Shots given at mass vaccination sites that cropped up in parking lots across the country did not file vaccine claims with insurers.

Rebecca Chandler, a vaccine safety expert at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, said: ‘It’s harder to see signals when you have so many people, and things are happening in different parts of the country, and they’re not all collected in the same system.’

But in China, Europe, and Israel, scientists have actively sought out instances of adverse reactions, even mild ones, in order to study them further.

Harvard and Yale scientists probing new condition linked to Covid shot

Patients with the condition appear to suffer from symptoms similar to 'Long Covid' - including persistent headaches, intense tiredness and abnormal heart rate and blood pressure.

The European Medicines Agency has uncovered and linked facial paralysis and numbness to the Pfizer and Moderna shots, which the US has not, despite there being nearly 3,000 reports of facial paralysis on the CDC’s voluntary database.

And Israeli authorities were first to spot an unusual side effect in April 2021 primarily among young men after a second dose of a Pfizer or Moderna shot – inflammation of the heart muscle, also known as myocarditis.

Meanwhile, the CDC maintained there was no strong link between heart inflammation and Covid vaccines. That continued until the agency decided the following May to investigate a smattering of reports of heart inflammation in teenagers that occurred just a few days after they got a dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

But despite the 16,700 reports of tinnitus, the 9,000 reports of vertigo, the 7,000 reports of irregularly fast heart beat, the 3,800 reports of Bell’s palsy, or any of the other millions of adverse event reports submitted to the CDC’s system, the NIH is not conducting thorough research into the matter.

Dr William Murphy, a cancer researcher of 12 years at the NIH who has been pushing for these investigations, said that officials told him the same hackneyed phrase he had been hearing for years: the virus is worse.

He said: ‘Yes, the virus is worse, but that doesn’t obviate doing research to make sure that there may be other options.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13379597/neurosurgeon-brain-damaged-paralyzed-covid-vaccines-anti-vaxxers.html

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Serious and Potentially Deadly Abdominal Blood Clots Reported after COVID-19 Vaccination

The mother of a close friend died last month after suffering blood clots in the veins that drain the intestines. She was in her seventies and vaccinated for COVID-19 and sadly she died after emergency abdominal surgery. The daughter wondered if the death was vaccine-related.

Maan et al reported on one year of data from the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Their results in the vaccinated are truly alarming:

“Twenty-nine patients were identified with SVT occurring with a median of 11 days (range 2–76) after the first (48%), second (41%), or third (10%) vaccination (ChAdOx1 nCov-19 (n=12) or BNT162b2 (n=14), other (n=3) Only 2 patients(7%) fulfilled criteria for definite VITT. Twenty (69%) had SVT at multiple sites, including 4 (14%) with concomitant extra-abdominal thrombosis. Only 28% had an underlying prothrombotic condition, compared to 52% in the pre-COVID SVT cohort (p=0.01). Five patients (17%) underwent bowel resection for mesenteric ischemia, compared with 3% in pre-COVID SVT (p<0.001). Two patients died shortly after diagnosis (7%).”

Compared to a larger group of cases over many years before COVID, the vaccine blood clots were far more serious and deadly. The main teaching point from this paper is among the vaccinated to take abdominal pain seriously and have a low threshold to get imaging to diagnose splanchnic blood clots before they become fatal.

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/splanchnic-venous-thrombi-after-covid-19-vaccination-7114be86

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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CDC Found Evidence COVID-19 Vaccines Caused Deaths

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials found evidence that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines caused multiple deaths before claiming that there was no evidence linking the vaccines to any deaths, The Epoch Times has learned.

CDC employees worked to track down information on reported post-vaccination deaths and learned that myocarditis—or heart inflammation, a confirmed side effect of the vaccines—was listed on death certificates and in autopsies for some of the deaths, according to an internal file obtained by The Epoch Times.

Myocarditis was also described as being caused by vaccination in a subset of the deaths.

In other cases, the CDC workers found that deaths met the agency’s definition for myocarditis, that the patients started showing symptoms within 42 days of a vaccine dose, and that the deceased displayed no virus-related symptoms. Officials say that after 42 days, a possible link between the vaccine and symptoms becomes tenuous, and they list post-vaccination deaths as unrelated if they can find any possible alternative causes.

In cases with those three features, it’s “absolutely” safe to say that the vaccines caused the deaths, Dr. Clare Craig, a British pathologist and co-chair of the Health Advisory and Recovery Team Group, told The Epoch Times in an email.

Despite the findings, most of which were made by the end of 2021, the CDC claimed that it had seen no signs linking the Moderna and Pfizer messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to any deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

CDC officials in a letter to The Epoch Times dated June 13, 2023, said that there were no deaths reported to the VAERS for which the agency determined “the available evidence” indicated Moderna or Pfizer vaccination “caused or contributed to the deaths.”

The agency also said that evidence from seven deaths from thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome following the Johnson & Johnson vaccination suggested that the vaccine led to people dying.

“That’s a scandal, where you have information like this and you continue to put out this dishonest line that there’s only seven deaths and they’re all unrelated to the mRNA vaccines,” Dr. Andrew Bostom, a heart expert based in the United States, told The Epoch Times.

The CDC is “concealing these deaths,” he said.

A CDC spokeswoman, presented with the file and dozens of questions about it, said that “determining a person’s cause of death is done by the certifying official, physician, medical examiner, or coroner, who completes the death certificate.”

The spokeswoman declined to explain why the CDC doesn’t consider autopsies or death certificates as evidence of causality, the criteria that would establish vaccine-caused deaths, or whether the numbers have been updated since 2023. She also declined to answer questions about specific deaths outlined in the file, citing “privacy and confidentiality.”

People who die in the United States with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 are counted as COVID-19 deaths. That count has included a number of deaths from unrelated causes. The CDC also in 2023 advised death certifiers to include COVID-19 on certificates even if the deaths happened years after COVID-19 infection.

“They are taking the exact opposite approach to COVID deaths! Every death after a test was a COVID death. No death after a vaccine is a vaccine death!” Dr. Craig said. She questioned what it would take for the CDC to admit that the vaccines have caused some myocarditis-related deaths.

More People Died

The file, acquired by The Epoch Times through a Freedom of Information Act request, has never before been reported. The file was obtained after U.S. authorities rejected another Freedom of Information Act request for the autopsies themselves. The file outlines the agency’s investigation into reports submitted to VAERS of suspected cases of myocarditis or a related condition, pericarditis, following COVID-19 vaccination.

CDC employees, starting in April 2021, contacted health care providers and other agencies to obtain medical records, death certificates, and autopsies as they sought to confirm whether each report was legitimate.

The file shows the CDC examined 3,780 reports through April 13, 2023, a small number of which were duplicates. Among the reported cases, 101 resulted in death.

In one instance, a 37-year-old man started suffering symptoms that can be caused by myocarditis, such as shortness of breath, shortly after receiving a Moderna COVID-19 shot. The man collapsed three days after vaccination and was soon pronounced dead.

Dr. Darinka Mileusnic, the medical examiner who examined the man, said in an autopsy report that the patient died of “post vaccination systemic inflammation response” which caused, among other problems, acute myocarditis, according to the CDC file.

The CDC worker who was assigned to look into the death wrote that it was “evident of a sudden death post second dose of Moderna vaccine.”

“One of the factor[s] to death [sic] is acute myocarditis. There are other findings related to VAE [vaccine adverse event] and non vaccine related. Thus, it can’t be distinguished that only vaccine may have caused the death,” the CDC employee wrote.

Dr. Mileusnic declined a request for comment through her employer, the Knox County Regional Forensic Center in Tennessee. The center said it would only provide an autopsy report if the decedent’s name and date of death were provided. The CDC file did not include names.

After another man, 24, died on Oct. 27, 2021, about two months after receiving a second Pfizer injection, his health care provider diagnosed him with myocarditis. An autopsy listed “complications of COVID-19 vaccine-related myocarditis” as the cause of death, according to the file.

A post-mortem test for COVID-19 returned negative, there were no viral organisms found in post-mortem testing of the heart, and there were no other signs of viruses causing the myocarditis, the notes show.

Another vaccine recipient, a 77-year-old man, was found dead at home on Nov. 14, 2021. The autopsy confirmed the man had pericarditis and listed the cause of death as “complications from the COV-19 booster,” according to the file.

The CDC worker who looked at that case said it met the CDC’s definition of pericarditis based on the autopsy and death certificate but noted there were comorbidities such as coronary artery disease that were listed as contributing to the death. The patient also received shots against influenza and shingles about two months before death, so “it is difficult to say that COV-19 vaccine alone caused pericarditis,” the worker wrote.

A voicemail left for the man’s doctor was not returned.

Among other deaths in the CDC file are:

A male, whose age was redacted, suffered sudden cardiac death in April 2021 following a Johnson & Johnson vaccination. He was diagnosed with myocarditis, which was confirmed by the medical examiner. A CDC worker stated that the case did not technically meet the agency’s case definition, but they would “consider probable subclinical myocarditis, given the histopathological findings.”

A 21-year-old woman who died in 2021 after seizures and cardiac arrhythmias following Pfizer vaccination was found on autopsy to have lymphocytic myocarditis. The CDC listed her case as confirmed myocarditis with no evidence of viral causes.

A 45-year-old man was found dead in his bed in 2021 after Moderna vaccination but testing for myocarditis and pericarditis was not performed.

A 55-year-old woman who was “found unresponsive in [a] field” in 2021 after Johnson & Johnson vaccination was confirmed on autopsy to have myocarditis and to have suffered a cardiac arrest. The death met the CDC’s case definition but concurrent upper respiratory infection “makes viral myocarditis a potential alternative cause,” a CDC worker stated. The medical examiner declined to comment.

Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson did not return requests for comment.

Lot numbers for the vaccines injected into people who died were among the information in the file redacted by the CDC. Some vaccine lots have caused significantly more problems than others, according to CDC data obtained by the nonprofit Informed Consent Action Network.

Deaths in other countries from vaccine-induced myocarditis have been reported in journals, including deaths among young people. More deaths from vaccines in cases that didn’t include myocarditis have been confirmed by international authorities. Death certificates obtained by The Epoch Times from several U.S. states have also listed the COVID-19 vaccines as causing or contributing to dozens of deaths.

Overruling

The file and a tranche of emails also obtained by The Epoch Times shows the agency started intervening shortly after the vaccines were introduced in post-vaccination cases that led to death and sometimes overruled the certifier.

Take the case of a 23-year-old man who left home on April 13, 2021, to go for a jog and was found dead on the side of the road. His death occurred four days after receiving Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine.

An autopsy found myocarditis and the case met the CDC’s case definition for myocarditis. But the CDC’s Infectious Diseases Pathology Branch (IDPB) then weighed in. “Per IDPB evaluation, not myocarditis,” the notes for the case say.

The evaluation is one of the documents the CDC has refused to disclose. It also refused to answer questions about the man’s death or other specific cases, referring vaguely to privacy.

Dr. Bostom, after reviewing the notes on the case, said it was a “clear-cut” example of vaccine-caused myocarditis.

The CDC doesn’t conduct autopsies itself but gathers the files as part of the investigation. Autopsies aren’t perfect but are considered the gold standard in figuring out the cause of death, Dr. Bostom said.

“It’s about the strongest evidence we can get,” he said.

Two of the cases in the file were reported by Dr. James Gill, the chief medical examiner of Connecticut, and several other doctors in a February 2022 peer-reviewed paper. The doctors revealed findings of atypical myocarditis in two teenagers after Pfizer vaccination, describing it as a “post-vaccine reaction” that might have developed due to “an excessive inflammatory response.”

CDC officials issued a public response saying IDPB’s evaluation of the cases pointed to non-vaccine causes: a parvovirus in one case, and sepsis from a bacterial infection in the other.

“These omissions could lead incorrectly to the assumption that COVID-19 vaccines were directly responsible for the deaths of these 2 patients. We believe that providing these important pathologic findings will allow readers a fuller perspective of the causes of death in these cases,” the CDC said at the time.

Dr. Christopher Paddock, one of the officials, said in an email obtained by The Epoch Times that the CDC response detailed “the work we did to identify the actual cause of death in this young man.”

In a blunt reply, the doctors said the CDC “overstepped its role” with the response and explained why the CDC’s claims didn’t hold up. The parvovirus, they said, wouldn’t cause the type of heart injury seen in the boy who died. The presence of bacteria is “not the cause of death but a consequence of death,” they said.

The certificate for the boy who died in Connecticut mentioned vaccination, Dr. Gill has told The Epoch Times. The autopsy report of the other boy notes he died of “myocarditis of uncertain etiology.”

Another death of a minor was examined by CDC workers after being reported to VAERS. A 7-year-old in Washington state died on Feb. 26, 2022, about two weeks after receiving a Pfizer shot. The medical examiner identified myocarditis as a cause of death, but, “per IDPB, infectious causes [were] identified,” according to the file.

“CDC followed-up to assist in [the] investigation of the case. From the investigation, the cause of the myocarditis could not be clearly determined,” a spokesperson for Public Health – Seattle & King County told The Epoch Times via email.

Other emails obtained by The Epoch Times show that in addition to Washington state officials, authorities in multiple states asked the CDC to test tissue samples from people who died after vaccination. They also reveal that the CDC knew of several additional post-vaccination deaths in which myocarditis was found on autopsy—and at least some other possible causes were ruled out—before issuing its 2023 statement on zero deaths.

Details From Emails

A man on active duty in the Army, for example, “collapsed after a short run” and was unable to be resuscitated, Dr. John Su, the lead official for vaccine safety for the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine task force, wrote on March 30, 2022. “On autopsy, the pathologist observed evidence of myocarditis.”

Testing for COVID-19 came back negative, and “toxicology and other analyses were unremarkable,” according to the email, although there were indications that an “anatomic variant in the vasculature of the heart” could have caused the sudden cardiac arrest.

The CDC around the same time received a request to analyze tissue from a 42-year-old New Hampshire resident who died in early 2022 after a Pfizer vaccine dose. The autopsy found “extensive acute and subacute myocarditis,” Dr. Jennie Duval, the chief medical examiner at the New Hampshire Department of Justice, told the CDC. Postmortem testing for COVID-19 returned negative.

A spokesperson for the department told The Epoch Times in an email that its Office of the Chief Medical Examiner “will not release cause and manner of death or any other information because autopsy reports, investigative reports and supporting documentation are confidential medical records.”

The CDC also in 2022 received autopsy reports for George Watts Jr., a 24-year-old from New York state who collapsed at home after receiving a Pfizer vaccine, died from “COVID-19 vaccine-related myocarditis,” and tested negative for COVID-19; and Joseph Keating, a 26-year-old man from South Dakota who, per an autopsy and death certificate, died from vaccine-induced myocarditis.

It’s not clear why the CDC doesn’t count the death certificates or autopsies as evidence that vaccines contributed to or caused the deaths.

The CDC’s position is not surprising since it was among agencies that “were the leaders of the disinformation campaign to convince the American public, including George Watts, Jr., that experimental vaccines were safe and effective even before they were licensed,” Ray Flores, an attorney representing the Watts family in a lawsuit filed against the government, told The Epoch Times via email.

“Now everyone knows they’ve unequivocally been shown to kill,” he said.

A CDC official said in one missive in early 2022 that the CDC’s IDPB had recently become “heavily involved in coordination, consultation, and laboratory evaluation of autopsy tissues from deaths occurring after COVID-19 vaccination, including cases of suspected myocarditis.”

The effort involved closely coordinating with the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office, state health officials, and CDC officials working on policy and communications, she said.

“When requested, CDC can provide consultation for analysis of tissue specimens,” a CDC spokeswoman told The Epoch Times.

The CDC’s 2023 statement of zero deaths being linked to the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines was attributed to the Immunization Safety Office.

The office was headed at the time by Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, who offered false information about COVID-19 vaccine safety during the pandemic. The CDC also hid the finding of hundreds of safety signals for the shots, including sudden death and tinnitus, and published a paper this month that was falsely promoted as debunking an association between sudden death and the mRNA vaccines.

More than 676 million doses of the vaccines have been administered to date, the CDC noted. While the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been pulled from the market, the agency maintains that shots from Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax are “safe and effective.”

“The authorized and approved COVID-19 vaccines are being administered under the most comprehensive and intensive vaccine safety monitoring effort in U.S. history,” the CDC spokeswoman told The Epoch Times.

The spokesperson said the agency “has not detected any unusual or unexpected patterns for deaths following COVID-19 vaccination that have not already been thoroughly described and made public in the published biomedical literature or public presentations.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/exclusive-cdc-found-evidence-covid-19-vaccines-caused-deaths-5632265

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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AstraZeneca admits to rare, deadly side effect of Covid jab as lawsuits mount

I had two shots of AstraZeneca and didn't even get a sore arm out of it -- nothing. So your mileage may vary

AstraZeneca has admitted that its Covid-19 vaccine could cause a rare but deadly blood-clotting condition, potentially exposing the UK pharmaceutical giant to lawsuits brought by loved ones of those injured or killed as a result of the jab, according to court documents.

Lawyers representing “dozens” of class-action claimants say some of their clients’ cases could be worth as much as $38 million, calling the Cambridge-headquartered pharma firm’s vaccine was “defective,” according to the Daily Mail.

Recent research from RMIT University and Monash University found Australia’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign likely prevented the death of 17,760 people aged over 50 in New South Wales between August 2021 and July 2022.

The AstraZeneca inoculation, which was also administered in Australia, has proven to be effective in combating Covid-19 with some estimates suggested it saved as many as six million lives worldwide. But it has also produced rare side effects in some people, reports the New York Post.

AstraZeneca, which is contesting the claims, acknowledged in a February legal document that its vaccine can “in very rare cases,” cause a condition called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or TTS.

TTS can cause patients to suffer from blood clots as well as a low blood platelet count, which in some cases have seriously harmed or even killed recipients of the company’s vaccine.

The potential complication was listed as a possible side effect from the time of the vaccine’s release, but AstraZeneca’s acknowledgment in February marks the first time the pharmaceutical titan has admitted it in court, according to the UK newspaper The Telegraph.

So far, 51 cases have been filed in London’s High Court, estimated to be worth around $190 million (GBP100 million) total, the outlet writes.

Due to a bargain AstraZeneca struck with the UK government at the height of the pandemic to indemnify the drugmaker against potential lawsuits, taxpayers will be on the hook for any payouts resulting from the claims.

One of the claimants who filed suit is Jamie Scott, an IT engineer and father of two left with a permanent brain injury resulting from a blood clot after he received the vaccine in April 2021.

His wife, Kate, told The Telegraph she’s hopeful the company’s admission will accelerate the outcome of their case.

“We need an apology, fair compensation for our family and other families who have been affected. We have the truth on our side, and we are not going to give up.”

In a statement, AstraZeneca expressed sympathy for anyone who was allegedly harmed by the vaccine, but defended it as a net positive and pointed out that complications are exceedingly rare.

“Patient safety is our highest priority, and regulatory authorities have clear and stringent standards to ensure the safe use of all medicines, including vaccines,” the statement reads in part.

“From the body of evidence in clinical trials and real-world data, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine has continuously been shown to have an acceptable safety profile and regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects.”

The AstraZeneca Covid vaccine was first approved for emergency use in December, 2020.

Of the 50 million doses administered in the UK during the crisis, 81 people have died from blood clots potentially linked to the jab, according to health data compiled by UK pharmaceutical watchdog the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

The odds of a recipient developing TTS as a result of the vaccine is calculated as somewhere in the range of 1 in 50,000.

In Australia, the government said the rate of TTS linked to the jab was around two people per 100,000 vaccinated.

In all, the AstraZeneca vaccine is credited with saving as many as six million lives globally during the pandemic, according to the University of Oxford, which partnered with the company in developing the jab.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/astrazeneca-admits-to-rare-deadly-side-effect-of-covid-jab-as-lawsuits-mount/news-story/5612826233eb8d6b4bc3783de575f8ae

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Small Chinese sample suggests link between Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine and Kidney-Related Disease

A team of nephrologists and associated physician-scientists from Zhengzhou University in Zhengzhou, a city with over 10 million people in Northern China extracted the gene expression data of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) from 15 controls (day 0 post the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 COVID-19 mRNA vaccine) and 29 vaccinated samples (day 1–10 post second dose also of the same BNT162b2 COVID-19 mRNA vaccine) (GSE201535) from what is known as the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) dataset and normalization of the counts by log(x + 1) using Sangerbox.

Meanwhile, the gene expression data of glomeruli from 21 controls (living donors) and 27 IgAN were collected (GSE104948). Also in this study, focusing on the keyword “COVID-19 vaccine” was used to search the GeneCards database to screen the associated genes supporting this investigation into cases of glomerulonephritis, a kidney condition reported after the mass-scale use of COVID-19 countermeasures with IgA nephropathy (IgAN) emerging as particularly prominent.

The recent study results were published in Karger Kidney and Blood Pressure Research, and the study was conducted with the help of Henan Provincial People’s Hospital.

What is IgAN and glomerulonephritis?

Glomerulonephritis is a group of kidney diseases that cause inflammation of the glomeruli, the tiny filters inside the kidneys that remove waste and extra fluids from the blood, this condition can come on quickly or slowly, and mild cases often don’t cause any noticeable symptoms.

IgAN or IgA nephropathy is considered a rare kidney disease occurring when the body’s immune system generates antibodies in the kidneys, leading to inflammation and kidney damage. The inflammation makes it harder for the kidneys to filter waste and fluid from the blood. IgAN is also known as Berger disease.

Background to this study

The Chinese researchers point to “accumulating evidence” disclosing the risk of IgA nephropathy (IgAN) presenting shortly after the second dose of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. But not surprisingly, the undying mechanism remains unclear. Thus, the investigation here better understands potential molecular mechanisms.

The team downloaded both gene expression datasets of COVID-19 mRNA vaccination (GSE201535) and IgAN (GSE104948). Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) in a bid to identify co-expression modules related to the second dose of COVID-19 mRNA vaccination and IgAN. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened, and a transcription factor (TF)-miRNA regulatory network and protein-drug interaction were constructed for the shared genes.

What did they find?

The use of WBCNA led to the identification of one module linked to the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine, with four modules linked to IgAN. Further analysis employing gene ontology (GO) uncovered “enrichment of cell cycle-related processes for the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine hub genes and immune effector processes for the IgAN hub genes.”

With 74 DEGs identified in relation to the second Pfizer dose, plus 574 DEGs for IgAN, “Intersection analysis with COVID-19 vaccine-related genes led to the identification of two shared genes, TOP2A and CEP55. The TF-miRNA network analysis showed that hsa-miR-144 and ATF1 might regulate the shared hub genes.”

Summary

The team shares in this paper a “common pathogenesis of COVID-19 mRNA vaccination and IgAN. The identified pivotal genes may offer new directions for further mechanistic studies of IgAN secondary to COVID-19 mRNA vaccination.”

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/pfizer-biontech-mrna-covid-19-vaccine-collection-to-kidney-related-disease-35083eb8

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Mainstream Starts to Cover: NBC Affiliate Covers COVID-19 Vaccine Injured, Cautiously

Mainstream media has started to cover the topic of COVID-19 vaccine injury. Most recently, KARE 11 in Minneapolis thanks to Craig Norkus, a 22-year photojournalist at the media who became ill after receiving the COVID-19 jab in November 2022.

While the NBC affiliate for the Twin Cities area first acknowledges that the overall general safety of the COVID-19 vaccines has been established, this doesn’t necessarily mean that a “small group of Minnesotans claiming vaccine injury” aren’t hurting, in some cases, severely due to rare but real COVID-19 vaccine injuries.

Another TrialSite subscriber and vaccine-injured person sent the story to TrialSite, noting the NBC affiliate loaded the content with lots of accompanying vaccine-friendly information but points out that the local media finally covered the topic of COVID-19 vaccine injury.

Pointing out that recent studies evidence an overall safety profile, some questions remain unanswered. To date, KARE 11 states that no study has been able to prove that mRNA vaccines can induce neurological problems, the reality is that numerous such problems can and do ensue after vaccination.

Patient advocacy group React19, a TrialSite partner, established the Scientific Publications Directory for example. In this repository set up via a collaborative effort with TrialSite’s support, React19 now maintains 3,580 peer-reviewed studies (mostly case series) tracking various adverse event incidents post-COVID-19 vaccination.

How many of the studies involve neurological conditions? 656 studies cover some form of neurological condition associated with COVID-19 vaccination. This does not mean that each one of these studies prove that the vaccine caused the condition.

In fact, most of the studies in the online directory are case series, meaning a type of medical research design that involves the detailed examination of a small group of individuals (or just one patient) who share common characteristics or experiences. In a case series, researchers typically report on the clinical features, treatment, and outcomes of a series of patients with similar conditions or who underwent similar interventions. However, unlike a randomized controlled trial, these investigations are not designed to establish causation.

Unfortunately, the NBC affiliate doesn’t cite the React19 database, although they should. The media does refer to the recent study tracked by TrialSite involving the recent study from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine finding that only one adverse event with a proven link to the Pfizer and Moderna shots-- myocarditis—inflammation of the heart. The experts in the study determined the two mRNA vaccines do not cause Guillain-Barré syndrome, Bell’s palsy, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) or heart attack. Researchers determined there's not enough evidence to accept or deny a link to any other neurological issues studied. Although, it’s clear from the React19 publication directory that incidence of GBS for example as well as Bell’s palsy are associated with these vaccines.

According to Norkus, who was a key force in getting this coverage of the COVID-19 vaccine injured after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, “I felt like I was dying,” said Norkus. “I was lost, looking for answers, and no one had any.”

The injury presented just two days following a booster dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The photojournalist started suffering head and body aches, severe exhaustion, and confusion, along with cool and hot tingling in his fingers and legs.

As reported by Chris Hrapsky blood tests revealed his immune system was under attack, but five separate specialty doctors could not explain the source of his symptoms.

Yet by April last year, an osteopathic doctor diagnosed Norkus with immunosuppression and small fiber neuropathy. And Norkus’ physician now believes that Norkus’ conditions were triggered by the vaccine.

While the local media claims no study can prove an mRNA connection to Bell’s palsy, the React19 online database includes 45 peer-reviewed studies involving COVID-19 vaccination and Bell’s palsy. See the link.

TrialSite’s Brandon Bushong recently interviewed vaccine injury activist Wayne Rohde, author of “The Vaccine Court 2.0 Revised: The Dark Truth of America’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program” who elaborates on all the ways bias impacts the system, to the detriment of those injured and in urgent need of care.

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/mainstream-starts-to-cover-nbc-affiliate-covers-vaccine-injured-cautiously-296e7c90

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COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Linked to Cutaneous [skin] Adverse Events—Most Non-Significant, However, Severe in Rare Cases

Dermatologist from the Department of Dermatology, Kagoshima City Hospital and University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences Kagoshima, Japan investigate cutaneous adverse events (AEs) manifesting after COVID-19 vaccination.

Frequently described, the investigators led by Atsunori Baba M.D., and colleagues report the need for a larger case series and literature review and hence this specific study. Calling out for the urgent need for an extensive investigation of new cases and previous reports to better capture the unfolding evidence concerning post-COVID-19 immunization cutaneous AEs, the team sought to analyze patients with cutaneous AEs after COVID-19 vaccination in their specific hospital located in deep southern Japan on Kyushu island.

The team of physicians also reviewed studies of cutaneous AEs. Analyzing post-COVID-19 vaccination cutaneous AEs in the Kagoshima City Hospital department, the Japanese Registry, and previous literature, the investigators also enrolled 30 patients with cutaneous post-vaccination AEs in the department over 2 years (April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2023). Confirming cases registered in the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare COVID-19 vaccine side effect reporting system (February 17, 2021–March 12, 2023), the study team reports 587 retrieved records, plus 93 articles were included for data extraction.

Dr. Atsunori Baba and colleagues report on the identification of a total of 28 non-injection-site cutaneous AEs and two injection-site AEs. Six (20.0%) patients developed new-onset erythematous eruptions, and five (16.7%) patients developed urticaria. Pruritic eruption, eczema, shingles, and sweating symptoms have also been reported.

Published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Dermatology, Atsunori Baba and colleagues point out that in previous studies on non-injection-site cutaneous AEs, individuals who received the BNT162b2 vaccine were older than those who received mRNA-1273 (P < 0.01).

Cutaneous AEs were mostly nonsignificant and self-limiting reactions; but the study authors report on rare, severe, or life-threatening AEs also linked to COVID-19 vaccination.

The findings lead the authors of this study to conclude that “Physicians should be aware of the various possible cutaneous AEs associated with the COVID-19 vaccination.”

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/covid-19-mrna-vaccines-linked-to-cutaneous-adverse-eventsmost-non-significant-however-severe-in-rare-cases-a6fa4ec5

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Western Vaccines Outperform the Chinese with Significant More Protection Against Breakthrough Infection

A team of pharmacy researchers from University of Cyberjava in Persiaran Bestari, Selangor Malaysia and Serdang Hospital conducted a retrospective cohort study at a multispecialty tertiary hospital in Selangor, including 200 fully adult vaccinated patients, with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, admitted from September 2021 to February 2022.

Participants were selected by simple random sampling. Infection severity was categorized as CAT 2–3 (mild–moderate) and 4–5 (severe–critical). Vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine known as BNT162b2, the Malaysian team sought to learn more about mRNA vaccine performance. What were the clinical outcomes (time to breakthrough infection, intensive care unit [ICU] admission, and in-hospital mortality) of hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection concerning the Pfizer-BioNTech jab?

With results published in Heliyon, the authors report:
“The time to breakthrough infection was significantly longer for BNT162B2 recipients (128.47 ± 46.21 days) compared to CoronaVac (94.09 ± 48.71 days; P = 0.001) and ChAdOx1-S recipients (90.80 ± 37.59 days; P = 0.019).”

Also, the authors reported no associations involving SARS-CoV-2-related ICU admission, mortality, and the vaccines.

Based on a statistical multivariable analysis, the study’s authors point to the following as significant predictors of severity:

Vaccine type
Variant of concern
Ethnicity
Hypertension

Evidencing superior performance for the Western COVID-19 vaccines, “BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1-S recipients had significantly (81% and 74%, respectively) lower odds of CAT 4–5 infection compared to CoronaVac recipients.” The latter was developed in China.

Interestingly, from an ethnicity perspective, Indian patients faced a (83%) lower chance of CAT 4–5 infection compared to Malay patients.

For breakthrough infections, the Delta surge was more dangerous than Omicron. Patients with breakthrough infections during the latter period had a significantly (58%) lower risk of CAT 4–5 compared to those in the former (Delta). The CAT 4–5 risk was significantly (nearly threefold) higher in hypertensive patients.

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/western-vaccines-outperform-the-chinese-with-significant-more-protection-against-breakthrough-infection-d69239f6

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Long COVID Condition Resolves Over Time, Study Suggests

Research led by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney has found that the immune abnormalities in most people with mild or moderate long COVID had largely resolved two years after infection.

In a cohort of patients suffering from long COVID, biomarkers present in patients eight months after contraction largely resolved by 24 months, suggesting that long COVID can settle over time.

Biomarkers are biological molecules that can indicate diseases or health conditions, the U.S. National Cancer Institute states. Long COVID clinical symptoms are consistent with biomarkers exhibiting a sustained inflammatory response.

Details of the Study

The study participants included people who had contracted COVID-19 in Australia’s first wave and a corresponding control group. The study considered the health information systematically reported by patients and detailed blood tests.

The exact scale of immunological improvement is difficult to quantify because immune function significantly varies from person to person. However, after 24 months there were no observable differences between the study’s control and long COVID group.

Chansavath Phetsouphanh, co-author of the paper and senior lecturer at UNSW’s Kirby Institute, said in a news release that significant improvements have been found.

“Almost one and a half years later, we are pleased to see that among this same group, significant improvements were found in blood markers,” he said. Blood markers are an easily accessible, cost-effective, and accurate biomarker.

“For the majority of samples we analysed in the laboratory, the biomarkers previously indicating abnormal immune function have resolved,” Mr. Phetsouphanh said.

This trend was also observable in the self-reported data with 62 percent of participants indicating improvements in health-related quality of life.

Study Limitations

The study is one of a small number that measures clinical data, self-reported health information, and intense blood sampling of the same group over an extensive period.
Professor Anthony Kelleher, director of the Kirby Institute, said that immunology is a complex science.

While the finding was encouraging, he noted it involved just one cohort that experienced an early strain of COVID-19 and whose initial COVID-19 infection was generally considered mild or moderate.

Prof. Kelleher said they cannot say for certain that outcomes in the unvaccinated clinical cohort will be true for vaccinated people. He also said that it’s uncertain whether those infected with a different strain of COVID-19 will experience the same outcomes.

“What we do know is that for most people with long COVID, both their symptoms and their biomarkers improve significantly over time, and this is a cause for optimism,” he said.

“Importantly, we will continue to undertake research to understand more about why some people don’t improve, and what can be done for those people.”

Ongoing Impact on their Life Quality

“While this is very encouraging and a reason for optimism, there are still around one third of patients who identify some ongoing impact on their quality of life,” said Professor Gail Matthews, head of infectious diseases at St Vincent’s Hospital.

Prof. Matthews said some patients may have a range of underlying causes for their long COVID symptoms.

She added that not all of these causes are driven by immunological abnormalities and that some are likely to persist even when the immunological environment has largely returned to normal.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/long-covid-condition-resolves-over-time-study-suggests-5633808?ea_src=frontpage&ea_med=top-news-australia-top-news-3

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Can nasal Neosporin prevent COVID-19?

Four years ago, when COVID-19 first began to spread globally, it didn't just damage our physical health, but also the health of our information ecosystem. Ever since, the internet has been rife with health misinformation on ways to treat or protect oneself against the coronavirus.

First, internet healers falsely suggested that gargling salt water and vinegar could prevent a coronavirus infection. Then, despite multiple studies debunking the effectiveness of ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug used in horses (and less commonly in humans), Joe Rogan fans continued to cling onto it as a potential treatment.

Health misinformation is a symptom of a lack of certainty. When there is no guaranteed preventative measure or treatment, people are bound to find solutions on their own. Thanks to cognitive biases like confirmation bias, they might even appear to work. But what if a way to reduce exposure to COVID-19, and treat it, was hiding in our medicine cabinets all along — and it wasn’t pseudoscience?

A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that neomycin, an ingredient in the first aid ointment Neosporin, may prevent or treat a range of respiratory viral infections such as COVID-19 and influenza when applied to the nose.

In the study, researchers found that mice who had neomycin in their nostrils exhibited strong antiviral activity against both SARS-CoV- 2 and a highly virulent strain of influenza A virus. It also mitigated contact transmission of SARS-CoV- 2 between hamsters.

“We decided to see if neomycin applied into the nose can protect animals from infection with COVID as well as the flu,” Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, the lead author of the study and a professor of immunobiology at the Yale University School of Medicine, told Salon in a phone interview. “And what we found is that treatment with neomycin significantly prevented infection and also reduced disease burden in animals.”

Iwasaki described the work as “encouraging” because it shows that neomycin can trigger an antiviral response in animals by creating a localized immune response. “That’s resulting in this protection that we see,” Iwasaki said.

The results are encouraging for mice and hamsters. But what about humans? The researchers proceeded to recruit healthy volunteers and asked them to apply Neosporin with a cotton swab to their nose, twice a day. The placebo for some was vaseline. The researchers measured their antiviral response and found similar results.

“When we compared the gene expression in the nose, Neosporin stimulated genes whereas those people who had Vaseline did not,” Iwasaki said. “So this suggests that we might be able to use Neosporin or neomycin in humans to induce this antiviral state that we also saw in animals.”

Does that mean we should all be applying Neosporin to our noses in high-risk situations? Not exactly, but it probably wouldn’t hurt either — as long as someone isn’t allergic to the cream, which is a combination of the antibiotics bacitracin, neomycin and polymyxin B. Notably, details around the dosage remain unclear.

“We know from the dose response that we did in animals that we probably need to give humans more Neosporin, or neomycin,” she said. “Because Neosporin has very little neomycin compared to what we were able to achieve in the animal model.”

Iwasaki added they know that Neosporin can produce a similar effect in humans as it did in animals, but whether or not it can reduce transmission has yet to be determined.

“For that, we need different kinds of study and a much larger study to determine that,” she said.

Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center and infectious disease doctor who wasn’t involved in the study, told Salon via email that the research could have broader implications that extend beyond COVID-19.

“This could be a potential broad spectrum antiviral treatment and prophylaxis,”Adalja said. “The molecules in the topical antibiotic cream induce certain antiviral compounds to be made by cells where the ointment has been applied; these antiviral compounds produce non-specific immunity that impacts various viruses.”

Iwasaki cautioned against the idea that people swabbing their noses with Neosporin will be a cure-all in the future. Instead, she said she sees this as another possible layer of protection.

“We know how important it is to layer protection against infections,” Iwasaki said. “Vaccines and masks and other measures are very important, but this type of strategy where we can trigger the host to produce antiviral factors may be another layer that we can add on to the existing ones.”

The more layers a person has, Iwasaki said, the less likely a person is to get infected.

“And that's really important for preventing diseases like long COVID,” Iwasaki said, referring to a condition in which COVID symptoms last for months or even years. “So I think it's definitely worth kind of moving forward with an approach like this.”

An approach that was right under our noses all this time.

https://www.salon.com/2024/04/27/can-nasal-neosporin-fight-covid-surprising-new-research-suggests-it-works/

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Supreme Court Win for Police Constable Who Refused the COVID-19 Jab

A senior constable in Victoria who faced charges for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine has won his battle in a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court. This decision could set a precedent for others impacted by vaccine mandates in the state and around Australia.

The case centered on whether the requirement to provide evidence of vaccination status necessitated receiving a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Constable Simon Peter Shearer had been charged with a breach of discipline for failing to comply with the COVID-19 vaccination requirements outlined in the Victoria Police Manual.

The officer’s decision not to receive any dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by Aug. 16, 2022, led to an internal disciplinary inquiry initiated by the Victorian Police chief commissioner.

However, Victorian Supreme Court Justice Michael McDonald concluded this charge was unjust and should be quashed.
“The plaintiff’s failure to receive a dose of COVID-19 vaccine by 16 August 2022 did not constitute a breach of the Victorian Police Manual,” Judge McDonald said.

“Consequently, the DIO [disciplinary inquiry officer] did not have power to reprimand the plaintiff for a breach of discipline.”

In addition, the judge said the plaintiff was denied procedural fairness for two reasons.

“First, the charge did not provide adequate notice of the case the plaintiff was required to meet,” Judge McDonald found.

“Second, the DIO failed to disclose to the plaintiff issues critical to his decision to find the charge proven.”

Constable Shearer, who had been working in the legal services department of Victoria Police as a lawyer since 2013, had a medical exemption for vaccine requirements due to Graves’ disease, an autoimmune condition impacting the thyroid.

According to court documents, this exemption expired in 2021.

Further, the constable went on long service leave from December 2021 to July 2022. In July 2022, Victoria’s chief police commissioner issued a new policy manual on vaccine requirements.

The constable argued that he was not required to provide his vaccination status to the police or be vaccinated to perform his duties in order to return to work.

However, on September 21, 2022, he was charged with a breach of discipline for failing to comply with the vaccine requirements of the Victorian Police Manual.

The judge has now nullified the charge, and both parties will have the opportunity to make submissions on costs.

“My provisional view is that the defendant should pay plaintiff’s costs on a standard basis, to be taxed in default of agreement,” the judge stated.

Case ‘Reaffirms Our Faith in the Justice System’: Lawyer

Principal lawyer Irene Chrisopoulidis described the result as a significant win for the plaintiff and the individuals and families affected by such policies. She said many of these individuals were unfairly and unjustly treated during one of the most challenging times in our history.

“The lives of these employees and their families, impacted by such organisational policies and decisions, resulted in lifelong effects,” Ms. Chrisopoulidis added in a LinkedIn post.
“This case not only reaffirms our faith in the justice system, it reflects the courageous and tenacious character it takes to stand up for your rights in pursuing justice. It has been our honour to represent the Plaintiff in this matter.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/covid-19-vaccine-supreme-court-win-for-police-constable-who-refused-the-jab-5636845

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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COVID-19 Vaccine Emails: Here’s What the CDC Hid Behind Redactions

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hid how a woman who suffered chest pain and other symptoms following COVID-19 vaccination received a shot because of a mandate at work, newly obtained documents show.

The agency also redacted how multiple children were diagnosed with Kawasaki Disease after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the documents.

The Epoch Times obtained more than 1,400 pages of emails from the CDC concerning its Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA) project, which analyzes post-vaccination problems reported by health care providers. The tranche included numerous redactions.

While redactions are allowed under the Freedom of Information Act, there were signs that too much information was being hidden.

The Epoch Times appealed some of the redactions.

The CDC agreed to remove some of them, revealing what the agency initially shielded.

In one email, a provider reports a 30-year-old woman who suffered chest pain and leg twitching following COVID-19 vaccination. The original copy of the email stated in part that she “got vaccine due to [redacted].”

In the updated copy, the CDC removed the redaction, showing that the woman received a vaccine because of a mandate at work.

Several other portions of the emails that are now unredacted show the CDC hid how multiple children, including a 2-year-old, were said to have suffered from a serious inflammatory illness called Kawasaki Disease shortly after receiving a shot.

One girl suffered inflammation around the eyes, swollen lips, high fever, and a rash, and “was admitted last week with Kawasaki,” one of the girl’s parents wrote on Dec. 5, 2021, the new documents show. She received a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine two weeks prior.

Dr. Matthew Oster is a cardiologist who works for the CDC.

“The biggest question, of course, here, is whether this was truly [redacted] or whether this was [redacted] related to the vaccine,” Dr. Oster wrote after hearing about the case.

The cleaner copy of the email showed that the redactions covered “KD,” or Kawasaki Disease, and “MIS-C,” or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.

“We do now have a small number of cases like this one,” Dr. Oster said.

The CDC has portrayed MIS-C as only being caused by COVID-19, but studies have found that there were MIS-C cases before the COVID-19 pandemic and that some people suffered the syndrome after vaccination without evidence of COVID-19. The CDC says on its website that the agency is “investigating reports of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which may present with Kawasaki disease-like features.”

Another email originally hid the age of a male child and what his doctor suspected he suffered after receipt of a second dose of Moderna’s vaccine.

The boy was 2 years old, the newly obtained documents show, when he was admitted with what a pediatric infectious disease doctor suspected was “atypical Kawasaki Disease.” The documents show that the doctor also considered MIS-C as a diagnosis in light of how the boy’s sister tested positive for COVID-19 on the same day the boy started showing symptoms of fever, although multiple COVID-19 tests on the boy returned negative.

The doctor said he had a “low suspicion” for a COVID-19 vaccine reaction but still submitted a report to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which the CDC helps run.

Kawasaki Disease was detected as a safety signal for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines among children aged 5 to 11 when the CDC first ran an analysis on VAERS data in 2022, according to files previously obtained by The Epoch Times. The analysis did not include children younger than 5. Kawasaki disease after COVID-19 vaccination has been reported in the literature, although a study on patients with a history of the disease who contracted COVID-19 or were vaccinated uncovered no signs of problems.

An internal CDC message, now fully unredacted, showed that an official described there being “another CISA ‘inquiry’ about a child with atypical Kawasaki Disease.” Another official said the reports were “very rare” while a third said the normal CDC processes were sufficient to monitor for the disease post-vaccination “unless there’s a specific ask or data need.”

Other removed redactions show that:

A person reporting symptoms after COVID-19 vaccination was reporting that the symptoms included Coxsackievirus and that he himself was the patient. The provider wrote, “I ... don’t know whether to fear another vax more or less than the risk of infection.”

A patient who was reported as suffering heart inflammation after a third Pfizer dose, and came back with the inflammation one year later, was 17 and a male.

The CISA expert who said the woman who suffered chest pain could get additional vaccine doses was Dr. Oster. Previously disclosed emails showed the program repeatedly said people with post-vaccination symptoms should receive more doses.

A patient with “intense malaise” and other symptoms about six months after a Pfizer shot had an elevated heart rate, per a portable electrocardiogram, and sinus tachycardia per a cardiology consultation.

Words and phrases that were redacted originally, but not any longer, include “your daughter”, “hospitalist”, “the parents”, “cardiac workup”, “a physician”, “I believe”, “patient was started on a course of Prednisone”, and “does not drink, smoke, or use any drugs.”

Every single email chain for which redactions were protested was returned with at least some redactions cleared.

The original version claimed that the redactions were appropriate under exceptions outlined in the Freedom of Information Act, including an exception that protects “personnel and medical files and similar files” if their disclosure “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”

A CDC official told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency, after receiving the appeal, conducted a “careful review” and removed some of the redactions. The official did not explain why the CDC wrongly redacted so much information.

The CDC “has provided modified records for the pages listed in your appeal,” an official with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC’s parent agency, told The Epoch Times in an email. Appeals of CDC Freedom of Information Act requests are lodged with the department.

Fits Pattern

Any person can request information through the Freedom of Infection Act (FOIA), and agencies across the government typically redact portions of responsive documents or withhold them entirely. Agencies “often use FOIA exemptions improperly, withholding records simply because they may reveal problems at the agency or just ‘paint the agency in a bad light,’” Melissa Wasser, a lawyer at the Project On Government Oversight, told senators in 2022. People “consistently receive large swaths of arbitrarily redacted information,” she added.

When presented with signs that information was improperly redacted or withheld, people primarily have two options: lodge an appeal or sue.

Both methods have worked to extract information from the CDC during the pandemic.

An Epoch Times appeal in another case, for example, returned a copy that removed significant redactions that were applied to an internal email describing what Pfizer and Moderna told them about studies that were being done regarding heart inflammation and COVID-19 vaccines.

The unredacted information showed that Moderna had not tested samples from vaccine recipients for subclinical myocarditis because it was waiting for a “specific cardiac biomarker [to] be identified.” An outside study from Switzerland later found signs of subclinical heart inflammation in about one out of 35 people.

The CDC acknowledged that the information had been wrongly redacted. It reasoned that the information “cannot be considered confidential” because it was shared before and “is readily available to the public,” although some of the details had never been made public previously.

Among other lawsuits, meanwhile, one led to the release by the CDC of answers from its V-safe surveillance survey while a second prompted the disclosure of what participants wrote in free-text fields after the CDC left off adverse events of special interest from the survey. Some of the data had never before been described publicly, while other information from the system had only been outlined in CDC-authored studies and presentations.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/covid-19-vaccine-emails-heres-what-the-cdc-hid-behind-redactions-5633508?ea_src=frontpage&ea_med=undefined-title-1

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U.S Government Continues to Ignore COVID-19 Externalities--Injured Suffer with Abysmal Compensation Record

Vaccine injury activist Wayne Rohde reports that the track record for COVID-19 vaccine injury compensation continues to demonstrate a complete lack of support for the many people adversely impacted by the COVID-19 countermeasures. For example, take the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), the organization mandated to help individuals hurt by such countermeasures. How many claims have they awarded and reimbursed in 2024—just one.

According to Rohde, author of “The Vaccine Court: The Dark Truth of America’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program,” this abysmal result derives from HRSA’s just released April CICP compensation statistics.

Rohde's, whose son was impacted by a vaccine injury, reports in his blog that “…we should not expect anything positive. Just a pathetic operation. They continue to disappoint.”

In fact, Rohde reports the only compensated petition (accurately described as medical expense reimbursement) marks the 12th comp case overall.

“Just one comp since March 5th. A COVID-19 vaccine causing syncope. A fainting injury. It is still serious. The injured petitioner fainted, fell to the ground, maybe suffering a concussion, highly possible jaw and dental injuries.”

What’s the total for this latest injury? $4,493.00 to cover unreimbursed medical expenses. That makes 12 petitions compensated for a total of $39,203 since 2021.

https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/u.s-government-continues-to-ignore-covid-19-externalities-injured-suffer-with-abysmal-compensation-record-4903593b

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Pfizer ‘Chose Not to’ Tell Regulators About SV40 Sequence In Covid Shots

A senior Health Canada official says pharma giant Pfizer made a conscious decision to not advise regulators that its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine contained a DNA sequence from the Simian Virus 40 (SV40).

This information appears among multiple emails between staff from key drug regulators, including Health Canada (HC), the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The information was obtained through an access-to-information request.

On Aug. 23, 2023, Dr. Dean Smith, a senior scientific evaluator in HC’s Vaccine Quality Division, wrote an email to a colleague at the FDA about SV40.
Health Canada had obtained confirmation two weeks earlier from Pfizer that SV40 DNA sequences were present in its COVID-19 vaccine.
“I understand that there have been internal discussions at CBER [Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research] regarding the presents [sic] of an SV40 enhancer/promoter sequence, noting that its presence is unrelated to the purpose of the Pfizer’s plasmid as a transcription template for their mRNA COVID-19 vaccine,” wrote Dr. Smith.

“Pfizer has communicated to us recently, that they apparently chose not to mention this information to EMA, FDA or HC at the time of their initial or subsequent submissions.”

Dr. Smith added the information had been independently made public in April 2023, via a pre-print study from U.S. scientist Kevin McKernan.

Mr. McKernan, a genomics expert, had found quantities of DNA in the mRNA shots above the regulatory threshold set out by the health agencies. Dr. Smith wrote that the study had resulted in “questions coming to agencies.”

The Epoch Times had contacted HC on the matter on July 17. The first email related to SV40 within Health Canada released in the access-to-information package was sent two days later, on July 19.

In that email, Dr. Tong Wu of HC’s Vaccine Quality Division reached out to his colleague Dr. Michael Wall, a senior biologist evaluator.

“Co [Pham, executive director of HC’s Centre for Vaccines, Clinical Trials and Biostatistics] agreed to have an IAS for the SV40 promoter sequence as we discussed today. We can talk about it tomorrow,” Dr. Wu wrote. “IAS” could be a reference to an Issue Analysis Summary to evaluate a new regulatory affair.

As first reported by The Epoch Times in October, Health Canada was not aware of the SV40 enhancer presence. Since then, the FDA and the EMA have both confirmed they also weren’t aware of its presence.

Health Canada has since maintained that the SV40 enhancer/promoter sequence is a “residual DNA fragment” in Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. “The fragment is inactive, has no functional role, and was measured to be consistently below the limit required by Health Canada and other international regulators,” the agency has repeatedly said.

‘ZERO Checks’

This view has been challenged by Mr. McKernan and others, including Dr. Philip Buckhaults, professor of cancer genomics and director of the Cancer Genetics Lab at the University of South Carolina.

In response to the information released by Health Canada, Mr. McKernan posted a thread on the X platform. “No prior vaccine in Canada has been approved with such a sequence contaminant,” he said.

“Pfizer assured [HC] the sequence is not material to plasmid manufacturing,” he added. “This is an overt lie. You cannot make plasmids without the promoter for the antibiotic resistance gene. It is active in mammalian cells. If it’s not needed, why is it in there?”

Mr. McKernan also noted how HC has asked Pfizer for its Polymerase Chain Reaction (PRC) protocol, saying this means “they have performed ZERO checks on this DNA contamination themselves and are entirely relying on the word of the manufacturer.”

A response to a Canadian Member of Parliament’s question tabled in the House of Commons by Health Canada appears to be line with this observation. “It is important to assess the results using the authorized validated assays performed by the vaccine manufacturers to ensure that the quality of commercial vaccine lots are comparable to lots shown to be safe and efficacious in clinical studies,” said Health Canada in December.

Concerns related to the presence of unintended DNA in the mRNA shots pertain to their potential to integrate into the human genome and cause issues like cancer. The Florida State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo has called for a halt of mRNA shots over these risks.

Health Canada said in March in a document tabled in Parliament that “any claims that the presence of the SV40 promoter enhancer sequence is linked to an increased risk of cancer are unfounded.”

Dr. Buckhaults has started a scientific study to ascertain those integration risks. On April 23, he wrote on X that he had confirmed previous findings that the amount of DNA in mRNA shots exceeds the limit set by regulators.

“Yes, there was more than 10 ng/dose. I am sure of it now,” he wrote while posting his methodology. This is the same threshold applied by Health Canada.

Even if the amount of DNA was below, there are still concerns the threshold was set for regular vaccines and not the new technology using lipid nano particles (LNP).

Dr. Buckhaults wrote that the “10 ng limit is not appropriate for LNP encapsulated DNA,” adding that “as far as I know there have been no safety studies for this situation. It was not possible because of the abbreviated timeline during the emergency you saw authorization.”

Seeking ‘Remedy’

In his August 23 email to the FDA employee, Dr. Smith said HC Canada did not view the SV40 issues as an “urgent risk topic.” However, the official responsible for evaluating the safety of vaccines expressed concerns about how news of the SV40 could impact the upcoming fall 2023 vaccination campaign.
“It would be unfortunate if the information circulating had a negatively [sic] impact on public acceptance of the vaccine this year or in the future,” he said.

Despite being of this view, Dr. Smith said regulating agencies should work to encourage Pfizer to “remedy the situation” before the campaign.

In the email, Dr. Smith said HC believed the upcoming rollout of the fall COVID-19 vaccine campaign meant the agencies should be “on the same page.”

Mr. Smith’s email was written a day after Pfizer provided a response to a Quality Clarifax submitted by HC around the SV40 promoter. If deficiencies are identified in Clinical Trial Applications, HC may request additional information, which is known as a Clarifax.

On August 29, HC senior biologist Dr. Wall wrote an email to senior evaluator Dr. Tong Wu, where he said he and Mr. Smith agreed they should not inform Pfizer of their interaction with the EMA and U.S. FDA on the SV40 promoter, “especially they [sic] do not seem to care much at this moment.”

“However, we can not say nothing! Please see the following text that Julie and I worked out,” Mr. Wall added, before providing a draft comment to Pfizer’s response that was blacked out.

The same day, Dr. Wall also sent an email to Dr. Wu with a draft of the Clarifax questions to be sent to Pfizer, which included the statement, “Health Canada would continue to work with international regulatory partners to achieve harmonisation regarding removal of these sequence elements from the plasmid for future strain changes.”

Pfizer did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times

Commenting on DNA contamination, Health Canada reiterated its previous position on the matter.

“Based on its evaluation of the data and scientific information for the vaccine, Health Canada has concluded that the risk/benefit profile continues to support the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine,” said spokesperson Anna Maddison.

Dr. David Speicher, a Canadian virologist who replicated the findings from Mr. McKernan and Dr. Buckhaults with Canadian mRNA vials, told The Epoch Times he’s preoccupied about what’s been revealed in the internal Health Canada emails. He notes that while Health Canada has dismissed the DNA fragments as biologically inactive with no functional role, they judged worthy to hold discussions with other regulators.

“We know from testing several vials that the level of SV40 enhancer-promoter in the XBB.1.5 booster is at similar levels as the others Pfizer COVID modRNA vaccines, making it just as problematic,” he says. “Pfizer has not cleaned up the vaccine, yet the regulators are sadly more concerned about vaccine uptake in the population rather than the health risks from these vaccines.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/pfizer-chose-not-to-tell-regulators-about-sv40-sequence-in-covid-shots-health-canada-official-5635787

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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