The Playground

    Antivaxxers come out to play,

    No-one here to check what you say...


    The how bad is my batch scam posted by Mark U is particularly effective. I read it, my pulse raced - had I been one of the unlucky ones given a bad vaccine batch? I checked...


    No, seriously, it is classic and toxic antivaxxer propaganda based on lies.


    This one I have already checked, in detail.


    The antivaxxer site claims some batches of vaccine produce more side effects than others. Well, that is not impossible, though pretty unlikely.


    Unfortunately the (only) evidence for this is claimed variation in number of adverse events recorded in VAERS.


    These vary (enormously) with time.


    It is ONLY ANTIVAXXERS who claim to believe VAERS is a source of quantitative data on level of AEs (adverse reactions).


    Everyone else knows (and states clearly as warnings) that VAERS, because AEs can be reported by anyone, is subject to public whim and what is currently in the news, what people worry about.


    AAAS


    THH

    And here is a review of the latest antivaxxer silliness as propagated by Robert Malone...


    Good for a laugh, or scary (if you think that this disinformation stripped of context gets dictributed into FM1, Ws, and millions of other people's inboxes by Mercola and the rest of the disinformation dozen.


    Dr. Robert Malone goes full antivaccine conspiracist
    Dr. Robert Malone, conspiracy mongering "inventor of mRNA vaccines," dropped the pretense and went full antivaccine this week. No surprise.
    respectfulinsolence.com

    Steve Kirsch reveals "secret plan to end the vaccine madness"
    Steve Kirsch has a "secret plan to end the vaccine madness." In reality, it's not secret, but a conglomeration of antivax conspiracy theories.
    respectfulinsolence.com


    Steve Kirsch has a “secret plan to end the vaccine madness.” In reality, it’s not secret, but a conglomeration of antivaccine conspiracy theories, misinformation, and pseudoscience.


    The particular story Mr. Kirsch quotes reminds me of antivax claims of old that confuse correlation with causation (and often don’t convincingly demonstrate even correlation). What do I mean? Pre-pandemic, antivaxxers used to blame vaccines for conditions that we know from large epidemiological studies not to be caused by vaccines (e.g., autism) based on the coincidental appearance of first signs within days or weeks after a vaccine. We’re seeing the same thing here, but with healthcare workers, many of whom have unfortunately demonstrated themselves not to have critical thinking skills any better than that in the regular population. It’s a bunch of antivaccine nurses in Ventura County telling a credulous reporter a bunch of anecdotal accounts buffered by confirmation bias, in which supposedly there is a huge increase of patients admitted for clotting problems and the like. They, of course, blame COVID-19 vaccines. They also—of course!—claim that the hospital is “covering it up” and denying that the vaccine could be the cause of these issues.


    If you want to see where these nurses are coming from and why Mr. Kirsch likes them, a previous article in the same source from October is just chock full of the same sort of claims, complete with conspiracy mongering, including claims that doctors won’t fill out VAERS reports, a claim that I love to refute by pointing out that anyone can fill out a VAERS report, including family members. It doesn’t have to be a doctor. If these nurses are so convinced that these strokes and heart attacks are due to COVID-19 vaccines, they themselves could report the cases to VAERS, or they could suggest to family members that they report the cases. The reasons that the doctors supposedly aren’t considering COVID-19 vaccines as the cause of these cases? To these nurses, it obviously isn’t because COVID-19 vaccines aren’t the cause or aren’t even correlated. Perish the thought! It has to be because the doctors are biased and the hospital doesn’t want its “numbers to skyrocket” among the vaccinated.


    New Disclosures Support Lab Leak Theory as Fauci Defends Covid Response before Senate


    New Disclosures Support Lab Leak Theory as Fauci Defends Covid Response
    The lab leak theory that U.S.-funded vaccine experiments in Wuhan, China may have caused the current pandemic gained traction on Tuesday with
    trialsitenews.com


    The lab leak theory that U.S.-funded vaccine experiments in Wuhan, China may have caused the current pandemic gained traction on Tuesday with double-barreled disclosures of confidential government emails by Republican Congressmen and a military officer’s internal report to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which oversees federal biodefense research by Project Veritas, a Republican-aligned muckraker website.


    The disclosures coincided with heated exchanges during Senate testimony on Tuesday between Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, and his Republican interrogators including his nemesis, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.


    U.S. Senators Release Fauci Emails

    Heavily redacted emails released by ranking Republican members of the U.S. House Oversight Committee between Fauci and then-National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins show senior federal health officials attempting to tamp down concerns that the coronavirus pandemic erupted from U.S.-funded vaccine experiments at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.


    The correspondences are dated between February and April, a period when Fauci and other government officials publicly downplayed and social media companies banned discussions about the so-called lab-leak theory. According to that theory NIH-sponsored experiments in China as recently as 2019 may have included gain-of-function research to increase the virulence and transmissibility of bat coronaviruses.



    The SARS-CoV-2 at the center of the current pandemic is a bat coronavirus which is believed to have emerged from Wuhan, China.


    The emails’ contents were redacted and withheld from the public but under a Freedom of Information Act request Congressional staffers were privy to a confidential disclosure and transcribed excerpts by hand. The emails include notes from high-level teleconferences between NIH leadership and expert virologists such as Scripps Research Microbiologist Mike Farazan, who is credited with discovering the SARS receptor.


    Scientists: “Possibly Found in Nature, But Unlikely”

    “[Kazan] is bothered by the furin site and has a hard time explain that as an event outside the lab (though, there are possible ways in nature, but highly unlikely),” the excerpts read.


    Kazan was quoted from the teleconference saying that the furin cleavage site, a unique aspect of the SARS-CoV2 spike protein, appeared to support “continued passage of virus in tissue culture” that would make the virus unstable “but would make it disseminate to new tissues.”


    Tulane University Microbiology Professor Robert Garry was on the same February 2, 2020 call: “I can’t think of a plausible natural scenario where you get from the bat virus or one very similar to it to nCoV where you insert exactly 4 amino acids 12 nucleotide that all have to be added at the exact same time to gain this function – that and you don’t change any other amino acide in S2?”


    The S2 receptor is one of four structural proteins that comprise the SARS-CoV-2 genome and two subunits of the coronavirus’ spike protein. The S2 receptor enables fusion of viral and host membranes that allow the virus to infect human cells and replicate.


    “I just can’t figure out how this gets accomplished in nature [due to] the alignment of spikes at the amino acid level – it’s stunning,” Garry said, according to the email.


    Project Veritas: DARPA Documents Reveal Lab Leak Cover-Up

    Project Veritas reported that it had obtained documents from a top-secret shared drive maintained by DARPA, the main research and technology division for the U.S. intelligence community.


    Project Veritas has not publicly released the documents but posted excerpts on their website and social media.


    The documents include a report by a U.S. military officer describing how a NIH grantee, EcoHealth Alliance, sought funding for a coronavirus research program that would have violated a federal ban on gain of function research. Gain of function research includes medical research that genetically encodes features that enhances the transmissibility or virulence of an organism.


    One of the documents obtained by Project Veritas includes an admission by U.S. Major Joseph Murphy, a former DARPA fellow that he had discovered a secret document that proves that SARS-CoV-2 was created by U.S.-funded scientists.


    Project Veritas Disclosure: “SARS-CoV-2 is an American-created recombinant bat vaccine”

    “SARS-CoV-2 is an American-created recombinant bat vaccine, or its pre cursor virus. It was created by an EcoHealth Alliance program at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), as suggested by the reporting surrounding the lab leak hypothesis,” he wrote. “The details of this program have been concealed since the pandemic began. These details can be found in the EcoHealth Alliance proposal response to the DARPA PREEMPT program Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) HR0118S0017, dated March 2018 – a document not yet publicly disclosed.”


    The documents say that the EcoHealth Alliance response was located in a shared drive with the address: Network/filer/BTO/CI Folder/PREEMPT.


    Twitter removed the report hours after it was posted by Project Veritas but its contents quickly went viral.




    Another excerpt includes the government’s secret, unofficial appraisal of ivermectin, an antiretroviral medication which has shown to be an effective agent against coronavirus in scores of peer-reviewed research papers. However, Fauci, Centers for Disease Control Director Rachel Walensky and other top health officials at the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control have repeatedly denied ivermectin’s efficacy and social media firms banned hundreds of thousands of accounts over the past several months over even mentioning the drug, leading many to use euphemisms to refer to it.


    DARPA Disclosures Acknowledge Ivermectin and Hydroxychloriquine are Effective

    According to the documents: “Ivermectin (identified as curative in April 2020) works throughout all phases of illness because it both inhibits viral replication and modulates the immune response. Of note, chloroquine phosphate (Hydroxychloriquine, identified April 2020 as curative) is identified in the proposal as a SARSr-CoV inhibitor, as is interferon (identified May 2020 as curative).”


    One of the letters included in the documents asks DARPA’s inspector general: “Who at DARPA made the decision to bury the original report? They could have raised red flags to the Pentagon, the White House, or Congress, which may have prevented this entire pandemic that has led to the deaths of 5.4 million people worldwide and caused much pain and suffering to many millions more.”


    The disclosures follow earlier reports that EcoHealth had attempted to gain funding from DARPA for gain of function research but had been rejected.


    The disclosures took place as Fauci, Walensky and other top federal health officials fielded questions from U.S. Senators on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Senators criticized health officials response to the more transmissible but less deadly omicron coronavirus variant.


    Fauci accused Senator Paul of “distorting everything about me” and using the pandemic for political gain. Fauci was heard on a live mic calling the Kentucky politician “a moron.”


    Paul accused Fauci of attacking scientists who disagreed with him and his policies.


    In their letter to Health Secretary Becerra Republican representatives called on Fauci to produce all relevant communications about the lab leak theory and to sit for a transcribed interview.


    “Rather than be transparent with the Committee, HHS and NIH continue to hide, obfuscate and shield the truth. By continuing to refuse to cooperate with our request, your agencies are choosing to hide information that will help inform the origins of the ongoing pandemic, prevent future pandemics, respond to future pandemics, inform the United States’ current national security posture and restore confidence in our public health experts

    Report: 1 in 3 Israelis offered COVID treatment pill are refusing it

    Despite being in high-risk groups, some people are turning down paxlovid, feeling their illness is too mild to be of concern, official says


    Report: 1 in 3 Israelis offered COVID treatment pill are refusing it | The Times of Israel


    About one in three Israelis offered treatment with Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill paxlovid have refused to take the drug, according to a report Tuesday.


    Israel began distributing the first coronavirus pills to at-risk patients on Sunday. Paxlovid has been found in tests to be very effective in preventing the disease from becoming severe.

    Channel 12 news said that about 1,000 people have started taking the pill. But some 400 people have refused to take it, despite being eligible.


    Due to limited initial supplies, only patients considered to be at high risk can currently get the pill.


    Doron Netzer of Clalit Health Services told the network that at his Health Maintenance Organization, some half of those offered the pill had declined.


    “When we look into it, it turns out most people believe their illness is mild, and so even though they are at high-risk levels, they refuse to get the treatment.”

    As with vaccines, some of that attitude may be tied to taking a drug that is new and, in some people’s eyes, not sufficiently tested (though the report did not say whether was any relation between individuals’ vaccination status and their attitude toward the pill).


    Paxlovid is designed for at-home treatment of high-risk COVID-infected patients over the age of 12. Pfizer told the FDA that in a 2,250-patient trial, the pill cut hospitalizations and deaths by 89 percent when given to people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 within three days of symptoms. Less than 1% of patients taking the drug were hospitalized and none died at the end of the 30-day study period, compared with 6.5% of patients hospitalized in the group getting a placebo pill, which included nine deaths.


    Paxlovid has only proven effective if given within five days of symptoms appearing. The treatment consists of three pills taken twice a day for five days. Two of the pills are Paxlovid and the third is a different antiviral that helps boost levels of the main drug in the body.

    The first shipment of the Pfizer pills landed in Israel on Thursday, one of the first countries in the world to receive the new drug.


    The delivery consisted of several tens of thousands of pills. The medication is said to cost the country around $530 per patient, though it isn’t yet clear what the price will be for Israeli patients.


    According to the Kan public broadcaster, the first shipment consisted of 20,000 doses of the pill. Israel has signed a deal with Pfizer to purchase 100,000 doses overall, according to Hebrew media reports.

    Israel’s rush to obtain COVID treatment pills comes as the highly infectious Omicron variant has rapidly driven up morbidity in what is now the country’s fifth wave of coronavirus.

    Though Omicron is generally milder than previous strains of COVID-19, it is also far more infectious. Recent days have seen daily case counts steadily rise, with Monday’s numbers at 41,000.


    Statistically, this means many severe cases will still crop up. Experts have said they expect Israel to see over 1,000 severe cases in the coming weeks, with some estimates putting the number over 2,000.


    Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday said that with Israel once again the grips of the pandemic, “We are confronting a wave of infection the likes of which the world has not seen in 100 years… These will be difficult weeks… There is no place for panic or hysteria. We’ll get through this together.”

    EU agency says omicron pushing COVID-19 out of pandemic phase


    EU agency says omicron pushing COVID-19 out of pandemic phase
    An official from Europe's top medical product regulation agency said Tuesday that the COVID-19 omicron variant may be pushing the pandemic into becoming…
    thehill.com


    An official from Europe's top medical product regulation agency said Tuesday that the COVID-19 omicron variant may be pushing the pandemic into becoming endemic.


    Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccine strategy for the European Medicines Agency (EMA), told reporters on Tuesday that that the natural immunity conferred by the highly-infectious omicron strain may be fast-tracking the progress towards endemicity.


    "With the increase of immunity in population - and with Omicron, there will be a lot of natural immunity taking place on top of vaccination - we will be fast moving towards a scenario that will be closer to endemicity," Cavaleri said during a media briefing, according to Al Jazeera.


    When a virus becomes endemic it means a population has gained enough widespread immunity - either from infection or vaccination - that transmissions, hospitalizations and deaths will start to go down.




    Reports from South Africa, where omicron was first detected, have indicated that while the variant is highly-infectious, it does not result in a corresponding spike in hospitalizations and deaths. Another South African study released last month found that omicron may reduce infections caused by the delta variant by building cross-immunity to different strains, an effect that has not been observed in many other mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.


    During his briefing on Tuesday, Reuters reported that Cavaleri also expressed doubts about the necessity for a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose, telling the reporters that such an approach was not "sustainable."


    "While use of additional boosters can be part of contingency plans, repeated vaccinations within short intervals would not represent a sustainable long-term strategy," he said.

    It is important that there is a good discussion around the choice of the composition of the vaccine to make sure that we have a strategy that is not just reactive ... and try to come up with an approach that will be suitable in order to prevent a future variant," he added.


    Cavaleri's remarks echo those of British infectious disease expert Sir Andrew Pollard who said earlier this month that repeated vaccination every few months was "not sustainable."


    Pollard, who helped to develop the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, said, "It really is not affordable, sustainable or probably even needed to vaccinate everyone on the planet every four to six months."

    We haven't even managed to vaccinate everyone in Africa with one dose so we're certainly not going to get to a point where fourth doses for everyone is manageable," he added

    Evaluation of botanicals as potential COVID-19 symptoms terminator


    https://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/full/v27/i39/6551.htm]


    Evaluation of botanicals as potential COVID-19 symptoms terminator

    Ufuk Koca Caliskan, Methiye Mancak Karakus

    Ufuk Koca Caliskan, Methiye Mancak Karakus, Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical Botany, Gazi University, Ankara 06500, Turkey

    ORCID number: Ufuk Koca Caliskan (0000-0002-5216-7588); Methiye Mancak Karakus (0000-0002-0085-7552).

    Author contributions: Caliskan UK and Karakus MM equally contributed to collect data and to write the paper; both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

    Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest for this article.

    Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/

    Corresponding author: Ufuk Koca Caliskan, PhD, Professor, Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical Botany, Gazi University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ankara 06500, Turkey. [email protected]

    Received: March 16, 2021

    Peer-review started: March 16, 2021

    First decision: May 1, 2021

    Revised: May 1, 2021

    Accepted: September 14, 2021

    Article in press: September 14, 2021

    Published online: October 21, 2021


    Abstract

    Information about the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is still evolving since its appearance in December 2019 and has affected the whole world. Particularly, a search for an effective and safe treatment for COVID-19 continues. Botanical mixtures contain secondary metabolites (such as flavonoids, phenolics, alkaloids, essential oils etc.) with many therapeutic effects. In this study, the use of herbal treatments against COVID-19 was evaluated. Medical synthetic drugs focus mainly on respiratory symptoms, however herbal therapy with plant extracts may be useful to relieve overall symptoms of COVID-19 due to the variety of bioactive ingredients. Since COVID-19 is a virus that affects the respiratory tract, the antiviral effects of botanicals/plants against respiratory viruses have been examined through clinical studies. Data about COVID-19 patients revealed that the virus not only affects the respiratory system but different organs including the gastrointestinal (GI) system. As GI symptoms seriously affect quality of life, herbal options that might eliminate these problems were also evaluated. Finally, computer modeling studies of plants and their active compounds on COVID-19 were included. In summary, herbal therapies were identified as potential options for both antiviral effects and control of COVID-19 symptoms. Further data will be needed to enlighten all aspects of COVID-19 pathogenesis, before determining the effects of plants on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.


    Caliskan UK, Karakus MM. Evaluation of botanicals as potential COVID-19 symptoms terminator . World J Gastroenterol 2021; 27(39): 6551-6571 [PMID: 34754152 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i39.6551]


    CONCLUSION

    In this study, the concept of “being effective against COVID-19” for herbal treatments was discussed from the angles of antiviral effect and control of symptoms, specifically related to GI system.


    Antiviral effects on COVID-19

    Since COVID-19 is a virus that mainly affects the respiratory tract, the antiviral effects of medicinal plants against respiratory viruses have been examined firstly. The structure similarities of SARS-CoV-2 have been found with SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Therefore, it can be suggested that plants and their compounds affecting these viruses may also be potential treatment options for COVID-19. Here firstly, clinical studies supporting antiviral effects of 22 plant on respiratory viruses has been reviewed which determined that glycyrrhizic acid derivatives obtained from Glycyrrhiza sp, Nigella sativa, Scutellaria baicalensis and Torreya nucifera have anti-COVID-19 effects. Plants such as Allium sativum, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Melaleuca sp, Withania somnifera have been shown to bind to ACE2 receptors that are imperative for COVID-19 replication. Focusing on these plants might be a logical way to go for herbal treatment against COVID-19.


    This review also showed the antiviral effects of essential oils obtained from plants have the potential to affect COVID-19. The treatment involves using inhaled steam supplemented by essential oils possessing natural antimicrobial properties, oropharyngeal sanitization, as well as they are remedies for symptomatic relief. Inhalation of antimicrobial essential oils may help attenuate the virus in the nasal cavity, nasopharynx, oropharynx, and laryngopharynx. Antiseptic mouthwashes and gargles can also help to sanitize the oral cavity and oropharynx, whereas antiseptic lozenges can help to sanitize the oro- and laryngopharynx as well. The steam will carry the tiny particles of the antimicrobial constituents from these essential oils into the respiratory tract and is likely to improve the efficacy of the steam treatment. The steam supplemented by antimicrobial volatile oils may help to provide a local antimicrobial effect within the airways.


    There are computer model studies showing that some botanicals and active ingredients are effective in COVID-19. Allium sativum, Curcuma longa, Eucalyptus globulus, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Melaleuca sp, Thymus vulgaris, Withania somnifera is among these plants. These studies with commonly found plants will guide future studies to develop effective supplements or drugs for COVID-19.


    Symptomatic treatment of COVID-19

    Since the symptoms of COVID-19 seriously affect the quality of life, herbal options to eliminate them were also evaluated in this review. Previously, herbs such as garlic, echinacea and ginseng were found to reduce the symptoms of cold in healthy individuals. Plants with their pharmacological effects are natural options for eliminating the symptoms of COVID-19. Based on the effects described in Table 3, Allium sativum, Curcuma longa, Scutellaria baicalensis and Zingiber officinale are easily found as prominent plants to eliminate the GI symptoms of COVID-19. For example, ginger can eliminate the negative effects of COVID-19 on the GI system with its antiemetic and hepatic protective properties. A clinical study was conducted with thyme essential oil on COVID-19. Thyme essential oil was found to significantly reduce COVID-19 symptoms. This revealed an option that thyme and essential oil have potential effects for consideration in treatment of COVID-19. Studies on more essential oils of eucalyptus reveal more effects of eucalyptus on respiratory system symptoms. Eucalyptus globulus, Hedera helix, Pelargonium sidoides, Sambucus nigra, Thymus vulgaris can be recommended for relief of respiratory symptoms. ACE2 receptors are found in tissues other than the lung, such as the intestine. Based on this fact, we concluded that the use of herbs binding to ACE2 receptors can eliminate the side effects that may occur in variety of organs including GI tract. As shown in Table 4 these plants are Ammoides verticillate, Allium sativum, Apium graveolens, Camellia sinensis, Citrus aurantium, Erigeron breviscapus, Glycine max, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Hibiscus sabdariffa, Linum usitatissimum, Melaleuca sp., Nicotiana benthamiana, Withania somnifera.


    Based on these studies, herbal treatments offer several potential treatments of COVID-19. Plants may be an option for the treatment of COVID-19 and its symptoms, as well as protection from COVID-19. Even though these data point to good outcomes there is always the possibility of interaction between drugs used and these herbs. For instance, herbs such as ginger with antithrombotic effects can be beneficial on COVID-19 symptoms, but one might be cautious about escalated risk of bleeding when it is used together with antithrombotic or anticoagulant drugs. Therefore, it is extremely important to avoid the indiscriminate use of plants.


    For a plant to be used as a medicine, its effect must be supported by clinical studies. COVID-19 is just emerging, and more research are needed for its treatment. Yet, herbal therapies are potential options for both antiviral effects and the control of COVID-19 symptoms. Since plants with multiple pharmacological effects can affect many systems (respiratory, GI, and nervous), herbs might be more effective against COVID-19 than synthetic drugs. But first, all aspects of SARS-CoV-2 need to be examined. Then, the effects of plants on this virus should be determined by further studies.


    The strengths and weaknesses of this review

    Unlike other studies, in this report, the effect of plants on COVID-19 was evaluated in several ways. Preclinical studies, clinical studies and silico studies are included in this review. Moreover, the efficacy on COVID-19 symptoms has been addressed by including different systems. On the other hand, the focus is on the respiratory and GI systems. The effects, not only of botanicals but also active metabolites of have been studied.


    The biggest limitation of this study is the lack of sufficient studies on the efficacy of botanicals. Since botanical studies are generally preclinical studies, results may vary due to conducting and including clinical studies. In clinical studies showing the effects of the plants in Table 2 on respiratory tract infections, the results were generally obtained with questionnaire studies. Placebo effects and breadth of study may be effective in positive results.


    Caliskan UK, Karakus MM. Evaluation of botanicals as potential COVID-19 symptoms terminator . World J Gastroenterol 2021; 27(39): 6551-6571 [PMID: 34754152 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i39.6551]

    Can Ancient Botanical Therapies Help Treat COVID-19?


    Can Ancient Botanical Therapies Help Treat COVID-19?
    health.ucsd.edu


    Anovel study is assessing whether medicinal mushrooms and Chinese herbs provide therapeutic benefit in treating acute COVID-19 infection. MACH-19 (Mushrooms and Chinese Herbs for COVID-19) — a multi-center study led by University of California San Diego School of Medicine and UCLA — is among the first to evaluate these specific integrative medicine approaches using the gold standard of Western medicine: the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.


    Three trials are currently recruiting for between 66 and 80 patients who have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and who are quarantined at home with mild to moderate symptoms. Two are Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved Phase 1 clinical safety trials for investigational compounds to treat acute COVID-19.

    Mushroom-Based Product for COVID-19,” which started December 2020 and is slated to run until December 2022, tests the safety and feasibility of a 50/50 blend of the mushrooms agarikon (Fomitopsis officinalis) and turkey tail (Trametes versicolor) in capsule form.


    “Chinese Herbal Formula for COVID-19,” which began in July 2021 and is projected to conclude in December 2022, tests the safety and feasibility of a formulation of 21 Chinese herbs from Taiwan called Qing Fei Pai Du Tang that is widely used as a COVID-19 remedy in China.

    We hope these treatments will reduce the need for hospitalization,” said MACH-19 principal investigator Gordon Saxe, MD, PhD, director of research at the Centers for Integrative Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine.


    According to Saxe, the mushrooms were chosen because of their long history of use and recent evidence of immune-enhancing and anti-viral effects. In a preclinical study published in the March 2019 issue of Mycology, agarikon was found to inhibit viruses including influenza A(H1N1), influenza A(H5N1) and herpes. Saxe said he believes medicinal mushrooms inhibit the viruses’ replication, a theory he plans to test against SARS-CoV-2 in a Phase II trial.


    “Mushrooms have the advantage that they co-evolved with us,” Saxe said. “So bacteria, viruses and other fungi prey on mushrooms just like they prey on humans. And mushrooms have developed exquisite defenses against those pests, and we believe they can confer those to us when we eat them.”


    MACH-19’s third ongoing trial, “RCT of Mushroom Based Natural Product to Enhance Immune Response to COVID-19 Vaccination,” measures whether the same medicinal mushrooms, given in capsules at the time of initial COVID-19 vaccination, can increase antibodies and other measures of immune response. It began in June 2021 and is scheduled for completion in June 2022.


    Saxe said his team is nearing launch of a fourth trial, which will look at whether medicinal mushrooms could provide a similar lift to COVID-19 booster shots as an adjuvant, a substance which enhances immune response.

    Vaccines lead to the production of antibodies that can destroy the virus in the blood,” Saxe said. “Mushrooms may not only increase the number of these antibodies, but also enhance T-cell immunity against virally infected cells. Further, because mushrooms bind to receptors on human immune cells, they can modulate our immunity — boosting it in some ways and calming it down in others. And this property of mushrooms may also reduce vaccine-related side effects.”


    Other investigators in the study include Andrew Shubov, MD, director of inpatient integrative medicine at UCLA Center for East-West Medicine, and Lan Kao, a clinical Chinese medicine specialist at UCLA. Initial funding for MACH-19 was provided by the Krupp Endowed Fund at UC San Diego.


    Natural therapeutics have been used for centuries to treat infectious diseases, according to Saxe, who noted that herbs helped Chinese doctors manage 300 recorded epidemics, while the Greek pharmacologist Pedanius Dioscorides prescribed agarikon to treat pulmonary infections 2,300 years ago.


    Though Western medicine still regards much of integrative medicine as lacking empirical, evidence-based proof, some of its ideas are gaining wider acceptance, such as acupuncture to treat pain and the herbal extract artemisinin to treat malaria. MACH-19, which emerged as an idea by Saxe during a research conference at the beginning of the pandemic, presents the opportunity to provide more evidence.

    If we can demonstrate success, it may open up interest in looking at other botanical formulas and approaches,” Saxe said.


    Initial safety data from the trials are expected by the end of this year, with efficacy data ready within a year. Whatever is found, Saxe said that he was happy just getting the FDA’s approval, which he called a sign that Western scientific minds are broadening.


    “Like the population as a whole, the FDA has, in recent years, become more aware of integrative, complementary medicine and has shown more of a willingness to find ways to study these approaches,” he said. “But they’re still as rigorous as they are for pharmaceuticals.”


    To learn more or enroll in the MACH-19 trials, visit clinicaltrials.gov and search for “MACH-19.”

    Is Rossi preparing to weasel out of his increasingly critical position to forced to start manufacturing and delivery of his fabulous 100W SKlep "systems"? He passed 600.000 pre-orders...

    Back to the roots, it seems...Leonardo Corp. will now probably start to offer and "sell" the next level of ECat products, again in a half or full size container 😁 ....sounds familar, doesn't it?

    And a reason to give up on all these annoying single digit or multiple dozens SKlep orders from his followers on JONP/ECW...


    A mystery to me how Rossi will pile up 20.000 little blue boxes with tons of wires and AI Controllers in a common 40ft container for a 2MW "plant". Must be an impressive mess...


    Leonardo Taking Orders for 1 MW+ Ecat Power Plants |

    Quote from Fm1

    Allium sativum, Curcuma longa, Eucalyptus globulus, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Melaleuca sp, Thymus vulgaris, Withania somnifera is among these plants.

    Interesting that nobody mentions Sutherlandia. It's currently heavily investigated by big pharma for cancer chemo. Sutherlandia has been used for AIDS with pretty good success. So it works for most retro and other virus.

    Quote from Mark U

    "True north strong and free"? Bite me!

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jan 12, 2021




    Canada’s Top Doctor has revealed that the majority of hospitalizations and deaths with Covid-19, regardless of vaccination status, are due to obesity. A whopping 85% of severe case are among the morbidly fat. Pierre Trudeau lashed out last night at these people. “It is the selfishness and gluttony of these people that is prolonging this pandemic. Most of these obese people are misogynists and racists and Canadians are rightfully fed up and angry” Trudeau went on to say that a National strategy is being quickly drafted in order to deal with this situation, going so far as to call it a “pandemic of the fat”.


    Meanwhile Doug Ford is introducing a Fat Pass system. In order to access non-essential services, citizens will be required to reveal their body mass index. He is calling on restaurant owners to install weigh scales at their entrances and they are free to deny entry to anyone if they are deemed too large. Restricted access to grocery stores is also on the table. Ford commented, “access to food is obviously a problem for these selfish people so I have no problem barring them from entry”.


    It is becoming clear that this pandemic would be over if it weren’t for all the obese people and so mandatory lap bands are likely to be introduced. “Lap Bands are a safe and proven technology that can be used to combat this scourge” said Canada’s Top Doctor. Anyone classified as obese will be required to submit to having a lap band installed. Polls say the vast majority of Canadians support this move and anger towards fat people is on the rise. CBC interviewed a man on the street who said “I am so angry at the stupid selfish fat people. It is because of them that we are locked down and my children can’t go to school”. Guidance released from public health recommend that gatherings of people should be limited to 1000kg and that any more than that may cause the virus to spread. Obese people are also a source of dangerous variants so the sooner this is dealt with the better. A Fat Tax is likely to be introduced later this month to further penalize these selfish people who are overwhelming our health care system.

    Quote from THHuxleynew

    Antivaxxers come out to play,

    No-one here to check what you say...

    By your broad definition of the word, we may all soon be anti-vaxxers:


    Repeat Booster Shots Spur Europe Warning on Immune-System Risks (bloomberglaw.com)


    "European Union regulators warned that frequent Covid-19 booster shots could adversely affect the immune system and may not be feasible.

    Repeat booster doses every four months could eventually weaken the immune system and tire out people, according to the European Medicines Agency. Instead, countries should leave more time between booster programs and tie them to the onset of the cold season in each hemisphere, following the blueprint set out by influenza vaccination strategies, the agency said."


    Quote from Shane D.

    "European Union regulators warned that frequent Covid-19 booster shots could adversely affect the immune system and may not be feasible.

    As actual Israel data shows:: From a pandemic view Boosters (dark green) from Pfizer show zero effect at all. The population ratio of booster to unvaxx is 2:1. But more boostered (37) than unvaxx(16) are delivered to hospital/ICU. Partly this is due to age of boostered but it simply shows that boosters do not work.



    It Germany state officials still cite the Danish fake study that did claim that among boostered less household transmission does occur. What is pure fiction fabricated by Pfizer friendly ($$$) folks.

    Not from that. I'm happy with genuine science showing vaccine limitations. I think you can look back and see I suggested continued boosting would not be possible because of increasing AEs.


    I define antivaxxer stuff as rubbish lies and non-science - there is a lot posted here. Some of it claims to be science.


    Shane - not sure you can tell the difference :)

    Quote from THHuxleynew

    I define antivaxxer stuff as rubbish lies and non-science - there is a lot posted here.

    I defined vaccine terrorists (clowns) as posters presenting fabricated fake data and repeating false claims like vaccines will end the pandemic.


    To make it short. about 99% of what you so far posted has been refuted over time or already before.


    I call vaccine terrorists (clowns) = fascists if they deny that Ivermectin/HCQ works to bring people off COV-19.


    May be you did note that all leading vaccine terrorists (clowns) = fascists already April 2020 did know about these facts but did not tell other clowns like you :/ about it....

    Switzerland still has record cases/day with a positive rate going close to 40%. So we have > 300'000 infected people/day or > 500'000/week.

    We also had record admissions to hospitals but also record number of people leaving it. The later figures are never reported by the vaccine terrorists, but from the total you can derive them. So we just did see a fractional increase in ICU. Still far below peak.

    Covid-⁠19 Schweiz | Coronavirus | Dashboard
    Covid-⁠19 Pandemie Schweiz und Liechtenstein: Fallzahlen, Virusvarianten, Hospitalisationen, Re-⁠Wert, Spitalkapazitäten, internationale Lage, Zahlen zu Tests,…
    www.covid19.admin.ch


    Also UK never did reach peak hospital load. The maximum was 50% with Omicron or 20% in RSA. Thanks to gamma and delta UK had a high recovered rate of about 70% before Omicron started to take off. Corona recovered always had a low re-infection rate of about 15%. We do not expect it will be any higher for Omicron. So it will take some time until Omicron disappears - simply because it is the second most infectious virus on the planet after measles and it will find most vulnerable.


    Most at risk are 3x vaxx that never had an infection or as usual the classic risk group. But over all mortality will be 1/100 of alpha.

    Quote from THHuxleynew

    I define antivaxxer stuff as rubbish lies and non-science - there is a lot posted here. Some of it claims to be science.


    Shane - not sure you can tell the difference

    Many claims during this pandemic that were once labeled rubbish, and non-scientific, have now been proven valid, or reopened for debate. Masks, PCR tests, herd immunity as policy, Wuhan lab leak, HCQ/IVM, deaths from COVID vs with COVID, vaccine efficacy, lockdowns, etc.


    Almost everything is back on the table, whereas only 6 months ago any dissenting opinions were quickly shouted down, reputations ruined, people fired, censored, and some even canceled. There was a mob mentality cultivated by the health care authorities, social media, legacy media, celebrities, politicians, and bureaucrats, that divided us into the good vs bad (anti-vaxxers/conspiracy theorists), and encouraged the good obedient masses to turn on their fellow man who did not publicly display their allegiance to the "vaccine mandate centric narrative".

    India sees a smooth growth in cases far from what we did see.


    #IndiaFightsCorona COVID-19
    www.mygov.in


    The number of early deaths is a bit higher than here but we know nothing about other virus(flu?) that might circulate in parallel.

    Of course as always: The vaccine terror state of Kerala still does worst.


    If we assume about 80% recovered then still about 300'000'000 India people are at risk for a Omicron infection. 10% will be found (by PCR) for two peek weeks this still could give up to 2 million infection/day. This is reduced by the lower spread on the country side and thus should not grow much higher than 1 million/day. Just compare Delhi with UP to see the difference in case number growth!

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