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Experts can't find a single child under 10 who passed on coronavirus to an adult raising hopes they pose no risk

Faith Ridler
Daily Mail
Wed, 29 Apr 2020 21:07 UTC
2 kids masks
© Shutterstock/L. Julia
No child is known to have passed on Covid-19 to an adult, a medical review has found, as evidence suggests youngsters 'do not play a significant role' in transmission.

A review of paediatric coronavirus evidence revealed 'the China/WHO joint commission could not recall episodes during contact tracing where transmission occurred from a child to an adult.' Researchers have also failed to uncover any cases of children under the age of 10 transmitting the virus, which has killed more than 26,000 people in the UK.

Studies into the impact of coronavirus on children also found it likely youngsters 'do not play a significant role' in transmission of the virus, although experts admitted the facts are still 'unclear'.

Professor Russell Viner, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, told the Telegraph: 'From around the world we are not seeing evidence that children are involved in spreading or transmitting the virus, but we do not have enough evidence.'

The review of 'pertinent paediatric literature' regarding coronavirus, led by Dr Alasdair Munro and published in partnership with the RCPCH, found current evidence 'consistently demonstrates reduced infection and infectivity of children in the transmission chain.'
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Chart Pie

Danish mask study finally published: No statistically significant difference between wearing or not wearing mask

Vinay Prasad
Medpage Today
Wed, 18 Nov 2020 19:34 UTC
danish mask
I was drawn to science and medicine because of all human endeavors, ours is one where smart people can say, "I don't know." We don't stop there. We run a study or experiment that helps us know more. That is what makes what we do different than other human endeavors.

I start then with a humility as I take on the Danish Mask Study, published on Wednesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. This is a 4,800-person randomized trial that took place in the spring and early summer in Denmark. The trial was run at a time where most Danes did not wear masks when they left their house. It told participants to practice social distancing and randomly assigned them with the advice to wear a mask (and even gave them 50 surgical masks), advising them to change it after every 8 hours of use, or gave them no advice to wear mask, and followed them to see how many acquired SARS-CoV-2 by PCR or antibody testing. The answer was a nearly identical proportion -- 42 of 2,393 people (1.8%) in the mask group and 53 of 2,470 (2.1%) in the no-mask group. The difference was not statistically significant.


Comment:


Before I tell you what the study showed and didn't, we have to consider some criticism that is rapidly emerging.

Was the trial underpowered? The trial was powered to test its hypothesis of a 50% reduction in SARS-CoV-2 from mask wearing in a setting where the baseline risk was approximately 2%. The trial anticipated a 20% loss to follow-up. By these measures the trial was adequately powered to test its hypothesis, but let's be honest, the authors could not possibly have known at the outset the exact rate of COVID-19. While 2% was a terrific guess, it so easily could have been 22%. SARS-CoV-2 is a fat-tail probability event: meaning that it is possible for extremely bad scenarios to occur. Instead of California, Denmark could have been South Dakota! For this reason, I don't judge them harshly for power.

Comment:



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Syringe

Stamping on the 'anti-vaxxers'

Dr.Malcolm Kendrick
Dr.Malcolm Kendrick Org
Tue, 17 Nov 2020 23:12 UTC
Vaccines
© Harvard University
The COVID19 pandemic has thrown into sharp relief the concerns that a number of people have about vaccination. However, such is the eagerness to develop a vaccine, and get everyone to take it, that authorities are now looking to ban anyone who raises doubts. For example, the Labour Party in the UK is now calling for emergency 'anti-vaccine' laws:
'Emergency laws to "stamp out dangerous" anti-vaccine content online should be introduced, Labour has said. The party is calling for financial and criminal penalties for social media firms that do not remove false scare stories about vaccines.

It follows news of progress on the first effective coronavirus vaccine. The government said it took the issue "extremely seriously" with "a major commitment" from Facebook, Twitter and Google to tackle anti-vaccine content.' 1
There are so many things that could be said about this, that it is difficult to know where to start. Or to finish. I think in this blog I am just going to stick to focussing on a single issue. Which is that, if the intention of such laws is to ensure more people are keen to be vaccinated then I have news for the Labour party.

It will almost certainly backfire.

This is because state censorship does not change minds, never has. Whilst debate, at least superficially, has been silenced, the concerns do not disappear. Instead, the doubts are often redoubled. Once you start banning and censoring and fining and arresting, people start to wonder if you are just afraid to make your case. As Wendell Phillips said, and many people think:
'He who stifles free discussion, secretly doubts whether what he professes to believe is really true.'
Once censorship starts, people are also reminded of the worst, most dreadful periods in history the world has even seen. It has always been one of the primary tools of totalitarian regimes:- Nazi Germany, Russia under Stalin, North Korea, China and Iran today.
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Chalkboard

Coronavirus emerged in Italy in September 2019 - Italian study

Giselda Vagnoni
Reuters
Sun, 15 Nov 2020 18:16 UTC
italy mask
© REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People wearing masks walk on a street, as the number of people infected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to rise, in Venice, Italy, November 14, 2020.
The new coronavirus was circulating in Italy since September 2019, a study by the National Cancer Institute (INT) of the Italian city of Milan shows, signaling that COVID-19 might have spread beyond China earlier than previously thought.

The World Health Organization has said the new coronavirus and COVID-19, the respiratory disease it causes, were unknown before the outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, in central China, in December.

Italy's first COVID-19 patient was detected on Feb. 21 in a little town near Milan, in the northern region of Lombardy.

Comment: See also:

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Cow

McDonald's is seriously naming its plant-based burger 'McPlant'

Jaya Saxena
Eater
Mon, 09 Nov 2020 12:25 UTC
mcdonald's sign
© Shutterstock
The only place you can get the McPlant.
And it's taking yet another crack at the chicken sandwich.

In a conference call today, McDonald's announced its own plant-based burger, which has been dubbed the "McPlant." The burger is created "by McDonald's and for McDonald's," International President Ian Borden said. The McPlant will be added to menus in 2021. Let's say the name again because it sounds like a joke: McPlant.

Over the past couple of years, basically every fast food chain has released a meatless burger. White Castle made a slider using Impossible Foods, Chipotle stuffs burritos with tofu-based Sofritas, and Burger King, Del Taco, KFC and Qdoba have all introduced plant-based meat. "In just one year, plant-based meat went from something very few Americans had heard of to something that 40 percent of us have tried," wrote Kelsey Piper for Vox. Rather than the bean-laden veggie burgers of yore, these meat substitutes aim to recreate the texture and taste of meat. And while they can be eaten by vegetarians and omnivores alike, they are more likely to be marketed to those who do eat meat but are concerned about both health and environmental sustainability.

Comment: The name of the sandwich is hardly the most pressing issue with this 'food'. On the other hand, when you're dealing with a restaurant that has become synonymous with 'fake food', what's one more fake product added to the menu?

See also:

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Biohazard

Third bird flu outbreak detected in England, cull begins - Holland culls 48,000


Sky News
Wed, 11 Nov 2020 23:45 UTC
chickens

FILE PHOTO: Birds are being culled and control zones have been put in place.
A third case of bird flu has been detected in England at a premises near Leominster in Herefordshire - after two other cases were discovered last week.

The latest case in broiler breeder chickens follows those found in Cheshire and Kent on 2 November.

Birds are being culled and control zones have been put in place, the government has confirmed.

Comment: See also:

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Cheeseburger

Ice Age Farmer Report: Green new meal - New McPlant & UK's meat tax - Corporations push fake food


Ice Age Farmer
Thu, 12 Nov 2020 10:02 UTC
meat
The "Green New Meal" agenda is in full swing, as McDonald's new "McPlant" and Purina's insect-based dog food signal that multinational companies are using social engineering to push Fake Food to the masses -- and world governments are complicit, with the UK mulling a "Meat Carbon Tax" just as predicted by Soros' Food Chain Reaction Game. All of this was seen in predictive programming for decades, but is arriving now. Christian breaks it down!


Sources
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Syringe

Safety, effectiveness, transparency: What we still don't know about Pfizer vaccine


RT
Tue, 10 Nov 2020 12:47 UTC
vaccine and needle
© Getty Images/Tetra Images
Global markets surged and politicians and the public rejoiced online as Pfizer announced its Covid-19 vaccine was 90 percent effective, but not everyone is fully convinced, with a number of critical questions remaining unanswered.

On Monday, US drugmaker Pfizer and German partner BioNTech announced their "interim analysis" of a 43,538-person study of their two-dose vaccine regimen having proved 90 percent effective in preventing Covid-19.

Just 94 cases of the disease were observed in the large-scale trial, and early indications are that the fight against the coronavirus may be shifting in humanity's favor at last. Russia's Sputnik V vaccine had already boasted similar rates of effectiveness.

However, with all the market surges, breathless news coverage, and political messaging about the vaccine, a number of serious caveats, concerns, questions, and a distinct lack of detail remain.

We don't yet know if the Pfizer vaccine entirely prevents infection, or whether asymptomatic carriers might still be a cause for concern in the years ahead. The study was also rather limited in scope, testing only whether there were fewer cases of symptomatic Covid-19 among vaccine recipients than those given the placebo.

In other words, without this information, we have no way of knowing whether this vaccine would actually stop the pandemic or not, or merely change its complexion.

Comment: China claims its Sinovac vaccine, CoronaVac, is not related to adverse incident of trial participant in Brazil:
Serious incidents that prompt the suspension of trials include the death of a volunteer, potentially fatal side effects, life changing disability and hospitalization, among other significant developments.

The interruption of the study means that no new volunteer can be vaccinated until the regulator is satisfied that the vaccine was not responsible for the adverse effect experienced by the participant.
See also:

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Health

Psychiatric study claims Covid-19 survivors at greater risk of developing mental illness

Kate Kelland
Reuters
Mon, 09 Nov 2020 00:00 UTC
depression
Many COVID-19 survivors are likely to be at greater risk of developing mental illness, psychiatrists said on Monday, after a large study found 20% of those infected with the coronavirus are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder within 90 days.

Anxiety, depression and insomnia were most common among recovered COVID-19 patients in the study who developed mental health problems. The researchers from Britain's Oxford University also found significantly higher risks of dementia, a brain impairment condition.

"People have been worried that COVID-19 survivors will be at greater risk of mental health problems, and our findings ... show this to be likely," said Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry at Oxford.

Doctors and scientists around the world urgently need to investigate the causes and identify new treatments for mental illness after COVID-19, Harrison said.

Comment: This study has the hallmarks of fear-mongering to entice a population already fed-up with lockdowns into cowering in their homes to avoid contracting the illness. Odd that no mention is made of the surge in mental illness in the population overall due to the lockdowns, from the corresponding losses of income as well as connections with family and friends. In addition, there is evidence that 'science' has been co-opted to favor results that are in keeping with official narratives, and rulers are adamant that the Covid hysteria continue until a vaccine is developed.

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Syringe

Vaccine taskforce chief may benefit from £49m UK investment

Jessica Elgot, Richard Partington and Heather Stewart
The Guardian
Tue, 10 Nov 2020 07:00 UTC
Kate Bingham
© ITV/REX/Shutterstock
Kate Bingham speaking on television in September.
Kate Bingham could profit from a taxpayer-backed stake in her private equity firm.

Kate Bingham, chair of the government's vaccine taskforce, is facing questions over whether she will benefit from a $65m (£49m) UK taxpayer-backed investment into a fund run by her private equity firm.

Bingham, a venture capitalist married to Treasury minister Jesse Norman, has already come under fire over allegations she revealed sensitive information to a private investors' conference and insisted on hiring costly PR advisers.
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