Covid-19 News

ONE POPULAR BAT COVID-19 THEORY MAY ACTUALLY BE TRUE — STUDY

https://news.google.com/articl…=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

FOR DECADES, SCIENTISTS have been sounding the alarm on the rise in infectious diseases caused by climate change.

But despite bird flu, swine flue, mad cow disease, ebola, and more, these pleas were largely ignored by policymakers and the general public — until a coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 jumped from animals to humans. And now here we are, at the one-year anniversary point of a global pandemic that has upended life as we knew it.

The trigger species has long been presumed to be bats — but exactly how the virus made the leap, and why, has been the subject of debate. Climate scientists would tell you it was our own fault, pushing into bats' wild habitats and bringing ourselves in to too close contact with the animals which carry these viruses.

Turns out, they are — at least in part — absolutely right. New research published Friday in the journal Science of the Total Environment provides concrete evidence for the theory SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, originated in bats.

Perhaps more importantly, the study explicitly links climate change to the uptick in bat species carrying coronavirus in China's Yunnan province, as well as in neighboring countries like Laos and Myanmar.

Why The Pandemic Is 10 Times Worse Than You Think

https://www.npr.org/sections/h…imes-worse-than-you-think

Ever since the coronavirus reached the U.S., officials and citizens alike have gauged the severity of the spread by tracking one measure in particular: How many new cases are confirmed through testing each day. Of course, it's been clear all along that this number is an understatement because of testing shortfalls.

Now a research team at Columbia University has built a mathematical model that gives a much more complete — and scary — picture of how much virus is circulating in our communities.

It estimates how many people are never counted because they never get tested. And it answers a second question that is arguably even more crucial — but that until now has not been reliably estimated: On any given day, what is the total number of people who are actively infectious? This includes those who may have been infected on previous days but are still shedding virus and capable of spreading disease.

The model's conclusion: On any given day, the actual number of active cases — people who are newly infected or still infectious — is likely ten times that day's official number of reported cases.

The model has not been published or peer reviewed yet, but lead researcher, Jeffrey Shaman, an infectious disease specialist at Columbia University. shared the data exclusively with NPR. Here are more of the startling takeaways.

all 3 mutated strains now in Europe and north america. A perfect storm? Cases will begin to rise in southeast asia then across Europe and north america in roughly 2-3 weekes peaking around the end of March.

Spain detects first case of Brazil coronavirus variant

https://news.google.com/articl…=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

A 44-year-old man who arrived at Madrid's airport on January 29 tested positive for the coronavirus and subsequent lab tests confirmed he had caught the new strain, the regional government of Madrid said in a statement.

The case is the first report in Spain of the variant, blamed for a disastrous surge in infections in the Brazilian city of Manaus.

The announcement came three days after Spain restricted arrivals by air from Brazil and South Africa to curb the spread of new strains.

Madrid has since the end of December also restricted arrivals from Britain because of the discovery of a new virus strain there last year.

Health authorities are concerned that new strains of the virus may spread more easily or could contain mutations which allow the virus to evade the effects of vaccines.

At least two cases of the South African variant have so far been detected in Spain and around 450 cases of the British variant.

Spain has been hard-hit by the pandemic, recording over 61,000 deaths from nearly three million cases so far.

Coronavirus cases are falling in the US but experts say it's not from the COVID vaccine, yet

https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/4401778001

New coronavirus cases are on the decline in the United States following staggering post-holiday peaks last month, but experts say it's too early for new COVID-19 vaccines to be having an impact.The positive trend also is not assured to continue, as new and more transmissible variants threaten to reverse it, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

"Although we have seen declines in cases and admissions and a recent slowing of deaths, cases remain extraordinarily high, still twice as high as the peak number of cases over the summer," she said this week.

The decline in cases is likely due to a natural depression after record travel followed by indoor holiday gatherings triggered a surge in infections, said Dr. Sarita Shah, associate professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.

I sent the CDC a copy of hope simpson study. If they read it they might start having a clue! Next wave begins in 2-3 weeks

WHO ‘concerned’ COVID vaccines will not work on new variants

‘The virus still has the upper hand on the human being,’ says European chief of global health agency.

https://news.google.com/articl…=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

Asked whether the vaccines available since December would be effective against new virus variants, he replied: “That’s the big question. I’m concerned.”

“We have to be prepared” for new problematic coronavirus strains, he said, as he called on countries to expand their genomic sequencing capacity, a process that maps out the genetic code of viruses.

Kluge’s comments came after the United Kingdom, a global leader in the field of genomic sequencing, said on Thursday the world now faces about 4,000 variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Peginterferon lambda for the treatment of outpatients with COVID-19: a phase 2, placebo-controlled randomised trial

https://www.thelancet.com/jour…-2600(20)30566-X/fulltext

Summary

Background

To date, only monoclonal antibodies have been shown to be effective for outpatients with COVID-19. Interferon lambda-1 is a type III interferon involved in innate antiviral responses with activity against respiratory pathogens. We aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of peginterferon lambda in the treatment of outpatients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19.

Methods

In this double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, outpatients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 were randomly assigned to a single subcutaneous injection of peginterferon lambda 180 μg or placebo within 7 days of symptom onset or first positive swab if asymptomatic. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) using a computer-generated randomisation list created with a randomisation schedule in blocks of four. At the time of administration, study nurses received a sealed opaque envelope with the treatment allocation number. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients who were negative for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA on day 7 after the injection, analysed by a χ2 test following an intention-to-treat principle. Prespecified analysis of the primary endpoint, adjusted for baseline viral load, using bivariate logistic regression was done. The trial is now complete. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04354259.

Findings

Between May 18, and Sept 4, 2020, we recruited 30 patients per group. The decline in SARS-CoV-2 RNA was greater in those treated with peginterferon lambda than placebo from day 3 onwards, with a difference of 2·42 log copies per mL at day 7 (p=0·0041). By day 7, 24 (80%) participants in the peginterferon lambda group had an undetectable viral load, compared with 19 (63%) in the placebo group (p=0·15). After controlling for baseline viral load, patients in the peginterferon lambda group were more likely to have undetectable virus by day 7 than were those in the placebo group (odds ratio [OR] 4·12 [95% CI 1·15–16·73; p=0·029). Of those with baseline viral load above 106 copies per mL, 15 (79%) of 19 patients in the peginterferon lambda group had undetectable virus on day 7, compared with six (38%) of 16 in the placebo group (OR 6·25 [95% CI 1·49–31·06]; p=0·012). Peginterferon lambda was well tolerated, and adverse events were similar between groups with mild and transient aminotransferase, concentration increases more frequently observed in the peginterferon lambda group. Two individuals met the threshold of grade 3 increase, one in each group, and no other grade 3 or 4 laboratory adverse events were reported.

Interpretation

Peginterferon lambda accelerated viral decline in outpatients with COVID-19, increasing the proportion of patients with viral clearance by day 7, particularly in those with high baseline viral load. Peginterferon lambda has potential to prevent clinical deterioration and shorten duration of viral shedding.

Buffalo Doctors and Ivermectin.

https://buffalonews.com/news/l…eb-b771-b76fa82cbedb.html

Doctor Coetzee wants to give

his patients a fighting chance.

https://www.news24.com/amp/new…-fighting-chance-20210204

Whoever is destined to be hanged will not drown. Whoever is destined to leave Covid-19 will go to the best of all worlds in bliss and grace.

AstraZeneca COVID jab ‘less effective against S Africa variant’

https://news.google.com/articl…=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

The COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford appeared to offer only limited protection against mild disease caused by the South African variant of the coronavirus, a spokesman for the British drugmaker has said.

The statement on Saturday came after the Financial Times reported that the vaccine failed to prevent mild and moderate disease caused by the variant first identified in South Africa.

The newspaper cited early data from a trial conducted by South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Oxford, the findings of which are due to be published on Monday.

Quote from Fm1

The COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford appeared to offer only limited protection against mild disease caused by the South African variant of the coronavirus, a spokesman for the British drugmaker has said.

The company(AstraZeneca) already made a statement about 2 months ago that they would adapt the vaccine. The main problem is that all vaccine provider are heavily cheating the public to get rid of the old more or less useless vaccine stock.

Only Pfizer crossed the line of fraud so far when they cheated the world about the adverse events (3400!!!) they did not follow up in the phase III trial. Pfizer also gave no warning that it is 2x more likely that you get CoV-19 the two weeks following the first Jab.

During the phase III trial Pfizer sorted out all early CoV-19 cases (>200 compared to control) albeit they should have counted 1/2 of them!! It looks like Israel exactly shows this effect!

So how many deaths are induced during the 2 post Pfizer jab weeks?? By persons that did get CoV-19 due the Pfizer vaccine?

„Pfizer also gave no warning that it is 2x more likely that you get CoV-19 the two weeks following the first Jab.“

I didn’t know that...can you you explain in more detail, how the vaccine increases the likelihood of getting infected with Cov19 by 100% after the first shot, vs people who didn’t get a jab at all? Or did I get this wrong?

Quote from zorud

I didn’t know that...can you you explain in more detail, how the vaccine increases the likelihood of getting infected with Cov19 by 100% after the first shot,

You should ask Pfizer why this is so. They certainly don't want to explain it to you. Did you read what Doshi wrote? He links all reports of Pfizer given to FDA.

But in general all infections do harm your immune response. So I would recommend (so far for Pfizer only) to avoid any contacts at least one week for the first jab and two after.

A Lab Sped Up Coronavirus Evolution to Find What Mutation Might Emerge and Potential Drug

https://shinjieyong.medium.com…tential-drug-d31e1d5d6b26

The coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is actively evolving as it spreads among us. With the recent advent of multiple strains — i.e., variants or mutants with slightly different viral properties — SARS-CoV-2 has become even better apt at surviving amidst humans. This is thanks to the three mutations arriving sequentially:

The D614G mutation — change of amino acid at position 614 from D to G —dominated the globe last year. D614G helps the virus infect cells more easily and become more contagious, at least in animals.

The more recent N501Y mutation is found in the U.K., South Africa, and Brazil SARS-CoV-2 mutants. N501Y helps SARS-CoV-2 binds and infects human cells more easily.

The most current E484K mutation is present in South Africa, Brazil, and, more recently, the U.K. E484K helps the virus evade human antibodies — contributing to vaccine resistance. But the vaccines are still effective for now; only with reduced efficacy.

Q498R?

(For scientific names, the U.K. mutant is called B.1.1.7 or 501Y.V1; the South African one is B.1.351 or 501Y.V2; the Brazil one is B1.1.28 or 501.V3.)

What’s the next mutation? This is rather an unsettling question but must be considered as SARS-CoV-2 continues to circulate at a large scale in human populations. It will not be surprising if the SARS-CoV-2 evolution takes another step forward.

After a few more rounds of evolution, something dangerous emerged. The Q498R mutation alongside N501Y and E484K increases the RBD’s binding capacity to the ACE2 receptor by 50-fold.

Quote from Wyttenbach

You should ask Pfizer why this is so. They certainly don't want to explain it to you. Did you read what Doshi wrote? He links all reports of Pfizer given to FDA.

But in general all infections do harm your immune response. So I would recommend (so far for Pfizer only) to avoid any contacts at least one week for the first jab and two after.

There is a lot of various opinions on Peter Doshi, like this one. Not sure what the truth in the end is, but we will see when all data from Pfizer will become public (didn’t they being hijacked from the EMA’s Server anyway and published somewhere?).

https://www.skepticalraptor.co…-vaccine-clinical-trials/

Quote from zorud

https://www.skepticalraptor.co…-vaccine-clinical-trials/

I fully understand that big pharma and investors are pissed off.

But what Doshi writes is not anti vaccine this is a chieldish comment. He just shows that Pfizer simply did cheat the public and FDA tried to hide it. (80% of the income of the FDA commisssion comes from pharma...)

Do you remember that bmj (Doshis journal) did full debunk the HCQ fake story (constructed by big Pharma) published in lancet??

Doshi is clear pro vaccine. So its up to you, to in detail shows us arguments that uphold your aledged claims!

Here an example how the problems look like:

14 people of a care home infected by corona (UK strain) after second vaccination. May be they just got the second shot a bit to late (two weeks ago) or the vaccine as expected cannot fully prevent mild infections - what would be OK.

https://www.faz.net/aktuell/ge…te-getestet-17185702.html

Could you imagine how many of those old and vulnerable seniors would probably have died from this british strain without a vaccination? They all seem to show mild to asymptomatic symptoms what seems somehow promising... There were situations in other homes in Germany where more than 50% of the infected died of the COVID infection...

Quote from zorud

Could you imagine how many of those old and vulnerable seniors would probably have died from this british strain without a vaccination?

This is the wrong argument: With ivermectin 0 would have died. The discussion is Pfizer's 95% cheating!