Covid-19 News

  • Could an accident have caused COVID-19? Why the theory about a Wuhan lab leak shouldn't be dismissed


    https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/4765985001




    On a warm summer evening in July 2014, a laboratory worker on the National Institutes of Health’s sprawling campus just north of Washington, D.C., exited Building 29A toting a cardboard box. Its contents rattled inside – an assortment of fragile glass vials labeled with faded typewriter script: Q fever, rickettsia, and worst of all, four strains of variola – the dreaded virus that causes smallpox.


    Highly contagious, variola is one of the deadliest viruses the world has ever known. It could rip through most of the U.S. population and cause a global health disaster if released. It killed as many as three out of every 10 people infected before it was declared eradicated from the planet in 1980


    Nobody has been routinely vaccinated against smallpox in decades, leaving most people in the U.S. and around the world vulnerable to infection. Yet after forgotten specimen vials dating to the 1940s and 1950s were discovered at the NIH in an unlocked cold storage room, nothing was done to ensure their safe transportation. They were allowed to bump around in a cardboard box with dozens of other old biological specimens as a lone laboratory worker walked them to another building about two blocks away, federal records show.


    One vial had already shattered.


    The world got lucky that day, as it often has when safety breaches occur at biological laboratories in the United States and around the world.

  • off subject but interesting..... We are what we eat and what we make!


    Scientists Detect 55 Chemicals Never Before Reported in People – 42 “Mystery Chemicals” Whose Sources Are Unknown


    https://scitechdaily.com/scien…-sources-are-unknown/amp/


    The chemicals most likely come from consumer products or other industrial sources. They were found both in the blood of pregnant women, as well as their newborn children, suggesting they are traveling through the mother’s placenta.


    The study was published on March 16, 2021, in Environmental Science & Technology.


    “These chemicals have probably been in people for quite some time, but our technology is now helping us to identify more of them,” said Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCSF.


    A former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientist, Woodruff directs the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE) and the Environmental Research and Translation for Health (EaRTH) Center, both at UCSF.


    “It is alarming that we keep seeing certain chemicals travel from pregnant women to their children, which means these chemicals can be with us for generations,” she said.


    The scientific team used high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) to identify human-made chemicals in people.


    But, while these chemicals can be tentatively identified using chemical libraries, they need to be confirmed by comparing them to the pure chemicals produced by manufacturers that are known as “analytical standards.” And manufacturers do not always make these available.


    Recently, for example, chemical manufacturer Solvay stopped providing access to a chemical standard for one perfluorooctanoic acid (PFAS) compound that has emerged as a replacement for phased-out PFAS compounds. The researchers have been using this chemical standard to evaluate the presence and the toxicity of the replacement PFAS.

  • A nasal spray that will be marketed as capable of killing 99.9 percent of virus particles has started rolling off production lines in an Israeli factory.


    The spray could have prevented much of the world’s COVID-19 infection, its inventor, Dr. Gilly Regev, told The Times of Israel.


    https://www.timesofisrael.com/…ins-production-in-israel/


    Life-saving’ nose spray that kills 99.9% of viruses begins production in Israel

    Health Ministry-approved labeling says antiviral is effective within 2 minutes; can save many lives in countries without access to vaccines, says inventor

    We are hoping that our nasal spray will now save many lives of people in countries that are waiting for the vaccine,” said Regev, an Israeli-raised biochemist who co-founded the company SaNOtize and developed the spray in Canada. “This will be affordable and can be used for prevention, to protect from any respiratory viral infection.”

    Regev called Enovid a “hand sanitizer equivalent for the nose,” and said that it creates a physical barrier in the nasal passages to stop viruses along with a “chemical barrier” of nitric oxide, which is known for its antimicrobial qualities. “The nitric oxide means this is a special spray that doesn’t just block viruses but actually kills them,” she said.


    Israel will become the first country where the spray is sold. The Health Ministry has given interim approval for its sale as a medical device suitable for people age 12 and up — meaning it could be used by many who aren’t yet approved for coronavirus vaccines — with packaging stating: “Scientifically tested to kill 99.9% of viruses within 2 minutes.”

    It has also been approved for sale in New Zealand, and approval is being sought in other countries, including the UK.


    Regev said that the factory, in Ness Ziona near Tel Aviv, is working to produce a stock of 200,000 to 500,000 bottles by May. “After this we’re hoping to get to capacity of a million bottles a month,” the Hebrew University graduate said, adding: “I hope this product will bring pride and jobs to Israel.”

  • The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic could have been prevented


    https://www.virology.ws/2020/0…ould-have-been-prevented/


    In the aftermath of the SARS-CoV pandemic of 2003, wildlife sampling taught us that bats harbor many SARS-like coronaviruses. Subsequent research revealed that some of these bat viruses have pandemic potential. We knew that CoVs lurked in bats in China with the potential to cause an outbreak. But no one would invest the money needed to make antiviral drugs or vaccines.


    After SARS-CoV, a number of laboratories continued their research on the virus, but big Pharma lost interest in the virus – because it had disappeared from the face of the Earth. There was no money to be made in SARS-CoV antivirals or vaccines, so none were made. As a result, when SARS-CoV-2 emerged in late 2019, humanity was completely unable to stop its inexorable spread around the globe.


    What could have been done? To start, we should have made antiviral drugs that inhibit a broad range of bat SARS-like CoVs. One protein encoded in the genome of these viruses – the RNA dependent RNA polymerase, essential for the synthesis of all viral RNAs – is the most highly conserved protein among all of these viruses. It would have been straightforward to take a sample of these RdRps from bat CoVs, produce them in cell culture, and find small molecule compounds that inhibit all of them. A pan-CoV antiviral drug could have been developed through human phase I trials, and stockpiled for the next pandemic. But there was no money to support such work – neither in the halls of big Pharma or forthcoming from the under-funded NIH.


    It might have even been possible to make a pan-CoV vaccine, although in my view this would be much harder and less certain than a pan-CoV antiviral drug. One approach, similar to that being taken to make universal influenza vaccines, is to identify conserved epitopes (the amino acids to which antibodies are directed) on the viral spike protein. It would be straightforward to examine the spike proteins of many bat SARS-like CoVs to identify such conserved epitopes and either design vaccines to target them, or produce monoclonal antibodies agains such targets to be used therapeutically.

    All of this research and more is taking place after the fact – too late to impact the pandemic. Companies are now motivated because the profit to be had is clear. Until such therapies are available – too late to impact the 2020 outbreak – we are left with testing antiviral drugs that were developed for other purposes, and they are not ideal. One that is being highly touted is Remdesivir, a drug that must be given intravenously (it is not sufficiently absorbed after oral administration) which means it is typically given only to very sick patients. By that time, virus loads in the lung are already low and giving an antiviral drug will have little impact. We could have had so much more than this.


    How would all of this research have impacted the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic? In one scenario, we have stockpiles of a pan-CoV antiviral drug, enough to treat millions of people. When SARS-CoV-2 is first identified in Wuhan, the drug is immediately given a large phase II efficacy trial. We treat not only sick people but all their contacts and contacts of contacts. We also treat health care personnel. The drug will substantially drop virus levels in lung, impairing transmission. A larger phase III trial could follow with even more participants. It is likely that with such an approach, the virus would never have left China; but if it had, we could track it down and use the antiviral to stop spread. This scenario depends, of course, on extensive testing and contact tracing, a process not sufficiently done in the US and for which that country should be ashamed for not responding quickly enough.


    It’s easy to blame bats for unwittingly giving humanity SARS-CoV-2. But I also blame both big Pharma and the US government for failing to come up with a pan-CoV antiviral or vaccine. Big Pharma because they are blind to anything that doesn’t enhance their bottom line. And the US government for severely under-funding the NIH so that essential research could not even be done in academic laboratories. It is very difficult to get money from Congress for research on a virus that is not a big human problem. That situation needs to end.


    Every American should be outraged that the US has cut off funding for EcoHealth Alliance, an organization that supports wildlife sampling to discover viruses with pandemic potential in bats and other species. It is exactly that type of work that is needed to prepare therapeutics for the next pandemic. There is no scientific justification for such a move, only political motives.

  • Origin of new emergent Coronavirus and Candida fungal diseases—Terrestrial or cosmic?


    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7358766/


    Introduction

    In the past 40 years there have been a number of suddenly emerging epidemic viral diseases. Many were self-limiting and “went away” or “disappeared” almost as quickly as they appeared (SARS, MERS, ZIKAV). The origins in all cases were a mystery, and very controversial. Others such as the far more deadly HIV retrovirus has finally succumbed to highly effective antiretroviral therapy (HAART) making life bearable for infected HIV + people. However it has integrated into the human germline in many cases and is likely to be a permanent “endogenized retroviral signature” in the human germline, joining the many thousands of other HERVS, human endogenous retrovirus sequences that litter the human genome as fragments or potentially active retroviruses (Wickramasinghe, 2012; Wickramasinghe & Steele, 2016).


    However the great exemplar of the emergence of a new pandemic disease of considerable virulence and pathogenicity was the Spanish Flu Pandemic 1918–1919. That pandemic has been analyzed in great detail by Hoyle and Wickramasinghe (1979), and the astute and engaged reader of all that evidence is left with only one conclusion—the Spanish Flu disease came from Space on a massive scale, and killed tens of millions before the advent of air travel.


    We do not intend here to discuss these earlier epidemics and pandemics—which have been covered in previous papers (some cited here). We focus our analysis on the actual origins of two recently emergent epidemics: a fungal disease caused by Candida auris and the current coronavirus “common cold-type” epidemic caused by the COVID-19 virus. These two epidemics display distinctive features and clear evidence that they may have come from a space in-fall of infectious viruses and micro-organisms in cometary dust or meteorite-derived dust particles

  • This noise is just vaccine selling news. More cases (UK 1.1.7.1) --> much less deaths and severe cases as teh added cases are young people. CoV-19 is going to survive as a mild disease as all much older classic cold corona virus.


    The cricket brain politicians are fooled by the mafia advisors.

    Taking a look just now at about ten countries in Europe from worldometers.info, the death numbers are largely downward (at least for now), so that seems to support your point.

  • Every American should be outraged that the US has cut off funding for EcoHealth Alliance, an organization that supports wildlife sampling to discover viruses with pandemic potential in bats and other species. It is exactly that type of work that is needed to prepare therapeutics for the next pandemic. There is no scientific justification for such a move, only political motives.

    Perhaps the author is blissfully unaware that EcoHealth Alliance is in the business of finding disease promising viruses in the wild and then collaborating with labs like the WIV who in turn perform gain of function research to find out just how much more pathogenic they can make them.

  • DR Mark Trozzi discusses missed

    opportunity hydroxychloroquine.


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  • Genetic variants for skin color in African Americans linked to vitamin D deficiency


    https://www.sciencedaily.com/r…/2021/02/210218142820.htm


    One day physicians may be able to look at an African American's skin color and, with the help of other determinants, know if prescribing vitamin D supplements would lower that person's risk of getting cancers of the prostate, colon, rectum or breast.


    "We should not shy from this new study looking at the genetics of skin color and its effects on vitamin D deficiency because being 'colorblind' is what has led to the widespread health disparities that we as a society are now trying to address," said Rick Kittles, Ph.D., director of the Division of Health Equities at Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, an independent research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.


    "Skin color has strong social and biological significance -- social because of race and racism and biological because over 70% of African Americans are vitamin D deficient, resulting in increased risk for cancer and cardiovascular disease," Kittles added. Notably, the difference in cancer death rates between African Americans and whites is 14%.


    Researchers in the City of Hope-led data study, published Feb. 18 in PLOS Genetics, conducted a genome-wide association study using the data of 1,076 African Americans to analyze the genetics of skin pigmentation in this group, replicate results and test if the identified genetic variants are linked to vitamin D deficiency in African Americans.


    This was the first genome-wide association study of skin pigmentation in African Americans, Kittles said. Study participants self-identified as African American. Blood samples for DNA analysis and vitamin D levels were collected at recruitment, and scientists measured the sun-protected area of the skin in the inner upper arm of participants using a digital reflectometer.


    Although skin pigmentation was measured in an area of the body unexposed to the sun, various factors such as aging, outdoor activities and consistent UV exposure over the years may influence skin pigmentation and the association between skin pigmentation and vitamin D levels. Understandably, researchers found that skin pigmentation gene variants, rather than skin pigmentation, measured using a reflectometer were associated with serum vitamin D levels.


    Scientists found three regions (SLC24A5, SLC45A2 and OCA2) in the genes of African Americans with strong links to skin color and severe vitamin D deficiency. The genetic variant rs2675345, which is near a region in the gene called SLC24A5, showed the strongest association with skin pigmentation and vitamin D deficiency.


    Studies have shown that individuals with darker skin pigmentation require longer or more intense ultraviolet radiation exposure to synthesize sufficient levels of vitamin D. In other words, if you have darker skin, you tend to make less vitamin D in the sun than people with lighter skin.


    Kittles and his colleagues are exploring how they can one day leverage their newly identified risk score in doctors' offices -- potentially creating a precision medicine tool. For example, depending on skin tone, occupation and lifestyle, doctors can better prescribe the correct dose of vitamin D supplementation.


    "This study is an example of the interplay of race and skin color on health and how if we ignore things such as the color of a person's skin, we may be ignoring potential medical issues, thus contributing to health care disparities," Kittles said. "Our study provides new knowledge about an easily modifiable factor such as vitamin D supplementation and inherited genetic factors affecting vitamin D deficiency in African Americans. With more research, in the future doctors could offer patients of color with an inexpensive way to reduce their risk of vitamin deficiency, which ultimately could help protect against certain cancers."

  • T-cell test on offer to detect immune responses to COVID-19


    https://www.med-technews.com/n…ne-responses-to-covid-19/


    The test could be a game changer for some COVID-19 ‘long haulers’ and for people who have not yet had a clear answer on whether they were previously infected with the virus.


    T-cells are a type of white blood cell that forms an essential part of the human immune system. T-cells (and B-Cells) are lymphocytes which govern the bodies’ response to foreign antigens. Until now the only test available to assess an immune response was based on the presence of antibodies which are produced by B lymphocytes. We have millions of T-Cells which originate in bone marrow and once they encounter an antigen, they secrete chemical messengers which stimulate several different immune responses. Regulatory T cells act to control immune reactions and Cytotoxic T cells bind together and kill infected cells and cancer cells.


    Here are the five things to know about the potential of T-Cell immunity:


    Confirmation of COVID-19 infection status


    This test could bring clarity to many people who believe that they have had COVID-19 but have no proof of having the virus. Despite the whirlwind beginning of the pandemic, and lack of testing in 2020, it is important for people’s medical history, understanding their personal immunity status and for scientists understanding the spread of the disease to have a true picture of infection.


    Long COVID-19


    For those people suffering from a bizarre list of long, persisting and sometimes debilitating symptoms, accurate knowledge of infection status is extremely helpful in knowing where people stand. Until now, if you had long-COVID-19 symptoms but no antibodies you will have been potentially misdiagnosed with something else. Scientists are concerned that the long COVID-19 could be separate or a second epidemic to emerge from the first.


    Dr Mark Ali, medical director of the Private Harley Street Clinic, and a Cardiothoracic Surgeon of 30 years’ experience has also completed a BSc degree in Immunology and Molecular Biology, he says: "Identification of a T cell response to COVID-19 is seen as the missing link in testing. We have tracked so many people who are sure that they have had COVID-19 but test negative for antibodies and the antigen itself, perhaps because they were tested too late to pick up the virus or it was a false negative.”


    Future-use


    It could also help find and influence better treatments for those who have been infected. The test is administered via a venous blood draw. In the USA T-Cell DNA is extracted and sequenced with Microsoft's artificial intelligence, mapping out the immune system's "massive black box" data into navigable science. The potential for tracking and improving understanding of virus spread is important.


    Arming against infection


    The ability to recognise and record T-Cell immunity will shed more light on how that system can be better targeted, enhanced, armed and ready against future infections.


    Dr Ali says: “We need to know the full extent of numbers of people who have had a T-Cell response to better understand and protect our society from future viruses.”


    Monitoring the development of T-Cell


    T-Cells can continue to be monitored in the body after infection for severity of response to the virus and vaccine efficacy and durability.


    Dr Ali says: “Because of the pandemic’s length and changing mutations people are quite rightly concerned about their COVID-19 immunity status. It is helpful, but also empowering for people to know if they have had COVID-19 and also generated an immune response. In time, T Lymphocyte testing may also provide us with a more realistic picture of how many people have had the virus, and how our bodies successfully fight and kill it.”


    The new test is called the T-SPOT.COVID test and will enable individuals themselves to discover whether they have mounted a T cell led immune response to COVID-19- as opposed to an antibody response which is the other way that the immune system deals with COVID-19 viral infection.


    The T-SPOT.COVID test has been developed by Oxford Immunotec Global PLC producers of the T-SPOT.TB test, which was originally used for diagnosing infection with Tuberculosis. The test is highly accurate and was positive in 96.6% of a group of previously infected individuals <60 days after infection and 83.3 % at >60 days after infection:


    The T-SPOT.COVID test is available at The Private Harley Street Clinic for £195.00

    The new ELISPOT based test is intended for qualitative detection of a cell mediated (T cell) immune response to SARS-CoV-2 in human whole blood

    The T cell test (the T-SPOT.COVID test) is CE marked and approved for use in the UK by the MHRA

    This requires a venous blood sample taken from a vein by a qualified medical professional

    Results are returned within 48 hours.

  • It is now right out in the open, the Controlling interests do not want this pandemic to end!



    EU advises against using drug ivermectin for COVID


    https://medicalxpress.com/news…drug-ivermectin-covid.amp


    Facebook posts and articles endorsing ivermectin have proliferated in Brazil, France, South Africa and South Korea as governments around the world struggle with vaccination programmes.


    "EMA has reviewed the latest evidence on the use of ivermectin for the prevention and treatment of COVID and concluded that the available data do not support its use for COVID outside well-designed clinical trials," the European Medicines Agency said.


    The Amsterdam-based agency said it had not received any application for authorisation of the drug, which has long been used to treat parasites such as head lice and for river blindness in sub-Saharan Africa.


    Further tests were needed to see if it was effective against coronavirus, the EMA said.


    Lab tests had found ivermectin could block replication of the virus that causes COVID-19 "but at much higher ivermectin concentrations than those achieved with the currently authorised doses," the regulator added.


    Toxic effects at those higher doses could not be ruled out, it said.


    "Results from clinical studies were varied, with some studies showing no benefit and others reporting a potential benefit," the EMA added.

  • It is now right out in the open, the Controlling interests do not want this pandemic to end!

    That is a nutty conspiracy theory. First, there are no "controlling interests." No one is in control. Second, if there were, they would want the pandemic to end, because large corporations such as airlines, property owners such as Trump, and governments are losing tons of money. Third, just because some experts disagree with you about ivermectin, that does not make them evil geniuses secretly in charge of society. If it turns out you are right, that makes them mistaken. People often make mistakes. It is even conceivable -- plausible, possible, in the realm of the thinkable! -- that you are making a mistake. Perhaps you do not understand these issues as well as experts who have devoted decades of their lives to working on them. Has that possibility crossed your mind?


    When I say "no one is in control" I do not mean there are no powerful, controlling interests. I mean there are many different interests competing with one another. If ivermectin is effective, a powerful drug company cannot prevent rival drug companies from manufacturing it, promoting it, and making a fortune. If Merck tried to stop it, that would be a multi-billion dollar gift from Merck to J&J. If the coal companies were in control of energy policy they would ban the use of wind turbines. Their congressman from West Virginia tried to ban wind turbines, but failed. Many automobile companies and oil companies tried to prevent the development of electric cars. They did succeed for a while, but eventually Tesla blew them out of the water, and now they are frantically developing electric cars.


    That's how things work in the real world. No one is in charge. Or, I should say, lots of people are in charge, but they do not all agree.

  • That is a nutty conspiracy theory. First, there are no "controlling interests." No one is in control. Second, if there were, they would want the pandemic to end, because large corporations such as airlines, property owners such as Trump, and governments are losing tons of money. Third, just because some experts disagree with you about ivermectin, that does not make them evil geniuses secretly in charge of society. If it turns out you are right, that makes them mistaken. People often make mistakes. It is even conceivable -- plausible, possible, in the realm of the thinkable! -- that you are making a mistake. Perhaps you do not understand these issues as well as experts who have devoted decades of their lives to working on them. Has that possibility crossed your mind?


    When I say "no one is in control" I do not mean there are no powerful, controlling interests. I mean there are many different interests competing with one another. If ivermectin is effective, a powerful drug company cannot prevent rival drug companies from manufacturing it, promoting it, and making a fortune. If Merck tried to stop it, that would be a multi-billion dollar gift from Merck to J&J. If the coal companies were in control of energy policy they would ban the use of wind turbines. Their congressman from West Virginia tried to ban wind turbines, but failed. Many automobile companies and oil companies tried to prevent the development of electric cars. They did succeed for a while, but eventually Tesla blew them out of the water, and now they are frantically developing electric cars.


    That's how things work in the real world. No one is in charge. Or, I should say, lots of people are in charge, but they do not all agree.

    Not a conspiracy , just like cold fusion it's right out in the open. Oh and by the way, nice two-step, very huxley esq

  • Not a conspiracy , just like cold fusion it's right out in the open.

    The situation with ivermectin does not remotely resemble cold fusion! Ivermectin is freely available, and it has been used in large amounts by many doctors to treat COVID-19. Some agencies such as the FDA think that ivermectin does not work, but they have no power to stop it. If a drug company feels the stuff works and they want to sell it, they are free to do so. There is no effective large-scale opposition to ivermectin. Anyone who wants it can have it.


    In the case of cold fusion, most energy research funding for laboratory scale discoveries comes through the DoE. That is a chokepoint. If the DoE opposes something, it can pretty much stop the research. It stopped most cold fusion research, but not all by any means. There is no similar government or industry chokepoint for any COVID-19 drug or therapy. Some drugs have more establishment support than others. Obviously, the vaccines have the most support. As they should. You can see from the data that the vaccines are driving both cases and deaths asymptotically to zero in the UK and Israel, the two countries with the highest vaccination rate. See:


    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/


    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/israel/

  • As they should. You can see from the data that the vaccines are driving both cases and deaths asymptotically to zero in the UK and Israel, the two

    What you see is what you believe. Here we see the same without any vaccines...


    The problem is the world wide connected Rotary/free mason (J) mafia, that undermined most organizations and blocks Ivermectin where they can. I happened just yesterday on EU level without any logic arguments just by power of the institution. Same with Lancet, now a mafia medicine journal.

  • If a drug company feels the stuff works and they want to sell it, they are free to do so. T


    If ivermectin is effective, a powerful drug company cannot prevent rival drug companies from manufacturing it, promoting it, and making a fortune. If Merck tried to stop it, that would be a multi-billion dollar gift from Merck to J&J.

    This would not be a multibillion dollar gift to J&J.

    There is no value in ivermectin for any BIGPharma. not J&J.. not Sanofi not. 'Roach..'

    They cannot leverage $1000 per treatment as per Remdesivir .. not even $100 per treatment..

    The cost of generic treatment .. 3 x 12 mg/day .. is something like 1$..

    The profit is something like 10 cents

    Assuming 10 cents x 1 billion treatments =Profit 100 million dollars


    Currently the meagrely profits are shared out among various generic manufacturers mostly located in India..

    God Bless Indian generics..

    these are the current prices of IVM 12 mg in rupees:18 rupees = 25 cents.

    18x3 = 75 cents..

    https://www.sastimedicine.com/…ric-Alternatives-its-cost


    What is the profit from each vaccine dose? 10-100 times more than 10c..

    There is huge incentive to suppress IVM for those with their hands in the vaccine cookie jar.

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