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(slightly skeptical) Educational society promoting "Back to basics" movement against IT overcomplexity and bastardization of classic Unix |
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Programmers and system administrators are mass profession. There were approximately 435K programmers in the USA in 2006. I think number of system administrators are roughly the same, so we can speak about the labor army of one million people.
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Contrary to superficial impression of individual cubicles and nice environment, IT is actually very unhealthy profession. With a high chance to be unemployed after 50. More often then not, there are periods of considerable stress. Some are caused by catastrophic failures of hardware equipment, some by unrealistic schedules and workloads, some by own errors of particular programmer or sysadmin.
Overtime is common. Job security is deteriorating as outsourcing is rampant. Environment changes way too fast, and not always for good. Fashion rules (remember The Devil Wears Prada). Toxic managers are common (remember Office Space ;-)
So sooner of later a programmer need to face "medical-industrial complex" of the USA. And this is a dangerous "for profit" beast with tremendous appetite which maims and kills annually considerable amount of people. Living under Neoliberalism with its "greed is good" mentality and "homo homini lupus est" slogan is indeed dangerous and requires knowledge of elementary "self-defense". Hippocratic oath no longer applies to medical profession in the USA. Most doctors still follow it, but there real sharks among them (with some ending their careers in jail like regular criminals) and you need to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Especially rampant abuse is with cardiac stents (Overuse of Cardiac Stents Linked to Patient Deaths) with around a dozen of cardiologists serving jail terms (see for example Stent doctor Salisbury stent doctor sentenced to federal prison )
As USA Today reported (Doctors perform thousands of unnecessary surgeries):
Since 2005, more than 1,000 doctors have made payments to settle or close malpractice claims in surgical cases that involved allegations of unnecessary or inappropriate procedures, according to a USA TODAY analysis of the
U.S. government 's National Practitioner Data Bank public use file, which tracks the suits. About half the doctors' payments involved allegations of serious permanent injury or death, and many of the cases involved multiple plaintiffs, suggesting many hundreds, if not thousands, of victims.
Journal of the American Medical Association reviewed records for 112,000 patients who had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), a pacemaker-like device that corrects heartbeat irregularities. In 22.5% of the cases, researchers found no medical evidence to support installing the devices."Don't just take a doctor's word," says Patty Skolnik, who founded Citizens for Patient Safety after her son, Michael, died at 22 from complications in what she says was unnecessary brain surgery. "Research your doctor, research the procedure, ask questions, including the most important one: 'What will happen if I don't get this done?'"
A 1982 study in the journal Medical Care found that a mandatory second opinion program for Massachusetts Medicaid patients led to a 20% drop in certain surgeries, such as hysterectomies, that were considered more likely to be done unnecessarily. A 1997 study in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons looked at 5,601 patients recommended for surgery and found that second opinions found no need for the operation in 9% of the cases. Among those who got the countervailing second opinion, 62% opted not to have the operation.
But many patients simply aren't inclined to question their doctors.
"We expect the physician to know what's best for a patient," says William Root, chief compliance officer at Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals. "
We put so much faith and confidence in our physicians, (and) most of them deserve it. But when one of them is wrong or goes astray, it can do a lot of damage."
Chronic stress, overload, long hours, unhealthy diet and other environmental factors deeply and negatively affects the lifestyle of programmers and system administrators. So there is nothing surprising that despite pretty comfortable work conditions many programmers/system administrators suffer from assortments on various diseases. Like other workers who spend long periods in front of a computer terminal typing at a keyboard, programmers are susceptible to:
Additional health problems are typical for those who experience constant stress and/or are typical "diseases of civilization". Among them
Also many programmers/sysadmins works as contractors and either do not have health insurance or have very basic health insurance. This is typical for young programmers and those who are over 50 and were let go on their previous jobs die to outsourcing
Low and middle income US citizens spends far more on health care than any other country but gets only mediocre care in return for its investment. The U.S. national average score on 37 separate measures of health care falls far short when compared either to a few centers of excellence within the country, or to other countries, the report from the Commonwealth Fund found. And that's true not only in terms of mortality statistics but also in terms of quality of life.The main problems with US healthcare are:
A new University of Michigan Health System study of about 8,000 adolescents and young adults shows the degree and duration of carrying extra pounds are important risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes in adulthood.
"Our study finds that the relationship between weight and type 2 diabetes is similar to the relationship between smoking and the risk of lung cancer," says study lead author Joyce Lee, M.D., M.P.H., a pediatric endocrinologist at U-M's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. "The amount of excess weight that you carry, and the number of years for which you carry it, dramatically increase your risk of diabetes."
The study appears online ahead of print in the September issue of the Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine.
"We know that, due to the childhood obesity epidemic, younger generations of Americans are becoming heavier much earlier in life, and are carrying the extra weight for longer periods over their lifetimes," says Lee. "When you add the findings from this study, rates of diabetes in the United States may rise even higher than previously predicted."
Researchers found that a measure of degree and duration of excess weight (based on the number of years body mass index, a calculation of weight and height, of 25 or higher) was a better predictor of diabetes risk than a single measurement of excess weight. A BMI over 25 is considered overweight and over 30 is considered obese.
Lee and colleagues also found that black and Hispanic compared with white individuals had a higher risk for diabetes, for a same amount of excess weight over time.
For example, individuals with a BMI of 35 (10 points higher than healthy weight) for 10 years would be considered to have 100 years of excess BMI. Hispanics in this group were twice as likely to develop diabetes compared to whites, while blacks in this group had one-and-a-half-times greater risk than whites.
Based on the latest findings, Lee suggests obesity prevention and treatment efforts should focus on adolescents and young adults, especially racial minorities.
Programmers and system administrators can do much better is maintaining their health. And they are naturally equipped for dealing with complex system and thus able to navigate the maze of the USA "medical industrial complex"
A lot of outcomes depends on the level of individual knowledge. Knowledge is power both for avoiding unnecessary procedures (with some causing irreversible damage) , unnecessary overprescribed drugs, and when negotiating with health care providers.
Some facts:
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For the list of top articles see Recommended Links section
Aug 05, 2021 | www.msn.com
The effectiveness of Pfizer's COVID-19 shot can drop to 83.7% within four to six months after getting the second dose of its vaccine. This is the latest indication that vaccine-induced immunity to the virus can wane and some kind of boost may be necessary in the future.
New research published Wednesday as a preprint indicates that the Pfizer Inc. shot provides 96.2% protection for the first two months, 90.1% effectiveness between the second and fourth months, and 83.7% of protection for the fourth, fifth, and six months.
"We will need a booster eight to 12 months from the second dose," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Wednesday, according to a FactSet transcript of the company's second-quarter earnings call.
The drug maker has been making the case for booster shots, citing limited data from its own clinical research and real-world data out of Israel, where Pfizer's vaccine is the predominant shot in circulation.
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When speaking to investors this week, company officials attributed waning immunity levels in Israel to the much earlier vaccination campaign that rolled out in that country. (In fact, Israel announced Thursday that a third dose will now be available to people who are at least 60.) Pfizer also mentioned that there will be data in a few months coming out of the U.K., where doses were sometimes spaced out, that indicates "long-lasting protection."
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Pfizer is expected to generate $33.5 billion in COVID-19 vaccine revenue this year, and Wall Street analysts have already baked boosters into their financial models for Pfizer and BioNTech SE which developed the vaccine with Pfizer.
"The largest remaining uncertainty is whether this third boost is simply the third dose in a three-vaccine schedule to achieve lasting, broad protection or is the first of a periodic (annual) boosted vaccine," SVB Leerink analysts told investors on Thursday.
Aug 05, 2021 | news.yahoo.com
On Tuesday South Korea announced that it had detected two cases of the Delta Plus variant, one in a man who had recently returned from the U.S., Reuters reports. Some experts believe the Delta Plus variant could be more contagious than the Delta variant.
The Lambda variant, which originated from Peru last year, has already been detected in the U.S.
Recent studies indicated that Lambda could be more resistant to the current COVID-19 vaccines, according to Reuters .
Aug 03, 2021 | www.msn.com
The Centers for Disease Control Prevention has a COVID-19 case tracker that shows the percent of the total population vaccinated against COVID-19. The map shows the percent of the total population fully vaccinated and then compares it with the cases per 100,000 people.
- For example, much of the Northeast has a high number of vaccinations and low number of cases per 100,000 people. So the area is green on the map.
- However, the Southeastern U.S. is mainly colored in red due to low vaccinations and a high number of people infected.
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The CDC advises caution about traveling to areas with low vaccination rates and a higher number of cases per 100,000 people.
Aug 01, 2021 | www.msn.com
An analysis by British academics, published by the UK Government's official scientific advisory group, says that they believe it is "almost certain" that a SARS-Cov-2 variant will emerge that "leads to current vaccine failure." SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes Covid-19.
The analysis has not been peer-reviewed, the early research is theoretical, and does not provide any proof that such a variant is in circulation now. Documents like it are released "as pre-print publications that have provided the government with rapid evidence during an emergency."
The paper is dated July 26, and was published by the British government on Friday.
The scientists write that because eradication of the virus is "unlikely," they have "high confidence" that variants will continue to emerge. They say it is "almost certain" that there will be "a gradual or punctuated accumulation of antigenic variation that eventually leads to current vaccine failure."
They recommend that authorities continue to reduce virus transmission as much as possible to reduce the chance of a new, vaccine-resistant variant.
They also recommend that research focus on new vaccines that not only prevent hospital admission and disease, but also "induce high and durable levels of mucosal immunity."
The goal, they say, should be "to reduce infection of and transmission from vaccinated individuals," and to "reduce the possibility of variant selection in vaccinated individuals." Research is already underway at several companies that make the Covid-19 vaccines to address new variants.
The views were expressed in a paper "by group of academics on scenarios for the longer term evolution of SARS-CoV-2," and discussed and published by the UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).
They write that some variants that have emerged over the past few months "show a reduced susceptibility to vaccine-acquired immunity, though none appears to escape entirely."
But they caution that these variants emerged "before vaccination was widespread," and that "as vaccines become more widespread, the transmission advantage gained by a virus that can evade vaccine-acquired immunity will increase."
This is an issue that SAGE has warned about before.
In minutes from its July 7 meeting, SAGE scientists wrote that "the combination of high prevalence and high levels of vaccination creates the conditions in which an immune escape variant is most likely to emerge." It said at the time that "the likelihood of this happening is unknown, but such a variant would present a significant risk both in the UK and internationally."
Aug 01, 2021 | www.msn.com
Hundreds of staffers at two major hospitals in San Francisco have tested positive for coronavirus in July, with most of them being breakthrough cases of the highly infectious Delta variant, The New York Times reported Saturday evening.
The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center told media outlets that 183 of its 35,000 staffers tested positive. Of those infected, 84% were fully vaccinated, and just two vaccinated staff members required hospitalization for their symptoms.
At Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, at least 50 members out of the total 7,500 hospital staff were infected, with 75-80% of them vaccinated. None of those staffers required hospitalization.
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Day also told ABC7 News that at least 99% of the cases at UCSF were traced back to community spread, but that hospital officials are still investigating and conducting contact tracing.
He added that most of the cases presented mild to moderate symptoms, and some were completely asymptomatic. He said the cases were spread among doctors, nurses, and ancillary staff.
"We sort of are seeing that across the board," he said. "We have so far not detected any patient-to-staff or staff-to-patient transmission right now."
The Delta variant has also been known to spread among vaccinated people in breakthrough cases, prompting the agency this week to recommend that even fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas with high transmission rates.
The CDC emphasized that getting vaccinated is still highly beneficial and is a crucial component to combatting the coronavirus - even the Delta variant.
"Getting vaccinated continues to prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death, even with Delta," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told media on Tuesday.
Aug 01, 2021 | www.msn.com
4 This is what Republicans said as Capitol police told their stories on the Hill Russia Calls Joe Biden's Comments on Nation's Economy 'Inherently
A reversal in federal health guidance calling for fully vaccinated individuals to don masks in certain indoor areas amid high and substantial viral spread has left some experts divided.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rolled out the latest guidance on Tuesday, with agency head Dr. Rochelle Walensky citing "worrisome" new science necessitating the update.
"In recent days, I have seen new scientific data from sequenced outbreak investigations showing that the delta variant behaves uniquely differently from past strains of the virus that cause COVID-19," Walensky told reporters over a call. "Information on the delta variant from several states and other countries indicate that in rare occasions, some vaccinated people infected with the delta variant after vaccination may be contagious and spread the virus to others."
Jul 20, 2021 | townhall.com
They have nowhere to go. The liberal media and the experts see another avenue to lock us down -- and they're going full bore. The Delta variant, which doesn't make you sicker nor is it more lethal, is a problem for the unvaccinated. But we're not locking down again. No way. There's a midterm election coming up, so no -- not even Joe Biden is going to back such a move. It's the same reason why there will be no mandatory vaccination protocol. There's an election coming up. If this were a national emergency, politics be damned -- everyone gets a shot, right? They're readily available to everyone who can get them. That should be the mindset. It's not. Why? Because obviously, it's not a do-or-die situation. If a mandatory vaccination mandate is being kept in the desk until after an election, it's all politics. We've known this for months.
And now, they're trying to gaslight us on children and COVID. Fellas, I have bad news. We've been paying attention. If there's any demographic that isn't at risk, it's children. Children were never an issue when it came to COVID. Their caseload was never the majority, the plurality, or even a fraction that you could call 'significant.' This notion that children are under threat is science fiction and it doesn't help that a hyper-partisan Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, who was not shy about wanting to declare gun violence a national health issue, is peddling this fearmongering.
The science is clear. Children generally do not get it or spread it. If they do contract COVID, it's usually not a bad case. A child's survival rate is a whopping 99.995 percent when it comes to infection. They're virtually bulletproof.
Since the start of the pandemic, only 335 kids under the age of 18 have died from COVID. Is one too many? Of course. It's tragic but hardly cause for a national panic. By this logic, we can no longer drive automobiles. Too much death.
Schools have also never been a source of super spread. The schools in Irvine, California reopened in September of 2020. A report last March noted at the time, that of the 23,000 students in the Irvine School District, just 17 contracted COVID. How many of the 3,000 employees? Only three. And this was when the vaccine was not readily available.
The vaccines right now are not available for kids under the age of 12. They're not at-risk. They're not carriers. Should people still be careful? Sure, but this isn't a 'Apocalypse Now' mentality. Also, the store-bought masks that people, like Fauci, are saying kids under three should wear don't stop the spread of COVID. Fauci mentioned that in his emails .
Jul 30, 2021 | www.msn.com
Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that the Delta variant of COVID-19 is equally contagious whether it's contracted by a vaccinated or unvaccinated person.
Jul 30, 2021 | www.msn.com
A week after the crowds descended upon Provincetown, Massachusetts, to celebrate the Fourth of July -- the holiday President Joe Biden hoped would mark the nation's liberation from COVID-19 -- the manager of the Cape Cod beach town said he was aware of "a handful of positive COVID cases among folks" who spent time there.
"We are in touch with the Health Department and Outer Cape Health Services and are closely monitoring the data," Alex Morse told reporters.
The announcement wasn't unusual with roughly half of the country still unvaccinated and flare-ups of the virus popping up in various states.
But within weeks, health officials seemed to be on to something much bigger. The outbreak quickly grew to the hundreds and most of them appeared to be vaccinated.
MORE: Vast majority of ICU patients with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, ABC News survey finds
As of Thursday, 882 people were tied to the Provincetown outbreak. Among those living in Massachusetts, 74% of them were fully immunized, yet officials said the vast majority were also reporting symptoms. Seven people were reported hospitalized.
The initial findings of the investigation led by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seemed to have huge implications.
Jul 30, 2021 | www.msn.com
CDC Warns Vaccinated People Can Pass COVID to Others Even if you're vaccinated, you should wear a mask in places of high transmissibility -- and you could give COVID to someone else. These eyebrow-raising facts were revealed yesterday by the CDC.
In response, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky joined SiriusXM's Doctor Radio Reports and opened up to show host Dr. Marc Siegel about the delta variant and evidence that it's something that fully vaccinated people may pass along to others, and the idea of making COVID-19 vaccines mandatory.
Read on for five live-saving pieces of advice -- and to ensure your health and the health of others, don't miss these: Sure Signs You Have "Long" COVID and May Not Even Know It .
Jul 30, 2021 | www.msn.com
Their work is funded through a more than $300,000 contract with the city. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services with the University of Missouri is assisting in analyzing the data, through a $2 million National Institutes of Health grant .
The team began testing rat feces for the coronavirus to see whether that was the source of the new spike protein mutations -- but nothing matched their initial finding.
They then surveyed the sewage, using a process called "deep sequencing," for animal DNA. They found evidence of various mammals, such as cows, pigs and sheep, which likely came from human food consumption, along with evidence of dogs, cats and rats.
But most of the mutations were found over three different wastewater plants spanning months. That meant the "animal reservoir" would have to be living in or near the sewershed; largely constrained to their geographic location; and in big enough numbers to sustain an epidemic for six months.
The most likely culprits: rats and dogs.
"These novel lineages could be relevant to public health and necessitate further study," the researchers wrote in the study.
As for the mutations themselves, their origin remains an open question.
The researchers hypothesize that since not all COVID-19 cases were diagnosed and not all positive samples were sequenced, the "cryptic lineages" could come from "asymptomatic, vaccinated, immunosuppressed, pediatric, or chronically infected patients who are not being sampled in clinical settings."
COVID-19 could also linger in different areas of the body, such as the gut, long after it's been cleared in other areas, like the respiratory tract -- potentially explaining the presence in wastewater.
... ... ...
Signs of More RatsIf the new spike protein mutations the researchers discovered points to an outbreak of coronavirus among city rats, they would not be the first animal to contract the virus.
There have been reports of dogs, cats and even a New York City tiger catching the virus, according to the CDC .
A study published Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service found that white-tailed deer populations in New York, Michigan, Illinois and Pennsylvania had coronavirus antibodies, meaning they had previously contracted the virus, although they did not show signs of an active infection.
In November, Denmark culled 17 million minks after the virus jumped from a human handler to the minks, then back to humans. In Michigan, a taxidermist became infected with coronavirus and, after his test results were sent to a lab, it was determined that there was a mutation in his sample that came from an infected mink.
Jul 29, 2021 | www.news-medical.net
The authors of this study reported that the WT strain of SARS-CoV-2 was best neutralized by Natural Infection 2020 when compared to CoronaVac and Natural Infection 2021 sera. However, the Alpha variant was best neutralized by Natural Infection 2021 sera, when compared to CoronaVac and Natural Infection 2020 sera.
In the case of the Beta variant, this form of SARS-CoV-2 was best neutralized by Natural Infection 2020 and 2021 sera with higher NAb titer levels. Although the Delta variant was neutralized well by Natural Infection 2020 and 2021 sera, levels of NAb titers were much lower when compared with the Alpha and Beta variants.
In summary, the results of the current study indicate that NAb titers elicited by CoronaVac are much lower when compared to natural infection.
Jul 29, 2021 | www.msn.com
If a vaccinated person experiences any symptoms of COVID-19 listed by the CDC, the public health agency recommends getting tested and isolating from others until a result is received. If the test is positive, an infected vaccinated person should isolate at home for 10 days. According to the CDC's guidelines for the fully vaccinated, those infected with the delta variant can spread it to others.
The existence of breakthrough cases doesn't mean that vaccines aren't doing their job, experts say. In fact, merely coming down with a mild infection rather than a severe one is often evidence that the vaccine is doing its job in helping your immune system fight the virus. Since the existing vaccines were developed to combat the alpha variant of SARS-CoV-2, it makes sense that they're not as effective in combating the delta variant, whose mutations have shown to some extent to evade the immune response from the vaccines. Yet all the COVID-19 vaccines are mostly able to stop the infection worsening.
"In a vaccinated person, what will happen is that we already have cells that very specifically recognize an infected cell, and can aggressively target that infection so that the virus can no longer replicate," said Dr. Nicole Baumgarth, a professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at University of California–Davis. "Even if we cannot stop the infection from happening, [the vaccine] stops it very early in its tracks; the less virus replication you have, the less symptoms you will have, the less disease and it gets easier for the immune system to mop up the little bit of virus."
Signs of infection, like a fever, develop when the immune system has been activated to fight it.
"Some of the signs of disease are actually signs that the immune system has been activated," Baumgarth said. "That's one response to the body to fight the viruses, to increase the temperature."
Baumgarth said it is in fact accurate to think of a breakthrough infection as a "booster shot." However, Baumgarth would not advocate for people to purposely expose themselves to the virus. Yet a mild breakthrough case does build one's immunity against the virus.
Of course, given the possibility of spreading the virus further, it is best not to get infected at all.
Jul 29, 2021 | www.msn.com
Last week, Israel's health ministry released preliminary data suggesting that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine's ability to protect against a mild coronavirus infection may have decreased precipitously, even though it remains effective against severe illness and death from COVID-19. The reason for the decrease in the vaccine's effectiveness may be both because of transient immunity and the virulent delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, which is more adept at overcoming the vaccine's defenses.
The delta variant is now the dominant strain of SARS-CoV-2 in Israel, where researchers now estimate that the two-shot Pfizer vaccine is only 39% effective in preventing an infection within the country. That is about half as effective as the vaccine was two weeks ago, when it purportedly exhibited 64% effectiveness against coronavirus infection in Israel -- though at that point in time, the delta variant was less widespread. Upon its public release in late 2020, Pfizer-BioNTech's mRNA vaccine was reported to have an efficacy of 95%.
On a positive note, research data shows that the Pfizer vaccine is still effective at preventing serious illness; at least 88 percent effective in protecting against hospitalization; and 91 percent effective at preventing severe illness.
Jul 29, 2021 | www.msn.com
Post-vaccination infections, or breakthroughs, might occasionally turn symptomatic , but they aren't shameful or aberrant . They also aren't proof that the shots are failing . These cases are, on average, gentler and less symptomatic; faster-resolving, with less virus lingering -- and, it appears, less likely to pass the pathogen on. The immunity offered by vaccines works in iterations and gradations, not absolutes. It does not make a person completely impervious to infection. It also does not evaporate when a few microbes breach a body's barriers. A breakthrough, despite what it might seem, does not cause our defenses to crumble or even break ; it does not erase the protection that's already been built. Rather than setting up fragile and penetrable shields, vaccines reinforce the defenses we already have , so that we can encounter the virus safely and potentially build further upon that protection.
To understand the anatomy of a breakthrough case, it's helpful to think of the human body as a castle. Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona, compares immunization to reinforcing such a stronghold against assault.
Without vaccination, the castle's defenders have no idea an attack is coming. They might have stationed a few aggressive guard dogs outside, but these mutts aren't terribly discerning: They're the system's innate defenders , fast-acting and brutal, but short-lived and woefully imprecise. They'll sink their teeth into anything they don't recognize, and are easily duped by stealthier invaders. If only quarrelsome canines stand between the virus and the castle's treasures, that's a pretty flimsy first line of defense. But it's essentially the situation that many uninoculated people are in. Other fighters, who operate with more precision and punch -- the body's adaptive cells -- will eventually be roused. Without prior warning, though, they'll come out in full force only after a weeks - long delay , by which time the virus may have run roughshod over everything it can. At that point, the fight may, quite literally, be at a fever pitch, fueling worsening symptoms.
Post-vaccination infections, or breakthroughs, might occasionally turn symptomatic , but they aren't shameful or aberrant . They also aren't proof that the shots are failing . These cases are, on average, gentler and less symptomatic; faster-resolving, with less virus lingering -- and, it appears, less likely to pass the pathogen on. The immunity offered by vaccines works in iterations and gradations, not absolutes. It does not make a person completely impervious to infection. It also does not evaporate when a few microbes breach a body's barriers. A breakthrough, despite what it might seem, does not cause our defenses to crumble or even break ; it does not erase the protection that's already been built. Rather than setting up fragile and penetrable shields, vaccines reinforce the defenses we already have , so that we can encounter the virus safely and potentially build further upon that protection.
To understand the anatomy of a breakthrough case, it's helpful to think of the human body as a castle. Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona, compares immunization to reinforcing such a stronghold against assault.
Without vaccination, the castle's defenders have no idea an attack is coming. They might have stationed a few aggressive guard dogs outside, but these mutts aren't terribly discerning: They're the system's innate defenders , fast-acting and brutal, but short-lived and woefully imprecise. They'll sink their teeth into anything they don't recognize, and are easily duped by stealthier invaders. If only quarrelsome canines stand between the virus and the castle's treasures, that's a pretty flimsy first line of defense. But it's essentially the situation that many uninoculated people are in. Other fighters, who operate with more precision and punch -- the body's adaptive cells -- will eventually be roused. Without prior warning, though, they'll come out in full force only after a weeks - long delay , by which time the virus may have run roughshod over everything it can. At that point, the fight may, quite literally, be at a fever pitch, fueling worsening symptoms.
... ... ...
The choice isn't about getting vaccinated or getting infected. It's about bolstering our defenses so that we are ready to fight an infection from the best position possible -- with our defensive wits about us, and well-armored bodies in tow.
Jul 29, 2021 | www.wsj.com
- Three antiviral monoclonal antibody treatments to prevent severe Covid-19 and hospitalization. Shipments of one such drug are paused because it wasn't effective against variants, but doctors can continue prescribing the two others: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s REGEN-COV and Vir Biotechnology Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC's sotrovimab.
- The antiviral remdesivir , made by Gilead Sciences Inc., to help clear the virus in hospitalized patients.
- Convalescent plasma , a highly concentrated solution of antibodies taken from recovered Covid-19 patients, also for use in hospitals.
- The immune-suppressing rheumatoid arthritis drugs baricitinib and tocilizumab , to rein in the potentially lethal inflammation experienced by many hospitalized patients.
- Dexamethasone , a generic steroid, recommended for use in severely ill patients. It is now the most common treatment in hospitalized patients.
Jul 29, 2021 | www.wsj.com
Federal officials concentrated their resources on quickly developing vaccines, with success. However, a relative dearth of drug research focused on coronaviruses, despite previous outbreaks, held back a fast response on treatments . Scattered U.S. clinical trials competed against each other for patients. When effective yet hard-to-administer drugs were developed, a fragmented American healthcare system struggled to deliver them to patients.
Covid-19 cases, and the need for treatments, are continuing. U.S. hospitals are bracing for new surges of cases with the Delta variant spreading
... The Biden administration recently said it would spend $3.2 billion to support the development of Covid-19 antiviral pills.
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A lack of knowledge among healthcare providers has made it difficult to get even the available treatments. When Bob Bellin of Austin, Texas, tested positive for Covid-19 last December, he remembered that then-President Donald Trump had taken a monoclonal antibody treatment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Suffering from a mild cough and a headache, the retiree was worried about his chances of developing a bad case of the virus because he has a compromised immune system condition. He says he called a telemedicine provider to inquire about antibody treatment, but the physician assistant on the call initially didn't know about it. After some pleading, the healthcare worker agreed to research the drug's availability, he says.
Several minutes later, she got back to him with the names of sites where he could get the antibody treatment. The next week, Mr. Bellin received the infusion over a three-hour visit. A week later, he started his regular running routine again.
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Remdesivir, first authorized by the Food and Drug Administration in May 2020 and later granted full approval, is now given to roughly half of all hospitalized patients. Yet patients often recover slowly regardless of whether they receive the treatment or not, doctors say.
"The effect of remdesivir is something a statistician can show you in a trial of 1,000 people, but it's not something where you really can see a day-to-day impact on your patients," says Dr. Griffin of ProHealth.
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The Recovery study, which has examined at least 12 drugs so far, found the most effective of all Covid-19 treatments for hospitalized patients to date, dexamethasone, which cut the risk of death in patients on ventilators by a third. The Oxford scientists reported the results in June 2020 , less than three months after they first began evaluating it.
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Last November, the FDA authorized the first drugs designed specifically to target Covid-19 in people who weren't hospitalized based on preliminary trial results. These monoclonal antibodies were modeled after the natural antibodies people produce to fight the new coronavirus.
Researchers at companies including Regeneron and Eli Lilly & Co. developed these monoclonal antibody therapies in less than a year, compared with the decade or longer it usually takes to bring a drug to market. The work was sped by earlier research by Regeneron and others to develop antibodies for the MERS virus. The new drugs worked well in early Covid-19 patients, reducing the risk of hospitalization or death by 70% in trials.
Yet of the nearly one million doses shipped to hospitals and clinics from November through early May, just 49% were used by patients over the period.
One factor in their limited use was the fact that influential panels that issue Covid-19 treatment guidelines balked at endorsing them before full clinical trial data was available. The NIH and the Infectious Diseases Society of America didn't recommend using the drugs until February and March, respectively, after Lilly provided results from a Phase 3 study.
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The hospital treated 1,469 patients with the drugs through early July, and as many as 30 people a day at the peak, says Jonathan Parsons, a pulmonologist and executive vice chair of clinical operations for Wexner's internal medicine department.
Of the patients treated so far, 4.8% have gone on to be hospitalized, compared with an estimated 8% to 9% for similar patients not infused with the drug, he says.
Looking ahead, the best solution would be an antiviral that can be taken early in the disease as a pill, doctors say.
Finding highly effective treatments with tolerable side effects is likely to take years and require more coordination between government, universities and industry...
B
BRIAN OCONNOR SUBSCRIBER 7 hours ago
The posts below are sad - Trump, Trump, Trump. A man who's been gone for eight months. I guess that's better than dealing with Biden's endless problems. I suppose letting in thousands of illegals, many with covid, still isn't an issue?jack Canzonetta SUBSCRIBER 1 hour agoLove the constant blaming of "delta" on unvaxxed Trump supporters. Sure, it's mostly red states, but the enormous fact that keeps getting ignored is the fact over 60% of whites have vaxxed. African Americans? 9%. Yes 9%. That means millions of adult AAs who can get shots, won't.
Not surprising is AAs make up a large portion of the current hospital load (which still isn't bad). Of course all the media and the people making this political want to say is...it's "red states". I guess they don't want to offend Biden's voting base?
Red Texas btw had 1,387 new cases today. A state with 30 million people. 5 (yes that's five) deaths. The fourth straight day new cases fell. Weird how those stats aren't making it into the fear-mongering articles.
FDA, CDC, FAUCI all downplayed Regeneron's treatment--a super treatment --I also asked my about DR above Regeneron's treatment .. We were discussing a plan in case I contracted the Wuhan lab virus, he didn't say much Regeneron - I also found out the outlets to receive it were limited and they had produced many of product.. Fauci was singing only one note--Moderna --Catherine G Attara-Fink SUBSCRIBER 27 minutes agoHow about we need treatment for those who have been vaccinated and get Covid after the fact???thomas barloon SUBSCRIBER 1 hour agoToday I saw a 50 year old man with active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) . Each time he coughs, he releases millions of tuberculosis organisms into to the air and fills the rooms he enters with infectious active bacteria. Should our patient with active tuberculosis be allowed to go when and where he wants? Would you enter a cafe where he is eating or enter a room where he is living? Of course, most would hope the man with active TB stays home and takes medication to treat his active infection. Now, in many states, people with active COVID are allowed to enter cafes and stores. Who are those with acitive COVID? One does not know until one tests and traces and isolates. And an effective vaccine is also available and monoclonal antibodies are available to all. Why do doctors not use HCQ and Invermectin and zinc? Simple. These and many other medications do not work. Yes, the results are available for all to read for free in NEJM, JAMA, Nature. Follow facts not fantasy.William Lamb SUBSCRIBER 1 hour agoI guessed face mask might not be in this picture, since there are those who claimed it is ineffective and covered one smile. Beside, it is their constutional rights to infect others and care less for their fellow American, when they see that it is good to share the same misery to others.Dick Motley SUBSCRIBER 56 minutes agoWhat an ironic post. You DO realize the vaccines are also categorized as emergency use because they're also considered experimental right? And you HAVE heard about adverse reactions to the vaccines, right? And you HAVE heard about "breakthrough" cases (reinfection) among the vaccinated, right?Jamilla Graves SUBSCRIBER 2 hours ago
Sorry, did I say "ironic"? I meant "moronic".It would be irresponsible for the WSJ to spread propaganda about drugs that have been disproven as treatments against and to prevent COVID-19.jes merrell SUBSCRIBER 2 hours agoAgreed. It is equally irresponsible for the layman poster to spread propaganda such as "tens of thousands" of doctors are doing what?Mikey Metz SUBSCRIBER 3 hours ago
If the poster is a physician, virologist or immunologist, offer your credentials along with your medical advice. It will then have credibility, your opinions have none."Fragmented health care" is correct. When will Congress and at least 60 percent of Americans wake up and realize health care in a capitalized society does not work like Target Corp. or any business that works in a competitive environment. And to read how little money is spent in this area is horrible. The world has dealt with terrible viruses forever--and the feet dragging continues.Julia Harte SUBSCRIBER 3 hours agoHere are protocols provided by frontline workers that are having success with preventing and treating covid 19.Claire V SUBSCRIBER 4 hours ago (Edited)
https://covid19criticalcare.com/covid-19-protocols/We are not in Russia or China where the state mandates what to do. with your thinking it has to be difficult for you to be in a country where there is freedom of choice.Richard Dole SUBSCRIBER 6 hours ago
Who are you to tell 50% of the population of the country what to do? Who are you to mandate to get an experimental vaccine? This is everyone's individual decision. If you are vaccinated you are safe. Didn't Biden say you are 100% safe?Let's see, all the Science (actual peer reviewed studies) indicate that those who have recovered from COVID (naturally vaccinated) or been jabbed are good to go, have broad immunity. So why worry about others if you are protected........J Domingo SUBSCRIBER 6 hours ago (Edited)Thomas Erb SUBSCRIBER 6 hours agoSo why worry about others if you are protected........Because this is not about protecting people.It is about controlling people.
That is the only explanation for why Covid survivors are put on the BAD list. If they don't line up and demonstrate their servility, they are in trouble. T
Now, a new NIH-supported study shows that the answer to this question will vary based on how an individual's antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were generated: over the course of a naturally acquired infection or from a COVID-19 vaccine. The new evidence shows that protective antibodies generated in response to an mRNA vaccine will target a broader range of SARS-CoV-2 variants carrying "single letter" changes in a key portion of their spike protein compared to antibodies acquired from an infection. These results add to evidence that people with acquired immunity may have differing levels of protection to emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. More importantly, the data provide further documentation that those who've had and recovered from a COVID-19 infection still stand to benefit from getting vaccinated.J Domingo SUBSCRIBER 5 hours ago (Edited)Israel is struggling with a fourth wave of infections, and the Israeli Health Ministry announced at that Pfizer vaccine is only 39% effective against the Delta variant there. People who have had Covid and recovered are not being reinfected at a high rate.Thomas Erb SUBSCRIBER 5 hours ago
Now, a new NIH-supported study shows that the answer to this question will vary...Quoting a study that is not yet published provides little useful information, and cannot be used to conclude vaccination is superior to recovery from natural infection.
you missed a part of the Israeli quoteDavid Richardson SUBSCRIBER 5 hours agoThe two-dose vaccine still works very well in preventing people from getting seriously sick, demonstrating 88% effectiveness against hospitalization and 91% effectiveness against severe illness, according to the Israeli data.
Because I still have about a 20% chance of getting the Delta virus if I am in direct contact with unvaccinated and unmasked people. I then have a 10% chance of getting seriously ill. But, the many people who post exactly the same question know this data. It is reported daily by outlets ranging from the MSM to Fox. You just don't like it . It cuts your argument that unvaccinated people are not a concern or threat to vaccinated people to shreds Man up. Or, at least, shut up. If you or others decide not to get vaccinated you are materially raising the immediate risk to others and--perhaps even worse--the odds that you will bread an even worse variant.Hersh Goel SUBSCRIBER 3 hours agoyou do not have a 20% chance of getting Delta virus from unvaccinated pople - dont shake hands, dont hug or kiss. dont get in crowded places like elevators. wear an eye shield and mask - your risk is essentially zero. The evidence is the thousands of unvaccinated health care workers who took care of covid 19 cases for over a year.T Swan SUBSCRIBER 5 hours agoBut if you want to have 'direct contact' with people, thats a choice you make.
This from India news, July 1, 2021Stephen Carroll SUBSCRIBER 6 hours ago'Not a long-drawn process': Bharat Biotech expecting WHO approval soon As several European countries are accepting WHO-listed Covishield, Covaxin too is expected to receive WHO approval soon.
The highest rates of unvaccinated people live in the inner cities. In order to get support from liberals the Democrats have neglected these inner city people so it would not disprove their narrative that it is suburban conservatives that are failing to get vaccinated.Nikola Sizgorich SUBSCRIBER 6 hours agoTime to stop the fear-mongering and hysteria. There is risk to everything in life, and you can't hide under the bed for the rest of your lives because something might happen. Let's get back to normal and stop being held prisoner by confused people like Fauci who don't understand their 15 minutes of fame are long over.K Baker SUBSCRIBER 4 hours agoEverybody knows a person can still get covid even if a person is fully vaccinated and spread it to other people. Except JD. He will Spin that a 1000 different ways to try to confuse people. He is talking to himself.J Domingo SUBSCRIBER 1 hour agoEverybody knows a person can still get covid even if a person is fully vaccinated...That's truly funny.
"You're not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations." Joe Biden, speaking at the CNN Town Hall in Cincinnati, OH, July 21, 2021K Baker, and most D's don't even know what their confused leader believes and is saying publicly about the vaccine.Without misinformation, the Left would be bereft of information.
Jul 24, 2021 | www.msn.com
With the highly infectious delta coronavirus variant spreading at an alarming rate, the World Health Organization in late June 2021 urged people to again wear masks indoors – even those who are fully vaccinated.
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What's the science behind the WHO recommendation?There is clear and mounting evidence that – though rare – breakthrough COVID-19 infections can occur, even in the fully vaccinated. This is particularly true with emerging variants of concern.
The CDC has been following these data closely. By mid-July 2021, nearly 60% of the U.S. population age 18 or older had been fully vaccinated. Infections in those who are fully vaccinated are rare, and serious outcomes from COVID-19 in that population are even rarer – though they do still occur. However, the CDC stopped tracking nonhospitalized cases of COVID-19 for people with and without symptoms among fully vaccinated individuals on May 1, 2021.
The risk of infection leading to serious illness and death, however, differs starkly between vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
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One recent preliminary report from Israel is sobering, however. Before the delta variant became widespread, from January to April 2021 , Israel reported that the Pfizer vaccine was 97% effective in preventing symptomatic disease. However, since June 6 , with the delta variant circulating more widely, the Pfizer vaccine has been 64% effective in preventing symptomatic disease, according to preliminary data reported by Israel's Ministry of Health in early July.
And in another new report that is not yet peer-reviewed , researchers compared blood serum antibodies from people vaccinated with Pfizer Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines and found that the J&J vaccine lent much lower protection against delta, beta and other variants, compared with the mRNA-based vaccines.
Jul 20, 2021 | newsdeal.in
Despite the power of Covid-19 vaccines in cutting the risk of hospitalization and death from the disease, fully vaccinated people can get very sick and die from the virus in rare cases. Those individuals tend to be older than 65 or have weakened immune systems or other severe medical conditions, an NBC News survey of health officials nationwide found.
"Throughout the pandemic, people who died of Covid-19 were most likely to be older, and that continues to be true with breakthrough cases," a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said in an email.
Full coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic
In Oregon, about 10 percent of the breakthrough infections reported to the state were in people living in nursing homes or congregate care facilities, and the majority of deaths were older people.
Jul 20, 2021 | www.wgbh.org
By Arun Rath July 19, 2021 All Things Considered SHARE
Shira Doron on All Things Considered | July 19, 2021COVID-19 cases are trending upwards across the country. In Massachusetts, where vaccination rates are relatively high, cases are still on the rise" and a cluster in Provincetown among mostly vaccinated individuals caused the town to issue a new mask advisory Monday. Tufts Medical Center epidemiologist Dr. Shira Doron spoke with Arun Rath on GBH's All Things Considered about where thing stand in the Commonweath and the nation.
Arun Rath: It probably makes sense to start with today's news out of Provincetown. The town is putting its indoor mask advisory back in place after more than 100 new COVID cases popped up after the July Fourth holiday. What do you make of that uptick and the response?
Shira Doron: Well, the outbreak is unexpected. It's not what we've been seeing. There's quite a bit of transmission there reported between vaccinated individuals. And really, what we've seen so far, has been that, certainly, breakthrough cases occur in vaccinated individuals" usually they have mild symptoms, which we do believe to be the case here" but usually they don't transmit to others, so the fact that there are so many cases" 132 reported" that a good proportion of them are vaccinated and that it appears that there was transmission among them is unusual. And so it makes sense for health authorities there to take some swift and rather aggressive action, at least for the moment, to try to control the outbreak, and then continue to study what might have happened there, because there's still so much we don't know.
Rath: Interesting. So that uptick of 100 cases is as unusual as it sounds, that's sort of why the response is what it is.
Doron: Yes, we really haven't seen anything quite like this yet.
Rath: Are you concerned that we will start to see other incidents like this?
Doron: I hope not. I hope that this was, you know, an anomaly that was probably related to the fact that the delta variant is so very contagious that some people who harbor it have very, very high viral loads in the respiratory tract. The fact that it was a holiday weekend, very crowded bars and nightclubs, some rain that drove people inside more than usual, and that perhaps all of those things came together this one time to cause this outbreak...
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Jul 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
Via BBC :
"Researchers estimate that 25 deaths in a population of some 12 million children in England gives a broad, overall mortality rate of 2 per million children."
Despite the above-cited statistics, 56% of big-D Democrats supported mandating vaccines for schoolchildren in a July 2021 poll.
Jul 23, 2021 | www.msn.com
4 Details on FBI inquiry into Kavanaugh draw fire from Democrats Democrats' divide on voting rights widens as Biden faces pressure
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer announced on Thursday that 20 percent of new COVID-19 cases identified in Los Angeles County were in vaccinated individuals.
..."The Delta variant is a game-changer," Ferrer said. With the Delta variant driving community spread and positive case numbers up in LA County, the percentage of breakthrough cases in fully-vaccinated people has gone up as well. The daily average case rate was 7.1 per 100,000 people on July 15 and shot up to 12.9 on Thursday.
... about 53 percent of LA County residents are fully vaccinated against coronavirus. About 58 percent of young people between the ages of 18 and 29 are fully vaccinated.
... Vaccinated people are still far more likely to be able to fight off the virus when exposed. Vaccinated people are also much less likely to advance to serious illness or death, with 90 percent of nationwide hospitalizations or fatalities occurring in unvaccinated people.
Jul 23, 2021 | www.msn.com
... new data shows people infected with the delta strain can carry up to 1,000 times more virus in their nasal passages than those infected with the original strain.
"I think people are underestimating how bad this is going to get," said Dr. Ashish Jha. "We are in for a very tough August, probably a very tough September before this really turns around."
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters at a briefing Thursday that the delta variant "is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of, and that I have seen in my 20 year career."
Jha told CNBC's " The News with Shepard Smith ," that the infection rate could be worse if it were winter, and predicted the delta spike could peak within two months.
"It might peak in September, but we are far away from the peak, right now we are doing 40,000 cases a day, it's going to go substantially higher before it peaks," Jha said.
The delta variant has spread rapidly through the U.S., accounting for more than 83% of sequenced cases in the U.S. right now, up from 50% the week of July 3, according to the CDC.
Jul 04, 2021 | www.forbes.com
At delta variant of Covid-19 spreads across many Western and Southern U.S. states, its high transmission rate could increase them number of immune to the virus people from about 50% to 85%" even if vaccination rates continue to plateau, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former chief of the Food and Drug Administration, said.
Gottlieb noted that millions of Americans remain vulnerable and now have a "choice in terms of how [they] acquire immunity."
Both vaccinated and those who have natural immunity still have increased risk Gottlieb said, pointing to data showing immunity among individuals naturally infected with Covid-19" and particularly those who are older" declines after about eight months. It looks like the decline for vaccinated people is even faster and that's why there are talks about booster shots
He predicted Covid will effectively act as a "second circulating flu this winter," though he said its prominence "could be a little worse."
In Mexico, an estimated 84% of cases are delta infections, which may be a warning that this variant may also be endemic in Latin America.
If the virus continues to mutate as fast as did in 2020 and 2021 herd immunity against this virus might never be achieved.
CRUCIAL QUOTE"I wouldn't be declaring mission accomplished. I think this is going to be a long fight," Gottlieb said Sunday. "You're seeing a decoupling between cases, hospitalizations and deaths because there's so much immunity in the population""not just through vaccination""but also through prior infection... But this is likely to become an endemic virus. We're going to have to deal with it."
KEY BACKGROUNDSince the start of the pandemic, experts have long said Covid-19's threat would largely wane once herd immunity is reached, referring to a large-enough proportion of immunity that effectively makes person-to-person transmission highly unlikely within a community. If the virus cominutes to mutated in a ways it did in 202 and 2021 this might not happen all and herd immunity against this virus might never be achived.
Jul 01, 2021 | www.wsj.com
Patients receiving emergency medical care would no longer get surprise medical bills from providers outside their insurance network under a rule issued Thursday by the Biden administration.
The long-awaited rule is the first to follow the so-called No Surprises Act, passed in December 2020 by Congress that sought to protect patients from receiving significant medical bills when they are unwittingly treated by an out-of-network doctor, lab, or other type of provider.
The rule seeks to implement key parts of the legislation protecting patients from being billed by out-of-network doctors who provide treatment at in-network hospitals, as well as protecting them from surprise bills for both emergency and nonemergency care. The interim final rule will undergo 60 days of public comment and largely go into effect on Jan. 1, 2022, when the law takes effect.
"No patient should forgo care for fear of surprise billing," said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in a statement. "Health insurance should offer patients peace of mind that they won't be saddled with unexpected costs."
Congress and policy makers have sought to tackle surprise medical bills because patients are paying more out-of-pocket for their care, and many out-of-network charges can occur when patients are unaware that they are being treated by a provider who isn't covered by their health insurance.
Out-of-network charges have added to medical debt and rising out-of-pocket payments for consumers: An April 2021 study in the journal Health Affairs found that patients receiving a surprise out-of-network bill for emergency physician care paid more than 10 times as much as in-network emergency patients paid out-of-pocket .
The interim final rule is expansive. Emergency services, regardless of where they are provided, would have to be billed at lower, in-network rates without requirements for prior authorization.
The rule also bans higher out-of-network cost-sharing, such as copayments, from patients for treatment they receive either in an emergency or nonemergency situation. Under the rule, any coinsurance or deductible can't be higher than if such services were provided by an in-network doctor.
The interim final rule also stipulates that patients can't be charged out-of-network for "ancillary" care, which can happen when an out-of-network anesthesiologist or assistant surgeon provides treatment at an in-network hospital.
Regulations that will be released at a later time will implement a procedural process so medical providers and insurers can arbitrate out-of-network payment disputes, a solution that was so contentious it threatened to scuttle passage of the No Surprises Act. Insurers raised concerns that arbitration could put them at a disadvantage and instead favored linking out-of-network reimbursement to a benchmark rate.
The legislative fight over the No Surprises Act that spurred the interim rule was contentious. The American Medical Association and some state medical associations worried it could financially hurt small physician practices that were still reeling from the pandemic. The American Hospital Association supported the arbitration provision but raised concerns about the possibility for uneven enforcement of the law.
The bill will lead to "dangerous, unintended consequences, right in the middle of a surging pandemic," according to a Dec. 15, 2020, letter to then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) from conservative groups such as Action for Health.
Cost-sharing includes deductibles, copayments paid at the time of treatment, and coinsurance, which is the percentage of a bill that consumers pay that isn't covered by insurance. Patients are paying increasingly more for their own care because cost-sharing has increased over time, research shows. Most workers also face additional cost-sharing for a hospital admission or outpatient surgery. Sixty-five percent of workers with employer-sponsored coverage have coinsurance and 13% have a copayment for hospital admissions, according to a 2020 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Out-of-network charges from anesthesiologists, pathologists, radiologists and assistant surgeons increase spending by $40 billion annually, according to researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.
Congress in its legislation sought to protect patients from unknowingly receiving care from an out-of-network provider. To that end, the rule bans other out-of-network charges without advance notice.
The regulations issued Thursday will take effect for healthcare providers and facilities Jan. 1, 2022. For group health plans, health-insurance issuers and Federal Employees Health Benefits program carriers, the provisions will take effect for plan, policy or contract years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2022.
Write to Stephanie Armour at [email protected]
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the July 2, 2021, print edition as 'Rule Aims to Stop Surprise Health Bills.'
GP Jul 17Jul 20, 2021 | yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com
The news is peppered with anecdotal evidence of breakthrough cases. The headlines are terrifying and the personal stories are tragic:
Boston Globe : "79 fully vaccinated Massachusetts residents have died, 303 hospitalized in very rare COVID "˜breakthrough' cases, officials say"
The Guardian : "COVID outbreak among vaccinated Vegas hospital workers underscores Delta risks"
NBC : "Illinois Coronavirus Updates: Breakthrough COVID Cases Are 2% of State's Deaths This Year"
So, why do breakthrough cases happen?
We shouldn't think of vaccine protection as binary (yes or no). It's better to think of protection on a spectrum: On one end the vaccine will protect people in every situation and on the other end it doesn't protect people at all. And each of us land somewhere in between.
There are many factors that determine where we land:
There's of course the variants. Depending which variant you come in contact with determines your level of protection. mRNA vaccines' efficacy is now ~88% against Delta. If 100 people got COVID19, Pfizer/Moderna could have prevented 88 of them. 12 people would have still gotten some form of the disease. On the other hand, if people came in contact with the original strain, 95 (out of a 100) would have been prevented.
Some of us just don't have immune systems that can build protection. For example, it looks like certain drugs for immunocompromised patients reduce and/or prevent protection. Also, older adults are less protected.
Behaviors, too, can predict your place on this spectrum. If a vaccinated person is exposed to a large enough dose of a virus OR exposed to enough unvaccinated people where transmission is high, the virus can overcome the vaccine and cause infection, even among the sturdiest of immune defenses.
And then there's just luck. Even if you compare twins , the level of protection can differ. Some people will just create fewer or less strong defense mechanisms (antibodies, T cells, and/or memory B cells). And we don't really know why.
Nonetheless, should the virus make it through, Dr. Ali Ellebody, an immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis, said it best:
"It becomes a race [against] time. The pathogen rushes to copy itself, and the immune system recruits more defenders. The longer the tussle drags on, the more likely the disease is to manifest."
It's important to monitor all breakthrough cases.
If we closely monitor them, we can answer some very critical questions like"¦
Are breakthrough cases happening at the rate in which we expect?
Who's most likely to break through?
What is the rate of a mild breakthrough case vs. severe breakthrough case?
Are variants, like Delta, causing more (or more severe) breakthrough cases than other variants?
A study was published describing breakthrough cases between January 1-April 30. During this time among 101 million fully vaccinated Americans, 10,262 breakthrough infections were reported to the CDC. Who were they?
63% female
Median age was 58 years (age range was 40""74 years)
10% were hospitalized
2% died. Median age of patients who died was 82 years (age range was 71""89 years)
Genomic sequence data were available for 5% of breakthrough cases
64% were identified as a Variant of Concern (this was before Delta emerged)
Beginning May 1, 2021, though, the CDC transitioned from monitoring all breakthrough infections to investigating only those among patients who are hospitalized or die. The CDC doesn't have the infrastructure to rigorously investigate all breakthrough cases. They needed to prioritize their operation, so they decided to focus on cases of highest clinical and public health significance.
The CDC continuously publishes the latest count on their website . As of July 6, there were 5,186 severe breakthrough cases. This includes 988 deaths (although it's important to notice the footnote stating that 255 of these were not directly related to COVID19).
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From February 1 to June 21, 123,620 Delta cases were sequenced in the UK. Among those, 10,834 cases were among fully vaccinated ( i.e. breakthrough cases) and 71,932 cases among the unvaccinated. While this isn't all of the breakthrough cases, this gives an even closer estimate to the "true" rate of breakthrough cases due to Delta. But even this is among patients who went to the hospital. We still don't know the asymptomatic and/or mild breakthrough rate.
Anna Stern Jul 16
Reply 3 repliesIt really angers me that the CDC isn't tracking all breakthroughs even if they don't investigate everything, because we are losing so much information, such as what's going on here.
There have been a couple of Delta breakthrough CLUSTERS in the news lately, so there may be fully vaxxed people who are superspreaders. I don't think you can attribute these to individual immune system issues.
In this cluster, the sources had a vaccine with lower effectiveness, and they probably stood pretty close together, even though outdoors. But the other folks had mRNA. All guests were required to be fully vaxxed.
https://www.businessinsider.com/fully-vaccinated-people-got-covid-after-an-outdoor-wedding-2021-7
8 fully vaxxed, 2 partially vaxxed, 1 unvaxxed health care workers were infected at a pool party.
Anna Stern Jul 16Question: Many of the news reports about breakthrough cases show that groups of friends or couples who are all fully vaccinated but spent time together somehow *all* ended up as breakthrough cases. With the 88% vaccine efficacy rate, how does that work? For example, if a husband who is fully vaccinated is infected as a breakthrough case, shouldn't it be highly unprobable mathematically that his fully vaccinated wife also then contracts it from him?
This is the newest/current NY Yankee cluster.
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2021/07/15/new-york-yankees-game-postponed/
Reply Rose W. Jul 18Thanks for this! Katelyn, you are a gem. As a retired fed health professional, I have kind of an embedded risk vs threat meter after all those years of working. I am cringing at everyone going back to normal, like the pandemic is over. I over quote Yogi Berra - it ain't over till it's over.
Reply Ralt18 Jul 18As a fully vaccinated person, I have continued to mask indoors as my kids are not vaccinated and I do not want to risk spreading it to them. I am now getting nervous about outdoor interactions i.e school dropoffs, outdoor bday parties, etc. with potentially unvaccinated individuals. The wedding and Vegas pool party stories have made me a bit nervous. Any thoughts?
I wish I could put an attachment here but in the same vein of all of this, my sister , who is a diehard anti vaxxer sent me a snip of the Israel Health ministry case reporting from last week which breaks down cases of fully vaccinated and non vaccinated by age group. The chart shows almost higher percentage of vaccinated individuals with cases and show small case load but overall high percent . She is running with this information saying this proves that the vaccine makes you more suspepticle to covid and is causing the current issues. Local, I know you have explained this data reporting misunderstanding before but can you explain again why the data looks skewed in Israel ? Also check me on my chart
Jul 21, 2021 | www.msn.com
...breakthrough infections among the vaccinated, which is another reason that there are increasingly louder questions about whether immunity may be waning among some people who have been vaccinated and if boosters are needed to combat declining protection.
The booster debate has also been fueled by preliminary data out of Israel that indicates BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc.'s shot is 64% effective against delta -- a significant decline from the 95% efficacy rate reported in clinical trials.
"We have the same data as Israel," Sen. Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, said during Tuesday's Senate HELP committee hearing. "Why aren't we making the same decisions?"
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, later responded, saying: "Right now we are doing studies to determine whether or not we will need boosters, to increase the durability of protection. We don't want people to believe that when you're talking about boosters that means that the vaccines are not effective. They are highly effective. We're talking about the durability."
It's still unknown how long immunity to SARS-CoV-2 lasts, whether from a previous infection or from vaccination. Pfizer recently said it believes immunity from its shot begins to wane between six and 12 months after vaccination. Some countries, including Israel, Canada and the U.K., are providing or considering booster shots for certain high-risk patient groups.
Fauci said that the CDC is currently tracking 20 groups of people who have been vaccinated to better understand whether there is or will be a need for boosters. This includes thousands of healthcare workers and people from long-term-care facilities and nursing homes.
"We're anticipating that this will wane and not plummet," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during the hearing. "As we see that waning, that will be our time for action."
Jul 21, 2021 | www.msn.com
The Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus continues to spread. It now constitutes 83% of the COVID cases in the U.S.
And now, as CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez reported Wednesday, a preliminary study not yet peer reviewed suggests that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine may not be as effective against the Delta variant as the other two authorized vaccines.
... The J&J vaccine has been given to more than 13 million people
Those conclusions differ from smaller clinical results released by J&J earlier this month that said a single dose of their vaccine did protect against Delta, even eight months after inoculation.
Those differences could be because the new study looked at antibodies in the lab compared to real world immunity in people, which would include T-cell immunity. Peer review would help determine that contribution to protection.
Jul 21, 2021 | www.thehealthsite.com
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Delta variant dominates vaccine-breakthrough infectionsTo come to this conclusion, scientists from the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease looked at more than 100 health workers at three centres across India. Titled "Sars-Cov-2 B.1.617.2 Delta Variant Emergence and Vaccine Breakthrough: Collaborative Study". One of the centres was Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) in Delhi. It is yet to be peer reviewed.
Researchers of this study found that the Delta variant, which emerged in India, dominates vaccine-breakthrough infections with higher respiratory viral loads compared to non-Delta infections.
They also saw that this variant generates greater transmission among the fully vaccinated healthcare workers. Moreover, the study found that, in vitro, the Delta variant is around eight-fold less sensitive to vaccine-elicited antibodies compared to the original virus.
Hence, they came to the conclusion that Delta variant is both more transmissible and better able to evade the immunity a patient gets from previous infection as compared to previously circulating coronaviruses.
Jul 21, 2021 | www.wsj.com
Life expectancy in the U.S. fell by 1.5 years in 2020, the biggest decline since at least World War II, as the Covid-19 pandemic killed hundreds of thousands and exacerbated crises in drug overdoses , homicides and some chronic diseases.
... ... ...The full toll of the pandemic has yet to be seen, doctors and public-health officials said. Many people skipped or delayed treatment last year for conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure and endured isolation, stress and interruptions in normal diet and exercise routines.
"That has led to intermediate and longer-term effects we will have to deal with for years to come," said Donald Lloyd-Jones, chair of the department of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and president of the American Heart Association.
Life expectancy is a measure of a nation's well-being and prosperity, based on mortality in a given year. Declines or stagnation in longevity can signal catastrophic events or deep problems in a society, researchers say. Life expectancy fell in the U.S. by 11.8 years in 1918, during a world-wide flu pandemic. Many victims were young.
... ... ...
More deaths from homicide, diabetes and chronic liver disease -- which is related to heavy alcohol use -- also contributed to last year's life expectancy drop, the CDC said ...
Life expectancy would have fallen even more, the CDC said, if not for decreases in mortality due to cancer, chronic lower-respiratory diseases such as bronchitis, emphysema and asthma, and other factors.
The declines were largest for Hispanic and Black people, who as population groups were disproportionately affected by the pandemic . The largest drop for any cohort was 3.7 years, for Hispanic men, bringing their life expectancy to 75.3 years of age.
U.S. longevity had been largely stagnant since 2010, even declining in three of those years, due in part to an increase in deaths from drug overdoses , rising death rates from heart disease for middle-aged Americans and other public health crises. "Getting back to where we were before the pandemic is a very bad place," said Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and author of a recent study comparing the effects of the pandemic on life expectancy in the U.S. and other high-income countries. "We've got a larger problem here."
... ... ...
Drug-overdose deaths rose nearly 30% last year, driven by a proliferation of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl as well as stress, isolation and reduced access to treatment during the pandemic, public-health experts said. One study published this month found a 28.3% decline in initiation of addiction treatment in California from March through October 2020..... ...
Life expectancy for white people dropped 1.2 years to 77.6 years in 2020, the lowest level since 2002.
RRoger Guttentag SUBSCRIBER 1 hour ago
What is missing from this article is a comparison of the US with other advanced economies in Europe and Asia. What is disturbing is how the US spends the most and achieves less than our economic peers starting with expected average longevity. We had the lowest longevity averages pre-pandemic and now we have dropped further. This is happening despite the fact that our health care spending is twice the per capita of other advanced economies (Approx. $11K in the US vs. $6K based on 2019 data). Contributing to our dismal longevity statistics, with respect to other wealthy economies, are the highest rates of drug overdose deaths and suicides by gun. This is just the tip of a long list of sad statistics where we are unfortunately number 1 or close to it. The usual (partisan) response is to claim its government's fault or the fault of a greedy healthcare system or just say the data is wrong. So far, none of these strategies is working very well.Dave Berg SUBSCRIBER 1 hour agoLife expectancy is the wrong phrase. It's current average life duration. COVID will have no impact on the life expectancy of babies being born right now. I have two new grandchildren, their life expectancy will be impacted by things we don't even know about yet.
Jul 21, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
Over 200 People In 27 States Being Monitored For Monkeypox: CDC BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, JUL 21, 2021 - 08:55 AM
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is monitoring over 200 people in 27 states for potential exposure to monkeypox after their contacts were traced with a Texan who contracted the rare disease while traveling in Nigeria weeks ago.
CDC file photoAccording to Stat , state and local health officials are working with federal authorities to monitor those who were in contact with the monkeypox patient, who flew into Atlanta international airport on July 8, and then on to Dallas Love airport the next day. One week later, he was diagnosed with the rare disease , which can be transmitted through bodily fluids and respiratory droplets, according to the CDC.
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Monkeypox has an incubation period of three to 17 days.
The individuals who came in contact with the man include passengers who sat within six feet of the patient, or used the mid-cabin bathroom during the overseas flight . They will be monitored until July 30, according to the report. Also included are airline workers and family members.
"It is a lot of people," said Andrea McCollum, epidemiologist for the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases. "We're in the timeframe where we certainly want to closely monitor people."
"We define indirect contact as being within 6 feet of the patient in the absence of an N-95 or any filtering respirator for greater than or equal to three hours," McCollujm continued.
Monkeypox is caused by a virus that is related to smallpox, the only human virus to have been eradicated. It causes less severe illness than smallpox, but is still quite dangerous . The CDC said that the fatality rate for the strain of monkeypox seen in the Dallas case is about 10%.
Monkeypox is rarely seen in people. There was a large outbreak in the U.S. in 2003 , when a shipment of animals from Ghana contained several rodents and other small mammals that were infected with the virus; 47 confirmed and probable cases were reported in five states. The outbreak was the first time human cases of monkeypox were reported outside of Africa. -Stat
Nigeria has seen a sharp uptick of monkeypox cases over the past few years, while seven cases have been reported outside its borders; four in the UK, and one in Singapore, Israel and the United States. One of the UK patients was a local healthcare worker who had unprotected contact with a monkeypox patient.
First identified in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the original source of the monkeypox virus has yet to be identified - however cases have been linked to the handling of bushmeat as well as the trade of exotic small mammals, according to McCollum.
Those who contract the disease experience fever, chills, swollen glands, and its namesake rash that spreads across the body . It can spread via inhalation of respiratory droplets from infected individuals, or contact with their lesions or bodily fluids. It can also be transmitted via bed linens or other items used by an infected person.
Jul 21, 2021 | www.msn.com
Truetox Laboratories of Garden City Park performed tests for drugs in urine on more than 140,000 samples between Jan. 1, 2015 and June 30, 2018, the audit said. It is one of Medicaid's highest paid providers of laboratory services.
While Truetox was charging other payers $3 per test, it billed the New Jersey Medicaid program between $1,300 and $1,500 for the same test, the state's audit found. Medicaid didn't pay the full charges, but it paid Truetox $250 for each test.
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State law prohibits Medicaid providers from charging Medicaid higher fees than other payers for the same service.
Repayment of the overcharges to the state is "especially important given New Jersey's ongoing opioid crisis," said the acting State Comptroller, Kevin D. Walsh. "By our office recouping these funds, more money will go back to the Medicaid program, which will in turn provide more services for this population in suffering."
Lindy Washburn is a senior health care reporter for NorthJersey.com. To keep up-to-date about how changes in the medical world affect the health of you and your family, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Jul 21, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
DG , Jun 18 2021 10:44 utc | 65
Mandatory vaccination with experimental vaccines is abhorrent and it should have us all worried.
Unfortunately majorities in many countries have accepted this in the name of protecting public health.
This is a very tragic situation and should be given our full attention.
And no, no one should be blackmailed to have these vaccines because they work in a hospital, or a care home. They have the right to refuse at least as long as these vaccines are in the experimental phase.
In Greece they are already preparing laws to make vaccination mandatory for doctors, health workers, teachers and firefighters.
This is highly terrifying.
Jul 19, 2021 | www.thegatewaypundit.com
60% of people being admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 in England are fully vaccinated, Sky News reported .
According to Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientific advisor, Covid patients have received two doses of the Covid vaccine.
"In terms of the number of people in hospital who've been double-vaccinated, we know it's around 60% of the people being admitted to hospital with COVID," Vallance said.
"We do expect there to be over 1,000 people per day being hospitalized with coronavirus because of the increase in infections," he added. "But the rates should be lower than they have been previously because of the protective effects of vaccination."
Update: Now Sir Patrick Vallance is claiming he misspoke during Monday's presser!
"Correcting a statistic I gave at the press conference today, 19 July. About 60% of hospitalisations from covid are not from double vaccinated people, rather 60% of hospitalisations from covid are currently from unvaccinated people." Vallance said in a tweet.
Jul 20, 2021 | twitter.com
Daniel Kotzin @danielkotzin · May 28 The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children in diapers wear masks until they are fully vaccinated. Coincidentally, Yvonne Maldonado is the Chair of the AAP's Committee on Infectious Diseases AND she runs the trial of the Pfizer vaccine on 2 to 5-year-olds.
Jul 20, 2021 | twitter.com
Daniel Kotzin @danielkotzin · May 28The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children in diapers wear masks until they are fully vaccinated. Coincidentally, Yvonne Maldonado is the Chair of the AAP's Committee on Infectious Diseases AND she runs the trial of the Pfizer vaccine on 2 to 5-year-olds.
Brandon Fisher (BoulderFish) @boulderfish Replying to @jessicamstone and @danielkotzin
It's literally nauseating. 2 year olds getting this injection?? WTF is wrong with people!? These poor kids.
Kerry Evans @TomEvan81013762 · May 28 Replying to @boulderfish @jessicamstone and @danielkotzin
Babies have already died from these. One nursing baby. One two year old. Two days after the shot! It is criminal.
Jul 20, 2021 | www.msn.com
"This is a dramatic increase, up from 50% [in] the week of 4 July," Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in Senate testimony.
Walensky also said Covid fatalities had risen by nearly 48% over the past week to an average of 239 a day.
"Each death is tragic and even more heartbreaking when we know that the majority of these deaths could be prevented with a simple, safe available vaccine," she said.
A cluster of midwestern and southern states have emerged as the new hotspots for Covid-19.
Jul 19, 2021 | www.thegatewaypundit.com
60% of people being admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 in England are fully vaccinated, Sky News reported .
According to Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientific advisor, Covid patients have received two doses of the Covid vaccine.
"In terms of the number of people in hospital who've been double-vaccinated, we know it's around 60% of the people being admitted to hospital with COVID," Vallance said.
"We do expect there to be over 1,000 people per day being hospitalized with coronavirus because of the increase in infections," he added. "But the rates should be lower than they have been previously because of the protective effects of vaccination."
Update: Now Sir Patrick Vallance is claiming he misspoke during Monday's presser!
"Correcting a statistic I gave at the press conference today, 19 July. About 60% of hospitalisations from covid are not from double vaccinated people, rather 60% of hospitalisations from covid are currently from unvaccinated people." Vallance said in a tweet.
Jul 19, 2021 | www.msn.com
As the Delta variant of COVID-19 makes its way across the globe, a new report from Israeli website Ynet has some good news about the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine -- and some bad.
First, the good news: Data from the Israel Health Ministry find the vaccine holds up well against the variant when it comes to hospitalizations and serious illness, with an efficacy rate of 93 percent according to data from June 6 to July 3, when the Delta variant really began to take hold, Bloomberg reports . That's down from 98.2 percent compared to the variants that came before, but still very good.
The bad news is the data appear to indicate a significant drop in efficacy when it comes to the Pfizer vaccine preventing infection overall. Between May 2 and June 5, the vaccine had a 94.3 percent efficacy rate at preventing infection, Bloomberg explains. That rate dropped to 64 percent in the month that followed.
If the data are correct, it means that even if you're fully vaccinated, you could still catch and show symptoms of COVID-19. That's always been the case, but the Delta variant makes it more likely. But the immunization still significantly reduces your chances of landing in the hospital.
Jul 19, 2021 | www.msn.com
Vaccinated people who have experienced Covid-19 symptoms in the past 10 days, however, should get tested and isolate themselves from others for 10 days if their test is positive, the CDC has recommended.
Jul 19, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
Two weeks ago, when markets were merrily melting up without a worry in the world, and certainly were not paying attention to the recent spike in Delta cases, we showed that unlike in 2020 when covid hospitalizations and deaths promptly followed - with a slight lag - any move higher in new covid cases, now that vast swaths of the population have been vaccinated, there has been a clear decoupling between new cases on one hand, and hospitalizations and fatalities on the other
... Yet while infections may indeed be rising, Fauci purposefully refused to address the real elephant in the room: is there a concurrent surge in hospitalizations and/or deaths: after all, it those that matter - especially if the Delta variant results in a much weaker form of covid as many have speculated - and not the cases outright.
...
Where we do agree with Kolanovic, however, is where he repeats what we said two weeks ago with the chart shown at the top of this post, namely that the "Delta variant is a key risk to the call, but encouragingly the link between the case count and hospitalizations/deaths in the UK and other countries has weakened meaningfully (Figure 1)." In short cases and hospitalizations have decoupled... just as we showed they have even if the government's propaganda spin masters refuse to acknowledge.
Jul 19, 2021 | abc7.com
As the Delta variant takes hold, some of the first COVID-19 cases among the vaccinated population are being detected. According to the states data, 74 vaccinated California's have died, however, the report states it is unknown if the primary cause of death in these cases was COVID-19 or if there were other alternate causes.
... At Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital one of seven COVID patients was vaccinated. According to the latest state data, 20.4 million fully vaccinated individuals, 10,430 post-vaccination cases (0.051%) have been identified.
Jul 19, 2021 | twitter.com
Bob Wachter @Bob_Wachter If you're wondering how bad Delta really is, even in highly vaccinated SF (76% of >age 12 fully vaxxed) & still w/ a lot of masking (most folks in stores), we're seeing a pretty steep Covid uptick. Daily cases up 4-fold (10->42; Fig L), hospital pts doubled (9->19; R)(Thread 1/4) 3:41 PM · Jul 15, 2021 · Twitter Web App 2,064 Retweets 285 Quote Tweets 3,874 Likes Bob Wachter @Bob_Wachter · Jul 15 Replying to @Bob_Wachter Uptick mirrored @ucsfhospitals : Covid inpatients (we were at ~3 pts two-wks ago) now 13 (Fig L). Overall test positivity rate was well below 1%; it's now up to 2.6% (Fig R). Even more worrisome, test positivity rate in asymptomatic pts was ~0.15%, now up 6-fold to 0.9%. (2/4) 14 93 362 Bob Wachter @Bob_Wachter · Jul 15 I don't have vaccinated/unvaxxed breakdown for SF & UCSF – I assume most severe cases are in unvaxxed. But even for vaxxed, w/ more Covid in air expect more breakthru cases. As for me, I'm back to double-mask in stores. Still indoor dining but might abort if trends continue.(3/4) 88 197 719 Bob Wachter @Bob_Wachter · Jul 15 The SF # s are still fairly low, & are cause for caution, not panic. But this kind of uptick in SF (U.S.'s vaccination leader) shows that Delta is very real – the places w/ much lower vax rates may well get clobbered. Alas, doesn't seem like there are many persuadables left.(4/4) 67 185 854 Derek Reilly @DerekReilly19 · Jul 15 Replying to @Bob_Wachter 42 and 19? Come on Bob seriously. 1 1 8 kenlipartito @kenlipartito · Jul 15 Really. It's not like this thing grows exponentially, right? 3 26 Show replies geva kra oz @gevakraoz · Jul 15 Replying to @Bob_Wachter @Meir_Rubin Can't Working @ArianneM12 · Jul 15 Replying to @Bob_Wachter Was waiting on the post 4th of July consequences. Hopefully they all live 1 5 Stressedout @TMD666 · Jul 15 Replying to @Bob_Wachter Any advice for @CDCgov ? They missed the window of opportunity. What can @CDCgov do in addition to vaccine to bring delta under control? 6 6 Michaela Barnes @mabarnes9 · Jul 15 Replying to @Bob_Wachter Montgomery County MD where I live has 81.8% of 12yo and up fully vaccinated per CDC and we're also seeing big % upticks from very low numbers. 6 10 75 Show replies 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗵𝗮𝗺 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗲𝗿, 𝗠𝗗 @grahamwalker · Jul 15 Replying to @Bob_Wachter Same Bob; anecdotally have started seeing COVID again in the ED when previously hadn't seen any in months, thus far only in unvaccinated patients. It's baaack, despite us being probably the most vaccinated large city in the US.
Jul 19, 2021 | foxlexington.com
In the last month or so, about 20-25% of the cases in Fayette County have been breakthroughs. Health leaders say it was expected that vaccinated people could still catch the virus, but the important thing is they are much less likely to get severely ill as a result.
... "Some of that is likely because of the Delta variant, but also because people who are vaccinated are likely not taking as many precautions as they did before," spokesperson Kevin Hall said. "This could be compared to wearing your seatbelt. It does protect you, they still don't go 120 miles an hour down the interstate. You need to still take precautions."
Hall said they've also seen a few cases where unvaccinated people bring the virus home and infect vaccinated family members.
He said even though there isn't a mandate, those safety precautions, like wearing a mask around crowds, are still encouraged.
Jul 15, 2021 | www.msn.com
Originally from: Fully vaccinated people who got COVID-19 describe their mild symptoms, and their relief that they'd gotten a shot
- The COVID-19 vaccines are extremely effective, but a few vaccinated people have gotten sick.
- "Breakthrough" infections are typically mild and might be less contagious than other cases.
... ... ...
The COVID-19 vaccines have been extremely successful at preventing serious illnesses that could lead to hospitalizations and deaths. But no vaccine is 100% effective at preventing infection, Dr. Lisa V. Adams, an associate dean for global health at Dartmouth College, told Insider.
"We know there are and will be some breakthrough infections in individuals who are vaccinated - at least until we get to a point where there is very little virus circulating," Adams said. "The good news is that their illness should be very mild."
The vaccines are designed to prevent hospitalizations and deathsIn early July, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said new data indicated that 99.5% of COVID-19 deaths in the US were in unvaccinated people.
Out of more than 157 million fully vaccinated Americans, only 733 people had died of COVID-19 as of July 6, according to CDC data . At least 3,554 people had been hospitalized and survived. The CDC is no longer tracking mild breakthrough cases.
About 75% of breakthrough infections occurred in people 65 and older. That included cases in nursing homes , whose residents and staff members were among the first Americans to get vaccinated.
Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told Insider that even with a smattering of breakthrough infections taken into account, the vaccines had met the goal of protecting most people from severe illness.
"The goal of these vaccines is to keep you out of the hospital and keep you out of the ICU and keep you from dying. If you have a mild infection where you're PCR positive and have essentially an asymptomatic infection, that's fine," Offit said, referring to a type of COVID-19 test.
'Breakthrough' cases might cause some symptoms, but they're usually mild
Emerging data suggests many breakthrough infections are so mild that they might as well be asymptomatic.
A recent analysis of breakthrough infections in the UK indicated that the top symptoms of Delta-variant COVID-19 were a runny nose and a headache, largely because most people mingling and exposed to the virus were younger or fully vaccinated.
Jul 18, 2021 | abc7.com
As of Monday, there were 3,200 new COVID-19 cases in California, and now, medical doctors are noticing some of the first numbers of COVID vaccine breakthrough cases.
...According to the states data, 74 vaccinated California's have died, however, the report states it is unknown if the primary cause of death in these cases was COVID-19 or if there were other alternate causes.
... According to the latest state data, 20.4 million fully vaccinated individuals, 10,430 post-vaccination cases (0.051%) have been identified.
That's one in almost 2,000 vaccinated Californians reporting a breakthrough case.
Jul 18, 2021 | www.news-medical.net
Background
Recently, India has seen a significant rise in new COVID-19 cases predominantly caused by the delta variant (B.1.617.2) of SARS-CoV-2. Similar to the alpha (B.1.1.7), beta (B.1.351), and gamma (P.1) variants, the delta variant has gained beneficial mutations in the spike protein , which make it more infectious and pathogenic than previously circulating variants.
The delta variant belongs to the B.1.617 lineage that is currently circulating in more than 50 countries. Because of its significant threat to public health, the delta variant has been designated as the Variant of Concern (VOC) by the World Health Organization.
Studies investigating vaccine efficacy against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants have indicated that the delta variant is partially resistant to vaccine-induced antibodies. A study conducted in the UK has indicated that the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines is 88% effective in preventing symptomatic disease caused by the delta variant.
In the current study, the scientists have described the transmission of delta variants among family members who were attending a wedding ceremony with 92 guests. The wedding events were held outside in a large open-air tent, and all guests were fully vaccinated.
Important observationsThe scientists identified a total of six individuals at the wedding ceremony who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and were symptomatic. Of them, one developed severe COVID-19 requiring monoclonal antibody infusion and one died eventually. Based on encounter timings and viral sequence similarities, the scientists suggested that two persons traveling from India probably have transmitted the delta variant to other guests during the wedding events.
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Of two guests from India, one was a man without any comorbidities, and one was a woman with diabetes. They both received the 2 nd dose of Covaxin (BBV152) 10 days before traveling to the wedding venue. Moreover, they tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 before boarding the flight.
Soon after developing symptoms including fatigue, cough, and fever, both guests from India tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection. At day 6 post-wedding, the man without comorbidity was admitted to a hospital because of worsening symptoms. One month after the wedding, he died due to COVID-19 related complications.
Four other guests who also tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 had confirmed interactions with the guests from India. Of 4 guests who were fully immunized with the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, one developed severe COVID-19 that required infusion of monoclonal antibodies.
Testing of viral variantNasopharyngeal swab samples were collected from all six guests and analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect viral variants. All samples tested positive for the original Wuhan strain of SARS-CoV-2 and negative for the alpha variant. All positive samples were subsequently sequenced by Swift Normalase Amplicon Panels with multiple overlapping amplicons to identify the causative variant. The findings revealed that all six guests were infected with the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 (B.1.617.2).
Study significanceSix vaccine breakthrough cases identified in the study highlight the notion that antibodies elicited by Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2, Moderna mRNA-1273, and Covaxin BBV152 may not be sufficient to provide full protection against the delta variant. Although some people fail to develop adequate immunity in response to vaccination, none of the patients identified in the study had a history of vaccine failure.
As mentioned by the scientists, mutations in three antigenic regions of the spike receptor-binding domain (450–469 IDf, 480–499 IDg, and 522–646 IDh) could potentially reduce the susceptibility of delta variant to antibody-mediated neutralization.
Jul 18, 2021 | www.cdc.gov
Defining a vaccine breakthrough infection
For the purpose of this surveillance, a vaccine breakthrough infection is defined as the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA or antigen in a respiratory specimen collected from a person ≥14 days after they have completed all recommended doses of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-authorized COVID-19 vaccine.
Identifying and investigating hospitalized or fatal vaccine breakthrough casesAs of May 1, 2021, CDC transitioned from monitoring all reported vaccine breakthrough cases to focus on identifying and investigating only hospitalized or fatal cases due to any cause. This shift will help maximize the quality of the data collected on cases of greatest clinical and public health importance.
Previous data on all vaccine breakthrough cases reported to CDC from January–April 2021 are available .
State health departments report vaccine breakthrough cases to CDC. CDC now monitors reported hospitalized or fatal vaccine breakthrough cases for clustering by patient demographics, geographic location, time since vaccination, vaccine type, and SARS-CoV-2 lineage. Reported data include hospitalized or fatal breakthrough cases due to any cause, including causes not related to COVID-19.
... ... ...
As of July 12, 2021, more than 159 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
During the same time, CDC received reports from 48 U.S. states and territories of 5,492 patients with COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infection who were hospitalized or died.
Total number of vaccine breakthrough infections reported to CDC Hospitalized or fatal vaccine breakthrough cases reported to CDC 5,492 Female 2,680 (49%) People aged ≥65 years 4,109 (75%) Asymptomatic infections 1,107 (20%) Hospitalizations* 5,189 (94%) Deaths† 1,063 (19%)
Jul 15, 2021 | www.boston.com
Infections and even hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have begun to increase since the Fourth of July weekend. And it turns out that those vaccinated against the disease aren't completely immune, as state officials revealed that there have been thousands of breakthrough infections -- and even dozens of deaths -- among people who have gotten their shots since the rollout began.
... ... ...
As of July 10, 4,450 vaccinated people in Massachusetts had tested positive for COVID-19 since the rollout began this past winter, according to the state's Department of Public Health.
That 's just over 0.1 percent -- or one in a thousand -- of the 4,195,844 people in Massachusetts who were fully vaccinated at the time.
Of that tiny faction, the overwhelming majority of cases weren't severe.
DPH officials say that 303 -- or 6.8 percent -- of the breakthrough infections involved hospitalization and a total of 79 vaccinated individuals in Massachusetts have died.
... ... ...
Since June 25, the average number of new positive COVID-19 tests in the state has nearly doubled, from 64 to 122. DPH officials also reported 208 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Wednesday, the first single-day report over 200 since early June , a time when the state's testing rate was nearly a third higher.
Over the same time period, the state's positivity rate more than doubled from 0.31 percent to 0.72 percent.
Following a steady decline this spring, hospitalizations have also increased from a low of 80 statewide COVID-19 patients on July 4 to 102 as of Tuesday.
...
According to the CDC, the Delta accounted for 10 percent of new cases in Massachusetts as of June 22, but that data is now nearly a month old -- and predates the current uptick.
Cassandra Pierre, a Boston Medical Center epidemiologist and Boston University professor, says the recent uptick in overall cases in "somewhat concerning" given the national rise of the Delta variant.
"We have some data to show that the delta variant is responsible for more hospitalizations than the previous dominant variant and while the jury is out on whether it's also more virulent (capable of causing severe illness) we've begun to see COVID-related death rates rise in some of the hardest hit states," Pierre told Boston in an email.
... ... ...
While experts have predicted a mild, seasonal uptick in COVID-19 cases this fall, Pierre says the recent increase is earlier than anticipated. She noted that the rainy weather over the Fourth of July weekend may have pushed more gatherings and activities indoors.
DPH guidance says that unvaccinated resident should continue to wear masks when near people outside their household, especially indoors. While the Delta variant has caused some cities and organizations to extend that mask guidance to all individuals, regardless of vaccination status, the still-low case rates have yet to induce such a move in Massachusetts.
... ... ...
State officials say they don't have a breakdown of the recent infections among vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, in part because the data on breakthrough cases is reported separately (while health care providers report all positive tests directly to the state, breakthrough cases are first reported to the CDC, and then to state officials).
However, earlier data on breakthrough infection obtained by the Herald through a public records request suggests that there have been 543 breakthrough cases between June 19 and July 10. That's roughly 30 percent of the 1,809 positive cases reported by the state over the same time period, meaning 70 percent of new cases were among the minority of residents who were not fully vaccinated.
... over 83 percent of Massachusetts adults have gotten at least one shot
Jul 16, 2021 | www.khou.com
There's quite a bit about COVID-19 and vaccines that we still don't know.
While the vaccines are up to 95 percent effective against COVID-19, there have been breakthrough cases. That's where those who are vaccinated test positive. The CDC was monitoring all reported breakthroughs . However, back in May, as more people got vaccinated, the feds transitioned to focusing on cases where someone went to the hospital or died. They said that data would have the greatest importance.
"The question is are we getting more cases than we should be seeing as breakthrough cases," Dr. Jill Roberts at USF Health said. "That's really hard to determine because there isn't a good source of data, so there's a lot of people looking at this. They're sequencing this strain from the people who got breakthrough cases to see if it's really Delta variant or if the thing has mutated again."
"We're trying to figure out what's going on. Is this really, truly a vaccine failure or is it expected numbers? And without the data, we can't tell," she added.
Dr. Roberts says she would like to see more information on variants – like which populations contracted them, if they're vaccinated, and what they do for living so doctors can have a better idea of infection control.
Jul 18, 2021 | www.poynter.org
As states cut back on their COVID-19 data collection and fail to document "breakthrough" cases , we are left to guess how often and where people are being infected. I have said this a few times and now it is becoming real.
Read deeper to let me explain why the phrase "breakthrough" may be a disservice to the public.
First, consider the case unfolding in Las Vegas, where the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports :
At least 11 employees of Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center tested positive for COVID-19 after attending a party on June 7, according to Southern Nevada Health District emails obtained through records requests by the Brown Institute for Media Innovation's Documenting COVID-19 project . The emails, which were shared with the Review-Journal, indicate that eight of the employees had been fully vaccinated in December and January, meaning that the virus had "broken through" the protection of inoculation.
Two other employees who were infected had received one dose of a double-dose vaccination. One was unvaccinated. At least 10 of the 11 had the delta variant, a more easily transmissible strain of the virus.
One question is whether the vaccines had been properly stored. But the hospital that administered them said there was no problem with storage. Was there something unique about this party that made transmission more possible?
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and some states have stopped gathering as much data as they once did. Again, the Las Vegas Journal-Review:
Beginning May 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped monitoring all reported vaccine breakthrough cases, focusing instead on those resulting in hospitalization or death. The state of Nevada and the health district, in turn, stopped reporting totals of identified cases.
However, in a June 22 email, a health district official told other agency officials there had been 471 identified breakthrough cases in Clark County, with 53 resulting in hospitalization and eight in death. In other words, there were nearly 10 times as many breakthrough cases identified as were publicly disclosed.
Nobody promised that there would be no breakthroughs. As WCVB explains , as with any vaccine -- especially one protecting against a fast-changing virus -- some fully vaccinated people will still get sick or become virus carriers. Remember, even in breakthrough cases, vaccinated patients are far less likely to become seriously ill.
The Atlantic raises the issue of whether using the word "breakthrough" is harmful to the public's understanding. Because, really, these are expected infections:
The thing to know about the COVID-19 vaccines is that they're flame retardants, not impenetrable firewalls, when it comes to the coronavirus. Some vaccinated people are still getting infected, and a small subset of these individuals is still getting sick -- and this is completely expected .
We're really, really bad at communicating that second point, which is all about breakthroughs, a concept that has, not entirely accurately, become synonymous with vaccine failure. It's a problem that goes far beyond semantics: Bungling the messaging around our shots' astounding success has made it hard to convey the truly minimal risk that the vaccinated face, and the enormous gamble taken by those who eschew the jabs .
The CDC has a definition for "breakthrough cases." And, the CDC says:
As of July 6, 2021, more than 157 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
During the same time, CDC received reports from 48 U.S. states and territories of 5,186 patients with COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infection who were hospitalized or died.
(CDC)
Keep in mind that the CDC no longer gathers "breakthrough" data unless the person ends up in the hospital. This means that it misses a lot of cases since we know from the data that most breakthrough cases do not result in sickness serious enough to send a person to the hospital. To get an idea of what the data looks like when all "breakthrough" cases are reported, look at the January through April data , before the CDC changed its rules. More than 10,000 cases were reported in that timeframe.
I like the way The Atlantic put all of this in perspective:
The overwhelming majority of the COVID-19 cases we're seeing are among the unvaccinated. And when the virus does affect the immunized, it seems to accumulate to lower levels, and spread less enthusiastically to new hosts; it's causing, on average, milder and more transient symptoms.
Jul 15, 2021 | www.wsj.com
A Covid Vaccine Crossroads - WSJ By The Editorial Board
... ... ...
But resistance has also formed among conservatives who are skeptical of pronouncements by public-health experts and politicians, many of whom insisted without evidence that school closures and economic lockdowns were necessary to contain the virus. Many Democrats, including Kamala Harris and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, politicized the vaccines last fall to take down Donald Trump .
Now some of the same people are disparaging the unvaccinated as backwards or crazy, much as they do people who hold sincere religious beliefs. Many of them, including Anthony Fauci and Democratic politicians, have little credibility with half the country.
government health bodies in the U.S. and other countries have analyzed rare adverse side effects. These include myocarditis in young adults from the Pfizer vaccine, and Guillain-Barré syndrome from the J&J vaccine. Their conclusion is that the benefits outweigh the potential risks even in sub-populations.
The calculus for school-age children will be different because their Covid risks are so much lower, and trial data won't identify 1 in 50,000 events. There's no need for K-12 schools to mandate vaccines
SUBSCRIBER 2 hours ago Los Angeles just re-instituted its mask mandate for everyone, vaccinated or not, indoors in a public building. Las Vegas is considering the same. SUBSCRIBER 3 hours ago According to the CDC as of today:68% of those over 18 have received at least one dose.
59% of those over 18 are fully vaccinated.
89% of those over 65 have received at least one dose
79% of those over 65 are fully vaccinatedThat sounds like mass vaccination has been achieved, and those who are at the highest risk have almost all be vaccinated.
Given that, why force those who do not want it or those who have close to 0 risk of adverse effects from covid to get it?
Per the state of TN, your survival rate for a CONFIRMED Covid case is 99.99% if you are 1-10, 100.00% if you are from 10-20, and 99.97% if you are from 20-30. Why are forcing the folks to get shots they do not really need?
That is what most of us are objecting to. SUBSCRIBER 3 hours ago But an American 15 year old's probability of dying in the next year is 0.0005, according to actuarial tables at the Social Security Administration. Catching COVID increases their chance of death by 60 pct.
That is how a lot of families think about it. Like thumb_up 3 Reply reply Share link Report flag B
Brian Johnson SUBSCRIBER 3 hours ago
And what is the probability they will catch COVID?richard cheverton SUBSCRIBER 4 hours agoWhat is the probability of dying from the vaccine?
I am not against vaccines. I am fully vaccinated. In my case the risk reward was pretty clear cut.
However, when the heart issues from the vaccines came to light, I paused about getting my children vaccinated. What other side effects are their for children?
All summer I heard about the heart issues with athletes and covid. It was used as a justification for the Big 10 not playing football.
The severity of the heart issues are pretty close between COVID and the vaccine. The difference is there is a low chance of my child getting COVID but a 100% chance of vaccine exposure if they get the shot.
So now, am I not supposed to worry about the heart issues?
BTW, I have a 16 year old who is about to get their license. I can't imagine what that does to the probability of dying in the next year.
First, take a deep breath, sit down with a cuppa tea, relax, and think.Brian Johnson SUBSCRIBER 3 hours agoThink about the phrase, "... the benefits outweigh the potential risks..." And reflect that the so-called risks are not potential, but very real and documented with government figures. Then assume that you are one of the "rare" cases of some complication; you took the jab and paid the price for herd immunity. Congratulations!
Then contemplate the mutterings about "boosters," on top of the two required shots. How come, you might wonder. Then look at spikes in infections in the UK and Israel, which are highly-vaccinated nations. Why?
Then consider that government has offshored the enforcement of vaccine coercion to private corporations, none of which have any expertise in virology, or epidemiology, and which are not licensed to practice medicine.
Think about that.
All six Yankees players who have COVID were vaccinated, and they still need to sit out.Robert Houston SUBSCRIBER 1 hour ago40% of COVID hospitalizations in Israel this week were vaccinated. The Pfizer vaccine is at 60% effectiveness at preventing COVID in Israel and falling.
The vaccines do help, but they will not end COVID. At best, they will limit the damage to high risk patients.
If you are at low risk of severe symptoms, why do you need the vaccine? Why are you being forced to take it to go to school?
The New York Public Health response to Covid was really ugly. The number of ICU beds per population, ventilators, masks and lack of public health nursing services were critical to the disaster. The Gov sent the infected elderly from public hospitals to private nursing homes unprepared for their new public need (they didn't have refrigerated trucks and the mortuaries would not take the infected dead). A vaccine will not cure these shortages and their Public Health poor planning.MARK VANDERMAUSE SUBSCRIBER 49 minutes agoWe all take risks every day, and consciously and not, weigh the benefit to be gained against the inherent risk of an activity we participate in.William Cnossen SUBSCRIBER 5 hours ago
For the great majority of people getting vaccinated makes sense. If you have a conviction to not get vaccinated you have decided to bear the risks associated with that decision."Most Americans believe the personal benefits from vaccination outweigh the potential risks."Robert Houston SUBSCRIBER 5 hours agoAnd for most people that is true. But for children and young adults with no amplifying problems it may not be. Also if you have already had the disease the vaccine could do more harm than good. For teacher's unions and government officials to make any blanket requirement about mandating vaccine use just won't work.
There is a reason that freedom is such a powerful force in this country. Individuals assessing their own conditions and risk tolerance is always better than one-size-fits-all government edicts.
The current administration has millions of "last year's" vaccines that they can't give away. Yes, they ordered all of them because they thought that they would need to vaccinate everybody: Fauci kept moving the goalposts. Unfortunately, (me being Swedish), the "natural herd immunity" theory was actively censored as "too dangerous." Well, who is right and who is wrong?richard crane SUBSCRIBER 6 hours agoLook at the Covid death rates on the CDC web site. The pandemic in the USA is over. It looks like we only needed to vaccinate the "high risk groups." Yes, we may need to get the 2021 updated Covid vaccine this fall (all for that). With the objective success in the USA, forcing vaccinations with the current vaccines makes as much sense as selling lottery tickets after the prize winner has received the payout.
... it's pretty clear that Fauci et al destroyed their own credibility by lying and guessing.Alan Rigg SUBSCRIBER 6 hours agoWe have already had all the "mass vaccination" we have ever needed to have... of high-risk individuals. Why should people who have a 99.98% chance of surviving coronavirus (which is people under 50) and people with natural antibodies (as a result of recovering from coronavirus) pursue vaccination?Tom Richard SUBSCRIBER 7 hours ago1. No mention of natural immunity of those who have had the virus. They are a legitimate part of the percentage necessary for herd immunity and have no need of a vaccine.Jeffrey P SUBSCRIBER 7 hours ago
2. Healthy children are at vanishingly low risk of Covid, and some risk from myocarditis and associated side effects of the vaccines. Any mandatory vaccination of children is tantamount to child abuse.TomTimothy Kenefick SUBSCRIBER 5 hours agoYou should update yourself. Past infection isn't enough.
"Covid-19 Immune Response Could Be Long Lasting, but Variants Present Risks"
https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-immune-response-could-be-long-lasting-but-variants-present-risks-11626439371?mod=mhp
Incorrect: As a recent article in Nature points out vaccination after infection results in a much more robust antibody response and likely longer immunity (which can be less than a yr after natural infection) and better coverage for infections with variants.Tom Richard SUBSCRIBER 5 hours ago350+ children have died of covid far more that from seasonal flu for which we routinely vaccinate. Covid itself causes myocardial inflammation and inflammatory disease at a rate much greater that the vaccine.
T cell and B cell response also lasts far longer than the initial antibodies that are produced in response to the initial infection. Natural immunity could last far longer than that produced by vaccines.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-020-00436-4
Jul 16, 2021 | www.wsj.com
Also the whole idea of booster shots undermine the idea of "total immunization" and makes achieving "herd immunity" impossible.
The durability of immune response after Covid-19 infection or vaccination is one of the most important factors in the trajectory of the pandemic , health experts say. Exactly how long the immune response might be protective isn't clear, in part because the earliest known infections and vaccinations stretch back only some 18 months at most.
The durability of immune response after Covid-19 infection or vaccination is one of the most important factors in the trajectory of the pandemic , health experts say. Exactly how long the immune response might be protective isn't clear, in part because the earliest known infections and vaccinations stretch back only some 18 months at most.
"We shouldn't get scared when we see the antibody response go down," said Miriam Merad, director of the Precision Immunology Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Some immunologists have also reported other parts of the immune system adapting to recognize the virus that causes Covid-19, such as Memory B cells that churn out antibodies and T-cells that can direct an immune response or kill infected cells.
In a May study in the scientific journal Nature, researchers found Covid-19-specific immune cells in the bone marrow from 15 of 19 patients who had experienced a mild infection as much as eight months earlier. That indicates that their bodies were forming a lasting immune memory against the virus, said Ali Ellebedy, an associate professor of pathology and immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the senior author on the study.
"Those people have some partial protection remaining for a long time," Dr. Ellebedy said.
Immunologists and health authorities caution that not everyone generates a robust immune response following a Covid-19 infection, especially people who are older or have weakened immune systems
... many people who are immunocompromised fail to elicit a strong immune response even after full vaccination. Israel has started giving booster shots to people with weaker immune systems as cases caused by the Delta variant increase in the country.
... ... ...
Both Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE as well as Moderna Inc. have demonstrated that their mRNA vaccines are effective for at least six months. A CDC official earlier this week said the agency hasn't yet seen evidence of waning immunity among people vaccinated as far back as December and January.
Covid-19 vaccines strengthen the immune response among people who have been previously infected, immunologists say. In one cohort of 63 previously infected participants, 41% of whom were subsequently vaccinated, researchers found that people who had been infected but not vaccinated generated an immune response up to a year later.
People who were vaccinated after being infected generated more-effective antibody responses against viral mutations.
"They basically become bulletproof," said Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at the Rockefeller University and senior author on the study. "It's a big difference."
The CDC and many health authorities recommend that people who have previously had Covid-19 still get vaccinated to boost their immune response.
John Pound SUBSCRIBER 55 seconds ago
Man, the non-stop drug pushing in the media is bizarre.Girish Kotwal SUBSCRIBER 2 minutes agoGoogle T and B cells as regards immunology and sleep easier.
Taiwan suffered less than 15 deaths from covid in 2020 and only 749 total to date from both covid and the Delta variant despite a population of 24M and relatively lax covid policies.
Why? Blood serology showed massive cross-immunization from SARS 2003 that swept through Taiwan 18 years ago.
Mother nature was saving human lives long before Pfizer....
I am making a strong case for Covid-19 Immune Response being longer lasting, more robust and broader in terms of emerging variants, than any of the current first generation vaccines against COVID alone. I am gathering a ton of evidence not just theoretical prediction to submit to a top journal for Med. Research. But let me summarize my rationale for making a bold statement.Gregory Gustilo SUBSCRIBER 37 minutes ago1) An average vaccinee has no higher antibody level against the surface glycoprotein of SARSCoronavirus 2/COVID after the first vaccine dose of Pfizer or Moderna or after the single dose of J&J.
2) A vaccinee who is not immunocompromised or immunosuppressed elicits an antibody and cellular response exclusively against a single surface protein of COVID, where as a previously confirmed +ve person who recovered from COVID and has been subsequently and consistently negative for COVID genomic RNA as determined by PCR, will have elicited immunity to all proteins of COVID including the most abundant nucleocapsid protein.Are none of our health and govt officials going to bring up the possibilities, that, most likely, after studying and comparing Sars 2 with the other 11 man made virus', it shares the same unique fingerprint, that maybe, just maybe this is not a mutation at all, but a completely different man made creation? Asking for a friend. Are we about to be bombarded by "new" virus', which will create "new" vaccines and an eco system of big Pharma creating a never ending source of revenue? Asking for a f different friend.Ken Belcher SUBSCRIBER 5 minutes agoAs it is, marketing has driven the increase in diabetes, and lowered people's opportunities to acquire immunity to common infections by pushing 'cleaning' products to needlessly sterilize ones environment.kris thiruvillakkat SUBSCRIBER 46 minutes agoEven if Covid-19 was man-made, how would that change the rational responses to protect you and your family from it?
Speculations, hypothesis, steady streaming by WSJ (and others). Long term? What months, years? No clinical evidences, only studies; we haven't been on it long enough. Simple known facts about most (if not all) viruses are known for years. So, in this respect, covid will not be much different, say, from the flu viruses; it's just another "variant". And, we know that flu vaccines offer limited immunity (months to a year), as they are mutating (into different variants, fast- that's how they work). It would help to put this kind of facts in perspective with covid also. Don't get stressed out or overly hopeful by reading these kinds of coverage.Dom Fried SUBSCRIBER 37 minutes agoIt is not a flu. I wish people would stop saying that. The mRNA vaccines are novel. No prior flu vaccine has been mRNA. Neither the vaccines nor the viruses are the same, so any conclusions you just drew based on past flu experiences are invalid and pure nonsense.John C SUBSCRIBER 1 hour agoHere is some news for you, T Swan. CA hospitals are now seeing a surge in Delta (or Epsilon, I'm not sure which) cases in previously-vaccinated people. But Gov Gav CAN'T lockdown again because he has a recall election this fall. So regardless of the science, Gav can't shut down again because he knows he will be victim-blamed for the upsurge. He won't "follow the science" because now it's politically inconvenient for him. But there will have to be new mask mandates shortly in CA and that alone might create enough of a political whirlwind to recall the governor.
Jul 15, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
In recent weeks, Israeli media has become a factory for stories that cut against the 'official' 'scientific' narrative about the COVID-19 vaccines. Most visibly, I srael has made a deal with Pfizer to start doling out "booster" shots for the most vulnerable Israelis, despite the FDA's insistence that there's "no evidence" that a booster shot is necessary.
Now, the Israeli Health Ministry has discovered that the number of patients who had been infected prior to becoming infected again during the latest Delta-driven wave of the pandemic were less likely to be reinfected than patients who have only been vaccinated. The finding directly contradicts research spouted by American experts like Dr. Fauci, along with Pfizer and Moderna, who have previously insisted that the antibodies created by their jabs are more powerful than antibodies produced by natural infection (which is one reason even the previously infected have been asked to get vaccinated).
According to Israel National News , more than 7.7K new cases of the virus have been detected during the most recent wave (beginning back in May). However, just 72 of the confirmed cases were reported in people who were known to have been previously infected - that is, less than 1% of the new cases.
Roughly 40% of new cases "" involving more than 3K patients "" were infected despite being fully vaccinated.
By this count, Israelis who had been vaccinated were 6.72x more likely to get infected after the shot than after natural infection, with more than 3K of the 5,193,499, or 0.0578%, of Israelis who were vaccinated getting infected in the latest wave. The disparity has confounded Health Ministry experts, with some saying the data proves the higher level of immunity provided by natural infection versus vaccination. However, others remain unconvinced.
Israel's Health Ministry previously estimated that the efficacy of Pfizer's COVID jab was only 64% against the Delta variant , which helped prompt Pfizer and its partner BioNTech to develop a new jab designed to protect against variants including Delta and Beta (the variant first discovered in South Africa).
Lord Baltimore 3 hours ago remove linkPlus Size Model 2 hours ago"Roughly 40% of new cases "" involving more than 3K patients "" were infected despite being fully vaccinated."
Which implies that it's not really a vaccine.
GreatUncle 1 hour ago remove linkIt was a privilege worth waiting for hours in line a few months ago! Ha
I'll never forget watching some poor guy on CNN suffer while being taunted by a bunch of newsmen hyping up the juice. The poor guy looked like he was dying from COVID and the interviewer claimed that, anecdotally, the vaccines can work miracles. He also claimed that the vaccine can, anecdotally of course, clear up this guy's symptoms that he's been having for the past year.
The guy was just wrecked. He could hardly sit up without fainting, couldn't sleep, and often had to cool his feet off in icewater.
At the end of the vaccine advertisement, the interviewer had the audacity to claim that he wasn't eligible for the vaccine yet and had to suffer for a few more months. Sadists!!
hwinoree 3 hours agoThose participating in the experiment ... the issue is not necessarily the vaccine i t is what changes it makes to the rest of your immune system . If you had measles ... has that immunity been wiped people should be asking because NOBODY KNOWS!
This is why people with a poor disposition to vaccines will get an adverse outcome.
Do the test ... let 10000 people be vaxxed and now write down on the persons vaxxed card this one gets Guinne & Barrie. Get 100% right and no errors or guesses then I would consider you a real pro.
But then if you were that good you should be pulling that person out and saying no vaxx for you ... so in effect those vaxxing are no better than murderers and fast approaching 10K kills.
THAT LOGIC TELLS ME THIS MASS VACCINATION IS MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE.
philipat 2 hours agoHowdyDoody 2 hours agoBy definition, the mRNA and DNA devices are experimental gene therapies, not vaccines. Their issued patents confirm this.
Even according to the manufacturers, these products do NOT induce immunity and do NOT prevent transmission.
They are, in fact "leaky" prophylactic therapies which simply claim to reduce the severity of symptoms. There are risks of using such products in the middle of a pandemic, as set forth by Dr Geert Vanden Bossche.
LetThemEatRand 3 hours ago"Which implies that it's not really a vaccine."
Pfizer/Moderna/AZ are not. The acceptance criteria for a 'successful vaccine' was never 'reduction of symptoms in some cases of the disease.'
serotonindumptruck 3 hours agoFunny how the "conspiracy theorists" predicted this months ago. I suppose social media and other big tech will allow people to post comments and videos about this now that mother Israel said it's true? Or not. Maybe they will ban the Israeli government for spreading disinformation for a while before they get a call from the ADL.
Plus Size Model 3 hours agoThe propaganda is now coming fast and hard.
Not only are "vaccine" passports being suggested (and implemented), but now "booster" shots are being forced down everyone's throats.
Masking these mandates behind Israel only raises my suspicions.
Are Israelis receiving placebos and vitamin shots in lieu of the genocidal kill shots?
Plus Size Model 2 hours agoI'm seeing some goofballs / paid agents / bots requesting a drip line like it's chemotherapy. It's hilarious making them explain their logic. It's even funnier what they come up with.
philipat 2 hours ago (Edited)Doesn't look like it. They've got the same drama going on there too. This guy claims the vaccines killed lots more than the virus itself and got "fact checked" by some whatever website.
Kassandra 2 hours ago (Edited) remove linkWith the exception of high risk group (mostly the age cohort > age 70), natural infection is better protection for everyone against any Covid in terms of the risk/benefit equation (a/k/a informed consent). The survival rate in this group is 99.95% whereas the vaccine AE risk is not insignificant. Natural immunity also provides a broader, deeper and longer-lasting.
But we are still being lied to about :
- Naturally immune people still need vaccination. The scientific fact is they don't and in fact there may be dangers (ADE, or Pathogenic priming) in doing so. Why the lies?
- Herd Immunity can only be achieved through vaccination. The WHO has changed its definition and M-W dictionary has revised its defintion accordingly. But again the science does not support this. In fact, the experiences of both Diamond Princess and USS Theodore Roosevelt both suggest (albeit only anecdotally) that only 20% of the population will ever become infected. This is consistent with scientific assessments which have variously estimated that up to 80% may have pre-existing immunity. There is a good possibility that Herd Immunity had already been reached BEFORE the "vaccine" rollout started and that the "fall in new cases" was more attributable to the decline in testing.
So why all the lies and denial of science? Are there other reasons, perhaps, for the obsession with "vaccinating" everyone, even those who don't need it (the already immune and children) and pregnant women, where normal medical precaution suggests that it could at least wait until after delivery?
CatInTheHat 1 hour agoUnlike some say, it's a real illness. Had it early on, Dec 2019 into Jan 2020. Dry, brutal cough. Felt like I broke a rib. Fever went to 104.2 after that I can't remember. Too sick to go to Dr. Sweats to make the sheets wet. I realized if it got any worse, I should go to ER. Also realized all I had to do was breathe. Lay on my side and had the heating pad on high on my upside lung area..and concentrated on breathing. And everything tasted like nothing..cardboard or worse. I'm in my 60s..decent health. But it was no joke. I've survived a lot of nasty **** including staph pneumonia, twice, as a child. This was worse. They can't possibly make a vaccine against this. You couldn't pay me any amount of money to take the vaccine.
Johnny Walker 2 hours ago (Edited) remove linkThe tests were/are a FRAUD..
They were deliberately run at high cycle thresholds (35-42), guaranteeing FALSE positives.
The American people have beem so dumbed down, that stupid gov slogans like flatten the curve, social distancing and my personal favorite ASYMPTOMATIC, that convinced a nation of healthy people that they were sick FOR OVER A YEAR, they no longer recognize truth and ******** out of gov.
THAT is frightening. Honestly stupidity ignorance and flat out NARCISSISM from Dem voters via this massive hoax they bought into hook line and sinker does NOT bode well for the future. One wonders what it will take to wake them up. I thought dead and injured CHILDREN would do it. But NOPE.
CatInTheHat 1 hour agoExplained why you should NOT take the jab:
https://principia-scientific.com/doctor-heart-failure-from-mrna-jabs-will-kill-most-people/
rejectnumbskull 1 hour agoWhat kills me is that these murderers call myocarditis MILD..
If you get onto Telegram and head over to the MRNA DEATH TOLL group you'll see just how "mild" this is for CHILDREN
Sluggo315 2 hours ago remove linkThe bitchute video with the doctor was really good. Very important. EVERYBODY should watch it.
Multi 1 hour agoDr. Kurt Vanden Bossche predicted this would occur. He made videos proclaiming that the world should not be vaccinating during a pandemic because of exactly this reason. I just did a Google search and his name never even appeared in the predictive function when typing his name. Why? The vax should be stopped immediately and anyone associated with Phizer, BioNTech, Moderna, J and J, Gates Foundation, Schwab Foundation should all be put on trial somewhere for crimes against humanity!! IMO. Will they? Hell no, the media will just say this is all a big conspiracy...
Jim in MN 1 hour agoFrance (Macron) just made mandatory proof of vaccination to ENTER SHOPS and USE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION .
ay_arrowfackbankz 1 hour agoLet's also please keep reminding people of the new UK data on children in which less than one in FOUR MILLION healthy children actually died from this. Compare that to the risk of a completely new mRNA serum that actually targets an extremely rare and poorly understood type of immune cell--and one of the only things we do know about these immune cells is that altering their function plays a major or even key role in autoimmune disorders.
Millions of kids. Playing Fauci Roulette with life-long debilitating or fatal side effects.
Just stop all of this. It's madness, or worse.
JD59 2 hours ago (Edited)All I hear on the news is how 99% of "cases" in the US are in unvaccinated people.
Somebody's lying, and in this case, I definitely trust Israel's numbers.
trailer park boys 1 hour agoThe US Gov., big pharma, and the media have been lying to the world the entire time about this bug.
LEEPERMAX 3 hours agoWhat am I missing here?
"...less than 1% of the new cases were reported in people who were known to have been previously infected."
"Roughly 40% of new cases "" involving more than 3K patients "" were infected despite being fully vaccinated."
"By this count, Israelis who had been vaccinated were 6.72x more likely to get infected after the shot than after natural infection."
The math doesn't add up - or am I reading this wrong?
Imxploring 1 hour ago😳Wow
CoronaGate Update :
https://brandnewtube.com/watch/dr-david-martin-dr-reiner-fuellmich-july-9-2021_RlmKScwsMf6ATEG.html
Po0h Bear 1 hour agoNo doubt the human body is the best machine to produce durable antibodies.... artificial methods work.... but are limited.
CheapBastard 2 hours ago (Edited)Psaki Slip: "˜Vaccines Can Kill You if You're Under 27'
https://www.infowars.com/posts/psaki-slip-vaccines-can-kill-you-if-youre-under-27/
USGrant 1 hour ago (Edited)Bottom line:
Lots of politicians, doctors and corporations and esp Big Pharma are benefiting greatly either financially from this or enabling them to exert more CONTROL on people. It comes down to:
- Money, and,
- Power
Captive 34 minutes ago (Edited)If the population of Israel is 9 E6 and the number of delta cases is 7.7 E3 then there is to date a 7.7E3/9E6 =.000856 or .0856% chance of coming down with it. It may be more likely you will choke on a mouthful of steak.
5.1E6 have been jabbed or 5.1E6/9E6 or 56.6% jabbed and then 3.9E6/9E6= 43.4% unjabbed. So getting delta if unjabbed is 3.08E3/3.9E6=.00079 or .079%. So .0856/.079=1.1 times more likely to come down with delta if jabbed versus unjabbed. So jabbing confers nothing. Natural immunity confers a large advantage as a minuscule number of 72 is assigned to those confirmed to have been originally infected.
Bob Lidd 2 hours ago remove linkAll we can say is that so far, the number of individuals being infected by the delta variant who had previous infections is small and the number of those infected who were previously vaccinated is similar to the background rate of infectivity. Which, like you concluded, likely means that vaccination imparts little added benefit but natural recovery is likely protective. Quantifying it... I agree, not possible without knowing precisely how many in Israel had previous infections.
desertboy 2 hours ago remove linkUntil an infectious disease crisis is very real, present, and at an
emergency threshold, it is often largely ignored.To sustain the funding base beyond the crisis, we need to increase public
understanding of the need for MCMs such as a pan-influenza or
pan-coronavirus vaccine.A key driver is the media, and the economics follow the hype. We need to use
that hype to our advantage to get to the real issues. Investors will respond if they
see profit at the end of process,
Peter Daszak - President of EcoHealth Alliance
2015https://www.brighteon.com/a569c7c9-9572-47ed-ba3c-130b0c13aa55
Po0h Bear 1 hour agoSimilar results to the 52,000 participant cohort of the Cleveland Clinic recently published, showing dramatically better response from naturally-developed immunity than from the vaccinated.
But Professor Sucharit Bhakdi is a kooky conspiracy theorist,
and Fauci is not a politician.
Jim in MN 1 hour agoItalian Neurosurgeon Who Operated on Young Covid Vaccine Victim Says "Never Seen Anything Like This"
Neurosurgeon interviewed by Italian media says brain of 18-year-old girl swelled to point that skull was opened to relieve pressure. She passed away days later
'I had never seen a brain that was affected by such an extensive and severe thrombosis.'
OutaTime43 22 minutes ago (Edited)Let's just check their math shall we?
Total population = 9,371,370 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel
Total new cases = 7,700
'Known recovered' = 835,792 per the article
New cases among recovered = 72 or .00862% infection rate
'Vaccinated' = 5,193,499
New cases among vaccinated = 'over 3,000' but we'll call it 3,000 or .0578% infection rate
That leaves 4,628 new cases among the rest of the 'status unknown' population of 3,342,079. 0.139% infection rate.
A few observations, first, 7,700 'cases detected' is itself in total less than one tenth of one percent of the population. Just saying.
The infection rate among the vaccinated is indeed 6.7 times that of the 'recovered'. The 'status unknown' rate is another 2.4 times that.
green_dog 10 minutes agoPeople in their 30's are dying from Covid (delta). Even those without pre conditions. So, stop listening to this misinformation targeting conservative readers please. It's probably being done on purpose.
99% of those right now being hospitalized with Covid 19 are unvaccinated.
C0rnelius 11 minutes agoPlease, provide a link to data supporting your claim about the deaths in the younger age group with no co-morbidities.
OutaTime43 7 minutes ago (Edited) remove linkwhere is your source that 99% of those hospitalized with delta are unvaccinated? The first delta case in the US was back in March and deaths have continued to trend down. Covid is clearly becoming less deadly as it mutates.
Here you go boss. This is a fact.
More recent data from Virginia..
Also, here's the case rate per population. The highest case rates are in the lowest vaccinated states.
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesper100klast7days
Jul 15, 2021 | www.bloomberg.com
Moderna's Next Act Is Using mRNA vs. Flu, Zika, HIV, and Cancer
The biotech has reached a $100 billion market cap. But after Covid, the challenges get even bigger.
By Robert Langreth July 14, 2021, 5:00 AM EDT Updated on July 14, 2021, 10:15 AM EDT SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share Tweet Post EmailA year ago, Moderna Inc. was an unprofitable company with no marketed products and a promising but totally unproven technology. None of its experimental drugs and vaccines had ever completed a large-scale trial. Experts were divided on how well the mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine it was about to enter in a Phase III trial would stack up against older, more established vaccine technologies.
This year, Moderna could deliver 1 billion doses of its Covid shot and bring in $19 billion in revenue. It's become the rare biotech to hit the big time without being gobbled up by, or splitting profits with, a larger, more established company. Its market value""which hit $100 billion for the first time on July 14th""exceeds that of stalwarts such as Bayer AG , the German inventor of aspirin, and biotech peers such as Biogen Inc. , founded three decades prior.
The speed with which Moderna and its primary mRNA competitor, a partnership between Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE , devised their shots has made a major contribution to the fight to end the pandemic. With strong efficacy, steady supply, and no show-stopping safety scares (officials are carefully monitoring rare heart inflammation cases in teenagers and young adults), mRNA shots have become the vaccines of choice, at least in countries that can get them.
But for Moderna Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel, the Covid vaccine is just the beginning. He's long promised that if mRNA works, it will lead to a giant new industry capable of treating most everything from heart disease to cancer to rare genetic conditions. Moderna has drugs in trials for all three of these categories, and Bancel says his company can also become a dominant vaccine maker, developing shots for emerging viruses such as Nipah and Zika, as well as better-known, hard-to-target pathogens such as HIV.
In the past 40 years, more than 50 new human viruses have been discovered. Only three have authorized vaccines. Bancel views that as an opportunity. "We are going to totally disrupt the vaccine market," he says during a late May interview at Moderna's Cambridge, Mass., headquarters, which fills a 10-story building north of the MIT campus. The Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG occupies labs in an adjacent building, and Pfizer and Merck & Co. have offices a few blocks away.
Bancel, who's 48, wears a pressed blue shirt, dark blue jeans, and a black Hermès belt. An avid runner, he appears even trimmer in person than on his frequent virtual conference appearances. He repeatedly jumps to his feet during the interview to graph on a whiteboard how the Covid outbreak could evolve. One chart forecasts seasonal waves, declining each passing year but still significant. Another projects the possible decay of vaccine efficacy over time, with mRNA shots like his starting in the best position but gradually declining. The take-home message coincides neatly with Moderna's business prospects: Countries may want to stockpile booster shots soon. "My mother is 72, and she has leukemia," he says. "I don't want her to go through the fall without a boost."
The company has vaccines for 10 viruses that are in, or about to be in, human trials. These include three types of Covid-19 boosters that are in midstage trials, a seasonal flu shot that began its first human study in July, and HIV shots that are slated to begin studies later this year. The furthest along besides the Covid shots combats cytomegalovirus, a ubiquitous bug that spreads through bodily fluids and is a common cause of birth defects; it's set to begin a Phase III trial this year in women of childbearing age. In the long term, Moderna is aiming to develop an annual supershot that could suppress numerous respiratory ailments, including Covid, the flu, and others. "Our goal is to give you several mRNAs in a single shot at your local CVS or GP every August or September," Bancel says.
Now comes the difficult part: delivering on that promise while keeping ahead of just about every other vaccine company in the world as they rapidly invest in mRNA. In the future, Moderna won't have the pandemic to highlight mRNA's most obvious advantages over older technologies""speed and flexibility. Future vaccines and drugs will usually have to go through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's normal approval process, meaning longer follow-ups to gather data and 6- to 10-month review timelines. That time frame will provide space for mRNA-wielding rivals and older technologies to compete.
Pfizer, with its partner BioNTech, has become an mRNA manufacturing juggernaut and expects to produce 3 billion doses this year; it has also dominated foreign distribution of mRNA vaccines so far. Another vaccine, from CureVac NV in Germany, which took a different approach to mRNA, performed tepidly, proving only 48% effective in Phase III trial data released in June, but still another, from China's Walvax Biotechnology Co. , will soon begin Phase III testing in seven countries.
More established technologies are reasserting themselves, too. On June 14, Novavax Inc. said its recombinant protein vaccine was 90% effective in a nearly 30,000-person trial in the U.S. and Mexico, with relatively few side effects""results that more or less matched those of the best mRNA shots. Vaccine giants Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline Plc are in Phase III trials on their own protein-based Covid vaccine, which could hit the market by yearend.
Mani Foroohar, an analyst at SVB Leerink LLC, calls Moderna's accomplishments with the Covid vaccine "truly breathtaking." But he also says it's far from certain whether such vaccines will have clear efficacy advantages with other viral diseases. And how big a role the technology could play in treating noninfectious diseases such as cancer is unknown. So though public expectations are boundless, he says, "the revenue opportunity is not."
The reply, for Bancel and the others pouring money into tiny RNA strands, lies in those two key advantages of speed and adaptability. At their heart, mRNA vaccines are a modular technology; they deliver the genetic code telling cells how to make the virus proteins that provoke an immune response, and the cells do the hard work from there. Now that Moderna is profitable and sitting on almost $8 billion in cash""Bancel's own stake, including options, is worth around $7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index""it can move quickly and aggressively into numerous new applications simply by changing the genetic code it puts into the mRNA. While Moderna's shot appears to be holding up well against the currently surging delta variant, for example, it's a straightforward process for the company to incorporate mutations into the vaccine if needed. "We don't have to introduce new technology or new processes," Bancel says. "It's exactly the same thing."
When Bancel left the top job at the French diagnostics company BioMérieux SA and became the second employee at Moderna""the name is a mashup of "modified" and "RNA"""a decade ago, the idea that messenger RNA could be medically useful was radical. At the time the molecule, which evolved to carry protein blueprints from DNA in the cell's nucleus to the compartments that synthesize proteins, had a reputation among lab scientists as fragile and hard to work with. When mRNA is artificially inserted in the human body, the immune system identifies it as a threat and attacks it. And because mRNA's function is temporary, enzymes found throughout the body can break it down. Neither are desirable outcomes for a drug or vaccine.
Starting in 2005, two researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, managed to slightly modify mRNA so it generated less of an immune reaction in the body. The finding drew little recognition at the time, but it turned out to be a critical advance. (Katalin left Penn to join BioNTech in 2013.) In 2010 a trio of Harvard and MIT scientists funded by venture firm Flagship Pioneering picked up on the idea and founded Moderna, bringing Bancel on the next year. Moderna and BioNTech later licensed the Penn technology.
Bancel recalls telling his wife before he changed jobs that there was a 5% chance the mRNA concept would succeed, but if it did, it would be huge. When Bancel pitched Moderna's now-president, Stephen Hoge, on the company the following year, Hoge says, his reaction was, "He's either brilliant or crazy." Hoge was then a McKinsey & Co. partner with a medical degree, and he was interested in doing something that would have more societal impact. He slowly came around to Bancel's view that mRNA therapy, if it worked, "was really going to transform medicine."
"The smart countries are saying, "˜I'd rather be two months too early than two months late'"‰"
The concept behind mRNA vaccines is simple. When the shots bring those protein-making instructions to cells, they effectively turn them into microscopic vaccine factories in their own right. This allows developers to streamline what is normally a messy manufacturing process. Many flu vaccines, for example, are made inside chicken eggs, and even newer genetically engineered vaccines still require growing viral proteins inside vats of live cells. Bypassing such steps lets mRNA vaccine manufacturers shift gears fairly quickly. It also appears to be relatively easy for them to make complicated vaccines involving multiple viral proteins.
"Everything with mRNA is just simpler," says Barney Graham, deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid), whose lab has been formally collaborating with Moderna since 2017. "For me, making vaccines that are as simple as possible is the way to go." Graham says gene-based shots such as mRNA vaccines are particularly well-suited to fighting viruses, because they seem to be adept at producing the so-called killer T-cells that destroy virus-infected cells.
Before Moderna could create an mRNA-based product, it had to crack the problem of how to protect the molecule from the body's defense systems. By modifying the RNA, the Penn researchers had figured out how to dampen the hair-trigger immune response it provoked, but their approach would be useless if it were broken down by enzymes before it could reach cells. The key to solving that problem turned out to be adding protective lipid nanoparticles to surround the mRNA molecules""essentially creating "balls of fat with little bits of RNA mixed in there," says Kerry Benenato, a chemist who left AstraZeneca Plc to join Moderna in 2014.
When Moderna started working on this approach in 2013, it had been tried mostly on much smaller types of RNA molecules, and there were concerns about side effects. "People had decided they were toxic," Hoge says. Nanoparticles contain synthetic fats, and in early iterations some of those fats tended to accumulate in cells, building up over time and potentially causing liver damage or other side effects.
Benenato's assignment was to devise nanoparticles that could safely and efficiently carry the mRNA into cells, release the payload, and then quickly break down. When she started, the chemistry involved in using nanoparticles with mRNA was so unexplored that there were few published scientific papers to guide her. She and her team made one tweak after another, pinpointing changes that improved tolerability without harming their ability to deliver mRNA. By 2015, Moderna had made a breakthrough, finding a series of lipid molecules that fit the bill. "Then it was off to the races," Benenato recalls. They patented the formulas and started deploying them in vaccines.
In its early years, Moderna had focused on therapeutics, including programs for cancer, heart disease, and other lucrative areas. The company gradually turned to vaccines as Bancel realized they would be the best way to prove mRNA technology worked. You have to inject only a couple of doses to stimulate a long-lasting immune reaction.
Working with Graham's team at Niaid, Moderna began formulating a Covid vaccine as soon as Chinese scientists released the coronavirus RNA sequence in early January 2020. Later that month, Bancel asked his manufacturing chief what it would take to make a billion vaccine doses in 2021. "He looked at me like I was insane," Bancel recalls. The Moderna plant had never made more than 100,000 doses of anything in a year. The U.S. government agreed to pay $955 million for the vaccine trials and initial small-scale production, but Bancel says he couldn't initially persuade any country to pay for a full scale-up. Moderna instead raised $1.3 billion in a May 2020 stock offering for the purpose. The move allowed the company to take its leap onto the world stage""and laid the groundwork for what comes next.
Moderna produces its nanoparticles and mRNA in a former Polaroid factory in the Boston suburb of Norwood, 15 miles south of its headquarters. The plant, which opened in July 2018, has been running around the clock since November. It looks less like a factory than like a cross between a tech startup and a molecular biology lab. Dozens of operations and quality-control workers dressed in casual clothing occupy a large warren of open-layout desks in the front of the building. Covid vaccines are produced in clean rooms, some of which are visible behind glass panels in the back. There are nine of these clean rooms making the shot here, up from three in December, and six more are scheduled to be running by the end of the year. The suites, which are roughly 1,000 square feet each, were built for flexibility, with mixing reaction vessels, chromatography instruments, and other equipment on wheels so they can be easily reconfigured.
The process starts with pieces of DNA called plasmids that Moderna brings in from a contract manufacturer. These plasmids contain the genetic blueprint for the Covid-19 spike protein. In one set of clean rooms, the spike protein DNA is synthesized into mRNA using a technique called in vitro transcription. It's basically the laboratory version of a process that normally occurs in cell nuclei.
The mRNA solution can be made in a matter of hours, says Scott Nickerson, a senior vice president who oversees the site. It then takes several days to purify unreacted enzymes and other extraneous material. From there, the purified mRNA goes to a separate set of clean rooms, where workers spend another few days formulating it with the lipid nanoparticles. The final product is frozen in sterile bioprocessing bags, encased in a protective shell, and shipped in temperature-controlled trucks to Catalent Inc.'s plant in Bloomington, Ind. There the vaccine is diluted, put into vials, labeled, and shipped. When Moderna started making the Covid vaccine in commercial quantities last year, the process took as long as 19 days to complete. Now it takes only 10 days to prep a batch for shipping to Catalent.
Last May, Moderna signed a 10-year deal , since expanded twice, with Lonza Group AG , which is expected to produce the bulk of its European supply at factories in Switzerland and the Netherlands. Moderna also made pacts this year with Sanofi, Samsung Biologics, and Thermo Fisher Scientific to bolster the vial-filling capacity that Catalent and Laboratorios Farmacéuticos Rovi in Spain currently provide. Increasing so-called fill-finish capability will become important as a greater share of the population is vaccinated and doctors can't find enough patients to use up the larger vials now in use, which contain between 10 and 15 doses.
Moderna's production this year, 800 million to 1 billion doses, will amount to only about a third of Pfizer and BioNTech's output. Pfizer had "100 times more people" at the start of the pandemic, along with existing plants it could retool for vaccine production, Bancel says. Moderna's head count has almost doubled since last year, to 1,500. Next year, with more capacity and a significant portion of its output potentially going into booster shots and pediatric formulations that use lower doses, the company and its partners expect to produce as many as 3 billion doses , approaching Pfizer and BioNTech's projected 2022 supply of 4 billion. If Novavax meets its production goals, Sanofi's protein-based vaccine also works, and companies such as Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca solve their manufacturing bottlenecks, at some point next year the world could shift from being desperately short of Covid shots to swimming in them.
As the virus settles down to a more manageable threat over the next few years, Covid vaccine sales may decline""perhaps precipitously. Morningstar Inc. analyst Karen Andersen says this market could top out at $72 billion worldwide this year, slip to $65 billion in 2022, and plummet to $8 billion a year after that. The extent of the slide will depend on how many people need booster shots, how often, and whether Moderna, Pfizer, and others will be able to raise prices to compensate for a smaller market. The science on booster shots is still unsettled""it's not yet clear how often, or even whether, they'll be needed in large numbers.
Moderna has three types of boosters in Phase II trials, including a lower-dose version of its existing vaccine, one booster that's been customized against the beta variant that was first spotted in South Africa, and a third that combines both. More variants can be added if necessary. The process for the beta booster went even faster than for the original shot. Design work started on Jan. 22, with Moderna ultimately switching out some of the chemical "letters" in its original mRNA vaccine, so they correspond to the spike protein in the beta variant. Manufacturing began three days later, and the first trial dose was administered on March 10""only 47 days in all, compared with the 65 for the main vaccine.
Moderna is already cutting deals that encompass potential booster doses, including a June order from the U.S. for 200 million additional shots in late 2021 and early 2022. Despite the uncertain need for boosters, Bancel's pitch is that it's best to be prepared for an evolving virus. At an investor conference in early June, he told everyone that "the smart countries are saying, "˜I'd rather be two months too early than two months late.'"‰"
Beyond Covid, most of Moderna's experimental vaccines remain in early stages of human trials. An exception is the shot for cytomegalovirus. No vaccine exists for this virus now, and the shot could turn into a multibillion-dollar product if it works. Moderna also plans human trials this year of a vaccine against another complicated pathogen, Epstein-Barr virus, which causes mononucleosis.
Influenza is an obvious target, and a shot for that could be combined with Covid boosters, locking them into an existing annual market. With the Pfizer-BioNTech alliance also slated to start trials on a flu shot later this year, researchers say they're hoping the mRNA vaccines can improve on existing versions, which must sometimes begin production six months in advance based on experts' assessment of which strains are likely to circulate. The shorter lead times required to make mRNA shots could, in theory, let health officials more closely match flu strains and improve upon typical 40% to 60% efficacy rates. "The mRNA vaccines have a very high likelihood of being better than the egg-based vaccines we use now," says Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He adds that the shorter lead times could "shave off months" from the process. But he notes that it's an open question whether there would be a good economic case for mRNA-based flu vaccines if they turn out to be more expensive and only modestly better than the old ones.
Moderna is also targeting a few nasty respiratory viruses that don't have vaccines. These include metapneumovirus, which can lead to hospitalization in infants, and respiratory syncytial virus, which causes more than 175,000 U.S. hospitalizations annually in the elderly and about 50,000 more in young children. In the latter case, Moderna's vaccine will be competing with efforts at GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson that draw on other technologies and are further ahead.
Hoge says Moderna could combine as many as a dozen or more viral strains in one shot. The goal is a seasonal vaccine that "eliminates the majority of the respiratory viral diseases that we all suffer from," he says. "The only way that we're really going to get good, broad population immunity against these respiratory viruses is if we can make it feel like your flu shot."
The concept makes sense on paper, according to Tony Moody, a physician-researcher at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, which is working on mRNA-based flu vaccines. Combinations are "one of the strengths of the technology," he says. He estimates that it would cost only a few dollars more per shot to add the necessary mRNA for a given viral target. "If you could get a combo shot that gives you a degree of protection against a lot of respiratory viruses, I think there would be a market for that," he says. It won't be fast or easy. Researchers will first have to show that the individual vaccines work and then perform studies showing that complex combinations don't compromise efficacy or result in troublesome side effects.
To realize its vision, Moderna will have to move quickly. Competitors are investing heavily to catch up. Sanofi said in late June it would spend €400 million ($475 million) annually on mRNA research, focusing on stable vaccines with few side effects. With emergency authorizations unlikely in the future, considerations such as side effects and convenience will assume new prominence. Moderna is working on eliminating the complicated refrigeration requirements of its Covid shot. Future products will also have to find ways to reduce the high rates of fatigue, headache, and muscle pain produced by the shot. For the boosters, the company is testing lower doses, which may help.
How broadly mRNA can expand beyond vaccines into the far larger and more lucrative therapeutics market remains to be seen. There will be additional technical hurdles to surmount. To treat chronic diseases, for example, companies will have to prove that they can deliver the therapies to the target organs and that mRNA can be administered safely. And to develop cancer vaccines, mRNA researchers will have to solve the thorny problem of teaching the immune system to distinguish between specific tumors and healthy cells. Many previous approaches have failed.
The good news is that mRNA's adaptability also makes it easier to try out many possibilities. Within a few years, Moderna could have 60 drugs and vaccines either in human trials or nearing them, according to Bancel. If it works out the way he hopes, mRNA will make inventing vaccines and drugs a bit more like creating software. "We use the same four-letter code" for every vaccine and drug, Bancel says. "We can scale the number of products we have in development at a pace that has never been done before."
Read next: The World's Best Hope to End the Pandemic Still Needs More Doses
Jul 08, 2021 | www.bloomberg.com
Pfizer Outlines Booster Plans While Regulators Signal Caution By Robert Langreth and Josh Wingrove July 8, 2021, 5:00 PM EDT Updated on July 8, 2021, 9:56 PM EDT
- Early human data shows third shot raises antibody levels
- Federal health agencies say no need for boosters at this time
Pfizer Inc. plans to request U.S. emergency authorization in August for a third booster dose of its Covid-19 vaccine, based on early data showing that it can sharply increase immune protection against the coronavirus.
At the same time, however, federal health officials signaled that they would take a cautious approach to potential booster shots, and underlined that the currently available vaccines are effective at keeping people from being sickened by the coronavirus.
Pfizer has received initial data from an early human study showing that a third dose of its existing coronavirus vaccine is safe and can raise neutralizing antibody levels by 5 to 10 fold compared with the original vaccine, the company's research head, Mikael Dolsten, said in an interview.
Once more data is in hand, Pfizer plans to ask the FDA to authorize a booster shot that could be given six to eight months after the original two doses, Dolsten said. The drugmaker is also talking with regulators in other countries and the European Union about the new results, he said. Pfizer produces the vaccine in partnership with BioNTech SE .
Jul 13, 2021 | www.northjersey.com
Some New Jersey residents have become infected with COVID-19 even after receiving a first dose of the two-shot Moderna or Pfizer COVID vaccine, and a tiny number have developed "breakthrough infections" more than two weeks after their second dose of the vaccine.
The total number of such cases in New Jersey is not known
Jul 13, 2021 | www.msn.com
Japan warns of 'sense of crisis' about China's threat to conquer Taiwan Sen. Cotton expresses 'real doubts' about US Navy's ability to defeat China in
The Delta variant of COVID-19 is now the predominant strain in New Jersey, according to Governor Phil Murphy and health officials.
Pause Current Time 2:03 / Duration 2:12 Unmute 0 LQ CaptionsFullscreen Delta variant now dominant COVID strain in NJ Click to expand The highly contagious strain that originated in India and is surging around the globe now accounts for 41% of new variant cases in the Garden State last month, overtaking the Alpha variant that was first documented in the United Kingdom.
For the week ending June 26, Delta accounted for 70% of identified variant cases.
... ... ...
More than 5.1 million people have been fully vaccinated in New Jersey, Murphy said, which is about 66% of the eligible population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared with about 56% for the country overall.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in New Jersey rose the past two weeks from 235 new cases per day on June 26 to 264 on Sunday.
The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths fell, going from nine deaths a day on June 26 to almost five a day on Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Meanwhile, New Jersey's rate of transmission ticked up above 1 -- to 1.01, for the first time since late January.
Jul 12, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
If nothing else, this simply demonstrates that "the science" is no longer the priority for either Big Pharma, nor the federal government, since Big Pharma is now focused on maximizing profits from its new cash cow, while the federal government is calibrating everything it says and does with an eye toward encouraging as many American adults as possible to get vaccinated.
And if people read that they're going to need a booster shot in a few months anyway, why would they bother getting vaccinated now?
Anyway, having been stymied in the US, Pfizer is trudging ahead with its "booster shot" plans by striking a deal to expedite resupply to Israel, which is planning to administer a third "booster" jab to patients with certain high-risk comorbidities starting Aug. 1.
The Jerusalem Post reports that the next shipment of Pfizer jabs will arrive on Aug. 1 instead of in September (Israel also has 200K doses of Moderna on hand, but those can only be used on adult patients).
Israeli PM Naftali Bennett said Sunday: "We have been working on the issue of vaccines for several weeks," Bennett said. "This morning, I am pleased to announce that after a series of discussions with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, we closed a deal last night to move up the next vaccination delivery to August 1." "There are vaccines for everyone."
Last week, Israel announced it had agreed on a vaccine-exchange deal with South Korea. Under the terms of the deal, Israel delivered some 700K doses to South Korea, which it will return when it receives its next vaccine delivery.
And as we noted earlier, immuno-compromised patients will be able to receive their third shot starting immediately, said Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz.
In the meantime, Israel continues to register a higher number of daily cases. At the beginning of June, some 10-20 people were found to be new virus carriers every day. Currently, several hundred are testing positive on a daily basis. The number of active cases (which had shrunk to 200 recently) has rebounded to 4,000.
Pfizer will meet with top US health officials on Monday to discuss Pfizer's push to receive federal authorization for its booster shot, according to the Associated Press.
"Certainly, immunity decreases over time...the question is how much time," one doctor told CNBC during an interview Monday morning.
Before Delta arrived in Israel, some believed the country had reached "herd immunity". But as Dr. Scott Gottlieb and others have pointed out, COVID is now endemic in the human population, and reaching "COVID zero", a standard that Israel is aiming at, simply might not be possible. Israeli officials have already acknowledged that with the large percentage of Israeli's vaccinated, deaths and hospitalizations associated with COVID will likely continue to decline, even if the number of new cases does rise.
13,313 109
Bacon's Rebellion 1 hour ago (Edited) remove link/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Israel Vaccination Statistics from The Lancet
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////Take away....
The Vaccine" failed to achieve a 1% increase in the survival rate between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.6,400 total deaths since day 1 of Covid19
36 deaths under the age of 45
1,500 deaths were under the age of 70
76.56% of Covid19 deaths in Israel were over the age of 70
18% of deaths were OVER 90 years old!1,127,965 people age 65+
1,015,620 were fully vaccinated
112,345 were not vaccinated138 "vaccinated" deaths = 99.99% survival rate
715 "un-vaccinated" deaths = 99.36% survival rate>> 0.63% greater survival rate in the vaccinated group.
1,764,098 people age 45 to 64
1,408,492 were fully vaccinated
355,606 were not vaccinated14 "vaccinated" deaths = 99.99% survival rate
125 "un-vaccinated" deaths = 99.97% survival rate>> 0.02% greater survival rate in the vaccinated group.
3,646,848 people age 16 to 44
2,290,820 were fully vaccinated
1,356,028 were not vaccinated0 "vaccinated" deaths = 100% survival rate
36 "un-vaccinated" deaths = 99.997% survival rate>> 0.003% greater survival rate in the vaccinated group.
Jul 09, 2021 | www.msn.com
Heart inflammation link to Pfizer and Moderna jabs 7 hrs ago Like | 9
White House responds to McMaster's call for ban on door-to-door COVID-19 Texas man who waited seven hours at polls is charged with voting illegallyHeart inflammation is a "very rare" side-effect of the Covid vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, according to regulators in Europe.
© Getty ImagesThe European Medicines Agency said the side-effects were more common in younger men .
The medicines safety body said the benefits of Covid vaccines continue to far outweigh any risks.
But doctors and patients have been advised to be aware of the symptoms of heart inflammation.
These include chest pain, a feeling of breathlessness and a pounding or fluttering heartbeat. Anyone with these symptoms should see a doctor.
Two conditions were linked to the vaccines - inflammation of the heart muscle itself, known as myocarditis, and inflammation of the fluid-filled sac the heart sits in, known as pericarditis.
The EMA analysis of cases found:
- Pfizer-BioNTech - 145 cases of myocarditis and 138 cases of pericarditis out of 177m doses given
- Moderna - 19 case of myocarditis and 19 cases of pericarditis out of 20 million doses given
Five people died. The review said they were all either elderly or had other health conditions.
The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has also been investigating the link.
It reported: "A consistent pattern of cases occurring more frequently in young males and shortly after the second dose of the vaccines.
"These reports are extremely rare, and the events are typically mild with individuals usually recovering within a short time with standard treatment and rest," it added.
Most cases are thought to be within 14 days of vaccination.
While the risk is very rare, it is more likely to develop in young people - who are currently the focus on the vaccination campaign in the UK.
Concerns about the side-effects have already played into the UK debate around vaccinating children , who are at lower risk of Covid.
Myocarditis and pericarditis will be officially listed as side-effects in the UK and Europe, mirroring a move by the regulators in the US last month .
"The chance of these conditions occurring is very low, but you should be aware of the symptoms so that you can get prompt medical treatment to help recovery and avoid complications," the EMA said.
The link with heart inflammation was found only in the vaccines that rely on mRNA technology to train the immune system.
The was no link found for vaccines such as Oxford-AstraZeneca or Janssen, which use a genetically modified virus.
However, the EMA has advised anyone with a history of capillary leak syndrome should not be given the Janssen vaccine. This is a rare but serious syndrome in which fluid leaks from blood vessels in the body.
Jul 09, 2021 | www.msn.com
Keith Speights: Some findings were recently published in Nature magazine that indicate that the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna vaccines may provide protection for years.
Many investors are and were hoping for annual recurring revenue from these companies' vaccines. Brian, how troublesome is this latest data for the prospects for Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna?
Brian Orelli: There's a bit of an extrapolation going on here. The researchers looked at memory B cells, which tend to provide more long-term protection than, let's say, antibodies. They looked at those in the lymph nodes and found the cells were there as long as 15 weeks.
Typically, they'd mostly be gone by four to six weeks. So that's the basis of this claim that it could offer protection for years. If true, that will be a big blow obviously to vaccine makers, at least for Moderna and BioNTech.
Pfizer would be fine because it's so diversified. It's really hard to make an argument for the valuations of Moderna and BioNTech right now if these vaccines are one and done over a couple of years. They really need to have ongoing sales until they can get growth from other drugs in their pipelines.
Speights: Brian, when I first saw the story, I went to check out to see how the stocks were performing, and Moderna is up, BioNTech was barely changed, Pfizer barely changed. It seems to me that investors really aren't making much of this news. Do you think that's the right take at this point?
Orelli: I think it's still too early to be able to conclude that it's definitely going to work for years. The other issue is that we're looking at, will those B cells actually protect against the variants?
If they don't protect against the variants, then it doesn't really matter if you have B cells in your lymph nodes. If they're not going to protect against the variants then we're going to have to get a booster shot anyway.
Speights: Right. Obviously, if these vaccines provide immunity for multiple years, these companies aren't going to make nearly as much money as they expect and a lot of investors expect. So this is a big story to watch, but like you said, really, really early right now and too soon to maybe go drawing any conclusions at this point.
Jul 09, 2021 | www.npr.org
LaCount has lived in Grand Junction, Colo., a city of 64,000, nearly her whole life. As a hospital pathologist, she knows better than most that her hometown has become one of the nation's top breeding grounds for the delta variant of COVID-19.
"The delta variant's super scary," LaCount said.
That highly transmissible variant, first detected in India, is now the dominant COVID-19 strain in the United States. Colorado is among the top states with the highest proportion of the delta variant, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mesa County has the most delta variant cases of any county in Colorado, state health officials report, making the area a hot spot within a hot spot. A CDC team and the state's epidemiologist traveled to Grand Junction to investigate how and why cases of the variant were moving so quickly in Mesa County.
... ... ...
A few yards away from LaCount and her son on the playground, a man fished in a still pond with his 10-month-old daughter in a backpack. Garrett Whiting, who works in construction, said he believes COVID is still being "blown out of proportion," especially by the news media.
"They got everybody scared really, really fast," said Whiting, slowly reeling in a sparkly blue lure from the water. "There's no reason to stop living your life just because you're scared of something."
Whiting tested positive for COVID about three months earlier. He said he doesn't plan to get vaccinated, nor does his wife. As for the baby on his back, he said he's not sure whether they'll have her vaccinated when regulators approve the shot for young children.
Warnings from around the worldThe delta variant is one of four " variants of concern " circulating in the U.S., according to the CDC, because the delta strain spreads more easily, might be more resistant to treatment and might be better at infecting vaccinated people than other variants.
The delta variant has raised alarms around the world. Parts of Australia have locked down again after health officials said the variant leapfrogged its way from an American aircrew to a birthday party where it infected all unvaccinated guests , and after it also is reported to have jumped between shoppers in a " scarily fleeting " moment in which two people walked past each other in a mall.
Israel reissued an indoor mask requirement after a spate of new cases linked to schoolchildren. A leading health official there said about a third of the 125 people who were infected were vaccinated, and most of the new infections were delta variant.
A rise in delta variant cases delayed the United Kingdom's planned reopening in June. But public health officials have concluded after studying about 14,000 cases of the delta variant in that country that full vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 96% effective against hospitalization. Studies around the world have made similar findings. There is also evidence the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are effective against the variant.
Los Angeles County recently recommended that residents resume wearing masks indoors regardless of vaccination status, over concern about the delta variant. The World Health Organization is also urging vaccinated people to wear masks, though the CDC hasn't changed its guidelines allowing vaccinated people to gather indoors without masks.
Jul 09, 2021 | www.npr.org
After months of data collection, scientists agree: The delta variant is the most contagious version of the coronavirus worldwide. It spreads about 225% faster than the original version of the virus, and it's currently dominating the outbreak in the United States.
A new study, published online Wednesday, sheds light on why. It finds that the variant grows more rapidly inside people's respiratory tracts and to much higher levels, researchers at the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
On average, people infected with the delta variant had about 1,000 times more copies of the virus in their respiratory tracts than those infected with the original strain of the coronavirus, the study reported.
In addition, after someone catches the delta variant, the person likely becomes infectious sooner. On average, it took about four days for the delta variant to reach detectable levels inside a person, compared with six days for the original coronavirus variant.
Article continues after sponsor messagehttps://5fa4726d68399a0c53022b32e378f4d8.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html GOATS AND SODA Is The Variant From India The Most Contagious Coronavirus Mutant On The Planet?
In the study, scientists analyzed COVID-19 patients involved in the first outbreak of the delta variant in mainland China, which occurred between May 21 and June 18 in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. The researchers measured the levels of virus in 62 people involved in that outbreak and compared them with the levels in 63 patients infected in 2020 with an early version of the virus.
Their findings suggest that people who have contracted the delta variant are likely spreading the virus earlier in the course of their infection.
GOATS AND SODA Coronavirus FAQ: I've Been Vaccinated. Do I Need To Worry About Variants?And the scientists underscore the importance of quarantining immediately for 14 days after coming into contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19, as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends.
Or even better, getting fully vaccinated. Preliminary data shows that in some U.S. states, 99.5% of COVID-19 deaths in the past few months were among people who weren't vaccinated, the CDC's director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said Thursday at the White House.
"We know that the delta variant ... is currently surging in pockets of the country with low vaccination rates," Walensky said. "We also know that our authorized vaccines prevent severe disease, hospitalization and death from the delta variant."
Jul 09, 2021 | www.msn.com
Los Angeles County is reporting a 165 percent spike in coronavirus infections in a single week amid the rise of the highly contagious delta variant.
The L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a statement that 839 new coronavirus infections had been reported as of Thursday. The daily average case rate is at 3.5 per 100,000 people, up from last week's 1.74 cases per 100,000 people.
The agency said that the delta variant of the coronavirus first identified in India has become the most commonly sequenced variant in the county since the beginning of June, and now accounts for the majority of variants identified by labs, "consistent with what other parts of the U.S. are seeing."
...According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the variant now makes up the majority of new cases in the United States, driving spikes in infections in several states.
...The county said that slightly less than 4 million of its residents are still not vaccinated, while 4.6 million are fully vaccinated.
... There are currently 296 people hospitalized, of which 24 percent are in intensive care.
Jul 09, 2021 | www.msn.com
- New York and Massachusetts found mosquitos infected with West Nile virus this month.
- In Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, and Iowa, a few humans have also been infected.
- West Nile virus is typically mild, but can lead to paralysis or death in severe cases.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories .
It's peak mosquito season, and the little bloodsuckers have already tested positive for West Nile virus in at least six US states.
West Nile virus is the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the continental US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The illness typically peaks around this time of year.
New York was the latest state to report infected mosquitos last week. In a press release , Rockland County reported two groups of mosquitos carrying the virus in Orangetown and Clarktown. Fortunately, no humans have been infected yet.
Massachusetts also reported its first West Nile-infected mosquito of the season with no known human cases. However, Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, and Iowa have each seen one or two people fall severely ill with the virus this summer, according to the CDC .
- New York and Massachusetts found mosquitos infected with West Nile virus this month.
- In Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, and Iowa, a few humans have also been infected.
- West Nile virus is typically mild, but can lead to paralysis or death in severe cases.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories .
It's peak mosquito season, and the little bloodsuckers have already tested positive for West Nile virus in at least six US states.
West Nile virus is the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the continental US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The illness typically peaks around this time of year.
New York was the latest state to report infected mosquitos last week. In a press release , Rockland County reported two groups of mosquitos carrying the virus in Orangetown and Clarktown. Fortunately, no humans have been infected yet.
Massachusetts also reported its first West Nile-infected mosquito of the season with no known human cases. However, Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, and Iowa have each seen one or two people fall severely ill with the virus this summer, according to the CDC .
West Nile virus is usually mild, but can be fatal in rare casesSmall as they may be, mosquitos kill more people than any other creature in the world. The insects are known to carry several dangerous diseases including malaria, dengue, Zika, and more.
Most people infected with West Nile virus don't even know they're sick, and it's rarely spread from human to human. But about one in five people infected will come down with a fever and flu-like symptoms such as headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea, or rash.
An even smaller contingent go on to develop severe illness that can lead to paralysis or death. West Nile cases are considered neuroinvasive if people experience inflammation in or around the brain, such as encephalitis or meningitis.
Two people in Arizona and three people across Arkansas, Illinois, and Iowa have experienced such severe cases. In Arkansas, the infected person died.
Last year , 39 US states reported cases of West Nile virus. Of those cases, 505 were severe or neuroinvasive, and 52 people died.
Read the original article on Insider
Jul 08, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
8 hours ago (Edited) remove link
The Alpha version of supposed SARS-CoV-2 was supposedly the most transmissible and infectious pathogen ever. With a transmission rate of at least 3.8 and reported to be perhaps as high as 9.
Meaning each infected person infects at least 3.8 other people, and perhaps up to nine. During the year we were told one infected choir singer passed the infection on to at least 220 people in one church. If Delta is 50-60% more infectious than Alpha, then each person will infect at least six others. Perhaps dozens.
The problem with that, is Delta is from last year in August. That is when it was first "identified". A pathogen that infectious would have infected over 8 billion people in less than five weeks.
The supposed Alpha strain would have infected the entire world by the middle of last June. After a year, the cases would measure in the trillions if the exponential progression continued. Obviously there aren't trillions of people on the planet.
What that proves is either SARS-CoV-2 isn't as infectious as claimed, or every single person on the planet has been exposed multiple times and simply didn't even know.
There is a certain definitive fact. Whatever the government tells you is for sure an absolute lie. lay_arrow
OliverAnd 7 hours agoMutations are usually deleterious; one small percentage will mutate into a strain that may be more or less pathogenic; the purpose of the mutation is so that the virus becomes less pathogenic so that it can live symbiotically with its host.
We humans are a hilarious bunch; for example we sleep with whores knowing they are walking STD labs catching herpes, HPV, gonorrhea, etc increasing our chances of cancer while decreasing our lives by decades, yet we worry about getting vaccinated. We eat processed foods, junk food, high sugar and salt foods, smoke, speed, drink, etc taking many years off our lives yet we worry about a jab. Where are all those people not wanting the vaccine? They are eating at the fast food chains sleeping with that one who has been around the block stressed out because they are unable to go shopping with their empty pockets.
Jul 08, 2021 | www.quantamagazine.org
10 play_arrow 1 BaNNeD oN THe RuN 8 hours ago (Edited)Numerous virologists have said that the vaccine encourages the virus to mutate to bypass the antibodies produced by the vaccine.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-vaccines-can-drive-pathogens-to-evolve-20180510/
Jul 08, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
You should never trust Goldman, but still
Q. The Delta variant (first identified in India) is estimated to be 50-60% more transmissible than the Alpha variant (first identified in the UK). How effective are the Western vaccines against the Delta variant?
A. While the Delta variant weighs on the efficacy of vaccines (and especially single doses) at preventing infections (especially asymptomatic infections), Pfizer and AstraZeneca full vaccinations remain highly effective at protecting hospitalizations, and Moderna and J&J lab results look encouraging
A study from Public Health England estimates elevated Delta-specific efficacies at preventing hospitalizations of 94%/96% after one/two Pfizer doses and 71%/92% after one/two AstraZeneca doses. Public Health England estimates lower efficacies at preventing symptomatic disease after two doses for Pfizer of 88% and 60% for AstraZeneca. Similarly, a new study from Canada also estimates an 87% efficacy of full Pfizer vaccinations to prevent symptomatic disease. The symptomatic efficacy, however, is lower after one dose and estimated at one-third for both Pfizer and AstraZeneca in the English study, and 56%/72% for Pfizer/Moderna in the Canadian study
Yesterday, Israel's Health Ministry reported a 64% effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine in preventing any infections and a 93% effectiveness in preventing hospitalizations. The 64% estimate likely corresponds to the effectiveness to prevent both asymptomatic and symptomatic infections while the studies from England and Canada and clinical trials assess symptomatic infections. Taken at face value, these headline numbers suggest a reduced ability of the Pfizer vaccine to stop the transmission of Delta infections relative to previously dominant strains, although the "additional" infections are more likely to be asymptomatic.
Finally, in vitro studies from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson demonstrate their ability to neutralize the Delta variant with neutralizing titers that were lower compared to the ancestral strain but higher than for the Beta variant (first identified in South Africa), where high efficacy against severe disease was clinically demonstrated.
Q. How effective are the Eastern vaccines against the Delta variant?
A. Although data remain very limited, Chinese and Russian expert commentary and clinical trial results from India's Bharat Biotech suggest that the Sinopharm, Sputnik V, and Bharat Biotech vaccines provide solid protection against severe disease.
Q. What about Delta's impact on reinfection risk?
A. Although the data are particularly limited, research and experts suggest that prior infections continue to provide some protection against Delta, especially against severe disease.
Q. The UK is experiencing a surge in infections although hospitalizations and especially fatalities remain relatively low (Exhibit 2). What drives this "decoupling" and will it continue?
A. This mostly reflects the concentration of new infections among younger individuals but also a stronger vaccine protection against hospitalizations than against infections (especially for AstraZeneca). We therefore expect this decoupling to continue.
Q. Are infections and hospitalizations/fatalities also "decoupling" outside of the UK?
A. Most other economies with high vaccination rates and Delta outbreaks are also experiencing this decoupling, although it is particularly pronounced in the UK. We expect hospitalizations to remain relatively low in high vaccination countries.
Q. Does the virus still matter for activity in North America and Europe if hospitalizations stay low?
A. Yes. The virus GDP drag should, however, be much diminished and reflects travel restrictions, consumer risk aversion, and lingering softness in labor supply
... ... ...
Q. The Delta variant has raised the theoretical bar to achieve herd immunity to probably at least 85% of the population. Does vaccine hesitancy imply that countries will never approach such high immunity levels?
A. Not necessarily, and many medical experts believe the coronavirus will eventually turn from a pandemic to an endemic stage. The Delta variant likely implies higher ultimate vaccination rates (and immunity rates). In fact, further outbreaks appear to be sharply boosting demand in several countries, including the US, China, Australia, Israel, and especially Portugal (Exhibit 13).
EatMyAssLibtards 9 hours agoFour chan 6 hours agoHow anyone can believe this $hit anymore is a question not even God would have an answer for
MaxmaxExtreme 5 hours ago remove linkITS GLOBALIST ******** FOLKS.
The Ingenious Gentleman 7 hours agoWait until the vaccine pushers hear about booster shots until the day they die, or rather until it kills them.
Nona Yobiznes 5 hours agoThe vaccine is the new god. People who get it seem to positively religious about getting others to do the same. Almost like they have been programmed.
HowdyDoody 3 hours agoHave you seen the reddit community called ChurchOfCOVID? Worth checking out for some laughs.
What has happened to Goldman Sacks? They are way behind the curve. Delta is yesterday's news. Lambda is where the action is.
Jul 06, 2021 | www.huffpost.com
The World Health Organization is recommending that everyone, even the fully vaccinated, continue to wear masks because of the highly transmissible variant.
In an alarming new development, the particularly transmissible delta variant of COVID-19 has infected some fully vaccinated adults in Israel, officials there have reported.
Of more than 100 daily cases amid an outbreak of the delta variant, half were children younger than 16.
... Spurred by the new information, the Israeli government has now reimposed an indoor mask mandate and quickly expanded its vaccination program to include children ages 12 to 15.
The World Health Organization on Friday also warned everyone, even those fully vaccinated, to "play it safe" and continue to wear a mask and maintain social distancing in light of the large numbers of people who remain unvaccinated and the emergence of the delta variant, which it called the " most transmissible " form of the coronavirus identified to date.
"People cannot feel safe just because they had the two doses. They still need to protect themselves," Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines, said at a news briefing in Geneva. "Vaccine alone won't stop community transmission."
"People need to continue to use masks consistently, be in ventilated spaces, [use] hand hygiene ... [practice] physical distance, avoid crowding."
Jul 06, 2021 | www.reuters.com
Referring to data compiled by Public Health England (PHE) in a technical briefing released on June 18 regarding the SARS-CoV-2 variants ( here ), the authors of the blogs make several calculations.
On page 12 of the briefing, it shows that 26 people have died since February 1 after testing positive for the Delta variant of the virus, having also been fully vaccinated for more than two weeks. In total, 4,087 tested positive more than two weeks after their second dose. Meanwhile, 35,521 people who were unvaccinated tested positive for the Delta variant and 34 people died.
The authors then divide the number of deaths by the total number of people who tested positive for the Delta variant and found the rate of death to be 0.000957 for unvaccinated individuals and 0.00636 for those who have been inoculated.
... ... ...
In England, approximately 85% of the adult population have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 65% are fully inoculated, Dr Cevik said.
"When most people are vaccinated, most infections and deaths are expected to be among those vaccinated," she added.
The vaccination program also prioritised "clinically vulnerable" individuals, and thus the majority of those vaccinated will "disproportionately represent elderly and those with underlying comorbidities, who are already at significant risk of hospitalisation and death," Dr Cevik, said.
The posts do not consider the overall higher number of cases due to the Delta variant for those who are unvaccinated compared to those who are inoculated ( here ).
Jul 06, 2021 | www.bostonglobe.com
The Israeli Ministry of Health announced that an epidemiological analysis had found that since June 6 there was a "marked decline in the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine in preventing infection (64%) and symptomatic illness (64%)."
"This decline has been observed simultaneously with the spread of the Delta variant in Israel," t he ministry said in a statement .
At the same time, "The vaccine maintains an efficacy rate of about 93% in preventing serious illness and hospitalization cases," the officials emphasized.
... Professor Nadav Davidovitch, who sits on the government's expert advisory committee on the coronavirus, told the Financial Times the new finding was based on "preliminary" figures gathered by health authorities. "Delta is a lot more infectious, but appears to not lead to as much serious illness and death, especially given that we now have the vaccine," he said.
Jul 06, 2021 | www.wsj.com
Maryland recently added new restrictions on hospital debt collection , after a state report said hospitals wiped out less than half of their charges to patients who were eligible for free care under state law in 2018.
Washington state's attorney general sued hospitals over patients' access to financial aid. Under a 2019 consent decree, nonprofit hospitals refunded about $1.6 million to patients.
Hospitals nationally face ongoing scrutiny for their billing and pricing practices, with new rules this year requiring hospitals to publish prices they have previously negotiated in secret with insurance companies. The Trump administration policy sought to boost transparency for consumers, but many hospitals haven't complied . According to Turquoise Health Co., a startup working with the newly public pricing data, Ballad hospitals have generally complied with the new transparency regulations.
Hospitals can sell unpaid bills to debt buyers in the secondary debt market, where RIP Medical Debt typically buys portfolios for pennies on the dollar. Terms of the deal with Ballad weren't disclosed.
... ... ...
Federal requirements for nonprofit hospitals to provide financial assistance and inform patients about it are limited. Nonprofits have freedom to set eligibility as they choose, and can also create their own process and forms, said Jenifer Bosco, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. They are supposed to take steps to alert patients, including making their policies widely available on their websites, Ms. Bosco said. State rules for nonprofit hospital financial aid vary.
Jul 06, 2021 | www.wsj.com
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The 32-year-old's abdominal and pelvic scan at Avera St. Luke's cost $6,422, the highest out of a wide range of rates the Avera hospital charges for that service based on the new data. The price billed to Mr. Macias was roughly three times the best deal negotiated by an insurance company.
Another scan of his chest came to $4,194, approximately $280 to $2,800 more than any prices negotiated between St. Luke's and an insurer. The prices for identical scans performed at Avera's heart hospital were also among the highest that the hospital charged. His total hospital bills came to $59,800.
... ... ...
Services including emergency-room visits, imaging scans and procedures such as an angioplasty and stenting often performed on heart-attack patients have been identified by researchers and federal data as commonly needed in emergencies by those without insurance.
The analysis used data compiled by Turquoise Health Co., a pricing-transparency startup. At least 44% of the country's roughly 4,900 short-term, rural and children's hospitals hadn't published data that complied with the January rule as of June 18, according to Turquoise.
The Journal analysis looked at the 1,550 hospitals in the Turquoise data that released both insurance and cash-payment rates.
Among the Journal's findings:
- Hospitals routinely bill uninsured patients at their highest rates. About 21%, or 319, of the hospitals did so for the majority of the services included in the analysis. At 171 of those hospitals, the cash rate was higher than all of the rates billed to insurers, or tied for the highest rate, for every service in the analysis. That was true at some hospitals owned by major systems including Sanford Health and Yale New Haven Health System.
- On average, across the 1,166 hospitals that included rates for Medicare Advantage plans in their disclosures, the fees for uninsured patients were 3.6 times the average rates paid by the Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare rates are typically set by the government to at least cover hospital costs and are considered a baseline for comparing prices. Rates for Medicare Advantage plans, which are administered by private insurers, are generally close to these mandated prices.
- Some dominant local and regional nonprofits, including Mass General Brigham, based in Boston, and Avera, based in Sioux Falls, S.D., billed the uninsured at their general hospitals some of their highest prices while also setting some of the most restrictive financial-aid policies for free care nationwide, according to tax filings, Turquoise data and patients' medical bills.
- Cash prices, which haven't been available publicly to help patients choose where to seek medical care, often vary widely even among hospitals in the same county. In the 270 counties where at least two hospitals have disclosed their cash prices, the average spread between the lowest and highest rates for a complex emergency-room visit is $1,852.
In Shelby County, Tenn., home to Memphis, the spread for that type of ER visit is $2,054. It would cost an uninsured patient $884 at any of the three Baptist Memorial Health Care hospitals; $1,480 at Regional Medical Center; $2,653 at Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis; and $2,938 at Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett.
... ... ...
Hospitals that offer additional discounts for the uninsured don't always automatically make the cuts to patient bills, leaving cash-pay patients with significantly higher charges, the Journal found. It can take long negotiations, often by hiring lawyers or professional advocates, to bring about reduced charges.
... ... ...
Those discounts slash bills by an average of 85% off its top price, the company said in a recent statement to the Journal. But patients must apply to receive the discount. The vast majority of cash prices for emergency services at Tenet hospitals reviewed by the Journal instead reduced bills by 20% to 30%.
"It's really criminal, the mess that our current system is in," said Mary Daniel, chief executive of ClaimMedic, which helps patients negotiate payment with hospitals. "It is a deliberate attempt for these hospitals to gouge the uninsured."
About 11% of U.S. residents under age 65 were uninsured in 2019, or about 29 million people, according to an analysis of federal data by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
... ... ...
The differences between the prices for uninsured people and insurance companies can be wide.
At Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville, Ky., an uninsured person getting a stent after a heart attack could be billed around $66,226 for the procedure. An Anthem Inc. health-maintenance organization plan would pay just $17,895 at the hospital, and the insurer's Medicare plan even less -- $12,445.
Ephraim McDowell Health said the cash prices are the highest rates but that it offers discounts and bill forgiveness for those who qualify for financial assistance. In a written statement, the hospital system said, "it is rare that an uninsured patient would pay the total gross charge amount due to the variety of financial assistance programs available."
Eligibility under the program cuts off at three times the federal poverty level, according to the hospital system, which is an annual income of $38,640 for a single person.
Prices typically haven't been publicly available before now. Yet for expensive procedures like angioplasty and drug-coated stenting, the difference in the cash price within a single county can be over $100,000. The reasons for high cash prices are complex and, even to many healthcare experts, baffling.
Hospitals typically have a sticker price, often called the "chargemaster" price, that can be the starting point for negotiations with insurers. Discounts off that sticker price tend to be steeper for those that bring large volumes of patients. Insurance plans offered under government programs like Medicare and Medicaid get even lower rates, tied to prices mandated by federal and state agencies.
The cash prices for patients who must pay for their own care can be equal to the sticker prices or sometimes represent a percentage lopped off that top rate. Sometimes, those cash rates are also applied to people who have some form of insurance but get a service that the insurance doesn't cover.
Will Fox, who advises hospitals on pricing as an actuary with Milliman Inc., says hospitals often keep cash prices above the rates negotiated by big insurers.
"They don't want to give away too much of a discount because they really want the best discounts to go to these larger volume negotiated insured rates," he said. "Somebody walking off the street, we'll give you a 20% discount, but we're going to give our favorite customer, who sends us millions or even billions of dollars in business, we're going to give them a much bigger discount."
Yale New Haven Health offers cash prices that represent a discount off sticker rates, but it keeps them above all of the prices negotiated by insurers, says Pat McCabe, the system's senior vice president of finance. "We didn't want there to be that tension, for an insurer to look at that data and say, 'you're providing better rates to uninsured patients than you are to our insureds, how do we justify that to our members and/or employer partners?' "
For individuals who struggle to pay, financial aid is hard to get at some hospitals with high cash prices, the Journal analysis found. That is true even among the nearly 3,000 nonprofit hospitals that get tax breaks on the condition they give back to the community.
Hospitals typically set household income limits for financial aid, with free care for patients below a cutoff.
The quarter of hospitals with the most generous free-care policies write off the entire bill for those with monthly incomes under about $2,600 a month, and even up to roughly $6,400 a month, for a one-person household, the Journal found.
Those that rank in the quarter of hospitals with the most-restrictive policies draw the line at or below about 160% of the federal threshold for poverty, disqualifying for free care patients with monthly income of more than around $1,700 for a one-person household, according to a Journal analysis of nonprofit hospital tax filings.
Brigham and Women's Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, falls in this most-restrictive group, with income cutoffs for free care at $1,610 a month for a one-person household. For 12 of 17 emergency services at Brigham and Women's reviewed by the Journal, its highest rates are for uninsured patients, and insurance companies pay significantly less.
A patient paying cash at the hospital for the stenting procedure is charged $84,792. Local insurer Fallon Health spends $36,755 for the procedure under one of its health-maintenance organization plans. A Medicare insurance plan from Aetna, part of CVS Health Corp. , pays $16,648.
Mass General Brigham, the system that includes Brigham and Women's, said in a written statement it has policies to prevent someone without insurance from paying full price.
Some hospitals, including Brigham and Women's, also partially discount patients' bills for some who earn too much for free care. Others write off bills that are large relative to a patient's income. But policies vary widely. The most-restrictive quarter of hospitals cut off discounts at 2.5 times the federal poverty level, the Journal found.
Patients who don't qualify for financial aid at nonprofit hospitals also aren't protected by pricing limits under federal law. The Affordable Care Act requires nonprofit hospitals to cap prices for patients who qualify for financial aid.
Hospitals apply financial aid and discount policies inconsistently, say consumer advocates and patients. Offers may be one-time-only, or discounts may emerge only when a skilled negotiator is pushing for them.
In January 2018, Joannie Berthiaume spent two days at Broward Health Imperial Point hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and got emergency surgery to remove her appendix. She was uninsured and the hospital charged Ms. Berthiaume its highest prices. Her bill totaled about $42,000, including a $6,033 abdominal CT scan. For that same scan, an Aetna subsidiary gets a 24% break, according to the newly public data from Broward Health. That discount would have meant a fee of around $4,600 for the scan, based on the price charged in 2018.
Ms. Berthiaume, who is Canadian but was living in Florida at the time of her illness while finishing graduate school, went in person to Broward Health to ask about the bill. She was told it could be cut in half, to about $21,000 total -- if she paid in full right then. Ms. Berthiaume, then working in a part-time bookkeeping job, says she couldn't do that. The hospital later continued to seek the full amount, including in letters sent by a law firm and reviewed by the Journal.
"If you charge me $42,000 and your costs are justified, how can you knock it in half in a matter of minutes," Ms. Berthiaume says. "You must be overcharging."
Ms. Berthiaume hired attorney Jacqueline Grady to negotiate on her behalf, and in October 2019 the hospital offered to accept $20,000, in addition to $2,000 she had already paid, if she paid within 16 days. Ms. Berthiaume declined.
Broward Health declined to comment on the details of Ms. Berthiaume's case, although she signed a consent form allowing the hospital system to do so. The hospital system said that U.S. citizens and people with a permanent U.S. residence who come to its hospitals for unplanned care, and don't qualify for its financial assistance program, are offered a discounted rate.
In the pricing data files Broward Health has disclosed under the federal transparency requirement, the cash prices are shown as Broward's highest rates. However, the hospital system pointed the Journal to a consumer tool on its website that displays lower prices for self-pay patients. Broward Health said in a written statement that the tool "provides the most current pricing for consumers," and "discounted prices may not be reflected" in the data files. The system didn't respond to questions about the reasons for the discrepancy.
High cash prices inflate bills that uninsured patients often struggle to pay. Hospitals collected 5% of the amount they billed uninsured patients before writing off bills after a year of seeking payment, according to Crowe LLP, an accounting, technology and consulting firm, based on an analysis of 600 client hospitals. That is compared with collecting 40% of bills sent to patients with insurance for amounts owed under deductibles, copays and other out-of-pocket costs, based on a separate analysis by Crowe of about 1,500 hospitals.
Hospitals closely track their "payer mix," or the mix of patients with commercial insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and the uninsured, who might be unlikely to ever pay for their treatment. That could play a role in how hospitals set prices.
For Mr. Macias, debt from Avera hospitals plus other bills related to his November hospitalization amount to about 75% of his annual income, according to Resolve Advocates, one of a growing number of companies that patients hire to negotiate hospital medical bills on their behalf.
Avera's hospital in Aberdeen charged him the highest price for some emergency room services, according to a review of medical bills for Mr. Macias and the Journal's analysis of Avera's negotiated rates with insurers.
Avera in some cases has multiple contracts with a single insurer and said the prices it made public are the average price it charges an insurer for each service.
The Avera Heart Hospital of South Dakota, in Sioux Falls, gave Mr. Macias a 20% discount. Even with the discount, some of the heart hospital prices were in the top third of what the hospital charged patients with insurance for some services.
Mr. Macias, a superintendent for a construction company, earned too much for free care at Avera, where the income cutoff is among the lowest nationally for nonprofit hospitals, ranking in the bottom quarter, according to the Journal analysis.
But he appears to qualify for other financial assistance, such as a partial discount based on income or because Mr. Macias's medical debts are large when compared with his household finances, said Resolve's chief executive, Braden Pan.
Avera rejected the request, saying that Mr. Macias could have had workplace health benefits but didn't enroll, according to Resolve. Mr. Macias said in an interview that he missed the sign-up after miscommunication with his former employer. Buying insurance in the marketplace was too costly, he said.
Avera also rejected an appeal, after factoring in his assets alongside his income, according to Resolve. Mr. Macias said he needs his years of savings for a house down payment.
Resolve also offered about $8,000, or slightly more than the company estimated Medicare would pay, for Mr. Macias's $24,800 emergency-room bill at Avera St. Luke's, Mr. Pan said. The hospital said no, and despite denying financial aid, offered to reduce the bill by 50%, Mr. Pan said. The amount excluded another $34,994 he owes Avera's heart hospital.
Mr. Macias, citing his unhappiness about the fight, told the Journal he wouldn't give Avera permission under federal privacy laws to speak about his interactions with it.
"Health care delivery comes with a cost -- and when individuals have the means to pay, it allows us resources to help those most in need," Lindsey Meyers, a spokeswoman for Avera, said in a written statement. "We have thoroughly reviewed the case you have mentioned and identified that all processes were followed as described, and we made every effort to work with the patient."
Mr. Macias said he has largely recovered with new blood-pressure medication and months of rehab exercises he devised on his own. He now lives in Austin, Texas, with his fiancée and their children, ages 6 and 3. Avera's debt collectors call constantly, he said. "They're still blowing me up."
Jul 05, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
Mina , Jul 4 2021 20:34 utc | 34
Interesting. Swiss team retracted a paper on the little benefit of massive vaccination
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/9/7/729/htm
It included this kind of statement "Thus, we need to accept that around 16 cases will develop severe adverse reactions from COVID-19 vaccines per 100,000 vaccinations delivered, and approximately four people will die from the consequences of being vaccinated per 100,000 vaccinations delivered....Adopting the point estimate of NNTV = 16,000 (95% CI, 9000–50,000) to prevent one COVID-19-related death, for every six (95% CI, 2–11) deaths prevented by vaccinationwe may incur four deaths as a consequence of or associated with the vaccination.
Simply put: As we prevent three deaths by vaccinating, we incur two deaths."
Another case of Swiss-paid research (as in the time of Tobacco is good?) or do they have a point? After all, even Cuba, Russia and Iran see the need for vaccinating their populations.
Jul 05, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
Jen , Jul 5 2021 11:33 utc | 85
S P Korolev @ 79:
Israel was one of the first countries to get the Pfizer-BioNTech treatment some time last year after then-PM Netanyahu pushed Israel to the front of the queue using means both fair and foul (but perhaps more on the foul side).
The Israel People's Committee, comprised of people with medical, legal and epidemiological expertise, released a summary report of the country's experience with mass inoculation of the Pfizer-BioNTech treatment in April this year. It does not make for very comforting reading so maybe I'll allow Doctors 4 Covid Ethics to take up the narrative:
... The data collected by the group paint a grim picture:- The overall mortality in the January-February vaccination period was higher in 2021 than in any other year within the preceding decade. In the age group of 20–29 years, mortality in this time period exceeded that of the previous year by 32%.
- 288 deaths overall, mostly within the first 10 days after vaccination, were reported to the group. This number is more than six times greater than the 45 deaths officially admitted to by the Health ministry.
- The group gives the following estimates for the mortality among the vaccinated: overall, 1:5,000; age 20–49 years, 1:13,000; age 50–69 years, 1:6,000; age 70+, 1:1,600.
- Across lethal and non-lethal adverse events there was a relatively high rate of cardiac-related injuries, 26% of which occurred in young people below the age of 40, a high prevalence of massive vaginal bleeding, neurological, skeletal and skin damage, and events directly or indirectly related to coagulopathy (myocardial infarction, stroke, miscarriages, disruption of blood flow to the limbs and pulmonary embolism).
According to the authors, the compilation of the report was severely hampered by obstruction on the part of government authorities, involving in particular the shutting down of all monitoring and tracking systems for adverse events ...
dustbunny , Jul 5 2021 11:55 utc | 86
Jen | Jul 5 2021 11:33 utc | 85Mina , Jul 5 2021 12:14 utc | 87
These self-appointed Doctors for Covid-Ethics are a just a bunch of confirmed Covidiots and Antivaxxers, especially their Founding signatories .dustbunny,Lurk , Jul 5 2021 12:31 utc | 89
sorry to say but the list of signatories is very impressive.
for the videos i watched of the 1st name in the list, he is not at all anti-vaxx, as he states plainly in his talks.As to the contracts, same opacity for the EU
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_302
here is one, heavily redacted
https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-eu-pfizer-idUSL1N2ME0Z5
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronovirus-eu-vaccines-idUSKBN2C10MU
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-07/eu-set-to-sign-off-new-pfizer-vaccine-contract-as-soon-as-friday
The EU has decided not to renew contracts for viral vectors vaccines when expired, with French Sanofi starting to produce Pfizer-s on a amssive scale and announcing it is investing a few billions into mRNA research. This will give them an excuse not to authorize Sputnik and other viral vectors vaccines.S.P. Korolev , Jul 5 2021 12:31 utc | 90@dustbunny | Jul 5 2021 11:55 utc | 86
"Confirmed" just how? Because of your unsourced badmouthing? Fool, you are covered yourself in the mud that you are throwing.
Looking at the list, apart from one psychologist, they all appear to be competent medical authorities.
Lurk , Jul 5 2021 13:14 utc | 95Jen @85
Cheers. I understand part of Israel's sweetheart deal with Pfizer involves keeping most data collected secret and sharing it only with the company so I'm not surprised data is hard to come by. The instances of 'coagulopathy' are new to me, likely a different mechanism than the cause of the AZ/J&J problems. The makers of Sputnik V have identified a possible cause of the adenovirus clotting disorder so hopefully they are looking into the mRNA vaccines also.
farm ecologist , Jul 5 2021 13:28 utc | 98@S.P. Korolev | Jul 5 2021 12:31 utc | 90
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.29.450356v1.full.pdf
Summary paragraph
Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are based on a range ofnovelvaccine platforms, with adenovirus-based approaches (like ChAdOx1 nCov-19)being one of them.Recently a rare and novel complication of SARS-CoV-2 targeted adenovirus vaccines has emerged: thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). TTS is characterized bylow platelet counts,clot formation at unusual anatomic sites and platelet-activating PF4-polyanion antibodies reminiscent ofheparin-induced thrombocytopenia. Here, we employ in vitro and in vivo models to characterize the possible mechanisms of this platelet-targeted autoimmunity. We show thatintravenous but not intramuscular injection of ChAdOx1 nCov-19triggers platelet-adenovirus aggregate formation andplatelet activation. After intravenous injection, theseaggregates are phagocytosedby macrophagesin the spleenandplatelet remnants are found in the marginal zone and follicles. This is followed by a pronounced B-cell response with the emergence of circulating antibodies binding to platelets. Our work contributes to the understanding of TTS and highlights accidental intravenous injection as potentialmechanism for post-vaccination TTS. Hence,safe intramuscular injection, with aspiration prior to injection,could bea potential preventive measurewhen administering adenovirus-based vaccines.
(emphasis mine.)This is the very recent research that I mentioned earlier in the thread but without attribution.
Not sure if the reaction as described in the article is triggered by the protein impurities that Gamaleya claims to have found in the AstraZeneca vaccine.
mrna vaccines haven't been promoted as experimental... that is indeed what they are..
Posted by: james | Jul 4 2021 20:56 utc | 41
The idea for mRNA vaccines has been around for about three decades, but until last year clinical evidence of their efficacy was minimal. I thus was skeptical about the ones developed for covid but so far it seems that they do work. Still, it remains to be determined whether they are as good as traditional vaccines.
You are absolutely correct that all new vaccines and drugs are experimental at first (whether people realize it or not), but the rules are that clinical trials must show safety and efficacy before these are licensed for use in the general population. Sometimes things that are useless or even harmful still manage to get pushed through, which is why postmarket safety surveillance is so important.
Jul 05, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
Peter AU1 , Jul 5 2021 6:52 utc | 77
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-05/australia-covid-astrazeneca-deal-withheld-national-security/100261920
The Australian government's entire vaccine supply agreement with AstraZeneca is being withheld from public release on the grounds it poses a "real and substantial risk" to national security if it were released.""The total value of Australia's five vaccine deals is more than $5 billion in taxpayer funds."
Mina , Jul 5 2021 8:31 utc | 78
S.P. Korolev , Jul 5 2021 9:00 utc | 79It does raise questions that the cheap, non-profit, one-shot J&J, which did not need special storage, got various problems that may also be related to the production of the vaccines (one case was publicized, https://time.com/5951709/johnson-johnson-covid-19-vaccine-error/).
All in all, it seems to have caused less critical effects than Pfizer, but its seems Pfizer was "lucky" on that (grin).Mina , Jul 5 2021 9:51 utc | 82re the mRNA vaccines,
What are the most common side effects from the Pfizer vaccine? It's the only one available in my country as the Govt only accepts vaccines with 90%+ effectiveness and of the four vaccines we did deals for (Pfizer, AZ, J&J, Novavax) only Pfizer measures up (haven't heard about results from Novavax, too far down the queue for Moderna and Sputnik V doesn't exist apparently as we are a 5 eyes country).
Heard of allergic reactions that can be fatal for the very old or very sick, and heart inflammation issues. The way the heart issues were reported in the media (in the context of the trials for 12-16 y.o.) made it seem they only effected the young but apparently a problem for everyone. Doesn't seem as serious as the AZ/J&J clotting issues as it usually clears up without treatment? My parents are both over 65 and have had their 1st Pfizer doses, no side effects so far for Dad and a tetanus shot-style sore arm for Mum that lasted a couple of days.
Jen , Jul 5 2021 11:16 utc | 84Finally some positive comments on ivm in the Western press
https://news.wttw.com/2021/07/02/covid-19-long-haulers-turning-ivermectin-relief-questions-over-drugs-effectivenessPeter AU 1 @ 77:
That news about Scott Moronson's government doing a deal with Astra Zeneca, the details of which must be kept hush-hush, does not surprise me.
Look at this from Doctors 4 Covid Ethics:
Pfizer Vaccine Authorised, Data Sight UnseenA Freedom of Information request to the Australian drugs regulator that approved the Pfizer vaccine confirms that they have never seen the study data.A freedom of information request (FOI) request was made by one of our members in February 2021 to the Australian drugs regulator, the TGA (Therapeutic Good Administration) to ask what should have been simple questions. The TGA is the Australian equivalent of the FDA (US), MHRA (UK) and EMA (Europe) and is held in high regard worldwide. Essentially the FOI questions were:
1/ Did the TGA request the raw data from Pfizer
2/ Did any of the committees approving the vaccine look at the raw data and/or discuss it
3/ What were the "studies" referred to in the approval document relating to teratogenicity (risk of harm to a fetus)The rationale of the request relates to concern over the validity and verifiability of Pfizer's data given its legal history (and expressed by Peter Doshi in the BMJ in February) as well as the proven concerns over fraudulent data relating to Covid-19 as seen in the "Lancetgate" scandal of June 2020.
The document ... is a redacted version of the documents that were sent by the TGA in response to this request. What they show is that the TGA never saw or requested the patient data from Pfizer and simply accepted their reporting of their study as true. This means that when the head of the TGA John Skerritt said that "the safety evidence is pretty thorough" on the 6th February (here) his words would ring hollow to most Australians who have assumed, rightly or wrongly, that the TGA had actually looked at the patient data themselves.
A further concerning aspect of the FOI request is the efforts to which the TGA appeared to go to suppress the request – initially requesting a 6 months extension in view of a "voluminous request" which eventually yielded only one document of 14 pages, heavily redacted. This required an instruction from the Office of the Information Commissioner to the TGA to answer the request by the 26th May, a deadline that the TGA also failed to meet.
Eventually the only document that was produced from the FOI request was a heavily redacted single study (not studies, as claimed in the TGA assessment document) showing that the only investigation into the effects on the fetus was performed on 44 rats with no long term data on the offspring. It is impossible to assess this study fully because 98% of the document was removed in order to protect Pfizer's intellectual property (points 32-44 of the report)...
... Doctors for Covid Ethics remain concerned that the TGA's failure to validate the Pfizer data has been replicated at other agencies worldwide (FDA, MHRA and EMA). It is currently not known whether any of the major agencies has independently verified, or attempted to verify, Pfizer's data, before proceeding with provisional/emergency authorisation of Pfizer's mRNA therapy vaccine.
Bet this information about how the TGA applied so-called rigour to checking Pfizer's data before approving the Pfizer-BioNTech treatment sure gladdens your heart, don't it?
Jul 05, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
psychohistorian , Jul 5 2021 5:50 utc | 74I am retired in the US so I only see some of the working world through others eyes. What I am seeing more of is pressure to take the vaccine in US even though the infection numbers are going down in most states.
I have shared before that I have a cousin, my age, that got one of the mRNA vaccines and now has some sort of blood cancer. I believe this is related to the mRNA vaccines and that more cases like my cousin will occur and eventually it will effect an "important" someone who the MSM can't suppress the connection to the vaccines and the flood gates of related cases like my cousin will open....can you imagine what the blowback will be??.....the jaded in me says they are planning on that blowback to keep the chaos/fear/manipulation level high.....its all China's fault/snark
What is the final straw that will bring the barbarian shit show to a halt? Inquiring minds want to know. What will finally break through the brainwashing?
Biswapriya Purkayast , Jul 5 2021 9:04 utc | 80
The state in which I live has made it compulsory for shops to vaaccinate all staff in order to be permitted to open.
Jul 05, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
Lurk , Jul 4 2021 21:18 utc | 46
One more post about the new coronavirus, the associated COVID-19 and the "dreaded" vaccines. Caveat emptor, I am not a medically trained person, just a curious information hoarder.
While sars-cov-2 primarily targets epithelial cells, the damaging COVID-19 syndrome appears to be largely related to mast cells. Mast cells are part of the innate immune system and are the oldest form af immune system. The mast cells are also involved in tissue growth and regeneration.
I read an interesting article that made a link between secondary dengue syndrome and covid, suggesting that both are forms of slow-motion anaphylaxis. Classical anaphylaxis reactions(as eg. peanut allergy) are mediated by mast cells.
It seems that both "long covid" and similar symptoms that arise as complications from vaccinations are related to an overactivated mast cell system. Check out "mast cell activation syndrome" for more info. Ivermectin, quercetin and other "maverick" medications that appear to hold no antiviral efficacy could simply be what quiets the mast cells and dampens the inflammatory chain reaction.
On another note, there are the reported blood clotting incidents with the Astra Zeneca vaccine. There is an ongoing discussion that these are caused by improper application of the vaccine. It has to be injected intramuscularly, and not intravenously. In the former case, the innate immune system (mast cells) triggers and the reaction is primarily contained locally in the muscle tissue. From there the larger immune system is informed about the invader. In case of accidental intravenous application, the vaccine attaches to blood platelets. This in turn triggers a reaction in the spleen, causing the adaptive immune system to attack the platelets and white blood cells in an autoimmune type reaction.
So, for the mRNA vaccines (and also COVID itself), it could be important to have a stabilized mast cell system.
For the Astra Zeneca and (J&J?) vaccine, asking the person applying the vaccine to draw blood before injecting (in order to test for accidental venous injection) is important.
Well, at least that's what I understand from what I've picked up lately. Do your own research and correct me on anything above that I wrote in well-meant ignorance.
Lurk , Jul 4 2021 23:44 utc | 53
@Peter AU1 | Jul 4 2021 22:09 utc | 48
Long covid, and other virus that can take a long tome to recover from I believe trigger inflammation of the myelin sheath that insulates the nerves.How interesting that you should mention that. The proverbial affliction featuring inflammation of myelin sheaths is multiple sclerosis. Mast cells are suspected to play a major role in the onset of ms.
Guess what serendipitous nugget I found when searching for links between ivermectin and mast cells?
Common Anti-Parasitic Agent Eases Motor Symptoms, Aids Remyelination in MS Mouse ModelThe actual study that the above article reports on, investigated the effect of ivermectin on microglia, but as another study puts it: Microglia and mast cells: two tracks on the road to neuroinflammation . Both cell types are part of the innate immune system.
Another similar find was that palmitoylethanolamide, which is sometimes used to ameliorate ms progression and symptoms, was proposed for combating severe lung inflammation in covid-19
On an entirely different track, "antiparasitic" ivermectin was shown to remarkably aid wound healing and decrease scar tissue formation. As I stated in the previous post, mast cells are involved also in tissue growth and regeneration, so this could be related. (I have in the past personally used mimosa hostilis root bark infusion to heal third degree burn wounds without any scarring, who knows if and what substance in that plant (also known as tepezcohuite - "skin tree") might have similar effects on mast cells.)
Anyway, to end the speculation here are two medical articles pointing out the relation between severe covid and mast cell activation:
Covid-19 hyperinflammation and post-Covid-19 illness may be rooted in mast cell activation syndrome
and
Signatures of mast cell activation are associated with severe COVID-19Oh and here's the article (appears to be self-published but no less interesting) speculating on the parallels between covid and secondary dengue virus infection syndrome:
Jul 05, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
Mina , Jul 4 2021 21:06 utc | 43
considering the billions of profit made by Pfizer, and the complete politicization of the authorizations, there is no reason to be optimistic about the West's intentions.
https://qz.com/1999082/jj-sold-100-million-worth-of-covid-19-vaccine-shots/... Watching crowds in football stadiums these latest days and reading about athletes obliged to get vaxxxed to go to the Olympics in Japan further adds to the dismay. Live experiment for all or house arrest for the rest of life.
psychohistorian , Jul 4 2021 21:09 utc | 44
@ Mina, dh-mtl and james about the mRNA vaccines
The axiom of always taking advantage of a crisis, even if you have to sell the crisis, is at play here. The facts we are seeing come out support this perspective.
Think about how much money Big Pharma saved by foisting their mRNA research costs off on the brainwashed public. And if it doesn't work out they have immunity from prosecution....its all legal as Obama has said about the financial rape by the global private finance cult.....if it does work out then they have a big new income stream instead of using out-of-patent therapies.....win-win for the wrong side.
The shit show continues until it doesn't....who is "winning" this week?
Jul 03, 2021 | www.wsj.com
The U.K. is among the first governments to set out provisional plans for booster shots, following advice from specialists who are concerned that possible further Covid-19 outbreaks over the winter could coincide with a wave of influenza and put pressure on the country's health system.
The government said the actual rollout would depend on further advice from an expert group known as the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, based on a host of new data, including whether protection from the vaccines weakens after six months .
Jul 03, 2021 | undercurrents723949620.wordpress.com
- Each year, more than 165 million Americans get the flu shot. There were 85 reported deaths following influenza vaccination in 2017; 119 deaths in 2018; and 203 deaths in 2019
- Between mid-December 2020 and April 23, 2021, at which point between 95 million and 100 million Americans had received their COVID-19 shots, there were 3,544 reported deaths following COVID vaccination, or about 30 per day
- In just four months, the COVID-19 vaccines have killed more people than all available vaccines combined from mid-1997 until the end of 2013 -- a period of 15.5 years
- As of April 23, 2021, VAERS had also received 12,618 reports of serious adverse events. In total, 118,902 adverse event reports had been filed
- In the European Union, the EudraVigilance system had as of April 17, 2021, received 330,218 injury reports after vaccination with one of the four available COVID vaccines, including 7,766 deaths
In a May 5, 2021, Fox News report, Tucker Carlson asked the question no one is really allowed to ask: "How many Americans have died after taking the COVID vaccine?" 1
Mefobills says: July 4, 2021 at 1:24 am GMT • 1.8 hours ago • 300 Words ↑ @RoatanBillThen there's not selling Syria the latest S#00 system to help keep Israel out of Syrian skies. That tells me he's using Syria for personal / State gain and that is where he's wrong. That's what makes him just another politician.
I totally get it, there are things that are puzzling to those of us in the audience, watching the moves from afar.
An advanced S-300 or S-400 system could paint every F-16 as it took off from Israel. This would be a red line for Israel and would bring in Uncle Shmuel.
Syria (and by extension Russia) has been allowing Israel to overfly her territory and bomb Hezbollah installations.
It's puzzling – why would you allow a foreign power to bomb your territory, especially if you have S-300's. The answer must be that Syria and Russia are holding back on purpose for reasons only known to them. I can speculate, in that they don't want to give away military capability unless the war goes hot.
Think about the situation now, as opposed to the 90's. Russia's military has been modernized; Military physical fitness is up by 30% (better nutrition?); Foreign exchange is in good shape; the economy is modernizing; food production is up – so Russia is no longer food insecure; oil can be extracted at prices that Saudi cannot compete with; the Artic route is opening up; national economy is more diversified thanks to the western sanctions; Yamal LNG will be fueling Asia; Nordstream will be fueling Europe.
Mefobills , says: July 3, 2021 at 7:39 pm GMT "¢ 7.5 hours agoJul 03, 2021 | www.unz.com
Mustapha Mond , says:
@Mustapha Mondand if the mRNA vaccines cause the spike proteins to accumulate in the ovaries of women of childbearing years and younger, this shared concern might play a role.
It's not the spike protein collecting in ovaries. It is the "lipid shell." The lipid is going to the ovaries and bone marrow according to the Japanese Study. The same study says the spike protein is going into blood plasma and traveling all over. I'm wondering if it can cross the blood brain barrier.
Both actions are bad, so your point remains. But, it is possible the body could deal with the lipid.
Jul 03, 2021 | www.theatlantic.com
When breakthrough cases do arise, it's not always clear why. The trio of vaccines now circulating in the United States were all designed around the original coronavirus variant, and seem to be a bit less effective against some newer versions of the virus. These troublesome variants have yet to render any of our current vaccines obsolete. But "the more variants there are, the more concern you have for breakthrough cases," Saad Omer, a vaccine expert at Yale, told me. The circumstances of exposure to any version of the coronavirus will also make a difference. If vaccinated people are spending time with groups of unvaccinated people in places where the virus is running rampant, that still raises their chance of getting sick. Large doses of the virus can overwhelm the sturdiest of immune defenses, if given the chance.
The human side of the equation matters, too. Immunity is not a monolith, and the degree of defense roused by an infection or a vaccine will differ from person to person, even between identical twins . Some people might have underlying conditions that hamstring their immune system's response to vaccination; others might simply, by chance, churn out fewer or less potent antibodies and T cells that can nip a coronavirus infection in the bud.
Read: You're not fully vaccinated on the day of your last dose
The effects of vaccination are best considered along a spectrum, says Ali Ellebedy, an immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis. An ideal response to vaccination might create an arsenal of immune molecules and cells that can instantaneously squelch the virus, leaving no time for symptoms to appear. But sometimes that front line of fighters is relatively sparse. Should the virus make it through, "it becomes a race [against] time," Ellebedy told me. The pathogen rushes to copy itself, and the immune system recruits more defenders. The longer the tussle drags on, the more likely the disease is to manifest.The range of vaccine responses "isn't a variation of two- to threefold; it's thousands," Ellebedy told me. "Being vaccinated doesn't mean you are immune. It means you have a better chance of protection."
For these reasons and more, Viviana Simon, a virologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York, dislikes the term breakthrough case , which evokes a barrier walling humans off from disease. "It's very misleading," she told me. "It's like the virus 'punches' through our defenses."
Vaccination is actually more like a single variable in a dynamic playing field -- a layer of protection, like an umbrella, that might guard better in some situations than others. It could keep a lucky traveler relatively dry in a light drizzle, but in a windy maelstrom that's whipping heavy droplets every which way, another person might be overwhelmed. And under many circumstances, vaccines are still best paired with safeguards such as masks and distancing -- just as rain boots and jackets would help buffer someone in a storm.
Read: People are keeping their vaccines secret
In some ways, the shots' staggering success in trials -- where breakthrough cases were also observed, causing appropriately minimal stir -- may have papered over the inevitability of post-vaccination infections in more natural settings. "The vaccines exceeded expectations," Luciana Borio, a former acting chief scientist at the FDA, told me. Now, as we exit what Borio calls the "honeymoon phase" of our relationship with the jabs, we need to temper our enthusiasm with the right amount of realism, especially as more data on the shots' strength and longevity accumulate. Even excellent vaccines aren't foolproof, and they shouldn't be criticized when they're not. "We can't expect it's going to be perfect, on day one, always," Borio said.
A team at the CDC is tracking breakthroughs and will soon start reporting case counts, as well as any patterns related to where, or in whom, these infections are occurring, Martha Sharan, a CDC spokesperson, told me. Details like those matter. They can help experts figure out why post-vaccination infections happen, and how they might be stopped. "The reassuring part is, these cases will not go unnoticed," Omer told me.
Most of the time, vaccines are far more likely to offer some help than none. Serious disease, hospitalization, and even death will still occur , as will less well-studied outcomes, such as the long-term symptoms that often arise from less severe disease. But should post-vaccination infections climb to unexpectedly high rates, backup plans will quickly kick into gear. Some shot recipients might get second or third shots to bolster their immune response; others might be administered a tweaked vaccine recipe to account for a new viral variant.
There's something a touch counterintuitive about breakthrough cases: The more people we vaccinate, the more such cases there will be, in absolute numbers. But the rate at which they appear will also decline, as rising levels of population immunity cut the conduits that the virus needs to travel. People with lackluster responses to vaccines -- as well as those who can't get their jabs -- will receive protection from the many millions in whom the shots did work. In a crowd of people holding umbrellas, even those who are empty-handed will stay more dry.
Katherine J. Wu is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where she covers science.
Jul 03, 2021 | www.wsj.com
The variant, which is about 40% to 60% more contagious than the previous dominant variant, is sending more people to hospitals in the northern and southwestern parts of the state, health officials say.
In Springfield, Mo., Mercy Hospital had 90 Covid-19 patients on a recent day, up from 10 seven weeks ago, said William Sistrunk, lead infectious-disease doctor for Mercy, a multistate hospital system with several facilities in Missouri. Almost all had the Delta variant, and most were unvaccinated, he said. The hospital's caseload peaked at about 120 in late December.
Officials say the patients being admitted are younger, ages 30 to 60, a change from the last two waves of infection. "It ramped up a lot faster than it did last fall when we had that wave," Dr. Sistrunk said. "What's happening in Springfield may be an early warning for other communities. This variant, we need to take this seriously."
The number of people in the hospital with Covid-19 in Missouri has started to climb in recent weeks. The latest seven-day average is 864, up from 668 a month prior, according to the state health department. During the winter surge in Covid-19 cases in 2020 and 2021, hospitalizations topped 2,700 several times. Missouri has a population of 6.1 million.
... In Missouri, 55% of adults have received at least one vaccination shot, 11 percentage points below the national rate, according to the CDC. Most Covid-19 patients in the Mercy hospital in Springfield are unvaccinated, though there have been a few cases among people who were vaccinated, Dr. Sistrunk said.
Jul 03, 2021 | www.cdc.gov
Defining a vaccine breakthrough infection
For the purpose of this surveillance, a vaccine breakthrough infection is defined as the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA or antigen in a respiratory specimen collected from a person ≥14 days after they have completed all recommended doses of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-authorized COVID-19 vaccine.
Identifying and investigating hospitalized or fatal vaccine breakthrough casesAs of May 1, 2021, CDC transitioned from monitoring all reported vaccine breakthrough cases to focus on identifying and investigating only hospitalized or fatal cases due to any cause. This shift will help maximize the quality of the data collected on cases of greatest clinical and public health importance.
Previous data on all vaccine breakthrough cases reported to CDC from January–April 2021 are available .
State health departments report vaccine breakthrough cases to CDC. CDC now monitors reported hospitalized or fatal vaccine breakthrough cases for clustering by patient demographics, geographic location, time since vaccination, vaccine type, and SARS-CoV-2 lineage. Reported data include hospitalized or fatal breakthrough cases due to any cause, including causes not related to COVID-19.
To the fullest extent possible, respiratory specimens that test positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA are collected for genomic sequencing to identify the virus lineage that caused the infection.
Some health departments may continue to report all vaccine breakthrough cases to the national database and can continue to submit specimens to CDC for sequencing. However, CDC will focus its monitoring on reported hospitalized and fatal cases.
Developing a data access and management system for reporting COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough casesCDC developed a national COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough REDCap database where designated state health department investigators can enter, store, and manage data for cases in their jurisdiction. State health departments have full access to data for cases reported from their jurisdiction.
Ultimately, CDC will use the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) to identify vaccine breakthrough cases. Once CDC has confirmed that a state can report vaccination history data to NNDSS, CDC will identify vaccine breakthrough cases through that system. At that time, the state health departments can stop reporting cases directly into the REDCap database. After this change, CDC will upload the available data reported to NNDSS into REDCap database for further review and confirmation by the state health department.
Hospitalized or fatal COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases reported to CDC as of June 21, 2021As of June 21, 2021, more than 150 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
During the same time, CDC received reports from 47 U.S. states and territories of 4,115 patients with COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infection who were hospitalized or died.
Total number of vaccine breakthrough infections reported to CDC Hospitalized or fatal vaccine breakthrough cases reported to CDC 4,115 Female 2,001 (49%) People aged ≥65 years 3,124 (76%) Asymptomatic infections 750 (18%) Hospitalizations* 3,907 (95%) Deaths† 750 (18%) *1,004 (26%) of 3,907 hospitalizations reported as asymptomatic or not related to COVID-19.
†142 (19%) of 750 fatal cases reported as asymptomatic or not related to COVID-19.Previous data on all vaccine breakthrough cases reported to CDC from January–April 2021 are available .
How to interpret these dataThe number of COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections reported to CDC likely are an undercount of all SARS-CoV-2 infections among fully vaccinated persons. National surveillance relies on passive and voluntary reporting, and data might not be complete or representative. These surveillance data are a snapshot and help identify patterns and look for signals among vaccine breakthrough cases.
Data on patients with vaccine breakthrough infection who were hospitalized or died will be updated regularly. Studies are being conducted in multiple U.S. sites that will include information on all vaccine breakthrough infections regardless of clinical status to supplement the national surveillance.
COVID-19 vaccines are effective
- Vaccine breakthrough cases occur in only a small percentage of vaccinated people. To date, no unexpected patterns have been identified in the case demographics or vaccine characteristics among people with reported vaccine breakthrough infections.
- COVID-19 vaccines are effective. CDC recommends that everyone 12 years of age and older get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as they can.
- People who have been fully vaccinated can resume activities that they did prior to the pandemic.
Jun 14, 2021 | news.yahoo.com
Looks like two doses of Pfizer vaccine are effective against hospitalization (but not from infection) from the Delta variant, according to UK data.
Roughly 10 per cent of infections in the US are linked to the variant, but that rate is doubling every two weeks, the former FDA chief told CBS News on Sunday .
"That doesn't mean that we're going to see a sharp uptick in infections, but it does mean that this is going to take over," he said. "And I think the risk is really to the fall that this could spike a new epidemic heading into the fall."
The more-contagious B 1.161.2 variant – a common development as a virus replicates through transmission – was first discovered in India and has emerged as a dominant strain in the UK, responsible for roughly 90 per cent of new infections there.
Jul 02, 2021 | www.wsj.com
A star NBA player, the U.S. Open golf champion and a Ugandan Olympic coach have something in common that is creating a new headache for sports organizers: they tested positive for the novel coronavirus after being vaccinated.
Throughout the pandemic, athletes have been the most tested population on the planet, sometimes providing vivid examples of emerging theories""and sometimes helping prove them.
Now these athletes are showing that while vaccines are exceptionally effective in preventing death and severe illness from the coronavirus and its known variants, some are far from foolproof in preventing infection altogether.
Most of the athletes with so-called "breakthrough" infections are asymptomatic. The infections wouldn't have been noticed except for the fact that people who work in sports are among the last being tested intensely for the virus.
These surprising positive tests are a problem for the hosts of large events. In the case of the Olympics, they could trigger an outbreak in the surrounding Japanese population or beyond, to any of the 200 participating nations""in addition to creating chaos in competitions.
The positive tests also complicate the argument made to athletes that vaccination will spare them from a positive test that bars them from competition. Now sports leaders have to contend with questions such as: Are people who are vaccinated but testing positive for the virus contagious? What does this mean for their close contacts? Who, if anyone, should be removed from the biggest event of their lives?
... ... ...
Breakthrough infections also hit the New York Yankees, professional golfer Jon Rahm and NBA star Chris Paul. In Rahm's case, he had only recently had his shot. But in the case of the Yankees, that wasn't the obvious factor. In May, at least nine Yankees" spanning players, coaches and staff members" tested positive for the virus. All had been vaccinated in March or April with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine , which has been found to be 66.1% effective at protecting people from developing moderate and severe cases of Covid-19 at least 28 days after vaccination.
Rahm, the golfer, got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the days leading up to the Memorial Tournament. As he played his third round, a test he had taken after his second round came back positive. Rahm found out at the end of his round from the PGA Tour's medical adviser, on national television""yanking away a near-sure win in the tournament, and a payday of nearly $1.7 million. Two weeks later, however, he was testing negative and won the U.S. Open.
... ... ...
There have been at least two prominent, apparent breakthrough cases in the NBA. The most recent involves Paul, the Phoenix Suns' star and the president of the National Basketball Players Association, who missed the first games of the Western Conference Finals while sidelined by the league's health and safety protocols. Paul tested positive despite being fully vaccinated and remained asymptomatic, according to multiple reports.
Jun 18, 2021 | www.bloomberg.com
The more-transmissible delta variant first found in India and now spread widely in the U.K. is expected to become the dominant strain in the U.S., said Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. She added that full vaccination provides good protection against it.
Jul 03, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
The Los Angeles County health agency suggested to residents that they wear masks -- regardless of vaccination status -- due to the so-called " Delta " COVID-19 variant.
... ... ...
The World Health Organization (WHO) has similarly called on people to wear masks due to the Delta variant, which is believed to have emerged in India. Meanwhile, Hong Kong officials also announced this week that it will ban travelers from the UK over concerns about the strain.
Those warnings came after officials in Israel said that half the adults infected in a recent Delta COVID-19 outbreak fully vaccinated, according to the Wall Street Journal late last week.
However, some have said that the concerns about the Delta strain are overblown.
"Don't let the fearmongers win," wrote Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday.
"New public England study of delta variant shows 44 deaths out of 53,822 (.08%) in unvaccinated group."
Separately, pharmaceutical giant Moderna said that its two-dose mRNA COVID-19 vaccine works against the Delta strain, which will likely be used in future arguments against new masking or lockdown mandates.
"These new data are encouraging and reinforce our belief that the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine should remain protective against newly detected variants," CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a press release issued on Tuesday about the findings.
Jul 03, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
vk , Jun 17 2021 14:22 utc | 8
US should ask scientists to investigate itself if it truly cares about origins: epidemiologist
I agree. If the US scientists are so worried about the possibility the SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a laboratory, why don't they also ask their government to investigate their own labs?
Charlatans are a plague in modern science.
Grieved , Jun 17 2021 17:55 utc | 28
john , Jun 17 2021 20:20 utc | 38And also, the corruption of the medical profession, to which he is now speaking (it's running as I write this). The interviewer is using the words "medical mafia", citing the later manifestations we've seen this year. But this interview seems that it will do much to illustrate the long process of corruption that has happened over the years and decades, and this is very valuable to learn.
Worth spelling the link out, if I may:
Swine Flu And Covid: Pandemic Deja Vu? / With Dr Wolfgang Wodarg 9th JuneMany thanks for this.
Grieved @ 28
The interviewer is using the words "medical mafia", citing the later manifestations we've seen this year
Yes, the circuitous depravity they've engaged, the 'offer you can't refuse' has worked wonders, as the interviewer attests his young peers who've taken the jab only to regain their 'freedom', like my youngest daughter, 30, against my spoken preference, and my silent prayers.
Jul 02, 2021 | www.nytimes.com
But that was before the spread of the Delta variant . Worried by a global surge in cases, the World Health Organization last week reiterated its longstanding recommendation that everyone -- including the inoculated -- wear masks to stem the spread of the virus.
On Monday, health officials in Los Angeles County followed suit , recommending that "everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors in public places as a precautionary measure."
Barbara Ferrer, the county's public health director, said the new recommendation was needed because of upticks in infections, a rise in cases due to the worrisome Delta variant , and persistently high numbers of unvaccinated residents, particularly children, Black and Latino residents and essential workers.
Roughly half of Los Angeles County residents are fully vaccinated , and about 60 percent have had at least one dose. While the number of positive tests is still below 1 percent in the county, the rate has been inching up, Dr. Ferrer added, and there has been a rise in the number of reinfections among residents who were infected before and did not get vaccinated.
To the extent that Los Angeles County has managed to control the pandemic, it has been because of a multilayered strategy that combined vaccinations with health restrictions aimed at curbing new infections, Dr. Ferrer said.
Natural immunity among those already infected has also kept transmission low, she noted, but it is not clear how long natural immunity will last.
Jul 02, 2021 | www.nytimes.com
But that was before the spread of the Delta variant . Worried by a global surge in cases, the World Health Organization last week reiterated its longstanding recommendation that everyone -- including the inoculated -- wear masks to stem the spread of the virus.
On Monday, health officials in Los Angeles County followed suit , recommending that "everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors in public places as a precautionary measure."
Barbara Ferrer, the county's public health director, said the new recommendation was needed because of upticks in infections, a rise in cases due to the worrisome Delta variant , and persistently high numbers of unvaccinated residents, particularly children, Black and Latino residents and essential workers.
Roughly half of Los Angeles County residents are fully vaccinated , and about 60 percent have had at least one dose. While the number of positive tests is still below 1 percent in the county, the rate has been inching up, Dr. Ferrer added, and there has been a rise in the number of reinfections among residents who were infected before and did not get vaccinated.
To the extent that Los Angeles County has managed to control the pandemic, it has been because of a multilayered strategy that combined vaccinations with health restrictions aimed at curbing new infections, Dr. Ferrer said.
Natural immunity among those already infected has also kept transmission low, she noted, but it is not clear how long natural immunity will last.
Jul 02, 2021 | www.msn.com
As the Delta variant of the coronavirus surges through the U.K., almost half of the country's recent Covid-19 deaths are of people who have been vaccinated.
.... ... ...
The U.K. is a testing ground for how vaccines are coping. Delta is racing through the country -- with 146,000 identified cases in the past week, 72% up on the week before. The country is also a world leader in identifying through testing and genetic sequencing which versions of the virus are prevalent: By mid-June, 97% of cases were Delta infections. And Delta is spreading among a population that is among the most highly vaccinated in the world: 85% of adults have had at least one vaccine shot and 63% have had two.
Data from Public Health England show that there were 117 deaths among 92,000 Delta cases logged through June 21. Fifty of those -- 46% -- had received two shots of vaccine.
First, vaccines aren't 100% effective. Not everyone who is inoculated will respond in the same way. Those who are elderly or whose immune systems are faulty, damaged or stressed by some other illness are less likely to mount a robust response than someone younger and fitter. Covid-19 vaccines are highly effective but some people will still be vulnerable to the virus even after receiving their shots.
Second, the risk of dying from Covid-19 increases steeply with age. If a vaccine reduces an 80-year-old's risk of death from Covid-19 by 95%, for instance, that 80-year-old's risk of death might still be greater than the risk faced by an unvaccinated 20-year-old. Some chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and lung disease are also associated with a higher risk of severe illness and death.
Third, as more of the population gets vaccinated, there are fewer unvaccinated people for the virus to infect. If the pool of vaccinated people is larger than the pool of unvaccinated people, then it is possible and even likely that breakthrough infections resulting in death in the older, vaccinated group would match or exceed deaths in the younger, unvaccinated group. Consider an imaginary country with 100% of people vaccinated, where the virus can still somehow spread. All Covid-19 deaths would be in vaccinated individuals.
Of those 50 deaths in fully vaccinated people in England, all were in people aged 50 years and over, the data show. There have been no deaths recorded in double-vaccinated under 50s.
The data show that, overall, the fatality rate for confirmed cases of Covid-19 has been lower than it was with the Alpha variant, which was first spotted in the U.K.
... Public Health England, using a variety of statistical analyses, has estimated that vaccination reduces the risk of hospitalization with the Delta variant in people who have received two doses by between 91% and 98%, with a central estimate of 96%.
Though vaccines offer substantial protection against severe illness and death, there is growing evidence from lab studies and real-world data that Delta does have some ability to bypass vaccines to cause milder infection.
Public Health England says that its analysis of Delta cases in England implies protection against symptomatic Covid-19 caused by Delta of around 79%. That compares with an 89% reduction in the risk of symptomatic Covid-19 with Alpha.
In Israel, a senior health official said in late June that in a recent outbreak of 200 or so Delta cases, about half were in children 15 years old and younger and the other half were in those aged 16 and above, of whom more than 80% are fully vaccinated.
British data shows Delta is even more adept at evading our immune response after just one dose of vaccine, highlighting the importance, public health officials say, of getting two shots. A single dose reduces the risk of symptomatic Covid-19 with Alpha by 49%, according Public Health England, but only by 35% with Delta.
Jul 02, 2021 | www.foxnews.com
Mom details 12-year-old daughter's extreme reactions to COVID vaccine, says she's now in wheelchair Stephanie De Garay shares story with Tucker Carlson By Stephanie Giang-Paunon | Fox News Facebook Twitter Flipboard Comments Print Email
https://static.foxnews.com/static/orion/html/video/iframe/vod.html?v=20210701170943#uid=fnc-embed-1
Mom describes daughter's bad COVID vaccine reaction, says she's now in wheelchairMother Stephanie De Garay joins 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' to discuss how her 12-year-old daughter volunteered for the Pfizer vaccine trial and is now in a wheelchair.
An Ohio mother is speaking out about her 12-year-old daughter suffering extreme reactions and nearly dying after volunteering for the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine trial.
Stephanie De Garay told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Thursday that after reaching out to multiple physicians they claimed her daughter, Maddie De Garay, couldn't have become gravely ill from the vaccine.
"The only diagnosis we've gotten for her is that it's conversion disorder or functional neurologic symptom disorder, and they are blaming it on anxiety," De Garay told Tucker Carlson. "Ironically, she did not have anxiety before the vaccine."
De Garay explained that after receiving the second coronavirus vaccine dose, her daughter started developing severe abdominal and chest pains. Maddie described the severity of the pain to her mother as "it feels like my heart is being ripped out through my neck."
VideoThe Ohio mother added her daughter experienced additional symptoms that included gastroparesis, nausea, vomiting, erratic blood pressure, heart rate, and memory loss. "She still cannot digest food. She has a tube to get her nutrition," De Garay said to Carlson. "She also couldn't walk at one point, then she could I don't understand why and [physicians] are not looking into why...now she's back in a wheelchair and she can't hold her neck up. Her neck pulls back."
Carlson asked whether any officials from the Biden administration or representatives from Pfizer company have reached out to the family. "No, they have not," she answered.
"The response with the person that's leading the vaccine trial has been atrocious," she said. "We wanted to know what symptoms were reported and we couldn't even get an answer on that. It was just that 'we report to Pfizer and they report to the FDA.' That's all we got."
After her heartbreaking experience, the Ohio mother said she's still "pro-vaccine, but also pro-informed consent." De Garay mentioned she's speaking out because she feels like everyone should be fully aware of this tragic incident and added the situation is being "pushed down and hidden."
De Garay said she had joined a Facebook support group to help people cope with the unexpected events happening from the coronavirus vaccine trial, and she said it was shut down. "It's just not right," she said.
"They need to do research and figure out why this happened, especially to people in the trial. I thought that was the point of it," De Garay concluded. "They need to come up with something that's going to treat these people early because all they're going to do is keep getting worse."
Sen. Ron Johnson , R-Wis., has sent letters to the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna seeking answers about adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine following a June 28 press conference with affected individuals. The conference in Milwaukee included stories from five people, including De Garay.
The Wisconsin senator noted that some adverse reactions were detailed in Pfizer's and Moderna's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emergency use authorization (EUA) memorandums following early clinical trials.
Those reactions included nervous system disorders and musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders for the Pfizer EUA memo. The Moderna EUA memo included reactions such as nervous system disorders, vascular disorders and musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders, according to Johnson's letter.
Pfizer and Moderna did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News about Johnson's letters.
J jeff5150357 6 hours ago
My daughter had the same thing happen to her after getting a flu vaccine 9 years ago. Within days of getting it, she went from being as healthy as an ox to years of awful, unexplained illness. The short version is they concluded that she had a severe adverse reaction to the vaccine, but from the delivery chemicals, not the flu content itself. Formaldehyde was the likely major cause. Now she is getting ready to begin college and is being required to get the Covid vaccine by her university and the NCAA for athletics. It is causing her, my wife and I horrible anxiety and we feel like we are being railroaded into something that could be very dangerous for her. Any discussion or concern expressed on social media is immediately blocked. I know from years of working in the research grants office at Yale University that the big pharma industry is powerful and will go to great lengths to control the narrative. What I don't understand is why mainstream media and social media are so willing to help them these days!
jeff5150357 4 hours ago
While the college experience is great for a young adult. I would look at getting a degree online. Her future earnings will be based on her merit, not where she went to school. If someone was telling me what to do with my personal health, and I was uncomfortable with their prescription, I would follow my instincts.
LoraJane92649 jeff5150357 5 hours ago
If her flu vax is well documented she should be able to get a waiver. Hopefully you have an able bodied family physician or medical team to advocate on your behalf.
G gunvald 7 hours ago
You know when you take it that there can be adverse reactions. So, in that sense, you are informed. Any one of us could be the odd person. That said, I have a problem with any child getting these vaccines, especially when most people recover from the disease. It's one thing for me as an elderly person to make the decision to take it as covid affects the elderly person more and I wanted to avoid that ventilator. Most of my life has been lived and that's how I evaluated it. This will always come down to putting it in God's hands.
TheTruthAsItIs gunvald 6 hours ago
You missed the whole point! The issue is that the government is not acknowledging and and not reporting these side effects of the vaccine. Instead they are lying about the safety. If you are young, you are much more likely to get sick and injured by the vaccine than COVID.
D DontDestoryUSA gunvald 4 hours ago
It's not being informed when you are forced to take a vaccination that they clearly had trouble with past vaccination sounds like a lawsuit for the university is on the horizon. With a big pay day
Tony5SFG 7 hours ago
"Ohio mother said she's still "pro-vaccine, but also pro-informed consent." " And as a pediatrician for over 40 yrs (retired now) and a 10 year member of my medical school's Institutional Review Board (which had to approve all human research), THAT is a problem I have been bringing up As far as requiring all young people, such as entering or in college, to get the vaccine Children are a protected class and the informed consent for research on them is much more strenuous than for adults And, requiring young people to take these new vaccines is the equivalent of doing research on them. The issue of myocarditis is quite troubling. And while it has been seen in natural infections, I have not yet seen an adequate risk - benefit evaluation regarding risking natural infection versus vaccination And people say that the myocarditis is not severe, no one can be sure of the long term effects of a young person getting it. The vaccines that we give children have been used for decades and the risks/benefits have been well established
D DallasAmEmail Tony5SFG 6 hours ago
A friends daughter who just went through internship as Physicians assistant based on the percentages in age groups believes anyone under 25 should not get the vaccine because the percentages are about the same or worse having a negative impact from the vaccine versus the actual virus. Yes, older age groups the percent having negative impact from the virus is much greater than the vaccine, so yes older age groups should get the vaccine. What really is bothersome is when Youtube removes Dr. Robert Malone video who helped create the mrna vaccine express concern that normal testing has not happened and be cautious about taking it, especially for the young.
marinesfather601 Tony5SFG 5 hours ago
With the Covid19 mortality rate among the children why even vaccinate? As a Chemist / Biochemist I learned that there is always unintended consequences.
Hilltopper9 7 hours ago
Vaccines may have long term effects that are not known today. The same could be said of all the chemicals we apply to our body daily through shampoos, hair dyes, body lotions, and suntan lotions. Life's a gamble. It's up to each individual to make the best decisions possible given the facts available.
A akbushrat Hilltopper9 6 hours ago
The CDC's generic guidelines for getting a vaccine for any reason are very restrictive, first being, the disease you're getting vaccinated against has to pose a real, immediate danger. CV-19 poses virtually no danger whatsoever to kids under 14. Of all the deaths of children 14 and under in the last 18 months only .8% of them had a case of CV-19. That's 367 deaths out of over 46,000. (Data from CDC website) Forcing them to take an experimental vaccine that they absolutely don't need is criminal. As a parent, allowing your child to take the vaccine without spending a few hours doing some research is criminally negligent. This is like some terribly warped Kafka novel but it's real.
F Fauxguy930 Hilltopper9 5 hours ago
☢️ N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl)nitrosamine is a nitrosamine that has butyl and 4-hydroxybutyl substituents. In mice, it causes high-grade, invasive cancers in the urinary bladder, but not in any other tissues. It has a role as a carcinogenic agent. Ingredient in all shots. How did a carcinogen get FDA approved, oh it was an emergency.
R RussellRika 6 hours ago
I have a twelve year old, and not a chance I'd allow her to volunteer for any vaccine trial, and especially not this one. She very much wanted to get a vaccine, until she started reading about some of the adverse reactions. Sorry, but I'm a child, the benefit does not outweigh the risk.
MrEd50 6 hours ago
I took the vaccine because I'm 60 years old and work with special ed kids. My 18 year old child refuses to take it and I support him on this. COVID shouldn't be an issue for most of us.
Nov 27, 2017 | marknesop.wordpress.com
Posted on November 27, 2017 by marknesop
"The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease."
"No, I mean I'm sorry that you've inherited such a miserable, collapsing Old Country. A place where rich Bankers own everything, where you've got to be grateful for a part-time job with no benefits and no retirement plan, where the most health insurance you can afford is being careful and hoping you don't get sick
Cory Doctorow; Homeland
"Until fairly recently, every family had a cornucopia of favorite home remedies–plants and household items that could be prepared to treat minor medical emergencies, or to prevent a common ailment becoming something much more serious. Most households had someone with a little understanding of home cures, and when knowledge fell short, or more serious illness took hold, the family physician or village healer would be called in for a consultation, and a treatment would be agreed upon. In those days we took personal responsibility for our health–we took steps to prevent illness and were more aware of our bodies and of changes in them. And when illness struck, we frequently had the personal means to remedy it. More often than not, the treatment could be found in the garden or the larder. In the middle of the twentieth century we began to change our outlook. The advent of modern medicine, together with its many miracles, also led to a much greater dependency on our physicians and to an increasingly stretched healthcare system. The growth of the pharmaceutical industry has meant that there are indeed "cures" for most symptoms, and we have become accustomed to putting our health in the hands of someone else, and to purchasing products that make us feel good. Somewhere along the line we began to believe that technology was in some way superior to what was natural, and so we willingly gave up control of even minor health problems."
Karen Sullivan; The Complete Family Guide to Natural Home Remedies: Safe and Effective Treatments for Common Ailments
No, I haven't abandoned Uncle Volodya, or shifted my focus to American administration; what follows is a guest post on the American healthcare system, by our friend UCG. As I've mentioned before – on the occasion of his previous guest post, in fact – he is an ethnic Russian living in the Golden State.
As an American in America, naturally his immediate concern is going to be healthcare in America; but there are lessons within for everyone. Don't get me wrong – doctors have done a tremendous amount of good, and medical researchers and many others from the world of medicine have made tremendous advances to which many of us owe their lives. Sadly, though, once a field goes commercial, the main focus of attention eventually becomes profit, and there are few endeavors in which the customer base will be so desperate. While there are obvious benefits to 'socialized medicine' such as Canada enjoys and American politicians scorn as 'Commie' – enough to earn the admiration of many – it results in such a backlog for major operations that those who don't like their chances of dying first, and have the money or can somehow get it, often flee to America, where you can get a good standard of medical care without running out of time waiting for it.
Without further ado, take it away, UCG!!
Healthcare in America
This article is my opinion. My hope is that others will do their own research on America's Healthcare Industry, because this is an issue that needs to be addressed, and for this article to be a mere starting point in this research. The reason for my citations is so that you, the reader, can verify them. Once again, this is my opinion. I write this in the first paragraph, so that I can avoid stating "in my opinion" before every sentence.
Let's start with Owen Davis who was charged $14,018 for going to a hospital because he sliced his hand, and they fixed it . A study published by Johns Hopkins showed that for $100 of ER treatment, some hospitals were charging patients up to $1,260 . A redditor claimed that :
I tore my ab wall a month ago and didn't think much of it until my pain kept worsening. I went to an immediate care facility to rule out a hernia (I had all the symptoms) and they told me to get to ER ASAP. I go to the ER and they give me a CT scan and one x-ray and say it's not a hernia and let me go. Fast forward to today and I got a bill for $9,200 and $3,900 of it is out of pocket. $9,200 for two tests???? No pain meds were administered; it was literally those two tests. What should I do to contest it? I will be calling tomorrow to demand an itemized bill, but is there anything else I should do in the meantime?
All of these took me a few minutes on Google to find, and another few minutes to post. The reason I chose that reddit, is because one of the readers offered an ingenious solution: Next time you hurt yourself – book a return ticket to NZ – go to accident and emergency, say you're a tourist and you hurt yourself surfing, pay nothing – fly home and pocket $8,000 in spare change. If that was me, I'd spend at least $2,000 on tourism in New Zealand. You guys have that system, so you clearly deserve the money! Anyone interested in a startup?
But I am not done with examples just yet. Shana Sweney described her experience in the emergency room : I delivered in 15 minutes. During that time, the anesthesiologist put a heart rate monitor on my finger and played on his phone. My bill for his services was $3,000. $200/minute. I talked to the insurance company about it – and since I ran my company's benefit plans, I got a little further than most people, but ultimately, that was what their contract with the hospital said so that's what they had to pay. Regardless of if he worked 15 minutes or 3 hours. Similarly, my twins were born prematurely and ended up in the NICU for 2 weeks. While the NICU was in-network for my insurance, for some mysterious reason, the neonatologists that attended the NICU were out of network. I think that bill was $16k and they stopped by to see each kid for an average of about 30 min/day.
Almost done with the examples, just please bear with me. How would you like a hospital billing you $83,046 for treating a scorpion sting , if a Mexican ER might have treated you for the same type of sting for $200? Perhaps being charged $546 for six liters of saltwater is more to your liking? $1,420 for two hours of babysitting ? $55,000 for an appendicitis operation ? $144,000 to deliver a perfectly healthy, albeit quite impatient baby? According to my interpretation of the sources linked, all of these actually happened. I encourage you to do your own research.
The World's Biggest Legalized Corruption (IMHO)
$984.157 billion. That's $984,157,000,000. That is how much money I believe the United States wastes on Healthcare. Not spends; wastes. As in money down the drain. The astute reader figured out that equates to five percent of America's 2016 GDP . Said reader is absolutely correct. How did I estimate such a gargantuan amount? According to the OECD data , in 2013 the United States spent 16.4 percent of its GDP on Healthcare; the two next biggest spenders, Switzerland and the Netherlands spent 11.1 percent. Even if one was to give the United States the benefit of doubt, and claim that the United States healthcare is just as efficient as that of Switzerland or the Netherlands – which is most likely not true according to an article from Business Insider , but even if it was – that meant that the United States wastes 5.3% of its GDP on healthcare. Wastes. I just want to make sure that the amount of this alleged legalized corruption, which will most likely reach a trillion dollars by 2020, is noted.
Let me place those funds into perspective: it's almost as much as the amount that the rest of the World spends on the military, combined . The SCO member states, including China, Russia, India, and Pakistan spent roughly $360 billion on the military . The wasted amount is equivalent to the GDP of Indonesia, and greater than the GDP of Turkey or Switzerland . In 2016, the US Federal Government spent $362 billion, or 36.8% of the wasted amount, to run all Federal Programs , including the Department of Education and NASA, with the exception of Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, Veteran's Affairs, the military, and net interest on the US debt. All other Federal Programs were covered with the $362 billion. The US Federal Debt stands at $20.4 trillion , meaning that the debt can be paid off in 30 years, merely if the Healthcare Waste is eliminated.
But why stop there? The US Housing Crisis started partly because loans were allowed to be taken out without the 20% down payment. Could this funding, if applied directly to the housing market, stop the 2008 Great Recession? Absolutely, and all the Federal Government had to do was to gear these funds towards down payment on subprime mortgage loans to meet the 20 percent barrier. I can go on and on about what can be accomplished, like making collegiate attendance free, or at least very inexpensive, or drastically improving the quality of education, paying off the national debt, reinvesting into the economy, reinvigorating the rural sector, and so on, and so forth. A trillion dollars is a lot of money.
Lobbyists, the Media and the Waste
Any guess how much was spent on lobbying by the Healthcare, Insurance, Hospitals, Health Professionals, and HMOs? How about 10.5 billion dollars? I knew that was your guess! That's a lot of money, and that does not include "speaking fees", or when a politician who constantly made calls beneficial to the Healthcare Lobby gets $150,000 to speak in front of an audience after they retire from politics. Obama made a speech in front of Wall Street, netting $400,000 . And by pure coincidence, only one Wall Street Broker was jailed as a result of the scandal. That $10.5 billion is just a tip of the iceberg, because "speaking fees" are notoriously hard to track, and not included in said amount.
Obama genuinely tried to reform US Healthcare to the Swiss Model. He was going to let Wall Street slide, he was going to let Neocons conduct foreign policy, just please, let him have healthcare! First, the lobbyists laughed in his face. Second, they utilized the Blue Dog Coalition to block Obama's attempt at Healthcare Reform, until it was phenomenally nerfed, and we have the disaster that we have today. As a result, Obama's Legacy, Obamacare is having major issues, including the rise of racism.
Obamacare helped the poor, (mostly minorities,) at the expense of the middle class, (mostly whites,) thus transferring funding from whites to minorities. While the intent was not racial, it is being called out as racial by the mainstream media . This probably suits the lobbyists, because if the debate is about racism, one cannot have a genuine discussion about Healthcare Reform.
Racism strikes both ways. Samantha Bee came out with a "fuck you white people" message right after the election. Jon Stewart, without whom she probably wouldn't have her own show, pointed out that it was simply economics, like the healthcare insurance premium increase , that brought Donald Trump to power. Interestingly enough, James Carville made the same argument when Bill Clinton beat George Bush, but when Hillary Clinton lost, Carville was quick to blame Russia. These delusions on the Left are letting the Right mobilize stronger than ever before. And all of this takes away from the Healthcare Debate.
In an attempt to blame Trump's Election on white racism, rather than basic economics, numerous outlets simply fell flat. For instance, Eric Sasson writes : white men went 63 percent for Trump versus 31 percent for Clinton, and white women went 53-43 percent. Among college-educated whites, only 39 percent of men and 51 percent of women voted for Clinton What's more, these people hadn't suffered under Obama; they'd thrived. The kind of change Trump was espousing wasn't supposed to connect with this group.
Did this group thrive? The collegiate debt went from $600 billion to $1.4 trillion under Obama's Administration, while the health insurance increased from $13,000 to $18,000 per family . This is thriving? Was the author experimenting with medical marijuana when said article was written? Nevertheless, the parade of insanity continued, with Salon assuring us that it was blatant racism that gave us Trump . The Root, which also claimed that Russians attempted to hack election machines, pointed out that Russia exploited America's racism , and thus Trump won the election. Washington Post claimed that racism motivated white people more than authoritarianism . Comedian Bill Maher tried to sway the discussion back to economics, by pointing out that outrage over Pocahontas or Halloween should not stop the Democrats from working for the working man . Sadly, Maher and Stewart are in the minority, and instead of a Healthcare Debate, the US is now stuck in a debate over racism, which isn't even three-fifths as effective. Meanwhile the US continues to waste almost a trillion dollars on healthcare .
Who Benefits?
Let's start with the banks. Medical students graduate with an average of $416,216 in student debt . The average interest rate on said loan is seven percent. Roughly 20,055 students go through this program, per year . Presuming a twenty year loan, the banks are looking at about $7.185 billion in interest payments. It really is a small fraction of the cost. Prescription drug prices are another story. In 2014, Medicare spent $112 billion on medicine for the elderly . Oh la la! Cha-ching. I would not be surprised if at least half of that was wasted on drug price inflation. You know the health insurance companies? It's a great time to be one, since profits are booming – to the tune of $18 billion in projected revenue for 2017.
Of course the system itself is quite wasteful, with needless hours spent on paperwork, claim verification, contractual review, etc, etc, etc. Humana's revenue was $54.4 billion , Aetna's was $63.2 billion , Anthem's was $85 billion , Cigna's was $39.7 billion , and UnitedHealth's was $184.8 billion . Those are just the top five companies. None of them ia a mom-and-pop shop or small business store. Do any of these insurers support Obamacare? Even if they do, it is without much enthusiasm . They are leaving, and leaving quite quickly. Thirty-one percent of American counties will have just one healthcare insurer . Welcome to a monopoly that is artificially creating itself. And despite the waste, 28.2 million Americans remain uninsured . Mission accomplished!
Who else benefits? Those who hire illegal immigrants instead of American workers, since illegal immigrants cost the United States roughly $25 billion in Healthcare spending . Meanwhile those who hire them can avoid certain types of taxes and not have to cover their Healthcare; communism for the rich, capitalism for the rest of us. Of course that is just a rough estimate, since this spending is also quite hard to track.
The Future
The problem with changing Healthcare is that too many people have their hands in the proverbial pie. There is not a single lever of power that isn't affected by Healthcare, and most of the levers that are affected, benefit quite a bit. Insurance companies will fight to the death, because Universal Healthcare will be their death knell. Banks will defend it, because who doesn't want to make billions from student loans? Medical schools too – since it lets them charge higher and higher tuition. Pharmaceutical companies can use the increase in Healthcare expenditure to justify their own price hikes, even though a major reason for those price hikes is artificial patent based monopoly.
What is an artificial monopoly? In my opinion, it's when a patent is utilized to prevent competitors from manufacturing the same exact drug. In less than a decade, the price of Epi-Pen soared from $103.50 to $608.61. When asked the justify said increase, one of the reasons provided by the CEO was that the price went up because we were making investment; as I said, about $1 billion over the last decade that we invested in the product that we could reach physicians and educate legislatures. "Reaching" doctors and legislators; I wonder, how was said "education funding" spent? According to US News, a website that is extremely credible when it comes to internal decision making within the United States, drug companies have long courted doctors with gifts , from speaking and consulting fees to educational materials to food and drink. But while most doctors do not believe these gifts influence their decisions about which drugs to prescribe, a new study found the gifts actually can make a difference – something patient advocates have voiced concern about in the past. Do you feel educated? Would you feel more educated if I paid you a $150,000 consulting fee? What about $400,000? What? It's just consulting; no corruption here!
Everyone knows that this is going on. But there is not going to be change. Why not? The same reason that there was not change with Harvey Weinstein, until Taylor Swift came along. Remember how I said that almost everyone has their hands in the Healthcare Pie? It was not much different with Weinstein. Scott Rosenberg explained why it took so long for people to speak out against Harvey , and the reasons were numerous. First, Harvey gave many people their start in Hollywood, and treated all of his friends like royalty. That drastically increased their loyalty. Second, he ushered the Golden Age of the 1990s, with movies like Pulp Fiction, Shakespeare in Love, Clerks, Swingers, Scream, Good Will Hunting, English Patient, Life is Beautiful – the man could make phenomenal movies. Third, even if one was willing to go against his own friends, workers, mass media, and so on, there was no one to tell. There was no place to speak out. Fourth, some of the victims took hefty settlements.
That fourth reason enabled mass media to portray rape victims as gold diggers. Rape Culture is alive and well. In California, a Judge gave minimal sentencing to a convicted rapist , because he was afraid a harsher sentence would damage the rapist's mental psyche for life. Uh dude, from one Californian to another, he, uh, raped. His mental psyche is already damaged; for life. That's the kind of pressure that Rose McGowan had to deal with. She had a little kerfuffle with Amazon , and she thinks it was partially because of Harvey Weinstein. How many times had the word "socialism" been thrown around to describe Universal Healthcare? Switzerland has it – are they Socialist?
Enter Taylor Swift . In order to destroy allegations that women are filing sexual harassment claims as gold diggers, she sued her alleged sexual assaulter for a buck; one dollar. She won. Swift stated that the lawsuit was to serve as an example to other women who may resist publicly reliving similar outrageous and humiliating acts. On top of that, Weinstein was no longer as popular as he used to be, and an avenue to tell the story, an outlet was created. The additional prevalence of the internet caused the stories of Weinstein's sexual abuse to leak. Within a month, the giant fell.
Something similar is needed to change Healthcare in America. But until that comes along, racism will increase, the cost of Healthcare will rise, emergency room costs will most likely double every ten years, and the future remains bleak. As if that was not enough, more and more upper class Americans, (like yours truly,) are seeking treatment abroad. It cost me less money to lose five weeks of wages, spend three weeks partying in Eastern Europe, (Prague to be more specific,) after my two weeks of treatment, buy a roundtrip plane ticket, and stay in a five star, all-inclusive hotel, than the cost of the same treatment in the US. If anyone wants to utilize this as a startup – let me know!
Of course its effects on Healthcare will hurt, since it is a huge chunk of business that will be traveling across the Atlantic. But what can be done to stop it? One cannot stop Americans from traveling to other countries. One cannot force the poor to work for free. Perhaps this is the change that is needed to make those who benefit from the Healthcare Waste realize that this cannot continue. Perhaps not. What we do know, is that Obamacare insured the poor, at the expense of the middle class . And that is regarded as a failure in America.
RelatedNo Way To Slow Down - America's Foreign-Policy Dilemma In "Corruption"
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Northern Star , November 27, 2017 at 3:12 pmAs for Obongo Care ??:ucgsblog , November 28, 2017 at 3:58 pm"In trying to show that he was successfully managing the Obamacare rollout, the president last week staged a high-profile White House meeting with private health insurance executives -- aka Obamacare's middlemen. The spectacle of a president begging these middlemen for help was a reminder that Obamacare did not limit the power of the insurance companies as a single-payer system would.
****The new law instead cemented the industry's profit-extracting role in the larger health system -- and it still leaves millions without insurance."*** (THAT is the Achille's lower torso of the ACA)https://www.healthcare-now.org/blog/single-payer-healthcare-vs-obamacare/
Exactly! That's why I stated that they're now oligapolizing the market, and will slowly start to increase their insurance rates and profits once again.Northern Star , November 27, 2017 at 3:23 pm"Prince Harry.. Do you take this American mulatto negress - aka raghead untermensch - as your lawfully wedded royal wife?*Northern Star , November 27, 2017 at 3:52 pm
http://www.newsweek.com/prince-harrys-worst-moments-meghan-markle-rogue-723177
https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/sites/sbs.com.au.guide/files/styles/body_image/public/nazi.jpg?itok=q1oxMi44&mtime=1503879842Ummm Advice to Meghan .make sure the honeymoon motorcade stays clear of tunnels in Paris or elsewhere!!!
Appurtenant to many of the issues raised in Mark's post:Patient Observer , November 27, 2017 at 5:17 pmhttp://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/27/pers-n27.html
(Socialist or not..the WSWS writers continue to state that which NEEDS to be hammered home)
"The vast wealth of the financial oligarchy, expressed in their ownership of massive corporations, must be seized and expropriated, while the complex technologies, supply chains, and advanced transportation systems must be integrated in an organized, planned manner to harness the anarchic force of the world economy and eliminate material scarcity.
Amazon is a prime example. Its supply lines and delivery systems could distribute goods across the world, bringing water, food, and medicine from each producer according to his or her ability, to each consumer according to his or her need.
The massively sophisticated computational power used by the technology companies to censor and blacklist political opposition could instead be used for logistical analysis to conduct rescue and rebuilding missions in disaster zones like Houston and Puerto Rico. Drones used in the battlefield could be scrapped and rebuilt to distribute supplies for building schools, museums, libraries, and theaters, and for making Internet service available at no cost for the entire world.
The ruling class and all of the institutions of the political establishment stand inexorably in the way of efforts to expropriate their wealth. What is required is to mobilize the working class in a political struggle against the state and the socio-economic system on which it is based, through the fight for socialism.
Eric London "Particularly for American Stooges:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/F1TMsSbPszw?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&start=861&wmode=transparent
https://www.youtube.com/embed/mzJYXPI1hng?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent
Advanced technology is helpful but not essential for a humane and just society. Its what we believe and feel that matters. FWIW, I like socialism on a national/international level and individual accountability on a personal level.saskydisc , November 27, 2017 at 4:04 pmWhile general medical care is single payer in Canada, dental services are not. For major work on teeth, it is cheaper to fly to Mexico. The downside is for Mexicans -- such practices will drive the costs up in Mexico.Patient Observer , November 27, 2017 at 5:12 pmMark, today's posting provided is a nice change of pace to a topic of local impact (for me at least). UGC presented a good overview peppered with supporting data.marknesop , November 28, 2017 at 12:10 amIn an earlier career incarnation, I worked as a systems analyst involved with development of online systems for state social services. Data showed that our systems were able to administer a comprehensive health care program for social services recipients for about 3-4% of the cost of services. Private medical insurance providers required approximately 20% of the cost of services to provide similar services. Yet, private providers were supposedly driven by invisible market forces to maximum efficiency. BS. In fact, they are driven by greed and they found it much easier to maximize profits by colluding with politicians and health care providers. That is the trouble with free markets – its just so damn easy to cheat and cheaters are never in short supply.
One more thing, prescription drugs costs may exceed $600 billion in the US by 2021:
That would be nearly $2,000 per year for every American!
If a tiny fraction of that amount were spent on prevention, education, improved diets and other similar initiatives, the population ought to be healthier and richer. But, greed overpowers the public good every time. The US health care system is a criminal enterprise in my opinion. The good that it does is grossly outweighed by greed and exploitation of human suffering.
I believe the author is also a systems analyst, so you are thinking along similar lines.ucgsblog , November 28, 2017 at 4:05 pmI agree with that. Plus, it seems like they have an entire staff dedicated to giving their "customer" the run around. A friend of mine had to deal with several different departments regarding his healthcare bill. The billing office told him that they only deal with billing questions, and that for explanations for the bill, he should call the doctor's office. The doctor's office told him to call the hospital, since that's where the service took place. The hospital told him to call his primary doctor, who sent him there, and his primary doctor referred him back to the specialist, where he was referred back to the billing department, which promptly told him that they're closing for the day, since he spent 6 hours being transferred from one department to the next.[email protected] , November 27, 2017 at 6:02 pmI find it terribly silly that we should even consider med student's debt as an excuse. First, American doctors are the best paid professionals in the country. Internists make a median 190 thousand a year, and they are among the worst paid specialties. I cannot possibly see the problem with paying your income for 5 years, knowing that you get access to a caste that will allow you make good money into your eighties.ucgsblog , November 28, 2017 at 4:08 pmSecond, the debt is not that high as you claim. Harvard Medical School tuition is 64 thousand. You can rent across the street with 20 thousand a year – I currently live there.
Third, med students know all this. The reason why they borrow far more is because they know they can afford it. I went to med school somewhere in a developing world. We shared toilets in the dorm. As a matter of fact, most under-30s in Boston live in shared accommodation. The outliers? Med students. Even the lowly Tufts and BU students that I met own cars and live by themselves, mainly in new buildings across the street from their hospitals.
Every time I go to the doctors, I am thinking how I am going to sue their asses if they make a mistake.
It's not an excuse. It's a bill. When you rent an apartment, did you know that most landlords also factor in the property tax when figuring out what your rent payment should be? Similarly, the interest payments on the doctoral students' loans are passed off to the consumer, and that is yet another reason why Healthcare is so expensive. That's why I think that medical school should be free for those students who promise to charge their patients no more than x amount of money.kirill , November 27, 2017 at 8:38 pmInteresting article. Looks like the rot in the US is terminal. But Canada and its "socialized" medicine is not far behind. Operating an emergency ward with only one doctor doing the rounds at the rest of the hospital during the night is absurd. But that is what major Canadian hospitals do. Don't bother going to emergency at 2 am unless you are literally dying. Wait until 7 am when the day day crew arrives and you can actually receive treatment.Ryan Ward , November 28, 2017 at 3:19 amThe problem in Canada, as in the USA, is overpaid doctors and not enough of them (because they are overpaid). Instead of paying a doctor $300,000 per year or more, the system needs to have 3 or more doctors earning $100,000 per year. Then there is no excuse about being overworked and "requiring" a high compensation. Big incomes attract crooks and not talent. If you want to be a doctor then you should do 5 years of low income work abroad or at home. That would weed out a lot of the $$$ in the eyeballs leeches. A nasty side effect of having overpaid doctors and living adjacent to the US, is that they act like a mafia and extort the government by threatening to leave to the USA. I say that the Canadian provinces should make all medical students sign binding contracts to pay the cost difference between their Canadian medical education and the equivalent in the USA if they decide to run off to America.
At the undergraduate level, the physics courses with the highest enrollment are aimed at streams going into medicine. There are hordes of money maker wannabes trying to make it big in medicine. But they are all nearly weeded out and never graduate from medical school. So the system maintains the fake doctor shortage and racket level salaries. On top of this, hospitals pay a 300% markup for basic supplies (gauze, syringes, etc). It is actually possible for private individuals to pay the nominal price so this is not just a theory. Clearly, there is no effort to control costs by hospital administrations since basic economics would imply that hospitals would pay less than individuals for these items due to the volume of sales involved. At the end of the day North American public medicine is a non-market bloating itself into oblivion since the taxpayer will always pay whatever is desired. That is, the spineless politicians will never crack the whip.
This is part of the problem in Canada. One way to help deal with it in my view, beyond simply cutting doctors' fees (which any government with the political will to do so can do) is to simply make it easier for International Medical Graduates to get licensed in Canada. Canada has legions of immigrants (and could have pretty much however many more it likes) with full medical qualifications who would be thrilled to work for much less than the current pay rates. It's a scandal how many qualified doctors we have in Canada driving taxis rather than practicing medicine. If we just took advantage of the human resources we already have, we could easily say to doctors who threaten to leave for the US, "Fine, go. We've got 10 guys from India lined up to do your job." This isn't to say that doctors shouldn't be very well-paid. Anyone who has ever known someone in med school knows it's hell. But doctors would be very well-paid at half the rates they're getting now.marknesop , November 28, 2017 at 10:32 amAnother part of the problem is an over-reliance on hospitals. There are a lot of people in the hospitals more in "holding" than anything else, because there's no space in the proper facilities for them (The book "Chronic Condition" talks about this). The problem with this is that the cost per day to keep someone in the hospital is much higher than in other kinds of facilities. This is an entirely unnecessary loss.
For all that though, the Canadian system is leaps and bounds better than the American. We spend a vastly smaller percentage of our GDP on health care, and in return achieve higher health outcomes, as measured by the WHO. If we were willing to spend the kind of money the Americans do on health care, we could have patients sleeping in golden beds even with the structural flaws of our current system. That's worth constantly remembering, because some of the proposals for health reform floating around now lean in the direction of privatization, and we've seen where that road leads.
Before he retired from politics, Keith Martin was my MLA, and he was also a qualified MD. He used to rail against the convoluted process for certification in medicine in Canada, while others complained that we were subject to an influx of doctor-immigrants from India because Canada required less time spent in medical school than India does. I never checked the veracity of that, although we do have quite a few Indian doctors. My own doctor – in the military, and still now since he is in private practice – is a South African, and he explained that he had gone in for the military (although he was always a civilian, some military doctors are military members as well but most are not) because the hoop-jumping process to be certified for private practice in Canada with foreign qualifications was just too onerous.Jen , November 27, 2017 at 11:15 pmUnsurprisingly, I completely agree on the subject of privatization, because it always leads to an emphasis on profit and cost-cutting. I don't know why some people can't see that.
Thanks very much UCG, for your article. Very interesting reading for us Australians as the Federal Government eventually wants to shove us kicking and screaming into a US-style privatized healthcare insurance model.Fern , November 28, 2017 at 7:02 amFunnily enough I'm currently considering changing my private health insurer. I'm with Medibank Private at present but considering maybe going with a smaller non-profit health fund like Australian Unity or Phoenix Health Fund.
I was just about to post along the lines of "I don't know if Jen has experienced this in Australia but here in the UK ." so I'll finish the thought. In the UK, successive governments, not just Conservative ones, have been trying to dismantle the NHS and move us to the American system. It is pure ideology – no amount of the very abundant evidence of the inefficiencies of the US system, its waste etc makes any dint in the enthusiasm of those pressing for change.ucgsblog , November 28, 2017 at 4:17 pmThank you Jen! My advice: don't let the Government cajole you into wasting your money on Corporate Greed. Share the article with your fellow Australians, if you must, but don't let our wasteful system be replicated. Interestingly enough, one of my friends, Lytburger, send me a meme right after Ukraine adopted America's Healthcare System, it said: "ISIS refused to take responsibility for Ukraine's Healthcare Reform!" I'd be happy to provide other data or answer questions about the Healthcare System here.James lake , November 28, 2017 at 12:21 amAs for insurance, I'm not sure if Australia has the in-network and out-of-network rules. Does it? Whatever insurance you get, make sure that it has good coverage. If you own a home in the US, and you end up in a hospital's emergency room that's not covered by your insurance, the hospital can take your house under certain circumstances. Ironically, even the Government cannot. All of my real property is in various Trust Accounts, just in case, and I make sure that I have insurance where all major hospitals are in-network and that's the best I can do.
This is s very interesting insight into healthcare in the USA. The cost is shocking. I live in the UK and the healthcare system is paid for from taxation. When it was established over 70 years ago the health service would be available to all and financed entirely from taxation, which meant that people paid into it according to their means.marknesop , November 28, 2017 at 10:25 amIt was the best thing in my view that government has ever done. Good healthcare should be available to all and not dependent on peoples ability to pay. However there always a private healthcare system that ran alongside it
And over the years it had been unpicked as successive governments have tried to privatize it. Claiming they will save the taxpayer money
– opticians and dentistry have become part private after 18 if you are employed.
Which many people do not mind.
-Elderly care was also privatised as it's the most expensive
-care for the disabled also is a issue for local councils
-Mental health became care in the community – society's problem!
Privatisation has meant profits for businesses, poor services to vulnerable groups.
And yet still more and more taxation is needed for the NHS!
The issue of more money was even part of the Brexit debate as it was stated that leaving the EU would mean more money for the NHS which people are proud of.
There was a quote I was thinking of using in the lead-in, but decided in the end not to since I didn't want to have too many and it might have become confusing. It related that you would get the best medical care of your lifetime – after you died, when they were rushing to save your organs, for transplant. Obviously this would not be true if you were not an organ donor (at least in this country) or died as the result of general wasting away so that you had nothing left which would be particularly coveted. But this is a major issue in medicine in some countries and there have been various lurid tales of bodies being robbed of their organs without family permission, bodies of Ukrainian soldiers harvested of their organs and rackets in third-world countries where the poor or helpless are robbed of organs while they are alive. From my standpoint, since I haven't done much research on it, I have seen little proof of any of them despite plenty of allegation, but it is easy to understand that traffic in organs to those who will pay anything to live a little longer would be tremendously profitable, and the potential for disproportionate profit seldom fails to draw the unscrupulous.et Al , November 28, 2017 at 1:32 amAs I alluded in the lead-in, Canada has what is sometimes described as 'socialized medicine' and alternatively as 'two-tier healthcare' although I have never seen any real substantiation for the latter charge. My mom had an operation for colon cancer some time back, and she paid nothing for the hospitalization or the operation. My father-in-law is scheduled for the same operation as soon as he gets his blood-sugar low enough, and he already had one for a hernia and removal of internal scar tissue from an old injury – again, we paid nothing. He had a nurse come here for a couple of months, once a week, to change his dressing (because the incision would was very slow to heal because he is diabetic – nothing. That's all great, from my point of view, and I've paid into it all my life without ever using it because I was covered by the government under federal guidelines while I served in the military, although I was a cheap patient because I never had to be hospitalized for anything and was almost never even sick enough not to come to work. But the great drawback to it, as I said, is the backlog which might mean you have to wait too long for an operation. And in my small practical experience – the two cases I have just mentioned – both were scheduled for surgery within a month of diagnosis. So perhaps the long wait is for particular operations such as heart or brain surgery.
Thank you very much for a very interesting article UCG! Quite the horror story. I've heard quite a few about the US over the years from people I know too. I think one of the BBC's former America correspondent gave an interview to the Beeb as he was leaving America a few years back (MAtt Frei?) and was asked what were the best and worst things about living there. The worst was certainly healthcare.yalensis , November 28, 2017 at 3:21 amI've also read that healthcare costs for the self-employed, independents, freelancers can also be crushing in the land of the free where everyone can become rich. Has this changed? I would have thought that those were the ideal Americans, making it off their own back, but apparently not.
There's also another issue that is not addressed: an ageing population. This is a very current theme and it is now not at all unusual for people to live another 30 odd years after retirement. Now how on earth will such people manage their healthcare for such a period? Will they have to hock absolutely everything they have? America is already at war with itself (hence the utmost need to for foreign enemies), but nothing is getting done. Just more of the same. Meanwhile the Brits are trying to copy the US through stealth privatization of their health system. It might work as well as privatizing its rail service
Thanks for an interesting post, UCG. Hopefully this will stimulate some ideas on how to fix the American healthcare system, which seems to be badly broken.Patient Observer , November 28, 2017 at 4:34 amBroken for us but working perfectly for Big Pharma and insurance companies. That is a fundamental reason why it will be extremely difficult to "fix" because it ain't broken as a money making machine.yalensis , November 28, 2017 at 1:25 pmTrue. And the insurance companies, in particular, have been really raking it in, especially with Obamacare and the various Medicare Advantage options.Ryan Ward , November 28, 2017 at 3:40 amWith health care in general, there's a bit of a trade-off. The most cost-efficient systems, like the system in Sweden for example, are fairly regimented and don't leave much room for individual choice (unless someone pays out of pocket for treatment completely outside the public system). On the other hand, systems that give people a little more choice, like the system in Germany, tend to be a little on the pricey side. I think, given American political culture, something along the lines of the German model is much more likely to attract widespread public support. In any case, it's still cheaper than the American system, and achieves some of the best results in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_GermanyPatient Observer , November 28, 2017 at 5:03 pmQuite different from my expectation of spartan if not rudimentary medical care and overworked staff in a small Russian town. The blog on schools was interesting as well. Given where Russia was in the 90's compared to now, it is easy to understand the strong popular support for the government and Putin in particular.Moscow Exile , November 28, 2017 at 5:18 amOff topic but just saw a 2-3 minute piece on CBS news (a very long story for an American national news show) about a Russian woman (former Playboy "model') who is challenging Putin. The reporter assured us the if she became too popular, Putin would never allow her to win. The last time Russia was allowed to protest, according to the reported was back in 2011 where the masses were demanding change. The implication being that a subsequent crackdown has suppressed further protest.
The piece showed her speaking to a group (the camera view was such that is was impossible to determine the audience size but it had to be at least 10 and possibly up to 30 people). The reporter also speculated that the woman coud be a Kremlin plant to create a fake opposition. Just a mishmash of a story all in all.
re: Health Care in RussiaMoscow Exile , November 28, 2017 at 9:49 amSpeaking as someone who has been hospitalized 3 times in Russia and still live to talk about, I have no complaints.
In the twilight years of the USSR everything was deficit, including medicine, and the hospitals were often dilapidated, understaffed and lacking modern equipment. It was socialized medicine, of course, but you only got the basics for "free". They would not let you die, but if you wanted any "extras", you had to pay or provide "gifts" to the staff. The doctors were and still are good, but were grossly underpaid.
I was first in hospital here, in isolation because I had diphtheria, in 1993. They saved me. I thought my number was up. When I was recovering, a nurse asked me when my wife would visit me.
"I have no wife."
"Your friends, then?"
"No friends. I only arrived here 3 weeks ago."
"You're going to be hungry!"
Our first child was born in 1999. The maternity wing of Moscow Hospital №1, opened 1837, was nightmarish. I paid the anaesthetist so that he could ensure that my wife did not suffer during her labour: it was a long, slow painful birth.
Our last child was born in 2008: brand new hospital; my wife had her own room; everything state-of the-art. I paid nothing. My wife came out healthy with a healthy baby. I gave the obstetrician a "present" after delivery.
A bribe? Not in my opinion: just a token of gratitude for a job well done.
I broke my left collarbone at the dacha that same year. I was in a village/small town (Ruza) hospital. It was only 2-years old. There were problems because I have broken both collarbones before. Anyway, the orthopaedic surgeon did a good job, and I didn't pay anything: emergency treatment is free for British citizens, likewise Russians in the UK. A remnant of when the UK and the USSR were glorious allies against the Beast.
I have also had varicose veins removed. Only 2 days in hospital. A job well done. I gave the surgeon a present. He didn't ask me for one, but I thought it was right that I do so.
There have been great improvements in treatment and medical technology here. And the doctors and nursing staff are well trained and competent.
Not perfect -- nothing is -- but more than satisfactory.
Yes, you do hear horror stories, as you do about the British National health Service, but all in all, satisfactory.
And there is a private health system now financed by private insurance.
And I have had dental treatment here "on the state": no complaints -- and "free", paid by taxation.
An old Russian colleague of mine has lived in Germany many years now, but he comes back to Moscow to see an orthodontist.
"They are just as good as in Germany, sometimes have even trained there, and much, much cheaper", he says.
PS I paid the anaesthetist so he could get the best stuff to help a woman in labour and was unavailable on the state health service. I forget what it was called now: some German manufactured stuff, I suppose.Patient Observer , November 28, 2017 at 3:56 pmMy wife said it was the norm in Romania to provide small gifts to bureaucrats – too small to be considered a bribe but a necessary gesture of appreciation. Its not entirely different from the custom of bringing a small gift when visiting friends (bottle of wine, flowers, box of chocolate, etc.).marknesop , November 28, 2017 at 4:37 pmVery much so; I'm sure I mentioned before the controversy surrounding my marriage in Russia; the waiting period that must follow an application to marry is 30 days (I guess this is a period during which anyone opposing the marriage may make their case), while a tourist visa is also for a maximum of 30 days. Therefore, I could not legally remain in Russia long enough to get married. Sveta was very matter-of-fact about it; we would just, she said, announce that she was pregnant, which is one of the exceptional conditions which will override the waiting period.Patient Observer , November 28, 2017 at 5:10 pmI said she would never get a doctor to sign a certificate that she was pregnant if she was not. Within a week she had her choice of three. We gave the doctor who furnished the certificate some flowers and a box of chocolates. I never considered it a bribe, and still do not, and the gift followed the act. We would have gotten the certificate anyway.
I notice that Russians typically take such a gift with them whenever they visit friends; Ukrainians do, too. They never arrive empty-handed, and it seems much more a ritualized courtesy.
It seem odds to me how Russia or Romania can be stifling bureaucratic (as ME can attest) yet rules will often be bent with hardly a blink to facilitate a reasonable request.Cortes , November 28, 2017 at 1:42 pmAn interesting article. Thanks.My tuppenceworth?
The healthcare system in a country probably reflects the dominant elements in said country's culture. Our family's longtime GP was a buffoon. In my interactions with him his enthusiastic "hands-on" gung-ho approach caused several problems, not least when I visited him to get a "line" certifying I was unfit for work a week after a total hip replacement operation (he insisted on examining the wound and re-dressing it with a dressing whose adhesive I had been tested for in hospital and deemed allergic to it; fun and games, anxiety and discomfort ).
Nevertheless he made an immediate decision to admit a close relative of mine for surgery on the basis of his examination of her.
In my case I could have "sued his ass."
And then? A couple of years later?
June 30, 2021 | www.lifesitenews.com
At an event hosted by a U.S. senator, a mother cried as she recounted how the Pfizer experimental coronavirus vaccine left her previously healthy, active 12-year-old daughter in a wheelchair.
On Monday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) hosted a news conference to discuss adverse reactions related to COVID-19 vaccines. Stephanie de Garay tearfully explained that her 12-year-old daughter, Maddie, is now wheelchair-bound after volunteering to take the Pfizer vaccine as part of the vaccine trial.
Since receiving the injection, Maddie has been to the emergency room nine times and hospitalized three times for two months.
Maddie and her parents were excited for her to participate in the vaccine trial, as they identify as "pro-vaccine and pro-science." However, after receiving her second dose of the Pfizer vaccine on January 20, Maddie immediately experienced pain in her arm where she had been vaccinated. Within the next 24 hours, she developed severe abdominal and chest pain. Maddie told her mother that she felt "like my heart is being ripped out through my neck" as she experienced painful electrical shocks down her neck and spine, forcing her to hunch over to walk.
At the instruction of the vaccine trial nurse administrator, Maddie's parents took her to the ER, where her labs were taken and she was tested for appendicitis, given an IV with medicine, and then sent home. She was diagnosed with "adverse effect of vaccine initial encounter."
Over the next 2 1/2 months, Maddie's mother said her abdominal, muscle, and nerve pain became unbearable. Maddie suffered from gastroparesis, nausea and vomiting, erratic blood pressure, memory loss, brain fog, headaches, dizziness, fainting, seizures, verbal and motor tics, menstrual cycle issues, lost feeling from the waist down, lost bowel and bladder control, and she had a nasogastric tube placed because she lost the ability to eat.
"Why is she not back to normal? She was totally fine before this," said Stephanie de Garay, Maddie's mother. Maddie had volunteered for the Pfizer vaccine trial "to help everyone else and they're not helping here. Before Maddie got her final dose of the vaccine, she was healthy, got straight As, had lots of friends and had a life."
Some doctors attempted to attribute her neurological condition to anxiety and tried to send Maddie to a mental hospital. This caused her parents to seek aid from other sources. They met others suffering from similar adverse vaccine reactions who connected them with competent medical professionals.
"All we want is for Maddie to be seen, heard, and believed because she has not been. And we want her to get the care that she desperately needs, so she can go back to normal," said de Garay.
LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here.
Jul 01, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
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NAV 3 hours agoRealism 2 hours agoAnd here is one of Fauci's vaccinated - and no one cares except to suggest that this young girl be put in a facility for mental patients...
Mother weeps as she tells senator how Pfizer shot left her daughter wheelchair-bound
'Before Maddie got her final dose of the vaccine, she was healthy, got straight As, had lots of friends and had a life.'
Not Your Father's ZH 2 hours ago"Maddie and her parents were excited for her to participate in the vaccine trial, as they identify as "pro-vaccine and pro-science."
If this is true, who in the world would be excited to let their children participate in a medical experiment, they are the problem and now her child is paying the price
Brushy 57 minutes agoMom-of-3 'Excited About Getting Vaccine' Dies From Blood Clot in Brain Following Astrazeneca Jab
She needed some excitement in her life. Now she doesn't.
Sparehead 1 hour ago"How can Fauci claim you are at considerable risk if not vaccinated"
Its called lying.
Considerable ~ 0.01% risk
Jul 01, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
Hipneck911 11 minutes ago
Hipneck911 10 minutes ago... NSW Health - Covid PCR tests at 40 cycles, double the ...
← Craig Kelly MP a true Australian hero warns there could have been 50,000 deaths from Covid vax. NSW Health - Covid PCR tests at 40 cycles , double the recommended rate yielding 80 per cent false positives* Jun 28. Posted by Editor, cairnsnews. Letter to the Editor.
You gutless losers sure do like lying:
Up to 90 percent of people tested for COVID-19 in Massachusetts, New York and Nevada in July carried barely any traces of the virus and it could be because today's tests are 'too sensitive', experts say.
... PCR tests analyze genetic matter from the virus in cycles and today's tests typically take 37 or 40 cycles, but experts say this is too high because it detects very small amounts of the virus that don't pose a risk.
Experts say a reasonable cutoff for the virus would be 30 or 35 cycles, according to Juliet Morrison, a virologist at the University of California, Riverside.
Mina said he would set the cutoff at 30.
New York's state lab Wadsworth analyzed cycle thresholds values in already processed COVID-19 PCR tests and found in July that 794 positive tests were based on a threshold of 40 cycles.
With a cutoff of 35, about half of those tests would no longer qualify as positive. About 70 percent would no longer be judged positive if the cycles were limited to 30.
In Massachusetts, from 85 to 90 percent of people who tested positive in July with a cycle threshold of 40 would have been considered negative if the threshold were 30 cycles, Mina said.
Aug 30, 2020 | www.msn.com
Marlene Lenthang For Dailymail.com 8/30/2020
Up to 90 percent of people tested for COVID-19 in Massachusetts, New York and Nevada in July carried barely any traces of the virus and it could be because today's tests are 'too sensitive', experts say.
... PCR tests analyze genetic matter from the virus in cycles and today's tests typically take 37 or 40 cycles, but experts say this is too high because it detects very small amounts of the virus that don't pose a risk.
... ... ...
Experts say a reasonable cutoff for the virus would be 30 or 35 cycles, according to Juliet Morrison, a virologist at the University of California, Riverside.
Mina said he would set the cutoff at 30.
New York's state lab Wadsworth analyzed cycle thresholds values in already processed COVID-19 PCR tests and found in July that 794 positive tests were based on a threshold of 40 cycles.
With a cutoff of 35, about half of those tests would no longer qualify as positive. About 70 percent would no longer be judged positive if the cycles were limited to 30.
In Massachusetts, from 85 to 90 percent of people who tested positive in July with a cycle threshold of 40 would have been considered negative if the threshold were 30 cycles, Mina said.
'I would say that none of those people should be contact-traced, not one,' he said.
The Food and Drug Administration said that it does not specify the cycle threshold ranges used to determine who is positive and 'commercial manufacturers and laboratories set their own.'
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is examining the use of cycle threshold measures for 'policy decision'.
The CDC said its own calculations suggest its extremely hard to detect a live virus in a sample above a threshold of 33 cycles.
It's just kind of mind-blowing to me that people are not recording the C.T. values from all these tests -- that they're just returning a positive or a negative,' Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York, said.
Jul 01, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
America's favourite Chinese lab funding coronavirus doomonger doctor Anthony Fauci announced Tuesday that there are now two Americas, a vaccinated America and an unvaccinated America.
As Senator Rand Paul noted earlier this week , there is a boat load of misinformation on the matter coming from a government that is indiscriminately pushing vaccinations:
Rand Paul TEARS Into Senate Witness for Indiscriminately Pushing Vaccines
SexyJulian 3 hours agoliberty2 1 hour ago (Edited)There are now two Americas. One that's retarded. And one that wants Fauci on a lamppost.
Ride_the_kali_yuga 3 hours ago (Edited)Note that the officials said there's no such thing as "herd immunity" last year. Now this year they keep saying that we can reach "herd immunity" if we are 70% vaxxed! Terms are used if it fits their narrative.
NIRP-BTFD 1 hour agoIn the Covidian Cult, there is true believers in one side and heretics on the other side. Vaxxed and unvaxxed.
Divide and rule strategy, as always. Do not undurestimate the ratio of retarded people among the population, it has been growing like a cancer for decades. It amazes me how perfectly coordinated those MSM Covidian propaganda events appears worldwide.
In here France, 2 days ago, most MSM have all simultaneously gone full berserk (without any reason) blaming the reluctant ones. One of them on TV said something like : "if it was me, i will use police to drag those who refuse these "vaccines" from their home and force it on them"
This was priceless, this little man has morbid obesity. We now officialy all live on the twilight zone on steroids. Land whales dictate how people should consider their own health. This ride seems to never end.
We now have officialy entered the dehumanization phase of the unvaxxed. The sanitary gulag is not far from here.
DemandSider 1 hour agoThere are 2 Americas. The 0.01% (the rulers that own everything) and the serfs.
Exactly, parasite and host. Fauci would be the former, obviously.
Jun 30, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
E5 11 hours ago remove linkBacon's Rebellion 9 hours ago (Edited) remove linkUncomfortable Truths democrats don't have in their tool kit:
1) Flu is still down 98% and would normally account for a large percentage of the covid deaths.
2) 20% more babies were born in 1946 than in 1945. Deaths are increasing but not that much. This is accounts for the rest of the covid deaths.
3) Coronavirus' are among the highest mutating virus types and can not be eliminated by vaccine.
4) If the COVID symptoms arise from SARS-CoV-2 which came from bats and pangolins: then vaccinating Humans will have zero effect in eliminating the virus.
5) COVID is a set of symptoms not a virus. The virus is called SARS. This is a relationship like how AIDS is the symptom set that arises out of HIV. To talk about a vaccine for COVID as a medical professional is malpractice.
6) 50% of the people getting the "delta" variant are previously vaccinated. In clinical terms that means the vaccine experimental trial has failed.
If you still believe in mandating masks and vaccines then you are a fascist or your IQ is too low and should give up your right to vote.
truth or go home 10 hours ago remove link//////////////////////////////////////////////
The Delta Variant in the UK
//////////////////////////////////////////////June 25 th , 2021 - Public Health England
Summary:
Higher rates of "cases" for the "unvaccinated" with higher rates of hospitalizations and DEATHS for the "fully vaccinated" .Cases:
7,235 "Fully Vaccinated"
53,822 "Unvaccinated"Overnight Hospitalization required:
1.11% of the "Fully Vaccinated"
0.89% of the "Unvaccinated"Deaths:
50 were "Fully Vaccinated" = 0.69% died
38 were "Unvaccinated" = 0.07% diedDeath rate was 9.86 times higher for the vaccinated!
IF - 53,822 "Unvaccinated" cases = 38 deaths
Will - 53,822 "Vaccinated" cases = 375 deaths?
Will - the 142,000,000 "Fully Vaccinated" people in the USA suffer 979,800 Delta variant Deaths?(Link downloads a PDF | SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern)
Nathan Hale PREMIUM 10 hours agoThese are interesting facts. Some comments:
1. Flu deaths have been greatly exaggerated in recent years in order to push the flu vaccine. Just like Covid, they changed the definition of flu to count more deaths, so they could push the vaccine. Most of them are general respiratory deaths that can be/were reclassified to Covid.
2. There was a baby boom in 1946 and that was 75 years ago, so we should start seeing an acceleration from that about now, but there also has been massive population growth since then, so the effect will be muted.
3. I don't claim to understand virology, but if these things mutate so fast, they likely get less virulent rather than more. It certainly calls into question the entire vaccine program.
4. Vaxx the bats... I thought many of them died off from their own virus a few years ago, but I saw millions of them fly out from under a bridge in Austin a couple years ago.
6. This is logic beyond the understanding level of the idiot media folks - they would never be able to ask the question.
Bacon's Rebellion 8 hours ago (Edited) remove linkIt was a fungal infection that was/is killing bats in the US, for the record
Sigh. 11 hours ago remove linkImagine the clusterphuek in the court system if these vaccines are connected with miscarriages...lawyers are salivating...your employer coerced you into vaccination...your baby died inside you...geesh...how anyone could take that chance!
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
An experiment on "millions of people"
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////Angela Merkel: All of these vaccines are conditionally approved. In the course of this conditional approval, we are gaining experience for the first time on what happens if this vaccine is used on millions of people? ...In the phase of the conditional approval of such a vaccine is then very closely monitored - that is why everything is monitored so specifically - what side effects can happen or what cases or what certain things can occur.
Loads in German - Use Chrome to read in English: Angela Merkel:
aegis551 11 hours ago (Edited) remove linkThe Delta Strain is supposedly more fearful and deadly and contagious than the 'original' product, why, exactly?
Where are the studies comparing the relative efficacy and methodology of the vectors? You recall the diagrams, the sneeze in one aisle of a supermarket, the blue haze covering three aisles? Is the Delta Strain so contagious it now goes seven aisles?
Instead of the diagram of the beachgoer getting virus'd from the airborne particulates from someone sneezing on a surfboard, are the viruses now coming in from further offshore, the oil rig 40 miles out?
Instead of just old people, who are easily infected with everything that comes along, now we must fear that kids and teens are susceptible? (Perhaps that's because they've worn masks for so long they aren't getting 'natural' immunological defenses?)
This is just another worldwide scare tactic designed to keep the masks on and the economy slowed. Look to the "Climate Change" set and the "One World Government" set for reasons why we're facing these "new" strains.
pods 10 hours ago remove linkCDC says we have nothing to worry about. Covid will never get here.
CDC says we have the ability to defeat this thing they said would never get here.
CDC says dont worry you dont need to wear masks. Because they wont protect you from the virus.
CDC says some anti-viral medications may work. CDC corrects itself 24hrs later and says only a vaccine can save us. Dr Fauci admits he and his family have been taking hydroxychloroquine since the pandemic began. Even though they dont work.
CDC mandates everyone to wear masks because they will stop the spread.
CDC says we need to lock down for 2 weeks to stop the spread. CDC then mandates lockdowns in perpetuity.
CDC says, etc, etc...
Why the hell is anyone listening to the CDC?
Brushy 10 hours ago remove linkUsually for any scam if you look under the cover you will find the hand of government.
Ex. Pfizer has a vested interest of to keep their shots on the market. Profit motive and to repay their development costs for their mRNA shots. Clinical trials are not cheap.
Pfizer will use contacts to nudge policy in a direction that benefits them. Doesnt have to be evil, their job is to make stuff and sell it.
Why is Pfizer (could really be any of them) in this position? Because there was a government policy to rush a product to market, Operation Warp Speed.
If that policy was never enacted none of these companies would have undertaken the development of these shots with the resources they did. It would merely be pinheads doing animal studies still at this point because a typical vaccine takes a decade to develop, and mRNA has not been proven safe, so it would take longer to prove safety in target populations, including mutagenic/teratagenic studies.
So really it was a government policy that landed us where we are at now. This is not a political statement. No left/right BS is intended. Just a deductive theory of how the world works, at a level above the left/right pigpen.
FrankDrakman 10 hours ago remove linkRand Paul didnt tweet the most important part of that study;
Delta variant deaths;
117 total deaths
44 unvaccinated
23 single dose
50 fully vaccinated
Thats 73 deaths for those who have been fully or partially vaccinated vs only 44 deaths for the unvaxxed. Its looking more and more like the "Delta variant" is just code for vaccine injury.
Morse_Code 8 hours agoOn the one page of data shown, I calculated the following: (rounded)
Unvaxxed: 35,000/34 deaths ~= 1/1000
One shot < 21 days: 4,000/1 deaths ~= 1/4000
One shot > 21 days: 9,000/10 deaths ~= 1/900
Two shots > 14 days: 4,000/26 deaths = 1/150
The second shot's the killer!
RathdrumGal 10 hours agoThe virus is a poor excuse for the "Great Reset" into corporate fascism and to check out the "Chicken Little" theory of the 'Sky is Falling' social syndrome.
They have already convinced society that white people are bad, men are really women, we don't need police if they take our guns away and inflation is good, the U.S. is better because of illegal immigration and that Biden won.
I 100% agree. My career was spent in Critical Care nursing. I have seen people die and I have seen what torture comes from a fear of death. I am much more afraid of a vancomycin resistant enterococcus than COVID. Two days ago I was jet boating in Hell's Canyon in 117 degree heat. It was red neck heaven, no one on our boat was masked. We stopped for lunch on the way home in a college town. So many young healthy looking people wearing masks, with their young children masked! They can't all be on chemo, and I assume if they are that afraid of COVID they have been vaccinated. What gives?
Jun 30, 2021 | citizenfreepress.com
linkTwelve year-old Maddie was enrolled in the Pfizer vaccine clinical trial. She's now in a wheelchair, has an NG tube, and is suffering from severe memory loss, along with many other issues.
nobodyI am SO sorry for this girl. She relied on her parents, their job, to protect their minor children. They failed.
I am very sorry for what's happened, but lady that is exactly what you get by disregarding your fellow citizens &
relying on the government for your truth. Its been obvious to all those with open minds, that this entire pandemic is
a huge scam, the worst scam in human history. The old saying comes to mind, "and if the government told you to go jump
off the roof, would you?" Sadly leftists answer, "how many times?" KarenThe only way I would I "consider" allowing my child to sign up to be a guinea pig in any clinical trial is if they had a life threating incurable disease and the trial was specific to their disease & participation was a "chance" to save their life. I worked in a clinical trial office, you agree to being the guinea pig when you agree that you will never know if you're injected with
1. a placebo OR
2. the "drug" its self.
You're also informed in advance of how many visits (minimal # of visits) the trial will require of you to fully participate as it usually requires regularly scheduled bi weekly or monthly visits. It's in a office setting & your mandated to keep the doctor informed of everything, even an emergency, because theres a written script "behind the scenes" of what to do along the way if "this" or "that" happens. That way you collect better data of adverse reactions. Plus there are the very important (to the medical side anyway) non disclosure agreements.
I noticed here it seems the family reached out to "emercency" facilities when things started going wrong.
Are these "trials" being conducted standard procedure or not. MAJOR DANGERWhat sort of parent would give their kid an untested, un-needed vaccine? There is NO excuse. None. Zero. Mother should be in tears. 100% well deserved.
Deplored
" in healthcare" means nothing anymore. I've been in healthcare for 25 years and it blows my mind how many 500,000$ plus educations lined up for the "vax" AND do not know the simple definition of a vaccine. I watched 1st hand as practically overnight medicine went from being science based to political weapon. We used to have to have an evidence based system where doctors would look at the published studies and make decisions based on the best info available. That's all gone now. You can't even trust the medical journals anymore that at one time were the pinnacles of scientific medical discovery. The hospital I've worked in for 25 years is going to mandate the vax as soon as the FDA approves it,which means I'm out. 15% of us are unvaxed and they have plans to get rid of us. The medical tyranny STARTED w the mandating of the flu shot years ago for HC workers and now it's covid. It's not going to end ,just wait til the next shit show released on us. Next time they will have the ballz to say ur locked in ur home until u comply. Then when u can't pay ur property taxes because u cant leave the house to work u find out who actually owns ur home. Peetoonya
The US "Healthcare" INDUSTRY ranks 37th in the world. John Hopkins put out a report that the 3rd leading cause of death is going to your doctor and doing what he/she says! I remember in the 90's they ran off or bought out most of the private practices especially in the rural areas with malpractice claims if they didn't sell out. But these days you can make up to $50,000 a year just sending people the bill for your inflicted genocide. Medical Billing Specialist Salary in the United States https://www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/medical-billing-specialist-salary All the cowardly doctors will do as they are told for fear of losing their license. PS The profession that has the highest rate of suicide is Doctors! I haven't been to a doctor in 21 years. Riseliberty
This is not a vaccine. Do you understand? It is experimental gene therapy. You cannot compare this with any FDA approved vaccine you've had in the past. Hehe62
Before watching one clip I suggest you watch the entire press conference. ALL of the participants explained they are pro science and pro vaccine up front.
They have been harmed-most likely permanently by this *vaccine* and as you can see by the twitter disclaimer they have been silenced, told they are suffering from anxiety versus a vaccine side effect and our medical community has done NOTHING to follow up on what is going on.As an NP who has been thrust into covid from the get go I now daily see covid 19 vaccine injuries albeit less than those suffered from these victims; depending on how you see it.
Type 1 diabetes in a perfectly healthy 16 year old athletic boy with healthy family members now requiring insulin for the rest of his life-happened right after 2nd pfizer. Tons of shingles and herpes viruses, and regular colds that have taken out staff members for 3-4 weeks versus 2-3 days in the past.
As an NP that started in the military and has all vaccines and vaccinated all my children and seeing and living in the medical community throughout this I personally will NEVER get another vaccine the government suggests or requires ever again. I will NEVER go see a mainstream medical provider ever again unless I'm taken against my will or knowledge.
Sure, tons of people have gotten the vax without issue, but YOU are the phase III clinical trial for this thing, it has only been about 6 months. Long term effects who knows. I have a feeling it isn't going to get better. And the fact that these people have been completely silenced, questioned, and "debunked" by mainstream media and the public as a whole that suddenly seems to have 100% confidence in their government???? is EXTREMELY concerning. Ron
God bless Maddie and her family. For context, I'd like to know how many children have had the Pfizer vaccine without serious side effects. We shouldn't fall into the left wing tactics of using anecdotal emotional cases to distort reality to make a larger point. The fact is that vaccines have saved millions of lives and prevented millions of crippling side effects from polio, smallpox, yellow fever, mumps, measles, hepatitis, HPV . Regretfully, some of the vaccinated have suffered side effects, but the benefit greatly outweighs the risk. JedWSmith
For perspective, this "vaccine" has caused more deaths than all the other vaccines given over the last century. Maybe caution is warranted. This little child had an almost ZERO chance of any complications from the China virus. There's ZERO reason for someone who's had the China virus and recovered, having natural antibodies, to get the vaccine. The therapeutics work. They were demonized only because a sitting president, hated by the fake media, big pharma, and the DC deep state, promoted them. Dillard
Offering up your child for experiments, was it for $$$$$$$?
Remember the Canadian govt with pop up vaccination sites offering children ice cream if they got the jab, and they did it WITHOUT PARENTS CONSENT? Think about that one. The govt rolls up and opens a vaccine tent near your home, your child sees FREE ICE CREAM and goes to get free ice cream and gets injected without your knowledge. That is some real evil there. William Walker
I'm terribly sorry for the young girl, but I'm inflamed with anger that the stupid parents put not one, but THREE children through clinical trials giving them the vaccine–all the while touting the science (oh, the science!) which completely contradicts the claims that young people are in any way threatened by Covid as a demographic. This is tragic, this is moronic liberalism, and this is a direct result of the parents swilling all the false idiocy from CNN and MSNBC without questioning the actual empirical data and science. PALydia
"Trials" are done to determine outcome. The word "trial" is synonymous with the word "experiment." I.e. you are playing Russian Roulette when you enroll your child in ANY trial. That IS science. You should NEVER assume something is safe and harmless when it is still in "trial" phase .never mind these vaccines bypassed animal trials and all previous mRNA vaccines failed animal trials. My heart breaks for this child but it's criminal for any parent to subject their child to this. LiberalsRPinworms
Was waiting for the "but we still think you should vaccinate your kids too "
I find it interesting that all these cult members keep saying they're pro science. However, scientific experiments are based on hypotheses, not already known facts. Why is she upset? Her kid wanted to provide data to this experiment and did just that. Too bad she wasn't an outlier considering, if she were, she could probably still eat food on her own. Thanks for your contribution to the science folks! navi282
I am very sorry about what has happened to Maddie, but the responsibility lies with the parents who believe in the false religion of "scientism" and have opted into the con-game that vaccinations are genuine healing methodologies. As an engineer Maddie's mother should have studied logic and the philosophy of science and then discerned that the politicization of the medical field in recent years created confirmation bias, poor SPC (statistical process control), and question-begging fallacies from those who should have known better. Complicity or Ignorance -- take your pick. Matt Walters
Being pro-science means you base decisions on data. There is not yet a data set for the short and long-term risks, benefits, and side effects of this vaccine that would allow a science-based decision to take it or not. Those who are pro science wait for reliable data before considering taking an experimental vaccine that is not approved by the FDA. constitution rules
For USA children ages 5 to 18:
Population: ~57,000,000
Covid deaths: 263
Chance: < 1 in 200,000 Para BellumI notice a common trend among these child abuser parents .they go online to complain how their kids were maimed by the experimental mRNA, but then they always have to preface it by saying "oh but we're pro vaccine and pro science"
Well, I am anti-vaccine and I'm anti-mRNA. Have some conviction you retard. No wonder you find yourselves in the position you're in.
I sincerely feel bad for your kids. You stole their lives from them and they will never be the same and while the fallen man part of me wants to say "just deserts", the Catholic part of me prays the rosary for you and your kids every single night. solome
' .we are pro-vaccine and pro-science'
.these parents make a great case that academia does not necessarily convey common sense it can convey a buttload of chutzpah ..we know that because Washington DC is full of it excessive hubris, too and, in turn, they can make decisions that prove disastrous for the future of We the People Christina
This is a terrible tragedy for this family. I hope this beautiful young girl will eventualy recover fully. I hope her parents will recover as well.
As for her parents, however, who are obviously very intelligent, did they miss the reams and reams of scientific studies, white papers, and patent applications available to the public before they permitted their child to get this not yet approved, experimental gene therapy injection?
Did they not watch the hours and hours of video interviews and presentations by doctors, virologists, epidemiologists, etc., who warned, warned, warned us to NOT TAKE IT?
Even after big tech started censoring and scrubbing most of this information off the net and everywhere else, even before the massive pro-vax propaganda machine cranked up, millions of people informed themselves about what it really is and thus decided to not be part of the human trials.
Most of us had our flu shots and regular real vaccines as well, real vaccines are not the issue, here.
I'm really sorry to tell you this, Mom, but you either ignored the real science or you, too, were caught up in the propaganda that caused so many people to automatically reject any thing people on the other side of the debate had to say.
One more red flag when it comes to politics and propaganda: DID YOU NOT QUESTION WHY SO MANY MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS WHO TRIED TO WARN US HAD THEIR INFORMATION SCRUBBED, CENSORED, LOST THEIR JOBS, AND RECEIVED DEATH THREATS SIMPLY FOR DOING DUE DILIGENCE AND ENGAGING IN THE ALWAYS REQUIRED DEBATES AMONG MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS BEFORE APPROVING VACCINES? AND THEN WARNING THE PUBLIC BEFORE THE POLITIAL CAMPAIGN BEGAN.
This is a very, very sad day in America. It's a very, very sad day for this family.
But maybe other parents will think twice, now, before they sign their children up for potentailly horrific experiences related to the gene therapy injections. Maria
So sad. I feel sorry for the girl. But parents are volunteering much young children.
Look at this:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/3-siblings-get-pfizers-covid-19-vaccine-as-part-of-global-trials-in-young-children/ar-AALjHd5 President Donald J. Trumper"Twelve year-old Maddie was enrolled in the Pfizer vaccine clinical trial."
The complete blame belongs on the parents. The tearful mother, an electrical engineer, said she and her husband were pro-vaccine. If they were so smart, why in the hell would they enroll their CHILD in a clinical trial for a fast-tracked vaccine, especially when children are not in a high-risk group, and Covid-19 survival is 99.8 percent? I am furious with these highly educated people. THEY WERE DUMBER THAN DOORKNOBS TO SACRIFICE THAT GIRL TO THE GOVERNMENT/PHARMA COMPLEX. Libby ChickenLittle
When I was a 12 year old girl, I didn't even know what a clinical trial was. But then again, I grew up at time when kids were allowed to be just kids and not political pawns by their brainwashed parents. Sorry mom – I know comments are going to be harsh – but you deserve EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. smith. jane smith.
Q. How does a government make a pro-vaccine person turn into an anti-vaccine person?
A. Give them a vaccine that makes them sicker than they were before they got the vaccine, sicker with the very thing the vaccine was supposed to prevent.
I was told to go get a flu shot by my commander. Being a good USAF airman, I did so. I was just a kid following orders. Two days later I was in the hospital, so sick with the flu until I could not take 4 steps without getting so dizzy that I had to stop moving to keep from throwing up. And it took 5 days before I was able to walk down a hallway without getting dizzy!
That was the last time I ever had a flu shot. Or the flu.
And that was over 35 years ago.
If the vaccine is such a good idea, then why does everybody have to get it in order for it to work?
How about those who get the vaccine just leave those alone who choose not to get it?
And after what has happened to this lady's kid(s) .
Why the heck is she still PRO‐vaccine ???? 58
I blame the Fauci, Government, and the MSM for brainwashing fear amongst the masses. If you are repeatedly gaslighted about almost every issue, you begin to believe the lies. You can add schools also as they indoctrinate instead of teaching critical thinking.
Jun 28, 2021 | www.msn.com
The US Food and Drug Administration added a warning about the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis to fact sheets for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines Friday.
The warning notes that reports of adverse events following vaccination -- particularly after the second dose -- suggest increased risks of both types of heart inflammation.
Earlier this week, vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention heard that the agency had received about 1,200 reports of such heart inflammation after 300 million doses of the two vaccines had been given.
Jun 28, 2021 | medicalxpress.com
in people who had been fully vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, levels of neutralising antibodies were more than five times lower against the B.1.617.2 variant when compared to the original strain, upon which current vaccines are based.
Importantly, this antibody response was even lower in people who had only received one dose. After a single dose of Pfizer-BioNTech, 79% of people had a quantifiable neutralising antibody response against the original strain, but this fell to 50% for B.1.1.7, 32% for B.1.617.2 and 25% for B.1.351.
While antibody levels decreased with age against all variants, no correlation was observed for sex or BMI.
Jun 28, 2021 | www.msn.com
More recently, there has been a Delta outbreak at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, with 16 patients and six staff infected. The majority experienced mild symptoms, though one required treatment in the intensive care unit. Of the 22, 11 had been fully vaccinated, while seven had one dose; all were given an mRNA vaccine, communications director Kerry Williamson of Alberta Health Services told Maclean's . (The province did not disclose whether the one admitted to ICU had been vaccinated.)
Jun 28, 2021 | nypost.com
An outbreak of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in Israel has spread to some vaccinated people -- with about half of the adults infected fully inoculated with the Pfizer shot, a health official said.
Jun 28, 2021 | www.cdc.gov
All About Your A1C Español (Spanish)What has your blood sugar been up to lately? Get an A1C test to find out your average levels -- important to know if you're at risk for prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, or if you're managing diabetes.
The A1C test -- also known as the hemoglobin A1C or HbA1c test -- is a simple blood test that measures your average blood sugar levels over the past 3 months. It's one of the commonly used tests to diagnose prediabetes and diabetes, and is also the main test to help you and your health care team manage your diabetes. Higher A1C levels are linked to diabetes complications, so reaching and maintaining your individual A1C goal is really important if you have diabetes. What Does the A1C Test Measure?
When sugar enters your bloodstream, it attaches to hemoglobin, a protein in your red blood cells. Everybody has some sugar attached to their hemoglobin, but people with higher blood sugar levels have more. The A1C test measures the percentage of your red blood cells that have sugar-coated hemoglobin. Who Should Get an A1C Test, and When?
Testing for diabetes or prediabetes:
Get a baseline A1C test if you're an adult over age 45 -- or if you're under 45, are overweight, and have one or more risk factors for prediabetes or type 2 diabetes:
- If your result is normal but you're over 45, have risk factors, or have ever had gestational diabetes, repeat the A1C test every 3 years.
- If your result shows you have prediabetes, talk to your doctor about taking steps now to improve your health and lower your risk for type 2 diabetes. Repeat the A1C test as often as your doctor recommends, usually every 1 to 2 years.
- If you don't have symptoms but your result shows you have prediabetes or diabetes, get a second test on a different day to confirm the result.
- If your test shows you have diabetes, ask your doctor to refer you to diabetes self-management education and support services so you can have the best start in managing your diabetes.
Managing diabetes :
If you have diabetes, get an A1C test at least twice a year, more often if your medicine changes or if you have other health conditions. Talk to your doctor about how often is right for you. How to Prepare for Your A1C TestThe test is done in a doctor's office or a lab using a sample of blood from a finger stick or from your arm. You don't need to do anything special to prepare for your A1C test. However, ask your doctor if other tests will be done at the same time and if you need to prepare for them. Your A1C Result
Diagnosing Prediabetes or Diabetes
Normal Below 5.7% Prediabetes 5.7% to 6.4% Diabetes 6.5% or above A normal A1C level is below 5.7%, a level of 5.7% to 6.4% indicates prediabetes, and a level of 6.5% or more indicates diabetes. Within the 5.7% to 6.4% prediabetes range, the higher your A1C, the greater your risk is for developing type 2 diabetes.
Managing Diabetes
Your A1C result can also be reported as estimated average glucose (eAG), the same numbers (mg/dL) you're used to seeing on your blood sugar meter:What Can Affect Your A1C Result?
A1C %
eAG mg/dL
7
154
8
183
9
212
10
240
Get your A1C tested in addition to -- not instead of -- regular blood sugar self-testing if you have diabetes.
Several factors can falsely increase or decrease your A1C result, including:
- Kidney failure, liver disease, or severe anemia.
- A less common type of hemoglobin that people of African, Mediterranean, or Southeast Asian descent and people with certain blood disorders (such as sickle cell anemia or thalassemia) may have.
- Certain medicines, including opioids and some HIV medications.
- Blood loss or blood transfusions.
- Early or late pregnancy.
Let your doctor know if any of these factors apply to you, and ask if you need additional tests to find out. Your A1C Goal
The goal for most people with diabetes is 7% or less. However, your personal goal will depend on many things such as your age and any other medical conditions. Work with your doctor to set your own individual A1C goal.
Younger people have more years with diabetes ahead, so their goal may be lower to reduce the risk of complications, unless they often have hypoglycemia (low blood sugar, or a "low"). People who are older, have severe lows, or have other serious health problems may have a higher goal. A1C: Just Part of the Toolkit
A1C is an important tool for managing diabetes, but it doesn't replace regular blood sugar testing at home. Blood sugar goes up and down throughout the day and night, which isn't captured by your A1C. Two people can have the same A1C, one with steady blood sugar levels and the other with high and low swings.
If you're reaching your A1C goal but having symptoms of highs or lows, check your blood sugar more often and at different times of day. Keep track and share the results with your doctor so you can make changes to your treatment plan if needed.
Jun 28, 2021 | nypost.com
An outbreak of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in Israel has spread to some vaccinated people -- with about half of the adults infected fully inoculated with the Pfizer shot, a health official said.
Ran Balicer, who heads a COVID-19 government advisory committee, said that about 90 percent of new infections in the country were likely caused by the Delta variant, a highly-contagious strain that first emerged in India, the Wall Street Journal reported .
"The entrance of the Delta variant has changed the transmission dynamics," Balicer said.
Children under the age of 16 -- the majority of whom had not received the vaccine -- were responsible for about half of the new cases, Balicer said.
But about half of adults infected in the outbreak were considered fully-vaccinated -- meaning that it had been at least two weeks since they received their final dose of the Pfizer shot, he said.
Balicer added that the so-called breakthrough cases were expected because though Pfizer is highly effective against the virus, it's not 100 percent protective.
The spread of the Delta variant comes as daily cases rose to 200 on Thursday from around 10 a day for most of June, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Though the outbreak is small by global standards, it has prompted the government to reimpose indoor mask mandates, the newspaper reported.
Health officials in the US have warned that the Delta variant will soon become the dominate strain of COVID-19.
But evidence has shown that the vaccine will prevent severe cases of the bug, as well as hospitalizations.
Jun 15, 2021 | arstechnica.com
"Right now, in the United States, [Delta accounts for] about 10 percent of infections. It's doubling every two weeks," Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said Sunday on Face the Nation . "So it's probably going to become the dominant strain here in the United States. That doesn't mean that we're going to see a sharp uptick in infections, but it does mean that this is going to take over. And I think the risk is really to the fall -- that this could spike a new epidemic heading into the fall."
Adding to the worry is new data that suggests Delta may also cause more severe disease -- in addition to spreading to more people. Early findings out of Scotland suggest infections with the Delta variant were associated with nearly double the risk of infected persons ending up hospitalized compared to infections with the Alpha variant. The data was published Monday as Correspondence in the Lancet . Experts say they'll need more data to confirm that risk.
The bright sideThe good news in all of this is that being fully vaccinated appears to protect against Delta. At the end of May, researchers at Public Health England posted data (which had not been peer-reviewed) indicating that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were 88 percent effective at preventing a symptomatic infection with the Delta variant . Meanwhile, the data said, two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were 60 percent effective. (Notably, just one shot of either vaccine was not protective, offering only 33 percent efficacy against symptomatic Delta infections. Experts emphasized the importance of not skipping the second dose.)
Data out of Scotland Monday likewise suggested that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were 79 percent effective against the Delta variant, while two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were again 60 percent effective.
Also on Monday, PHE released another analysis (also not peer-reviewed) that finds that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were 96 percent effective against hospitalization and two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were 92 percent effective against hospitalization.
"So we have the tools to control this and defeat it," Gottlieb noted.
Looming riskBut experts are still concerned. The pace of vaccination has slowed significantly in the US, and many states -- particularly in the South -- are far behind the goal of getting 70 percent of adults at least one vaccine. Pockets of low vaccination are fueling fears among experts, including Gottlieb, that cases could once again spike as Delta continues its spread.
Peter Hotez, director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, echoed that concern Tuesday. He told CNN that he is " extremely worried " about the Delta variant. He emphasized that right now is "crunch time" to get fully vaccinated -- which takes five to six weeks -- before Delta spreads further.
In a press briefing last week, top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci made a similar plea, pointing to the rapid spread of the Delta variant in the UK. " We cannot let that happen in the United States ," he said. This "is such a powerful argument... to get vaccinated."
Jun 26, 2021 | www.businessinsider.in
An Israeli receives a coronavirus vaccine in Tel Aviv, Israel, on January 6. Sebastian Scheiner/AP As many as half of new COVID-19 cases in Israel are vaccinated people, a health official suggested. The Delta variant, not as easily beaten by vaccines as other variants, is driving Israel's surge. The figure is likely an estimate, as the health ministry is still analyzing the cases. As Israel faces a surge in cases driven by the Delta variant, its health officials suggested that as many as half of new cases were among people who'd been vaccinated.
Fully vaccinated people who've come into contact with the Delta variant have no immunity and have to quarantine, Chezy Levy, the director-general of Israel's health ministry, said on Wednesday, Haaretz reported. Levy told the state broadcaster Kan Bet that about 40% to 50% of new cases appeared to be people who had been vaccinated, Haaretz reported.
He did not appear to specify a time frame for the new cases. The figure is likely an estimate, as the ministry is still analyzing the cases. On Monday, Levy said that a third of the new daily cases were people who had been vaccinated.
Jun 26, 2021 | news.yahoo.com
Cases of the Delta variant of coronavirus have almost doubled in a week with 73 people now confirmed to have died after testing positive for the variant, 26 of whom had had both vaccine doses.
Public Health England (PHE) said that as of Monday, the UK has seen 75,953 confirmed cases of the Delta variant first identified in India, up 33,630 - or 79% - from the previous week.
While just 26 people died more than two weeks after their second COVID-19 vaccine dose from the Delta variant, more than 30.6 million in the UK have had both jabs, according to the latest government figures .
PHE said a total of 806 people in England have been admitted to hospital with the Delta variant as of 14 June, a rise of 423 on the previous week.
Jun 26, 2021 | www.msn.com
Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson announced plans to hold a news conference to discuss adverse reactions related to the COVID-19 vaccine, drawing backlash from health care experts who view the move as "dangerous" and a way to promote misinformation.
© Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is facing backlash after he announced plans to hold a news conference to discuss the negative effects of the COVID-19 vaccine. Here, Johnson listens during a hearing in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on June 22, 2021 in Washington, DC.In a statement Friday, Johnson said he plans to give a platform to six people from across the country who claim to have had negative health reactions after receiving the coronavirus jab. Johnson said the conference will take place Monday to allow the individuals to tell their stories and discuss issues that have been "repeatedly ignored" by the medical community, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The Republican senator, who has been a vocal critic of vaccine mandates and has previously advocated for alternative and unproven drug treatments to COVID-19, faced immediate backlash from critics who feel the event will be a platform for spreading misinformation about the safety of vaccines.
Dr. Jeff Huebner, a doctor in Madison, Wisconsin, said that Johnson was "promoting dangerous and unfounded claims" about the vaccine that contradict medical research and analysis.
"As a member of the Wisconsin medical community I'm gravely concerned about the impact his event and remarks will have on our ability to return to normal and protect Wisconsinites from COVID-19.," Huebner said in a statement, the Journal Sentinel reported .
Joanna Bisgrove, a Wisconsin primary care doctor, told FOX6 that Johnson's statements and event are "putting people at risk and already hurting people."
Tony Evers, the state's Democratic governor, added Friday that Johnson was being "reckless and irresponsible" and said the event was "jeopardizing the health and safety" of the state's vaccine rollout and economic recovery.
.@SenRonJohnson, you're being reckless and irresponsible. The #COVID19 vaccine is safe and effective and based on years of science and research. Every time you suggest otherwise, you're jeopardizing the health and safety of the people of our state and our economic recovery.
-- Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) June 25, 2021In defense, Johnson said Friday that he is "just asking questions" and isn't against the vaccine.
"We're all supporters of vaccines. As I've repeatedly said, I'm glad that hundreds of millions of Americans have been vaccinated, but I don't think authorities can ignore and censor some of the issues," Johnson said in a tweet responding to Evers. "On Monday, we'll bring light to stories that deserve to be seen, heard & believed."
Monday's event in Milwaukee will include statements from former Green Bay Packers player Ken Ruettgers and his wife, Sheryl.
Johnson said Sheryl Ruettgers will detail "severe neurological reactions that still inhibit her ability to live a normal life, including muscle pain, numbness, weakness and paresthesia" that she experienced after getting the COVID-19 vaccine earlier this month.
Additional testimonies will be heard from individuals from Ohio, Missouri, Utah, Michigan and Tennessee.
The medical community has long stressed that the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine far outweigh the risks of possible side effects. Earlier this week, top U.S. health officials, medical agencies, laboratory and hospital associations issued a statement reiterating the benefits by stating that getting vaccinated is the "best way to protect yourself, your loved ones, your community, and to return to a more normal lifestyle safely and quickly."
Newsweek contacted Johnson for additional comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.
Newsweek, in partnership with NewsGuard, is dedicated to providing accurate and verifiable vaccine and health information. With NewsGuard's HealthGuard browser extension, users can verify if a website is a trustworthy source of health information. Visit the Newsweek VaxFacts website to learn more and to download the HealthGuard browser extension.
Related Articles
Jun 26, 2021 | www.wsj.com
Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $230 million to the state of New York to resolve an opioid lawsuit slated to go to trial Tuesday, as negotiations intensify with the company and three drug distributors to clinch a $26 billion settlement of thousands of other lawsuits blaming the pharmaceutical industry for the opioid crisis.
Johnson & Johnson's New York deal removes it from a coming trial on Long Island but not from the rest of the cases it faces nationwide, including a continuing trial in California. The New York settlement includes an additional $33 million in attorney fees and costs and calls for the drugmaker to no longer sell opioids nationwide, something Johnson & Johnson said it already stopped doing.
States have been trying to re-create with the opioid litigation what they accomplished with tobacco companies in the 1990s, when $206 billion in settlements flowed into state coffers. More than 3,000 counties, cities and other local governments have also pursued lawsuits over the opioid crisis, complicating talks that have dragged on since late 2019 and that have been slowed down by the Covid-19 pandemic.
... ... ...
Jun 25, 2021 | www.nytimes.com
How the Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Works
By Jonathan Corum and Carl Zimmer Updated May 7, 2021 Leer en español
The German company BioNTech partnered with Pfizer to develop and test a coronavirus vaccine known as BNT162b2 , the generic name tozinameran or the brand name Comirnaty . A clinical trial demonstrated that the vaccine has an efficacy rate of over 90 percent in preventing Covid-19.
Producing a batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine currently takes 60 days.
A Piece of the CoronavirusThe SARS-CoV-2 virus is studded with proteins that it uses to enter human cells. These so-called spike proteins make a tempting target for potential vaccines and treatments .
Spikes
Spike
protein
gene
CORONAVIRUS
Like the Moderna vaccine , the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is based on the virus's genetic instructions for building the spike protein.
mRNA Inside an Oily ShellThe vaccine uses messenger RNA, genetic material that our cells read to make proteins. The molecule" called mRNA for short "" is fragile and would be chopped to pieces by our natural enzymes if it were injected directly into the body. To protect their vaccine, Pfizer and BioNTech wrap the mRNA in oily bubbles made of lipid nanoparticles.
Lipid nanoparticles
surrounding mRNA
Because of their fragility, the mRNA molecules will quickly fall apart at room temperature. Pfizer is building special containers with dry ice, thermal sensors and GPS trackers to ensure the vaccines can be transported at ""94°F (""70°C) to stay viable.
Entering a CellAfter injection, the vaccine particles bump into cells and fuse to them, releasing mRNA. The cell's molecules read its sequence and build spike proteins. The mRNA from the vaccine is eventually destroyed by the cell, leaving no permanent trace.
VACCINE
PARTICLES
VACCINATED
CELL
Spike
protein
mRNA
Translating mRNA
Three spike
proteins combine
Spike
Cell
nucleus
Spikes
and protein
fragments
Displaying
spike protein
fragments
Protruding
spikes
Some of the spike proteins form spikes that migrate to the surface of the cell and stick out their tips. The vaccinated cells also break up some of the proteins into fragments, which they present on their surface. These protruding spikes and spike protein fragments can then be recognized by the immune system.
Spotting the IntruderWhen a vaccinated cell dies, the debris will contain many spike proteins and protein fragments, which can then be taken up by a type of immune cell called an antigen-presenting cell.
Debris from
a dead cell
Engulfing
a spike
ANTIGEN-
PRESENTING
CELL
Digesting
the proteins
Presenting a
spike protein
fragment
HELPER
T CELL
The cell presents fragments of the spike protein on its surface. When other cells called helper T cells detect these fragments, the helper T cells can raise the alarm and help marshal other immune cells to fight the infection.
Making AntibodiesOther immune cells, called B cells, may bump into the coronavirus spikes on the surface of vaccinated cells, or free-floating spike protein fragments. A few of the B cells may be able to lock onto the spike proteins. If these B cells are then activated by helper T cells, they will start to proliferate and pour out antibodies that target the spike protein.
HELPER
T CELL
Activating
the B cell
Matching
surface proteins
VACCINATED
CELL
B CELL
SECRETED
ANTIBODIES Stopping the Virus
The antibodies can latch onto coronavirus spikes, mark the virus for destruction and prevent infection by blocking the spikes from attaching to other cells.
ANTIBODIES
VIRUS Killing Infected Cells
The antigen-presenting cells can also activate another type of immune cell called a killer T cell to seek out and destroy any coronavirus-infected cells that display the spike protein fragments on their surfaces.
ANTIGEN-
PRESENTING
CELL
Presenting a
spike protein
fragment
ACTIVATED
KILLER
T CELL
INFECTED
CELL
Beginning
to kill the
infected cell Remembering the Virus
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires two injections, given 21 days apart, to prime the immune system well enough to fight off the coronavirus. But because the vaccine is so new, researchers don't know how long its protection might last.
First dose
0.3ml
Second dose
21 days later
A preliminary study found that the vaccine seems to offer strong protection about 10 days after the first dose , compared with people taking a placebo:
Cumulative incidence of Covid-19
among clinical trial participants
2.5%
2.0
People taking
a placebo
1.5
1.0
Second
dose
First
dose
People taking the
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
0.5
0
1
2
3
4
8
12
16
Weeks after the first dose
It's possible that in the months after vaccination, the number of antibodies and killer T cells will drop. But the immune system also contains special cells called memory B cells and memory T cells that might retain information about the coronavirus for years or even decades.
For more about the vaccine, see Pfizer's Covid Vaccine: 11 Things You Need to Know .
Preparation and InjectionEach vial of the vaccine contains 5 doses of 0.3 milliliters. The vaccine must be thawed before injection and diluted with saline. After dilution the vial must be used within six hours.
A diluted vial of the vaccine at Royal Free Hospital in London. Jack Hill/Agence France-Presse Vaccine TimelineJanuary, 2020 BioNTech begins work on a vaccine after Dr. Ugur Sahin, one of the company's founders, becomes convinced that the coronavirus will spread from China into a pandemic.
Dr. Ugur Sahin of BioNTech. BioNTechMarch BioNTech and Pfizer agree to collaborate.
May The companies launch a Phase 1/2 trial on two versions of a mRNA vaccine. One version, known as BNT162b2, had fewer side effects.
The first trial participant being vaccinated in Germany. BioNTechJuly 22 The Trump administration awards a $1.9 billion contract for 100 million doses to be delivered by December, with an option to acquire 500 million more doses, if the vaccine is authorized by the Food and Drug Administration.
July 27 The companies launch a Phase 2/3 trial with 30,000 volunteers in the United States and other countries, including Argentina, Brazil and Germany.
Sept. 12 Pfizer and BioNTech announce they will seek to expand their U.S. trial to 44,000 participants.
A vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Pool photo by Andy StenningNov. 9 Preliminary data indicates the Pfizer vaccine is over 90 percent effective , with no serious side effects. The final data from the trial shows the efficacy rate is 95 percent.
Nov. 20 Pfizer requests an emergency use authorization from the F.D.A.
Dec. 2 Britain gives emergency authorization to Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine, becoming the first Western country to give such an approval to a coronavirus vaccine.
Dec. 8 William Shakespeare , age 81, is among the first people to receive a shot of the vaccine in Britain, on the first day of vaccinations for at-risk health care workers and people over 80.
Dec. 9 Canada authorizes the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Dec. 10 Saudi Arabia approves the vaccine.
Dec. 11 The F.D.A. grants Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine the first emergency use authorization for a coronavirus vaccine in the United States. Mexico also approves the vaccine for emergency use.
Dec. 14 Vaccination begins in the United States.
Dec. 21 The European Union authorizes the vaccine.
Dec. 31 Pfizer expects to produce up to 50 million doses by the end of the year, and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021. Each vaccinated person will require two doses.
January, 2021 Scientists grow concerned about the emergence of fast-spreading variants that might be able to evade antibodies. Tests on a variant called P.1 , first identified in Brazil, show that Comirnaty will likely work against it as well . However, researchers find that antibodies produced by Comirnaty are somewhat less effective against another variant called B.1.351 , first identified in South Africa.
Feb. 15 Pfizer and BioNTech register a trial specifically for pregnant women.
Feb. 26 The companies announce a study to develop a B.1.351-specific booster.
April 16 Pfizer says their vaccine may require a third dose within a year of the initial inoculation, followed by annual vaccinations.
April 20 Some vaccinated people are professing loyalty to the brand they happened to have received.
April 25 Nearly 8 percent of Americans who got initial Pfizer or Moderna shots have missed their second doses .
April 28 Pfizer has delivered more than 150 million doses of the vaccine to the United States, and expects to double that number by mid-July.
May 7 Pfizer and BioNTech apply for full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Tracking t
Sources: National Center for Biotechnology Information; Nature; Florian Krammer, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Jun 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
The comments were made on Sky News by Special Envoy on Covid for the World Health Organisation (WHO). Dr David Nabarro.
Nabarro suggested that there would be a long list of mutations of the Indian variant which would in some cases evade the protection offered by vaccines.
"We will go from Delta to Lambda and then on to the other Greek letters, that's inevitable, and some of these variants will be troublesome," he said.
"I'm basically saying variants are going to go on coming. That's part of life, we need to pick them up fast, we need to move quickly if we see them in a certain location, we need to build the management of variants into what we call our Covid-ready strategy, which is going to be the pattern for the foreseeable future," he added.
According to Nabarro, mask mandates and social distancing need to remain in place for the foreseeable future "as part of our defence" against COVID , particularly in regions which have high infection rates.
y_arrow
Roacheforque 2 hours agotrailer park boys 1 hour ago[For those who already had Covid-19] the variants are a nothing burger according to Dr. Yeadon, who is censored and cancelled , just like ivermectin and HCQ.
Crimes against humanity.
BLOTTO 1 hour agoI was going to bring up Dr. Mike Yeadon also. As the former VP and respiratory research head globally for Pfizer, he has the knowledge to call Bullshiit! on this variant crap. He was on The Highwire a week or so ago and it is the best hour and a half to clue you in on the Covid scam that you'll ever see. https://thehighwire.com/videos/pfizer-vp-the-thing-to-be-terrified-of-is-your-government/
keeper20 19 seconds ago' the idea of mutations of SARS-CoV-2 is based only on an interpretation of the fact that all DNA is constantly changing. Or more generally formulated, the idea of the virus mutation arises only because one still works with completely outdated, long since disproved scientific hypotheses.
With this obsolete approach, new mutations of SARS-CoV-2 can be found/invented for all eternity. This can quickly become a catastrophic self-perpetuating vicious circle, and it appears that many scientists have already fallen into this.'Virgil Krenshaw PREMIUM 2 hours ago remove linkConfidential Documents reveal Moderna sent mRNA Coronavirus Vaccine Candidate to University Researchers weeks before emergence of Covid-19
Confidential Documents reveal Moderna sent mRNA Coronavirus Vaccine Candidate to University Researchers weeks before emergence of Covid-19
Tap News / Weaver
U.S. Gov't Sent "mRNA Coronavirus Vaccine Candidates" to University Researchers WEEKS BEFORE "COVID" Outbreak in China
HRH of Aquitaine 2.0 2 hours agoAKA the plan from the beginning.
Permanent lockdown is one way to keep the people from rising up. Or it might cause them to rise up. Flip a coin, oligarchs. You feel lucky?
williambanzai7 PREMIUM 2 hours agoThe twisted part is the dumb people that are followers are the ones getting vaxxed and wearing a mask. Both of which have serious health implications. Oh well. Not my problem if the dumb ones, as usual, win the Darwin Award.
Rectify77 PREMIUM 2 hours agoYour papers please
pods 1 hour ago remove linkTotal mind control. Fear only works until people realize that the bogeyvirus isn't really dangerous to the 99.8%. Wake up people!
hegger 2 hours ago (Edited)This guy [who advocates social distancing] needs to be ventilated. You know how many people will die from lack of socialization? More than from the boogeyman virus.
These psychopaths need to be removed from society. We've lived and died for a long time with communicable diseases. We aren't going dystopia cyborg life now.
Nope, "2 ropes to stretch his neck".
GeezerGeek 1 hour agoThe WHO lost its scientific relevance and whatever psychological authority it had left when it changed its version of "herd immunity" such that herd immunity could now only be possible through vaccines. (I'm too lazy to provide a link, but look it up; it happened.)
The WHO and its scientists have betrayed the light of logos for the short-term dopamine hits provided by power and money. They are quite literally a net negative to the human species and, hopefully, history will prepare an appropriately excruciating conclusion of their miserable lives.
SuperareDolo 2 hours ago (Edited)I suspect that the narrowly targeted mRNA jabs do a really poor job of developing herd immunity. They only potentially address one of the many ways -> our immune systems normally work. Or so I've read.
But what do I know? I'm not a doctor and it's been decades since I last "played doctor" with anyone.
KittyAW 2 hours ago remove linkSARS is only 80% identical to Covid, versus 99.99% identical for these stupid variants. Survivors of SARS have robust T-cell immunity today, including against Covid, 17 years after having the disease. Antibodies don't do the heavy lifting against viruses, and surface antigens like spike protein are often not the principal immune targets. So useless vaccines might indeed allow endless variants to spread. But all those people who've had the virus now have the gold standard of immunity, and don't need to give another thought to it.
trailer park boys 2 hours agoThe Earth is inundated w/ viruses, bacteria, fungi & other microorganisms. They are everywhere; the air, soil, oceans - THIS is the environment in which humans evolved. Those whose immune systems were inadequate early on, died early on; those whose immune systems degenerated died later.
In the more recent centuries sanitation & improved diets have enabled very many to overcome infections who would have died in centuries past. Far more recently tho, many ppl have ruined their immune systems via life-style practices, among them poor eating habits leading to obesity. Those who have kept themselves truly healthy - or regained good health - which always includes a strong immune system, should not be penalized (nor penalized themselves) bc of the many who have let themselves become immune-wise dysfunctional.
These new "variants" are not much different from the original & the prevention measures of serious illness are the same. But this WHO "Special Envoy on Covid" is NOT going to say that. The financial backing from the likes of Bill Gates is all promulgated on Pushing "Vaccines", even tho they will have little to no diminishing effect on anything but general health over the next few years as data is likely to show..... But a diminished population is exactly what certain parties want.
YouThePeople 2 hours agoDr. Mike Yeadon has given the most insightful explanation of all the nefarious goings on this past year plus. As the former VP and respiratory research head globally for Pfizer, he has the knowledge to call Bullshiit! on this variant crap. He was on The Highwire a week or so ago and it is the best hour and a half to clue you in on the Covid scam that you'll ever see. https://thehighwire.com/videos/pfizer-vp-the-thing-to-be-terrified-of-is-your-government/
Able Ape 2 hours ago (Edited)The WHO...We Won't Get Fooled Again!
Schroedingers Cat 2 hours agoI think he's a moron... Him and that midget Fauci make quite a pathetic pair...
WeNamedTheDogIndiana 1 hour agoHe's not stupid. He either brainwashed, blackmailed or in all likelihood a greedy genocidal psychopath who puts his career and income before the future of the entire human race..
liberty2day 2 hours agomask mandates and social distancing need to remain in place for the foreseeable future "as part of our defence" against COVID
Just like getting groped at airports by TSA goons, warrantless surveillance, warrant applications approved almost 100% of the time by a shadowy court, and renewal of the Patriot Act....all for our safety. Sure.
dockw 2 hours agothe only ugly face that needs a muzzle is faoxi's
hoytmonger 1 hour agoCould you reference some studies, like in scientific, that demonstrate Masks are effective in blocking the Covid? -- which virons are smaller than the material in a mask I didn't think so.
Here's the Danish study done last year which shows they don't make a difference https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-6817Max21c 50 minutes ago remove linkHere's an article written by Yeadon...
According to Nabarro, mask mandates and social distancing need to remain in place for the foreseeable future "as part of our defence" against COVID , particularly in regions which have high infection rates.
Social distancing seems rather silly. If a person remains the required distance away from another person this does not mean they may not be breathing the same air. The air does not abide by social distancing. Air moves. People move. If people move through contaminated air yet keep the proper social distancing space with other persons yet people are still passing through contaminated air. Even if there is no one around and a person is perfectly social distanced from the entire human race thus they can still be breathing in contaminated air that was previously contaminated by an infected person even a few moments before. I just don't get the whole folly of social distancing thing.
Further, it's a talking virus that is spread by talking. So if one is perfectly socially distanced from another and yet talking or one is talking on their cell and the other not talking... well it still comes down to masks and contaminated air.
People should generally tend to wear masks when venturing out especially as to high pedestrian traffic areas or high traffic sites such as big box stores or grocers or even neighborhood small stores that receive a lot or constant foot traffic/patronage.
Jun 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
The shots are "safe and effective," the propagandists proclaim.
That's absolutely true. Until some woefully ignorant, or psychopathic imitation of a human being injects them into someone.
Anyone with two or more brain cells that get along, and has paid the slightest attention knows that those under 20 are virtually immune to the virus, and those under 40 are no more at risk than they are from the common cold, and those under 60 with no other serious co-morbidity are only at slight risk. There is no logical reason to vaccinate ANYONE under 20. Very little reason regarding those 20-40, and choose your poison if you are 40-whatever. At 67 I've chosen to take my chances without participating in a medical experiment.
Regarding safety, they are the most dangerous vaccine ever produced, much less deployed, even by the woefully inadequate results of under reporting to VAERS. By those results, the COVID vaccines have already killed about 6,000 Americans. More than all other vaccines combined for the last 10-30 years, and the year is only half over. Some of those other vaccines were pulled from the market because of as few as 50 deaths. Why do the COVID vaccines get a pass for 6,000? And that's just deaths. There are abundant other side effects, including mounting evidence of mental disability, and definite reproductive damage.
Jun 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
boyplunger7777 13 hours ago remove linkWarrenLiz 16 hours agoVAERS data: "5,888 deaths", "19,597 hospitalizations", "43,891 urgent care", "58,800 office visits", "1,459 anaphylaxis", "1,737 Bell's palsy", "2,190 heart attacks" and "652 miscarriages". CDC says data is "unreliable". You choose who to believe.
Globalist Overlord 14 hours ago remove linkOver 15,472 dead from Jab in 27 EU countries, about half of Europe's 50 countries.
The EudraVigilance database reports that through June 19, 2021 there are 15,472 deaths and 1,509,266 injuries reported following injections of four experimental COVID-19 shots:
- COVID-19 MRNA VACCINE MODERNA (CX-024414)
- COVID-19 MRNA VACCINE PFIZER-BIONTECH
- COVID-19 VACCINE ASTRAZENECA (CHADOX1 NCOV-19)
- COVID-19 VACCINE JANSSEN (AD26.COV2.S )
From the total of injuries recorded, half of them (753,657) are serious injuries.
ALL UNNECESSARY...
pods 16 hours agoSo between the EU and US there are a confirmed MINIMUM of 21,000 MURDERED by BigPharma and their highly-paid apparatchiks like Fauci and Walensky.
And the public does nothing.
pmc 17 hours ago (Edited)Graphing VAERS numbers alongside the shot numbers should show abnormalities.
They probably saw the numbers and put the brakes on putting them in the database. So a slope change will be seen in the VAERS data.
They run it so they can do what they want. Public can submit a case, but that doesn't mean it goes into the database. Crooks.
racing_flowers 17 hours agoTucker Carlson: How many Americans have died after taking the COVID vaccine?
The answer to Carlson's question is because.. it's a money grabbing death cult!.
Natural immun system is destroyed... just wait till next flu season or the next virus they relase and see what death numbers we see!
Nona Yobiznes 18 hours ago remove linkIsn't it curious that the 3 big pharma Corps (think Vacc pushers) and the big 2 MSM Corps are BOTH controlled by Blackrock Partners Hedge Fund...
Them going after the children makes me deeply suspicious. Nobody under 50, unless they're made of blubber, dies from this. In 2020, there was practically zero excess death for people younger than 70 years old in Sweden. These are their official statistics. For the vast majority of people it's basically a flu you get for a couple days and you're over it. What the **** is all this about? If the vaccine is only really good for preventing hospitalizations, and doesn't stop you from spreading or from catching variants, what in the hell are we giving kids vaccines when they are more likely to die from the regular flu? It's freaky, and it stinks.
Jun 22, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
Having been caught delivering some fact-base 'science' that does not jibe with the establishment's message that all kids should be jabbed immediately, The WHO has rapidly 'adjusted' its science-based recommendations for whether children should get vaccinated... or not...Gone is the big headline - "Children should not be vaccinated for the moment."
The new guidance is as follows: (emphasis ours... in case you are confused by their guidance)
Children and adolescents tend to have milder disease compared to adults, so unless they are part of a group at higher risk of severe COVID-19, it is less urgent to vaccinate them than older people, those with chronic health conditions and health workers.
More evidence is needed on the use of the different COVID-19 vaccines in children to be able to make general recommendations on vaccinating children against COVID-19.
WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) has concluded that the Pfizer/BionTech vaccine is suitable for use by people aged 12 years and above. Children aged between 12 and 15 who are at high risk may be offered this vaccine alongside other priority groups for vaccination.
Vaccine trials for children are ongoing and WHO will update its recommendations when the evidence or epidemiological situation warrants a change in policy.
So to clarify... children aren't really at risk of this virus so no hurry on the jab... more evidence is needed on its usefulness in kids... oh but the Pfizer vax is suitable?
So is there evidence or not? Is the vaccine worthwhile for kids? If you have to ask, you aren't following the science.
Here's the new page ( source )
h/t @AlexBerenson
Color us not entirely surprised at this farce... but one thing we are sure of, this will simply be dismissed as a coincidence and WHO had planned on adjusting its guidance the whole time (it was just waiting to get caught in a disagreement with Fauci and friends).
* * *
As The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity's Adam Dick noted yesterday, in America, national, state, and local governments are pulling out all the stops to advance giving experimental coronavirus shots to children down to the age of 12.
Up next, babies and children up to age 11.
The shots are "safe and effective," the propagandists proclaim.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has a different approach. The WHO says do not vaccinate children, at least not yet.
At its website, the WHO offers this advice regarding giving experimental coronavirus vaccines, some of which are not even vaccines under the normal meaning of the term, to children:
Children should not be vaccinated for the moment. There is not yet enough evidence on the use of vaccines against COVID-19 in children to make recommendations for children to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Children and adolescents tend to have milder disease compared to adults.
However, children should continue to have the recommended childhood vaccines.
Choose accordingly.
Kugelhagel 18 hours agoRide_the_kali_yuga 17 hours agoConspiracy theorist = heretic ... they couldn't use that word anymore, because everyone would understand that this is about silencing the truth.
JimmyJones 17 hours ago remove linkNice analogy.
Alice-the-dog 13 hours agoYep, women with their periods messed up, their babies allergic to their breast milk, young people with heart inflammation, people having partial paralyzed limbs. I know there's more.
We don't even know what 6-12 months has in-store or 1-2 years.
WarrenLiz 15 hours agoI'm always on the look out for new conspiracy theories, because my old ones all turned out to be accurate.
It was a brilliant psyop by the CIA to invent the term to cover up the murder of JFK. But if one takes a cursory look at it, how is a conspiracy ever to be exposed without a theory that there is one? If every time someone proposes a theory regarding this or that possible conspiracy, they are swept into the kook dust bin, how will any conspiracy ever be exposed? Hence they aren't, unless iron clad evidence of their existence is encompassed by the theory.
skizex 13 hours ago remove linkOver 15,472 dead from Jab in 27 EU countries, about half of Europe's 50 countries.
The EudraVigilance database reports that through June 19, 2021 there are 15,472 deaths and 1,509,266 injuries reported following injections of four experimental COVID-19 shots:
- COVID-19 MRNA VACCINE MODERNA (CX-024414)
- COVID-19 MRNA VACCINE PFIZER-BIONTECH
- COVID-19 VACCINE ASTRAZENECA (CHADOX1 NCOV-19)
- COVID-19 VACCINE JANSSEN (AD26.COV2.S )
From the total of injuries recorded, half of them (753,657) are serious injuries.
ALL UNNECESSARY...
Nona Yobiznes 17 hours ago (Edited)and this on KOMO this morning:
Ride_the_kali_yuga 17 hours ago (Edited) remove link...Too many people are stuck in normalcy bias and are too trusting of the modern elite class. You don't have to look back very far to see the unspeakable atrocities powerful people are willing and able to commit.
The_Dude 16 hours agoMy guess was depopulation due to lower EROIE on petroleum. Deathcross of the fossil energy (oil) available was near to us, maybe we already are behind peak oil. Eolians, solar panels and EV are an energical leftist joke and will never be an alternative to nuclear/ charchoal power plants and thermic motors.
I was thinking about it for quite some time. Why all this Covidian Cult was necessary for? What does it produce? Lockdowns was a main response worldwide.
Was it usefull? absolutely not. No more planes in the sky, economic slowdown, a lot less of enegy used . I guess this sanitary madness was all about cheap energy we can get from oil. The human population exploded due to the industrial revolution, the machines, their capacities and -in fine- oil made it possible. If you do not have enough cheap oil and the EROIE is way to high, then the industrial technology we live in can no longer be.
The Covidian Cult produced what an energy crisis would have made...
Rose Marie PREMIUM 15 hours agoEvil is narcissism run amok...
uncle_duke 18 hours ago remove linkIntelligence without wisdom. Always looking at what, how, when, where, but no interest in asking why. Running thought processes without examining the meaning.
DAVOS-19 14 hours agoAn age of unlimited information, and a population too dumb and lazy to do anything with it. Reality has become Pythonian.
Now Voyager 14 hours agoNot so fast. Remember, they lie, probably also about history.
Ride_the_kali_yuga 13 hours agoWhat happens when you stop natural selection and substitute unnatural selection.
Yeah, the gene pool is over crowded with genetics defects. See diabetics, i mean "genetical" ones since a young age. Insuline was a great discovery, it saves a lot of people at some point. Then without the natural selection they had kids of their own and has a consequence they spread their genetic defect in the gene pool. Sometimes great inventions make unintended results.
Diseases are a way for nature to get rid of the olders and the weak. It is not moral, there is no justice in this, this is just the way nature works. Human tried damn hard to break nature's law, the thing is, there is consequences playing god.
Jun 22, 2021 | www.bloomberg.com
"Delta is driving surges around the world, and I suspect it's going to be the same here," said William Lee, the vice president of science at Helix. Delta is growing more than twice as fast as gamma, the variant first seen in Brazil, in undervaccinated communities.
Meanwhile, the gamma variant, which appears better at evading vaccines, was found to be more prevalent in counties with higher inoculation rates.
Jun 04, 2021 | news.sky.com
People who have received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine have fewer antibodies targeting the Indian COVID-19 variant compared to other strains, new data suggests.
Levels of these antibodies are lower with increasing age and decline over time, the analysis of blood samples from 250 healthy people also suggests.
This provides even more evidence in support for vaccine boosters for the vulnerable come autumn, researchers believe.
The data, from the Francis Crick Institute and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, also supports current plans to reduce the dose gap between the jabs.
It found that after just one dose of the Pfizer jab, recipients were less likely to develop antibody levels against the Indian variant, also known as Delta, as high as those seen against the UK variant, now known as Alpha.
But scientists say antibody levels alone do not predict vaccine effectiveness and prospective studies are also needed.
Jun 25, 2021 | www.npr.org
...researchers at Emory University performed similar studies with antibodies taken from 15 people who have been vaccinated with either the Pfizer or Moderna shots. In these studies, the antibodies could still neutralize the B.1.617 variant, but the potency of the antibodies dropped by about sevenfold on average, the authors reported .
"Despite this reduction, all vaccine blood samples ... still maintained the ability to block the B.1.617 variant," said immunologist Mehul Suthar at Emory, who led the study.
Together the data suggests the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will still work well against B.1.617, just as they do for the variant from South Africa, known as B.1.351. In both cases, the shots will likely offer high protection from death and severe illness, but they may lose some ability to stop mild or asymptomatic infections.
Jun 25, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
European health authorities have more or less confirmed that adenovirus-vector vaccines produced by AstraZeneca and J&J can, in rare instances, cause potentially deadly cerebral brain clots in patients with low blood-platelet counts. These findings, which were hinted at during the late-stage trials for the AstraZeneca vaccine (which saw its US trials halted for a month over safety issues) have led to some European governments imposing restrictions on the vaccines.
... ... ...
The FT reports that the CDC has found a "likely association" between a handful of cases of heart inflammation and the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. The reactions were documented in adolescent patients, which might explain the delay in detection since teenagers have only just become eligible.
There were 323 confirmed cases among people who received the vaccine of certain types of heart inflammation in the US up to June 11, with 309 people requiring hospital treatment. Nearly 80% of the people with confirmed cases have fully recovered, according to the CDC's Vaccine Safety Technical Work Group.
The cases have prompted the agency to start monitoring for new instances of myocarditis and pericarditis, two different types of heart inflammation, to see if any new cases or potential links emerge. The demographic group that's most vulnerable so far appears to be men under the age of 30 (by contrast, the rare side effect for the AstraZeneca jabs mostly impacted young women). Right now, the cases of heart inflammation have occurred at a rate of 4.4 per million vaccine doses after the first dose, then rising to 12.6 per million after the second dose, which is still exceedingly rare.
If an adolescent patient experiences heart inflammation after their first dose, the CDC recommends deferring the second dose.
"This is an extremely rare side-effect, and only an exceedingly small number of people will experience it after vaccination," doctors from the US health department, CDC and others said in a statement following the meeting. "Most cases are mild, and individuals recover often on their own or with minimal treatment. In addition, we know that myocarditis and pericarditis are much more common if you get Covid-19 , and the risks to the heart from Covid-19 infection can be more severe," they added.
In the US and Israel, high vaccination rates have prompted authorities to start vaccinating younger and younger patients, with Israel now vaccinating patients as young as 12 . Anyone who objects is quickly reminded of the threat of "variants" like the mutant strain "Delta". Meanwhile, the developing world is still woefully undersupplied, leaving even the most vulnerable patients without access.
Stinkbug 1 20 hours ago remove linkohm 16 hours ago remove linkHe's not being judgmental, just stating the facts as he sees them.
The young men who submit to the shot are cannon fodder for big Pharma. The young men who went to war for causes that turned out out be lies were also cannon fodder. Part of the tragedy is that their anger cannot be channeled into healthy change since they are either disabled or no longer with us.
If you were forced to take this shot, focus your anger on the system, not those who point out the corruption.
Who is being forced to take the shots? Unless they have people holding you down or a gun at your head, you are not forced.
You are being forced in certain countries like Indonesia and the Philippines. In the rest of the world your are being coerced. Either way, it is a violation of the Nuremberg code. Libtards, Fauci, Collins and the rest of the public health authorities prove again that Mengele was just ahead of his time.
Jun 25, 2021 | www.cnbc.com
Some countries, like the U.S. and U.K., have already signaled that they could roll out Covid-19 booster shots within a year . Now, pressure is building on governments to mobilize booster shot programs" no easy task given the ongoing uncertainties surrounding the pandemic, vaccines and variants.
However, concrete plans for Covid-19 booster shots are lacking. Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, last month said it was, "just something we're gonna have to figure out as we go."
As talk of booster shots grow, here's what we know so far: What?
First of all, there are question marks over whether we actually need a third dose of any Covid-19 vaccine given that we don't know how long immunity currently lasts.
In the U.S. and U.K. the shots being used are those from Pfizer - BioNTech , Moderna and Johnson & Johnson , with the U.K. also relying heavily on the AstraZeneca -Oxford University vaccine.
WATCH NOW VIDEO 01:22 Dr. Scott Gottlieb on whether people will need Covid booster shotsThere are also unknowns regarding whether people should get a booster shot that's the same as the vaccines they originally had. And also whether the shots need to be tweaked to deal with variants, much like the flu vaccine, or whether they can remain as they are.
Jun 25, 2021 | www.webmd.com
June 4, 2021 -- The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine produces lower levels of antibodies against the Delta variant, known as B.1.617.2 and discovered in India, according to a new study published Thursday in The Lancet .
The antibody levels also appear to be lower in older people and decline over time, which could mean that some vaccinated people will need a booster shot this fall.
"This virus will likely be around for some time to come, so we need to remain agile and vigilant," Emma Wall, PhD, the lead study author and an infectious diseases specialist at the Francis Crick Institute in London, said in a statement .
"The most important thing is to ensure that vaccine protection remains high enough to keep as many people out of hospital as possible," she said. "And our results suggest that the best way to do this is to quickly deliver second doses and provide boosters to those whose immunity may not be high enough against these new variants."
The research team analyzed antibodies in the blood of 250 healthy people, ages 33-52, up to 3 months after receiving their first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine . The team looked for "neutralizing antibodies," or the ability of antibodies to block the virus from entering cells.
The researchers tested five variants: the original strain discovered in China, the dominant strain in Europe during the first wave in April 2020, the B.1.1.7 variant discovered in the U.K., the B.1.351 variant first seen in South Africa, and the newest variant of concern, which is the B.1.617.2 variant discovered in India.
The team compared the concentrations of the neutralizing antibodies among the variants. They found that people who had been fully vaccinated with two Pfizer doses had antibodies that were 6 times lower against the B.1.617.2 variant, 5 times lower against the B.1.351 variant, and 2.6 times lower against the B.1.1.7 variant when compared to the original strain.
The antibody response was even lower in people who had received only one dose. After a single Pfizer dose, 79% of people had neutralizing antibodies against the original strain, which fell to 50% for the B.1.1.7 variant, 32% for the B.1.617.2 variant, and 25% for the B.1.351 variant.
The study group plans to continue its research on neutralizing antibodies and the variants, including in people who have been vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
"New variants occur naturally, and those that have an advantage will spread. We now have the ability to quickly adapt our vaccination strategies to maximize protection where we know people are most vulnerable," David Bauer, PhD, the senior study author and group leader of the Francis Crick Institute's RNA Virus Replication Laboratory, said in the statement.
"Keeping track of the evolutionary changes is essential for us to retain control over the pandemic and return to normality," he said. "This work "¦ can help us to navigate changes in this new phase of the pandemic."
Jun 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
Bank_sters 12 hours ago remove linkfuckyou 12 hours ago remove linkCredit racing flowers:
On Friday, Italy halted the administration of the killer vaccine for those under the age of 60. The decision followed the death of a perfectly healthy 18-year-old named Camilla Canepa, who died last week of blood clotting and a brain hemorrhage after receiving the vaccine shot on the 25th of May.
I think most of us have come to the conclusion that these deaths are the way it was suppose to work. That makes this the greatest crime against humanity.....ever
Jim in MN 15 hours agoSo I looked at your story about Italy and they stopped the AstraZeneca vaccine, all the others are still available. So partially correct.
Jim in MN 15 hours agoNot everyone will die. Many more will just be crippled and need expensive medical care for decades, while being unable to fight or resist the regime.
Jim in MN 15 hours ago (Edited) remove linkThe immune cells that the mRNA targets are well-known as key factors in autoimmune disorders when their function is disrupted.
This is Wikipedia-level stuff. People should not be in any way ignorant about this.
Sparehead 13 hours agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendritic_cell
The exact genesis and development of the different types and subsets of dendritic cells and their interrelationship is only marginally understood at the moment, as dendritic cells are so rare and difficult to isolate that only in recent years they have become subject of focused research. Distinct surface antigens that characterize dendritic cells have only become known from 2000 on.
Altered function of dendritic cells is also known to play a major or even key role in allergy and autoimmune diseases ....
Rex Dickerson 15 hours agoNah, just looks at this massively under-reported VAERS death graph.
https://www.openvaers.com/covid-data/mortality
See, no worries at all. Face diapers, anti-social distancing, and one-way shopping arrows saved us. Let's just hope there's no "variants" that start dropping the vaxxed like flies.
LeadPipeDreams 15 hours agoDuh.
Pfizer clinical trial ends April 2023.
Moderna clinical trial ends October 2022.
Esperanza 15 hours agoPfizer human trial ends April 2023.
Moderna human trial ends October 2022.
FIFY
Vaccines typically take 10 - 15 years to prove their safety and efficacy, so even these human trials are a joke to prove they are "safe and effective".
El_Puerco 15 hours agoTechnically, the trials are not trials any more. They have been compromised due to the control group taking the vaccine.
https://www.gospanews.net/en/2021/03/23/mrna-vaccines-cancer-risks-wlo-crimes-against-humanity/
The famous virologist Montagnier
confirms the risk of tumors
with Pfizer and Moderna gene therapies
reported by the medical examiner BaccoPrompt complaint to the International Criminal Court
by the judge Angelo Giorgianni (ODV)
for experiments without specific consentAnd now " The Circus" is open..
WOW!
Jun 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
hooligan2009 13 hours agohooligan2009 13 hours ago remove linksomeone ask the CDC why children should be stabbed instead of giving them either nothing at all, or a small amount of ivermectin
from here:
" Low-certainty evidence found that ivermectin prophylaxis reduced COVID-19 infection by an average 86% (95% confidence interval 79%""91%).
--
Conclusions:
Moderate-certainty evidence finds that large reductions in COVID-19 deaths are possible using ivermectin. Using ivermectin early in the clinical course may reduce numbers progressing to severe disease. The apparent safety and low cost suggest that ivermectin is likely to have a significant impact on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic globally."
not as if the stabs prevent covid anyway!
Jun 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
NAV 14 hours agoPair Of Dimes Shift 14 hours ago remove linkWhat happens after the concentrations of the vax nanoparticles accumulate in the bone marrow, which they are doing? Perhaps leukemia? We don't know. But for some, it is more important to virtual signal that you and your children got the vaccine rather than its unknown consequences.
Robert Malone, MD, inventor of mRNA vax technology, is dismayed by Pfizer's study for Japan showing the vax nanoparticles accumulate in the bone marrow, ovaries, spleen, and lymph nodes.
He says there needs to be monitoring of vaccine recipients for leukemia and lymphomas because of these concentrations in the bone marrow and lymph nodes. He says these signals often don't show up for six months to 3-9 years down the road.
Malone says the FDA knew the COVID spike protein was biologically active and could travel from the injection site and cause adverse events, and that the spike protein is very dangerous.
He says there should have been 2-3 year trials to monitor for potential autoimmune consequences of the vaxxes, but of course that didn't happen. He says they also didn't conduct proper animal studies.
Malone agreed with Vanden Bossche that conducting mass vaxxing in the middle of a pandemic is insane because of the danger of creating a more virulent wild Covid. -- Nemo ( https://raypeatforum.com/community/threads/covid-vaccine-adverse-reaction-reports-post-here.39666/page-56 )
Inventor of mRNA Technology: Vaccine Causes Lipid Nanoparticles to Accumulate in 'High Concentrations' in Ovaries
On the "Dark Horse Podcast," Dr. Robert Malone, creator of mRNA vaccine technology, said the COVID vaccine lipid nanoparticles -- which tell the body to produce the spike protein -- leave the injection site and accumulate in organs and tissues (particularly the ovaries and bone marrow). O6/17/21
Jim in MN 14 hours agoThere are suspicions, but nobody knows for sure.
Jim in MN 15 hours agoSee my comments below on dendritic cells. That's what the mRNA is supposed to target, and even doing that is messing with immune system mechanisms that scientists don't even understand in the first place , before they mess with it.
Giant Meteor 15 hours agoWhile a COVID-19 vaccine will prevent serious illness and death, we still don't know the extent to which it keeps you from being infected and passing the virus on to others.
Sooooooooo.......all the databases and vaccine requirements to do this and that are........not based on anything?
Anything.........at all?
That's what I thought. Thanks for clearing that up.
Volga Boat Man 15 hours ago remove link" While a COVID-19 vaccine will prevent serious illness and death, it may also create serious illness and death!"
Hmmm decisions decisions ..
Only a flaming moron would allow themselves to take the Zombie Jab when both the Gruberment AND the Manufacturer claim NO liability for anything that happens as a result, i.e., dying.
Jun 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
Conservative Thought 15 hours agoTQRock 16 hours agoWHO and CDC are not on same page...shocker
Some facts that have not changed since 2019 outbreak
- It's a bioweapon not a naturally occurring virus - gain of function confirmed
- It's a gene modifying cell therapy not a vaccine - first time used on humans
- It's only approved an emergency authorization; it's not FDA approved
- It's unproven read as potentially unsafe since over 5,500 Americans have died after getting the jab
- It's not effective since Pfizer and Moderna claim it's not stopping transmission
- Pfizer former VP Dr. Michael Yeadon warns people not to take the jab
BAG 18 hours ago remove linkUnclear how an experimental "vaccine" authorized for emergency use only could be proclaimed "safe and effective."
The covid-19 EUA should be changed to make the vaccine manufactures liable for damages to anyone under the age of 50 years old. Then they can tell us how safe it is.
Jun 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
Goldbugger 12 hours ago remove link
Enraged 12 hours agoEric Clapton says COVID VACCINE damaged his Immune system.
My uncle believes everyone should be vaccinated, while I will never accept the lethal injection. The difference between us is he watches MSM and reads the daily newspaper, while I cut the cord seven years ago.
COVID/vaccine is psychological warfare by the globalist elite and banksters against the people using the propaganda media. The MSM viewership will soon be too low to broadcast as their viewers are the mind controlled vaccine takers.
Jun 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
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El_Puerco 15 hours ago remove linkSimpson 19 hours agoIf you understand this...Good for you.
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/covid-19-vaccines/advice
Note:
Children should not be vaccinated for the moment.
There is not yet enough evidence on the use of vaccines against COVID-19 in children to make recommendations for children to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Children and adolescents tend to have milder disease compared to adults. However, children should continue to have the recommended childhood vaccines.
walküre 19 hours agoAccording to Dr. Michael Yeadon kids are 50 times more likely to die from the shot then they are from the WuFlu.
Parents who give their kids this toxic ****e deserve a shot right between the eyes.
walküre 19 hours ago (Edited) remove link"doing their part"
"nobody is safe, until we're all safe"
Hail Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Gates & Fauci!
Samual Vimes 19 hours agoAbout fking time!
HANDS OFF THE KIDS!
There's going to be blood in the streets if they keep pushing us further and further!
Our kids are not some cannon fodder for the elite's wars! Only despots and tyrants do this when they're running out of options. Feeding kids into the lines of fire. We have a Nuremberg code and a Geneva convention for a REASON!
The vax is garbage!
Absolutely NIL benefit for your health, only benefit to your social credit score.
Go ahead, get vaxxed if you feel like it. Know the risks, and inform yourself what the ridiculous and negligible advantages are of having the synthetic toxins injected into your system.
The side effects FAR outweigh the risks of potentially getting sick from whatever it is, circulating out there. If your body is too weak or your system is responding badly to the "virus", it will also respond negatively to the injections. When your time has come, your time has come. Life is meant to be lived. Longevity is a God given privilege or curse, but it is not a competition.
PrivetHedge 14 hours ago remove linkLet them change genders and compete against girls in peace.
Gravel Rash 17 hours ago remove linkNumber of verified covid test methods: Zero
Number of children dead from 'covid': ZeroNumber of children damaged by the vaccine: Hundreds, soon to be Millions.
NoPension 17 hours agoEmergency experimental drugs are never given to children, pregnant women or the old with health issues. Doesn't happen, full stop.
And yet its happening with the covid gene therapy shots, the official name alone warrants that it would never be given to kids and the pregnant. One can only assume the greed of Pharma companies and their lackeys at regulatory agencies knows no bounds, they know there are issues with the drugs. However they have indemnity from being sued, as such they want to sell as much as they can before the ignorant masses catch on.
You wonder how these killers can sleep at night.
Person familiar with the situation 17 hours agoTrump's out. They sleep like babies.
Yamaoka Tesshu 9 hours ago (Edited)It's NOT about money. People keep making that baseless assumption just because most everything else is about money in their own little world. The criminals here have printing presses in every country and create money out of thin air.
Man on the Silver Mountain 19 hours ago
"Show me your incentives and I will tell you the outcome". - Charlie MungerHe is Uncle Warren's longtime lieutenant. Look at AIDS. "If we make up a fake disease we will get a fortune in funding." And they did. They prescribed lethal drugs that killed people with the express purpose of creating hysteria. Murder for money.
UselessEater 6 hours agoA demand that kids shouldn't be injected with this experimental shot is almost a sideways admission the mRNA potion is detrimental to natural immunity, yet there's an obsessively urgent need to stab adults? In the US I'd suspect the source of this motivation is politics and a grasping greed for profit.
archipusz 19 hours ago (Edited)NEW: Former Head Scientist at PFIZER Says Covid Threat is 100% FAKE
https://redpilluniversity.org/former-head-scientist-at-pfizer-says-covid-threat-is-100-fake/
Prior to forming his own biotech company in 2011, Michael Yeadon was the Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer for Allergy & Respiratory Research at Pfizer Pharmaceutical.
He is a top scientist in the world of drugs and vaccines in the treatment of respiratory diseases such as Covid. In this video he declares that the Covid pandemic is a fraud. He explains why masks are useless, why distancing is absurd, why PCR tests are meaningless, why quarantining healthy people is stupid, why variants of virus strains are no threat, and why Covid vaccines should be rejected.
Yeadon says many of his colleagues privately agree with this appraisal but remain silent to protect their salaries and research grants. It's all about money.
He concludes that, because of the massive number of deaths that will follow within a few years of vaccination, there clearly is an agenda to deliberately eliminate billions of people from the Earth and to enslave those who remain ..... plus much more.
[This scientist is such a good, brave man. He loves humanity. His voice is being silenced on mainstream media and he is putting out this info to the public despite being smeared and attacked (though they don't address his facts at all). So:
Pse share this video out to at least 5 other people as he gives simple scientific explanations for all his statements.
Tao 4 the Show 11 hours ago remove linkGiving this gene therapy called a vaccine to kids is worse than shutting down an economy based on pcr tests run at 45 cycles.
Straw Dog 12 hours ago (Edited) remove linkI don't do Facebook or twitter, but someone should do an experiment:
Post something condemning vaccination in children and reference the WHO and link.
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/covid-19-vaccines/advice
Let's watch some "fact checker" (that is, thought Gestapo) heads explode.
Bank_sters 13 hours ago remove linkCOVID-19 mRNA Shots Are Legally Not Vaccines
February 11, 2021
Did you know that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines aren't vaccines in the medical and legal definition of a vaccine? They do not prevent you from getting the infection, nor do they prevent its spread. They're really experimental gene therapies.
I discussed this troubling fact in a recent interview with molecular biologist Judy Mikovits , Ph.D. While the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA shots are labeled as "vaccines," and news agencies and health policy leaders call them that, the actual patents for Pfizer's and Moderna's injections more truthfully describe them as "gene therapy," not vaccines.
Picked up this article and pasted it in an MS Word docx. Interestingly you can't find it by Google search - Censored
TheABaum 13 hours ago remove linkOk so Fauci and the cdc telling colleges and schools to push for experimental poison to be given as a condition for young people to return to school. Now the myocarditis, reproductive health, blood clotting cases are EXPLODING.
Sparehead 15 hours ago remove linkThere are school districts demanding vaccination as a condition to return to live instruction.
Hello Wilkes Barre, PA
One of the worst in the state.
ToSoft4Truth 15 hours agoChildren are not lab rats and CANNOT make their own decisions about potentially life-altering treatments for various reasons. Children are at essentially ZERO risk unless they get jabbed.
Sparehead 15 hours agoThe parents did it.
Things that go bump PREMIUM 14 hours ago remove linkThat not really the point, and there's many places that are allowing children to get jabbed without parent consent, even in the US.
https://districtadministration.com/covid-19-vaccination-and-parental-consent/
almost 16 hours agoI've read that they are planning to go into schools in the fall and make sure all the kids get their shots. Parental consent is not required.
Enraged 17 hours ago remove linkWHO ~ World Health Organization sounds like The Ministry of Love in George Orwell's novel 1984
It's more like World Death organization nowadays
rag_house 6 hours agoA 13-year old boy died three days after the 2nd Pfizer injection. The autopsy results show an enlarged heart and there was some fluid surrounding it. He had no health problems and was on no medications.
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/13-year-old-boy-dies-after-second-pfizer-shot/
Parents, if you allow your children to be injected with the vaccine, then you are an accessory to murder.
GoodyGumdrops 6 hours agoPfizer continues to have the greatest number of deaths and adverse events yet is continually touted as the safest.
JOHNLGALT. 11 hours ago remove linkIf you want to truly understand how evil these psychopaths are start listening to this video at 11:55. It's only a few minutes of your time.
📌📌📌📌For the 9,999th time. TRIALS FOR 'CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY' please.
The Nuremberg Code 1947 Permissible Medical Experiments
The great weight of the evidence before us to effect that certain types of medical experiments on human beings, when kept within reasonably well-defined bounds, conform to the ethics of the medical profession generally. The protagonists of the practice of human experimentation justify their views on the basis that such experiments yield results for the good of society that are unprocurable by other methods or means of study. All agree, however, that certain basic principles must be observed in order to satisfy moral, ethical and legal concepts:
1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there should be made known to him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment ; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonably to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiment.
2. The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the quality of the consent rests upon each individual who initiates, directs, or engages in the experiment . It is a personal duty and responsibility which may not be delegated to another with impunity.
3. The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study, and not random and unnecessary in nature.
4. The experiment should be so designed and based on the results of animal experimentation and a knowledge of the natural history of the disease or other problem under study that the anticipated results justify the performance of the experiment.
5. The e xperiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury.
6. No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.
7. The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment.
8. Proper preparations should be made and adequate facilities provided to protect the experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury, disability or death.
9. The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons. The highe