Vaccination, Choice, Public Health Options 4

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Vaccination, Choice, Public Health Options 4

1margd
jan 14, 2022, 7:55 am

Our baby grandson has open heart surgery scheduled in February (Michigan)-if he hasn't acquired any infections, if room and staff available. Surgeons look for a "sweet spot" to perform this surgery, but there is definitely an endpoint for scheduling it...

Ontario woman with Stage 4 colon cancer has life-saving surgery postponed indefinitely
Sean Davidson | January 13, 2022
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-woman-with-stage-4-colon-cancer-has-life-savi...

2lriley
Bewerkt: jan 14, 2022, 10:03 am

>1 margd: that’s got to be really troubling margd. Hopefully it happens on time and your grandson comes out well.

It can be infuriating that so many continue to spread misinformation and so many also have so much disregard for others—-will refuse to do their part but still run down to the hospital when they get sick…..and when there are surge situations the hospitals are overwhelmed. I listen to a brother and sister tell me that Covid deaths are inflated and yet they can’t explain why there are so many people in the hospital. It’s not like hospital staff are kidnapping people off the street so they can sedate them and put them on ventilators.

3margd
jan 19, 2022, 7:58 am

Only 6,000 Swedes purchased microchip implants, but anti-vaxxers the world over will us it as basis for their misinformation campaigns...

Will an Implanted Microchip Replace Cards as Vaccine Passports?
A Swedish company has created scannable digital implants that act as vaccine passports.
Nur Ibrahim | 18 January 2022

Claim: An implanted microchip in the body can replace vaccine cards and will be used instead to carry COVID-19 vaccine passports.

Rating: Mixture

What's True
A Swedish company has created a digital implant that can display your COVID vaccine passport when scanned. Implanted microchips are not a new phenomenon in Sweden, and they’ve been in use before the pandemic.

What's False
This is not officially replacing physical cards in other countries, and users in Sweden must opt in to purchase it. Only 6,000 people in Sweden have used the microchips...

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/microchip-vaccine-passport/

4margd
Bewerkt: jan 21, 2022, 5:31 am

US health coverage of ivermection, COVID-care waivers:

Ivermectin Rx for COVID-19: Insurance coverage doesn’t match evidence
Study shows health plans paid most of the cost of ivermectin, despite drug’s lack of effect on COVID-19.
Kara Gavin | January 13, 2022

....Unless strong new evidence comes to light, the researchers argue that insurers should require doctors to justify prescribing ivermectin during the pandemic by filling out a prior authorization form.

While they acknowledge this could make it harder for patients to get ivermectin for its FDA-approved indications, they believe the number of these patients would be low. As evidence, they pointed to a CDC study showing that only about 3,600 ivermectin prescriptions were filled each week in the U.S. before the pandemic.

“To be clear, clinicians may still prescribe ivermectin for COVID-19 and patients can choose to pay for these prescriptions themselves. Our point is simply that insurers shouldn’t cover these prescriptions unless ivermectin proves to be an effective COVID-19 treatment,” said (author Kao-Ping) Chua, a pediatrician at Michigan Medicine’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center.

...The authors then estimated that all but 3,600 of the 88,000 ivermectin prescriptions filled in the week of August 13, 2021 were for COVID-19. Assuming that the study’s results generalized to these prescriptions, the authors estimated that private and Medicare plans paid $2.4 million for the prescriptions in this week alone.

...“It’s odd that insurers are covering an ineffective treatment like ivermectin even though they are trying to decrease their costs by billing patients again for COVID-19 hospitalizations*,” says Chua, who along with Becker is a member of the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

https://labblog.uofmhealth.org/lab-notes/ivermectin-rx-for-covid-19-insurance-co...
------------------------------------------------

Kao-Ping Chua et al. 2022. US Insurer Spending on Ivermectin Prescriptions for COVID-19 (Research Letter). JAMA. Published online January 13, 2022. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.24352 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2788253

...Discussion
Findings suggest that insurers heavily subsidized the costs of ivermectin prescriptions for COVID-19, even though economic theory holds that insurers should not cover ineffective care... Wasteful insurer spending on these prescriptions, estimated at $2.5 million in the week of August 13, 2021, would extrapolate to $129.7 million annually. For perspective, this total exceeds estimated annual Medicare spending on unnecessary imaging for low back pain, a low-value service that has received extensive attention... The true amount of waste is even higher because estimates did not include Medicaid spending. Moreover, by reducing barriers to a drug that some individuals use as a substitute for COVID-19 vaccination or other evidence-based care, insurance coverage could increase spending for COVID-19 complications.

...findings suggest insurers could prevent substantial waste by restricting ivermectin coverage; for example, by requiring prior authorization. Although these restrictions might impede ivermectin use for non–COVID-19 indications, low prepandemic levels of dispensing suggest this use is infrequent.2 Consequently, the restrictions could reduce wasteful spending, and the number of patients who would experience barriers to evidence-based treatment for ivermectin would be small.
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Kao-Ping Chua et al. 2021. Assessment of Out-of-Pocket Spending for COVID-19 Hospitalizations in the US in 2020.
JAMA Netw Open. Oct 18 2021;4(10):e2129894. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.29894
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2785079

Key Points
Question How much were patients billed for COVID-19 hospitalizations in the US in 2020?

Findings In this cross-sectional study of 4075 COVID-19 hospitalizations in 2020, 71.2% of privately insured patients and 49.1% of Medicare Advantage patients had cost sharing for any hospitalization-related service, including those billed by clinicians; 4.6% of privately insured and 1.3% of Medicare Advantage had cost sharing for facility services billed by hospitals, with mean out-of-pocket spending of $3840 and $1536, respectively.

Meaning The findings suggest that out-of-pocket spending for COVID-19 hospitalizations may be substantial if insurers allow cost-sharing waivers to expire...

5margd
jan 22, 2022, 10:53 am

Fact Check: Did Studies Show That Marijuana Prevents COVID Transmission?
Yevgeny Kuklychev | 1/21/22

...Mostly False.

A number scientific studies into the effects of CBD or compounds derived from cannabis on SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission have indeed shown promising results. These studies, however, did not broadly assess possible medicinal qualities or antiviral properties of the marijuana plant—which contains many other compounds in addition to CBD—and its recreational use. Researchers also explicitly warned against the use of existing means of CBD delivery, such as edibles or inhalation, for treatment or prevention purposes, and highlighted the importance of vaccinations against COVID.

https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-studies-show-that-marijuana-prevents-cov...

6margd
jan 22, 2022, 11:24 am

Public outrage over the unvaccinated is driving a crisis in bioethics
Pandemic brings 'unprecedented disagreements' among doctors over how to triage those who refused the shot
Evan Dyer · CBC News | Jan 22, 2022

The pandemic has triggered a new debate over what used to be a settled principle of bioethics — that you don't treat patients differently based on past behaviour that may have contributed to their condition.

...Canada has a patchwork of triage policies but most follow a fairly standard checklist of priorities designed to maximize benefits and minimize loss of life. Doctors first decide which patients have the best chances of pulling through. If they have to choose between two patients needing treatment and facing roughly equal odds of survival, they'll usually give priority to the patient they judge to have the most years of life ahead of them.

...Research by the think tank Second Street shows that nearly 12,000 Canadians died while on various medical waiting lists during the period 2020-21. In Ontario, nearly four times as many people died while waiting for CT or MRI scans in 2020-21 than did five years earlier.

Not all of those deaths can be blamed on the demands placed on the system by the unvaccinated — but some probably can.

...In Canada...the unvaccinated make up less than 10 per cent of the over-12 population but occupy nearly 80 per cent of hospital beds...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/pandemic-covid-vaccine-triage-omicron-1.6319844

7margd
Bewerkt: jan 23, 2022, 8:32 am

Organized on Facebook, a ‘who’s who’ of anti-vaccine activists head to D.C.
Ben Collins | Jan. 21, 2022

Thousands of protesters are expected to descend on Washington this weekend for a rally against Covid-19 vaccine mandates, a sign that the anti-vaccination movement that gained traction on social media during the pandemic is spilling even further into politics and real life.

...The event adds momentum to activists who continue to find ways to spread false and misleading claims about the Covid vaccines, now often focusing on mandates as an entry point....

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/organized-facebook-s-anti-vaccine-activist...
_________________________________________

ETA
Anti-vaccine activists see D.C. rally as a marker of recent gains
Peter Jamison and Ellie Silverman | January 21, 2022

...Baseless fears of vaccines have been a driving force among the approximately 20 percent of U.S. adults who have refused some of the most effective medicines in human history: the mRNA vaccines developed against the coronavirus by Pfizer, with German partner BioNTech, and Moderna. The nation that produced Jonas Salk has exported anti-vaccine propaganda around the globe, wreaking havoc on public health campaigns from Germany to Kenya.

That propaganda has also found its way into many reaches of American life. It has invaded people’s offices and shaped the daily decisions of school principals. It has riven families and boosted political campaigns. What was once an overwhelming public consensus on vaccine safety is now a new front in the nation’s culture wars. It is no accident that some in the anti-vaccine movement are describing Sunday’s rally as their first equivalent of the March for Life, the annual antiabortion rally that took place in Washington on Friday...

...Organizers estimate that 20,000 people will attend the rally, marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, according to a permit issued by the National Park Service. The march is billed as a protest of vaccine mandates, such as those recently enacted in D.C. and other cities, rather than the medicines themselves. But similar rhetoric — emphasizing individual autonomy rather than untenable scientific ideas — has long characterized the broader anti-vaccine movement...

About 12,000 people have joined a Facebook group for the rally, with many saying they will stay overnight and eat in Northern Virginia to avoid the District’s vaccine mandate...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/01/21/anti-vaccine-dc-rally-covid-m...

8John5918
Bewerkt: jan 23, 2022, 6:44 am

Uganda to destroy 400,000 Covid 19 vaccines (africanews)

“Moderna is ultra-frozen it has to be thawed. Before use, when it was unutilized in Acholi we took it to western Uganda but couldn’t utilise it before 30 days”...


Texas scientists’ new Covid-19 vaccine is cheaper, easier to make and patent-free (Guardian)

Dr Maria Bottazzi says their vaccine, called Corbevax, is unique because they do not intend to patent it...


‘Nocebo effect’: two-thirds of Covid jab reactions not caused by vaccine, study suggests (Guardian)

US researchers show negative version of placebo effect behind many symptoms such as headaches and fatigue...

9John5918
jan 23, 2022, 7:21 am

Ghanaian Cardinal Urges COVID-19 Vaccination, Describes Jabs as “scientifically wholesome” (ACI Africa)

The Vatican-based Ghanaian Cardinal has encouraged the people of God in his native country to get vaccinated against COVID-19 saying the jabs are “scientifically wholesome.”

“Scientifically, the vaccines are protecting people against COVID. We’ve trusted science and research in several other areas. The tools we use and the medication we use among others are all the fruits of research and science. So, let’s not develop distrust of the vaccines”...


Anti-vaccine priest in Hyannis is censured by the Catholic bishop of Fall River (Cape Cod Times)

The Catholic bishop of Fall River has censured a Hyannis priest for his sermons and commentary against the COVID-19 vaccine.

In a letter read from the pulpit Dec. 5 by the Rev. Michael Fitzpatrick of St. Francis Xavier Church, Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha said he directed Fitzpatrick “to refrain from speaking publicly or in writing on the COVID-19 vaccines, any treatment from the vaccine or any preventative measures to avoid transmission of the virus.”

"Over several months, many have brought to my attention the fact that your pastor, Father Michael Fitzpatrick, frequently speaks out against the COVID-19 vaccine, questioning its efficacy and challenging its moral legitimacy. This has caused confusion and distress, and in some cases may have discouraged some of the faithful from being immunized against the virus,” Fitzpatrick read from da Cunha’s letter. “Continued progress against the COVID-19 pandemic requires that we all do our part, and for most of us that means getting vaccinated,” da Cunha’s letter said...

10lriley
jan 23, 2022, 2:16 pm

The FDA approved Astra Zeneca’s Evusheld in December. It is a monoclonal antibody treatment designed for immune compromised people in a pre-Covid condition and in trials had a great results for building resistance among the immune compromised for the Covid virus. My oncologist called me on Friday and asked if I wanted it and so this morning my wife and I went up to Rochester and I got the shots.

The Pfizer and Merck pills are also out and the US Army is in development of a universal Covid pill that has been through the first stages of trial and with really good results on that. The refusers, deniers and anti-vaxxers are not going away but still the science, research and development is gradually marginalizing them anyway.

11margd
jan 24, 2022, 6:45 am

>7 margd: contd. RFK must be rolling in his grave...

Ben Collins @oneunderscore__ | 2:46 PM · Jan 23, 2022:
At the antivaxx rally in DC, RFK Jr. says that in the future "none of us can run and none of us can hide" because of Bill Gates' satellites and also 5G, unlike... the Holocaust.

"Even in Hitler's Germany, you could hide in the attic like Anne Frank did."
1:01 ( https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1485338127442984960 )
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Anti-Vaccine Mandate Protest: RFK Jr., Proud Boys And Holocaust Imagery
Mason Bissada | Jan 23, 2022

Protestors marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on Sunday in objection to the Covid-19 vaccine mandates, drawing an array of sometimes controversial speakers and groups.

Organizers hoped as many as 20,000 people would march Sunday for the “Defeat the Mandates” rally, according to a permit from the National Park Service seen by the Washington Post.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the slain senator and former attorney general, who has been widely criticized (even by his family) for pushing debunked scientific conspiracies, made baseless claims about manipulated PCR tests and death rate statistics during his speech at the rally.

Police remain fully activated in D.C. for the rally following Friday’s March for Life antiabortion protest, a police spokesperson told the Washington Post.

The rally gained notoriety after the controversial Dr. Robert Malone, an anti-mandate virologist (also widely criticized for spreading vaccine misinformation), who also spoke at the rally, appeared on the popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast and mentioned the protest—an appearance that prompted a coalition of doctors and scientists to petition Spotify to stop the spread of misinformation about the vaccine on the podcast.

Protestors at the rally praised Rogan and others for exposing alleged cover-ups of vaccine deaths and injuries, according to Time reporter Vera Bergengruen.

Lara Logan, the former 60 Minutes and CBS News correspondent who was dropped by her talent agency last week for comparing Dr. Anthony Fauci to Nazi physician Josef Mengele on Fox News (where she has spread vaccine misinformation), is also scheduled to speak.

Protestors were seen making similar comparisons, with freelance reporter Sergio Olmos reporting a significant amount of Holocaust imagery at the rally.

Protestors blared the song “I Would Do Anything For Love” by artist Meat Loaf, who died last week after reportedly becoming seriously ill with Covid-19 and who was reportedly against Covid-19 vaccine mandates.

Members of the Proud Boys, a white nationalist group that has made appearances at other anti-vaccine rallies, were among the protestors, according to Olmos.

Counterprotestors were seen by Washington Post reporter Emily Davies holding signs that read “HERE TO KNOCK A NAZI OUT,” and chanting “Let’s go Darwin,” a phrase used to counter the anti-Joe Biden cry “Let’s go Brandon.”...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissada/2022/01/23/anti-vaccine-mandate-protes...

12margd
jan 24, 2022, 11:22 am

All California schoolchildren must be vaccinated against COVID-19 under new bill
Melody Gutierrez | January 24, 2022

...State Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) will announce Monday morning a bill to add COVID-19 vaccines to California's list of required inoculations for attending K-12 schools, a move that would override Gov. Gavin Newsom's scaled-back mandate from last year.

"We need to make sure schools are safe so that all parents are comfortable sending their children to school," said Pan, a pediatrician whose legislation has strengthened oversight of vaccine exemptions in previous years. "And we want to keep schools open."

Pan's legislation is the second major vaccine bill announced this year by a group of Democratic lawmakers who formed a work group last week to focus on measures to increase vaccination rates and reduce misinformation. On Thursday, Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 866, which would permit children 12 and older to choose to be vaccinated, including against COVID-19, without a parent’s consent or knowledge.

Both bills are expected to be met with strong opposition from groups that object to vaccine mandates and those who argue that medical decisions for children should be left to parents...

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/california-schoolchildren-must-vaccinated-against-1300...

13margd
jan 25, 2022, 7:09 am

:)

Walmart: we will require proof of vax to shop at our stores
Antivaxers: #BoycottWalmart
Walmart: That worked better than we thought…

- Alpha A. @teach_n_travel |7:07 PM · Jan 24, 2022

14margd
jan 25, 2022, 9:22 am

Neil Young nearly lost his life to polio--had to relearn to walk--in Ontario's last major outbreak of polio, 1952.

Neil Young Demands Spotify Remove His Music Over ‘False Information About Vaccines’
Andy Greene | Jan 24, 2022

“They can have Joe Rogan or Young,” Neil Young wrote in a letter to his manager and label. “Not both”...

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/neil-young-demands-spotify-remove-...

15Molly3028
Bewerkt: jan 25, 2022, 6:01 pm

https://www.rawstory.com/qanon-baby-nearly-dies/
Grandad almost kills his granddaughter after using QAnon COVID cure on her

"We gave her two doses of ivermectin at 50mg each. That’s what was recommended by someone on here. She got really sick after that. Related? I don’t know," he told the group in an update.

He then rushed back begging for more help saying she was throwing up and turned blue. So, some in the group told him to go to the hospital.

"We don’t trust hospitals. I told my son to give her more ivermectin," he said.

The group members begged with him to take her to the hospital and finally, he confessed that his son took her to urgent care, "against my wishes." She survived, though he didn't say what the urgent care said about the ivermectin treatment.

***
He was saying that he didn't trust the doctors and nurses at the hospital. Common sense is no longer common. TV, radio and podcast hosts have been endangering the lives of millions of clueless, cult-following Americans.

16margd
jan 27, 2022, 6:39 am

Hong Kong:

Any elderly person looking to apply to live in a Residential Care Home for the Elderly will need to be vaccinated.
Those unvaccinated will find it very hard to find any elderly care homes that will accept them.

- Aaron (Hong Kong) @tripperhead | 5:02 AM · Jan 27, 2022

17margd
jan 27, 2022, 7:11 am

US and Canada require non-citizen truck drivers to be fully vaxxed. Not required of returning citizens, who can always return, although sometimes with conditions, like testing and quarantine. Rolling protest will clog major highways, inconvenience other Canadians, and will not earn truckers any sympathy.

No Cross-Border Trucking for Unvaccinated Drivers
January 21, 2022

Truck drivers from Canada and Mexico are among the travelers who will not be allowed to cross the borders into the United States unless they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, effective Jan. 22.

The long-expected move followed that of Canada not allowing unvaccinated U.S. nationals across the border as of Jan. 15.

...According to an update from the Department of Homeland Security, individuals seeking to enter the United States via land ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and provide related proof of vaccination. These new restrictions will apply to non-U.S. individuals who are traveling for both essential and non-essential reasons. They will not apply to U.S. residents.

Previously, the COVID-19 restrictions did not apply to essential travelers, which included truck drivers. The change was first announced in October 2021 to give travelers time to prepare...

A week ago, Canada started enforcing a similar vaccination rule for U.S. drivers crossing the border into Canada. There is an exception for drivers who are bringing essential medical supplies into Canada, but no such exception appears to exist for drivers entering the U.S.

In addition to being vaccinated, drivers entering Canada must upload proof of vaccination status through the government of Canada’s ArriveCan mobile app. The app is also accessible by computer.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance and the American Trucking Associations estimates that as many as 32,000, or 20%, of the 160,000 Canadian and American cross-border truck drivers may be taken off the roads by the mandate.

Doug Betts, president of the global automotive division at J.D. Power, told Reuters that the restrictions will make automotive manufacturing supply chain problems worse. “I would be surprised if there are any (U.S.) cars that don’t have at least one Canadian-based part."

https://www.truckinginfo.com/10160077/no-cross-border-trucking-for-unvaccinated-...
___________________________________________

Drivers warned of significant traffic delays on highways as trucker convoy enters Ontario
Sean Davidson | January 26, 2022

Drivers are being warned to expect significant traffic delays on major highways from Thursday to Saturday as the "Freedom Convoy" of truckers enters Ontario.

The Ontario Provincial Police said delays are expected on the QEW, Highway 400, Highway 426, Highway 403, and Highway 401 over the next few days.

The group of truckers began a cross-country trip in British Columbia on the weekend and are headed to Ottawa. They are protesting mandates that require truck drivers crossing the Canada-U.S. border to be vaccinated.

...(OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt) said the group of truckers have the right to peacefully protest, but police will keep a close eye to ensure drivers remain safe.

Some supporters of the convoy, including some Conservative MPs, have taken to social media to warn the vaccine mandate for truckers will leave store shelves empty. ...

...Donald Trump Jr. took to social media Tuesday to endorse the Canadian truck convoy's fight against "tyranny" and to urge Americans to follow suit.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance has estimated that about 15 per cent of truckers -- as many as 16,000 -- are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

It has strongly denounced any protests on public roadways, highways and bridges and has urged all truckers to get inoculated.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/drivers-warned-of-significant-traffic-delays-on-highw...

18margd
jan 28, 2022, 8:46 am

BASE RATE FALLACY (or BIAS)
e.g., breakthrough infections

https://www.health.nd.gov/sites/www/files/documents/COVID%20Vaccine%20Page/COVID...

19margd
feb 2, 2022, 3:44 pm

>18 margd: Ontario explanation of base rate fallacy

Watch this 1:40 video to see what the vaccination status among Ontario hospital admissions due to COVID-19 really means.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=wa4NAW9ZLE8

- KFLA Public Health @KFLAPH | 10:40 AM · Feb 1, 2022

20margd
feb 2, 2022, 4:22 pm

A new vaccine conspiracy. Apparently, if you drink tea made from white pine needles it will prevent unvaccinated ‘pure blood’ people from getting contaminated if they get near people who are “shedding” their covid vaccine.
1:01 ( https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1488345972350537730 )

- Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski | 9:58 PM · Jan 31, 2022

21margd
Bewerkt: feb 4, 2022, 4:43 pm

Ottawa: I suspect trucker/protesters are settling in for long stay? Building might be makeshift potty? (Better than using sidewalks.) Propane and diesel for heating and cooking. While many Cdns are tired of lockdowns, etc., ~70% are unsupportive of this protest. Inconveniences, disrespect of venerated places, Confederate flags didn't help...

Jackson Proskow (Global News DC Bureau) @JProskowGlobal | 4:04 PM · Feb 3, 2022:
Here in Washington, I cannot imagine any scenario in which
people would be allow to keep a casual stockpile of fuel and propane anywhere near the capitol.

Quote Tweet
Annie Bergeron-Oliver (CTV National News) @AnnieClaireBO · 18h
Protesters at Confederation park, right across from City Hall and beside the NAC (National Arts Centre) and Rideau Canal (skating this time of year), appear to be building some type of wooden structure. They've also collected a stockpile of propane tanks and diesel fuel. @CTVNews
Photo ( https://twitter.com/AnnieClaireBO/status/1489334870753042432/photo/1 )
Photo ( https://twitter.com/AnnieClaireBO/status/1489334870753042432/photo/2 )
Photo ( https://twitter.com/AnnieClaireBO/status/1489334870753042432/photo/3 )
-----------------------------------------------

The mall closed because visiting protesters refused to wear masks...

Ottawa police mismanaged their response right from the start (opinion)
Gary Mason
https://globe2go.pressreader.com/@tgifford/csb_qSuA-83RY5u31C8pEeWhFUhpahCH9XLJ9...
_______________________________________

ETA:
Ottawa police vow crackdown on 'dangerous' trucker protest praised by Trump
David Ljunggren | Feb 4, 2022
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ottawa-police-promise-tougher-action-agai...

22margd
Bewerkt: feb 5, 2022, 6:03 am

>21 margd: contd. Protests head to Toronto (farm equipment, uninsured for this purpose?) and Vancouver, BC (trucks passing three hospitals v. counter-protesters on bicycles). Meanwhile in Ottawa some "truckers" removed wheels to hinder removal by tow-trucks after two weeks of occupation--what real trucker could give up weeks of work for this? Some police and hospitals have advised healthcare workers in Vancouver and Toronto to avoid wearing scrubs or otherwise indicating their affiliation with hospitals--remember when HCW were lauded as heroes?

Toronto police barricade streets in advance of truckers' protest, aiming for 'minimal disruption'
Bryan Passifiume | Feb 04, 2022

Toronto police used barricades, patrol cars and specialized “blocker buses” to close major downtown city arteries in advance of an expected truckers protest this weekend.

Protesters affiliated with the Freedom Convoy are expected to start descending on the city, with plans to set up around Ontario’s legislature.

But unlike Ottawa, whose downtown residents near Parliament Hill have endured constant and noisy protests for nearly a week, Queen’s Park — Toronto’s legislative precinct — is adjacent to Toronto’s “hospital row,” home to some of the busiest and most important health care facilities.

Congestion concerns prompted hospitals to cancel some appointments this weekend...Streets were closed not only to guarantee patient access to hospitals but also to prevent healthcare workers from being harassed by anti-lockdown protesters...

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/toronto-police-barricade-streets-in-advance...
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Traffic alert: Duelling protests expected to block traffic in downtown Vancouver Saturday
Tiffany Crawford | Feb 04, 2022

...Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart had a blunt message for participants of the anti-COVID mandate protest, which is expected to end in downtown Vancouver.

“Vancouver doesn’t want you here,” he said Friday. “Make your point and then go home.”

Kennedy noted the protesters’ planned route goes through three healthcare facilities, and warned them not to “interfere with access for patients, staff or first responders.”...

https://vancouversun.com/news/traffic-alert-duelling-protests-expected-to-block-...
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Vancouver hospital workers told not to wear scrubs, ID outside during COVID-19 protests
Simon Little | February 4, 2022

...In a memo emailed to all Vancouver acute and medical staff, Vancouver Coastal Health said the route for Saturday’s protest was expected to take it past Mount Saint Joseph’s Hospital, Vancouver General Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital.

Staff were urged to stay indoors during the convoy, not to engage with any protesters they encounter and to “refrain from wearing scrubs and/or your ID badge outside of the hospital during the demonstration.”

“We acknowledge the right to peacefully and legally protest,” the memo states, before noting legislation passed in November making it illegal to intimidate people or impede access to a health-care facility within a 20-metre bubble zone...

https://globalnews.ca/news/8597044/vancouver-hospital-workers-told-not-to-wear-s...
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Lawsuit filed against convoy organizers, seeking damages on behalf of downtown Ottawa residents
Glen McGregor and Rachel Aiello | February 4, 2022

Organizers of the “Freedom Convoy” that has gridlocked downtown Ottawa for the last week are facing a potential $9.8-million class-action lawsuit over continuous vehicle horn noise, filed on behalf of residents of the city’s downtown core.

According to a statement of claim filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Friday by lawyer Paul Champ, the lawsuit is seeking $4.8 million for “private nuisance” and another $5 million in “punitive damages.”

...The court filing alleges that the horns on semi-trucks emit noise in the range of 100 to 150 decibels and are not meant to be used for longer than a few seconds because the sound levels are dangerous and can cause permanent damage to the human ear.

The statement of claim indicates that the sound volume downtown has been measured and allegedly exceeds noise levels that are permissible under Federal Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.

“Despite these dangers, the Freedom Convoy trucks have been blasting these dangerous horns continuously for 12 to 16 hours per day,” the statement of claim alleges...

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/lawsuit-filed-against-convoy-organizers-seeking-...

23margd
feb 5, 2022, 7:56 am

I don't know if this is violation of gofundme's TOS, but apparently there have been large anonymous donations. Gofundme also asked for plan for distributing the large fund.

Russia Today reported on last week's gofundme action. Coincidence that Russia displeased w Cdn support for Ukraine? To give RT credit, they captured nuance that Canada is NOT mandating Cdn truckers to be vaxxed (US is), but unless vaxxed they need to be tested and to quarantine for 14 days upon return. (Under Cdn Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Cdns have right of return, though govt can establish reasonable conditions such as quarantine.)

GoFundMe Blocks Millions Raised for 50,000 Canadian Trucks Heading to Ottawa to Protest Covid Vaccine Mandates
RT.com | Jan 27, 2022
https://vaccineimpact.com/2022/gofundme-blocks-millions-raised-for-50000-canadia...
---------------------------------------------------------
German coverage of this week's action:

GoFundMe ends fundraising for Canada trucker protest
Millions raised for the "Freedom Convoy" protest against COVID measures will be refunded or redirected to charities, the crowdfunding platform said, after police reports of "unlawful activity."
DW.com | Feb 5, 2022

...GoFundMe said it cut off a fundraising campaign for the organizers because it had determined the effort violated the site's terms of service due to unlawful activity.

"We now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity,' the crowdfunding platform said in a statement.

"No further funds will be directly distributed," GoFundMe said, adding that it would refund or redirect to charities the vast majority of millions raised by demonstrators.

The fundraising effort had raised about C$10 million ($7.8 million, €6.9 million)...

https://www.dw.com/en/gofundme-ends-fundraising-for-canada-trucker-protest/a-606...

24margd
feb 5, 2022, 2:04 pm

Pfizer's $130M Lyme disease vaccine advances to phase 3 after 3rd shot shown to increase antibodies
Nick Paul Taylor | Feb 4, 2022
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/pfizer-s-130m-lyme-disease-vaccine-advance...
__________________________________________

First mRNA HIV Vaccines Are Given in New Phase 1 Clinical Trial
Researchers hope for rapid progress to address an urgent global health crisis.
Becky Upham | February 2, 2022

25margd
feb 6, 2022, 7:46 am

>23 margd: contd.
(Cdn MP) Mark Gerretsen | 14h (Feb 5, 2022)·

In Ottawa.
Horses and a Donald Trump flag.
This isn’t about truckers.

(0:07) https://www.facebook.com/markgerretsen/videos/523859192290072

26margd
Bewerkt: feb 7, 2022, 11:47 am

A Christian Science perspective on vaccination and public health
...Church members are free to make their own choices on all life-decisions, in obedience to the law, including whether or not to vaccinate. These aren’t decisions imposed by their church...
https://www.christianscience.com/press-room/a-christian-science-perspective-on-v...
---------------------------------------------------

Are Jehovah’s Witnesses Opposed to Vaccination?
...Jehovah’s Witnesses are not opposed to vaccination. We view vaccination as a personal decision for each Christian to make. Many of Jehovah’s Witnesses choose to get vaccinated...
https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/jw-vaccines-immunization/
---------------------------------------------------

Why Christians should navigate questions of vaccine mandates and religious exemptions with wisdom
Jason Thacker / August 26, 2021

...pastors and ministry leaders must be aware that some people may seek a religious exemption to these mandates not out of any direct or meaningful religious objection or issue of faith but out of a desire to disregard the mandates that have been common throughout our nation’s history and frequently upheld by the courts...

https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/why-christians-should-navigate-questi...

27margd
Bewerkt: feb 7, 2022, 11:32 am

Aaron Hoyland @aaronhoyland | 12:53 AM · Feb 7, 2022:
The Canadian team is playing FREAKING OLYMPIC HOCKEY in face masks.
I never want to hear another dude bro complain about having to wear one in the grocery store ever again.
Photo ( https://twitter.com/aaronhoyland/status/1490564392496164866/photo/1 )

Cartoon ( https://twitter.com/calwhitejr/status/1490639909920595968/photo/1 )

28margd
feb 7, 2022, 11:44 am

Onward Christian Soldiers: Against the Military’s Vaccine Mandate
Carmel Richardson | February 7, 2022|

More than 18,000 service members—Top Gun instructors, executive officers, and SEALs—seek religious exemption from the Covid-19 vaccine.

...of the 3,438 Marines who requested religious accommodation, 3,377 have had that initial request denied. Those still awaiting a verdict number 51. That’s just in the Marine Corps.

For civilians in the Department of Defense, the story is only slightly more encouraging. After a federal judge in Texas blocked President Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal workers in January, all enforcement and disciplinary actions against civilian employees in the DoD have been put on hold. Still, civilians seeking religious exemption from the mandate have yet to be told whether they will be approved or denied...

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/onward-christian-soldiers-again...

29margd
feb 7, 2022, 12:11 pm

:)

THE TANGO: VACCINE - Randy Rainbow Song Parody
Parody by Randy Rainbow Song Produced, Orchestrated, Mixed, Mastered, Piano: @michaeljmoritz Vocal Arrangement: Jesse Kissel Guitar :Jakob Reinhardt Bass: Adam DeAscentis Sax: Ryan Saranich
4:09 ( https://twitter.com/RandyRainbow/status/1490692760084566016 )

30margd
feb 7, 2022, 12:18 pm

Dr. Richard Corsi (Dean U CA engineering) @CorsIAQ | 1:03 AM · Feb 7, 2022
I stand w/ Dave Pataky & solidly against the CSA group (Cdn Stds Assn), which clearly does not understand control of virus-laden respiratory aerosol particles.
A good #CorsiRosenthalBox delivers up to 7 equiv ACH (Air Change per Hour) in 800 ft2 classroom. Just Do It!
Paper forthcoming.

BC
Parents left frustrated as schools, districts reject donations of air filters for classrooms
Ministry says it has invested $114.5M on school ventilation, but teachers' union says more needs to be done
Jon Azpiri · CBC News · Posted: Feb 06, 2022
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-school-hepa-filter-donation-1...

31margd
Bewerkt: feb 8, 2022, 9:32 am

Canada: Protesters' fellow truckers (90% vaxxed) and customers/workers on both sides of the border--not to mention grocery shoppers who may encounter shortages--cannot be pleased by closure of busiest crossing between the two countries...

...The Ambassador Bridge that connects Windsor, Ontario, with Detroit was shut down in both directions late Monday, according to a Canadian government website and the Michigan transportation department. It’s the most important land crossing for goods between Canada and its largest trading partner and a crucial artery for auto parts suppliers and manufacturers....
https://financialpost.com/news/economy/justin-trudeau-blasts-trucker-protest-as-...
_________________________________________________

Court grants injunction to silence honking in downtown Ottawa for 10 days
Judge said taking protesters' horns away does not rob them of their right to protest
Catharine Tunney · CBC News · Posted: Feb 07, 2022
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/injunction-ottawa-granted-1.6342468

32margd
Bewerkt: feb 9, 2022, 9:58 am

The whole world should be worried by the ‘siege of Ottawa’. This is about much more than a few anti-vaxx truckers
Arwa Mahdawi | Feb 8, 2022

...(Canadian protesters) may be a fringe minority, but that doesn’t mean you should (as Trudeau seems to be doing) downplay or dismiss them. For one, they have a lot of powerful supporters. The usual crowd of rightwing politicians in the US, including Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, have been cheering them on. They have also been getting millions of dollars in funding across crowdfunding sites from international donors.

“Donations from abroad are quite a common part of any large crowdfunding campaign,” Ciaran O’Connor, an expert on online extremism at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told Politico. “But the scale of this one is unprecedented.”

Another reason why you should take the Ottawa protests seriously? Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, fringe groups can have an outsize influence. I’m sure you’ve heard of troll farms: organised groups that weaponise social media to spread misinformation, promote division and influence public opinion. Get this: in the long run-up to the 2020 US elections, Facebook’s most popular pages for Christian and Black American content were being run by eastern European troll farms. According to an internal Facebook report written in late 2019 and leaked to MIT Technology Review, troll farms were reaching 140 million users every month. Three-quarters of these users had never followed any of the pages: they’d had the content thrust upon them by Facebook’s engagement-hungry content-recommendation system.

“Our platform has given the largest voice in the African American community to a handful of bad actors, who, based on their media production practices, have never had an interaction with an African American,” wrote the report’s author, a former senior-level data scientist at Facebook. “Instead of users choosing to receive content from these actors, it is our platform that is choosing to give these troll farms an enormous reach.”

After that report was leaked in September, Facebook made a lot of noises about how it was aggressively cracking down on troll farms. Has it followed through on these promises? Meta Platforms, Facebook’s owner, said on Monday that it had removed dozens of scam pages associated with the convoy protest from Facebook; however, there are still a huge number of recently created pages supporting the hauliers, with suspiciously large numbers of followers. Meanwhile, on Telegram, a social network favoured by the right, people across the world are urging each other to replicate the tactics in Canada in their home towns. Canada may not be on the brink of civil war, but what is happening in Ottawa is one small front in a global information war. And the baddies, I’m afraid to say, are winning.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/08/ottawa-truckers-protest-an...
_____________________________________________
Protesters take aim at economy:

Key Trade Link in Gridlock as Canada Protest Halts Traffic
Josh Wingrove and Brian Platt | February 8, 2022

...A cluster of anti-lockdown demonstrators on the Canadian side of the border blocked or restricted access starting Monday night to the Ambassador Bridge -- a crucial, privately-owned link between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario.

Traffic was all but halted Tuesday, though some vehicles appeared to trickle across in either direction by the afternoon. Police in Ontario said there was “limited access” to the bridge U.S.-bound traffic, while the website of the Canadian border agency indicated the bridge was still closed.

There’s literally no bigger bridge for trade between the two neighbors. Built in 1929, the art-deco inspired structure carries on its slender steel build about a quarter of the total goods going back and forth between then the U.S. and Canada. The ties with Detroit’s car industry stretch decades. The bridge carries nearly as much trade as the U.S. does with all of the U.K.

...There is also the danger that all this could flare up again. Demonstrations have closed other trade arteries across the U.S.-Canada border, including the the Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron, Michigan, and Sarnia, Ontario, which has since reopened, and periodic closures at a crossing between Coutts, Alberta, and Sweet Grass, Montana...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-08/bridge-gridlock-exposes-colli...
_____________________________________________

Protesters apparently recognize after-the-fact that their demand for overthrow of the Canadian Government via Senate and Governor General went too far: https://canada-unity.com/mou/ (In a Parliamentary system, simple to bring down a government, especially a minority government such as Trudeau's via a non-confidence vote--if desired.)

The Canada Unity Memorandum of Understanding
By NetNewsLedger - February 5, 2022
https://www.netnewsledger.com/2022/02/05/the-canada-unity-memorandum-of-understa...

33margd
feb 10, 2022, 4:13 pm

Deepti Gurdasani (Queen Mary U London) @dgurdasani1 | 3:01 AM · Feb 10, 2022:
Wow. Exposing children to malaria leads to chronic anemia & affects their development.
There's no "happy balance between protecting very young babies from serious disease while allowing immunity-inducing, low-level exposure from mosquitoes later on."

Malaria research holds lessons for childhood Covid vaccination (Paywall)
A new study on the ‘rebound effect’ adds nuance to the debate over whether to immunise younger children
https://www.ft.com/content/aab1e2d8-ecda-4f35-8e4f-9dcc1659e0c3

34John5918
feb 14, 2022, 10:34 pm

‘The only logical choice’: anti-vaxxers who changed their minds on Covid vaccines (Guardian)

Nearly one-third of US parents are opposed to vaccinating their kids against Covid – so one-time vaccine skeptics are helping families find evidence-based answers ...

35margd
feb 16, 2022, 8:20 am

Many/most places, teens require parental consent to be vaccinated against COVID.

Made me wonder--do parents physically vaxx unwilling teens? I didn't quite manhandle my most unwilling preschool/elementary school kid into his shots, but did exert a lot of psychological pressure--and bribes! I can't imagine continuing that kind of pressure into his teens if he physically resisted. (Today he happily vaxxes, gives blood, donated stem cells, etc., so no longterm psychic damage that I can detect.)

This 16-year-old wanted to get the COVID vaccine. He had to hide it from his parents
Nina Feldman | February 16, 2022

...Philadelphia, where a little-known city regulation permits children over age 11 to be vaccinated without parental consent.

Not all states require parental consent for vaccination. Alabama allows teenagers 14 and up to consent to their own medical care, including inoculations. In Oregon, the age is 15. Rhode Island and South Carolina allow 16-year-olds to get COVID-19 vaccinations on their own. In Delaware, you need to be only 12 to get vaccines related to sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

That's the case as well in California, for those 12 or older who would like to get vaccines for STIs. But now California state lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow those minors to consent to all Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccines.

In...Pennsylvania, minors can make their own medical decisions in specific circumstances — if they get married, are legally emancipated from their parents, enlist in the military or are pregnant, for example. (...a bill proposing the law be changed in Pennsylvania had been introduced in the state's House of Representatives. If the measure were to become law, it would mean that anyone age 14 or older could give informed consent to be vaccinated for any vaccine approved by the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices...)

A November 2021 Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 30% of parents with 12- to 17-year-olds said they will definitely not vaccinate their children. In light of this, two National Institutes of Health scholars wrote a piece in The New England Journal of Medicine advocating for states to expand their existing statutes to include COVID-19 vaccines as a medical treatment to which minors can consent...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/02/16/1074191656/this-16-year-old...

36John5918
feb 18, 2022, 11:15 pm

Six African countries to kick off mRNA vaccines production (Al Jazeera)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the first six countries that will receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines in Africa, in the latest effort to boost production on the continent. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia have been selected to ramp up jabs production on the continent. “No other event like the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that reliance on a few companies to supply global public goods is limiting, and dangerous,” said Tedros during a ceremony hosted by the European Council, France, South Africa and the WHO. “In the mid-to-long term, the best way to address health emergencies and reach universal health coverage is to significantly increase the capacity of all regions to manufacture the health products they need, with equitable access as their primary endpoint,” he added...

37margd
feb 23, 2022, 10:25 am

Opinion: How many people died believing vaccine misinformation?
WaPo Editorial Board | Feb 2, 2022

...In a just-published nationwide survey of 18,782 people across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the Covid States Project asked about four vaccine misinformation claims, asking respondents whether they were “true” or “false” or if a respondent was “not sure.” Five percent said they thought that vaccines contained microchips; 7 percent said vaccines used aborted fetal cells; 8 percent said the vaccines could alter human DNA; and 10 percent were concerned that vaccines could cause infertility. Forty-six percent were uncertain about the veracity of at least one of the four false statements.

...Misinformation about vaccines has a direct correlation with whether people get immunized. The survey showed that among those who did not believe any of the false statements, 80 percent said they were already vaccinated. In the group that thought multiple false statements were true, 60 percent were hesitant to get the shot.

...about 1 in 5 eligible Americans have yet to get their first vaccine dose. ... They were 14 times more likely than the vaccinated to die of covid, as of December, the latest month for which data is available. How many of the 551,168 covid deaths in the United States since Jan. 1, 2021, could have been averted with vaccines?...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/22/coronavirus-vaccine-misinform...

38John5918
feb 23, 2022, 11:11 pm

New Uganda law to impose fines on those who refuse COVID vaccine (Al Jazeera)

Uganda plans to impose fines on people who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and those who fail to pay could be sent to prison under an amendment of a public health law currently being reviewed in Parliament... “The bill has a section on vaccination and immunisation as a public health measure to protect the vulnerable,” she said. “When we introduce new vaccines, we need to get a mass of people so we create mass immunity. It is important that whoever is supposed to be vaccinated, is vaccinated”...

39margd
mrt 8, 2022, 10:28 am

First new polio case in decades diagnosed in Israel
Amy Spiro | 7 March 2022

Unvaccinated 4-year-old in Jerusalem tests positive for mutated version of disease; parents urged to get their children’s inoculations up-to-date

A mutated form of the virus, which can cause illness in the unvaccinated, was discovered in a 4-year-old boy in Jerusalem, the ministry said. He had not been vaccinated against the disease.

The case was believed to be the first polio diagnosis in Israel since 1989, after Israel largely wiped out the disease through an aggressive inoculation campaign.

In 2013, traces of the virus were detected in sewer systems across Israel, but no human diagnoses were made. The discovery, however, pushed Israel to launch a mass vaccination drive among young children...

https://www.timesofisrael.com/first-new-polio-case-in-decades-diagnosed-in-israe...

40John5918
mrt 8, 2022, 11:20 pm

Moderna to build mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in Kenya (Reuters)

Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) said on Monday it would set up a manufacturing facility in Kenya, its first in Africa, to produce messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, including COVID-19 shots. Moderna said it expects to invest about $500 million in the Kenyan facility and supply as many as 500 million doses of mRNA vaccines to the continent each year. It also has plans to start filling doses of its COVID vaccine in Africa as early as 2023...


41margd
mrt 9, 2022, 12:11 pm

(US) Federal Employees Could Sue Government Over Vaccine Mandate Under Proposed Legislation
March 9, 2022 My Federal Retirement

...If passed, the Protecting Americans’ Medical Rights Act (HR 6811) would permit civil action against federal, state or local governments that imposes a vaccine mandate that affects employment. The bill was introduced last month by Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN)...

https://www.myfederalretirement.com/hr-6811/

42margd
mrt 11, 2022, 11:34 am

Eric Topol (Scripps) @EricTopol | 11:37 AM · Mar 10, 2022:
Two new important papers on understanding and debunking Covid misinformation and conspiracy theories @NatureMedicine

Photo front pages 2 articles ( https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1501960386798505988/photo/1 )
Fig 1 debunking best practices ( https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1501960386798505988/photo/2 )
Fig 2 inoculating against misinformation* ( https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1501960386798505988/photo/3 )
-----------------------------------------------------

Sander van der Linden. 2022. Misinformation: susceptibility, spread, and interventions to immunize the public (Review).
Nature Medicine (10 March 2022) https://nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01713-6

Abstract

The spread of misinformation poses a considerable threat to public health and the successful management of a global pandemic. For example, studies find that exposure to misinformation can undermine vaccination uptake and compliance with public-health guidelines. As research on the science of misinformation is rapidly emerging, this conceptual Review summarizes what we know along three key dimensions of the infodemic: susceptibility, spread, and immunization. Extant research is evaluated on the questions of why (some) people are (more) susceptible to misinformation, how misinformation spreads in online social networks, and which interventions can help to boost psychological immunity to misinformation. Implications for managing the infodemic are discussed.
----------------------------------------------------------

Ed Pertwee et al. 2022. An epidemic of uncertainty: rumors, conspiracy theories and vaccine hesitancy (Perspective). Nature Medicine (10 March 2022) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01728-z

Abstract
The COVID-19 ‘infodemic’ continues to undermine trust in vaccination efforts aiming to bring an end to the pandemic. However, the challenge of vaccine hesitancy is not only a problem of the information ecosystem and it often has little to do with the vaccines themselves. In this Perspective, we argue that the epidemiological and social crises brought about by COVID-19 have magnified widely held social anxieties and trust issues that, in the unique circumstances of this global pandemic, have exacerbated skepticism toward vaccines. We argue that trust is key to overcoming vaccine hesitancy, especially in a context of widespread social uncertainty brought about by the pandemic, where public sentiment can be volatile. Finally, we draw out some implications of our argument for strategies to build vaccine confidence.
______________________________________________


43margd
mrt 21, 2022, 8:51 am

How vaccination status might predict views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine
New poll indicates that “vaccine refusers are much more sympathetic to Russia.”
Grant LaFleche | March 19, 2022

Unvaccinated Canadians are about 12 times more likely than those who received three doses to believe Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was justified, according to a new survey by national polling firm EKOS.

The poll found 26 per cent of those who identified as unvaccinated agreed the Russian invasion is justified, with another 35 per cent not offering an opinion. This compared to only two per cent of surveyed Canadians who said they had three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and who supported the attack, and four per cent who offered no view...

https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2022/03/19/how-vaccination-status-mi...

44margd
mrt 26, 2022, 11:35 am

Costs of going unvaccinated in America are mounting for workers and companies
Joshua Schneyer | March 25, 2022

Nearly a year after COVID vaccines became freely available in the U.S., one fourth of American adults remain unvaccinated, and a picture of the economic cost of vaccine hesitancy is emerging...Vaccine hesitancy likely already accounts for tens of billions of dollars in preventable U.S. hospitalization costs and up to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths, say public health experts...

https://www.reuters.com/business/costs-going-unvaccinated-america-are-mounting-w...
via Vincent Rajkumar (Mayo Clinic) @VincentRK | 8:22 PM · Mar 25, 2022

45margd
apr 3, 2022, 9:00 am

German man got COVID jab 87 times — report
Rebecca Staudenmaier | 02.04.2022

The man reportedly went to eastern German jab centers and got vaccinated up to three times a day. Authorities believe it was all as part of a scheme to sell vaccination passes to anti-vaxxers...

https://www.dw.com/en/german-man-got-covid-jab-87-times-report/a-61338245

46margd
apr 4, 2022, 11:05 am

Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad
Peter J. Hotez
JHU Press, Oct 30, 2018 - 240 pages
https://books.google.com/books/about/Vaccines_Did_Not_Cause_Rachel_s_Autism.html

In 1994, Peter J. Hotez's nineteen-month-old daughter, Rachel, was diagnosed with autism. Dr. Hotez, a pediatrician-scientist who develops vaccines for neglected tropical diseases affecting the world's poorest people, became troubled by the decades-long rise of the influential anti-vaccine community and their inescapable narrative around childhood vaccines and autism. The alleged link between the two was first espoused in a fraudulent scientific paper, long since retracted, but the story shows no signs of letting up. As a result, we've seen deadly and disabling outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases around the country, and Texas, where Hotez lives, is at particular risk.

In Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism, Hotez draws on his experiences as a pediatrician, vaccine scientist, and father of an autistic child. Outlining the arguments on both sides of the debate, he examines the science that refutes the concerns of the anti-vaccine movement, debunks current conspiracy theories alleging a cover-up by the CDC, and critiques the scientific community's failure to effectively communicate the facts about vaccines and autism to the general public, all while sharing his very personal story of raising a now-adult daughter with autism.

A uniquely authoritative account, this important book persuasively provides evidence for the genetic basis of autism and illustrates how the neurodevelopmental pathways of autism are under way before birth. Dr. Hotez reminds readers of the many victories of vaccines over disease while warning about the growing dangers of the anti-vaccine movement, especially in the United States and Europe. A former US Science Envoy for the Department of State, he also explains what's at stake if the movement continues to gain ground. Opening with a foreword by leading medical ethicist Arthur L. Caplan, this book is a must-read for parent groups, child advocates, teachers, health-care providers, government policymakers, health and science policy experts, and anyone caring for a family member or friend with autism.

"When Peter Hotez—an erudite, highly trained scientist who is a true hero for his work in saving the world's poor and downtrodden—shares his knowledge and clinical insights along with his parental experience, when his beliefs in the value of what he does are put to the test of a life guiding his own child's challenges, then you must pay attention. You should. This book brings to an end the link between autism and vaccination."—from the foreword by Arthur L. Caplan, NYU School of Medicine

47margd
apr 6, 2022, 10:31 am

You are not "researching" your conspiracy theory.
You are "conclusion shopping" your insane hypothesis.

https://twitter.com/T3hmaj3stic12/status/1511527846669389824/photo/1

48margd
apr 8, 2022, 10:03 am

Clinical Trials Find No Increase in Mortality Among COVID-19 Patients Treated with Remdesivir, Contrary to Viral Claim
Saranac Hale Spencer | April 6, 2022

SciCheck Digest
Remdesivir is the only antiviral medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat COVID-19. But a retired chiropractor misleadingly claims on a viral clip on social media that the drug is “killing people.” Studies have shown that remdesivir can lead to faster recovery times for hospitalized patients...

https://www.factcheck.org/2022/04/scicheck-clinical-trials-find-no-increase-in-m...

49margd
apr 26, 2022, 9:05 am

ScienceUpFirst | LaScienced'Abord @ScienceUpFirst | 10:14 AM · Apr 25, 2022:
FR : @LaScienceDAbord Researchers, health care experts & communicators sharing good science to stop misinformation. (Canada)

When it comes to routine vaccines, stick to the schedule. It’s better that way. 📅
Wondering if, by spacing out your kids’ vaccines, you can save some tears?
We’ve got just the thread for you https://twitter.com/ScienceUpFirst/status/1518594377605656577
---------------------------------------------------------------

Can I Space Out My Baby’s Vaccines? - References

The routine vaccination schedule was designed to protect babies from a number of serious diseases: Recommended immunization schedules: Canadian Immunization Guide - Canada.ca
https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/cana...

The routine vaccination schedule was designed to protect babies from a number of serious diseases: Timing of vaccine administration: Canadian Immunization Guide - Canada.ca
https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/cana...

Multiple vaccines do not overload the immune system or cause more stress than spaced out doses: Vaccines won't overload your child's immune system—or increase their risk of other infections | Science
https://www.science.org/content/article/vaccines-won-t-overload-your-child-s-imm...

Multiple vaccines do not overload the immune system or cause more stress than spaced out doses: Multiple Vaccinations at Once | Vaccine Safety | CDC
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/multiple-vaccines-immunity.html

What are the risks with spacing vaccines?: Why follow a vaccine schedule? | Harvard Health Publishing
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-follow-a-vaccine-schedule-2020032619271

No, alternative vaccine schedules put your baby at risk and are not recommended by doctors: The Problem With Dr Bob's Alternative Vaccine Schedule
https://immunizebc.ca/sites/default/files/graphics/offit_dr_bobs_alternative_imm...

Evidence-based safety and effectiveness : Reasons to Follow CDC's Immunization Schedule | CDC
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/schedules/reasons-follow-schedule.html

There is a recommended catch-up schedule for infants and children: Provincial and territorial routine and catch-up vaccination schedule for infants and children in Canada
https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/provincial-territorial-immunizat...

http://tinyurl.com/SUFSpaceOut
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LzB4dEwBwMLqT5PersOJBUNUUTt7p9oKZg3t7OVlLYo/...

50margd
apr 27, 2022, 3:21 pm

UNICEF and WHO warn of ‘perfect storm’ of conditions for measles outbreaks, affecting children
27 April 2022 Joint News Release

Reported worldwide measles cases increased by 79 per cent in the first two months of 2022, compared to the same period in 2021, as WHO and UNICEF warn conditions ripe for serious outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses...

https://www.who.int/news/item/27-04-2022-unicef-and-who-warn-of--perfect-storm--...

51margd
mei 7, 2022, 7:56 am

Prof Jeffrey S Morris @jsm2334 | 11:16 AM · May 5, 2022:
Biomedical Data Scientist, Biostatistician, Professor
https://twitter.com/jsm2334/status/1522233907076292611

The internet is breaking today from viral claims that the new Pfizer data dump of 80k pages revealed real vaccine efficacy of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the phase 3 trial was in fact 12%, not 95%.
In this 🧵I investigate these claims....

...this thread is simply about clarifying how the claim that the VE in the original clinical trial is 12% not 95% is not supported by those claiming it and appears to come from a misinterpretation of trial methodology. Nothing more nothing less...

52margd
Bewerkt: mei 13, 2022, 6:59 am

Amira Mohamed 2022. Bias Against the Willfully Unvaccinated. Annals of Internal Medicine, 10 May 2022. https://doi.org/10.7326/M22-0476 https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M22-0476

...Having had the opportunity to observe my colleagues, I have come to realize that, like racism, this bias against the unvaccinated will slowly become part of a larger systemic problem. There is no question in my mind that patients are victims of a broken system and that, if they knew they would end up in the ICU, they would take every step necessary to avoid it.

Excerpt, highlighted by Eric Topol ( https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1523811228597964800/photo/2 )

53margd
mei 27, 2022, 12:29 pm

The Anti-Vaccine Movement’s New Frontier
Moises Velasquez-Manoff | May 25, 2022
Also in audio ( 1:00:44)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/magazine/anti-vaccine-movement.html

54margd
jun 11, 2022, 10:47 am

All good but NYT's Apoorva Mandavilli had some particularly pertinent insights, IMHO:

Michael A. Vera, Joe M. El-Khoury, Holden Thorp, Richard J. Tofel, Joseph S. Ross, Apoorva Mandavilli (NYT), Eric Topol. 2022. Public Misinformation and Science Communication in Times of Public Health Crises. Clinical Chemistry, hvac088, Published: 08 June 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/clinchem/hvac088 https://academic.oup.com/clinchem/advance-article/doi/10.1093/clinchem/hvac088/6...

What limitations has the pandemic exposed in the ways that science is communicated today?

How do you balance between delivering incremental information to the public from small studies, which potentially could create confusion, and waiting for the definitive ones?

What responsibilities, if any, do scientists have when it comes to communicating their science to the public? And why?

Do scientists have a responsibility in discrediting misinformation that is spreading online? If yes, why and how? If no, why not?

How can we improve the public’s trust in science?

Do you use social media to communicate or consume scientific material? If yes, which platforms, how and why? If no, why not?

What advice can you share with scientists who are interested in improving the way that science is communicated, including those who may not already be active on social media?

55margd
jun 12, 2022, 7:08 am

Vaccinated People Not More Susceptible to COVID-19 Than Unvaccinated
Jessica McDonald | June 10, 2022

Q. Are vaccinated and boosted people more susceptible to infection or disease with the omicron variant than unvaccinated people?

A. No. Getting vaccinated increases your protection against COVID-19. Sometimes, certain raw data can suggest otherwise, but that information cannot be used to determine how well a vaccine works...

https://www.factcheck.org/2022/06/scicheck-vaccinated-people-not-more-susceptibl...

56margd
jun 12, 2022, 7:10 am

Scientific evidence shows that mask-wearing is effective at limiting community transmission; claims that face masks increase mortality are based on flawed correlation studies

CLAIM
“Countries with high levels of mask compliance did not perform better than those with low mask usage”; “Mask Mandates are Associated With Increased Covid Death Rate”

VERDICT: INCORRECT

SOURCE: Zacharias Foegen, The National Pulse, Townhall Media, 5 Jun. 2022...

https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/scientific-evidence-shows-mask-wearing-ef...

57margd
jun 13, 2022, 3:14 pm

A useful little video on relative risks of various activities. Wish it included various vaccines...

Micromorts: How Risky Is It to Go Under Anesthesia? (5:00)
Michael Greger M.D. FACLM · June 13, 2022 · Volume 58
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/micromorts-how-risky-is-it-to-go-under-anesthes...

Sources cited:
Ahmad N, Peterson N, Torella F. The Micromort: a unit for comparing and communicating risk to patients. Int J Clin Pract. 2015;69(5):515-7.

Fry AM, Harrison A, Daigneault M. Micromorts—what is the risk?. Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2016;54(2):230-1.

Howard RA. Microrisks for medical decision analysis. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 1989;5(3):357-70.

Every-Palmer S, Howick J. How evidence-based medicine is failing due to biased trials and selective publication. J Eval Clin Pract. 2014;20(6):908-14.

Keage HAD, Loetscher T. Estimating everyday risk: Subjective judgments are related to objective risk, mapping of numerical magnitudes and previous experience. PLoS One. 2018;13(12):e0207356.

Sieber DA, Adams WP Jr. What's Your Micromort? A Patient-Oriented Analysis of Breast Implant-Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (BIA-ALCL). Aesthet Surg J. 2017;37(8):887-91.

Swanson E, Mackay DR. Why the Micromort Concept Falls Short in Breast Implant-Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (BIA-ALCL) Risk Analysis. Aesthet Surg J. 2018;38(3):NP68-70.

58margd
jun 17, 2022, 4:46 am

Posts Baselessly Link Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome to COVID-19 Vaccines
Saranac Hale Spencer | June 16, 2022

Anti-vaccine commentators and conservative politicians have been sharing a tabloid story about a medical condition that has nothing to do with COVID-19 vaccines. But they’re baselessly suggesting that there is a connection.

The headline on the June 8 story from the British publication the Daily Mail said: “Healthy young people are dying suddenly and unexpectedly from a mysterious syndrome – as doctors seek answers through a new national register.”

There are some things to straighten out first, which we’ll explain in more detail below:

The story was about Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome, or SADS, which is not new.
It incorrectly referred to SADS as “Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.”
It claimed that there was a “new national register” for SADS cases in Australia, but the tracking program it referred to is based in one Australian state and it began in 2019.

The story didn’t say anything about vaccines. But Candace Owens...Mindy Robinson...Indiana state Rep. John Jacob...

Similarly suggestive posts have been spreading in several languages on social media, including claims made in Swedish, Dutch and Polish...

https://www.factcheck.org/2022/06/scicheck-posts-baselessly-link-sudden-arrhythm...

59margd
jun 17, 2022, 11:54 am

Justin Bieber’s facial paralysis is caused by a viral infection; no evidence that COVID-19 vaccine played a role

Inaccurate: Bieber has Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a condition caused by the reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus in people who had chickenpox in the past, not by the COVID-19 vaccine as some claimed.

Inadequate support: A few studies suggested that COVID-19 vaccination might potentially trigger varicella-zoster virus reactivation. However, other studies found no association. Therefore, our state of understanding on this subject remains inconclusive. There is no information on whether Bieber received the COVID-19 vaccine.

Missing context:​​ COVID-19 itself has been associated with an increased risk of facial paralysis....

https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/justin-biebers-facial-paralysis-caused-by...

60margd
jun 17, 2022, 12:06 pm

Posts Distort Questionable Study on COVID-19 Vaccination and EMS Calls
Catalina Jaramillo | June 15, 2022

SciCheck Digest
Studies have found that COVID-19 increases the risk for heart complications, and that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the risks for males and females in all age groups. Social media posts, however, have misinterpreted and publicized a criticized study that claims to have identified a correlation between emergency calls for cardiac events and the vaccination rate in Israel.

Full Story...

https://www.factcheck.org/2022/06/scicheck-covid-19-increases-risk-for-heart-dis...

61margd
Bewerkt: jun 23, 2022, 5:55 am

Polio found in U.K. for the first time in nearly 40 years. Here's what it means
Michaeleen Doucleff | June 22, 2022

...So far, there have been no cases of polio detected directly in the U.K....instead, scientists have discovered ... multiple versions of the virus in sewage water

... The risk to the general public is extremely low, (UK Health Security Agency) said, because the vast majority of people in Britain are vaccinated against polio during childhood – and therefore protected against infection. But the agency encourages anyone not fully immunized to schedule an appointment right away.

Between February and May, U.K. scientists found several samples containing closely related versions of the virus in wastewater at the London Beckton Sewage Treatment Works – the largest water treatment plant in the U.K.

The viruses' genetic sequences suggest "there has been some spread between closely linked individuals in north and east London," the UKHSA said...

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/06/22/1106711204/polio-found-in-u...
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Polio virus found in London sewage samples
Herb Scribner | 22 June 2022
https://www.axios.com/2022/06/22/polio-virus-outbreak-2022-london
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Edward Nirenberg 🇺🇦 @ENirenberg | 9:17 PM · Jun 22, 2022:
Aspiring med student stands out as science communicator -- https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/96262

Hiya. Since @UKHSA has detected polio in the sewage following routine testing and has identified that it is cVDPV (circulating vaccine derived poliovirus), I thought it might be valuable to have a thread discussing some of the complexities of polio eradication so
🧵 https://twitter.com/ENirenberg/status/1539779559809290245

...There are two classes of polio vaccines: inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and oral polio vaccine (OPV). Both of them have been around for decades and through vaccination campaigns, the incidence of polio has drastically declined. But there's a complicating factor...

62margd
jun 23, 2022, 9:44 am

I suspect any temporary effect on sperm count of Pfizer vax might be due to mild elevation in temperature, if any, as with any fever or even tight clothing?

Fact Check: Does Pfizer COVID Vaccine Lower Sperm Quality?
Ed Browne | 6/22/22

CLAIM: On June 17, a study was published in the journal Andrology titled 'COVID-19 vaccination BNT162b2 temporarily impairs semen concentration and total motile count among semen donors'.

...Mostly False.
One study does indeed appear to show that a second vaccine dose coincided with a temporary decline in sperm count that later recovered, but it is not a conclusive study and multiple earlier studies had shown the opposite to be true. More research on this topic is needed.

https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-covid-vaccines-lower-sperm-quality-count-pfi...
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Itai Gat et al. 2022. Covid-19 vaccination BNT162b2 temporarily impairs semen concentration and total motile count among semen donors. Andrology 17 June 2022 https://doi.org/10.1111/andr.13209 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/andr.13209
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Shimi Barda et al. 2022. The impact of COVID-19 vaccine on sperm quality. Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2022 Jul;158(1):116-120. doi: 10.1002/ijgo.14135. DOI: 10.1002/ijgo.14135 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35128663/
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Daniel C. Gonzalez et al. 2021. Sperm Parameters Before and After COVID-19 mRNA Vaccination (Research Letter) JAMA. 17 June 2021;326(3):273-274. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.9976 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2781360

63margd
jun 28, 2022, 7:59 am

US author Naomi Wolf falsely claims Covid-19 vaccinated mothers caused 'baby die-off'
AFP Malaysia | 27 June 2022

A video clip of US author Naomi Wolf claiming that "there is a baby die-off" in infants born to Covid-19 vaccinated mothers has been viewed hundreds of times on Facebook. But the claim is false. Doctors' statements contradict Wolf's claims, and multiple studies show that vaccination against Covid-19 during pregnancy is safe.

The video featuring US author Naomi Wolf in an episode of War Room Pandemic, a podcast hosted by Steve Bannon -- a former White House adviser under ex-president Donald Trump -- was shared on Facebook here on June 1, 2022...

https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32CY4Q7

64margd
jul 9, 2022, 3:14 pm

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD @PeterHotez | 7:39 AM · Jul 9, 2022:
Vaccine Scientist-Author-Combat Antiscience @bcmhouston
Professor Pediatrics Molecular Virology, @bcm_tropmed
Dean, TexasChildrens
Chair in Tropical Pediatrics
https://twitter.com/PeterHotez/status/1545734359164002308

1/10 THREAD: To understand how antivaccine activism in America grew into a political enterprise linked to far right extremism and caused thousands of deaths in the America during the pandemic, I will link here some of my recent papers indexed on pubmed

2/10 THREAD: Some of them are from our Lancet Commission on Vaccine Refusal, Acceptance, and Demand in the USA co-chaired by @SaadOmer3 @PeterHotez

3/10 THREAD:
Peter J Hotez. 2021. America's deadly flirtation with antiscience and the medical freedom movement. J Clin Invest. 2021 Apr 1;131(7):e149072. doi: 10.1172/JCI149072. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33630759/

4/10 THREAD: @PLOSBiology
Peter J. Hotez. 2021. Anti-science kills: From Soviet embrace of pseudoscience to accelerated attacks on US biomedicine. PLOS Biology. Published: January 28, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001068 https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001068

5/10 THREAD: @PLOSBiology
Peter J. Hotez. 2021. Mounting antiscience aggression in the United States. PLOS Biology. Published: July 28, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001369 https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001369

6/10 THREAD: @thedailybeast
Biden Battles a Triple-Headed Monster on Vaccines
Beating back anti-vaccine disinformation will require a far more ambitious counteroffensive.
Peter J. Hotez | Jul. 19, 2021
https://www.thedailybeast.com/biden-battles-a-triple-headed-monster-on-vaccines

7/10 THREAD: Nature
Peter Hotez . 2021. COVID vaccines: time to confront anti-vax aggression. Nature. 27 April 2021.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01084-x

8/10 THREAD: @TrendsMolecMed
Peter Hotez. 2022. Communicating science and protecting scientists in a time of political instability. Trends in Molecular Medicine. Volume 28, ISSUE 3, P173-175, March 01, 2022. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmed.2022.01.001 https://www.cell.com/trends/molecular-medicine/fulltext/S1471-4914(22)00015-6

9/10 THREAD: @TheLancet
Joshua M Sharfstein et al. 2021. Uncoupling vaccination from politics: a call to action. The Lancet Volume 398, ISSUE 10307, P1211-1212, October 02, 2021. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02099-7 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02099-7/fullt...

10/10 THREAD: @HoustonChron
Dr. Peter Hotez's battle against the 'anti-science confederacy' is a lifetime in the making
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/article/Peter-Hotez-fight-for-science-COVI...

65margd
jul 12, 2022, 4:38 pm

Advice for pediatricians:

Quash the Dreaded Pediatric Vaccine Conversations
— Here are a few techniques to ace these tough discussions with patients' caregivers
Nina L. Alfieri, MD, MS July 12, 2022
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/99673

66John5918
jul 21, 2022, 7:13 am

Covid vaccine figures lay bare global inequality as global target missed (Guardian)

The international target to vaccinate 70% of the world’s population against Covid by mid-2022 was missed because poorer countries were at the “back of the queue” when vaccines were rolled out, say campaigners. The latest figures from Our World in Data show huge inequalities in vaccination rates around the world, with just one in seven people in low-income countries fully vaccinated. By comparison, nearly three in four people in high-income nations have been vaccinated for around a year. Activists are calling for a renewed push to increase vaccine take-up globally to slow the spread of the virus and prevent future variants...


67John5918
jul 22, 2022, 12:48 am

Unvaccinated young adult becomes first US polio case in nearly a decade (Guardian)

An unvaccinated young adult from New York recently contracted polio, the first US case in nearly a decade, health officials said Thursday. Officials said the patient, who lives in Rockland county, had developed paralysis. The person developed symptoms a month ago and did not recently travel outside the country, county health officials said. It appears the patient had a vaccine-derived strain of the virus, perhaps from someone who got live vaccine – available in other countries, but not the US – and spread it, officials said...

68John5918
jul 26, 2022, 10:49 am

With COVID-19 vaccine targets missed, WHO sets sights on highest risk (The New Humanitarian)

After much of the world missed targets to vaccinate 70 percent of the population against COVID-19 by July, the World Health Organization’s new strategy prioritises health workers and older people...

69margd
aug 2, 2022, 12:40 pm

Dr. Lisa Iannattone @lisa_iannattone | 3:54 PM · Aug 1, 2022:
Assistant Professor of Dermatology @med_umontreal . Adjunct Clinical Professor @McGillMed . Former Harvard derm fellow. Focus: complex medical dermatology.

Now confirmed: polio in the wastewater in New York since at least June.

Shout out to the people that attacked me relentlessly 10 days ago (or passive aggressively liked a mean-spirited screencap attack) when I pointed out that we’re sleepwalking through the resurgence of polio.

Quote Tweet
Madison Muller @g0ingmad · Aug 1
NEW: New York State Health Department is urging all New Yorkers, including kids, to get vaccinated against polio right away if they have not been already.

Following the case in Rockland County (near Bronx), polio virus was found in wastewater samples from early June, health dpt says.

More:
Text ( https://twitter.com/g0ingmad/status/1554131888146681857/photo/1 )

70margd
Bewerkt: aug 5, 2022, 9:21 am

Blimi Marcus DNP RN @MarcusBlimi | 9:39 AM · Aug 4, 2022
Patriot 🇺🇸 Orthodox Jewish. Oncology NP. Editor & Professor. EBP. Palliative/Hospice Care. Medical Marijuana. Vaccines Work. Books

The young man from Rockland County (The Bronx) who has polio paralysis is from a large activist anti-vaccine family.
Often, one would find that an experience like this would lead one to realize they’ve made a grave error, speak up in favor of vaccination, & ensure this doesn’t happen again.
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The Dangers of Being Anti-Vax: Unvaccinated Man Gets Polio in Large NY Orthodox Jewish Community
Bill Berkowitz | July 28, 2022
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/28/2113132/-The-Dangers-of-Being-Anti-Va...

71margd
aug 5, 2022, 10:50 am

...30 common medications that used fetal cell lines during research and development. The list includes acetaminophen, albuterol asthma inhaler, aspirin, ibuprofen, Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, Tums, Lipitor, Senokot, Motrin, Maalox, Ex-Lax, Benadryl, Sudafed, Preparation H, Claritin, Prilosec, and Zoloft.

https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210918/some-medications-a...
____________________________________________________

As more people apply for religious exemptions to vaccine mandates, experts explain how and why fetal cells are used in drug development, from vaccines to common pain medications...

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/here-are-the-facts-about-feta...

72lriley
Bewerkt: aug 5, 2022, 12:11 pm

>71 margd: I think I posted some of this on Pro and Con a while back. But it's always good to bring it up again. It's really almost comical that all those aghast about Mrna and who weren't going to get vaccinated without first researching the science behind the various covid vaccines never seem to go there. I think most of those never researched anything at all other than their friends Facebook pages which we can almost be sure had a wealth of (mis)information. There are many of course who fought the good fight of leaving it all in the hands of God--ignored Covid protocols because they wanted to anyway (like not ever wanting to wear a mask or have to put up with any kind of shutdown or safety measure--DeSantis is the John the Baptist of that) but also to be on the Lord's side just because of those fetal cell lines and have gone on to earn their angels wings. I mean I think that is dickheaded but that's what they decided on. Faith and free will and all those other cliches they spout all the time. Maybe they should have researched that a little more too.

73margd
Bewerkt: aug 6, 2022, 3:07 am

>72 lriley: Honest to God, the one I'm dealing with doesn't want the facts. Upsets 'er... Wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't making decisions on behalf of her kids, just herself... Aaargh, the ignorance!!

74margd
Bewerkt: aug 6, 2022, 3:18 am

Cluster of Physician Deaths at Canadian Hospital Spurs Misinfo Campaign
— All three doctors died from cancer, but became the subject of anti-vax social media posts
Jennifer Henderson | August 5, 2022

When a Canadian health system lost three physicians to cancer within days of each other in mid-July, misinformation began swirling online that they had died as a result of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

Alarming social media posts included one tweet that read, "THREE Trillium Health Partners-Mississauga Hospital (Toronto area) doctors have DIED suddenly in 1 week, apparently after getting latest mandated booster," and another linked the deaths to vaccines with hashtags like #StopTheShots and #VaccineDeaths...

Dr. Jakub Sawicki--young physician passed away on July 19 after being diagnosed with stage IV gastric signet-ring-cell adenocarcinoma last August...

Dr. Stephen McKenzie-- 68-year-old neurologist passed away "after a courageous battle with cancer" on July 18.

Dr. Lorne Segall--an otolaryngologist who was just 49, passed away on July 17 "after a ridiculously unfair and hard fought year-long battle with advanced lung cancer" ...

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/100098

75lriley
aug 7, 2022, 11:10 am

>73 margd: don’t you just love it when people’s opinions driven by religious zealots and right wing ideology are the deciding factors in the medical decisions they make not only for themselves but for their kids too?…..and all the politicians jumping aboard that same bandwagon….so they can count on not being primaried and get re-elected because that’s what matters most to them. It’s almost a perfect circle and kind of like musical chairs…..every once in a while there’s one less chair and someone goes away.

……and we go from this nonsense to the Roe debacle. Why some people even bother to go to a doctor when they’re sick or a hospital for that matter when there are so many perfectly good preachers and lawyers who know what’s best for all I don’t know. A few prayers and they should be as good as new.

76margd
aug 9, 2022, 8:15 am

Isaac Bogoch (ID MD sci, Toronto) @BogochIsaac | 7:14 AM · Aug 9, 2022
Lyme disease is a growing problem in Canada and globally. It may soon be a vaccine preventable illness.

A Phase 3 study of vaccine candidate VLA15 is now underway in North American and European Lyme hot spots.
Pfizer announcement ( https://twitter.com/BogochIsaac/status/1556962085044641793/photo/1 )

Press Release: Pfizer and Valneva Initiate Phase 3 Study of Lyme Disease Vaccine Candidate VLA15
Monday, August 08, 2022 - 04:45pm
https://bit.ly/3Pc8nFo https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-valnev...

77margd
aug 10, 2022, 9:55 am

Wonder if Phase 3 testing of Pfizer's Omicron virus prompted resurrection of false claim?

False Claims About COVID Vax Animal Testing Resurface
— Misinformation promoted by Texas lawmaker in 2021 pops up again on Twitter
Jennifer Henderson, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage Today | August 9, 2022

False claims that COVID-19 vaccine trials were halted when animals died in preclinical studies are making the rounds on social media again, according to reports.

The misinformation gained traction in 2021 after Sen. Bob Hall (R-Texas) claimed at a hearing that the "American people are now guinea pigs." A 1-minute clip of his remarks was recently re-upped on Twitter, including the false claim that early-phase studies for COVID vaccines were stopped due to safety issues.

"What I have read, they actually started the animal tests and because the animals were dying, they stopped the tests," Hall claimed in 2021, according to Associated Press (AP). "They didn't do the human testing and they stopped the animal tests because the animals were dying, and then they turned it out for the public," Hall said.

None of the makers of COVID vaccines for the U.S. reported that preclinical testing was stopped due to animal safety concerns, AP noted...

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/100140

78margd
aug 11, 2022, 8:52 am

Opinion. Anti-vaxxers tout ‘medical freedom’ — and raise the death toll
(WaPo) Editorial Board | August 9, 2022

...slate of four conservative candidates now running for seats on the nine-member board that controls Sarasota Memorial Hospital, (Sarasota, FL)’s flagship public hospital. At least three of the candidates are skeptical of coronavirus vaccine mandates and are rallying behind a slogan of “medical freedom.”

...candidates reflect a larger and quite worrisome trend. The pandemic has amplified anti-vaccine sentiment, and in some cases, it has devolved into general hostility toward science and medical expertise. This might be the age of the mRNA vaccines that saved millions of lives, but it is also a period in which anti-vaccine campaigns cost lives. By one account, since coronavirus vaccines became widely available in 2021, some 200,000 deaths in the United States could have been averted if patients had not gone unvaccinated.

...a dangerous cocktail of doubt, suspicion and fear about vaccines has blended with mistrust of government and health authorities, often accelerated by social media and exploited by politicians. The response must be to broadcast the truth: Vaccines have proved safe, effective and lifesaving. That means freedom — from death and suffering.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/09/victor-rohe-anti-vaxxers-sara...

79margd
aug 18, 2022, 6:48 am

Analysis of Dutch cities’ mortality doesn’t show that COVID-19 vaccines increase the risk of death, contrary to Berenson’s interpretation

CLAIM “New paper suggests Covid mRNA vaccination rates are linked to increases in overall deaths”

VERDICT UNSUPPORTED

SOURCE: Alex Berenson, Substack, 28 Jul. 2022

DETAILS
Misrepresents source: The preprint used to support the claim investigated the correlation between the distribution of mortality across Dutch cities and COVID-19 vaccination coverage. However, Berenson presented some numerical results as if it were an increase in overall mortality. Furthermore, this numerical result wasn’t adjusted for possible bias.

Inadequate support: The preprint used to support the claim used city-level data and not individual-level data which precludes drawing conclusions on the impact of vaccination on the risk of dying. Furthermore, all possible confounding factors aren’t accounted for, which may bias the final results.

KEY TAKE AWAY
COVID-19 vaccines have been tested in several large clinical trials. Their effectiveness largely outweigh the risk of rare side effects. A study comparing vaccination coverage and all-cause mortality in Dutch cities doesn’t show that COVID-19 vaccines increase the risk of dying. The study’s design is not appropriate to draw such a conclusion...

https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/dutch-cities-mortality-doesnt-show-covid-...

80margd
aug 18, 2022, 11:20 am

Childhood polio vaccination rate is dangerously low in some New York communities, increasing the risk of an outbreak
Spencer Kimball | Aug 18 2022

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/18/child-polio-vaccination-rate-low-in-some-new-yor...

81lriley
aug 18, 2022, 8:52 pm

Being vaccinated became a more heightened concern for me after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma in Dec. 2020. I always intended to get the covid vaccine when available even before that. To me it was just good citizenship for a citizen to do what he/she could to slow down the pandemic's spread. But anyway one autologous bone marrow stem cell transplant later it became more important as well as getting those baby shots that were pretty much wiped out between the cancer, the chemo and the transplant as my immunity post transplant had pretty much tanked. I still have another round to go but I do not turn down or put off vaccines when they become available to me whatever they are. Last week I had what I think was a stomach flu and it kicked the shit out of me like nothing else I've had like in the last 40 years. We're still trying to figure it out. I did an at home covid test that came up negative and I'm waiting for the result of a covid test taken by a real doctor a couple days ago. In the meantime I'm much better but I've broken out in red splotches all over my body--my main reason for making that doctor's appointment. They aren't raised and they don't itch. The doctor who looked at me noted they look more like blood pooling and that they could be covid related. If so it came into the house because I haven't been anywhere other than the Cancer center on August 3. She pointed out with my issues it could also be anemic--some iron or B2 deficiency. The blood numbers from the labs she had me take suggest that iron or B2 deficiency are not it. But anyway it gave me a clearer picture of my body's ability to fight off a serious virus and I'd rather not do that again.

82bnielsen
aug 19, 2022, 12:58 am

>81 lriley: "... and I'd rather not do that again."

Understatement of the year?

Good to hear that you feel better now!

83margd
aug 19, 2022, 5:08 am

>81 lriley: "and I'd rather not do that again" Me either! We think we had COVID early on before tests. Though "mild" in that we weren't hospitalized, it felt like we were clobbered by the worst flu ever, and in my case a bit of "long COVID" (exercise intolerance, etc.).

#2 reason for being vaxxed, like you, "do what (I can) to slow down the pandemic's spread" and to protect elderly, immune compromised, and other vulnerable folk, like newborns.

#3 Long COVID. Truly scary some of the problems now being uncovered. Common enough that if persistent they could leave a mark on society for years to come. Not to mention the mess it makes of some people's lives...

(Important to get that test for insurance purposes later on. Other than that, rest and pace yourself until you are fully recovered. My son (30s) is recovering from COVID that he probably acquired caring from a patient a couple weeks ago. Worst symptoms emerged before home test picked it up (common w Omicron). He (and MDs) think he had it once or twice before based on symptoms, but this is first time PCR test came up positive. )

84lriley
aug 19, 2022, 6:21 am

>83 margd: also almost everyone who has an extended stay in a hospital is looking at a long rehab that could go on for years which may include learning to walk again, learning to talk again, carting an oxygen tank around wherever they go…..there is a real danger to kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, brain or combination of organs. Being in great shape when you go in the hospital can help but it’s no guarantee that you’ll survive or not face a long rehab too or not develop brain fog which may lead in the future to early dementia. The variants seem to be getting milder but it’s still no joke if you get seriously ill.

85lriley
aug 19, 2022, 6:27 am

>82 bnielsen: Thank you. Not sure but my guess is it was probably Covid. My wife went down to see her mother for her birthday and another sister was there who was sick. She’d been testing herself for Covid for at least a few days before that and was coming up negative every time. My wife didn’t know about that or she wouldn’t have gone. I think we got whatever her sister had.

86bnielsen
aug 19, 2022, 7:15 am

>85 lriley: A young man in the family ran a high fever for a week or so and still tested negative. Then he started to get better and then he tested positive :-(
So testing negative doesn't mean that you should visit vulnerable people if you feel sick. But we all knew that. (Except your wife's sister, it seems).

87lriley
Bewerkt: aug 19, 2022, 4:17 pm

>86 bnielsen: it seems we’ve gotten to the bottom of it. It’s Lyme. I’m getting a prescription and to check my blood again in a month to see if it clears. So not the sister……just me getting bit by a tick.

88bnielsen
Bewerkt: aug 20, 2022, 8:32 am

>87 lriley:. I thought you had isolated and now you say you have been intimate with a tick :-)

(We have ticks here too, but fewer than in the former house/garden. Lots of interesting diseases they can carry.)

89lriley
aug 21, 2022, 10:14 am

>88 bnielsen: we have about three acres though half of it is road frontage that looks down over a creek bed. Last year after the transplant I was advised not to get into dirt, to stay away from too much sun and stay away from sick people as in those who might have viral infections. Basically my wife did all the yard work. Having fractured my L-5 I was struggling to walk on my own at that point anyway. This year I got the go ahead to do stuff outside which took some of that extra burden off my wife and I like to do it anyway. We have raspberries and blackberries around also which I like to pick and my guess is that’s where I may have been bit.

90bnielsen
aug 21, 2022, 11:21 am

>89 lriley: Sounds like our former house/garden. We had only two acres though, but lots of berries, which the deers also enjoyed. And deers have lots of ticks.
Some of the smallest ticks were almost unnoticable until something felt weird between the toes or at your back or at the waist. Yuck. I seem to have avoided Borreliosis (the common term for Lyme's disease here) though. But several of my friends have had it, so it's a very real risk. All of them got cured with a simple antibiotics cure, but still found it a bit weird to run around with red circles for weeks :-)

I wish you all the best.

91margd
aug 23, 2022, 2:50 am

NEWS EXPLAINER: Spate of polio outbreaks worldwide puts scientists on alert
Cases of paralysis in the United States and Israel suggest vaccine-derived poliovirus has infected many people.
Heidi Ledford | 22 August 2022

...Why are these outbreaks happening?

Wild poliovirus circulates in only two countries — Afghanistan and Pakistan — where this year nine cases had been reported by June.

But vaccine-derived poliovirus appears periodically elsewhere, particularly in Africa and Asia. These cases come from a widely used oral vaccine that contains live, weakened virus that sometimes mutates to a dangerous form capable of infecting the nervous system.

Neither the United States nor the United Kingdom use that vaccine, opting instead for an injectable vaccine containing inactivated virus. This vaccine can keep the virus from infecting the nervous system, but it is not as effective as the oral virus at reducing viral shedding and halting transmission, says Raul Andino-Pavlovsky, a microbiologist at the University of California, San Francisco.

High polio vaccination rates in the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States mean that most children will be spared the virus’s worst effects (about 94% of US 5- and 6-year-olds are vaccinated). But unvaccinated people are vulnerable to the illness.

“This virus is very, very good at finding unvaccinated individuals,” says (Walter Orenstein, who studies infectious diseases at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia). In the 1990s, a poliovirus outbreak in the Netherlands established a foothold in a community with a relatively low vaccination rate, despite the country’s overall vaccination coverage of more than 90%, says Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesperson for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. The outbreak resulted in 2 deaths and 59 cases of paralysis, and occurred 14 years after the country’s last endemic case of polio.

...Wastewater surveillance for polio is rare in rich countries...So it’s unclear how far the virus might have spread...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02233-6

92John5918
Bewerkt: aug 25, 2022, 4:52 am

Africans now healthier than rest of the world (Star Kenya)

Public coffers are helping African countries improve healthcare services, and one dramatic improvement has been an increase in the number of years an individual is in a good state of health. Over the last decade, the improvement in healthy life expectancy nearly doubled the global average, according to a report that also points out the significant opportunities in Africa's health and wellness sector. Rising national domestic health budgets in African economies over the last decade have resulted in longer and healthier lives for most people in Africa, and the improvement has come at a far faster rate than elsewhere in the world... pumped more public funds into essential health services like reproduction, maternal, newborn and child health as well as into the fight against infectious diseases... local funding of healthcare services has resulted in the elongated average lifespan in populations on the continent from 46 years in 2000 to 56 years in 2019...


A slightly exaggerated headline, perhaps, but the point is that the rate of improvement in life expectancy is higher than the global average. The reason is that money is being spent on public health. While Africa has certainly under-funded health care in the past, generally there is no ideological culture war on the continent, and increased funding for public health care is not controversial and indeed is generally welcomed.

93margd
Bewerkt: aug 25, 2022, 7:26 am

>92 John5918: Most bang for the healthcare buck when it's spent on public health. We too often forget that we in the west owe most of our gains in life span to ENGINEERS, who gave us safe water and systems to manage waste. The US just lost ~two years in lifespan with COVID, a portion at least arguably because of failures in public health. (CDC is commencing a study on its performance.)
__________________________________________________

COVID-19 Vaccination Doesn’t Increase Miscarriage Risk, Contrary to Naomi Wolf’s Spurious Stat
Jessica McDonald | August 24, 2022

SciCheck Digest
Studies have repeatedly found that COVID-19 vaccination does not increase the risk of miscarriage. Bogus claims that 44% of pregnant women in the ​​Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine trial miscarried rely on a faulty tally of miscarriages that counted each miscarriage twice and included miscarriages from people in the placebo group...

https://www.factcheck.org/2022/08/scicheck-covid-19-vaccination-doesnt-increase-...

94margd
aug 25, 2022, 10:48 am

Vincent Rajkumar (Mayo Clinic) @VincentRK | 3:01 PM · Aug 23, 2022:
https://twitter.com/VincentRK/status/1562152972909514753

US life expectancy fell in ALL 50 states in 2020. By almost 2 years. That’s unprecedented. Main reason: COVID

"New York had the largest change in life expectancy among all states and D.C., plummeting by three years to 77.7 years." https://www.axios.com/2022/08/23/us-life-expectancy-states-map

The US already does quite poorly in life expectancy compared to other developed countries. We need to focus on health. Public health. Access. Affordability.

Just having the fanciest hospitals and the fanciest new meds is not enough. There is no fancy medicine that can improve disparities in health care access, affordability, education, income, socioeconomic status.

COVID affected Black people and Hispanics to a greater degree. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/katiecamero/life-expectancy-declined-due-to...

We need to show real leadership in providing affordable healthcare access to all. This is the responsibility of our leaders.

95margd
aug 25, 2022, 11:33 am

No, hundreds of Canadians have not died from COVID-19 vaccines. Where does this myth come from?
Alex Boyd | Aug. 22, 2022
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2022/08/22/no-hundreds-of-canadians-have-not...

96margd
aug 25, 2022, 2:35 pm

Unvaccinated people are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 in San Diego county; vaccines don’t cause COVID-19, contrary to claim by Shaun Frederikson

CLAIM
“67% of the deaths are from the vaccinated”; “67% of your COVID deaths that you’re creating are from your virus that you’re putting within these people”

VERDICT
Incorrect

SOURCE: Shaun Frederikson, Kusi News, 17 Aug. 2022
...
KEY TAKE AWAY
Clinical trials showed that COVID-19 vaccines effectively reduce the risk of developing severe forms or dying from the disease. In San Diego county, statistics show that the COVID-19 mortality rate of unvaccinated people is twice as high as for vaccinated ones. All COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the U.S. only contain a fragment of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, either the genetic information to produce the spike protein, or the protein itself. Therefore they cannot cause COVID-19, which would require a whole, functional virus....

https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/unvaccinated-twice-as-likely-to-die-from-...

97margd
aug 26, 2022, 10:46 am

Pfizer Announces Positive Top-Line Data from Phase 3 Trial of Older Adults for its Bivalent Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Vaccine Candidate
Thursday, August 25, 2022

Vaccine efficacy of 85.7% was observed in participants with more severe disease primary endpoint of lower respiratory tract illness (LRTI-RSV) defined by analysis of three or more RSV-associated symptoms

Investigational vaccine was well-tolerated with no safety concerns

Based on the findings of this pre-planned, interim efficacy analysis, Pfizer intends to submit for regulatory approval in fall 2022

...RSV is a contagious virus that in healthy individuals can cause serious respiratory illness... The virus can affect the lungs and breathing passages of an infected individual and can be potentially life-threatening for older adults and adults with certain medical conditions... Each year it is estimated that 336,000 older adults are hospitalized globally due to RSV... In the United States alone, RSV infections in older adults account for approximately 177,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths each year...

RSV is a disease for which there are currently no prophylactic or therapeutic options for older adults and the medical community is limited to offering only supportive care for adults with the illness.

...In addition to the investigational older adult vaccination program, in March 2022, Pfizer announced RSVpreF received Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the FDA for the prevention of RSV-associated lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in infants from birth up to six months of age by active immunization of pregnant women. The FDA designation was primarily informed by the results of the Phase 2b proof-of-concept study of RSVpreF (NCT04032093), a global, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study that assessed the safety and immunogenicity of RSVpreF in healthy pregnant women ages 18 through 49 years old, who were vaccinated between 28- and 36-weeks gestation, and their infants...

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-announces-...

98margd
aug 29, 2022, 1:04 pm

A mutated virus, anti-vaxxers and a vulnerable population: how polio returned to the US
Dana Smith | 29 Aug 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/29/polio-us-vaccines-new-york-rockl...

99margd
sep 4, 2022, 11:02 am

Paywall :(

Editorial: America banished polio. Anti-vaxxers brought it back.
Houston Chronicle | 4 Sept 2022

Another win for the anti-vaccine movement. More than 40 years after polio was declared...

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Editorial-America-ba...

100margd
sep 7, 2022, 8:55 am

Claim that 44% of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine trial pregnancies ended in miscarriage is wrong
6 September 2022
https://fullfact.org/health/miscarriages-pfizer-trial/

UK did not change Covid-19 vaccination guidance for pregnant people
Bill MCCARTHY | 06 September 2022
https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32HR6NH

Spike proteins produced by COVID-19 vaccines are not toxic
Sep 6, 2022
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/fact-check/spike-proteins-produced-by-covid-19...

101margd
Bewerkt: sep 8, 2022, 8:23 am

Finally, might malaria be vanquished? Takes at least 4 shots for 80% efficacy, but happy news!

Isaac Bogoch @BogochIsaac | 7:00 AM · Sep 8, 2022:
Infectious Diseases physician and scientist, with thoughts on Infectious Diseases, Tropical Medicine, HIV Prevention, Public Health, and Global Health issues. Toronto

80% efficacy of a malaria vaccine 12 months after a booster dose in kids (this is the R21/Matrix-M vaccine).

Beautiful results from a phase 1/2b randomized controlled trial in Burkina Faso 👇
Graphs ( https://twitter.com/BogochIsaac/status/1567830164637097984/photo/1 )

https://bit.ly/3KUDBAm by Datoo et al.
---------------------------------------------

Mehreen S Datoo et al. 2022. Efficacy and immunogenicity of R21/Matrix-M vaccine against clinical malaria after 2 years' follow-up in children in Burkina Faso: a phase 1/2b randomised controlled trial.
The Lancet Open Access Published:September 07, 2022 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00442-X https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(22)00442-X/fullt...

SUMMARY
...Interpretation
A booster dose of R21/Matrix-M at 1 year following the primary three-dose regimen maintained high efficacy against first and multiple episodes of clinical malaria. Furthermore, the booster vaccine induced antibody concentrations that correlated with vaccine efficacy. The trial is ongoing to assess long-term follow-up of these participants and the value of further booster vaccinations....

102margd
Bewerkt: sep 15, 2022, 6:05 am

Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 @HelenBranswell | 9:47 PM · Sep 14, 2022:
Sr writer infectious diseases @statnews. 2020 Polk winner.
https://twitter.com/HelenBranswell/status/1570227882068262912

Cautionary tale: Doctors from Washington State report on a man who contracted #monkeypox 8 years after being vaccinated with ACAM2000 {smallpox}. His disease course was mild, but the vaccine didn't prevent infection.

Article in @CDCgov's @EIDjournal.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/28/11/22-1215_article?ACSTrackingID=USCDC_333-...

103margd
sep 20, 2022, 2:30 am

The COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective; claim that they have caused an “international medical crisis” is baseless

CLAIM
“there is an international medical crisis due to the diseases and deaths co-related to the administration of products known as ‘COVID-19 vaccines’”

VERDICT Unsupported

SOURCE: Social media users, Daily Sceptic, One America News Network, 10 Sep. 2022

DETAILS
Inadequate support
Factually inaccurate:
Misleading

KEY TAKE AWAY
FULL CLAIM
REVIEW Conclusions
Reference

https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/covid-19-vaccines-safe-and-effective-clai...

104John5918
sep 20, 2022, 7:55 am

A sporadic health crisis which is often forgotten is ebola. I'm in northern Uganda at the moment and this morning I wandered in to the cemetery at the Catholic cathedral. I was struck by the number of graves of young nurses who died while selflessly caring for their patients during the last ebola outbreak.

105John5918
sep 27, 2022, 12:13 am

And voila, a new outbreak of ebola in Uganda. Fortunately for me I was nowhere near the area where it began and I am now safely back in Kenya.

Ebola Disease caused by Sudan virus - Uganda (WHO)

On 20 September 2022, Uganda health authorities declared an outbreak of Ebola disease, caused by Sudan virus, following laboratory confirmation of a patient from a village in Madudu sub-county, Mubende district, central Uganda. As of 25 September 2022, a cumulative number of 18 confirmed and 18 probable cases have been reported from Mubende, Kyegegwa and Kassanda districts, including 23 deaths, of which five were among confirmed cases... This is the first Ebola disease outbreak caused by Sudan virus (SUDV) in Uganda since 2012...

106aspirit
sep 27, 2022, 1:43 pm

>105 John5918: Ebola is one of the threats that medical communities worldwide take seriously. I hope that continues so Uganda has all the resources it needs to stop the spread quickly.

107margd
sep 28, 2022, 2:42 am

Study tries to see if child vaccines and asthma are linked
MIKE STOBBE | 27 Sept 2022

...A new federally funded study has found a possible link {with aluminum in some vaccines}, but experts say the research has important shortcomings and is not a reason to change current vaccine recommendations. The study doesn’t claim aluminum causes the breathing condition, and officials say more work is needed to try to confirm any connection, which hadn’t been seen in earlier research.

Even if a link were ever found, the life-saving benefits of the vaccines are still likely to outweigh the asthma risk, said Dr. Matthew Daley, the study’s lead author. But it’s possible that if the results are confirmed, it could prompt new work to redesign vaccines, he added.

...The study...suggests that young children who were vaccinated with most or all of the recommended aluminum-containing vaccines had at least a 36% higher risk of being diagnosed with persistent asthma than kids who got fewer vaccines.

Aluminum has been used in some vaccines since the 1930s, as an ingredient — called an adjuvant — that provokes stronger immune protection.

By age 2, children should be vaccinated against 15 diseases, according to U.S. recommendations. Aluminum adjuvants are in vaccines for seven of them.

Aluminum adjuvants have long been considered safe and effective. Still, scientists noted a period of increased rates in allergies and asthma among U.S. children during a 30-year period starting in about 1980, and some wondered if there was a connection. (Those rates leveled off starting about a decade ago and have declined somewhat in recent years, for reasons not fully understood.)...

https://apnews.com/article/science-health-allergies-asthma-5e811e2a9bc12c373510f...

-----------------------------------------------------
Matthew F. Daley et al. 2022. Association Between Aluminum Exposure From Vaccines Before Age 24 Months and Persistent Asthma at Age 24 to 59 Months. Academic Pediatrics (In press). https://els-jbs-prod-cdn.jbs.elsevierhealth.com/pb/assets/raw/Health%20Advance/j...

ABSTACT
...RESULTS : The cohort comprised 326,991 children, among whom 14,337 (4.4%) had eczema. For children with and without eczema, the mean (standard deviation SD) vaccine-associated aluminum exposure was 4.07 mg (SD 0.60) and 3.98 mg (SD 0.72), respectively. Among children with and without eczema, 6.0% and 2.1%, respectively, developed persistent asthma. Among children with eczema, vaccine-associated aluminum was positively associated with persistent asthma (aHR 1.26 per 1 mg increase in aluminum...); a positive association was also detected among
children without eczema (aHR 1.19...).

CONCLUSION : In a large observational study, a positive association was found between vaccine-related aluminum exposure and persistent asthma. While recognizing the small effect sizes identified and the potential for residual confounding, additional investigation of this hypothesis appears warranted...

108margd
okt 9, 2022, 7:18 am

Misinformation, not religion, this time, but another government employee decided on a course of action contrary to that decided on by elected representatives. In this case, fluoridation of drinking water. (The religion case was a county clerk who would not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.)

Town employee quietly lowered fluoride in water for years
LISA RATHKE | Sat, October 8, 2022

RICHMOND, Vt. (AP) — Residents of a small community in Vermont were blindsided last month by news that one official in their water department quietly lowered fluoride levels nearly four years ago, giving rise to worries about their children’s dental health and transparent government — and highlighting the enduring misinformation around water fluoridation.

...The commission voted to return the water to full fluoridation. It's not clear whether anyone could face professional repercussions; personnel issues were discussed in a closed session.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/town-employee-quietly-lowered-fluoride-114045478.html

109margd
okt 9, 2022, 9:36 am

Kristen Panthagani, MD, PhD @kmpanthagani | 9:33 PM · Oct 8, 2022:
Founder of http://youcanknowthings.com | Emergency Medicine resident at Yale_EM | R #dataviz nerd | #SciComm writer
https://twitter.com/kmpanthagani/status/1578921604456669189

Florida just announced the results of an analysis that they performed, saying the results show "an increased risk of cardiac-related death among men 18-39" for the mRNA vaccines, and recommend this group not receive these vaccines.

Is this justified? Let's look at the data...

Text FL Guidance mRNA vaxx
https://twitter.com/kmpanthagani/status/1578921562761465857/photo/1

The link to the analysis takes you here, not a published study, but a pdf of a word document: https://floridahealthcovid19.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20221007-guidance-mr...
Text objectives methods ( https://twitter.com/kmpanthagani/status/1578921567534297090/photo/1 )

A few notes off the bat:
1. this analysis is not published and is not peer reviewed.
2. there are no authors listed, which is a bit odd.
...

Turned this into a blog post for easier sharing...

A critical review of Florida’s new vaccine analysis
Kristen Panthagani, MD, PhD | October 9, 2022
https://youcanknowthings.com/2022/10/09/a-critical-review-of-floridas-new-vaccin...

110margd
okt 14, 2022, 2:34 am

There’s no happy “I told you so” when covid denying family members are dealing with their health melting away. It’s not fair to them, they didn’t write the lies, they didn’t have the time to debunk them, and they didn’t have the opportunity to avoid the threat the lies propagate

- Justin Lee @DailyJLee | 11:01 AM · Oct 13, 2022
https://twitter.com/DailyJLee/status/1580574527394041857

111margd
okt 21, 2022, 3:36 am

Jonathan Osborne and Daniel Pimentel et al. 2022. Science, misinformation, and the role of education. “Competent outsiders” must be able to evaluate the credibility of science-based arguments. Science
20 Oct 2022. Vol 378, Issue 6617, pp. 246-248. DOI: 10.1126/science.abq8093 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq8093

Abstract
Because of the limits to our knowledge and time, we all depend on the expertise of others. For example, most readers of Science accept the anthropogenic origin of climate change. Yet far fewer have actually read a report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), let alone evaluated the evidence and arguments. Nevertheless, we trust its claims because we rely on the credibility of its authors, the social practices of peer review used to vet any theoretical biases and errors, and the fact that it represents a consensus report of the relevant experts. Alternatively, we can choose to trust the media that report its findings. Amid increasing concern about trust in science being undermined by an ocean of misinformation (1–3), we consider how scientists, science curricula, and science educators must help equip individuals to evaluate the credibility of scientific information, even if the science is beyond their understanding (4).

A "fast and frugal" heuristic
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1583226320087003136/photo/1

112margd
okt 21, 2022, 11:11 am

Hotez PJ (2022) The great Texas COVID tragedy. PLOS Glob Public Health 2(10): e0001173. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0001173 https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.000...

...almost 40,000 Texans might have lost their lives because they refused a COVID-19 vaccination is unique–and no accident...

113margd
Bewerkt: okt 25, 2022, 6:42 am

Kashif Pirzada, MD (Toronto emergency MD) @KashPrime | 10:34 PM · Oct 24, 2022

Most don’t know it yet, but the fate of the world is being decided in this East African capital:

Quote Tweet
R P Shah Memorial Trust for Kids & Global Health @Rpshahmemorial1
#Uganda accepts -
"There is #Ebola in #Kampala, without a doubt. The beauty is that we have already an isolation facility at Mulago.We have an isolation facility in Entebbe. And most of the people testing are contacts who have been in our isolation & quarantine” Contacts 1,800 +

Honestly, except for the bleeding part (a late symptom), its going to be very hard for any clinician to tell early Ebola infection apart from any flu-like illness. Pray the Ugandans can get this under control soon!

Infographic Ebola symptoms
https://twitter.com/KashPrime/status/1584764169827790848/photo/1
_______________________________________

ETA:
The Ebola Outbreak (Monkeypoxtally) @Monkeypoxtally | 12:49 PM · Oct 24, 2022:

The Ebola situation in Uganda is escalating fast with 14 newly infected individuals in one of the most populated cities in East Africa, Kampala.

Kampala is known for its major international hub and if an infected individual gets on a plane we will have a big problem worldwide.

114margd
okt 25, 2022, 6:11 am

Populist politics and vaccine hesitancy--pre-COVID assessment in w Europe:

Highlighted abstract
https://twitter.com/skepticalIDdoc/status/1584652472764669953/photo/1

Jonathan Kennedy 2019. Populist politics and vaccine hesitancy in Western Europe: an analysis of national-level data. European Journal of Public Health, Volume 29, Issue 3, June 2019, Pages 512–516, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckz004 https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/29/3/512/5364298

Abstract
...Results
There is a highly significant positive association between the percentage of people in a country who voted for populist parties and who believe that vaccines are not important (R = 0.7923, P = 0.007) and effective (R = 0.7222, P = 0.0035). The percentage of people who think vaccines are unsafe just misses being significant at the 5% level (R = 0.5027, P = 0.0669).

Conclusions
Vaccine hesitancy and political populism are driven by similar dynamics: a profound distrust in elites and experts. It is necessary for public health scholars and actors to work to build trust with parents that are reluctant to vaccinate their children, but there are limits to this strategy. The more general popular distrust of elites and experts which informs vaccine hesitancy will be difficult to resolve unless its underlying causes—the political disenfranchisement and economic marginalisation of large parts of the Western European population—are also addressed.

...Conclusion

...a significant positive association between votes for populist parties and anti-vaccine sentiment.

This finding has two important policy implications.
First, academics and global health actors have noted that there is a public health need to monitor vaccine confidence because increasing hesitancy leads to falls in coverage and often precedes an infectious disease outbreak....

Second, it is axiomatic for public health scholars and actors to see vaccine hesitancy as ignorant or irrational. This is understandable: vaccine hesitancy contradicts medical science and has significant negative effects on public health. Notwithstanding, vaccine hesitancy in Western Europe must be understood within its specific socio-political context. It seems to be driven by similar dynamics to those of political populists—i.e. a profound distrust in elites and experts among disenfranchised and marginalised people. It is necessary for public health scholars and actors to work to rebuild trust with parents who are reluctant to vaccinate their children, but there are limits to this strategy. The more general popular distrust of elites and experts that seems to inform vaccine hesitancy will be difficult to resolve unless its underlying causes—an iniquitous economic system and unrepresentative political system—are addressed.

115margd
okt 25, 2022, 9:19 am

Mark W. Kline, M.D. @MarkWKlineMD1 | 3:07 PM · Oct 24, 2022
Physician-in-Chief/CMO, @CHNOLA {Children's Hospital, New Orleans, LA}; Prof. of Pediatrics,@TulaneMedicine @LSUHealthNO; ID/AIDS/Global Health specialist; Editor-in-Chief, Rudolph’s Pediatrics
Respiratory virus test positivity @CHNOLA,, week ending 10/22:
Rhino/Entero, 28%
Influenza A, 26%
Adenovirus, 18%
RSV, 14%
Parainfluenza 1, 11%
COVID-19, 0.6%

New Orleans is a viral Petri dish. Co-infection with 2 or 3 viruses is common. Most children recover uneventfully, but…

…about half of our acute care and ICU beds currently are occupied with kids with viral respiratory disease, most less than 3 yo. Avoid crowded, poorly ventilated indoor settings; wash hands frequently; mask; stay home if sick; vaccinate against flu and COVID. Winter could be even worse.

116margd
nov 2, 2022, 2:35 am

SADS (Sudden Adult Death Syndrome): It’s always about the vaccines

Antivaxxers are falsely claiming that COVID-19 vaccines have been causing an epidemic of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS, also a misnomer for Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome), because of course they are, and of course to them it’s all a “coverup.”

Orac | June 10, 2022

https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2022/06/10/sads-sudden-adult-death-syndrome-...

-------------------------------------------------------

Tenebra99 💙💛 @tenebra99 | 10:03 AM · Nov 1, 2022:
Med student from Germany. Pro-Science. Pro-Vax Advocate.

Recently, Anti-Vaxxers have shown interest in Sudden Cardiac Arrests (SCA).
Blaming them on vaccines, trying to exploit tragedies for Anti-Vax propaganda.
While doing so though, they often show a lack of understanding of the many different causes of SCA.
A thread.
1/?...

If you want to learn more about Sudden Cardiac Arrest, it's causes and prevention, here are some sources:
https://heart.org/en/health-topics/cardiac-arrest
https://cdc.gov/dhdsp/docs/cardiac-arrest-infographic.pdf
28/?

Additionally, here are some guidelines and a paper on SCA, it's causes, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
https://jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacep.2021.12.014
https://jacc.org/doi/pdf/10.1016/j.jacc.2017.10.053
29/29

I want to thank Dr. Han, @han_francis (U IL Chicago Adult Congenital and Pediatric Cardiologist, Pediatrician), for helping me put this thread together!

117margd
nov 2, 2022, 6:47 am

Supreme Court Allows TSA To Issue Mask Mandates
Suzanne Rowan Kelleher | Nov 1, 2022

...The Supreme Court denied a California attorney’s request to overturn a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling in the D.C. Circuit from December, which found no merit in his claim and affirmed that the TSA does have the authority to maintain security and safety within the transportation system, including imposing the masking requirement...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2022/11/01/supreme-court-allow...

118margd
nov 5, 2022, 11:48 am

Apparently this needed to be said:

David Fisman (epidemiologist, U Toronto) @DFisman | 4:47 PM · Nov 4, 2022:
https://twitter.com/DFisman/status/1588634021206306816

Because this is where we’re at: fart smell comes from molecules like indole and skatole, vastly smaller than viruses, which are themselves hundreds of thousands of times smaller than the respiratory aerosol particles that carry them.

That’s why keith can still smell his farts

If you can’t smell your farts while masking, make sure your mask isn’t made out of a dry cleaning wrapper. That would be very dangerous…please take it off immediately

I never get to be molecule of the week 😔
Skatole molecular diagram
https://twitter.com/DFisman/status/1588637301802151936/photo/1

Last point: if your farts do come out as aerosols, please consult a health professional. Your family and friends will thank you, or come back, as the case may be.

{Hilarity--and playground humour--ensues...}

119margd
Bewerkt: nov 17, 2022, 5:18 am

U Illinois cardiologist on risk of myocarditis in boys after mRNA COVID vaxx:

Frank Han MD 🇺🇦Pediatric/ACHD/GUCH Cardiologist @han_francis | 10:35 PM · Nov 16, 2022:
UIC {U Illinois Chicago, Dept Pediatrics, Peoria IL} Adult Congenital and Pediatric Cardiologist, Pediatrician, Musician, Spanish/ French Interpreter.
https://twitter.com/han_francis/status/1593085385684680704

...there are blokes throwing around a myocarditis mortality statistic in an attempt to make myocarditis more scary (and eventually dissuade people from COVID vaccination). This uses the 1. "kernel of truth" and 2. oversimplification tactics. (1/9)

The takehome point is - people who trained in cardiology know that the actual "mortality of myocarditis" depends on the subtype and demographic. It is not one monolithic number. Vinay Prasad, Truthsocial, Alex Berenson, Rumble, Clare Craig, HART, and co won't tell you that.(2/9)

As a reminder, the causes of myocarditis include (citation European Society of Cardiology @escardio ) (3/9):
Table 1. Causes of Myocarditis / Inflammatory Cardiomyopathy
https://twitter.com/han_francis/status/1593085389258256389/photo/1

Groups who are against COVID vaccination like to say myocarditis mortality approaches 50% and cite an AHA article - https://nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199508033330501
This study was specifically **adults** and specifically people with mild to moderately depressed heart function. (4/9)
Excerpt of abstract ( https://twitter.com/han_francis/status/1593085391372161024/photo/1 )

One of the most fundamental rules of biostatistics is to refrain from applying an article done on a population, that does not mirror the population you are interested in (COVID vax myo primarily affects young men and boys, the study with the scary mortality was adults). (5/9)

Back to pediatric myocarditis: an example of a group where mortality and morbidity is very bad, is neonatal/ infant myocarditis. However, the current studies available (CDC VSD/VaST) on infant COVID vaccination myocarditis are showing tiny numbers, with no reported deaths. (6/9)

cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2022-09-01/05-COVID-Shimabukuro-508.pdf Remember in the US the COVID vaccination was authorized down to 6 months of age, so neonatal viral myocarditis statistics aren't even applicable in this instance.(7/9)

A myocarditis mortality rate in a broad age range of kids, encompassing all causes of myocarditis, is something closer to 6-7% https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2788346 . There is no dataset reporting COVID vaccination deaths anywhere close to this number in kids. (8/9)

If you remember only 1 thing from this tweet thread - please be on the lookout for antivax tactics, many of which are listed here (9/9) https://vaccinemakers.org/sites/default/files/resources/18059-ST%20Logical%20Fal...
Don't let anyone try to oversimplify myocarditis to you.

120margd
nov 22, 2022, 7:26 am

1 in 7 {US} Parents Avoided Vaccine Talk With Child's Doctor During the Pandemic — 3% polled said they outright skipped doctor's visits so they wouldn't have the discussion
Ingrid Hein | November 21, 2022

...in the last 2 years, according to the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health...nearly 1,500 respondents showed

82% of parents discussed school-required vaccines with their child's primary care provider during the pandemic,
68% discussed the influenza vaccine, and
57% discussed the COVID-19 vaccine...

15% of parents did not have any conversation about vaccines for their children with the primary care provider...
3% avoided going to the doctor altogether so they didn't have to have the conversation...

https://www.medpagetoday.com/pediatrics/vaccines/101843

121margd
nov 23, 2022, 11:55 am

Vax Conspiracy Film Hits Twitter...
Judy George, Deputy Managing Editor, MedPage Today November 23, 2022

The anti-vax film "Died Suddenly," which claims COVID vaccines were designed to depopulate the world, premiered on Twitter. (Forbes)

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/101895
-------------------------------------------

Tenebra99 💙💛 @tenebra99 | 2:53 AM · Nov 22, 2022:
Med student from Germany. Pro-Science. Pro-Vax Advocate.
https://twitter.com/tenebra99/status/1594962209871904768

Anti-Vaxxers have released their newest propaganda piece "Died Suddenly".

This "movie" is basically an extension of the general tendency of Anti-Vax propagandists to exploit tragedies.
It is ghoulish.
A thread.
1/11

Basically any sudden death or even fainting episode is blamed on the vaccine. No evidence needed. No evidence that the people in question were even vaccinated. My friend exposed some of the lies in the trailer.
https://twitter.com/thereal_truther/status/1586431003312107522 ... In the trailer for the anti-vax "documentary" DIED SUDDENLY a video of Florida Gators basketball star Keyontae Johnson collapsing on the court is shown. Johnson collapsed at a game on December 12, 2020, before vaccines were even available. And he didn't die!

Another tragedy the Anti-Vax propagandist tries to exploit is the death of a teenager in the UK.
The girl tragically died of Covid myocarditis on the day she was supposed to get vaccinated.
She never got the vaccine.
Anti-Vaxxers still claim it's a vaccine death.
3/11

If Anti-Vaxxers had paid any attention to Sudden Cardiac Arrest before these tragedies became a propaganda tool to them, they'd realize these occurences are not uncommon.
Of course nowadays, Anti-Vaxxers scrape foreign and very local news sites for any incident to exploit.
4/11

They'd never have known about many of these sudden deaths if they didn't explicitly search for them and hunt them down.
The fact of the matter is, sudden deaths happen and there are a variety of causes.
I wrote a thread about some of them here.
https://twitter.com/tenebra99/status/1587445186044493826?s=20&t=Qvi_Cqjkvqq6...
5/11

Anti-Vaxxers don't care about these people though, they don't care about the actual cause of death. All they care about is exploiting a tragedy for their propaganda. It is absolutely vile.
6/11

There is no indication given anywhere that any of the families consented to having their loved one's tragic death exploited like this.
7/11

I wish Anti-Vaxxers would focus their energy on something more productive, like advocating for CPR and AEDs, instead of spreading disinformation that is killing people.
8/11

Regarding the "experts" in the "movie", Steven Kirsch once claimed vaccines killed more people than the Holocaust. Evidence? None.
These are not the people you should go to for scientific evidence.
Vaccinated people have lower all cause mortality.
https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9319484/
9/11

Another expert is an embalmer, who is not a medical professional.
Funding for this "movie" came from Anti-Vax quack Sherri Tenpenny and Mike "My Pillow Guy" Lindell.
Anti-Vaxxers like to say "follow the money", I wonder whether that also applies in this case.
10/11

All in all it is a transparent, vile Anti-Vax propaganda piece showing the absolutely ghoulish behavior of some Anti-Vaxxers.
11/11

122margd
nov 25, 2022, 4:41 am

"A new mRNA vaccine targeting all known flu strains in a single shot is showing early promise in animal studies"

New mRNA vaccine targeting all known flu strains shows early promise
Research still in animal trials, but it lifts potential of mRNA technology to new heights
Adam Miller · CBC News · Posted: Nov 24, 2022

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/mrna-flu-vaccine-study-influenza-pandemic-univers...
--------------------------------------------

Claudia P. Arevalo et al. 2022. A multivalent nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccine against all known influenza virus subtypes. Science 24 Nov 2022. Vol 378, Issue 6622
pp. 899-904. DOI: 10.1126/science.abm0271 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm0271

123margd
nov 25, 2022, 5:55 am


Mehreen S Datoo et al. 2022. Efficacy and immunogenicity of R21/Matrix-M vaccine against clinical malaria after 2 years' follow-up in children in Burkina Faso: a phase 1/2b randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Infectious Diseases Volume 22, ISSUE 12, P1728-1736, December 01, 2022.
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00442-X https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(22)00442-X/fullt...

Summary
...Findings
Between June 2, and July 2, 2020, 409 children returned to receive a booster vaccine. Each child received the same vaccination for the booster as they received in the primary series of vaccinations; 132 participants received 5 μg R21 adjuvanted with 25 μg Matrix-M, 137 received 5 μg R21 adjuvanted with 50 μg Matrix-M, and 140 received the control vaccine. R21/Matrix-M had a favourable safety profile and was well tolerated. Vaccine efficacy remained high in the high adjuvant dose (50 μg) group, similar to previous findings at 1 year after the primary series of vaccinations. Following the booster vaccination, 67 (51%) of 132 children who received R21/Matrix-M with low-dose adjuvant, 54 (39%) of 137 children who received R21/Matrix-M with high-dose adjuvant, and 121 (86%) of 140 children who received the rabies vaccine developed clinical malaria by 12 months. Vaccine efficacy was 71% (95% CI 60 to 78) in the low-dose adjuvant group and 80% (72 to 85) in the high-dose adjuvant group. In the high-dose adjuvant group, vaccine efficacy against multiple episodes of malaria was 78% ..., and 2285 ... cases of malaria were averted per 1000 child-years at risk among vaccinated children in the second year of follow-up. Among these participants, at 28 days following their last R21/Matrix-M vaccination, titres of malaria-specific anti-NANP antibodies correlated positively with protection against malaria in both the first year of follow-up ... and second year of follow-up ...

Interpretation
A booster dose of R21/Matrix-M at 1 year following the primary three-dose regimen maintained high efficacy against first and multiple episodes of clinical malaria. Furthermore, the booster vaccine induced antibody concentrations that correlated with vaccine efficacy. The trial is ongoing to assess long-term follow-up of these participants and the value of further booster vaccinations.

124margd
Bewerkt: dec 2, 2022, 9:13 am

This one hits close to home: anti-vaxx parents refuse life-saving heart surgery on newborn unless assured that any blood does not come from vaxxed donors...

There have been no reports of COVID being transmitted via blood transfusions from (previously?) infected that I'm aware of--much less, harm from blood of vaxxed. From time to time the American Red Cross tests donors' blood for past exposure to the virus and for immunity via vaxx. They are on top of incidence of exposure & immunity in their donors, and thus even a hint of potential harm. I think they hoped at one point that antibodies would be passed along. From this blood donor's perspective, anyway..

Parents refuse use of vaccinated blood in life-saving surgery on baby
New Zealand’s health services go to court over guardianship of four-month-old boy whose parents have not let heart operation go ahead
Eva Corlett | Wed 30 Nov 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/30/new-zealand-parents-refuse-use-of-...

125bnielsen
dec 2, 2022, 6:21 am

>124 margd: Shouldn't "anti-vaxx parents refuse life-saving heart surgery on newborn unless assured that any blood does not come from unvaxxed donors... " be "... unless assured that any blood does not come from vaxxed donors..." ?

(Not that it makes much sense either way :-(

126margd
dec 2, 2022, 9:09 am

>125 bnielsen: Yep, thanks. Will correct. Un-bloody-believable...

127margd
dec 4, 2022, 7:46 am

David Fisman @DFisman | 1:37 PM · Dec 3, 2022:
{U Toronto, Infectious Diseases}
This is right. Airborne means businesses, governments and other institutions are responsible for protecting you. Droplets means, tut tut, you weren’t careful. That’s all it is.

Quote Tweet
Walker Bragman @WalkerBragman | 12:15 PM · Dec 3, 2022:
https://twitter.com/WalkerBragman/status/1599089978071347201

The reason capital-aligned right wing groups are spreading disinformation about the efficacy of things like masks, vaccines, and air filtration/ventilation in combatting COVID is that they don’t want demand for new workplace protections/regulations imposed on businesses.

“Everyone is going to get COVID and you can’t stop it” is a lie meant to absolve business of any responsibility or liability to workers.

In the context of schools, there were overlapping goals: Get parents back to work quickly and use a wedge to attack teacher unions and public education to undermine and destroy both

These groups are aggressively anti-labor. They have no qualms about exposing workers and their families to a deadly, debilitating virus for the sake of corporate bottom lines.
CVD https://twitter.com/WalkerBragman/status/1599093139100532736/photo/1
Diabetes https://twitter.com/WalkerBragman/status/1599093139100532736/photo/2
Stroke https://twitter.com/WalkerBragman/status/1599093139100532736/photo/3
Brain https://twitter.com/WalkerBragman/status/1599093139100532736/photo/4

This is also accurate. The workers bearing the brunt of the harms from COVID are poor and working class and disproportionately people of color. Low priority demographics for the right and capital.
Geoff (covid is airborne!) @DonotInnovate ;
There’s also a whole bunch of eugenics/long-termism among those groups too

Of course, lots of well-meaning (and less well-meaning) people have been misled and radicalized by disinformation. It has successfully poisoned what should be a relatively uncontroversial, straightforward discussion about worker protections.

Denialism has become a religion.

128margd
Bewerkt: dec 5, 2022, 9:00 am

‘Immunity debt’ is a misguided and dangerous concept
There is no evidence that an individual is worse off for having avoided earlier infection
Anjana Ahuja | November 23 2022

...Deborah Dunn-Walters, professor of immunology at the University of Surrey, says it is critical to distinguish between individual and population immunity (herd immunity) when scrutinising how pandemic measures may have altered the spread of non-Covid diseases...

...there is no evidence that an individual is worse off for having avoided earlier infection. “Immunity debt as an individual concept is not recognised in immunology,” Dunn-Walters says. “The immune system is not viewed as a muscle that has to be used all the time to be kept in shape and, if anything, the opposite is the case.” ...

https://www.ft.com/content/0640004d-cc15-481e-90ce-572328305798

129margd
dec 6, 2022, 9:36 am

In England, NINE kids have died of bacteria Streptococcus A (strep throat, scarlet fever), and authorities are considering antibiotics for all (with risk of rewarding mutants that resist antibiotics), but not masks?? (Medical twitter's developing hypothesis is that COVID reduces immunity to other pathogens. )

tern @1goodtern | 4:44 AM · Dec 6, 2022:
Holy shit.
We've reached this level.
This is what they have to do when they factory farm chickens or cows or pigs or your children.
😮
Image ( https://twitter.com/1goodtern/status/1600063704866836481/photo/1 )

130margd
dec 7, 2022, 7:24 am

Mask-wearing helps to reduce the spread of COVID-19; social media posts misinterpreted Annals of Internal Medicine study on N95 respirators
Health Feedback | Nov 2022

CLAIM
“‘Gold Standard’ Scientific Trial Deals Massive Blow to N95 and Surgical Masks as Way to ‘Stop Covid’”

VERDICT INACCURATE

SOURCE: Kyle Becker, Becker News, 30 Nov. 2022

DETAILS
Misrepresents source: Despite social media posts claiming that the study by Loeb et al. showed masks don’t work, the study didn’t determine whether mask-wearing effectively reduced the spread of COVID-19. Instead, it compared the effectiveness of medical masks with that of N95 respirators at preventing people from becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2. The authors concluded that medical masks were noninferior compared to N95 respirators, not that mask-wearing is ineffective at reducing the spread of COVID-19.

KEY TAKE AWAY
Although mask-wearing doesn’t prevent people from catching COVID-19 with 100% effectiveness, multiple peer-reviewed studies have shown that mask-wearing can and does meaningfully reduce the risk of transmitting the virus. Furthermore, mask-wearing isn’t associated with serious long-term health problems, whereas COVID-19 is. Consequently, mask-wearing is a low-risk intervention that offers important public health benefits, particularly during a pandemic caused by a respiratory virus.

https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/mask-wearing-reduce-spread-covid-19-socia...

131margd
dec 15, 2022, 9:35 am

Anti-vaxxers (falsely) blamed vaccines for aneurysm death of soccer-reporter Grant Wahl in Qatar, prompting a thread in Twitter. Some tweets linked to papers and articles discussing aneurysm heritability, COVID, screening, etc.

The Genetics of Aortic Aneurysms
May 02, 2018 | Rohan Bhandari, MD; Yogendra Kanthi, MD
Expert Analysis (American College of Cardiology)
https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/articles/2018/05/02/12/52/the-genetics-...

---------------------------------------------------------------

The Ritter Rules were created to educate on how to recognize, treat and prevent thoracic aortic dissection.
-The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health
https://johnritterfoundation.org/your-aortic-health/ritter-rules/
---------------------------------------------------

Grant Wahl Died of a Burst Blood Vessel, His Family Says

An autopsy in New York showed that the journalist had a tear in the ascending aorta, a large vessel that carries blood from the heart.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/14/health/grant-wahl-death.html

---------------------------------------------------

Antonio Bozzani et al. 2022. COVID-19 patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm may be at higher risk for sudden enlargement and rupture.
J Vasc Surg. 2022 Jan; 75(1): 387–388. doi: 10.1016/j.jvs.2021.10.003 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8582098/

132margd
dec 15, 2022, 10:31 am

SciCheck’s COVID-19/Vaccination Project
Blood Transfusion Doesn’t Transfer COVID-19 Vaccine
Saranac Hale Spencer | December 13, 2022

SciCheck Digest
A blood transfusion from a vaccinated person doesn’t transfer the inoculation to an unvaccinated person. But high-profile purveyors of misinformation have been promoting the long-standing false claim that it does...

https://www.factcheck.org/2022/12/scicheck-blood-transfusion-doesnt-transfer-cov...

133margd
dec 15, 2022, 10:50 am

Covid vaccinated do not 'shed' mRNA to unvaccinated
Marisha Goldhamer | 14 December 2022

A US cardiologist claims in an interview spreading across social media that people who have received the Covid-19 vaccine could pass on messenger RNA (mRNA) to the unvaccinated through close contact, causing harm. This is false; the shots approved in the US and Canada do not contain live, weakened versions of the coronavirus, and the studies referenced in the video do not prove the jabs pose a threat...

https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.33398EC

134margd
dec 17, 2022, 10:13 am

Jennifer Abbasi 2022. Amid Ohio Measles Outbreak, New Global Report Warns of Decreased Vaccination During COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA. Published online December 15, 2022. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.23241 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2799834

A measles outbreak is underway this winter in central Ohio, where 73 known cases and 26 hospitalizations have occurred since late October, according to health department data updated on December 12. The Columbus-area outbreak comes on the heels of an unrelated cluster of 22 cases in Minnesota this year.

Meanwhile, an annual report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that substantial progress toward global measles elimination saw setbacks during the COVID-19 pandemic that put millions of children at risk for the highly contagious disease.

According to the November 25 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), an estimated 24.7 million children worldwide missed their first measles vaccine dose through routine immunization services in 2021, and another 14.7 million missed their second dose.

Because measles transmits so efficiently, 89% to 94% vaccination coverage is needed to achieve herd immunity depending on the setting, according to a 2017 WHO position paper. The new report estimated that global measles vaccination coverage for the first dose in the 2-dose series decreased from a peak of 86% in 2019 to 81% in 2021, the lowest coverage since 2008.

Estimated measles cases and deaths are still down from historic levels, the report noted. From 2000 to 2021, estimated cases decreased from more than 34 million to around 9.5 million and estimated deaths fell from more than 760 000 to almost 128 000—an 83% reduction in mortality. However, both estimated cases and deaths were higher in 2021 than in 2020.

In the year leading up to this October, 29 large or disruptive measles outbreaks have occurred in Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Europe, according to provisional monthly data reported to the WHO. Nigeria leads the number of cases reported over the past 12 months, with more than 22 000, but Liberia’s measles rate is the highest, at more than 1000 cases per million people...

135margd
dec 22, 2022, 2:34 pm

Studies Reveal Negative Attitudes Toward the Unvaccinated
— Polarizing views on COVID vaccination status poses risk to pandemic management, researchers say
Ingrid Hein | December 21, 2022

...U.S., vaccinated people were 16 percentage points ... more likely to have antipathy toward those who remain unvaccinated than toward the vaccinated.

"The conflict between those who are vaccinated against COVID-19 and those who are not threatens societal cohesion as a new socio-political cleavage," co-author Alexander Bor, PhD, of Aarhus University, said in a press release. "The vaccinated clearly seem to be the ones deepening this rift."...

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/publichealth/102354
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alexander Bor et al. 2022. Discriminatory Attitudes Against the Unvaccinated During a Global Pandemic. Nature (8 Dec 2022) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05607-y

Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing.

ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 pandemic sizeable groups of unvaccinated minorities persist even in countries with high vaccine access... Consequently, vaccination became a controversial subject of debate and even protes... Here, we assess whether people express discriminatory attitudes in the form of negative affect, stereotypes and exclusionary attitudes in family and political settings across groups defined by COVID-19 vaccination status. We quantify discriminatory attitudes between vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens in 21 countries, covering a diverse set of cultures across the world. Across three conjoint experimental studies (N=15,233), we demonstrate that vaccinated people express discriminatory attitudes towards the unvaccinated, as high as the discriminatory attitudes suffered by common targets like immigrant and minority populations... In contrast, there is an absence of evidence that unvaccinated individuals display discriminatory attitudes towards vaccinated people, except for the presence of negative affect in Germany and United States. We find evidence in support of discriminatory attitudes against the unvaccinated in all countries except Hungary and Romania and find that discriminatory attitudes are more strongly expressed in cultures with stronger cooperative norms. Prior research on the psychology of cooperation has shown that individuals react negatively against perceived free-riders... including in the domain of vaccinations. Consistent with this, the present findings suggest that contributors to the public good of epidemic control (i.e., the vaccinated) react with discriminatory attitudes against perceived free-riders (i.e., the unvaccinated). Elites and the vaccinated general public appealed to moral obligations to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake10,11 but the present findings suggest that discriminatory attitudes including support for the removal of fundamental rights simultaneously emerged.

136margd
jan 3, 2023, 10:57 am

Marion Koopmans @MarionKoopmans | 4:44 AM · Jan 3, 2023:
{ Prof. Head of the Erasmus MC department of Viroscience, Netherlands}
https://twitter.com/MarionKoopmans/status/1610210433482235904

There is this mantra that vaccines since omicron did do not protect from infection. That is incorrect. Yes, protection from infection has been much reduced, but there still is a detectable effect. Data from a study in closed settings (prisons in the US):

any vaccination, prior infection alone and both vaccination and prior infection reduced an index case’s risk of transmitting infection by
22% (6–36%), {any vaxx}
23% (3–39%) {prior infection} and
40% (20–55%) {both vaccination and prior infection},
respectively
Graph ( https://twitter.com/MarionKoopmans/status/1610210435134885889/photo/1 )

study done in the first half of 2022, and more recent variants of omicron have further escaped from neutralising antibodies. In the meantime however, repeated exposures have also broadened immunity in a manner that is still only partially understood.

Sophia T. Tan et al. 2023. Infectiousness of SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections and reinfections during the Omicron wave. Nature Medicine (02 January 2023) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02138-x ... "These findings suggest that, although vaccinated and/or previously infected individuals remain highly infectious upon SARS-CoV-2 infection in this prison setting, their infectiousness is reduced compared to individuals without any history of vaccination or infection. This study underscores benefit of vaccination to reduce, but not eliminate, transmission."

studies like this continue to be important to understand the complex relationship between an evolving virus and an evolving immune landscape. Sofar, protection from severe disease seems less impacted that protection from infection.

next step would be development of vaccines that have improved mucosal immunity, and vaccines that give broader protection. Needs investment in research and trials

137brone
jan 3, 2023, 2:33 pm

Well, theyhave made plenty of money on vaccines not tested, spend it in the lab, not in the media....AMDG....

138margd
jan 7, 2023, 4:07 am

(Joseph Ladapo, MD, Florida Surgeon General)'s Colleagues Slam His mRNA Vax Analysis
— But University of Florida says it won't investigate
Kristina Fiore, Director of Enterprise & Investigative Reporting, MedPage Today | January 6, 2023

University colleagues of Joseph Ladapo, MD, are charging that the Florida Surgeon General relied on a flawed analysis and likely violated the school's research integrity rules when he recommended against COVID vaccination in young men last fallopens in a new tab or window.

A detailed critiqueopens in a new tab or window from a University of Florida (UF) College of Medicine faculty task force alleges that the analysis of Florida Department of Health (FDOH) data -- which was not peer-reviewed and had no named authors -- had significant statistical and methodological problems...

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/102531
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* Guidance for mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines (1p)
Florida Health | October 7, 2022

...The State Surgeon General now recommends against the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines for males ages 18-39 years old.

https://floridahealthcovid19.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20221007-guidance-mr...
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** UF COM Faculty Council Committee on
Dr. Joseph Ladapo’s Analysis of COVID-19 Vaccination
Detailed Critique (7p)

...Our committee finds concern for research integrity violations based on Dr. Ladapo’s “careless,
irregular, or contentious research practices”.

In his guidance, Dr. Ladapo:
1. Reports the relative incidence estimate for cardiac death among males, ages 18-39, as statistically significant, when the estimate would likely be non-significant if best-practice corrections for multiple testing were used...

2. Uses a method that cannot usefully inform public policy...

3. Establishes a hypothesis based on a retrospective analysis of a data set and then tests that hypothesis on the same data...

4. Forms conclusions on the basis of exceptionally small event rates that distort magnitude of risk and do not consider magnitude of benefit.

5. Commits reporting bias by cherry picking results; focusing only on evidence that supports his stance, ignoring contradicting evidence, and failing to appropriately acknowledge the limitations of his own data set...
a. Sources of bias...
b. Inaccuracy in cause of death: Cause of death may be wrongly attributed as cardiac-related...
c. Confounding...
d. Analysis did not include benefits of COVID-19 vaccines...
e. Small sample size in the primary analysis for the 25 - 39 age group...
f. Unknown COVID-19 mortality among asymptomatic or undiagnosed COVID-19 infection...

6. Ignores the total body of evidence regarding risk versus benefit of vaccination...

7. Ignores published findings on the relationship between myocarditis and COVID-19
vaccines.

...Importantly, the study on which Dr. Ladapo’s subsequent analysis is mirrored, that of Nafilyan et al., came to the opposite conclusion and found that “although there is a risk of myocarditis or pericarditis with COVID-19,
there is no evidence of increased risk of cardiac or all-cause mortality following COVID-19 vaccination in young people aged 12-29.” Numerous analyses (Nafilyan, CDC, etc.) have demonstrated the risk of cardiac death following SARS-CoV-2 infection, whose risk is greatly reduced by receiving COVID-19 vaccines. T

...Importantly, Dr. Ladapo’s report and policy have furthered the dubious claim that mRNA vaccines are leading
to vastly increased numbers of cardiac death in young men, a claim which has been repeated and defended by Dr. Ladapo despite its shortcomings. These statements further elevate our concerns that he has “knowingly published material that will mislead readers”.

In summary, the committee has concerns that Dr. Ladapo may have violated Sections 3.B.3 of the UF faculty policy on research integrity and has referred the matter to the University of Florida Research Integrity Officer (RIO).

References...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/c4032b72-fdee-40e4-9148-612db8dbbc4a.pd...

139margd
jan 10, 2023, 10:26 am

Jeffrey V. Lazarus et al. 2023. A survey of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance across 23 countries in 2022
Nature Medicine (09 January 2023) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02185-4

Abstract
...Our third study of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine hesitancy among 23,000 respondents in 23 countries (Brazil, Canada, China, Ecuador, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States), surveyed from 29 June to 10 July 2022, found willingness to accept vaccination at 79.1%, up 5.2% from June 2021. Hesitancy increased in eight countries, however, ranging from 1.0% (United Kingdom) to 21.1% (South Africa). Almost one in eight (12.1%) vaccinated respondents are hesitant about booster doses. Overall support for vaccinating children under 18 years of age increased slightly but declined among parents who were personally hesitant. Almost two in five (38.6%) respondents reported paying less attention to new COVID-19 information than previously, and support for vaccination mandates decreased. Almost a quarter (24%) of those who became ill reported taking medications to combat COVID-19 symptoms...

Fig. 1: COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy in June 2022, percent change from 2020 and 2021.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02185-4/figures/1

Fig. 2: COVID-19 booster acceptance and hesitancy among vaccinated respondents in June 2022.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02185-4/figures/2

Fig. 3: Reported COVID-19 experience and medication used for COVID-19 within the past year.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02185-4/figures/3

Fig. 4: COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy for children among parents in June 2021 and 2022.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02185-4/figures/4

Fig. 5: Support for COVID-19 vaccination mandates in June 2022, percent change from 2021.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02185-4/figures/5

Extended Data Fig. 1: Attention to new information about COVID-19 vaccines, current COVID-19 treatment preference, beliefs about vaccination for current disease severity and protection against long COVID by country and the global average.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02185-4/figures/6

140John5918
Bewerkt: jan 11, 2023, 11:17 pm

‘I was wrong’: how Covid conspiracies became a gateway to extreme views

Some Covid deniers have regrets, but others have joined more extremist hate movements...


Tory MP Andrew Bridgen loses whip over ‘dangerous’ Covid vaccine claims

The Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen has lost the party whip, probably permanently, after he provoked widespread fury among colleagues and elsewhere by comparing the use of Covid vaccines to the Holocaust. The tweet from the North West Leicestershire backbencher came after weeks of him sending increasingly anti-vaccine social media posts, as well as messages to journalists, many of which openly backed conspiracy theories. The message on Wednesday morning linked to an article from Zero Hedge, a libertarian and conspiracy theory website, which purported to show the health risks from Covid vaccines. Bridgen wrote: “As one consultant cardiologist said to me this is the biggest crime against humanity since the holocaust.” The message brought immediate outrage and calls for Bridgen, an MP since 2010, to be stripped of the Conservative whip, with Labour questioning why this had not been done before, given his views on vaccines...


Both from the Guardian

141brone
jan 12, 2023, 9:37 am

As Us Military combat teams, Armored regiments, Special Forces ops, Surface to Air and Surface to Ground Missiles are deployed on the Polish Ukrainian border, the covidiacs decide the jab is no longer necessary for US troops....AMDG....

142jjwilson61
jan 12, 2023, 12:48 pm

??? I'm not sure what a covidiac is, but it was the Republicans in Congress who forced the military to drop it's COVID vaccine requirement by insisting on an amendment to the military budget before they would let it pass.

143margd
Bewerkt: jan 12, 2023, 1:03 pm

>141 brone: Covidiacs? Conservative lawmakers you mean?

Pentagon officially rescinds Covid-19 vaccine requirement for troops
Haley Britzky | January 11, 2023

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has officially rescinded the military’s Covid-19 vaccination mandate for troops after President Joe Biden signed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, requiring its dismissal.

...The requirement to remove the mandate was viewed as a win for conservative lawmakers who had long argued that it was hindering the military’s recruitment efforts, though Pentagon officials maintained there was no evidence to support the claim.

...White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in December that the White House saw the decision to remove the mandate as a “mistake,” though Biden ultimately signed off on the bill...

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/10/politics/military-covid-vaccine-rescinded/index.h...
___________________________________________________________________

ETA:
Recruits, especially if headed overseas, still face a long list of mandated vaccines, including the peanut butter shot, which I hadn't heard of before. mRNA vaxx for COVID is painfree in my experience, while peanut butter shot sounds MISERABLy PAINFUL!!!
https://www.military.com/off-duty/2020/02/10/why-most-dreaded-injection-called-p...

144margd
Bewerkt: jan 13, 2023, 9:40 am

Cervical cancer rates dropped 65% from 2012 to 2019 among women in their early 20s after a generation of young women were vaccinated against human papillomavirus, or HPV, for the first time.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-cancer-death-rate-has-dropped-by-a-third-since-...
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More men diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer as PSA screening declines
After two decades of decline, cases of prostate cancer rose by 3% per year from 2014 to 2019, a new report from the American Cancer Society has found.
Linda Carroll | 12 Jan 2023
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/men-diagnosed-advanced-prostate-cancer-psa...
______________________________________________________________

Rebecca L. Siegel et al/ 2023. Cancer statistics, 2023. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Volume73, Issue1. January/February 2023. Pages 17-48. This article also appears in: Statistics. First published: 12 January 2023
https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21763 https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21763

Abstract
Each year, the American Cancer Society estimates the numbers of new cancer cases and deaths in the United States and compiles the most recent data on population-based cancer occurrence and outcomes using incidence data collected by central cancer registries and mortality data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics. In 2023, 1,958,310 new cancer cases and 609,820 cancer deaths are projected to occur in the United States. Cancer incidence increased for prostate cancer by 3% annually from 2014 through 2019 after two decades of decline, translating to an additional 99,000 new cases; otherwise, however, incidence trends were more favorable in men compared to women. For example, lung cancer in women decreased at one half the pace of men (1.1% vs. 2.6% annually) from 2015 through 2019, and breast and uterine corpus cancers continued to increase, as did liver cancer and melanoma, both of which stabilized in men aged 50 years and older and declined in younger men. However, a 65% drop in cervical cancer incidence during 2012 through 2019 among women in their early 20s, the first cohort to receive the human papillomavirus vaccine, foreshadows steep reductions in the burden of human papillomavirus-associated cancers, the majority of which occur in women. Despite the pandemic, and in contrast with other leading causes of death, the cancer death rate continued to decline from 2019 to 2020 (by 1.5%), contributing to a 33% overall reduction since 1991 and an estimated 3.8 million deaths averted. This progress increasingly reflects advances in treatment, which are particularly evident in the rapid declines in mortality (approximately 2% annually during 2016 through 2020) for leukemia, melanoma, and kidney cancer, despite stable/increasing incidence, and accelerated declines for lung cancer. In summary, although cancer mortality rates continue to decline, future progress may be attenuated by rising incidence for breast, prostate, and uterine corpus cancers, which also happen to have the largest racial disparities in mortality.

145margd
Bewerkt: jan 23, 2023, 8:14 am

The relative size of particles! From human hair to zika virus.( https://twitter.com/jeffgilchrist/status/1617495193997185024/photo/1 )
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Dr. Jeff Gilchrist @jeffgilchrist | 6:48 AM · Dec 14, 2022:
PhD Biomedical researcher, data scientist, and finder of large prime numbers. {Adjunct eng. prof Carlton U, Ottawa https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jeff-Gilchrist}

How #respirators actually work and which type is best?

I see many claims #masks don't work. This thread will explain *how* they block #viruses much smaller than the size of the holes in the #filter and why you can still smell nasty things while wearing effective masks.
🧵 ( https://pingthread.com/thread/1602994049815908353 )

Image showing size comparison of white blood cell, red blood cell, light dust particle and COVID-19 virus.
https://twitter.com/jeffgilchrist/status/1602994049815908353/photo/1
Image from: https://theconversation.com/making-masks-at-home-what-you-need-to-know-about-how...

146margd
jan 23, 2023, 8:13 am

Cholera is one resilient pathogen... A few years ago, UN peacekeepers introduced it to Haiti. A couple decades ago, pathogen was transferred from Bay of Bengal in ship ballast water to South America, where it killed (10,000?) people. Largely absent these days in the US and Canada, a few years ago, pathogen was reported in water sample from the center of frigid Lake Superior: presumably released with ballast water, it can survive the cold in center of an algal ball...

In a Nation That Nearly Wiped Out Cholera, the Disease Is Surging Back
Malawi, in southern African, had all but eradicated cholera, recording only two cases in 2021. But more than 900 people died of it over the past 11 months, and the government is scrambling to contain...
22 Jan 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/world/africa/malawi-cholera-outbreak.html

147brone
jan 23, 2023, 6:57 pm

New white house chief of staff Jeff Z is currently the Covid Czar and is worth 442 million formally an Obama appointe a regular of the people civil servant....AMDG....

148prosfilaes
jan 23, 2023, 7:35 pm

>147 brone: Are you ragging on Jeff Zients for having built and ran a number of successful businesses? I thought that was supposed to be a good thing?

a regular of the people civil servant

You mean like Biden or Obama?

I don't have an opinion about Jeff Zients, beyond saying that dignity and clear communication means he shouldn't be referred to as "Jeff Z", but that post struck me as an attack, and not a reasoned argument against him.

149aspirit
jan 24, 2023, 11:35 am

>145 margd: The relative size of particles! From human hair to zika virus.

For those of us who chose to avoid Twitter.com, this is an older article with the comparison...

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/covid-19-coronavirus-disease-size-compair...

and a larger view of the zika-to-hair comparison image by itself.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/relative-size-of-par...

150brone
jan 24, 2023, 2:24 pm

>148 prosfilaes: Working in the Obama admin might have helped it....JMJ....

151prosfilaes
jan 24, 2023, 9:21 pm

>150 brone: Ah, cool, casual slander. The Catholic Encyclopedia might classify this as detraction, a mortal sin, though I might argue willful apathy towards the truth or falsehood of a claim might put it towards calumny, also a mortal sin.

Americans can generally get together behind stopping government officials from unjustly enriching themselves in office. But when partisans start attacking anyone on the other side, real crimes get ignored.

In this case, Jeff Zients was listed by Fortune as having a wealth of $149 million in 2001. If he'd just socked that away in investments, that would have been a 5.4% interest rate to reach $442 million in 2023. Given that he's been working since that time, there's no reason to think anything at all illicit has been done.

152aspirit
Bewerkt: jan 25, 2023, 9:03 am

>151 prosfilaes: Not illicit, probably, because our current financial laws are geared toward making wealthy people wealthier.

Obviously, though, the previous posts weren't about that but about partisanship. Zients could be the best person ever for the position and still be hated for working with President Obama (whose pandemic preparation was tossed out by his successor, let's remember).
Dit onderwerp werd voortgezet door Vaccination, Choice, Public Health Options 5.