I've Reached The End Of My Patience With Consensus Delusion And Nonsense...,

We are dealing with human beings – sometimes at the very worst moments of their lives. – truth is the very foundation of what we do. Without it, everything will come crashing down. I have literally thousands of former students, interns, and residents on forums that I keep up with often. They are some of the leaders of this profession. They are located in every corner of this country. It is through them that I have been able to keep a pulse on what is going on medically in this country. And it is through them that I realized early on in this pandemic that all was not as it was being presented. Fear mongering, lying, panic and hysteria were rapidly becoming the order of the day. Absolute mistruths were being told to the American people. Numbers and figures were being quoted completely out of context and historical perspective to scare people to death. More importantly, critical issues about the virus and the disease it causes were not being discussed at all. For example, as was true then and is true now, the overwhelming risk factors for bad outcomes are old age and poor health habits such as obesity, inactivity, and immunocompromised status. That was true at the beginning and is most certainly true now. But to this day, and especially since the vaccine push started, we hear ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about this from our officials. And I saw absolutely no one in the media lifting a finger to do a thing about it; rather, they were happy participants in the whole affair.

I am not now nor have ever been an investigative journalist. But I am a foot soldier on the ground and I have been trained by the best to make observations, to think of possible hypotheses to explain them, to look for critical evidence to support or falsify hypotheses, and to act accordingly. That is the very essence of the scientific method. It was hammered into my brain as a young physician in the AIDS wards, when we literally had no idea what we were doing for years on end. We had to learn to let that method flow through our veins in order to do the best we could do for patients while our whole profession was trying to figure AIDS out. And that experience was critical for me when this whole thing started. I could see that my patients were getting a horribly warped view of the whole situation, so I decided all those months ago to start putting my observations on here as comments. I have then shared with everyone hypotheses that a rational scientist/medical doctor would come to, and how I was going about falsifying or supporting them. Some of the thoughts have been critically wrong, and I have endeavored always to make sure all know that. Many of them have stood up over time. Everything I have done or said in these comments has been in good faith. I view this group of commenters as my very own.

But now, my friends, we have reached a critical juncture in this entire situation. As has always been the case in human endeavor, when you start down the road of lies, it will be no time before you have painted yourself into a corner. And that is where the medical establishment finds itself today. Along with the elite/political establishment that prodded, aided, and abetted every step of the way. This is all about to blow up in their face and they are acutely aware of that. They have two choices, admit their mistakes, ask for forgiveness and understanding, and begin the rectification process OR double down.

It is very clear to me that the elite have decided to double down. The FSMB proclamation is just but one part of doubling down. I will bring your attention to a few other things this weekend that are emblematic of the current elite thinking – The Brooks & Dionne sequence from PBS Newshour on Friday night – We have two commenters – one ostensibly from the Right – and one from the Left. Both have clearly agreed that it is high time to get nasty on the deplorables refusing to get vaccinated. There is not a comment made about all the facts that have come to light this past week – as in all the breakthrough cases, as in all the vaccinated positive patients being just as likely to transmit as the unvaccinated. I am going to make an argument right now – GIVEN WHAT WE KNOW RIGHT NOW ABOUT THESE VACCINES, WHAT EXACT PURPOSE IS BEING SERVED IN A PUBLIC HEALTH PERSPECTIVE OF FORCING THESE VACCINES ON EVERYONE? There is certainly no longer evidence that it is any safer to be in a crowded grocery store with vaccinated or unvaccinated patients. As for individual risk, I have been on my knees for months literally begging all of my high risk patients to get vaccinated. My contacts are telling me that the overwhelming vast majority of the ill in the hospitals are in these same high risk groups – OBESE DIABETIC and IMMUNOCOMPROMISED. 25 year old jocks are not in that high risk group. Outside of vaccinating every single soul that is high risk, given what we know now, what is the purpose of vaccinating every single human?

FSMB or anyone else – that is a scientific argument, based on observations and facts – please I am all ears, tell me what is wrong with that argument? Please present your own observations and facts.

Please look at the Bill Maher show on Friday when he had his roundtable. I cannot find a video of this. He had the US Rep from the Virgin Islands. And some guy who was the very essence of the elite PMC. They got around to vaccine hesitancy among blacks – and he blamed it on Tuskegee. The US Rep from the Virgin Islands was like – NOT SO FAST. THAT WAS GENERATIONS AGO. THAT IS NOT REALLY ALL THAT APPLICABLE HERE. THE PROBLEM IS THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY HAVE NO FAITH IN THE GOVERNMENT TO DO THE RIGHT THING. And I looked at my wife and said – PREACH IT SISTER. That is a woman who is in touch with her constituents and knows what she is talking about. I would add the following – the same exact thing is true of the majority of the Bubbas out there that are being denigrated all day by the press – THEY HAVE NO FAITH IN THE GOVERNMENT TO DO THE RIGHT THING – WHY WOULD THEY???? It has been my contention all along that Blacks and Working Class Whites have so much in common. Maybe the upcoming turmoil will make them all realize that. The best however was the PMC guy.

Mr. Maher and I are obviously marinating in the same cultural stew. After going on for a while about Bubbas and Blacks, Maher made the point that another group of vaccine holdouts were the pristine body, man bun Bernie Bros. THE PMC guy did not even acknowledge the comment. Maher said it again. And again the PMC guy was literally dumbstruck. Never had entered his mind. Maher, seeing it was hopeless moved on. THESE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN MARINATING IN THEIR OWN NARRATIVE FOR SO LONG THEY HAVE NOT A CLUE WHAT IS REALITY. It is clear they have all convinced themselves that enforced vaccine mandates are such a great idea. Why, there will be no consequences, everyone will just buckle under. THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT FIRE THEY ARE PLAYING WITH. I have been hearing from multiple contacts all over the country that the mass resignations in health care are just beginning. It is not the RNs and MDs. Nope it is the CNAs the front desk people, the housekeeping. They are just walking off the job – going over to the Piggly Wiggly or Kroger and getting more money and less bull shit from the boss. It is happening among police, firemen, teachers and other workers as well. WHAT KIND OF MORONS WOULD DO THESE MANDATES IN THIS ECONOMY? THEY ARE COMPLETELY OUT OF TOUCH. And again, the reason for mass vaccination for public health has literally fallen apart with the evidence coming out the past few days. WHAT PURPOSE DOES IT SERVE FROM A PUBLIC HEALTH STANDPOINT TO VACCINATE THE ENTIRE POPULATION WITH A NON-STERILIZING VACCINE?

Again, FSMB and any others, that is an argument based on observation and evidence…. Please address the argument with your own observations and evidence and let’s talk. I am all ears.

Thirdly – this little chestnut from Andrew Sullivan If you read his substack entries from early this year, several times he writes that very soon, as in this summer right now, we will be living in the Roaring 20s again. COVID will be over. All his elite friends were telling him that. Imagine his surprise when the event in the town he was in for the summer popped the lid off the narrative. Because of the incompetence of our press, there is no real reporting about how many “bears” were actually involved. I, however, have taken care of a lot of “bears” in my life. Obesity, glucose intolerance/diabetes, and sedentary lifestyles are very common in this group. As is fitting with the truth of this whole pandemic, those are all critical risk factors for bad COVID. What a perfect opportunity for the press or medical establishment to hammer this point home with this group of folks that have fallen ill. NOT A PEEP. Could that lifestyle choice be a reason why so many of them, vaccinated or not, fell ill? How many “bears” were actually involved in getting ill? And is so fitting of the whole elite attitude, Mr. Sullivan’s impulse is to blame the unvaccinated – and “let it rip”. He looks right through the habits of his friends and blames the unvaccinated for ruining his promised party summer. My favorite quote – “So the obviously correct public policy is to let mounting sickness and rising deaths concentrate the minds of the recalcitrant. Let reality persuade the delusional and deranged. It has a pretty solid record of doing just that.” Mr. Sullivan, do the delusional and deranged include the over 700 of these people who were actually vaccinated? Mr. Sullivan, are you listening to yourself? Delusional and deranged? What a perfect encapsulation of these people and how they think. He has pontificated so much in his life about all the indignities that happened in the AIDS crisis. I guess “let it rip” was actually the lesson he learned from that nightmare. I learned some lessons too. You tend to do that when you sign 8-10 death certificates every day of your intern year. All I can say is “I’ll do me. Mr. Sullivan, you can do you.”

FMSB – or anyone else – please point out to me any misinformation in the above paragraph.

I want to finally explain a very important concept that is going to become even more important the next few weeks. We clearly have a non-sterilizing vaccine. There is now continued and mounting evidence that the vaccine helps symptoms and keeps some people from becoming extremely ill. (That is why I am strongly encouraging everyone at risk in my practice to take it NOW). However, there is evidence now, the Provincetown affair being the best example, that these vaccines do nothing to stop transmission. The vaccinated and unvaccinated alike can share the wealth and harbor viruses in their bodies. Viruses do not just sit around. They replicate at literally a logarithmic rate. They are not bacteria who reproduce at a 1-2-4-8 pace. No indeed, they are replicating at a 1-1000-1000000-1000000000000 pace. Since mutations happen when replication occurs, when you have this logarithmic rate of replication you have much higher levels of mutation. You are much more likely to have viruses develop mutations that will allow them to be more transmissible, more toxic, and more vaccine evasive. And when you have a vaccine that does not clear the virus from the vaccinated but instead allows it to be replicated and spewed you have just logarithmically elevated your chances of having real problems occur. That is where we are with these vaccines folks. At least with the information we have now. I did not just make this up out of my head. These are things I read just this AM in textbooks of medicine. Latest editions. Textbooks are there not for latest research – they are the repositories of wisdom and knowledge acquired over generations. They are the foundation. This is not new knowledge. This was known during the polio pandemic. That is why there were 2 vaccines – one was nonsterilizing(Salk) and the other sterilizing(Sabin). Both were given to every patient because they understood the wisdom of not having vaccine escape viruses in the wild. This entire concept has been known for generations.

There are two big differences now –

First of all, polio viruses and their ability to mutate are like a dice roll. Coronaviruses are more like a Rubik’s Cube.

Secondly, Jonas Salk was loud and proud about donating the polio vaccine to the world. He could have been minting gold. However, he hit one out of the park for the ages. Pfizer, Moderna, and their executives are indeed minting gold – how many new billionaires have been created by these vaccines? And oh by the way – the third world can just suck it – losers. And the elite wonder why “the delusional and deranged” as Mr Sullivan puts it, have a trust issue.

FSMB – please point out any misinformation in the above paragraph. Since the discussion about viruses is directly from Mandell’s Infectious Disease – we may have problems if you believe that is misinformation.

Folks, if you are high risk, obese, old, diabetic or immunocompromised – please go and get vaccinated right now. We all need to monitor our risk factors going forward – LOSE WEIGHT, GET YOUR BLOOD SUGAR DOWN, EXERCISE, GET SUNLIGHT – GET VIT D EVERY DAY. HUG YOUR KIDS AND YOUR SPOUSE. LAUGH ALL YOU CAN.

 

From what I have heard in multiple conference discussion this past week or so is that exactly how non-sterilizing the vaccines are is now critical. If it is really true that their sterilizing activity is equal to unvaccinated status – then we have issues. If it is just allowing 5% of the viral load of a non-vaccinated patient that is a completely different story. The flu shots to some degree are non-sterilizing each and every year, but my understanding is they are nowhere close to parity.

When that article came out from the CDCs own MMWR this week that the viral load in Provincetown was the exact same as the unvaccinated, it sent chills down my spine. That is most definitely not a good finding. They need to be looking at this aggressively to confirm or not. Also, as I alluded to above – was there something unusual about that cohort of patients? If it truly was a “bear” convention – they are older, more obese and much more likely to be diabetic. Did those pre-disposing conditions possibly factor into the parity with viral loads? Furthermore, it is critical that actual virologic counting be done on the samples. cT is very suggestive but not expositive.

But the point that it is apparently so close in parity to unvaccinated status is profoundly disturbing. This was completely unexpected and concerning to every one I have talked to this week.

I am awaiting further data – assuming they will be forthcoming with it. It has the potential to be a very interesting week.

And per your quote above, “If infection with natural coronaviruses doesn’t do it, I don’t think we should necessarily expect or have the anticipation that we’ll be able to get there with the vaccine.”

I have been hearing those sentiments all this past week from many people I know and respect. Basically – we are going to have to learn to live with this virus. How are the American people going to take that?

I have multiple overarching concerns right now ——

1). There is absolute signal that this is a completely non-sterilizing vaccine. If so, there is precedent but not certainty that this could make this whole thing worse. In a normal world, I would have expected a pause and reflect moment. Instead, we are doubling down on vaccinating everyone. Is that a wise course?

2). There is all kinds of talk in the air about boosters right now. I have not spoken to a single patient – not one – many of whom lined up willingly in December – who are remotely interested in this at this time. A direct quote from my old lady neighbor from less than an hour ago – “I got vaccinated once – and I did that for my country. I will never let this clown car brigade get near me with another one. They cannot keep their lies straight.” And she is a loyal Dem – Biden signs all over her yard last year. All these people like Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity towing the line of the official narrative never get near an actual citizen. I do so every day all day – and I am telling you that is just not going to fly.

3). The idea of mandating vaccination in this unsure environment is really a sign of the medical establishment not realizing the position they are in. I just got off the phone with the nurse taking care of my patients in the hospital. One of the CNAs told the charge nurse she would not be back tomorrow. She quit. The stress is already overwhelming and now this. My hospital has already had its little mandate attempt – and it ended in disaster for the administration. So they tried the humiliation and loss of privileges approach – and people are quitting in the droves. I am sorry to say – this could literally cripple some of our hospitals far better than a crush of COVID patients. And at this juncture, unless more evidence comes to the fore, universal enforced vaccination does not make much sense medically.

Why In The World Did The CDC Stop Tracking mRNA Neo-Vaccinoid Breakthrough Cases?

bloomberg  |  The U.S. agency leading the fight against Covid-19 gave up a crucial surveillance tool tracking the effectiveness of vaccines just as a troublesome new variant of the virus was emerging. 

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped comprehensively tracking what are known as vaccine breakthrough cases in May, the consequences of that choice are only now beginning to show.

At the time, the agency had identified only 10,262 cases across the U.S. where a fully vaccinated person had tested positive for Covid. Most people who got infected after vaccination showed few symptoms, and appeared to be at low risk of infecting others. 

But in the months since, the number of vaccine breakthrough cases has grown, as has the risk that they present. And while the CDC has stopped tracking such cases, many states have not. Bloomberg gathered data from 35 states and identified 111,748 vaccine breakthrough cases through the end of July, more than 10 times the CDC’s end-of-April tally.

With more than 164 million Americans vaccinated, breakthrough cases are expected. The number of them should rise as more people are vaccinated, simply because there are more vaccinated people who could get infected. While a similarly small proportion of vaccine breakthroughs was seen in clinical trials of the shots, state health officials said it was important to know how many are happening, how severe they are, and if they’re getting more common. 

The CDC said when it announced the change in May that it would continue to collect data on breakthrough cases if the infections resulted in hospitalization or death — a rare occurrence, since vaccines provide significant protection. The decision to stop tracking non-severe cases was made to “help maximize the quality of the data collected on cases of greatest clinical and public health importance,” the agency says on its website.

But that decision to follow not track mild or asymptomatic cases is now being questioned, including by state officials dealing with the virus on the front lines. 

At the same time the CDC stopped tracking those cases, the delta variant began to spread in the U.S. Small numbers of delta-variant cases were identified in mid-April. The strain began to take over in some parts of the country in June, then exploded nationally in July.

It now makes up the vast majority of cases, in part because it is more contagious than prior strains. New waves of Covid cases have caused a surge in hospitalizations in the South among unvaccinated people, and led the Biden administration and states to push for vaccine mandates. 

“When I saw CDC was going to stop tracking vaccinated people who get infected, my heart sank,” said Charity Dean, who helped lead California’s response to Covid as the state health department’s assistant director. “We lost our shot at being able to characterize how this variant is moving through the population and how new variants might emerge.”

If You Say Goodbye To Persuasion Get Ready For Serious Resistance

thehill |  We are now entering the “coerced consent" stage. Unable to persuade or purchase consent, many are arguing to make it difficult to be gainfully employed or functionally active without proof of vaccination. It is a type of de facto pandemic passport. After indicating the administration was considering a federal vaccine mandate, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said this week, “I was referring to mandates by private institutions and portions of the federal government. There will be no federal mandate.”

Unwilling to face the legal or political challenges of mandating a vaccination program, the Biden administration has actively encouraged companies to bar unvaccinated people from planes, restaurants and other venues. The danger is that using companies to censor opposing views and restrict people can amount to a type of government-by-surrogate, a shadow state. 

There clearly are good reasons why many companies and schools demand vaccinations to rejoin workplaces or classrooms. As expected, those rules have been upheld, including a recent favorable ruling for Indiana University.

More concerning are those calls to use mandates to make life miserable for anyone who still has doubts. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her citizens that they will have fewer “freedoms” until they consent. Some in the media have echoed these calls, and some private organizations are following the same strategy. The NFL, for example, has been openly making life “a living hell” for NFL players who prefer to be tested but not vaccinated.

For the most part, the motivation behind government and private mandates are hard to litigate. Courts tend to defer to measures ostensibly protecting others from risk of illness; even in criminal cases, the government has been allowed to conduct “pretextual traffic stops” if it can cite an objective basis.

There may be new legal challenges ahead, however. First, those with religious or medical concerns can challenge mandated vaccination programs. CNN’s Don Lemon this week called for barring unvaccinated people from offices and businesses, insisting “It has nothing to do with liberty. You don’t have the freedom and the liberty to put other people in jeopardy." In truth, there are constitutional questions when you force people to take medications or vaccinations that violate their religious beliefs or that fail to satisfy a rational basis.

States also are moving to counter private mandates or to bar mandatory masking rules; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) just signed an executive order allowing parents to ignore masking orders for their children in the state’s public schools. That could force the hand of the Biden administration on implementing federal mandates or executive orders — a conflict that would raise core federalism issues.

The federal government is on shaky ground in mandating hood behavior or inactivity. In 2012 in NFIB v. Sebelius, Chief Justice John Roberts declared that “Construing the Commerce Clause to permit Congress to regulate individuals precisely because they are doing nothing would open a new and potentially vast domain to congressional authority.”

 

Why Do Elites And Their Political Flunkies Insist On 100% Vaccination Rates?

alt-market |  But why do they want 100% vaccination? Why are they so desperate for every single person in the world to get the mRNA jab?

After all, the average (IFR) death rate of covid is a mere 0.26% of those infected (this is a stat that the media consistently and deliberately refuses to mention to the public). This means that 99.7% of the public is in NO danger from covid whether they are vaccinated or not.

Do the vaccines ensure better odds? Well, according to recent statistics from Massachusetts, not necessarily, as they report over 5100 infections and 80 deaths of fully vaccinated patients. The media keeps telling us that only the unvaccinated are dying, but this is a lie, like so many other lies they have been peddling when it comes to covid. So, what’s the point of taking an experimental vaccine if the death rate of the virus is so low and the jab doesn’t necessarily protect you anyway?

There is no point. The science and the stats do not support it. The vaccines can’t even be credited with the decline in infections and deaths this year; the numbers plunged in January – Only 5% of the population was vaccinated by February. The only explanation for this is that the population hit herd immunity many months ago. Remember when governments said that they needed 70% herd immunity or vaccination to stop the lockdowns and mandates? The goalposts have been moves several times and the government “science” changes monthly. Now they claim herd immunity doesn’t matter and demand 100% vaccination.

We must ask the question again – Why the relentless government push for total vaccine saturation? It’s not saving lives, and the mandates remain regardless, so why?

I can only posit theories based on the evidence at hand, but I think it’s clear to most of us that the vaccines are NOT about public health nor are they about saving lives. They are obviously about something else…

As numerous virology and vaccine experts have warned over the past year, there is a great risk of harmful health side effects when it comes to experimental mRNA technology. Even one of the creators of mRNA vaccines has suggested that there are dangers in rolling out these gene manipulation cocktails without more testing. Of note are concerns about longer term disorders such as autoimmune disorders and infertility.

The mainstream media and the globalists will argue that there is “no evidence” that the mRNA vaccines will cause deadly side effects or infertility. I would argue back that there is NO EVIDENCE that they are safe. Most vaccines are tested over the course of 10-15 years before they are released to the public for use. The covid vaccines were unleashed on the public within months. Honestly, I have no intention of acting as a guinea pig for an untested vaccine.

But what if the elites know exactly what the side effects will be? What if the vaccines are a pivotal part of their “Great Reset?”

The infertility question in particular is drawing the most fire from the establishment, and I would point out a particularly insidious narrative being implanted in the media. Whenever people question the chance of sterility caused by the vaccines, bureaucrats and media talking heads go on the attack, and then say “There’s no evidence that the vaccines cause infertility, but Covid-19 might cause it…

And there you have it. The stage is being set, in my view, for a mass infertility event, and covid will be blamed in place of the experimental vaccines. This is why the establishment needs a 100% vaccination rate; unvaccinated people would stand as evidence of their crime. Let me explain…

My concern is that Klaus Schwab’s reset agenda is impossible to enforce in a permanent way unless the human population is greatly reduced over a short period of time (a generation or two). Globalists are constantly talking about population control and reduction. Elites like Bill Gates are famous for it. Is it any wonder that they would devise a plan to institute it?

What if, as many experts have suggested, the vaccine side effects create this condition of a diminishing population? What if they are meant to? We will not know for certain for a couple of years at least as autoimmune disorders and infertility take time to become visible in a population. The average timeline for actually diagnosing an autoimmune disorder is 4.5 years. Infertility can take six months to a year to diagnose.

If a large population of millions of people remain unvaccinated after the next couple of years, then they will represent a sizable and undeniable control group. A control group is a group of subjects that act as a pure sample untouched by a drug or vaccine experiment. If the vaccinated group becomes ill or dies from specific conditions and the control group does not have those same conditions, then that is a pretty good sign that your vaccine or drug is poison.

The 50% of Americans and smaller percentages in other nations are a control group for the experimental vaccines. If something goes wrong with the vaccines, then we will be the proof. I suspect this is what the elites are really afraid of.

 

Loose Lips Sink Ships Doctors..., Time To STFU And Toe The Party Line!!!

fsmb  |  The Federation of State Medical Boards’ Board of Directors released the following statement in response to a dramatic increase in the dissemination of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and disinformation by physicians and other health care professionals on social media platforms, online and in the media:

“Physicians who generate and spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation or disinformation are risking disciplinary action by state medical boards, including the suspension or revocation of their medical license. Due to their specialized knowledge and training, licensed physicians possess a high degree of public trust and therefore have a powerful platform in society, whether they recognize it or not. They also have an ethical and professional responsibility to practice medicine in the best interests of their patients and must share information that is factual, scientifically grounded and consensus-driven for the betterment of public health. Spreading inaccurate COVID-19 vaccine information contradicts that responsibility, threatens to further erode public trust in the medical profession and puts all patients at risk.”

For more information about how state medical boards and the FSMB are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, visit FSMB’s webpage dedicated to providing resources and information to states and the public about COVID-19.

About the Federation of State Medical Boards:
The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) is a national non-profit organization representing the medical boards within the United States and its territories that license and discipline allopathic and osteopathic physicians and, in some jurisdictions, other health care professionals. The FSMB serves as the voice for state medical boards, supporting them through education, assessment, research and advocacy while providing services and initiatives that promote patient safety, quality health care and regulatory best practices. The FSMB serves the public through Docinfo.org, a free physician search tool which provides background information on the more than 1 million doctors in the United States. To learn more about the FSMB, visit www.fsmb.org. and follow the FSMB on Twitter (@theFSMB).

"Vaccine" Mandates In The Face Of Unprecedented Death And Adverse Events...,

freedomalliance |  Dear Dr. Raine,  

RE: Urgent preliminary report of Yellow Card data up to 26th May 2021

As the Director of the Evidence-based Medicine Consultancy Ltd and EbMC Squared CiC, I am writing to share with you this urgent preliminary report on the Yellow Card data up to 26th May 2021. Please note that EbMC Squared CiC is a Community Interest Company that conducts research mandated by the public and funded by public donations. We have no conflicts of interest and do not engage in industry-funded work.

The MHRA describes the purpose of its Yellow Card system as providing “an early warning that the safety of a medicine or a medical device may require further investigation. It is important for people to report problems experienced with medicines or medical devices as these are used to identify issues which might not have been previously known about.”1

Furthermore, the MHRA recognises that the conditions under which medicines are studied in clinical trials do not reflect how the medicines will be used in hospitals or clinical practice once they are rolled out. This means that some adverse drug reactions “may not be seen until a very large number of people
have received the medicine.”

The Covid-19 vaccines were rolled out in the UK on the 8th of December 2020. As of the 6th May 2021 nearly 39 million people have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and 24 million both doses. Sufficient data have now accumulated to get a good overview of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). I would, therefore, like to draw your attention to the high number of covid-19 vaccine-attributed deaths and ADRs that have been reported via the Yellow Card system between the 4th January 2021 and the 26th May 2021. In total, 1,253 deaths and 888,196 ADRs (256,224 individual reports) were reported during this period.

To facilitate a better clinical understanding of the nature of the adverse events occurring, primarily to inform doctors at the frontline, we have searched the Yellow Card reports using pathology-specific key words to group the data according to the following five broad, clinically relevant categories:

A. Bleeding, Clotting and Ischaemic ADRs
B. Immune System ADRs
C. ‘Pain’ ADRs
D. Neurological ADRs
E. ADRs involving loss of Sight, Hearing, Speech or Smell
F. Pregnancy ADRs

After running each search, we entered the results into an Excel spreadsheet, excluding ADRs that were clearly irrelevant or appeared in duplicate. These spreadsheets will be used going forward to facilitate the weekly monitoring of Yellow Card data. We recognise that keywords may need expanding to capture category relevant ADRs that may have been missed in this preliminary ADR scope and analysis.

In The Empire Of Lies Truth Is Treason

jonathanturley |  Just yesterday, we discussed the censoring of a commentator by Twitter for merely expressing an opinion over the need for a “pause” on any federal mandates on Covid-19 as new research is studied. Now, a former New York Times science reporter, Alex Berenson, has been suspended for simply citing the results from a clinical trial by Pfizer and raising questions over any vaccine mandate. In the meantime, the White House accused both the Washington Post and New York Times of irresponsible reporting on Covid, but surprisingly Twitter has not suspended those accounts.  It is the license of the censor.  Twitter is unwilling to let people read or discuss viewpoints that it disagrees with as a corporation. Many on the left, however, have embraced the concept of corporate speech and censorship.

NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE. TWITTER PULLED THE MISLEADING TAG FROM LAST NIGHT’S POST ABOUT THE @PFIZER DEATH DATA.

The times, they are a changin’ pic.twitter.com/6bTtzotEIH

— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) July 30, 2021

It turns out that the problem with censorship for many was the failure to censor views that they opposed. With the “right” censors at work, the free speech concerns have been set aside.

Berenson has been effectively confined to Substack by Big Tech due to his discussing dissenting views on the science surrounding Covid-19. His latest offense against Big Tech came when he posted the results published by Pfizer of its own clinical data. He claimed that the research showed little difference in mortality between those in the trial with a vaccine and those given a placebo.

The rise of corporate censors has combined with a heavily pro-Biden media to create the fear of a de facto state media that controls information due to a shared ideology rather than state coercion.  That concern has been magnified by demands from Democratic leaders for increased censorship, including censoring political speech, and now word that the Biden Administration has routinely been flagging material to be censored by Facebook.

A Sane Society Would Take A Pause - Cornpop Censors Such Suggestions Via Corporate Proxy...,

jonathanturley |  I recently discussed how the Biden Administration was actively encouraging corporations to limit speech and impose vaccine mandates as a type of shadow state. Rather than take such actions directly ( and face both legal and political challenges), the Administration is relying on its close alliance with Big Tech and other companies to carry out such tasks. That surrogate relationship is particularly clear in the expanding censorship program carried out by Twitter, Facebook and other companies. Twitter’s action against political commentator Dave Rubin is an example of how these companies are now dispensing with any pretense in actively barring criticism of government policies and viewpoints.

Rubin was locked out under the common “misinformation” claim by Twitter. However, his tweet was an opinion based on demonstrably true facts. One can certainly disagree with the conclusion but this is an example of core political speech being curtailed by a company with a long history of biased censorship, including the barring of discussions involving Hunter Biden’s laptop before the election.  With a new election looming, these companies appear to be ramping up their censorship efforts.

In his tweet, Rubin stated:

“They want a federal vaccine mandate for vaccines which are clearly not working as promised just weeks ago. People are getting and transmitting Covid despite vax. Plus now they’re prepping us for booster shots. A sane society would take a pause. We do not live in a sane society.”

Even President Biden admitted yesterday that he was wrong weeks ago when he assured people that if they took the vaccine, they would not be at risk for the variants and could dispense with their masks. There are breakthrough cases that have taken many officials by surprise. It is also true that there is now talk of likely booster shots.

Rubin takes those facts and adds his opinion that we should “take a pause.” Twitter declared that to be a violation of its policy “on spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.”

Parseltongue Psaki Pushing Private-Sector Vaccine Mandate And Passport Enforcement

thehill |  Teddy Roosevelt gave a speech in 1902, “The Control of Corporations,” which warned of the danger of corporate power over citizens’ lives. Calling corporations “creatures of the state,” he said they must be controlled by “the representatives of the public.” Roosevelt was a Republican, but his distrust of corporations (and his later faith in big government) would become a touchstone of Democratic politics for generations, from the Great Depression to the Great Society.

Like the reversal of Earth’s magnetic poles, American politics now seems suddenly to have flipped: Democratic leaders increasingly advocate for corporate governance while Republicans voice populist themes. From supporting the largest censorship programs in history to privately mandated vaccine “passports,” liberals are looking to companies like Apple or American Airlines to carry out social programs free from constitutional and political limits imposed on the government.

This new model of governance was evident when White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about a mandated vaccine passport system. She responded that it is “not currently the role of the federal government" but noted that the administration hopes to see such a mandate from “private-sector entities, universities, institutions that are starting to mandate, and that’s an innovative step that they will take and they should take.”

This use of corporations is born out of political and legal convenience. Despite the rising call for mandatory vaccinations, the Biden administration clearly is not willing to face the political costs of a government mandate. As of July 11, 159,266,536 Americans were fully vaccinated — 48 percent of the country’s population. When you consider the extremely high rate of vaccination for those over 65 (an estimated 85 percent), the percentage of adults under 65 is even smaller. That is a lot of voters who would not take well to a government mandate before the 2022 election. Moreover, the Supreme Court upheld a mandatory state vaccine in 1905, but any federal mandate could face constitutional challenges.

Private companies, however, have great leeway in dictating such conditions. So some, like CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen, have called for coercive measures making it “hard for people to remain unvaccinated.” That coercion would come from private companies which would deny people access to travel, restaurants, movies, schools and other aspects of modern life. Thus, as with Psaki’s statement, the Biden White House is signaling private companies to implement such a national passport system.

And companies are listening.

Commander Cornpop's Hapless CDC Minion Doing The mRNA Mandate Shuffle....,

dailymail |  Joe Biden on Friday night told Americans to expect more COVID-19 restrictions but the White House has said new lockdowns were unlikely

Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, said on Friday afternoon that a federal vaccine mandate was being considered 

On Friday night, she tweeted: 'To clarify: There will be no nationwide mandate. I was referring to mandates by private institutions and portions of the federal government. There will be no federal mandate'

.@BerkeleyJr To clarify: There will be no nationwide mandate. I was referring to mandates by private institutions and portions of the federal government. There will be no federal mandate.

— Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH (@CDCDirector) July 30, 2021

Her backtracking will add to concern about the disjointed and chaotic messaging regarding the pandemic

On Thursday Biden said it was 'a question' whether a federal vaccine mandate could be enforced; shortly after his COVID advisor went on CNN and said it was 'not an authority that we're exploring at all' 

Multiple private sector employers, plus some state and federal agencies, have started bringing in rules making vaccines mandatory, to avoid regular testing 

On Tuesday the CDC made a U-turn and recommended once again face masks

On May 18 the CDC had announced that face masks were no longer necessary

Biden spoke on Friday after CDC published the data in which is claimed that the Indian 'Delta' variant is significantly more of a threat  

It claimed that fully vaccinated people are able to spread the virus

The report looked at the case of Provincetown, in Cape Cod, where 469 COVID-19 cases were identified among Massachusetts residents between July 3 and July 17, including 346 fully vaccinated people

There were no deaths among fully vaccinated people, and only four hospitalizations - with two of those patients having pre-existing conditions  

 

Kenneth Copeland Got More Credibility Than The Covid "Science Authori-TEHS"...,

WaPo  |  The delta variant of the coronavirus appears to cause more severe illness than earlier variants and spreads as easily as chickenpox, according to an internal federal health document that argues officials must “acknowledge the war has changed.”

The document is an internal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention slide presentation, shared within the CDC and obtained by The Washington Post. It captures the struggle of the nation’s top public health agency to persuade the public to embrace vaccination and prevention measures, including mask-wearing, as cases surge across the United States and new research suggests vaccinated people can spread the virus.

The document strikes an urgent note, revealing the agency knows it must revamp its public messaging to emphasize vaccination as the best defense against a variant so contagious that it acts almost like a different novel virus, leaping from target to target more swiftly than Ebola or the common cold.

⚠️Holy Mother—the worst CDC #DeltaVariant report ever:

📌MORE CONTAGIOUS than Smallpox*

📌DOUBLE transmission of Wuhan 1.0*

📌MORE SEVERE than ever*

📌 Vaccinated can transmit* & breakthrough viral loads ~ unvaxxed.

➡️*Ever item I have warned before🧵https://t.co/dN6abWQp1W pic.twitter.com/Xf01KdQKes

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) July 30, 2021

It cites a combination of recently obtained, still-unpublished data from outbreak investigations and outside studies showing that vaccinated individuals infected with delta may be able to transmit the virus as easily as those who are unvaccinated. Vaccinated people infected with delta have measurable viral loads similar to those who are unvaccinated and infected with the variant.

“I finished reading it significantly more concerned than when I began,” Robert Wachter, chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, wrote in an email.

CDC scientists were so alarmed by the new research that the agency earlier this week significantly changed guidance for vaccinated people even before making new data public.

The data and studies cited in the document played a key role in revamped recommendations that call for everyone — vaccinated or not — to wear masks indoors in public settings in certain circumstances, a federal health official said. That official told The Post that the data will be published in full on Friday. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky privately briefed members of Congress on Thursday, drawing on much of the material in the document.

One of the slides states that there is a higher risk among older age groups for hospitalization and death relative to younger people, regardless of vaccination status. Another estimates that there are 35,000 symptomatic infections per week among 162 million vaccinated Americans.

The document outlines “communication challenges” fueled by cases in vaccinated people, including concerns from local health departments about whether coronavirus vaccines remain effective and a “public convinced vaccines no longer work/booster doses needed.”

The presentation highlights the daunting task the CDC faces. It must continue to emphasize the proven efficacy of the vaccines at preventing severe illness and death while acknowledging milder breakthrough infections may not be so rare after all, and that vaccinated individuals are transmitting the virus. The agency must move the goal posts of success in full public view.

 

Fully Vaccinated P-Town Poof-Dahs Done Phukked Up The Whole Elite Vaccine Narrative...,

abcnews  |  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.

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.

Before Provincetown, health officials had been operating under the assumption that it was extraordinarily rare for a vaccinated person to become infected with the virus. And if they did, they probably wouldn't end up passing it on to others, such as children too young to qualify for the vaccine or people who were medically vulnerable.

The idea that vaccines halt transmission of the virus was largely behind the CDC's decision in May suggesting vaccinated people could safely go without their masks indoors and in crowds, even if others were unvaccinated.But that assumption had been based on studies of earlier versions of the virus. Delta was known for its "hyper-transmissibility," or as one former White House adviser put it "COVID on steroids.

"What has changed is the virus," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert and Biden's chief medical adviser.

When a vaccinated person gets infected with delta -- called a "breakthrough infection" -- "the level of virus in their nasopharynx is about 1,000 times higher than with the alpha variant," Fauci said in an interview Wednesday with MSNBC.

All indications now are that the Provincetown outbreak investigation is among the pieces of new evidence behind the CDC's decision to ask Americans to once again put on their masks indoors, even if they are vaccinated.

 

 

Leana Wen Is So Viscerally Repulsive She MUST BE A Patsy Anti-Asian Judas Goat ....,

WaPo  | Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first came out with its misguided policy to lift masking requirements in May, I have been calling on it to reverse course. On Tuesday, it did, but the new guidance remains just as confusing and the communication just as muddled.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky explained in a press briefing that in light of emerging data, the agency is recommending that vaccinated people wear masks indoors again in areas of high covid-19 transmission. Walensky cited unpublished research showing that vaccinated people who become infected with the delta variant carry a similar amount of virus to those who are unvaccinated and infected. This change in the science was the impetus for the new guidance, because it suggests that vaccinated people could be carriers and therefore capable of spreading the coronavirus to family members who are unvaccinated or immunocompromised.

That’s certainly important information for many Americans to know. As the mom of two children too young to be vaccinated, I have already been taking precautions to reduce my risk of being an asymptomatic carrier and unknowingly infecting my kids. I never stopped wearing a mask in grocery stores, hotel lobbies and other indoor, crowded spaces where I don’t know others’ vaccination status. My concern is that the unvaccinated could be a danger to me, and even though I’m well-protected from becoming severely ill myself, there’s still a chance I could contract the coronavirus and bring it back to my vulnerable family members.

On an individual level, the CDC guidance that people in my circumstance mask up is correct. But does it make sense for local governments and businesses to implement mask mandates because of the risk posed by or to the vaccinated? That’s what the new guidance implies, even though it’s contradicted by the CDC’s own data. During the same press briefing, Walensky said the vaccinated are 20 times more protected than the unvaccinated from becoming severely ill, and seven times more protected from having mild symptoms. She made clear that the vast majority of transmission appears to be from the unvaccinated and that “vaccinated individuals continue to represent a very small amount of transmission occurring around the country.”

That leaves many people wondering what’s actually going on here. If the vaccinated aren’t the problem, why are they being punished by having to put on masks again? If most transmission is happening because of the unvaccinated, then why is the CDC saying that the guidance is evolving because the science changed about transmission risk of the vaccinated?

 

STL's Replacement Negroe Epidemiologist Can't Peddle His BS To Rowdy STL Crowd...,

stltoday  |  St. Louis County’s acting health director says the rumor is true: He gave someone the middle finger on his way out of the council meeting on the mask mandate Tuesday night.

But in a letter to County Councilwoman Rita Heard Days sent Wednesday, Dr. Faisal Khan said he did it after a string of racist provocations from Republican politicians like Councilman Tim Fitch and a boisterously anti-mask audience pushed him past his limit.

“I have never been subjected to the racist, xenophobic and threatening behavior that greeted me in the County Council meeting last night,” he wrote, after noting he’s been in public health for 25 years.

Fitch and others blamed for stoking racism and xenophobia dismissed Khan’s allegations as baseless. Fitch also said Khan was trying to provide political cover for County Executive Sam Page, who called for the mask mandate.

“The entire letter is another desperate attempt at deflection and diversion by Sam Page,” Fitch said in an interview. “Dr. Khan knew he was in trouble for (giving the middle finger) and this was an opportunity to put that on someone else.”

Khan appeared at the meeting as the council was considering a move to terminate the mask mandate as unlawful and unnecessary, which it would do despite the rising threat of the delta variant. During the debate, dozens of people, some of whom held signs with anti-mask messages, filled the council chambers to cheer on the action and jeer the mandate’s defenders.

Khan said the trouble began as soon as he took the podium with a “dog-whistle” question from Fitch, looking to emphasize Khan’s foreign background.

As he spoke, Khan said he also endured harassment from Republican politicians Paul Berry and Mark McCloskey, who sat close behind him in the audience.

Berry was an unsuccessful candidate for county executive in 2020; McCloskey, who is running for U.S. Senate, gained notoriety with his wife, Patricia, for brandishing firearms at protesters last year. Both McCloskeys attended the council meeting.

Vaccination Breakthrough Cases Resolving Into Long-Covid And Deadlier Variants

npr  |  There's more potentially worrisome news for vaccinated people: In very rare cases, people experiencing breakthrough infections may be at risk for long-COVID symptoms.

That's according to a small new study of fully vaccinated health care workers in Israel, published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Data from Israel pic.twitter.com/Qmu4ZDtN7a

— Irene Tosetti (@itosettiMD_MBA) July 10, 2021

The study confirmed what's already known: That it's very rare for fully vaccinated people to get infected or sick with COVID-19. But it also found lingering COVID symptoms did develop in a handful of breakthrough cases.

Researchers studied 1,497 vaccinated health care workers at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel. Among them, only 39 got infected despite their inoculations. Of those, seven — or about 19% — developed symptoms that lasted at least six weeks, including headaches, muscle pain, loss of taste and smell and fatigue.

"It's really disturbing," says Dr. Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the infection, prevention and control unit with the Sheba Medical Center and an author of the study.

"If this is what we're going to see with all of the even mildly symptomatic infections that we're seeing now, it's definitely worrisome," she says.

New data suggests that fully vaccinated individuals are not just contracting COVID, but could be carrying higher levels of virus than previously understood, facilitating spread, my NBC News colleagues are reporting. New indoor masking guidance expected today.

— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) July 27, 2021

Regev-Yochay and others stress that the results need to be confirmed by additional research involving many more patients who are followed for much longer. It could be a false alarm, the symptoms could be much rarer, or they could resolve far more quickly than the months of symptoms that typically plague those suffering from long COVID.

Experts stress that vaccination remains highly effective at preventing the most severe consequences of infection: hospitalization and death.

Nevertheless, other researchers agree the findings are cause for additional investigation.

"We had hoped that when you get vaccinated and even if you did have a breakthrough infection you would have enough of an immune response that would block this protracted symptom complex now known as long COVID," says Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research.

Why Is The FDA Attacking A Safe Effective Drug While Approving Hot Garbage?

 WSJ  |  The Food and Drug Administration claims to follow the science. So why is it attacking ivermectin, a medication it certified in 1996?

Earlier this year the agency put out a special warning that “you should not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19.” The FDA’s statement included words and phrases such as “serious harm,” “hospitalized,” “dangerous,” “very dangerous,” “seizures,” “coma and even death” and “highly toxic.” Any reader would think the FDA was warning against poison pills. In fact, the drug is FDA-approved as a safe and effective antiparasitic.

Ivermectin was developed and marketed by Merck & Co. while one of us (Mr. Hooper) worked there years ago. William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering and developing avermectin, which Mr. Campbell and associates modified to create ivermectin. 

Ivermectin is on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines. Merck has donated four billion doses to prevent river blindness and other diseases in Africa and other places where parasites are common. A group of 10 doctors who call themselves the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance have said ivermectin is “one of the safest, low-cost, and widely available drugs in the history of medicine."

Ivermectin fights 21 viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the cause of Covid-19. A single dose reduced the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in cells by 99.8% in 24 hours and 99.98% in 48 hours, according to a June 2020 study published in the journal Antiviral Research.

Some 70 clinical trials are evaluating the use of ivermectin for treating Covid-19. The statistically significant evidence suggests that it is safe and works for both treating and preventing the disease. 

In 115 patients with Covid-19 who received a single dose of ivermectin, none developed pneumonia or cardiovascular complications, while 11.4% of those in the control group did. Fewer ivermectin patients developed respiratory distress (2.6% vs. 15.8%); fewer required oxygen (9.6% vs. 45.9%); fewer required antibiotics (15.7% vs. 60.2%); and fewer entered intensive care (0.1% vs. 8.3%). Ivermectin-treated patients tested negative faster, in four days instead of 15, and stayed in the hospital nine days on average instead of 15. Ivermectin patients experienced 13.3% mortality compared with 24.5% in the control group.

Moreover, the drug can help prevent Covid-19. One 2020 article in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications looked at what happened after the drug was given to family members of confirmed Covid-19 patients. Less than 8% became infected, versus 58.4% of those untreated.

 

Republicans Reject Pelosi's Mask Mandate

WaPo  |  “We always just follow the guidance of the Capitol physician. There is no discussion about should we do it, should we not for one reason or another,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters. “It’s the decision of the Capitol physician, who is following the guidance of the CDC about the masks.”

McCarthy (R-Calif.) joined Republicans in deriding the new mask mandate despite concerns from public health officials that the delta variant poses a renewed threat to the public, particularly because of the refusal of many people in areas represented by Republicans to get vaccinated.

“Make no mistake — The threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state,” McCarthy tweeted shortly after Monahan sent his email Tuesday night.

Asked Wednesday morning by NBC News about McCarthy’s comment, Pelosi responded: “He’s such a moron.”

 

She declined to repeat that barbed criticism later at a news conference but stood by her assessment of the House minority leader’s comments.

“To say that wearing a mask is not based on science, I think is not wise,” she said. “And that was my comment. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.”

CDC says fully vaccinated Americans no longer need masks indoors or outdoors in many cases

McCarthy said he wanted more answers from Pelosi about the guidance.

“Well, she’s so brilliant. Can she tell me where the science in the building changes between the House and the Senate?” McCarthy asked Wednesday, listing several other questions he had about the new CDC guidance. “So a lot of questions. If she knows so much science, explain to me where the science changes in the rotunda.”

Later in the day, Republicans met with Monahan to voice their concerns about his decision. In the meeting, which lasted about one hour, numerous members asked the Capitol physician why he would institute a mandate if D.C. has a lower transmission rate than most cities. Monahan responded that the Capitol complex should be seen as a different entity given how many people who travel to and from different parts of the country interact with one another, according to two Republican aides in the room who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private meeting.

Republicans left the meeting saying they were unconvinced by Monahan’s arguments for wearing a mask. Many cited a claim made by Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Tex.) that the CDC based its new guidance on a study based in India that failed a peer-review process. But the CDC has not yet released the specific data it relied on to come to its decision, making it unclear how Republicans would know what data was used for the guidance or why they expressed certitude that the decision was based on a study related to India.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has said the agency reviewed outbreak investigations in the United States as part of its evaluation.

Political Management Of The Oligarchic Gerontocracy Is Fed Up With Disobediant/Non-Compliant Pissants...,

taibbi  |  On This Week With George Stephanopoulos this past Sunday, a gathering of Washington poo-bahs including Chris Christie, Rahm Emmanuel, Margaret Hoover, and Donna Brazile — Stephanopoulos calls the segment his “Powerhouse Roundtable,” which to my ear sounds like a Denny’s breakfast sampler, but I guess he couldn’t name it Four Hated Windbags — discussed vaccine holdouts. The former George W. Bush and Giuliani aide Hoover said it was time to stop playing nice:

If you’re going to get government-provided health care, if you’re getting VA treatment, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, anything — and Social Security obviously isn’t health care — you should be getting the vaccine. Okay? Because we are going to have to take care of you on the back end.

Brazile nodded sagely, but Emmanuel all but gushed cartoon hearts.

“You know, I’m having an out of body experience, because I agree with you,” said Obama’s former hatchet man, before adding, over the chyron, FRUSTRATION MOUNTS WITH UNVACCINATED AMERICANS:

I would close the space in. Meaning if you want to participate in X or Y activity, you gotta show you’re vaccinated. So it becomes a reward-punishment type system, and you make your own calculation.

This bipartisan love-in took place a few days after David Frum, famed Bush speechwriter and creator of the “Axis of Evil” slogan, wrote a column in The Atlantic entitled “Vaccinated America Has Had Enough.” In it, Frum wondered:

Does Biden’s America have a breaking point? Biden’s America produces 70 percent of the country’s wealth — and then sees that wealth transferred to support Trump’s America. Which is fine; that’s what citizens of one nation do for one another… [But] the reciprocal part of the bargain is not being upheld…

Will Blue America ever decide it’s had enough of being put medically at risk by people and places whose bills it pays? Check yourself. Have you?

I’m vaccinated. I think people should be vaccinated. But this latest moral mania — and make no mistake about it, the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” PR campaign is the latest in a ceaseless series of such manias, dating back to late 2016 — lays bare everything that’s abhorrent and nonsensical in modern American politics, beginning with the no-longer-disguised aristocratic mien of the Washington consensus. If you want to convince people to get a vaccine, pretty much the worst way to go about it is a massive blame campaign, delivered by sneering bluenoses who have a richly deserved credibility problem with large chunks of the population, and now insist they’re owed financially besides.

There’s always been a contingent in American society that believes people who pay more taxes should get more say, or “more votes,” as Joseph Heller’s hilarious Texan put it. It’s a conceit that cut across party. You hear it from the bank CEO who thinks America should thank him for the pleasure of kissing his ass with a bailout, but just as quickly from the suburban wine Mom who can’t believe the ingratitude of the nanny who asks for a day off. Doesn’t she know who’s paying the bills? The delusion can run so deep that people like Margaret Hoover can talk themselves into the idea that Social Security — money taxpayers lend the government, not the other way around — is actually a gift from the check-writing class.

In the last decade or so I had the misfortune of watching this phenomenon rise within both parties. After 2008, the “We’re pulling the oars, so we should steer the boat” argument dominated the GOP. Offshoots of Ayn Rand-ian thinking about ubermenschen producers and their dubious obligation to society’s masses of parasitic looters provided talking points both for TARP recipients (who insisted America needed to be invested not just in their survival but their prosperity) and the Tea Party. Remember Rick Santelli on CNBC, calling for a referendum on whether or not we should “subsidize the losers’ mortgages” or whether we should “reward the people who carry the water, instead of drink the water”?

Why The Utter Stagnation And Suppression Of Covid19 Treatment Protocols?

 

WSJ  |  Nearly a year and a half into the pandemic, researchers are still struggling to find effective, easy-to-use drugs to treat Covid-19.

Ten drugs have been cleared or recommended in the U.S. for use. Two of those later had their authorizations rescinded after they failed to work. The government recently paused shipments of a third because it wasn’t effective against new variants. The best medicines for early treatment are cumbersome to administer, and drugs for those in the hospital can only do so much for patients who are already severely ill.

“We’re really limited, to be honest,” says Daniel Griffin, chief of infectious disease at healthcare provider network ProHealth New York. “We do not have any dramatic treatments.”

A long list of factors played into the checkered development of drugs to treat Covid-19 cases—exposing flaws in the infrastructure of medical research and healthcare, particularly in fighting a fast-moving pandemic.

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 among the unvaccinated. Vaccination drives are slowing in many countries, and poorer countries face a shortage of doses. No vaccine is 100% effective against Covid-19.

The Biden administration recently said it would spend $3.2 billion to support the development of Covid-19 antiviral pills.

Current clinical trials are evaluating more than 225 drug treatments, including new medicines as well as already-approved ones for conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and gout, to see if they might also be effective against Covid-19, according to data from the Milken Institute, a nonprofit think tank.

A few potential Covid-19 therapies in development have shown promise. Merck & Co. and Pfizer Inc. are each testing antiviral pills that could be taken at home soon after someone is infected. Merck’s widely anticipated pill, which it is developing with partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, hit a setback in April when it failed to help hospitalized patients. Researchers are still studying its effectiveness among the newly infected.

Government-funded researchers in the U.S. and U.K. recently began large studies of ivermectin—an antiparasitic pill used for decades to treat river blindness in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Natural Immune Response To SARS-Cov2 Is Forever...,

Nature |  Generating immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is of the utmost importance for bringing the COVID-19 pandemic under control, protecting vulnerable individuals from severe disease and limiting viral spread. Our immune systems protect against SARS-CoV-2 either through a sophisticated reaction to infection or in response to vaccination. A key question is, how long does this immunity last? Writing in Nature, Turner et al.¹ and Wang et al.² characterize human immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection over the course of a year.

There is ongoing discussion about which aspects of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 provide hallmarks of immunity (in other words, correlates of immunological protection). However, there is probably a consensus that the two main pillars of an antiviral response are immune cells called cytotoxic T cells, which can selectively eliminate infected cells, and neutralizing antibodies, a type of antibody that prevents a virus from infecting cells, and that is secreted by immune cells called plasma cells. A third pillar of an effective immune response would be the generation of T helper cells, which are specific for the virus and coordinate the immune reaction. Crucially, these latter cells are required for generating immunological memory — in particular, for orchestrating the emergence of long-lived plasma cells³, which continue to secrete antiviral antibodies even when the virus has gone.

Immunological memory is not a long-lasting version of the immediate immune reaction to a particular virus; rather, it is a distinct aspect of the immune system. In the memory phase of an immune response, B and T cells that are specific for a virus are maintained in a state of dormancy, but are poised to spring into action if they encounter the virus again or a vaccine that represents it. These memory B and T cells arise from cells activated in the initial immune reaction. The cells undergo changes to their chromosomal DNA, termed epigenetic modifications, that enable them to react rapidly to subsequent signs of infection and drive responses geared to eliminating the disease-causing agent⁴. B cells have a dual role in immunity: they produce antibodies that can recognize viral proteins, and they can present parts of these proteins to specific T cells or develop into plasma cells that secrete antibodies in large quantities. About 25 years ago⁵, it became evident that plasma cells can become memory cells themselves, and can secrete antibodies for long-lasting protection. Memory plasma cells can be maintained for decades, if not a lifetime, in the bone marrow⁶.

The presence in the bone marrow of long-lived, antibody-secreting memory plasma cells is probably the best available predictor of long-lasting immunity. For SARS-CoV-2, most studies so far have analysed the acute phase of the immune response, which spans a few months after infection, and have monitored T cells, B cells and secreted antibodies⁷. It has remained unclear whether the response generates long-lived memory plasma cells that secrete antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.

Turner and colleagues took up the challenge of identifying antibody-secreting memory plasma cells in the bone marrow of people who have recovered from COVID-19 (called convalescent individuals). Memory plasma cells are rare, and those specific for a particular disease-causing agent will obviously be extremely scarce. Nevertheless, Turner and colleagues detected memory plasma cells that secreted antibodies specific for the spike protein encoded by SARS-CoV-2 in 15 of 19 individuals, approximately 7 months after infection. Notably, when the authors obtained samples 4 months later (11 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection), the number of such plasma cells had remained stable in all but one of the individuals analysed. Those plasma cells did not proliferate, which classifies them as bona fide memory plasma cells. Their numbers equalled those of memory plasma cells found in the individuals after vaccination against tetanus or diphtheria, and which provide long-term immunity to those diseases.

When Turner et al. tracked the concentrations of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in the individuals’ blood serum for up to one year, they observed a biphasic pattern (Fig. 1). In the acute immune response around the time of initial infection, antibody concentrations were high. They subsequently declined, as expected, because most of the plasma cells of an acute immune response are short-lived. After a few months, the antibody concentrations levelled off and remained more or less constant at roughly 10–20% of the maximum concentration observed. This is consistent with the expectation that 10–20% of the plasma cells in an acute immune reaction become memory plasma cells⁵, and is a clear indication of a shift from antibody production by short-lived plasma cells to antibody production by memory plasma cells. This is not unexpected, given that immune memory to many viruses and vaccines is stable over decades, if not for a lifetime⁸.