Thursday, December 08, 2022


Here Is How the FDA Made the RSV Wave More Dangerous

Forget Covid-19 and Monkeypox. Respiratory syncytial virus (often shortened to RSV) may be the biggest public health threat this season. RSV is a virus that often results in mild cold-like symptoms for many infected adults. However, it can be deadly for children. RSV is estimated to be responsible for 1 out of 50 children’s deaths globally and 1 out of 56 deaths for children in developed countries.

RSV is rapidly spreading across the US and threatens our youth. The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota reports the highest hospitalization rates for flu (including RSV) in a decade—with children and seniors most affected. California recently reported its first RSV complications-related death for a child. Fearing the worst is yet to come, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed an order extending the Covid-19 emergency declaration to include RSV and other respiratory viruses. Governors in other states could follow his lead.

The younger the patient, the more difficult RSV is to treat. Infants with RSV cannot safely use most medications to treat the virus’s symptoms. Because infants are particularly susceptible to developing bronchitis or pneumonia from RSV, carefully monitoring breathing patterns is vital.

There are very few devices that effectively monitor an infant’s oxygen levels, and many of them are only found in hospitals. There used to be one widely available to parents until the Food and Drug Administration ordered it off the market.

Nearly a year ago, the FDA sent a warning letter to Owlet regarding its Smart Sock—a product that monitored an infant’s pulse and oxygen intake. The letter stated the FDA determined the Smart Sock is a medical device that needed to undergo the agency’s approval process before reaching the market. At the time, Smart Socks had been on the market for five years, boasted a 90 percent accuracy rating according to peer-reviewed research, and helped over 600,000 parents care for their children.

Unable to undergo the time-consuming and expensive process, Owlet released a version of the Smart Sock this January. But the latest version no longer monitors an infant’s heart or lungs. Consequently, the FDA drove parents’ best option to carefully monitor their baby’s vital organ function off the market.

In an article I wrote for the American Institute for Economic Research shortly before the Smart Sock was pulled from store shelves, I warned, “The cost of the agency’s decision is hundreds of thousands of infants going without a highly reliable monitoring device and countless sleepless nights for parents fearing for their children’s health or life.” As RSV sweeps across the country, there will be tragically more of both.

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Could COVID hold key to curing cancer? Virus' notorious spike protein kills hard-to-treat lung tumors in lab studies

The virus has claimed the lives of six million people and caused unprecedented global disruption — but Covid might actually hold clues to curing cancer.

In lab studies, a modified version of Covid's spike protein killed the most treatment-resistant and deadliest form of lung cancer.

The spike protein is the unique part of Covid that is used to infect people as it is the structure that binds to human cells in the first instance.

It could also infect and kill lung cancer cells, as when combined with other cells, the protein can set in motion the process of cells dying.

Kalipada Pahan, professor of neurology at RUSH Medical College in Chicago and lead investigator of the study, said: 'If these results are replicated in lung cancer patients, it would uncover a promising avenue of this devastating disease.

'Intranasal spike S1 protein could be used for late-stage lung cancer when there’s no other therapy to stop the progression.'

The researchers said there have been anecdotal cases of people with lung cancer whose conditions improved after being infected with Covid, which bolsters their theory.

In the study, published in the journal Cancers, the team took a cloned version of the spike protein that is available to buy for scientists.

They then exposed it to non-small cell lung cancer cells from humans in a petri dish. They found that when the protein was added, it sparked the death of the cancer cells.

Next they gave the protein to the mice with established lung cancer by spraying it up their nose every other day, and gave another group of mice a saline solution as a control.

After four weeks, they examined the mice's tumors and found that the number and size of tumors had decreased in the group given the Covid spike.

Lung cancer is the main cause of cancer related deaths in the world, and has quite a low five-year survival rate.

Rates have not improved despite a multitude of therapies for lung cancer.

According to the American Cancer Society, there will be around 236,740 new cases of lung cancer in this year alone.

Non-small cell lung cancer makes up around 84 percent of all lung cancers, found a study.

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Sex, Racial, and Ethnic Representation in COVID-19 Clinical Trials. A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Hong Xiao et al.

Key Points

Question: Compared with their representation in the US population with COVID-19, are female participants and racial and ethnic minority persons underenrolled in COVID-19 prevention and treatment trials?

Findings: In this systematic review and meta-analysis of 122 US-based COVID-19 clinical trials with 176 654 participants, female participants were underrepresented in treatment trials, Asian and Black participants were underrepresented in prevention trials, and Hispanic or Latino participants were overrepresented in treatment trials.

Meaning: These findings show systemwide differences in representation for several key demographic groups in COVID-19 prevention and treatment trials in the US.

Abstract

Importance: Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been calls for COVID-19 clinical trials to be fully representative of all demographic groups. However, limited evidence is available about the sex, racial, and ethnic representation among COVID-19 prevention and treatment trials.

Objective: To investigate whether female participants and racial and ethnic minority individuals are adequately represented in COVID-19 prevention and treatment trials in the US.

Data Sources: Identified studies were registered on ClinicalTrials.gov or published in the PubMed database from October 2019 to February 2022.

Study Selection: Included studies must have provided the number of enrolled participants by sex, race, or ethnicity. Only interventional studies conducted in the US for the primary purpose of the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of (or supportive care for) COVID-19 conditions were included.

Data Extraction and Synthesis: Data on counts of enrollments by demographic variables (sex, race, and ethnicity) and location (country and state) were abstracted. Studies were broadly categorized by primary purpose as prevention (including vaccine and diagnosis studies) vs treatment (including supportive care studies). A random effects model for single proportions was used. Trial estimates were compared with corresponding estimates of representation in the US population with COVID-19.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Sex, racial, and ethnic representation in COVID-19 clinical trials compared with their representation in the US population with COVID-19.

Results: Overall, 122 US-based COVID-19 clinical trials comprising 176 654 participants were analyzed. Studies were predominantly randomized trials (n = 95) for treatment of COVID-19 (n = 103). Sex, race, and ethnicity were reported in 109 (89.3%), 95 (77.9%), and 87 (71.3%) trials, respectively. Estimated representation in prevention and treatment trials vs the US population with COVID-19 was 48.9% and 44.6% vs 52.4% for female participants; 23.0% and 36.6% vs 17.7% for Hispanic or Latino participants; 7.2% and 16.5% vs 14.1% for Black participants; 3.8% and 4.6% vs 3.7% for Asian participants; 0.2% and 0.9% vs 0.2% for Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander participants; and 1.3% and 1.4% vs 1.1% for American Indian or Alaska Native participants. Compared with expected rates in the COVID-19 reference population, female participants were underrepresented in treatment trials (85.1% of expected; P < .001), Black participants (53.7% of expected; P = .003) and Asian participants (64.4% of expected; P = .003) were underrepresented in prevention trials, and Hispanic or Latino participants were overrepresented in treatment trials (206.8% of expected; P < .001).

Conclusions and Relevance: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, aggregate differences in representation for several demographic groups in COVID-19 prevention and treatment trials in the US were found.

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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) Also here

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

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

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

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

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

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Wednesday, December 07, 2022


Victory for lockdown opponent

Governor Kemp credits consistent, good management for his 8-point victory over his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams in their second matchup for the Georgia chief executive office.

In the end, Mr. Kemp was done in neither by the fierce national media criticisms of how he handled Covid, the corporate meltdown over the state’s new voting laws, the massive resources that poured in for Ms. Abrams, nor even by former President Trump’s strident campaign against him in the state’s primary.

“We just had a great record to run on, which obviously I didn’t have last time,” he told the Washington Examiner in an interview. When he ran in 2018, he was only the secretary of state. This time, his record included tax cuts, teacher pay raises and an economy less damaged by Covid than those of many other states.

At a time when Mr. Trump’s word was often golden in so many states’ Republican primaries, Mr. Kemp not only defeated but in fact clobbered his Trump-backed Republican primary opponent, Senator Perdue, by 50 points.

“I told our folks going into the primary, ‘We have a record to run on offensively in this campaign and I don’t ever want to be on the defensive; I want to take the fight to David Perdue and I want to take the fight to Stacey Abrams,’” he explained.

“And that’s what we did. And if you really look back, I think our team did a really good job of keeping them on their heels and keeping things focused on what we were; we never allowed anybody to get us in the weeds on all this other stuff.”

He added: “And we just ignored all the outside noise; stuff she was pushing, stuff the Left was pushing, stuff that President Trump or whoever may have been pushing.”

Mr. Kemp credits how he has handled tough times, both campaigns and outside forces, as moments that paved the way and prepared him for this year. “Ever since I got elected in ‘18, the likelihood of us having a rematch was going to be there,” he said.

“So, we developed our own ground game, our own, really, operation to get the vote out, to go after low propensity voters and swing voters and offered them a message of hope and prosperity that appealed to them.”

Mr. Kemp said he was prepared to be outspent but knew that his team had offered an argument to voters, something for them to vote for and not against, and it served his party well.

“We won every single other constitutional office, and we had a good night with our legislative candidates as well, and we got Herschel (Walker) in a runoff with Warnock,” he said.

“It’s tough beating an incumbent, but anytime you got an incumbent in a runoff in Georgia, there’s an opportunity to knock them off.”

Mr. Kemp went into his first race for governor against Ms. Abrams in 2018 as the underdog, with her as the superstar who ran on becoming the nation’s first black female governor. She failed, but the media favorably covered her high-profile denial of the election result and spurious claims of mass voter disenfranchisement.

Within two years, many outlets were already writing Mr. Kemp's political obituary when he became the target of Mr. Trump’s wrath. Mr. Kemp had enraged Mr. Trump by certifying President Biden’s victorious slate of presidential electors in Georgia.

A few months later, he faced a different form of wrath from Mr. Biden, corporate America and every other news organization in America. They were falsely calling the state’s new voting reform law “Jim Crow 2.0,” even though most of them hadn't even bothered to skim the legislation — they just took Democrats’ word for it.

Major League Baseball went so far as to move the All-Star Game out of the state. As he did then, Mr. Kemp shrugs. “Two of the largest investment companies in the state, Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, really were the ones that started that,” he said of the allegations the voting law would somehow suppress minority vote, “and then obviously Major League Baseball piled on.”

He added that “we had a lot we had to stand up to and push through. But I think when we did that, I stayed really focused on what our people wanted, not what the political pressure and a few people wanted.”

He also didn’t cave under political pressure when he was the first to reopen small parts of the economy during the pandemic — after the first wave of “stop the spread” and “flatten the curve” passed.

“Of the governors that were doing that at that time, I took obviously the most grief,” he said. “At one time, every state around us had their state parks closed or some of their beaches closed, and we never did that,” he said.

As a result, Georgia’s tourism industry held up fairly well even during the worst part of the pandemic. Plus, people were actually able to go out and walk on the beach.

“We had some regulations around that, but people could get out there and do some exercise and give their kids something to do,” Mr. Kemp said. “We had people from other states coming and putting in in our boat ramps because they just needed some sanity to get out on the lake and go fishing or do whatever.”

Mr. Kemp said his approach was to strike the right balance and not get paralyzed by the public health experts. “I know they had a job to do,” and the state’s commissioner of public health, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, “did too, but she was one of the best and well-trained epidemiologists in the world who was advising me,” he said.

“We didn’t do mandates on the vaccine or mask, and we pushed hard to get our kids back in the classroom because both Dr. Toomey and I said early on that we got to think about the livelihood effect of people not having economic viability, not having their kids in the classroom, just how hard that is for parents to have to deal with that with no outlet,” he added.

“I took a lot of grief from it just because of my political situation on other things that were going on with the president and just those politics,” he said. Early in the pandemic, people may forget, Mr. Trump himself and several mayors were very critical of Mr. Kemp’s failure to lock down his state.

“It was a tough time to go through,” said Mr. Kemp. And he left the criticism of Mr. Trump at that. “But also, it was just listening to those folks that were worried about losing their business, and they were worried about where their kids were going. ... What was going to happen to their kids? And that’s really who we were fighting for.”

Mr. Kemp has now filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to create Hardworking Americans Inc., a federal political action committee that he plans on using to help Republican candidates for federal office in Georgia.

He says standing up for policies and principles is just what he does. He adds he doesn’t do it for personal benefit, though sometimes it works out that way.

“In some ways, us standing up to Major League Baseball after we passed the election bill was one of the really first times that somebody started standing up to the woke cancel culture, if you will,” he said.

“We never backed down from that either, which ended up, looking back, really helped me in the primary and in the general.”

Kemp added that he wanted to help other Republicans stand up in similar fashion going forward.

https://www.nysun.com/article/brian-kemp-beat-trump-stacey-abrams-and-the-corporate-left ?

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Surprise: WSJ Uncovers 'COVID Spending' Scandal

One of the eternal truths of politics is that governments are generally very bad at allocating resources efficiently and effectively, especially under the auspices of "emergency." The bigger the government, the more true this reality generally tends to be. Even – or especially – when government intervention or spending is obviously called for, as was the case during the COVID pandemic, shoveling large sums of money out the door as quickly as possible will inevitably lead to the old cliched triumvirate of waste, fraud, and abuse. This recent emergency binge was no exception, witnessing waste, fraud and abuse on a mind-blowing scale.

The Wall Street Journal has uncovered one example of this phenomenon, revealed in a new investigative report:

When Covid-19 struck, the U.S. government gave hospitals tens of billions of dollars to help them cope with the strains of the pandemic. Many of the hospitals didn’t need it. The aid enriched some well-off systems, while failing to meet the needs of many that were struggling, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal financial-disclosure reports. The mismatch stemmed in part from the way the federal government determined how much a hospital should get. A main factor used to allocate relief was a hospital’s revenue, rather than Covid caseload or financial distress. The idea was that revenue was a good indicator of a hospital’s size.

Among the recipients were large, wealthy hospital owners—including some nonprofits—that reported profits from patient care during the periods they got aid. Some were well off enough to put money into investment funds, while others spent on new facilities and expanded campuses. Hundreds of other hospitals that got federal funding, however, reported losses. Some were forced to lay off nurses and make other cuts, saying they didn’t get enough aid to overcome their strains. Some served areas that had among the highest Covid death rates. The revenue-based award system, especially prevalent in the early days of the pandemic, tended to favor hospitals with higher prices

Some mistakes are unavoidable in an undertaking of this scope and magnitude, along a very accelerated timeline, but the Journal piece painstakingly reviews pieces of how "more than $175 billion in aid to a range of healthcare providers, including hospitals, doctors, dentists, clinics, nursing homes and other facilities," mostly within the window of a year-and-a-half stretch. Meanwhile in Florida – where the state government was remarkably effective in the aftermath of the devastation of Hurricane Ian this fall – Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced additional aid from Tallahassee to homeowners in need, after he said FEMA has declined some requests for assistance:

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in Southwest Florida, the region of landfall for Hurricane Ian, that Florida will pay $25 million of its own money for emergency relief in light of FEMA denying the state’s request. “Unfortunately, we got word last week that FEMA had denied our request for funding our state-led housing initiatives, citing their quote ‘limited authority.’ But we’re not just gonna sit there and take no for an answer,” he said. FEMA sent a Dec. 2 letter to the DeSantis Administration issuing denial for a request to expand the state’s housing recovery program: "Due to the limited authorities FEMA has to approve and pay for this type of work, as well as our inability to confirm that authorizing this policy expansion would achieve the intended outcomes for disaster survivors, your request is denied."

I suspect we haven't heard the last of this dispute.

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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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Tuesday, December 06, 2022


Long COVID: How clusters of symptoms have emerged and changed over the pandemic

Since the first COVID "long haulers" were reported in 2020, millions of people have experienced long COVID.

While long COVID has no strict definition, it's generally used to describe an illness following a SARS-CoV-2 infection with symptoms that last at least two to three months.

It can manifest as a whole suite of symptoms ranging from body aches and pains to brain fog, and these can substantially vary between people, says Lou Irving, respiratory physician and head of the Royal Melbourne Hospital's post-COVID clinic.

But under that broad "long COVID" umbrella, clusters of symptoms have emerged, and as the pandemic's worn on, those symptoms have shifted.

Senior respiratory physiotherapist Janet Bondarenko has been working in Melbourne's Alfred Hospital post-COVID clinic since its doors opened two years ago.

Early on, most people referred to the post-COVID clinic had been severely sick and many hospitalised. "We saw a lot of breathlessness in people, and they could only manage walking a few metres at a time," Ms Bondarenko says. "Then we started to see memory and concentration issues."

And while she still sees these symptoms in patients now, she also sees more people with heart-related symptoms. "If they're going from sitting to standing, their heart rate will jump and they'll get palpitations, chest pains, things like that," Ms Bondarenko says.

This is an example of what's known as "autonomic dysfunction", where a part of our nervous system that controls things like blood pressure doesn't work properly.

If a person's blood pressure drops, their heart has to work harder and pump faster to compensate and keep blood moving around the body. This, in turn, produces symptoms such as dizziness and extreme fatigue.

"What's interesting is people now often present with breathlessness, but it's not breathlessness caused by the respiratory disorder," Ms Bondarenko says. "It's breathlessness from fatigue and from this autonomic dysfunction."

New data from Australia's longest-running post-COVID clinic has revealed a high proportion of patients are women in their 40s and 50s, painting a picture of who might be more affected by this emerging condition.

Jason Kovacic, a cardiologist at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, says it's still the case that a very sick person is more likely to develop long COVID, but now people with an extremely mild case can end up in a bad way.

"I have a couple of notable patients who just can't nail down when they had COVID, but they came to the clinic or to the ER with a full hand of long COVID symptoms," Professor Kovacic says.

"They're dizzy, lightheaded, fatigued, and short of breath, and they get to see me because they've got a resting heart rate of 120 and a blood pressure of 90 over 60."

First, Professor Kovacic runs tests to rule out other causes of low blood pressure and fast heart rate, such as myocarditis. "But this group of people tend to have a normal heart that's beating fast with low blood pressure and palpitations and, understandably, a lot of anxiety as well."

Why the shift in symptoms?

Just as different variants (and subvariants) of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have wreaked various levels of havoc on our body, it appears they impart different lingering after-effects too.

"Different strains of the virus are interacting with immune systems differently and triggering different events," Professor Kovacic says.

"The likelihood of getting long COVID was probably double with Delta than what it is with Omicron.

"I think that really speaks to this interaction of what the specific strain of the virus is doing, and how that interacts with the immune system of each person."

Exactly why long COVID develops in some people and not others is still a mystery, but our genetics likely plays a role, as does our history of previous conditions.

Some studies suggest COVID-19 infection can reactivate the Epstein-Barr virus, which causes glandular fever and is linked to chronic fatigue syndrome.

"They're not the same conditions, but there are parallels between chronic fatigue and long COVID, and some of the immune dysfunction that's related to glandular fever is very similar to what happens with long COVID," Professor Kovacic says.

Professor Irving suspects researchers will eventually discover subtypes of sorts within the broader "long COVID" cohort. "I think we'll find there are groups where the virus can activate autoimmune responses, in some people it can activate autonomic responses, and in others it can bring out mental health issues."

While vaccination may lower our risk of developing long COVID, the only surefire way is to not get infected with COVID-19 in the first place.

Management and recovery

The goal for post-COVID clinics is to get people back to their usual activities while managing symptoms.

Treatment depends on each person's symptoms, but recovery typically involves plenty of rest to start, then taking lots of short breaks as activity slowly builds.

Exercise rehab can be helpful too, Ms Bondarenko says, but not for everyone.

"There's two different clusters: some people respond well to exercise but for other people, it could potentially make them worse."

Some people with severe symptoms such as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, a condition where most of your blood remains in your lower body when you stand up, can benefit from medications.

But recovering from long COVID takes time, and for most, that's between six and 12 months, Ms Bondarenko says.

"Often the concentration and brain fog is quite highly linked with fatigue, so once the fatigue starts to get better, all those other symptoms tend to resolve as well. "But it does get better with time, and most people get better."

Professor Irving agrees. "Common roadblocks are frustration, doing too much too soon, which can set you back, and financial worries, because not everyone can afford to take time off.

"But from experience, everybody gets better — it just takes time."

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Mask wearing disrupts decision-making ability, Australian study finds

Mask wearing can seriously disrupt a person’s ability to make decisions, particularly when they feel under pressure, a new Queensland study has found.

Dr David Smerdon of the University of Queensland's School of Economics studied 8500 worldwide chess players aged between 5 and 98, comparing how they played a game of chess both with and without masks on.

After analysing almost three million individual chess moves he found wearing a mask substantially reduced the quality of a player’s decisions.

But the disruption to decision making was also only temporary and players were able to recover from their initial brain fog within four to six hours, before returning to their normal playing capability.

“We found that the early part of the game you’re not playing as well as you usually would,” Dr Smerdon said.

“The data showed masks were more likely to decrease performance in situations where there was a demanding mental task with a high working memory load.

“The decrease in performance was due to the annoyance caused by the masks rather than a physiological mechanism, but people adapted to the distraction over time.

“The results suggest that the effect of masks may depend on the type of task, the duration of the task and working memory load.”

Dr Smerdon said it was important to find out what -if any- kind of effect mask wearing had on the general population, with his initial findings also indicating minimal disruptions to children’s decision making.

“From a methodical point of view, it’s been hard to get evidence on this topic and chess gave us those circumstances as it requires calculation, memory, problem-solving and pattern recognition and has been used extensively in psychology, neuroscience and economics to measure changes in cognitive performance,” he said.

“What surprised me was the level of effect for experts, particularly in very important games, the effect is very large.

“When we looked at just juniors, up to the age of 18 we didn’t find any effects of mask (wearing), and that could be because of the comparison of kids to the overall (study) numbers or maybe because they are just more adaptable.”

Dr Smerdon said understanding the impact of mask wearing could help individuals and organisations, particularly if it becomes mandatory again in future.

“A lot of communities have discussed mask policies since they were introduced,” he said.

“This is something to keep in mind for occupations in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics as well as other professions that demand a high level of working memory such as language interpreters, performers, waiters and teachers.

“For example, education policy makers may need to bear in mind the disruptive effects of masks when designing exam conditions to address concerns about student health and fairness.”

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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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Monday, December 05, 2022



Autopsies Show COVID-19 Vaccination Likely Caused Fatal Heart Inflammation: Study

A serious side effect linked to COVID-19 vaccines can lead to death, according to a new study.

Post-vaccination myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation, was identified in a subset of people who died “unexpectedly” at home within 20 days of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Researchers analyzed autopsies that had been performed on the people and conducted additional research, including studying tissue samples.

Researchers started with a group of 35, but excluded 10 from further analysis because other causes of death were identified. Of the remaining 25, researchers identified evidence of myocarditis in five.

All of the five people received a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine within seven days of their death, with a mean of 2.5 days. The median age was 58 years. None of the people had COVID-19 infection prior to being vaccinated and nasal swabs returned negative.

Autopsy findings combined with the lack of evidence of other causes of death and how the vaccination happened shortly before the deaths enabled researchers to say that for three of the cases, vaccination was the “likely cause” of the myocarditis and that the cardiac condition “was the cause of sudden death.”

In one of the other cases, myocarditis was believed to be the cause of death but researchers detected a herpes virus, an alternative explanation for the incidence of heart inflammation. The remaining case did not include an alternative explanation for the myocarditis but the researchers said the impact of the inflammation was “discrete and mainly observed in the pericardial fat.” They classified the two cases as possibly caused by vaccination.

“In general, a causal link between myocarditis and anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is supported by several considerations,” the researchers said, including the “close temporal relation to vaccination”; the “absence of any other significant pre-existing heart disease”; and the negative testing for any “myocarditis-causing infectious agents.”

Limitations included the small cohort size.

The study (pdf) was published by Clinical Research in Cardiology on Nov. 27. The researchers all work for Heidelberg University Hospital. They were funded by German authorities.

Moderna and Pfizer did not respond to requests for comment.

The meticulous ruling out of possible causes apart from vaccination signals that the cases are “the tip of the iceberg,” Dr. Andrew Bostom, a heart expert based in Rhode Island, told The Epoch Times.

“If there’s a seemingly healthy person that dies suddenly in their sleep, essentially, these are typically the cases that are autopsied, and clearly the most common finding is some form of atherosclerotic coronary heart disease. But they basically ruled that out in these cases. And then they came up with the most plausible proximate cause being vaccination,” he said. “And so it suggests that the phenomenon could actually be broader than it’s been suspected to be.”

Myocarditis

Myocarditis is a serious heart condition that can manifest as chest pain and typically leads the sufferer to seek hospital care. Doctors usually advise against all or most physical activity for a period of time. Causes include bacteria, viruses, and fever.

Acute myocarditis resolves in about half of cases in the first two to four weeks, researchers have found, but another quarter feature longer-term problems and many of the rest lead to death or heart transplantation.

The incidence of myocarditis among COVID-19 vaccine recipients was higher than expected, researchers in the United States, Israel, and other countries have found. The highest rates have been detected in young people, particularly young males.

Estimates of the typical myocarditis incidence rates are 0.2 to 2.2 per million persons within seven days. Reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System show higher rates for males aged 5 to 49 and females aged 12 to 29. The highest rate was 75.9 per million second doses administered. Reports to the system don’t prove causality but the system suffers from severe underreporting, according to studies, indicating the rates are even higher.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to recommend vaccination for virtually all people aged 6 months and older, asserting that the benefits of the vaccines outweigh the risks. Some experts disagree, saying side effects like myocarditis tilt the calculus to the risks being higher in some age groups.

Government officials have repeatedly said that most of the myocarditis cases resolve within weeks, but CDC researchers found in September that many youths who experienced post-vaccination myocarditis still had abnormal MRI results months later.

The incidence has been much lower among older people, according to U.S. authorities, which have refused to make public the autopsy results of people who die after vaccination, and various studies. The new study “suggests we’ve been missing some severe myo[carditis] cases in our studies,” Dr. Tracy Høeg, an epidemiologist who advises the Florida Department of Health, said on Twitter.

Causality

Several vaccines have been linked to myocarditis and a related condition, pericarditis. They are made by Moderna and Pfizer and are the two most widely administered in the United States and Germany.

Both vaccines utilize messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.

Causality means that a vaccine causes a condition.

Top CDC researchers have said (pdf) the current evidence shows a causal link between the mRNA shots and heart inflammation. Other researchers have also reached that conclusion.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns potential vaccine recipients that “postmarketing data demonstrate increased risks of myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly within 7 days following the second dose.”

Bostom said the evidence he’s reviewed shows a causal link.

“It’s as certain as most associations that we say are confirmed in medicine,” he said.

Some studies have identified COVID-19 as another cause of myocarditis and pericarditis, but others have indicated it might not be associated.

Other Autopsy Findings

Before the German study, other researchers around the world had reported findings from autopsies of people who died suddenly after vaccination.

In 2021, U.S. researchers reported two adults developed myocarditis within two weeks of COVID-19 vaccination, and they were unable to find causes other than vaccination.

In 2021, South Korea researchers reported that after examining the death of a 22-year-old man who died five days after receiving the Pfizer vaccine, they determined the primary cause was “myocarditis, causally-associated” with the vaccine.

In January, New Zealand researchers reported that the Pfizer vaccine was probably responsible for sudden myocarditis that led to the death of a 57-year-old woman, writing that “other causes have been discounted with reasonable certainty.”

In February, researchers in several U.S. states reported that two teenage boys who died shortly after receiving Pfizer’s vaccine experienced heart inflammation and that the inflammation was the primary cause of death.

In May, CDC researchers reported that a young boy died after experiencing post-vaccination heart inflammation, with myocarditis being pegged as the cause of death.

In September, a German researcher reported that a 55-year-old who died four months after receiving the Pfizer vaccine died of myocarditis and said “these findings indicate that myocarditis, as well as thrombo-embolic events following injection of spike-inducing gene-based vaccines, are causally associated with a[n] injurious immunological response to the encoded agent.”

And just recently, Japanese researchers reported on results from a 27-year-old man who died 28 days after admission following vaccination.

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UPenn developing ‘multivalent’ flu vaccine that could fight 20 strains

A universal flu shot may be on the horizon. A University of Pennsylvania researcher believes he has created a one-and-done vaccine that could fight against 20 influenza strains and last a patient’s lifetime, the school announced last week.

Dr. Scott Hensley and his team created the “multivalent” vaccine to establish immunity against all known flu strains, but it is not intended to replace the annual flu shots, the researchers explained in their published paper. Yearly shots are tailored to combat the strongest strain that year, but the university’s shot is intended to fight the next massive flu pandemic.

“The idea here is to have a vaccine that will give people a baseline level of immune memory to diverse flu strains, so that there will be far less disease and death when the next flu pandemic occurs,” Hensley said in a statement.

The CDC estimates the flu has caused 52,000 deaths annually between 2010 and 2020.

Researchers created the shot using the same technology Pfizer and Moderna used to make the COVID-19 jab. Rather than providing a “sterilizing” effect on individuals, the universal flu vaccine elicits a “memory immune response that can be quickly recalled and adapted to new pandemic viral strains,” the researchers said.

Hensley and his team have found success testing the jab on mice, even when the animals were exposed to flu strains different from those used in the shots they were given.

The jab could fight 20 influenza strains and last a patient’s lifetime.

The team is planning on testing the universal vaccine on humans soon.

The vaccine is designed for people of all ages, but Hensely told the Philadelphia Inquirer that it would be the most effective when administered to children.

“If the vaccine is given early in childhood, it may provide an initial blessing of induced immunity,” Hensley said.

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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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Sunday, December 04, 2022



Scientist who worked at Wuhan lab says Covid was man-made virus

A scientist who worked closely with a Wuhan lab has claimed Covid was genetically engineered and leaked from the facility.

Dr Andrew Huff, former vice president of EcoHealth Alliance, claims to have had a ringside seat to what he brands one of the greatest cover-ups in history and the “biggest US intelligence failure since 9/11”.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology — a high security lab specialising in coronaviruses — has been in the eye of the storm as questions rage over whether Covid could have escaped from its lab, The Sun reports.

Both China and the lab have furiously denied any allegations, but evidence of a lab leak has been piling up over the last two years as scientists, researchers and governments hunt for answers and step forward with evidence.

Dozens of experts have suggested Covid could have escaped from the Wuhan lab through an infected researcher, improper disposal of waste, or potential breaches in the security at the site.

Even the head of the World Health Organisation reportedly believes Covid did leak from the lab after a “catastrophic accident”.

In his new book — The Truth About Wuhan — whistleblower Dr Huff claims the pandemic was the result of the US government’s funding of dangerous genetic engineering of coronaviruses in China.

The epidemiologist said China’s gain-of-function experiments, carried out with shoddy biosecurity, led to a lab leak at the US-funded Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“EcoHealth Alliance and foreign laboratories did not have the adequate control measures in place for ensuring proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk management, ultimately resulting in the lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” he said in his book, an exclusive prerelease copy of which was provided to The Sun Online.

EcoHealth Alliance had been studying different coronaviruses in bats for more than ten years with funding from the National Institutes of Health and developed close working ties with the Wuhan lab.

Dr Huff, who worked at EcoHealth Alliance from 2014 to 2016 and served as vice president from 2015, worked on the classified side of the research program as a US government scientist.

The army veteran, from Michigan, said the organisation taught the Wuhan lab the “best existing methods to engineer bat coronaviruses to attack other species” for many years.

And he claimed “China knew from day one that this was a genetically engineered agent”.

“The US government is to blame for the transfer of dangerous biotechnology to the Chinese,” he said. “I was terrified by what I saw. We were just handing them bioweapon technology.”

Former intelligence chiefs and diplomats have already claimed Covid was leaked from a Wuhan lab in the “cover-up of the century”.

In 2009, the Wuhan lab started working with the EcoHealth Alliance on a USAID program - called PREDICT - focusing on emerging pandemic threats.

PREDICT was designed to help detect and find zoonotic viruses with pandemic potential - including coronaviruses.

Shi Zhengli - the Wuhan virologist who famously became known as “Batwoman” - hoped the program would create an early-warning system for pandemics.

But in 2014, Dr Huff was asked to review a funding proposal which revealed that gain of function work was being carried out to create SARS-CoV-2 - which causes Covid.

Gain of function work sees viruses souped up to more easily infect humans to help researchers test scientific theories, develop new technologies and find treatments for infectious diseases.

But the risky research method can pose safety and security concerns - and it’s banned in many countries.

It was originally banned in the US in 2014 — but was reintroduced by the NIH in 2017.

Dr Huff realised the EcoHealth Alliance was working closely with the Wuhan lab on gain of function research, with the support of USAID - a US government department.

He soon realised the virus would never occur in nature and had been developed into a much more powerful pathogen in the lab.

Dr Huff believes Covid was genetically engineered in Wuhan through gain of function research funded by the US government - and poor biosafety led to a lab leak.

“EcoHealth Alliance developed SARS-CoV-2 and was responsible for the development of the agent SARS-CoV-2 during my employment at the organisation,” he said.

Although he pointed out he has seen no evidence China deliberately released the virus.

Dr Huff believes the US-funded project was “mostly a global fishing expedition for coronaviruses” to carry out gain of function work or for intelligence collection - rather than preventing future pandemics.

“At the time, I felt like the project seemed more like intelligence collection than scientific research and development,” he said in his book.

The scientist said the PREDICT program wasn’t collecting the data is should have been - and he told The Sun Online it appeared to be a “giant intelligence operation”.

He alleges the US were using the project to assess the bioweapon capabilities of foreign labs - including the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

During a meeting with top executives in 2015 and 2016, Dr Huff said he sounded the alarm over biosafety and biosecurity risks in contract laboratories.

“I was concerned that EcoHealth Alliance did not have enough visibility or first-hand knowledge of what was happening at foreign laboratories contracted and managed by EcoHealth Alliance,” he said.

Dr Huff said US government officials again issued warnings in January 2018 about the Wuhan lab - including the major shortage of experts needed to safely manage research on deadly coronaviruses.

“It could be reasonably argued that EcoHealth Alliance set up China to fail,” he said.

And when Covid emerged in late 2019, he said China “and some of their US government collaborators at the Department of State, USAID, and the Department of Defence went into full cover-up mode”.

Dr Huff said he “has good reason to believe that the US government was alerted to the outbreak in August or October 2019”.

He quit EcoHealth Alliance in 2016 “due to a large number of ethical concerns with the scientific work and EcoHealth Alliance as a whole”.

But in late 2019, he was suddenly offered a position at Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) - and was told he would need top security clearance and a polygraph for the job.

Dr Huff now believes he was approached for the role to keep him quiet about the origins of Covid.

“It is my belief that people working within the US government potentially identified me as a risk to knowing first-hand that the SARS-CoV-2 disease emergence event was a consequence of the US government’s sponsorship of the genetic engineering of SARS-CoV-2 domestically and abroad,” he said in his book.

“If I would have accepted the position, then I suspect that DARPA would have disclosed restricted information to me, which would have consequently prevented me from discussing any of this information publicly, like I have been and am doing now.”

He added: “About a month after the pandemic began, and I was adamant that SARS-CoV-2 was a man-made agent, I suddenly realised what the potential motivation and persistence for recruiting me were.

“The intelligence community realised that I was the only person in a senior position that had left EHA, and the fact I was working outside the government’s control made me a threat to their agenda.”

Dr Huff believes government officials offered him the role so he could be “sworn into silence for the rest of my life”.

As he began to unravel the alleged extensive cover-up by the US government, he said the authorities launched a massive campaign of harassment against him.

He claimed military-grade drones would often appear at his home, he was stalked at the supermarket, and he was followed by unknown vehicles.

Dr Huff has since filed a lawsuit with Renz Law LLC against EcoHealth Alliance in the state of New York.

The National Institutes of Health previously stated in a letter to Congress the bat viruses EcoHealth Alliance were studying in Wuhan could not have become the virus that causes Covid.

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Supreme Court of Italy: Vaccine against covid is mandatory

The Italian Constitutional Court has made a definitive decision on the mandatory vaccination against covid for health workers, employees in the public sector and over 50 years of age.

The judges declared that the obligation protects the right to health, and from today fines will be sent to two million people who did not comply with the vaccination obligation.

After five courts from Brescia, Catania, Padua, Lombardy and the region of Sicily asked the Constitutional Court to consider the legitimacy of the mandatory vaccine, and the proportionality of the sanctions because many people work from home, as due to questions about the safety of the vaccines themselves.

The Constitutional Court ruled that all their requests are unacceptable and confirmed the decision on the mandatory covid vaccine.

Almost two million people over the age of 50 in Italy have not been vaccinated.

At this moment, a fine of 100 euros will be sent to all Italians who were required to be vaccinated. Those categories include health workers, employees of law enforcement as well as employees of the education system, and everyone over the age of fifty.

Namely, on November 30, the deadline expired in which it was possible to submit justifications related to avoiding vaccination, such as health reasons or because a person fell ill with covid at the time when they should have been vaccinated.

Most fines will be sent to residents of the Friuli Venezia Giulia, Calabria and Abruzzo regions.

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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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Friday, December 02, 2022


Unintended Consequence of COVID-19 Vaccines–Permanent Installation of mRNA Genetic Code

When we heard about Operation Warp Speed there was sense of shock and awe. American greatness was poised to strike the “China Virus” and it was going to be defeated in a matter of weeks.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) created a project many years ago called ADEPT Pandemic Prevention Platform (P3) whose stated goal was to “end pandemics in 60 days with mRNA technology.”[i] Our government has had a love affair with mRNA for over a decade for precisely a time such as the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.

Hardly a virus from China, we have learned that Dr. Ralph Baric at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill has been publishing on coronaviruses since the 1990’s. Baric and his consortium including Harvard and two Swiss labs conceived the projects, wrote the federal grants, and once awarded, did their development work in the Wuhan Institute of Virology biosecurity annex level 4. The laboratory built by Stephane Bancel formerly at BioMérieux and now CEO of Moderna, the NIH partner in the mRNA patent.[ii]

I wonder in all the DARPA and NIH meetings that occurred in the last ten years on mRNA, did they ever consider reverse transcription?

If the mRNA stays long enough in the cytosol and is not dissolved by enzymes, the human cell could find base pairs of nucleic acids and create a mirror image of the genetic code which could be brought into the nucleus of the cell for insertion into the human genome. This is such a giant consideration because genetic code for a damaging and lethal protein installed into our own cells permanently would be passed down to somatic daughter cells and from spermatocytes and oocytes to an embryo.

Forever changing the human genome for future generations must have been a large part of the safety discussion in those DARPA and NIH transcripts—only investigation and release of documents will tell the story. In the meantime, Alden et al have demonstrated integration of the center 444 base pair amplicon or reporter region from the Pfizer vaccine into the human nucleus in a hepatoma cell line.[iii] This paper has not been challenged by any credible authority nor disproven by any other experiments.

Kyriakopoulos et al (including Dr. McCullough) have illustrated what the ramifications would be for those cells that have been permanently installed with Pfizer or Moderna genetic code.[iv] In addition to the nine well recognized effects of the Spike protein in the human body, one of the potential consequences is oncogenesis. By suppression of the natural tumor surveillance system(s) in even one cell, it is conceivable that reverse transcription could lead to cancer with a single ill-advised injection of mRNA if it was delivered to a cancer-prone cell line in a susceptible person.

At this time, it is fair to say reverse transcription of mRNA into the human genome is still theoretical. But it should be clear that more studies by independent laboratories should be funded immediately. The implications given the massive numbers of recipients are simply too large to ignore this long-term safety concern.

So the next time you see your doctor, ask him or her if they took an mRNA vaccine. When they say yes, ask them if they considered reverse transcription when the needle plunged into the arm. Did they ever think they would be changed permanently? When brushed aside with “the CDC says mRNA does not change the human genome” then forward this issue of Courageous Discourse and suggest a life-altering a five-minute read.

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FDA Trying to Rewrite COVID History on Prohibiting Ivermectin, Dr. Atlas Says

Boyden Gray & Associates filed a lawsuit in June on behalf of three doctors who allege that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) illegally interfered with their doctor–patient relationships, resulting in harm. They also claim that the FDA broke the law when the agency issued statements prohibiting the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19.

In response to the lawsuit, lawyers for the FDA claimed that its guidance for people to “stop” taking ivermectin for COVID-19 was informal and just a recommendation; as such, they weren’t mandating against it.

However, in an interview that aired on NTD’s “Newsmakers” on Nov. 23, Dr. Scott Atlas, a senior fellow in health care policy at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, confirmed that the FDA did, indeed, take an “unprecedented” approach against ivermectin and said that their defense amounts to the FDA trying to rewrite COVID-19 history.

“This is unprecedented, frankly, in my 30 years as a doctor, where the use of an FDA-approved drug was somehow forbidden if you used it for off-label,” Atlas stated. “In the United States, that’s standard of care.”

The standard of care, Atlas explained, is that once the FDA approves a drug, doctors are allowed to use the drug to treat other conditions.

Atlas added that ivermectin was approved by the FDA and was found to be “so safe” that “billions of doses have been given.” He said that ivermectin is available over the counter in many countries without a doctor’s prescription.

“This was really a shocking interference of the ability of a doctor to do his job,” Atlas said.

Rewriting History

When asked why the FDA was attempting to rewrite history by stating that its guidance against ivermectin was a recommendation only, Atlas said that the rewrite on ivermectin is just the beginning.

“What we’re seeing is a complete Orwellian rewrite of all kinds of things during this pandemic,” Atlas told NTD. “Many colleagues of mine were always saying the truth will prevail. And once the truth comes out, that some of these drugs were either useful or safe … there’s a lot of ‘cover your behind.’”

Atlas then alleged that the FDA didn’t just forbid ivermectin. Instead, its language was such that pharmacists and pharmacies refused to fill prescriptions from doctors. Such a stance was “really unprecedented,” Atlas said.

Further, Atlas said, there’s an overall “Orwellian rewrite of what the advice was on a bigger picture.”

He pointed out that Dr. Deborah Birx, former White House COVID-19 response coordinator, claims that she opposed lockdowns, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, claims he opposed school closings.

Circling back to ivermectin, Atlas said the FDA’s prohibiting its off-label use to treat COVID-19 was “one of the bigger failures of the [National Institutes of Health (NIH)].”

“The NIH could have done definitive clinical trials in the Spring of 2020. Instead, they blocked those trials; they made people afraid of those drugs, so that even when trials were attempted, patients were not willing to enter into those trials,” he said.

Atlas then stated unequivocally that the position taken by the NIH and the FDA was an unethical abuse of public health.

Doctors File Suit; FDA Responds

Plaintiffs in the case against the FDA include Dr. Robert Apter, Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, and Dr. Paul Marik. Lawyers for the plaintiffs allege that the FDA violated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

The lawyers also noted that if the court doesn’t rule against the FDA violating its statutory lane and unlawful actions, the FDA will continue to interfere with the practice of medicine.

Atlas agreed:

“Depending on the outcome of these, there will either be a real chilling of what doctors can say and do for patients—complete interference, in a doctor’s ability to help a patient! Or, if the lawsuits go the other way, we will hopefully see a restoration of freedom of medical practice.”

Atlas said that doctors are afraid to be honest with their patients because of what the NIH and FDA have done over the past few years.

“The cited statements were not directives. They were not mandatory. They were recommendations,” Isaac Belfer, one of the lawyers for the FDA, said during a Nov. 1 hearing in federal court in Texas. “They said what parties should do.

They said, for example, why you should not take ivermectin to treat COVID-19. They did not say you may not do it, you must not do it. They did not say it’s prohibited or it’s unlawful. They also did not say that doctors may not prescribe ivermectin.”

As further evidence that the FDA didn’t “prohibit” ivermectin’s use, Belfer added, “The plaintiffs, by their own admission, have continued to prescribe ivermectin. So they always had the authority. It may be that patients were not able to fill prescriptions, but the doctors themselves always had the authority.”

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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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Thursday, December 01, 2022



Slew of Unusual Adverse Events Becoming More Common After COVID Vaccine Rollout

If we go to a doctor or clinic for a vaccination, be it an influenza shot or a COVID-19 vaccine, we go with the expectation that it is safe.

We usually dismiss mild symptoms, such as headaches, fever, pain, and redness at the injection site, since we are typically informed of them beforehand and expect them to be transient in duration. Thankfully, most of the time, people recover from them and proceed with their lives as before.

However, since the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, a significant proportion of vaccinated people have experienced many unusual adverse events. Doctors are raising concerns. Public health officials and vaccine manufacturers are also addressing the high incidence of blood clots, myocarditis, pericarditis, and menstrual irregularities.

Yet, there are thousands more documented health conditions reported to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)—some appearing very frequently—that have not yet been given the same level of attention.

Since their rollout, COVID-19 vaccines have prompted more VAERS adverse event reports than all VAERS reports made in the previous 30 years, comprising over 55 percent of vaccine injury and death reports. These reports have thousands of different adverse event labels.

Although nearly 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccine injury and death reports have been made to VAERS, studies say the true number of adverse reactions is many times higher. The 2005–2009 HHS-funded Harvard Pilgrim study found that less than 1 percent of adverse events following 1.4 million vaccines administered were reported to VAERS; several independent analysts estimate that only 2.5 percent of COVID vaccine adverse reactions are reported to VAERS.

The system is also notorious for its redundancy: injection site swelling, vaccine site swelling, and swelling are recorded as separate events, and a person reporting to the system may select one or all three events.

Another study found that more serious adverse events are more likely to be reported.

This article examines several now-common adverse events following COVID vaccination. The figures are from the most recent update on Nov. 18, 2022

General Adverse Events:

General adverse events following COVID vaccination are the most common. This is reflected in both VAERS reports and Pfizer’s post-market adverse event reports.

Fatigue: Though fatigue is a common side effect for many vaccines, it is concerning and debilitating if prolonged. At least 121,200 cases of chronic fatigue have been reported to VAERS after injection with the COVID-19 vaccine, of which around 40 percent, or more than 49,000 cases, are reported as unrecovered.

Asthenia: Though often used synonymously with fatigue, asthenia defines a sense of weakness and lack of mental and physical energy. More than 34,000 cases have been reported, mostly in adults aged 30 or older, with almost 41 percent reported as unrecovered.

Death: More than 12,000 cases of deaths have been reported to VAERS following COVID-19 vaccinations. Independent researchers point to the varying ingredients and batch inconsistency of these vaccines. They also mention that it may be driven by blood clots and arterial blockages. Research funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) speculates that anaphylaxis (severe allergic reactions), among other adverse events, may have contributed to such deaths. More than 25 percent of these reported deaths occurred within the first seven days after vaccination.

Night sweats: Night sweats, with 3,100 cases reported, are far less common after vaccination than excessive sweating, with more than 24,000 cases reported. Although night sweats independent of other symptoms are usually benign, this should be paid attention to if they become prolonged, disturb sleep, and come with other symptoms such as fatigue and weight loss.
Immunological Adverse Events

COVID-19: Listed as the ninth most common adverse event, more than 68,000 cases of COVID-19 infection following vaccination have been reported to VAERS. Several studies have indicated that a few months after administration of mRNA vaccines, individuals’ immunity to symptomatic COVID infections fall from positive efficacy—with immune defense present—to negative efficacy (studies 1, 2). Scientists generally understand negative efficacy in vaccines to mean that the vaccine would “induce a greater degree of susceptibility” to the disease in “vaccinated individuals relative to unvaccinated individuals.”
Therefore, negative efficacy indicates that the effects of the shots will not just wane, but also that a vaccinated individual is more susceptible to COVID than an unvaccinated person.

All of the COVID vaccines are designed to expose the body to a spike protein—a distinctive structural feature of the COVID virus that has an essential role in its pathogenesis—and studies have shown that exposure to the protein can cause immune cells to become less reactive and switch off important first-line immune pathways, which may lead to an untimely response in the event of infection (studies 1, 2, 3). Additionally, a new study found that when mice were injected with the lipid nanoparticles used in mRNA vaccines, cell count and immune responses were reduced in their first- and second-line cells, respectively

Herpes zoster virus (VZV): More than 7,700 reports of VZV infection following COVID vaccination have been reported. It is not specified if these cases are new infections or relapses; several studies (1, 2) have documented relapse of the virus in COVID-vaccinated individuals. Relapse of latent viruses such as VZV from vaccinations has previously been quite rare, and often occurs later in life or when the infected individual is frail, and is therefore often seen as a sign of immunosuppression.

Hypersensitivity: More than 4,900 cases of allergic responses have been reported. Allergic responses are mechanistically related to inflammation, causing swelling, redness, itchiness, and, in the cases of anaphylaxis, difficulty breathing. Allergic responses after vaccinations can be triggered by the contents of the vaccines.

Inflammation: Inflammation is a common physical response activated whenever the body experiences an injury or encounters something foreign or toxic. Any disease or condition where a person experiences pain, redness, swelling, and even difficulty breathing is very likely driven by inflammation. Studies on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein have shown that it is highly inflammatory. This mechanism can therefore provide a cause for many of the symptoms reported after vaccination.

Neurological Symptoms

Changes in sensation: This includes onset of the “pins and needles” sensation (more than 25,500 reports) and loss of sensation (more than 24,300 reports) following COVID-19 vaccination. These can be signs of neural disease, injury, or reduced blood flow to the neurons, leading to neural dysfunction.

Pain: Pain at the injection site is a common adverse event from vaccination. However, pain in the extremities (more than 78,000 reports) and neuralgia—sharp nerve pain—(more than 2,900 reports) can be a sign of neural injury or possibly autoimmunity. Studies have linked neuralgia with mRNA and adenovirus vaccines, although the causes are not well understood (studies 1, 2).

Tinnitus: Overactivity of the auditory nerves can cause ringing in the ears. Tinnitus has rarely been reported following previous vaccinations but is highly prevalent among people who received the COVID-19 vaccines. COVID vaccine-related cases comprise more than 16,000 of the roughly 19,900 vaccine-related tinnitus cases reported to VAERS. An increasing amount of research is being done on vaccine-associated tinnitus.

Insomnia: Sleep problems are a fairly common adverse event, described as due to hyperactivity of the brain, with more than 9,800 cases reported. It is likely that some of these insomnia cases are related to vaccine-associated tinnitus, which can impact sleep.

Tremor: Described as involuntary shaking or movement, tremors associated with COVID vaccines are estimated to affect 0.002–0.02 percent of the vaccinated population. Though tremors themselves usually do not cause health problems, they are commonly associated with other neurological diseases including Parkinson’s disease. Other common post-vaccine symptoms such as muscle spasms and twitches can be confused for tremors, but muscle spasms are involuntary muscle contractions, and muscle twitches are fine movements of a small portion of a large muscle. So far, more than 15,000 cases of tremor have been reported to VAERS.

Anxiety: As a psychiatric symptom reportedly affecting more than 9,000 people after COVID vaccination, anxiety is hypothesized to be due to an imbalance of the emotional control centers in the brain, and has been associated with altered chemical levels.

Brain fog: The VAERS database has over 6,700 cases of vaccinated people reporting confusional states, with over 2,200 reporting memory impairment and over 560 reporting thinking problems. “Brain fog” is a colloquial term that describes a bundle of symptoms often including but not excluded to confusion and dysfunction in thinking, memory, focus, and clarity. A 2020 study on mice published by Nature showed that spike proteins can cross the usually impervious blood-brain barrier. Another study documenting several autopsies on vaccinated individuals found spike proteins in neurons and the blood vessels in the brain.

Changes in taste and smell: After COVID vaccination, many people report a loss of taste (more than 5,500) and smell (more than 4,400), or a change in taste (more than 4,900), and olfactory alterations where something that once smelled pleasant is perceived as smelling foul; these symptoms are similar to those experienced by many individuals infected with COVID. These changes can occur independently and can impact a person’s enjoyment of food, causing possible weight loss. They can also be a sign of neurodegeneration or deterioration.

Bell’s palsy: This is a relatively rare and usually temporary condition where facial muscles become paralyzed or weak, often resulting in a face droop. It is usually associated with viral infections and is caused by inflammation or swelling of the facial nerves. The condition usually affects one side of the face, though in rare cases, both sides can be affected. So far, more than 3,700 cases have been reported to VAERS. A 2022 paper evaluating 17 reports on Bell’s palsy and the COVID-19 vaccine found that affected individuals typically experience paralysis on the left side of their face, which can occur up to 48 days of vaccination. This has also been reported in Pfizer’s post-market adverse event report. The condition is usually harmless and can usually be reversed, though symptoms may return.

Musculoskeletal Conditions

Musculoskeletal symptoms: These are well documented in relation to the COVID-19 vaccines, including weakness and stiffness in the muscles and joints, impaired mobility, and balance problems and falls. A study published in BMJ found that 66 people experienced short-term inflammation in the joints 11 to 13 days after vaccination, despite having no history of previous or related symptoms. The vaccine may also be able to trigger autoimmune musculoskeletal diseases; in one study that followed 1,519 people with musculoskeletal diseases, 5 percent experienced a flare-up and 0.1 percent experienced severe symptoms following vaccination.

Cardiovascular Adverse Events

Heart palpitations: Over 16,300 cases of palpitations, described as faster, louder, or irregular heart pulses, have been reported to VAERS. Complaints of palpitations are common and usually benign. They are often associated with anxiety, but can be a sign of concerning and potentially life-threatening problems including tachycardia and tachyarrhythmia.

Hypertension: Over 7,700 cases of hypertension (high blood pressure), which is associated with and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, have been reported. A review that analyzed six studies of 357,387 individuals found that 3.2 percent—13,444 patients—reported abnormal or higher blood pressure after COVID vaccines. Another hypertension report found that nine hypertension patients increased blood pressure to stage 3 hypertension—blood pressure higher than 180/110—within minutes after vaccination (pdf).

Tachycardia: This is a concerning condition that occurs when a person’s heart rate increases past 100 beats a minute. It is a strong predictor of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, with more than 7,000 cases reported to VAERS.

Pallor: Contrary to the effects of high blood pressure, pale facial features indicate reduced blood flow and are warning signs of low blood pressure. This is especially concerning if the pallor is sudden, as the person may faint from a sudden drop in blood pressure, and it could also be a sign of anaphylaxis. Over 6,300 cases of pallor have been reported.

Blood clots: The FDA has mostly focused on the association between the J&J COVID vaccine—which employs a disabled adenovirus rather than mRNA—and increased risk of blood clot formation. VAERS has documented over 5,100 reports of blood clots reported after COVID vaccinations, but blood clots reported after Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccine administration take up the majority of these reports, with over 3,900 cases.
mRNA vaccines have been administered much more broadly than adenovirus vaccines. Studies have shown that the mRNA vaccines’ spike protein is able to bind to red blood cells and thus may cause the formation of blood clots (studies 1, 2).

Along with blood clots, more than 3,800 cerebrovascular events, more commonly known as strokes, have also been reported. Strokes are usually caused by clots in the blood vessels supplying the brain.

Myocarditis: Despite many media reports and research on post-COVID-vaccine myocarditis, out of all the cardiovascular adverse events listed in this article, myocarditis had the lowest number of events reported. More than 2,800 cases are reported, with serious cases comprising almost 70 percent of all myocarditis reports. It is likely that many mild myocarditis cases have not been reported or haven’t been diagnosed. According to VAERS data, young males under the age of 40 who have received mRNA vaccines appear to be more affected than any other group. Depending on the seriousness of the case, patients may be able to make a full recovery. Chronic myocarditis, however, is associated with enlargement of the heart and other cardiac problems, all of which may lead to cardiovascular diseases further down the line.

Pulmonary Adverse Events

Pneumonia: More than 5,000 cases of COVID-19 pneumonia and 4,100 cases of pneumonia have been reported following COVID vaccination, both of which are signs of a weak or dysregulated immune system (studies 1, 2), as people with a strong immune system are normally able to clear out a pulmonary infection before it progresses into inflammation and fluid retention in the pulmonary air sacs. COVID vaccines can induce or exacerbate pneumonia (studies 1, 2) and inflame the lungs after vaccination (studies 1, 2). The biopsy of a vaccinated person found spike protein present in the lung cells nine months after the individual was vaccinated. According to the report, the patient had suffered respiratory symptoms since vaccination.

Pulmonary embolism: This is a serious condition where blood clots are formed in the blood vessels in the lungs, which can reduce blood flow to the lungs, cause tissue damage, and therefore impair lung function and reduce blood oxygen levels. Affected individuals may cough frequently and experience difficulty breathing. At least two case studies have documented pulmonary embolisms after COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States (studies 1, 2). Pulmonary embolisms have also been reported after COVID-19 infections, but a study showed that there is very little literature to support the theory that infection greatly increases the risk of this condition. More than 3,700 cases have been reported after vaccination.

Acute respiratory failure: With more than 3,200 reports after vaccination, this life-threatening condition occurs when a person’s lungs cannot meet oxygen demand or are unable to adequately remove carbon dioxide. Depending on the trigger, physicians may be able to reverse the condition.

Endocrine-Related Adverse Events

Menstrual changes: More than 11,500 people have experienced cases of menstrual changes after COVID-19 vaccinations. This includes menstruation that is abnormally heavy, prolonged, more frequent, irregular, inconsistent, or light, and cessation of menstruation. These changes are more commonly observed in menopausal women aged 45–55, and perimenopausal women, usually 40 to 44 years of age. However, these events are also reported in children and adolescents. Alarmingly, several cases include 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds, women aged 60 to over 80, and, in very rare instances, infants—all of whom are people who should not be menstruating. The menstruation cycle is a carefully orchestrated rise and fall of estrogen and progesterone, and a sudden change can be indicative of endocrine dysfunction, formation of fibroids—muscular tumoral growths in the uterus—or other less common but concerning health problems.

Hot flashes: These sudden sensations of heat in the face, neck, and upper body typically occur in females during menopause, when estrogen and progesterone levels fall. Though far less common, hot flashes (or hot flushes) can also happen during menstrual cycles, mostly affecting women in their 40s who are experiencing perimenopause. VAERS contains 1,241 reports of hot flashes among women and girls of pre-menopausal age, including 31 cases in girls aged 6 to 17. There are also 727 cases reported in men. Studies on men have shown that hot flashes are usually due to reduced testosterone, such as may occur during hormonal-suppressant cancer therapy or because of testicular dysfunction. (studies 1, 2).

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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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Wednesday, November 30, 2022



Elon Musk scraps Twitter's Covid misinformation policy that censored tweets questioning vaccines and lab leak origin theory

Twitter has dropped its COVID-19 misinformation policy as part of new owner Elon Musk's pro-free speech agenda for the platform.

Last night, some Twitter users noticed that the change had been implemented on November 23. They had seen a post on the 'transparency' page of the company's website which said: 'Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misinformation policy.'

Twitter developed the rules in 2020 to filter out 'harmful misinformation' about COVID and vaccines. They were able to censor and label tweets deemed to contain misleading information that the company considered posed considerable harm to public health.

Between January 2020 and September 2022, Twitter suspended more than 11,200 accounts for breaking their policy as well as removing nearly 100,000 pieces of content.

It comes as Musk vowed to soon reinstate previously banned Twitter accounts which could include some of the 11,000 suspended under the previous coronavirus rules.

The platform had labeled one of Trump's tweets about coronavirus in the past but the policy has now been outlawed
The platform had labeled one of Trump's tweets about coronavirus in the past but the policy has now been outlawed

Upon his multi-billion-dollar takeover of Twitter, Mr Musk billed the social media giant as a bastion for free speech. He wanted to reduce content moderation on the site due to this, something that critics warned would lead to a spike in abuse, harassment and other harmful behavior.

He has also voiced his plans to reinstate some of the most controversial accounts, calling for 'general amnesty.'

Prominent figures on the platform who had been banned in the past for violating Twitter's anti-misinformation policy have since been reinstated, including Georgia far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green.

Rep Green attacked the platform's decision to freeze her account last January, tweeting from her congressional account: 'I'm the only Member of Congress the unelected big tech oligarchs permanently banned... On January 2, 2022, they violated my freedom of speech and ability to campaign & fundraise crying 'covid misinformation.''

The reason for the major policy change as well as its quiet debut remain unclear. The billionaire has proven a staunch opponent of draconian social distancing measures and vaccine mandates over the past couple of years.

Mr Musk backed an anti-vaccine mandate protest , writing 'Canadian truckers' rule, in response to a January demonstration.

In September 2020, Mr Musk said that he would decline the Covid vaccine because 'I'm not at risk for Covid, nor are my kids.' He has since been vaccinated against Covid.

The billionaire also urged for an end to early 'fascist' isolation practices that he said in April 2020 constituted ''forcibly imprisoning people in their homes' against all their Constitutional rights.'

Since Mr Musk's takeover, Twitter has seen a spike in transphobic, antisemitic, racist, and otherwise offensive speech.

His decision to outlaw the coronavirus misleading information policy comes as America is still seeing 305,000 cases and 2,600 deaths a week, according to the CDC.

He has also made a huge number of other changes at Twitter to misinformation policies and procedures.

One change announced days ago was that suspended Twitter accounts will be offered an 'amnesty' from this week after a poll revealed a landslide of users support the move.

The Twitter CEO, who completed a $44 billion takeover in October, said accounts for users will be restored as long as they have not broken the law or spammed people on the social media site.

The declaration opens up the possibility that thousands of suspended accounts will be immediately reinstated. It has not been revealed if there will be a vetting process before the reactivation or if there will be a mass reactivation.

Musk has already restored Donald Trump, Kanye West, Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson and Marjorie Taylor Green's accounts. It is likely that he could also reinstate other controversial Twitter accounts including figures such as Steve Bannon, Wiley and Katie Hopkins.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Mr Musk has also dramatically reduced the size of the team devoted to tackling child sexual exploitation on the platform.

The report suggests that the team of specialists that review and escalate reports of child sexual exploitation has more been halved.

Last week, Mr Musk tweeted that 'removing child exploitation is priority £1'.

And earlier this month, in another change, Musk fired Twitter contractors responsible for battling misinformation on the site. The social media giant fired its contractors that track hate and other harmful content.

Musk said on Oct. 29 he would set up a content moderation council with 'widely diverse viewpoints'.

Meanwhile, in the early days after Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late October and dismissed its board of directors and top executives, the billionaire Tesla CEO sought to assure civil rights groups and advertisers that the platform could continue tamping down hate.

Musk's decision to drop the Covid-19 misinformation policy has materialized after he came under fire previously for expressing controversial opinions on vaccines and coronavirus. He said in 2020 that fears of the virus were 'dumb' and falsely claimed that children were 'essentially immune' before branding lockdowns 'fascist.'

But he backtracked in 2021, saying on Twitter: 'I do support vaccines in general and covid vaccines specifically' and said that 'rare' allergic reactions can be 'easily addressed.'

He wrote: 'To be clear, I do support vaccines in general & covid vaccines specifically. The science is unequivocal.

'In very rare cases, there is an allergic reaction, but this is easily addressed with an EpiPen.'

He had previously stirred up concerns about vaccine safety when he suggested that the second dose could be harmful.

Musk was replying to a post someone had shared about their parents' refusing to get the vaccine 'based on stuff they saw on Facebook.'

He appeared to add fuel to the so-called 'Facebook brainwashing effect' cited by the social media user when he raised concerns about 'quite a few negative reactions' to the second shot.

It came after the lab leak was censored and denounced by Twitter as a possible cause for how the coronavirus pandemic started- but is now one of the leading theories.

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Bombshell as two Australians WIN their Supreme Court case over Covid fines - and it means as many as 45,000 penalties could be struck down

Thousands of Covid-19 fines worth millions of dollars could be ruled invalid after two Sydneysiders won a landmark test case in the New South Wales Supreme Court.

The man and woman claimed their infringement notices were issued in such vague terms they could not be legally enforced and would be difficult, if not impossible, to challenge in front of a magistrate.

On Tuesday morning, barrister David Kell SC for the Commissioner of Police told the Supreme Court the pair's Covid penalty notices would no longer be enforced.

'These two notices do not sufficiently state or describe the offences in general terms,' Mr Kell said.

The two claimants, Brenden Beame and Teal Els, will have their fines refunded. A fine issued to a third claimant, Rohan Pank, had already been repaid.

The ruling could set a precedent that sees many of more than 45,000 unpaid penalty notices for Covid-related public health order breaches in NSW withdrawn.

Kate Richardson SC, for the claimants, said there were 32,648 fines - totalling almost $33million - issued for the same reason as that given to Mr Beame so 'in all likelihood' they too would be declared legally invalid if challenged.

She has asked Justice Dina Yehia to publish detailed reasons for the fines being declared invalid to make it 'absolutely plain' why they were withdrawn.

'This is a case that has ramifications beyond Ms Els and Mr Beame,' Ms Richardson said.

Ms Els was fined $3,000 for unlawfully participating in an outdoor public gathering.

A class action in NSW could now go ahead and similar law suits would likely be pursued in other states. There were 19,000 fines handed out in Victoria for breaches of Covid lockdown laws, and tens of thousands across the rest of Australia.

Redfern Legal Centre ran the case against the NSW Police Commissioner and Commissioner of Fines Administration on behalf of Mr Beame and Ms Els.

Mr Pank had his $1,000 fine withdrawn in July after the administrative law court action was launched.

When the matter was before in court in July it was heard if the claims succeeded fines worth millions of dollars issued across NSW could be invalidated.

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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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