Health & WellnessS


Bulb

Common mutation of coronavirus more infectious but less harmful


Yahoo
Tue, 18 Aug 2020 10:12 UTC
Coronavirus covid
© CDC"This calls for some optimism about herd immunity," an immunologist said
An increasingly common mutation of the novel coronavirus found in Europe, North America and parts of Asia may be more infectious but appears less deadly, according to a prominent infectious diseases doctor.

Paul Tambyah, senior consultant at the National University of Singapore and president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, said evidence suggests the proliferation of the D614G mutation in some parts of the world has coincided with a drop in death rates, suggesting it is less lethal.

"Maybe that's a good thing to have a virus that is more infectious but less deadly," Tambyah told Reuters.

Tambyah said most viruses tend to become less virulent as they mutate.

Comment: As noted above: our immune systems will likely recognize the mutated coronavirus however the vaccine may not be effective against it. Moreover it has been shown that the vaccine experimentation in the US would be likely to cause more damage to a person than the virus itself.

Considering that the coronavirus is already harmless for the vast majority, why even bother with a vaccine - and especially the catastrophic lockdown policies - when there's already a more infectious and even more harmless strain of coronavirus already making its way through the population, and that would eventually confer herd immunity? Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Health

Should you take fever lowering drugs when you're sick?

Sebastian Rushworth M.D.
Sebastian Rushworth.com
Mon, 17 Aug 2020 19:07 UTC
Sick in Bed
© Sebastian Rushworth.com
Most of us probably take fever lowering drugs, like paracetamol (a.k.a. acetaminophen, tylenol, panadol, alvedon), aspirin, or ibuprofen (a.k.a. advil, motrin, ipren), when we get a high temperature. The technical term for these drugs is antipyretics. After half an hour or so, we start to feel better and maybe don't have to spend the whole day in bed. But it is well understood among researchers studying the immune system that the fever is in itself an important part of the body's defence against infection. Our immune system works better at a higher temperature, and many pathogens have trouble replicating at a higher temperature. So, does taking antipyretics increase the risk of a more severe infection, or even of dying? And does it delay recovery?

A systematic review was carried out in 2010 seeking to answer this question, at least in part. It collected randomized controlled trials looking at the effect on mortality of treating influenza with antipyretics. Unfortunately, the authors of the review weren't able to find any trials involving humans, but they did find seven trials using mice, and one that used chickens. The review didn't receive any outside funding (i.e. the researchers who put the review together did it on their own time). In total 1,116 animals were included, with 697 in the antipyretic group and 419 in the control group. The animals in the antipyretic group were variously treated with aspirin, paracetamol, or diclofenac (a drug that is similar to ibuprofen).

41,8% died in the group that received antipyretics, compared with 38,1% in the control group. This was a 3,7% absolute difference in mortality, and it was statistically significant. If you think the number of animals that died in both groups was surprisingly large, that is because the strain of influenza they were infected with had been modified to be as lethal as possible.

So what conclusion can we draw from this? If you have a pet mouse, don't give it an antipyretic if it gets sick!
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Cow

Milk from cows fed on grass is greener than soya substitutes, say scientists

Ben Webster
The Times
Mon, 17 Aug 2020 00:01 UTC
rainforest cleared soy
© ALAMYVast areas of rainforest are cleared to grow soya beans, used for soya milk.
Environmentally conscious consumers who switch from cow's milk to soya milk may be doing harm to the rainforest because it is cleared to grow soya beans.

Vast areas in South America, including in the Amazon, have been cleared to grow soya and demand for it continues to drive illegal deforestation.

Cows in Britain are fed partly on soya but a litre of soya milk requires 11 times as much of it as does a litre of cow's milk, according to a new study. Britain imports 1.1 million tonnes of soya a year to be used in animal feed and between 92,000 and 173,000 tonnes is fed to cows. Soya accounts for only a fraction of the protein consumed by most cows, however, because most comes from grass.

Comment: The detractors have everything so backward it's hardly worth debunking. But the articles below are a good start.

See also:

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Broom

Study to assess whether babies born during lockdown are more likely to develop allergies

Sabrina Barr
Independent
Mon, 17 Aug 2020 06:14 UTC
baby and mom
‘Lockdown presents a unique scientific opportunity to examine the early origins of often lifelong diseases,’ says study lead
A team of scientists are carrying out a study to ascertain whether babies born during lockdown may be more likely to develop allergies.

The study is being conducted by scientists from the department of paediatrics at Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI) and clinician scientists from Children's Hospital at Temple Street in Dublin, Ireland.

They will assess whether lower rates of viral infections and improved air quality - which some experienced during lockdown - could make children who were born in families who were social distancing and in self-isolation more or less likely to develop allergic conditions.

Comment: It's an interesting hypothesis. If allergies are due to a 'cleaner' environment leading to less microbes being introduced to the immune system, it would logically follow that the current microbe-obsessed, sanitizer-loaded environment would lead to more allergies. We anxiously await the results of the study.

See also:

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Health

Frontline nurse Erin Marie Olszewski speaks out about lethal Covid protocols

Dr. Joseph Mercola
Mercola.com
Sun, 16 Aug 2020 00:01 UTC
erin marie olszewski mercola interview
In this interview, retired Army combat veteran Erin Marie Olszewski, a nurse who for several months treated COVID-19 patients at the Elmhurst Hospital Center, a public hospital in Queens, New York — the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S.

She has now written a book, "Undercover Epicenter Nurse: How Fraud, Negligence, and Greed Led to Unnecessary Deaths at Elmhurst Hospital,"1 which details her experiences.

Olszewski was born in Michigan and raised in a small Wisconsin town and joined the military at 17. When 9/11 happened, she was in basic training. "I was only 18 years old so I grew up pretty quickly," she says.
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Syringe

Russia produces first batch of COVID-19 vaccine, 500 million doses available by January


Reuters
Sat, 15 Aug 2020 10:26 UTC
covid vaccine russia
© The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF)/Handout via REUTERSFILE PHOTO: A handout photo provided by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) shows samples of a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, in Moscow, Russia August 6, 2020. Picture taken August 6, 2020.
Russia has produced the first batch of its new vaccine for COVID-19, the Interfax news agency quoted the health ministry as saying on Saturday, hours after the ministry reported the start of manufacturing.

Some scientists said they fear that with this fast regulatory approval Moscow may be putting national prestige before safety amid the global race to develop a vaccine against the disease.

Russia has said the vaccine, the first for the coronavirus to go into production, will be rolled out by the end of this month.

Comment: RT reports that Trump is hoping the US' attempt will be out soon, although from what has been reported about the US' controversial project 'Warp Speed' vaccine research, its side effects could be deadly:
The jab, dubbed 'Sputnik V', is supposed to offer protection from the coronavirus for up to two years.

Asked about the rapidly developed vaccine at a Friday press conference, Trump said he hoped the vaccine would be effective, but claimed the US may soon have good news to share, too, when it comes to a vaccine.

"We don't know much about it. We hope it works, we do, we hope it works."

He added that an American vaccine could be approved and distributed before the end of the year.


The president also claimed a US vaccine is taking longer only because America has instituted a longer trial process.

"They've [that is, the Russians] cut off certain trials, and we just feel it's important to go through the process. We have numerous different vaccines that we think are going to work, but we want to go through a system of trials," he said.

As to who will first receive the vaccine, Trump insisted "elderly" citizens living in nursing homes or retirement communities will likely have early access. When it came to himself, he equivocated, saying he would either be "first or last" to receive it.

Despite having been registered, the Sputnik V vaccine will continue to undergo trials involving thousands of people in Russia and abroad. Some 20 countries have already queued up to get the promising jab or have offered cooperation in its production and distribution, and Moscow says hundreds of millions of doses could be produced globally each year.
See also: Sputnik V, world's first Covid-19 vaccine, launched - Putin's daughter among first to take it - Vaccine will NOT be mandatory in Russia

And check out SOTT radio's: Objective:Health - Operation 'Warped' Speed - These People Are Crazy!

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Health

Thousands of "flu" cases in Seattle this winter were actually Covid-19


IFL Science
Sat, 15 Aug 2020 21:48 UTC
sick cold flu
© Fizkes/Shutterstock
Thousands of cases of flu in Seattle between January and early March were actually Covid-19, according to a new study, meaning the virus was much more prevalent in the US earlier than thought.

Reporting in The Lancet's open-access journal EClinicalMedicine, researchers reanalyzed throat swab samples from people who presented with "flu" symptoms in Seattle between the end of February and early March and found more than one in 10 cases were Covid-19. Their findings suggest around 9,000 people may have had Covid-19 by March 9, when fewer than 150 cases had been officially reported across the whole of Washington.

The team from the University of Texas at Austin (UT) looked at two early periods in the pandemic in Wuhan and Seattle. They studied data, doctors' reports, and cases of reported flu-like symptoms from Wuhan in January and Seattle in February-March to try and work out if the Covid-19 to flu ratio could be used to estimate early pandemic spread.

"Even before we realized that Covid-19 was spreading, the data imply that there was at least one case of Covid-19 for every two cases of flu," said Lauren Ancel Meyers, who runs UT Austin's Covid-19 Modeling Consortium. "Since we knew how widespread flu was at that time, we could reasonably determine the prevalence of Covid-19."

Comment: In a nutshell: the virus had already been around for a while and was already fairly widespread before attempts to mitigate its spread via lockdown. The lockdown was useless, and in fact caused more harm than if it hadn't been implemented. The virus has run its course, as viruses do. And since the hospitals aren't overrun, it should be allowed to do so - with precautions for those most at risk.

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Red Pill

Best of the Web: Hydroxychloroquine works in high-risk patients, and saying otherwise is dangerous

Harvey Risch
Washington Examiner
Wed, 12 Aug 2020 20:51 UTC
Hydroxychloroquine
© GEORGE FREY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
As of Wednesday, some 165,000 people in the United States have died from COVID-19. I have made the case in the American Journal of Epidemiology and in Newsweek that people who have a medical need to be treated can be treated early and successfully with hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and antibiotics such as azithromycin or doxycycline. I have also argued that these drugs are safe and have made that case privately to the Food and Drug Administration.

The pushback has been furious. Dr. Anthony Fauci has implied that I am incompetent, notwithstanding my hundreds of highly regarded, methodologically relevant publications in peer-reviewed scientific literature. A group of my Yale colleagues has publicly intimated that I am a zealot who is perpetrating a dangerous hoax and conspiracy theory. I have been attacked in news articles by journalists who, ignorant of the full picture, have spun hit pieces from cherry-picked sources.

These personal attacks are a dangerous distraction from the real issue of hydroxychloroquine's effectiveness, which is solidly grounded in both substantial evidence and appropriate medical decision-making logic. Much of the evidence is presented in my articles.

To date, there are no studies whatsoever, published or in pre-print, that provide scientific evidence against the treatment approach for high-risk outpatients that I have described. None. Assertions to the contrary, whether by Fauci, the FDA, or anyone else, are without foundation. They constitute misleading and toxic disinformation.
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Burka

SOTT Focus: Facemasks, Lies, Damn Lies, And Public Health Officials: "A Growing Body of Evidence"

Denis G. Rancourt, PhD
researchgate.net
Mon, 03 Aug 2020 10:27 UTC
face mask litter streets
Facemask discarded on a street in Quebec
A vile new mantra is on the lips of every public health official and politician in the global campaign to force universal masking on the general public: "there is a growing body of evidence". This propagandistic phrase is a vector designed to achieve five main goals:
  • Give the false impression that a balance of evidence now proves that masks reduce the transmission of COVID-19
  • Falsely assimilate commentary made in scientific venues with "evidence"
  • Hide the fact that a decade's worth of policy-grade evidence proves the opposite: that masks are ineffective with viral respiratory diseases
  • Hide the fact that there is now direct observational proof that cloth masks do not prevent exhalation of clouds of suspended aerosol particles; above, below and through the masks
  • Deter attention away from the considerable known harms and risks due to face masks, applied to entire populations
The said harms and risks include that a cloth mask becomes a culture medium for a large variety of bacterial pathogens, and a collector of viral pathogens; given the hot and humid environment and the constant source, where home fabrics are hydrophilic whereas medical masks are hydrophobic.

In short, I argue: op-eds are not "evidence", irrelevance does not help, and more bias does not remove bias. Their mantra of "a growing body of evidence" is a self-serving contrivance that impedes good science and threatens public safety.

I prove that there is no policy-grade evidence to support forced masking on the general population, and that all the latest-decade's policy-grade evidence points to the opposite: NOT recommending forced masking of the general population. Therefore, the politicians and health authorities are acting without legitimacy and recklessly.

The article is organized into the following sections:
  • Introduction
  • Competence to talk about face masks and COVID-19
  • Government responses have been a public-health and safety catastrophe
  • The "growing body of evidence" mantra needs to stop
  • So, what actually is the "growing body of evidence"?
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Books

Best of the Web: Still no conclusive evidence justifying mandatory masks

Todd McGreevy
River Cities' Reader
Mon, 10 Aug 2020 10:16 UTC
  • Attempted refutations to Denis Rancourt's argument that mandated mask-wearing reduces no risk of contracting COVID
  • New additional studies support Rancourt's conclusions that mask-wearing does not prevent transmission of viruses
  • Additional analysis by Denis Rancourt on efficacy of mask-wearing to prevent transmission of respiratory infections
world facemask globe
"I can't breathe"
In June, we published Denis Rancourt's white paper titled "Masks Don't Work: A Review of Science Relevant to COVID-19 Social Policy." As of this date, the article has been viewed over 460,000 times world-wide. And, as the Reader's publisher I pledged to publish all letters, guest commentaries, or studies refuting Rancourt's general premise that this mask-wearing culture and shaming could be more harmful than helpful.

In retrospect, Rancourt's specific premise is that there are no gold-standard (a.k.a. policy-grade) randomized controlled tests that prove masks work effectively to stop the spread of a respiratory virus.

The masks-may-be-more-harmful-than-helpful assertion is associated with the open questions Rancourt posed regarding unknown consequences of mandated masking being considered by thousands of local and state government officials, both elected and unelected.

We received many submissions against and for Rancourt's paper. After reviewing the attempted refutations, we remain resolute in our original support for his conclusions. Not one proved Rancourt's analysis of the randomized controlled tests to be false or misleading. Nor did any of the attempted refutations answer or overcome any of Rancourt's concerns regarding potential harm from mandated mask wearing.

Comment: Well done to those few outlets courageous enough to publish his work, and of course to Denis Rancourt, whose efforts to speak out about the actual science of mask-wearing we first noticed in May, when we published his first review of the scientific literature on the efficacy of facemasks:
The Science is Conclusive: Masks and Respirators do NOT Prevent Transmission of Viruses
Facemasks aren't just 'another fracture point in the culture war' - they constitute a public health crisis in itself, and the longer they're mandated, the more likely they will statistically become more deadly to human health than Covid-19.

Also by Dr Rancourt:
Study of All-cause Mortality During Covid-19: No Plague, But Likely Mass Homicide by Government Response


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