Category: Health & Medicine

If this:
“…the young, given their relative resilience to severe disease and near-zero fatality rate from COVID-19…”
is true.
Why the push to give them the shots, or the actual need for it?
Just more questions.

The COVID-19 Test No One Is Talking About: Make Sure Your Children Have It Before They Are Vaccinated

We are already seeing colleges and universities requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for students to attend classes in the fall. The vaccine is being tested for children under 16, and there may be school districts that attempt to require it in the fall. All of this pressure to vaccinate the young, given their relative resilience to severe disease and near-zero fatality rate from COVID-19, is unprecedented. The health bureaucracy is not nearly as insistent about the flu vaccine, even though it often makes children much sicker and often carries higher fatality rates in children.

To encourage you to vaccinate your children, the experts from the CDC and NIH were on television this weekend recommending that children remain masked until vaccines are approved for their age cohort and they receive them. This advice is just bizarre given what the science says about children passing the virus to adults. It is so well known that Switzerland told its citizens last April that children under ten could resume regular contact with their grandparents. The health experts also know that immunity in exposed and recovered patients is robust. There was also preexisting immunity in some portion of the population based on exposure to other coronaviruses. Yet, the CDC and NIH have not clearly conveyed this to Americans.

Senator Ron Johnson went on Tucker Carlson Tonight and shared that his doctor recommended he not receive the vaccine at this point because he has successfully recovered from the virus. This medical advice is entirely reasonable based on the current science and is the purpose of the doctor-patient relationship. Johnson also stated that he was concerned about the push to vaccinate children without full FDA approval. The vaccines are still given under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) because of incomplete safety data for their use at any age.

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New Report Sheds Light on Vaccine Doomsday Cult

“The risk-benefit calculus is therefore clear: the experimental vaccines are needless, ineffective and dangerous. Actors authorizing, coercing or administering experimental COVID-19 vaccination are exposing populations and patients to serious, unnecessary, and unjustified medical risks.” Doctors for Covid Ethics, April 29, 2021

An explosive new study by researchers at the prestigious Salk Institute casts doubt on the current crop of gene-based vaccines that may pose a grave risk to public health. The article, which is titled “The novel coronavirus’ spike protein plays additional key role in illness”, shows that SARS-CoV-2’s “distinctive ‘spike’ protein”..”damages cells, confirming COVID-19 as a primarily vascular disease.” While the paper focuses strictly on Covid-related issues, it unavoidably raises questions about the new vaccines that contain billions of spike proteins that could greatly increase the chances of severe illness or death. Here’s an excerpt from the article dated April 30, 2021:

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Classified study found COVID-19 could have originated in Chinese lab.

WASHINGTON (SBG) – A classified study of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 conducted a year ago by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Department of Energy’s premier biodefense research institution, concluded the novel coronavirus at the heart of the current pandemic may have originated in a laboratory in China, Sinclair has learned.

Researchers at Livermore’s “Z Division,” the lab’s intelligence unit, issued the report May 27, 2020, classified “Top Secret.” Its existence is previously undisclosed. The Z Division report assessed that both the lab-origin theory and the zoonotic theory were plausible and warranted further investigation. Sinclair has not reviewed the report but confirmed its contents through interviews with multiple sources who read it or were briefed on its contents.

In an email to Sinclair, a Livermore spokesperson confirmed the existence of the report but declined to provide additional information. “Because the report you are referring to is classified,” wrote Lynda Seaver, director of public affairs, “it would be inappropriate for our lab to discuss this.”

Avril Haines, the new director of national intelligence, testified that the U.S. intelligence community is actively investigating both theories. “We just don’t know exactly where, when, and how the coronavirus was transmitted initially,” Haines told the House intelligence committee on April 15.

“We have two plausible theories that we are working on that components within the intelligence community have essentially coalesced around. One of them is that it was a laboratory accident, and the other is that it emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals.”

Haines added that Chinese leaders “have not been forthcoming through this process,” and that U.S. analysis “is not based on an assumption that what they say is true.”

If the U.S. intelligence community has not been able to discount either theory, nor have the medical or scientific communities produced any consensus as to which theory is correct.

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The real questions are whether or not SloJoe has the mental capability to know he’s a hypocrite, or if he does, does he really care?
Also possible is that he’s restricting travel from China’s biggest rival, India, because China told him to.

White House to restrict travel from India.

The White House will restrict travel from India starting at midnight on Tuesday, May 4, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced on Friday………

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So, no need to rush to get the ‘vaccine’ then?

Single pill cure for COVID-19 could be available this year.

(NEXSTAR) — Drugmaker Pfizer is currently testing a single pill cure for COVID-19, and if all goes well, the drug could be available this year.

The drug, called PF-07321332, is currently in a Phase One clinical trial with healthy adults.

According to the Telegraph, the protease inhibitor may be available as soon as this year.

The pill was unveiled at the American Chemical Society Spring 2021 meeting in early April. The drug works by targeting the main protease of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. By inhibiting the protease, the drug prevents the virus from reproducing itself within the body.

“For the foreseeable future, we will expect to see continued outbreaks from COVID-19,” Charlotte Allerton, Pfizer’s head of medicine design, told C&EN. “And therefore, as with all viral pandemics, it’s important we have a full toolbox on how to address it.”

Protease inhibitors are currently used to treat HIV around the world.

MIT researchers say you’re no safer from Covid indoors at 6 feet or 60 feet in new study challenging social distancing policies.

The risk of being exposed to Covid-19 indoors is as great at 60 feet as it is at 6 feet — even when wearing a mask, according to a new study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers who challenge social distancing guidelines adopted across the world.

MIT professors Martin Z. Bazant, who teaches chemical engineering and applied mathematics, and John W.M. Bush, who teaches applied mathematics, developed a method of calculating exposure risk to Covid-19 in an indoor setting that factors in a variety of issues that could affect transmission, including the amount of time spent inside, air filtration and circulation, immunization, variant strains, mask use, and even respiratory activity such as breathing, eating, speaking or singing.

Bazant and Bush question long-held Covid-19 guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization in a peer-reviewed study published earlier this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America.

“We argue there really isn’t much of a benefit to the 6-foot rule, especially when people are wearing masks,” Bazant said in an interview. “It really has no physical basis because the air a person is breathing while wearing a mask tends to rise and comes down elsewhere in the room so you’re more exposed to the average background than you are to a person at a distance.”

The important variable the CDC and the WHO have overlooked is the amount of time spent indoors, Bazant said. The longer someone is inside with an infected person, the greater the chance of transmission, he said.

Opening windows or installing new fans to keep the air moving could also be just as effective or more effective than spending large amounts of money on a new filtration system, he said.

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High court halts Calif. virus rules limiting home worship

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is telling California that it can’t enforce coronavirus-related restrictions that have limited home-based religious worship including Bible studies and prayer meetings.

The order from the court late Friday is the latest in a recent string of cases in which the high court has barred officials from enforcing some coronavirus-related restrictions applying to religious gatherings.

Five conservative justices agreed that California restrictions that apply to in-home religious gatherings should be lifted for now, while the court’s three liberals and Chief Justice John Roberts would not have done so.

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The Cult of Safety

It was the 1970s.  Dry cleaning bags lurked quietly behind couches waiting patiently for the opportunity to pounce on the hapless child who dropped a Lego nearby.  Unguarded five-gallon buckets stood brazenly in the middle of basement floors hoping to entice their next drowning victim.  Discarded refrigerators prowled the land looking for unsuspecting eight-year-olds to gobble up.  GI Joes and Barbies, with the help of their little owners, were making out everywhere.

It is the 2020s.  Entire schools ban peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because maybe one kid might have an allergy.  Parents get visits from county protective services for letting their children play unsupervised in the park across the street.  Jungle gyms are an endangered species.  And third-graders are taught to not impose cisnormative constructs, let alone behaviors, on anyone or anything.

The odd thing is that the events described in the first paragraph (except the GI Joe one) were not actually happening on any grand scale.  The sad thing is that the events in the second paragraph are.

There has to be a middle ground.

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Juveniles don’t have the mental development to make such decisions.
Not that those who have reached the age of majority who want this have a fully developed adult mentality either.

Arkansas Legislature Overrides Governor’s Veto, Bans Gender-Transition Surgery for Minors.

The Arkansas General Assembly voted Tuesday to enact a ban on gender transition surgery for minors, overriding a veto by Governor Asa Hutchinson.

Arkansas is the first state to ban transition surgery for minors, although similar legislation is under consideration in other states. The bill also prohibits doctors in Arkansas from administering hormones or puberty blockers to residents under age 18.

 

Hutchinson acknowledged on Monday that the General Assembly would likely override his veto, which state lawmakers can do with a simple majority vote.

However, Hutchinson said the bill “would put the state as the definitive oracle of medical care, overriding parents, patients, and health care experts,” adding that the legislation was an example of government “overreach.”

“Government under a conservative philosophy should be restrained,” Hutchinson said. “This is an example of where restraint is better than over-broad actions that interfere with important relationships in our society.”

Hutchinson’s veto came after South Dakota governor Kristi Noem vetoed a state bill that would have restricted girls’ sports at public schools to biological females. Noem said her veto stemmed from concerns over possible punitive measures from national organizations, such as the American Civil Liberties Union or the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The South Dakota legislature will consider overriding Noem’s veto, which would require the support of two-thirds of state lawmakers.

FDA approves at-home, non-presecription COVID-19 tests.

April 2 (UPI) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved two more at-home COVID-19 screening tests that can be purchased over-the-counter.

The FDA made the announcement in a release Thursday, stating the approvals were given to “get more tests for screening asymptomatic individuals on the market.”

The federal agency approved BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Self Test by Abbott Laboratories, a U.S. medical device company, and QuickVue At-Home OTC COVID-19 test by Quidel Corporation, a U.S. diagnostics healthcare products manufacturer.

It also approved a third test, BD Veritor System’s Rapid Detection of SARS-CoV-2, for use in point-of-care settings.

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Canada suspends use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for people under 55.

March 29 (UPI) — Canada on Monday suspended administering the COVID-19 vaccine by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for people under 55 years of age citing concerns over blood clots reported in Europe.

The suspension was recommended by its National Advisory Committee on Immunization as the vaccine has been associated with blood clotting, a condition that has come to be known as Vaccine-Induced Prothrombotic Immune Thrombocytopenia. Continue reading “”

Indiana mask mandate will end April 6, governor changes it to advisory

Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Indiana’s mask mandate will end April 6, a decision that comes after mounting pressure from within his own Republican party.

Holcomb will join the leaders of six other states who have lifted mask mandates, a move that goes against the advice of the Centers for Disease Control, which still recommends masks to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

In other local news-

Texas COVID numbers decrease 17 days after mask, other restrictions lifted

Just over two weeks after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lifted coronavirus mandates allowing businesses to operate at 100 percent capacity and made masks optional, the red state is still reporting decreases in cases and hospitalizations.

The governor championed his state’s success in a Friday night tweet saying, “Today Texas recorded the lowest 7-day COVID positivity rate since that data began being calculated: 5.43%.

Appears that ‘Neanderthal thinking’ is turning out pretty well.  But I doubt SloJoe will ever have anything to say about Texas’ success.

No Surge in COVID Two Weeks After Mask Mandate Lifted in Texas

After two weeks of lifting its mask mandate and allowing businesses to open at full capacity, Texas is not seeing a surge of new COVID-19 cases.

Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, issued an executive order (pdf) that went into effect on March 10 to loosen COVID-19 restrictions. Although the government’s statewide mask mandate was lifted, individual businesses were still able to “limit capacity” or impose mask mandates at their own choosing.

But in Austin and Travis County, residents 10 years or older still have to wear a mask outside their home after a district judge refused to grant Attorney General Ken Paxton a restraining order that would have ended a mask mandate enforced by Travis County and Austin city officials. The trial is set to take place on March 26.

Texas had been witnessing a downward trend in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations prior to Abbott’s announcement ending the restrictions.

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) posted on Twitter yesterday that Texas saw a seven-day average decrease in the daily number of new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.

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Regeneron’s antibody cocktail that Trump hailed as ‘key’ to his speedy recovery cuts risk of COVID hospitalization and death by 70%, trial data show

  • Regeneron’s cocktail, a mixture of two drugs, imitates antibodies that the body generates when fighting the coronavirus in order to boost the immune system
  • The antibody treatment was authorized by the FDA to treat mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 in November
  • Half a group of 4,500 mild-to-moderate COVID-19 patients at high risk of severe illness were given one of two doses of the drugs
  • Both doses were found to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by about 70% compared to a placebo
  • Recovery time was also shortened, with symptoms only lasting about 10 days in the cocktail group in comparison with 14 days in the placebo group

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Pfizer begins testing oral antiviral drug in U.S. to treat COVID-19.

March 23 (UPI) — Pfizer announced Tuesday it’s beginning a U.S.-based early-stage study of an oral antiviral drug to treat COVID-19.

The antiviral candidate, called PF-07321332, is what’s known as a protease inhibitor and could be prescribed to patients showing the first signs of a COVID-19 infection. The pharmaceutical company said the antiviral clinical candidate might be able to address future coronavirus threats, as well

“Tackling the COVID-19 pandemic requires both prevention via vaccine and targeted treatment for those who contract the virus,” Mikael Dolsten, chief scientific officer and president of worldwide research, development and medical at Pfizer, said in a statement.

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Most Mass Shooters, Including Those With Mental Illness, Obtained Their Firearms After Passing A Background Check. Expanding Background Checks Won’t Stop Them.

There are realities about gun control and the mentally ill that gun control advocates ignore.

The first reality is that the best that any gun control law can do is force buyers into the black market.  While this is a worthy goal, if laws against gun trafficking are not enforced, prohibited persons — including the severely mentally ill — will still be able to purchase firearms.

The second reality is that gun laws do not exist in isolation.  They are dependent upon the enforcement of other laws and the proper functioning of our legal and mental health systems.  This post will focus upon the issue of mental health treatment and how it impacts the background check system.

As this is written we are just learning some details about the King Soopers shooting in Boulder Colorado.  That said, I could have predicted the news before it was reported: The alleged mass murderer had a long history of mental illness (possibly undiagnosed) and had multiple contacts with police.  I will predict now that we will soon learn that this man passed a background check.  This is easy to predict because we have seen it happen over and over again.  Expanding background checks to private sales will not help when the severely mentally ill can pass them!

How can this possibly happen?  Well, as a former paramedic with 10 years EMS experience I know the answer: The mental health system – not gun laws – failed.  This happens at two levels:

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Scared? Are we?
As for me and my house, we’ve pretty much been going along as we were before all this started.

Why we’re scared for the pandemic to end

It feels strange, the idea of being together in the world again.

Public transit makes us sweat. The prospect of crowded restaurants and bars is thrilling but unfamiliar. People thirsting for daily interaction now worry they’ve lost the ease with which they once socialized. For so long we’ve been looking toward a world that gathers and touches, a world where smiles are unobscured and conversations unmuffled, but the longer we’ve been denied it, the more stressful its return has become.

“COVID definitely has shifted our experience, our perception of what’s considered normal,” said Lynn Bufka, senior director of practice transformation and quality at the American Psychological Association. “We should expect that there’s going to be some period of time when how we respond to the world around us is going to be different, where we’re going to potentially feel like this is … awkward. But what can be helpful is to recognize that everyone likely feels that way to some extent. Now we’re trying to figure out what normal is again.”

The pandemic has forced us into a massive social experiment. We’ve never been apart quite like this before. Has COVID fundamentally changed our social lives, or simply paused them? Nearly half of Americans say they feel uneasy thinking about in-person interaction once the pandemic ends, according to the American Psychological Association’s 2021 Stress in America report. Adults who received a COVID-19 vaccine were just as likely as those who haven’t been vaccinated to express unease.

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Professor quits researching COVID because of hostility over his findings about low threat to children.

Read the NEJM letter, BMJ report and University World News report.

Jonas Ludvigsson undermined the political argument that schools couldn’t reopen in person with his research findings about COVID-19’s negligible threat to children and minor threat to teachers.

The professor of clinical epidemiology at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute faced such hostility for his findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, that he’s now given up on researching COVID-19, much less debating it.

Ludvigsson’s comments to the Swedish Medical Association were translated from Swedish by The British Medical Journal. He said that he hasn’t been able to sleep more than a few hours for a week as a result of the “angry messages through social media and email” criticizing his study and partly blaming him for Sweden’s contrarian COVID-19 strategy.

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