Covid Updates

[PurplePuppy]

Rockefeller Foundation unveils COVID-19 testing and tracing action plan


Aug. 01, 2020 - 3:23 - As the U.S. surpasses 150,000 coronavirus deaths, experts say more testing and screening is the key to getting a handle on COVID pandemic; insight from Dr. Rajiv Shah.


Video at link

[schwartzie]

BLUE COLLAR LOGIC: Is The COVID Narrative Falling Apart?

[shalom]

First masks, and now a face shield and goggles? It’s time to resist this madness

3 Aug, 2020 18:06




By Peter Andrews, Irish science journalist and writer based in London. He has a background in the life sciences, and graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in genetics.



A society obsessed with health is a sure sign of sickness. The commands coming down from on high are increasing in their absurdity. Face shields and goggles are next, but there is absolutely zero evidence that any of them work.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the man described as America’s top infectious disease expert, has told the American public, “If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it.” These are the words of a would-be tyrant, a little Napoleon who lives to boss others around while he flouts his own stupid rules.



For the moment, it is only a recommendation. But the lockdown zealots at The Guardian have kicked off their pro-goggle campaign by having some intern write a fluff piece that ends with the sentence: “It won’t be weird if everyone’s doing it.” In a week, they will have the big guns writing pro-goggle op-eds. In two, police will be fining people not wearing them. Soon, you will be compelled to wear full forensic gear inside your own home.


To quote the leftist millennial self-styled journalists reacting to whatever the day’s outrage is, “I’m just so tired.” I will not deign to revisit the scanty literature on face masks to demonstrate that there is no proper evidence that they stop or even hinder the transmission of the virus. Nor will I do a run-down of the science to show that the chances of catching Covid through your eyeballs are infinitesimally tiny. The burden of proof is on those who have suggested their use or made them compulsory. They will not take up the challenge, because they cannot.



Neither have I the inclination to present facts and figures that render ridiculous the scale of governments’ response to the long-over outbreak. Again, why should I? The evidence of one’s own goggle-free eyes is enough. No one is sick, no one is dying, and no hospitals are inundated owing to Covid. But the elites insist that up is down and the sky is green, and most people swallow it.



ALSO ON RT.COM

‘I can't f**king BREATHE under this thing’: LSU linebacker identifies flaw in new anti-coronavirus helmets (VIDEO)

Concepts such as quarantine, sterilisation and the efficacy of masks were developed for the laboratory setting, not the world at large. There is no such thing as 70 percent, 90 percent or even 99 percent quarantine conditions – something as infinitesimally small as a virus particle, every single one of the ancestors of which, back to the dawn of life on Earth, succeeded in finding a host in which to replicate, can spread as normal in anything but total laboratory quarantine. You know, the kind they were supposed to have in the Wuhan BSL-4 lab.



It’s time to rise up and resist.



Many fine journalists and doctors have pointed out the dearth of evidence supporting the wearing of face masks. But not only is there no evidence, there is not even a suggestion that face masks would work. You’ve probably heard by now the analogy of the chain link fence built to stop mosquitos. You’ve asked yourself how surgical masks meant to be worn once and not touched by the hands apply to the public at large. Perhaps, every once in a while, you are reminded of the fact that it hasn’t yet been demonstrated that slowing the spread of the virus is even a good idea.



But why am I wasting my breath arguing? What’s the point in reason, rationality and debate when those in power are not interested? Their actions are determined by one thing and one thing only: “What should I do to transfer power away from the public and to the elites?” Only this informs Fauci’s “recommendations”, which next week will be diktats. Only this instructs the WHO on whatever ludicrous contradiction it trumpets next at the whim of their shady puppet-masters.



This power grab is moving terribly fast, because it’s in its endgame. The elites sense that total victory is at hand. They have relieved the people of the Anglo sphere of their ancient liberties without so much as a whimper from the downtrodden majority. There will always be a few brave voices, such as Peter Hitchens, Dr Vernon Coleman, Professors Carl Heneghan and Sunetra Gupta, but, kept outside in the wilderness, they’re easily dealt with.


link

[maybetoday]

4 Shocking Statistics about the COVID-19 Lockdowns

[PurplePuppy]

Insufficient vitamin D increases risk of severe COVID-19, says new study

Vitamin D has long been understood to impact immune response.

By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN JULY 26, 2020 

Low levels of vitamin D may put people at risk for developing COVID-19, according to a new study by Leumit Health Care Services and Bar-Ilan University’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine.


“The main finding of our study was the significant association of low plasma vitamin D level with the likelihood of COVID-19 infection among patients who were tested for COVID-19, even after adjustment for age, gender, socioeconomic status and chronic, mental and physical disorders,” said Dr. Eugene Merzon, head of Leumit’s Department of Managed Care and its leading researcher. “Furthermore, low vitamin D level was associated with the risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19 infection, although this association wasn’t significant after adjustment for other confounders.”

Vitamin D has long been understood to impact immune response. According to Dr. Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern, leader of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine research group, as much as 70% of the adult population worldwide is vitamin D insufficient or deficient.


The Leumit and Bar-Ilan scientists analyzed if the risk of developing COVID-19 or becoming hospitalized because of it increases for people who have a low level of vitamin D.


They studied 782 Israeli COVID-19-positive patients and 7,825 negative patients and determined that a low plasma vitamin D level appears to be an independent risk factor for COVID-19 infection and hospitalization.


“We don’t know the mechanism,” Frenkel-Morgenstern said. “What we do know is that people who develop severe COVID and were hospitalized – these people have significantly low vitamin D levels.”


The research has just been accepted to be published in The FEBS Journal on molecular, cellular and biochemical life sciences.

This is the largest study of its kind to date, Frenkel-Morgenstern said. Similar studies have yielded the same results.


A report published earlier this month in Clinical Neurology News stressed the importance of individuals obtaining the daily recommended dose of vitamin D in helping to ward off the novel coronavirus. Studies have suggested that taking vitamin D supplements and spending 30 minutes in sunlight in the summer could help.


“Our finding is in agreement with the results of previous studies in the field,” said Dr. Ilan Green, head of Leumit’s Research Institute. “Reduced risk of acute respiratory tract infection following vitamin D supplementation has been reported.”


The next step will be to evaluate this and other factors in association with mortality due to COVID-19, the press release said.


 link

[schwartzie]

Get out the hip waders - here's another pile of BS from Fauci, preparing the way for more government mandates and decrees to steal even more of your freedom!  


Fauci warns COVID-19 vaccine may be only partially effective

Fauci has said that in light of this, public health measures will still be needed

By REUTERS AUGUST 8, 2020 16:14

An approved coronavirus vaccine could end up being effective only 50-60% of the time, meaning public health measures will still be needed to keep the pandemic under control, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases expert, said on Friday.


"We don't know yet what the efficacy might be. We don't know if it will be 50% or 60%. I'd like it to be 75% or more," Fauci said in a webinar hosted by Brown University. "But the chances of it being 98% effective is not great, which means you must never abandon the public health approach."


The novel coronavirus has infected nearly 5 million people in the United States and killed more than 160,000.


Lockdown measures imposed to keep the virus from spreading have devastated the economy, which suffered its biggest blow since the Great Depression in the second quarter, with gross domestic product dropping at its steepest pace in at least 73 years.


As infections have spiked around the country after states started to open up, public health experts, including Fauci, have stressed the importance of steps that each American can take, including social distancing, washing hands and wearing masks.


Fauci said on Friday that studies of Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine could produce definitive data in November or December of this year.


He told Reuters earlier this week that he expects tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to be available by early 2021, and a billion doses by the end of that year.

US President Donald Trump has put forward a more optimistic forecast, saying on Thursday the country could have a coronavirus vaccine before the Nov. 3 election.  (No thanks - not interested.)

link

[schwartzie]

This is truly pitiful!  

[schwartzie]

COVID-19 in children is usually mild, deaths rare, study says

6/25/2020





Mounting evidence out of the United Kingdom provides more insight into how COVID-19 affects children, further confirming what researchers have been saying for months: Children are not as adversely affected by COVID-19 as adults.



A counselor wearing a protective face mask plays with children as summer camps reopen amid the spread of COVID-19 at Carls Family YMCA summer camp in Milford, Mich., June 23, 2020.© Emily Elconin/Reuters A counselor wearing a protective face mask plays with children as summer camps reopen amid the spread of COVID-19 at Carls Family YMCA summer camp in Milford, Mich., June 23, 2020.

A newly published study in Lancet found that children, including infants, generally have mild symptoms of COVID-19, and even those who develop the disease severely enough to warrant intensive care unit admission are unlikely to die.



The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have consistently reported that children do not appear to be at higher risk for COVID-19 than adults. While some children and infants have been sick with COVID-19, adults make up most of the known cases to date. The study confirmed previous reports from China suggesting that the death rate for children is significantly lower than older, adult patients.



To combat the paucity of evidence around COVID- 19 and pediatric patients, U.K. researchers conducted the largest clinical study on children outside of China to date. The study spanned over 20 European countries and multiple age groups, ultimately including 582 children and adolescents between the ages of 3 days old and 18 years old with confirmed SARS- CoV-2 infection. The study found that the majority of patients under 18 years old experienced a mild disease and less than 1% of them died.



The majority of the children studied were likely infected by their parents. Most of the children did not have any underlying medical conditions, but of those who did the most common underlying condition was pulmonary disease, such as asthma.



Children were more likely to become severely sick and be admitted to the ICU if they were boys, newborns or if they had underlying health conditions or lung infections.



a group of people standing in front of a crowd: A member of the Red Cross checks the temperature of a child at the CEASA, Rio de Janeiro's main wholesale market, amid the new coronavirus pandemic in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, June 23, 2020.© Silvia Izquierdo/AP A member of the Red Cross checks the temperature of a child at the CEASA, Rio de Janeiro's main wholesale market, amid the new coronavirus pandemic in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, June 23, 2020.

The authors suggest that their study likely paints a more dramatic picture than you would see on average because it pulled data from hospitals, where patients are more likely to be severely sick. Many children who get COVID-19 are likely to be asymptomatic, meaning they don't need medical care and might not even notice they are infected.



"Probably the most surprising feature of the study was the severe COVID-19 cases. However, kids who don't display serious symptoms, may not be pushed to get tested. Kids that are vulnerable may be more likely to get seen, making a bias in the study population," said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital, who was not involved in the study.



"This was a hospital-based study, and therefore mainly captured children at the severe end of the disease spectrum. It is therefore likely that the true case fatality rate is far smaller than the rate of 0.7% observed in this study," said Dr. Marc Tebruegge, senior author of the study and associate professor in pediatric infectious diseases.



The study's authors pointed out that we still don't have good treatments for COVID-19, with hydroxychloroquine being the most commonly used treatment on the pediatric patients in the study, followed by the antiviral drug remdesivir.



Additionally, although the aftereffects of severe symptoms is likely to be rare in the pediatric population, the study did not include the emerging reports of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children in the U.S.



The authors encouraged more research to characterize this disease in detail in order to determine its long-term effects on children.



a group of people standing on a court: A counselor wearing a protective face mask plays with children as summer camps reopen amid the spread of COVID-19 at Carls Family YMCA summer camp in Milford, Mich., June 23, 2020.© Emily Elconin/Reuters A counselor wearing a protective face mask plays with children as summer camps reopen amid the spread of COVID-19 at Carls Family YMCA summer camp in Milford, Mich., June 23, 2020.

This study may bring relief to parents in regards to their children getting sick with COVID-19, but continued precautions must be taken. The CDC recommends families teach their kids to practice the same precautions as others, including wearing masks for children 2 years and older, social distancing, hand-washing, avoiding large crowds and limiting time with older adults and people who have serious underlying medical conditions.



"What the study does not consider is the transmission dynamic, and roles of kids in the spread, and the likelihood of them being affected and passing it on -- those are still big questions where our data has been limited," Brownstein said.



"For parents that have kids in a high-risk group, the study does pose an important component to the understanding of kids, and represents the fact that we still do want to protect the pediatric population as we head into the second wave."


link

[maybetoday]

Death toll mounts with FDA denial of HCQ for outpatient Covid therapy


Death toll mounts with FDA denial of HCQ for outpatient Covid therapy

By Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, Op-ed Contributor| Wednesday, August 19, 2020

The FDA denied August 10 the urgent request for emergency approval for COVID-19 outpatient preventive and early treatment use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) filed July 1 by Dr. John McKinnon’s team at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, supported by Dr. Peter McCullough's cardiology team at Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute in Dallas.





Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D. is a preventive and climacteric medicine specialist with medical practices in Tucson, Ariz. and Dallas, Texas. | (Photo: Angel Pictures & Publicity)

Approximately 48,000 more Americans have died during the FDA's 48-day delay since this Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) was requested on July 1. Dr. McKinnon's clinical trial found an impressive 51% reduction in deaths if HCQ was begun within 24 hours of admission to hospital.



An outpatient primary care study by Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, using HCQ, azithromycin and zinc given within less than 7 days of COVID-19 symptoms, showed approximately 80% decrease in deaths, and less than 1% of his patients needed to be admitted to hospital. These extraordinary results show how many lives can be saved with early HCQ treatment.



Dr. Harvey Risch, Yale epidemiologist, projected that widespread early treatment for COVID-19 with the already FDA-approved HCQ could have saved 100,000 American lives.



The physician head of the FDA, Dr. Steven Hahn, has again betrayed physicians and patients by preventing Americans from having the "right to try" HCQ for early COVID-19 treatment. Dr. Hahn knows full well the FDA approved HCQ as safe in 1955, and it has been used in millions of patients worldwide for 65 years with an impressive track record of safety in patients of all ages, all ethnic groups, and even pregnant women and nursing mothers.



The FDA’s denial of the EUA for early outpatient COVID-19 use of HCQ continues their false narrative in claiming outpatient harm for HCQ, based on inpatient data in critically ill patients. Dr. Hahn has ignored established facts of effectiveness and lack of harm for outpatients that have been established in more than 50 recent studies.



The newly released study from Turkey found no cardiac abnormalities with HCQ given at therapeutic doses for 5 days in early COVID patients. Attributing any late-stage cardiac effects to HCQ that is known to be caused by the virus and inflammatory damage is indefensible.



What amount of "data" will ever satisfy Dr. Hahn?


The FDA used a standard of "may be effective" for the rapid May 1 EUA given to the experimental anti-viral remdesivir, based on one controlled clinical trial terminated early. Yet FDA is now requiring a higher standard of a randomized controlled clinical trial for the already FDA-approved HCQ in safe use for 65 years. Remdesivir showed very little benefit shown in hospitalized COVID patients and had serious side effects. Nine of the members of the NIH panel relied on for COVID treatment advice were supported financially by Gilead Sciences, maker of remdesivir.



As a cancer specialist, Dr. Hahn knows early treatment of any disease is critical, especially viral illness. But it is more critical with COVID-19, or SARS CoV-2, as we learned in 2005 when National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published their studies from the 2002 outbreak of the closely related SARS-CoV-1 virus. These laboratory tests of possible anti-viral medicines clearly showed potent antiviral effects of chloroquine (CQ) against SARS-CoV-1 to block the SARS-CoV-1 infection at the earliest stage. Dr. Fauci was at NIH them, so he has known about this work for more than 15 years.



From these studies we know that HCQ with zinc works during the first five days to stop viral entry into our cells and to block the virus from multiplying.



But by day six or seven, the viral load explodes and then triggers an exaggerated inflammatory response. This “cytokine storm” can severely damage critical organs: lungs, kidneys, heart, brain, liver and intestines and is often fatal.



In 2020, Dr. Peter McCullough's team showed prophylactic benefits of HCQ given to hospital workers who were exposed to COVID daily in their work, just as found in India, South Korea, China, and multiple other countries.



This preventive benefit of HCQ given once a week could protect front-line medical workers, law enforcement officers, paramedics, clergy, dentists/dental hygienists, truck drivers, food-processing workers, teachers, behavioral health professionals, factory and grocery store workers, flight attendants, and many others. We could more safely re-open America's businesses, schools and churches with doctors and patients having widespread, early access to HCQ.



Doctors treating COVID-19 patients NOW see lives being saved by cheap, safe, FDA-approved medicines — hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin or doxycycline, plus supplemental zinc, vitamin C and vitamin D.



Why don't Americans have the freedom to use HCQ here as in other countries? FDA’s misleading statements about HCQ have led to dangerous, unprecedented restrictions on physicians’ off-label prescribing rights imposed by state governors, medical boards and pharmacy boards. The supply of HCQ has been ramped up to handle its use in early treatment of COVID. The Strategic National Stockpile has millions of doses deteriorating in government warehouses that are not being distributed because doctors are prevented for political reasons from prescribing for outpatients with COVID-19.



Americans are dying needlessly for political and financial agendas waiting for the “magic bullet” of a vaccine, not due to lack of available treatment for COVID-19. We still need therapeutics, such as HCQ, even if a vaccine works and is safe.



Testing is inaccurate and often unavailable, and HCQ dispensing must not be limited to persons with a positive test. Such limits also prevent prophylactic use. Governors and bureaucrats must not be allowed to arbitrarily restrict life-saving HCQ treatment.



The Fauci-Hahn strategies of suppressing the positive studies of HCQ effectiveness for outpatient use, while focusing on mandatory mask edicts and continued shutdowns of businesses, schools, and churches are not controlling the pandemic. These political agendas have eroded our constitutional freedoms, and devastated our financial, psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being — while costing 1,000 American lives every day.



Dr. Hahn needs to be held accountable for the preventable deaths caused on his watch. As a physician licensed in 3 states that prevent prescribing HCQ for my patients, I submitted a formal request to the Chairman of Senate Oversight Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) for Dr. Hahn to be called before the Committee to produce the data on which FDA is claiming "harm" in using HCQ for outpatients in the mild stage of COVID, but no such harm for RA, Lupus, or malaria. FDA's hypocrisy ignores their own safety data, basic science, clinical studies, and common sense.



Americans must speak out and demand the medical freedom to consult their physicians and decide treatment options without government interference.



link

[Midnight]

The Case for Masks, School Closings, & Social Isolation Just Collapsed!

Posted at 9:00 am on August 19, 2020 by Michael Thau






The purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded and even destroyed.

A society of emasculated liars is easy to control.

–Theodore Dalrymple



***



The Annals of Internal Medicine just published a comprehensive new study on how contagious the COVID-19 virus is. And I’m sorry to report that the case for a number of popular new practices that seem to have filled some spiritual need a lot of Americans have for self-abasement just completely collapsed.



The list of practices no longer having any conceivable rationale includes:



Closing down schools.

Closing down gyms, barber shops, or any other businesses.

Limiting the number of patrons allowed in restaurants or other businesses at one time.

Mass testing for the COVID-19 virus.

Putting healthy people in quarantine.

Keeping a distance of 3, 6, or some other arbitrary number of feet away from healthy individuals.

Healthy individuals with no criminal intent wearing masks when it’s not Halloween.


Likewise for any other humiliating rituals state and local officials plan on forcibly enacting to keep you safe from the scourge of COVID-19 that their own sense of self-worth precludes participating in.

Long article continues at link

[J.J.Gibbs]

WE'RE BEING LIED TO BIG TIME!!!

In Spanish, but with subtitles.

I'm Speechless! Unbelievable Mainstream News from Spain - UNREAL!

[PurplePuppy]

Dr. Fauci explains why temperature checks to fight COVID-19 are pointless


By Andy Meek @aemeek

August 18th, 2020 at 5:03 PM

Temperature checks are a pretty inaccurate method to rely on to screen people for the coronavirus.

That’s according to White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said the White House and his own agency have dropped a temperature check requirement that was previously used to screen visitors.


Fauci says it’s better to simply ask people screening questions to gauge their potential exposure to the COVID-19 coronavirus.

It feels like temperature checks are starting to be as ubiquitous as a “Hi, how are you” almost everywhere you go these days. A couple of weeks ago, I went in for a scheduled dentist appointment. I first had to lean in, so the receptionist could take a quick temperature reading before allowing me into the rest of the office. At schools like this one in Illinois, likewise, temperature check kiosks have been set up, and if you’re flying out of LAX in the next few weeks, be prepared for Delta Airlines to take your temperature. Hotels around the country, including properties like the Four Seasons in Vail, Colorado? Same thing. You’ve got to pass a temperature check to be allowed inside.



And yet, in spite of how normalized this is starting to be, it might surprise you to hear that White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci is not exactly a fan of relying on temperature checks as a way to stop the spread of the coronavirus right now.


During a Facebook Live event associated with Walter Reed Medical Center, Fauci said temperature checks are so inaccurate that the White House has dropped them altogether, as has Fauci’s office (he’s the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases).



“We have found at the NIH, that it is much, much better to just question people when they come in and save the time, because the temperatures are notoriously inaccurate, many times,” Fauci said.



He pointed to the prevalence, for example, of so many hot days in a row this summer. “It’s the middle of the summer, we’ve had what … 15 days, 90 degrees in a row,” Fauci continued. “I went to the White House the other day. My temp was like 103 until I took it in the air-conditioned car, and then it was 97.4. When I tried to get into another facility, my temperature was 93, which means I probably should’ve been on a respirator. So I think we’ve just got to abandon that, be prudent, ask questions, and do it that way.”



This certainly has implications for schools, which are trying to reopen in fits and starts around the country — through reports have been piling up in recent days of one school system after another opening, announcing coronavirus cases, and then clamping down to some degree (such as by shifting to an online model). Fauci’s comments suggest that places like these and others that are taking temperatures and using that as a basis for who can enter or not are doing so, whether they realize it or not, largely to make themselves feel good (to feel like they’re doing something) as opposed to taking a meaningful step to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.



link

[J.J.Gibbs]

PLANDEMIC 2 INDOCTORNATION


Video here

[maybetoday]

In stunning reversal, CDC abruptly changes position on when to get tested

In stunning reversal, CDC abruptly changes position on when to get testedPhoto: AP/File.



ABC News

Updated: August 26, 2020 10:40 AM

Created: August 26, 2020 10:39 AM


After weeks of encouraging people to get tested if they may have been exposed to COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abruptly changed course this week and is now telling the public testing might not be necessary.



The public health reasons for the change were not immediately clear.



When asked to explain, the Department of Health and Human Services -- not the CDC -- responded.



A spokesperson said in a statement that the new guidelines were updated to ensure testing is "used appropriately" and to "place an emphasis on testing individuals for post clinical and/or public health reasons," including asymptomatic people.



"CDC recommends the decision to be tested should be one made in collaboration with public health officials or your health care provider based on individual circumstances and the status of community spread," according to the HHS statement.



This new guidance directly contradicts what CDC Director Robert Redfield told ABC News last month: You don't need symptoms to get tested.



RELATED STORIES

Investigating 'long haulers': Some with COVID-19 dealing with symptoms for weeks, months

COVID-19 in Wisconsin: 6 new deaths, 41 new hospitalizations

MDH reports 14 new deaths from COVID-19, 36 hospitalizations

In stunning reversal, CDC abruptly changes position on when to get tested

MSP continues to see low passenger levels as pandemic drags on

Dating corona-style leads to love connections, even marriage

COVID-19 tests now required for nursing home staff

COVID-19 in Wisconsin: 13 new deaths, 37 additional hospitalizations

New virus cases decline in the US and experts credit masks

Tuscaloosa closes bars after rise in university virus cases

Redfield's comments came as case numbers in the U.S. were on the rise and health officials worried that younger people -- attending protests and campaign rallies, as well as parties and bars -- were driving the transmission.



Also in July, the CDC updated its guidelines online to specifically urge people without symptoms to get tested if they've come in contact with someone who has COVID-19, such as working the same shift at a job.



"Anyone who thinks they may be infected -- independent of symptoms -- should get a test," Redfield told Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC's chief medical correspondent, in July.



Since then, however, there have been reports of testing backlogs as much of the country tried to reopen and several universities tried to mandate testing for incoming students.



In new guidance dated Aug. 24, CDC says that so long as a person doesn't show symptoms testing not necessary.



"You do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one," the CDC states.



The quiet change comes amid questions on whether politics has leaked into public health guidance.



This week, the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn, acknowledged that he overstated the benefits of convalescent plasma. With President Donald Trump at his side, he announced he was authorizing the treatment -- frustrating some researchers who say they wanted to continue to conduct placebo-controlled clinical trials to see if it worked.



Trump later bragged that he got the FDA to act, despite the agency's insistence that politics hadn't influenced its decision.



On Wednesday, Hahn said he wanted to work on building trust with the public ahead of the vaccine trial.



"We at FDA recognize that we must build public trust so there is confidence in future decisions about vaccines for #COVID19," he tweeted Wednesday. "I am concerned when I see public surveys that many people will decline taking a vaccine."


link

[maybetoday]

CDC Quietly Edit Death Tolls -- Less Than 6% of The Alleged 150,000+ Deaths Were Really COVID

CDC website link

[schwartzie]

New CDC report shows 94% of COVID-19 deaths in U.S. had contributing conditions

NATIONAL

by: Natasha Anderson and Nexstar Media Wire



Posted: Aug 30, 2020 / 04:00 PM PDT / Updated: Aug 30, 2020 / 01:11 PM PDT

LATEST: CDC has not reduced the death count related to COVID-19

ATLANTA, Ga. (WJW) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data last week that depicts how many Americans who have died from COVID-19 also had contributing conditions.



According to the report, only 6% of deaths have COVID-19 as the only cause mentioned, revealing that 94% of patients who died from coronavirus also had other “health conditions and contributing causes.”



The report reads in part:



Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.

Table and rest of article at link

[J.J.Gibbs]

This is an excellent analysis! 

[Midnight]

Covid shutdowns, niqab or Burkas a mistake? YES, here is why!


The COVID 19 virus is real, but the hysteria and hype surrounding it ridiculous, not based upon any facts or science.



While most news stations have reported COVID 19 as being an epidemic, or a pandemic the CDC has been saying based upon current numbers it’s not an epidemic. In Fact, 650,000 Americans die every year due to cancer but they don’t report that as an epidemic. 11 to 20 million people get sick from typhoid every year but it's not reported as an epidemic either.



The CDC’s August 29th Update stated that the numbers being reported by the National Center for Health Statistics “NCHS” show the factual number of deaths reported by NCHS to the CDC is only 6% of that 193,648 which is 9211 deaths attributed solely to COVID 19. This means out of the 193,648 the other 184,437 died of other causes or comorbidly as listed on the CDC current update.


That means out of the 6,490,632 reported cases only 0.001419122205665 percent were fatal, which means 99.998580877794335 percent of those who do actually get it, will recover. Some of the misreported deaths included motor accidents where they tested the corpse and it tested positive for COVID 19. All of this data is documented on the CDC’s website. The CDC also says on their website that many of the tests came back positive because someone had a type of anti-body from the common cold in their system which can be incorrectly reported as a COVID 19 positive.



Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the World Health Organization’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit made a statement on June 8th, 2020 stating from several studies they reviewed asymptomatic transmission is “Very Rare”. So in other words, if you don’t have symptoms you won’t pass it on to someone else.






So there is no viable reason for wearing a mask unless you’re feeling bad. This has been repeatedly stated by several doctors working with patients who had the virus and are practitioners of medicine, not research doctors or neurologists.



The virus is real, but the hysteria and hype are ridiculous, nowhere near the epidemic the media is reporting. The hysteria appears to be a political maneuver deliberately falsely overhyping it, to crash the economy, to influence the elections and personal gains for some.



The data is on the CDC and WHO organizations website, but people continuously ignore it, Dr. Fauci, for example, using the hype for political or personal gain. Multiple doctors have come out of the woodwork and said he is ignoring science and data.



Simple questions for you.



If the 6 feet works, why do we need the masks?

If the mask works, why the quarantine?



When you isolate sick people its quarantine when you isolate healthy people from its tyranny.



We need our health care back. If people are sick, they need to be isolated and stay home. If they aren’t then the VA has a duty to its veterans.



As President Lincoln stated in his second inaugural address “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan,” It’s time the VA looked at the facts and science and the VA go back to work helping veterans instead of calling them on the phone, or videos.



As one writer says “ Were lockdowns a mistake? To that nagging question, the answer increasingly seems to be yes.

Certainly, they were a novelty. As novelist Lionel Shriver writes, “We’ve never before responded to contagion by closing down whole countries.” As I’ve noted, the 1957-58 Asian flu killed between 70,000 and 116,000 Americans, between 0.04 percent and 0.07 percent of the nation’s population. The 1968-70 Hong Kong flu killed about 100,000, 0.05 percent of the population.

The US coronavirus death toll of 186,000 is 0.055 percent of the current population. It will go higher, but it’s about the same magnitude as those two cases of flu, and it has been less deadly to those under 65 than the cases of flu were. Yet there were no statewide lockdowns; no massive school closings; no closings of office buildings and factories, restaurants, and museums. No one considered shutting down Woodstock.


There are old lessons here. Governments can sometimes channel but never entirely control nature. There is no way to entirely eliminate risk. Attempts to reduce one risk may increase others. Amid the uncertainty, people make mistakes. Like, maybe, the lockdowns.”



We need our healthcare back, for we “borne the battle” as VA says.



If other doctors and dentists are open for business, why won’t the VA?



Why the stupid masks for healthy people, if someones sick or has pre existing conditions let them wear a mask.

[J.J.Gibbs]

BREAKING: Dr Scott Atlas of the Trump Administration COVID task force says the vaccine will NOT be mandatory

[maybetoday]

Changing the agenda yet again to suit their purposes!  


CDC Says It Mistakenly Posted Guidance Saying Virus Spreads Via Air, Travels Beyond 6 Feet 
EDWIN MORA22 Sep 20202,407

4:34

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this week it erroneously published new guidance acknowledging that the coronavirus spreads through tiny particles that can linger in the air and travel beyond six feet.



CDC officials have been saying for months that the virus primarily spreads between people in close contact (within about 6 feet) via large droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks that end up in the mouths or noses of people nearby.



Those recommendations prompted social distancing (six feet apart) and mask-related rules.



Nevertheless, on Friday, the agency reportedly added that tiny particles (aerosols) can travel beyond six feet could spread the virus.



Come Monday, the CDC abruptly dropped its new guidance and reverted to its position that the people mainly transmit the disease to others nearby through large droplets.



The edited CDC webpage now says:



A draft version of proposed changes to these recommendations was posted in error to the agency’s official website. CDC is currently updating its recommendations regarding airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). Once this process has been completed, the update language will be posted.



On Monday, the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) revealed that it had reached out to the CDC about its update.



Dr. Mike Ryan, the executive director of the W.H.O’s health emergency program, told reporters that the United Nations organization had not seen any “new evidence” on the transmission of the virus through airborne particles.



The W.H.O contacted the CDC to “better understand” why it made the change, Ryan proclaimed.



According to the W.H.O, the virus can spread through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or breathes.



The international health body has said it monitors “emerging evidence” on the potential of airborne transmission.



W.H.O’s stance “on this remains the same,” Ryan told reporters, adding:



We’ve always said going back over months and months about the potential for different kinds of roots of transmission and particularly driven by the context, the proximity, the intensity, the duration and the potential for different forms of transmission.



“Unfortunately, an early draft of a revision went up without any technical review,” Jay Butler, the deputy director for infectious disease at the CDC, added, referring to the Friday update, according to the Washington Post.



“We are returning to the earlier version and revisiting that process,” Butler also said. “It was a failure of process at CDC.”



The CDC changes have reportedly fueled allegations that the Trump administration is pressuring the agency to support schools and businesses’ reopening and limit testing.



Last week, the agency did an about-face on its controversial recommendation that there is no need to test close contacts of COVID-19 patients if they do not show any symptoms.



The W.H.O. agreed with the guidance, but the CDC changed it anyway following backlash from Democrats, their mainstream media allies, and some public health officials who suggested Trump administration politics influenced the agency’s testing guideline revisions.



CDC officials have flip-flopped on several COVID-19-related recommendations, including the effectiveness of masks.



Monday’s change marked the “third major revision to CDC information or guidelines published since May,” the Washington Post noted.



The agency went from saying masks were virtually useless to recommending “that people wear masks in public and when around people who don’t live in your household.”



Studies linked to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) have suggested that the coronavirus can spread through the air.



In March, a New England Journal of Medicine-published study by scientists from the U.S. National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an NIH component, found cough and sneeze droplets that carry COVID-19 can infect people for at least three hours.



NIH researchers also found in May that talking can produce virus particles that can linger in the air for eight to 14 minutes.


link

[J.J.Gibbs]

Covid Whistleblowers Expose Narrative As 'Total Fraud'

by: Ron Paul 2020-09-23 Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report | 0


Covid by Ashkan Forouzani is licensed under Unsplash Unsplash License


Two insiders have recently emerged to give a shocking view behind the scenes of the ongoing Covid narrative. A former chief science officer at pharma giant Pfizer and a former official at the CDC have both come forward with shocking tales of fraud and falsification. Also today, US support for a Covid vaccine continues to plummet based on recent polls.

More at link

[shalom]

Fox News cuts off Dr Oz after saying the flu shot increases risk of contracting COVID

[Shoshanna]

Coronavirus: Health experts join global anti-lockdown movement

7 October 2020


Thousands of scientists and health experts have joined a global movement warning of "grave concerns" about Covid-19 lockdown policies.



Nearly 6,000 experts, including dozens from the UK, say the approach is having a devastating impact on physical and mental health as well as society.



They are calling for protection to be focused on the vulnerable, while healthy people get on with their lives.



The declaration has prompted warnings by others in the scientific community.



Critics have pointed out:



a more targeted approach could make it difficult to protect vulnerable people entirely

the risk of long-term complications from coronavirus mean many others are also at risk

But the movement - known as the Great Barrington Declaration - mirrors some of the warnings in a letter signed by a group of GPs in the UK.



Sixty-six GPs, including TV doctors Dr Phil Hammond and Dr Rosemary Leonard and a number of medics who have held senior roles at the British Medical Association, have written to the health secretary, saying there is insufficient emphasis on "non-Covid harms" in the decision-making.



What is the Great Barrington Declaration?

The movement started in the US.



And the declaration has now been signed by nearly 6,000 scientists and medical experts across the globe as well as 50,000 members of the public.



The UK-based experts who have signed it include:



Dr Sunetra Gupta, an epidemiologist at Oxford University

Nottingham University self-harm expert Prof Ellen Townsend

Edinburgh University disease modeller Dr Paul McKeigue

They say keeping the lockdown policies in place until a vaccine is available would cause "irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed".



The health harms cited include:



lower childhood vaccination rates

worsening care for heart disease and cancer patients

And they point out the risk from coronavirus is 1,000 times greater for the old and infirm, with children more at risk from flu than Covid-19.





As immunity builds in the population, the risk of infection to all - including the vulnerable - falls, they say.



And this would be a much more "compassionate" approach.



The declaration recommends a number of measures to protect the vulnerable, including regular testing of care-home workers, with a move as far as possible towards using staff who have acquired immunity.



Retired people living at home should have groceries and other essentials delivered, it says.



And when possible, they should meet family members outside rather than inside.



Simple hygiene measures, such as hand washing and staying home when sick, should be practised by everyone.



But:



young low-risk individuals should be allowed to work normally

schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching

sports and cultural activities could resume and restaurants reopen

link

[Berean]

J&J pauses COVID vaccine trials due to participant's unexplained illness

While trials in the UK, Brazil, South Africa and India have resumed, the US trial is still on hold pending a regulatory review.

By REUTERS OCTOBER 13, 2020 08:15



Johnson & Johnson said on Monday it had temporarily paused its COVID-19 vaccine candidate clinical trials due to an unexplained illness in a study participant, delaying one of the highest profile efforts to contain the global pandemic.


The participant's illness is being reviewed and evaluated by an independent data and safety monitoring board as well as the company's clinical and safety physicians, it said in a statement.


J&J, which reports quarterly financial results on Tuesday morning, said that such pauses are normal in big trials, which can include tens of thousands of people. It said the "study pause" in giving doses of the vaccine candidate was different from a "regulatory hold" required by health authorities. The current case is a pause.


However, J&J's move follows a similar one by AstraZeneca Plc. In September, AstraZeneca paused late-stage trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, due to an unexplained illness in a UK study participant.

While trials in the UK, Brazil, South Africa and India have resumed, the US trial is still on hold pending a regulatory review.



Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said by email that "Everybody is on the alert because of what happened with AstraZeneca," adding that it could take a week to gather information.

"It would have to be a serious adverse event. If it was something like prostate cancer, uncontrolled diabetes or a heart attack - they wouldn't stop it for any of those reasons. This is likely to be a neurological event," he said.


Last month, J&J said its experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced a strong immune response against the novel coronavirus in an early-to-mid stage clinical trial, following which the company kicked off a final 60,000-person trial, whose results had been expected by the end of this year or early 2021.


Johnson & Johnson declined to elaborate about the illness due to privacy concerns. It did say that some participants in studies get placebos, and it was not always clear whether a person suffering a serious adverse event in a clinical trial received a placebo or the treatment.


Stat News reported the pause earlier in the day citing a document sent to outside researchers running the 60,000-patient clinical trial, which stated that a "pausing rule" had been met, the online system used to enroll patients in the study had been closed and the data and safety monitoring board would be convened.





link

[shalom]

CDC Study Finds Vast Majority of Those Infected with COVID-19 ‘Always’ Wore Masks

Posted by Zachary Mettler | Oct 12, 2020 | Culture



CDC Study Finds Vast Majority of Those Infected with COVID-19 ‘Always’ Wore Masks

A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that masks or cloth face coverings do little to prevent someone from contracting the novel coronavirus.



In surveying 154 patients who tested positive for the coronavirus, in the previous 14 days before their illness began, 71% reported using either a cloth face covering or a mask “always.” Another 14 % said the wore masks “often,” which adds up to 85%.



Only 4% of respondents said they never wore facemasks, and another 4% said they rarely did.



These case-patients were “symptomatic adults… with SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed.” The control-participants were symptomatic patients “who had negative SARS-CoV-2 test result.”



Of those surveyed from the control group, 74% reported wearing masks “always” while 15% worse masks “often.”



“In the 14 days before illness onset, 71% of case-patients and 74% of control-participants reported always using cloth face coverings or other mask types when in public,” the study noted.



This study, originally published in September, seems to reinforce the notion that wearing face masks or cloth coverings does little to prevent a person from contracting the coronavirus, though it may still help reduce the transmission of the virus.



The CDC currently claims that “cloth face coverings help prevent people who have COVID-19 from spreading the virus to others.”



In September, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield was criticized for saying that cloth facemasks were better than a vaccine.



“I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine,” Dr. Redfield said.



As late as March, the World Health Organization (WHO) was recommending people not wear facemasks unless they are in direct contact with someone who had contracted the virus.



“There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit. In fact, there’s some evidence to suggest the opposite in the misuse of wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies program, said at the time.



Additionally, there is some evidence that cloth masks, as opposed to medical masks, may increase respiratory infections.



“The widespread use of cloth masks by healthcare workers may actually put them at increased risk of respiratory illness and viral infections and their global use should be discouraged,” a study from the University of New South Wales found in 2015.



“Respiratory infection is much higher among healthcare workers wearing cloth masks compared to medical masks… Cloth masks should not be used by workers in any healthcare setting,” the study also noted.



Yet, after the CDC called on Americans to begin wearing masks in July, Dr. Redfield said “that cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus.”



Though the science seems mixed, 33 states and the District of Columbia mandate face-coverings in public.



link