Category: Health & Medicine

Where’s my coffee!

Daily coffee linked to lower risk for heart failure.

Fill up that mug: Having one or more cups of caffeinated coffee a day may reduce your risk of heart failure, new research suggests.

There was one caveat, however: Decaffeinated coffee doesn’t appear to provide the same protection as caffeine-rich blends.

“The association between caffeine and heart failure risk reduction was surprising,” admitted study senior author Dr. David Kao. “Coffee and caffeine are often considered by the general population to be ‘bad’ for the heart because people associate them with palpitations, high blood pressure, etc.”

However, “the consistent relationship between increasing caffeine consumption and decreasing heart failure risk turns that assumption on its head,” said Kao, who is assistant professor of cardiology and medical director at the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Still, the findings can’t prove cause and effect, and they also don’t mean that coffee is any substitute for healthy living when it comes to your heart, Kao said.

“There is not yet enough clear evidence to recommend increasing coffee consumption to decrease risk of heart disease with the same strength and certainty as stopping smoking, losing weight or exercising,” he said in a journal news release.

In their study, Kao and his colleagues analyzed data from more than 21,000 U.S. adults who took part in three major studies: the Framingham Heart Study, the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study and the Cardiovascular Health Study. Participants were followed for at least 10 years.

In all three studies, drinking one or more cups of caffeinated coffee a day was associated with decreased long-term risk of heart failure.

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A Few Covid Vaccine Recipients Developed a Rare Blood Disorder
A link to the vaccines is not certain, and investigations are underway in some reported cases.

One day after receiving her first dose of Moderna’s Covid vaccine, Luz Legaspi, 72, woke up with bruises on her arms and legs, and blisters that bled inside her mouth.

She was hospitalized in New York City that day, Jan. 19, with a severe case of immune thrombocytopenia — a lack of platelets, a blood component essential for clotting.

The same condition led to the death in January of Dr. Gregory Michael, 56, an obstetrician in Miami Beach whose symptoms appeared three days after he received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Treatments failed to restore his platelets, and after two weeks in the hospital he died from a brain hemorrhage.

It is not known whether this blood disorder is related to the Covid vaccines. More than 31 million people in the United States have received at least one dose, and 36 similar cases had been reported to the government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, VAERS, by the end of January. The cases involved either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, the only two authorized so far for emergency use in the United States.

But the reporting system shows only problems described by health care providers or patients after vaccination, and does not indicate whether the shots actually caused the problems.

Officials with the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that they were looking into the reports, but that so far, rates of the condition in vaccinated people did not appear higher than the rates normally found in the U.S. population, so the cases could be coincidental. Overall, the vaccines are considered safe. A small number of severe allergic reactions have been reported, but they are treatable, and the rates are in line with those reported for other vaccines, regulators say.

In a statement, Pfizer said: “We take reports of adverse events very seriously,” and added that it was aware of thrombocytopenia cases in vaccine recipients.

The statement also said: “We are collecting relevant information to share with the F.D.A. However, at this time, we have not been able to establish a causal association with our vaccine.”

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Ivermectin to undergo rigorous clinical trial as COVID treatment.

The cheap, generic anti-parasite drug Ivermectin finally is to undergo rigorous clinical trials in a first-world nation for use in fighting COVID-19.  Japan has been hit with a second wave of COVID cases, and as a result, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (population: 13.8 million) is looking for approaches that could minimize stress on available hospital beds.  Nikkei Asia reports (Nikkei is Japan’s leading business daily, comparable to the Wall Street Journal):

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government plans to conduct clinical trials of the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin at metropolitan and public hospitals to assess its effectiveness against COVID-19, Nikkei has learned.

Clinical trials will be conducted on patients with mild symptoms. Patients who are hospitalized mostly have moderate or serious symptoms. The metropolitan government will finalize the details of the study, including the size and duration of clinical trials, after the infection situation settles down.

The Tokyo government hopes to support the trials using some beds at metropolitan and public hospitals. Ivermectin will be given to patients with mild symptoms, comparing their response with those receiving a placebo.

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‘The Coffee Must Flow’

Drinking green tea, coffee lowers risk of death for stroke and heart attack survivors.

Stroke and heart attack survivors can reduce multiple causes of death and prevent further cardiovascular events by drinking green tea, according to new research published today in Stroke, a journal of the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association. The study also found daily coffee consumption helps heart attack survivors by lowering their risk of death after a heart attack and can prevent heart attacks or strokes in healthy individuals.

Previous research has examined the benefits of green tea and coffee on heart health in people without a history of cardiovascular disease or cancer. Researchers in the study “Green tea and coffee consumption and all-cause mortality among persons with and without stroke or myocardial infarction” sought to determine the effects of green tea and coffee consumption after surviving a stroke or heart attack.

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Rumor Control has it that Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin are available ‘over the counter’ there.

The Mystery Of India’s Plummeting COVID-19 Cases.

Last September, India was confirming nearly 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day. It was on track to overtake the United States to become the country with the highest reported COVID-19 caseload in the world. Hospitals were full. The Indian economy nosedived into an unprecedented recession.

But four months later, India’s coronavirus numbers have plummeted. Late last month, on Jan. 26, the country’s Health Ministry confirmed a record low of about 9,100 new daily cases — in a country of nearly 1.4 billion people. It was India’s lowest daily tally in eight months. On Monday, India confirmed about 11,000 cases.

“It’s not that India is testing less or things are going underreported,” says Jishnu Das, a health economist at Georgetown University. “It’s been rising, rising — and now suddenly, it’s vanished! I mean, hospital ICU utilization has gone down. Every indicator says the numbers are down.”

Scientists say it’s a mystery. They’re probing why India’s coronavirus numbers have declined so dramatically — and so suddenly, in September and October, months before any vaccinations began.

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Well, it seems to work for Pop at 96, so…….

Afternoon nap could boost mental agility, study says.

“You snooze, you lose” may not be true when it comes to your brain: A new study finds that napping in the afternoon may actually boost mental agility.

The study couldn’t prove cause and effect, but a midday nap was associated with a rise in “locational awareness,” verbal fluency and working memory, the Chinese researchers reported this week in the journal General Psychiatry.

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Sorry.
May just be me, but with the the numbers coming in from around the world and from the U.S., I don’t think these mRNA vaccines are as safe as they’re put up to be. Remember, the FDA handed out emergency authorizations for early use, when the usual timeframe is for testing and evaluations to continue for a total of several years, just to make sure, because of some really bad errors in the past. 

Last Updated: 6th January, 2021 12:29 IST
Baseball Legend Hank Aaron Receives COVID-19 Vaccine

Baseball legend Hank Aaron, former UN Ambassador Andrew Young and former US Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan were vaccinated against COVID-19 at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday, hoping to send a message to Black Americans that the shots are safe.

Hank Aaron, MLB Hall of Famer and Braves Legend, Dies at Age 86

JANUARY 22, 2021

Well, I may have spoken too soon.
That, or the media will do their level best to make this go away

Biden: ‘There’s Nothing We Can Do to Change the Trajectory’ of the Pandemic

On his first day in office, Joe Biden signed an executive order mandating masks be worn on federal property at all times, declaring: “Wearing masks isn’t a partisan issue — it’s a patriotic act that can save countless lives.”

Two days later, Biden is saying “There’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

I’m sorry, but haven’t we been told for months that lockdowns and mask mandates were crucial to stopping this virus? How does Biden explain mandating masks on federal grounds and property only to now say that there’s nothing that can be done to change the trajectory of the pandemic? Joe Biden spent months blaming Trump for the pandemic, blaming him for the deaths caused by the virus, but now there’s nothing that can be done to change its trajectory? The narrative of the past year has been that Trump botched the pandemic and that electing Biden and the Democrats would make it all better. Now he’s telling us nothing can be done that actually matters. Nothing will alter the course of the pandemic. It doesn’t matter who’s in charge.

Biden also promised the pandemic response would improve on his watch, declaring in October, “We’re eight months into this pandemic, and Donald Trump still doesn’t have a plan to get this virus under control. I do.”

Biden’s flip-flop seems even more egregious considering that he has taken office with two approved vaccines, another on the way, and a distribution system in place, all thanks to President Trump and Operation Warp Speed. A competent administration would be able take this system that’s already in place and get the country vaccinated.

But the wrong person is in charge. During the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, the Obama-Biden administration failed to achieve its vaccine production goals, having predicted in the early summer of 2008 that they’d have 160 million vaccine doses by late October, but ended up with fewer than 30 million. This failure led to a public outcry and congressional investigations. It also cost lives. A study by Purdue University scholars determined that the failure of the Obama-Biden administration to produce enough vaccines in time meant that the vaccine would arrive “too late to help most Americans who will be infected during this flu season.” The study determined that the CDC’s planned vaccination campaign would “likely not have a large effect on the total number of people ultimately infected by the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus.”

The Obama-Biden administration’s response to the H1N1 pandemic was so bad that his former Ebola czar, Ron Klain, now serving as Biden’s chief of staff, admitted that the response was botched.

So I guess it’s not too shocking that Biden is finally admitting he’s powerless to stop the trajectory of the pandemic.

Still, it’s amazing how the rhetoric changes once the campaign is over and you’re suddenly in charge. One can’t help but wonder if the keys to the country have been handed to an administration that doesn’t even know how to drive.

23 die in Norway after receiving Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine: officials

Twenty-three people died in Norway within days of receiving their first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, with 13 of those deaths — all nursing home patients — apparently related to the side effects of the shots, health officials said.

Common reactions to the vaccine, including fever and nausea, “may have contributed to a fatal outcome in some frail patients,” Sigurd Hortemo, chief physician at the Norwegian Medicines Agency, said in a Friday statement.

All 13 were nursing home patients and at least 80 years old. While officials aren’t expressing serious concern, they are adjusting their guidance on who should receive the vaccine.

The news comes just over a week after officials reported the deaths of just two nursing home residents after they received the Pfizer jab.

More than 30,000 people in Norway have received the first shot of the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccine in the Scandinavian country since late last month, according to official figures.

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Study: Coffee reduces risk for prostate cancer.

Jan. 11 (UPI) — Drinking several cups of coffee daily appears to lower risk for developing prostate cancer, according to an analysis published Monday by BMJ Open.

Each additional daily cup of coffee reduced the drinker’s risk for the cancer, the data showed.

“This study suggests that increased coffee consumption may be associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer,” researchers from Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University wrote.

“Further research is still warranted to explore the underlying mechanisms and active compounds in coffee,” they wrote.

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A few days ago, I told the Shootists’ Vice-Chairman to mark my words that on 21 January, we’d start to see a miraculous national recovery begin from the bug, just to make SloJoe look good.

Will COVID Numbers Now Shift for Biden’s Benefit?

How much of the past year was about the actual coronavirus rather than a political weapon to damage President Trump and remove him from office? The answer is obvious. We have had viral pandemics before, including a seasonal influenza, without mask mandates, social distancing, business closures, travel restrictions, and hysterical media coverage.

Much of the hair-on-fire reporting is over cases and deaths. As I have previously written, a positive test is not the same as a case, and a death with COVID is different than death from COVID.

What if these definitions suddenly change in the upcoming weeks, once Joe Biden is in the White House, creating the impression that getting rid of the Orange Man caused the case and fatality numbers to suddenly plummet, not because of anything Biden did, but simply because he isn’t Trump?

Rewriting history is a popular pastime for the left. Just ask George Orwell or observe current events including the social media purge and cancel culture. How might this play out with COVID?

Start with testing — the PCR test which is overly sensitive. From that bastion of right-wing conspiracy, the New York Times,

The PCR test amplifies genetic matter from the virus in cycles; the fewer cycles required, the greater the amount of virus, or viral load, in the sample. The greater the viral load, the more likely the patient is to be contagious.

This number of amplification cycles needed to find the virus, called the cycle threshold, is never included in the results sent to doctors and coronavirus patients, although it could tell them how infectious the patients are.

In three sets of testing data that include cycle thresholds, compiled by officials in Massachusetts, New York and Nevada, up to 90 percent of people testing positive carried barely any virus, a review by The Times found.

In addition, a positive PCR test is not necessarily a case of COVID. There is a “case definition,” something the corporate media is willfully ignoring. According to the CDC, a case requires, “presumptive laboratory evidence AND either clinical criteria OR epidemiologic evidence.”  Notice the AND, meaning not simply a positive test.

The result is that case counts are wildly inflated and are being used to drive lockdowns, business and school closures, mask mandates, and other measures that may not be necessary or even helpful.

What if the definitions conveniently change in the upcoming weeks?

As reported by Zero Hedge last week, “The FDA today joined The WHO and Dr. [Anthony] Fauci in admitting there is a notable risk of false results from the standard PCR test used to define whether an individual is a COVID case or not.”

Did Dr. Fauci just realize this? After decades working in public health and infectious diseases, test sensitivity is something he understands only too well. If he knew, did he say or do anything?

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And people wonder why I’m not going to take this stuff until there’s a lot more research into not just long term effects.

Help wanted translating article about coronavirus vaccines

A 2012 scientific study about mRNA vaccines for coronaviruses seems to suggest problems down the line that nobody is talking about now.

Someone sent me to this article, which seems to say that mRNA vaccines against coronaviruses can actually make you dangerously vulnerable to subsequent coronaviruses by triggering cytokine storms:

An early concern for application of a SARS-CoV vaccine was the experience with other coronavirus infections which induced enhanced disease and immunopathology in animals when challenged with infectious virus [31], a concern reinforced by the report that animals given an alum adjuvanted SARS vaccine and subsequently challenged with SARS-CoV exhibited an immunopathologic lung reaction reminiscent of that described for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants and in animal models given RSV vaccine and challenged naturally (infants) or artificially (animals) with RSV [32], [33]. We and others described a similar immunopathologic reaction in mice vaccinated with a SARS-CoV vaccine and subsequently challenged with SARS-CoV [18], [20], [21], [28]. It has been proposed that the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV is the antigen to which the immunopathologic reaction is directed [18], [21]. Thus, concern for proceeding to humans with candidate SARS-CoV vaccines emerged from these various observations.

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Epidemiologist Says Influenza Cases Are Being Counted as COVID-19

Top epidemiologist Knut Wittkowski says that the massive drop in influenza cases can be attributed to the fact that many are being falsely counted as COVID-19 cases.

Wittkowski, former Head of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design at Rockefeller University, cautioned that, “Influenza has been renamed COVID-19 in large part.”

According to CDC figures, the cumulative positive influenza test rate from late September into the week of December 19th was just 0.2%, compared to 8.7% from a year before.

According to Wittkowski, this is because many flu infections are being incorrectly labeled as coronavirus cases.

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NURSE WHO TOOK COVID-19 VACCINE TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19

It’s still 2020, and you cannot make this stuff up.  A nurse who has already taken the COVID-19 vaccine has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus over a week after taking the vaccine that is allegedly supposed to prevent this “disease”.

According to a report by NCTV, Matthew W., a nurse at two different local hospitals, said in a Facebook post on December 18 that he had received the Pfizer vaccine. He went on to tell the ABC News affiliate that his arm was sore for a day but that he had suffered no other side-effects. Until now.  Now, the side effect of the COVID-19 vaccine appears to be COVID-19.

Six days later on Christmas Eve, he became sick after working a shift in the COVID-19 unit, the report added. He got the chills and later came down with muscle aches and fatigue.

He went to a drive-up hospital testing site and tested positive for COVID-19 the day after Christmas, the report said.

Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist with Family Health Centers of San Diego, told the ABC News affiliate that this scenario was not unexpected. –NCTV

So did the World Health Organization doctor finally tell the truth?

WHO Chief Scientist: There Is NO EVIDENCE That The Vaccine Will Prevent Infection

If you’ve been paying attention, you know by now that this vaccine has nothing to do with health or prevention of disease, and everything to do with control and manipulation of the mass of humanity.

But the authoritarians say that the nurse just needs a second shot of this DNA altering vaccine and then he’ll be protected from COVID-19.  “We know from the vaccine clinical trials that it’s going to take about 10 to 14 days for you to start to develop protection from the vaccine,” Ramers said. “That first dose we think gives you somewhere around 50%, and you need that second dose to get up to 95%,” Ramers added.

Notice the use of the words “we think”? They don’t know. And they don’t care. They just need everyone to line up for two shots. Anyone who somehow still believes this vaccine was created for a statistically irrelevant virus to protect them from the .05% chance of dying so they can have a much bigger chance when taking this vaccine may be a lost cause at this point.  If you haven’t figured this out yet, you may never do so.

“Even if you are strongly supportive of vaccines, and we are, even if you recognize how many millions of lives have been saved over the past 50 years by vaccines, and we do, it all seems a bit much.”

“It feels false, because it is, it’s too slick. The Gandalf guy was euphoric because he got a shot? It wasn’t heroin, it was the corona vaccine. The lady who couldn’t breathe is enthusiastic as she was rushed to the emergency room? Come on. This is patronizing. Stop with the slogans.”
Crabbed Tucker Carlson, quoted in a Mediaite article with the scary headline “Tucker Carlson’s Ominous Monologue Claims Vaccine Rollout ‘Feels False,’ Rails Against Crackdown on Covid Misinformation as ‘Social Control.’” (Mediaite).

I liked Ian McKellen’s tweet. He’s helping!

At some point, too much promotion makes people suspicious. It’s good that we’re sensitive to propaganda and our skepticism can be triggered. I think that’s what Tucker meant by “This is patronizing. Stop with the slogans.”

Practically, there should be no temptation to overdo vaccine promotion. There are millions of people waiting in line who want to get their shot early. If some who could go early lag behind, what’s the problem? I presume the vaccines are getting injected as quickly as possible and there’s no shortage of people coming forward. Let the more skeptical people be the ones who wait, and you’re maximizing the minimization of anxiety.

Yeah, it could be PEG, and it could be something else. But if it was the PEG in the injection, I would think that other vaccines and drugs that also use PEG would show adverse reactions like this, wouldn’t you?

FDA investigating five allergic reactions after Pfizer shot in U.S

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating around five allergic reactions that happened after people were administered Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine in the United States this week, a top FDA official said late on Friday.

Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said at a press conference that the allergic reactions had been reported in more than one state, including in Alaska.

Marks also said that a chemical called polyethylene glycol (PEG) that is an ingredient in the Pfizer vaccine – as well as the Moderna Inc vaccine authorized on Friday – “could be the culprit” causing the reactions.

Marks said that allergic reactions to PEG could be somewhat more common than previously understood.

The cases in Alaska were similar to two cases reported last week in Britain.

Britain’s medical regulator has said that anyone with a history of anaphylaxis, or severe allergic reactions to a medicine or food, should not be given the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said that most Americans with allergies should be safe to receive the vaccine. It said only people who have previously had severe allergic reactions to vaccines or ingredients in this particular vaccine should avoid getting the shot.

On Friday, the FDA said the Moderna vaccine should not be given to individuals with a known history of a severe allergic reactions to any components of the shot.

The regulator is also requiring that appropriate medical treatments for immediate allergic reactions must be available when the shot is administered in case of an anaphylactic reaction.

Pfizer could not be immediately reached for comment.

Overdose Deaths Far Outpace Covid-19 Deaths in Liberal Utopia of San Francisco

rug overdose deaths this year far outpaced Covid-19 deaths in the liberal utopia of San Francisco.

San Francisco has some of the strictest Covid lockdowns in the country yet their biggest killer is actually Fentanyl.

City Hall hands out nearly 4.5 million syringes a year to intravenous drug users in San Francisco.

A record 621 people died of Fentanyl overdoses in “progressive” San Francisco this year compared to 173 Covid-19 deaths.

According to city data, people overdosing in San Francisco live in government-funded buildings for the homeless or low-income housing units. Many others died on sidewalks and parks around the city.

ABC News reported:

A record 621 people died of drug overdoses in San Francisco so far this year, a staggering number that far outpaces the 173 deaths from COVID-19 the city has seen thus far.

The crisis fueled by the powerful painkiller fentanyl could have been far worse if it wasn’t for the nearly 3,000 times Narcan was used from January to the beginning of November to save someone from the brink of death, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday.

The data reflects the number of times people report using Narcan to the Drug Overdose Prevention and Education Project, a city-funded program that coordinates San Francisco’s response to overdose, or return to refill their supply. Officials at the DOPE Project said that since the numbers are self-reported, they are probably a major undercount.

Last year, 441 people died of drug overdoses — a 70% increase from 2018 — and 2,610 potential overdoses were prevented by Narcan, a medication commonly sprayed up the nose to reverse an opioid overdose, according to data from the city Medical Examiner’s office and the DOPE Project.

China has flooded the United States with Fentanyl which has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths each year yet the media obsesses over the China Coronavirus.

Approximately 70,000 Americans die a year from opioid overdoses and those numbers are exponentially increasing.

COVID-19 Testing Scandal Deepens

Positive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests have been used as the justification for keeping large portions of the world locked down for the past nine months. Not reliable hospitalization or death rates; just positive PCR test numbers — a large portion of which are from people who have no symptoms of actual illness — are the triggers behind the shutdowns.

Experts are now coming forward in growing numbers denouncing mass PCR testing as foolhardy and nonsensical if not outright criminal. Why? Because we’re now finding that PCR tests rarely tell us anything truly useful, at least not when they’re used as they have been so far.

Why PCR Tests Are the Wrong Tool to Assess Pandemic Threat

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The COVID Vaccine Messaging Is Just Getting More Confusing

Is it just me, or is the messaging on the COVID vaccines more than a little off? Here’s NBC medical analyst Dr. Vin Gupta either contradicting himself, moving the goalposts again, or just saying the vaccine can’t be trusted yet but he’s getting it anyway to virtue-signal to us unwashed commoners.

You can take the vaccine but still get infected? I don’t get it. Whatever it is, it’s bad messaging that will confuse the folks. Continue reading “”