Covid-19 News

  • Coronavirus: How Effective Is The Antiviral Drug Remdesivir Against COVID-19? Find Out What Experts Have To Say


    https://m.timesofindia.com/lif…etphotostory/82176654.cms


    The recent surge in the coronavirus cases has become a source of major concern. Hospitals and medical facilities have started to run out of resources and are struggling to even provide beds to severe COVID-19 patients. During such times, there has been a massive demand for the most sought after antiviral drug, Remdesivir. While the drug is said to treat and relieve patients suffering with severe COVID symptoms, Indian authorities claim that Remdesivir is not a life-saving drug and it's unnecessary use is unethical.

    It has been over a year since the novel coronavirus first hit us, but given the recent spike in the COVID-19 cases in India, we're again back to square one. While vaccines have been our only hope in this distressful situation, the second wave of coronavirus, driven by factors like the double mutant variant and negligence, has really taken a toll on the country's healthcare system.


    According to Dr. Balram Bhargava, director-general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in the second wave of COVID-19, while the older population continue to be more vulnerable, there has been growing increase in the number of younger people testing positive for the virus.


    In addition to that, the unavailability of vaccines to the younger generation may also be one of the leading factors as to why younger and healthy people are landing up in hospitals.

    During such a crisis, oxygen ventilators, COVID-19 plasma and antiviral drugs like Remdesivir are in high demand.


    Remdesivir is a patented antiviral drug manufactured by Gilead (US), initially developed for the treatment of viral hepatitis, and a cold-like virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Due to it's initial response against the virus, US FDA approved this drug to treat COVID-19.


    In India, the Ministry of Health also recommended it as an investigational therapy in their COVID-19 management protocol document, however, clarified that it is not a "life-saving drug".

    Considering India is battling not just a deadly virus, but also a crumbling health infrastructure, people are ready to try any means of survival during this critical time. As the country experiences a high spike in the number of cases, Dr. Randeep Guleria, the director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi said on Monday, "Remdesivir isn't magic bullet and isn't a drug that decreases mortality."


    "We may use Remdesivir as we don't have an anti-viral drug. Remdesivir was proven useful for those in hospitals and on oxygen...it can't be taken like a regular antibiotic," he added.


    He further emphasized that the anti-viral drug must only be given to people who are hospitalised, have a fall in oxygen saturation and have infiltrates on the chest X-ray or CT-scan.


    That said, while social media is swamped with requests for Remdesivir, some reports suggest that the prices of Remdesivir have shot up in the black market and are being sold at unreasonable price to desperate patients.

    There have been many debates and discussions about the effectiveness of Remdesivir on COVID-19 patients. While some studies have suggested that the drug has no effect against the deadly virus, others have claimed that it shortens recovery period in COVID patients.


    As per a Solidarity clinical trial by the World Health Organization, that looked into the effectiveness of Remdesivir against COVID-19, it was found that Remdesivir performs no better than control for in-hospitalization mortality, but could not prevent COVID-19 related deaths.

  • Here's the brief video interview with Risch:

    https://rumble.com/vftpdz-dr.-…have-been-vaccinated.html

    Let's do the math. Israel has about 165 cases/day so 60% are vaccine break through cases, what implies they have about 100 breakthrough cases a day. If this goes on then after 3 months we have 10'000 breakthrough cases what is is still far below the guaranteed 90% efficiency, what would allow 400'000 such cases after e.g. 1 year...?

    The only thing we have to monitor now is: Cases go up again in Israel. But with low numbers a single event can spoil the data. So let's wait.


    According to Dr. Balram Bhargava, director-general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in the second wave of COVID-19, while the older population continue to be more vulnerable, there has been growing increase in the number of younger people testing positive for the virus.

    How did this idiot get his job in the government? He does not even know Ivermectin - a true sign of Alzheimer Dollaris...

  • As I recall an article was shared here earlier this month that the South African variant is able to evade the Pfizer vaccine pretty well, perhaps causing a selection pressure such that vaccinated people are 8 times more likely to have the South African strain than unvaccinated people, albeit the sample size is small.

    Nope. Not at all true.

  • Nope. Not at all true.

    So presumably you disagree with the results of the Israeli study, for reasons you don't disclose.

    That's OK. Time may tell if the study bears out. If there is another wave in Israel, with big gains by the South African strain, then the proof is in the pudding.


    We performed a case-control study that examined the distribution of SARS-CoV-2 variants observed in infections of vaccinated individuals (“breakthrough cases”) and matched infections of unvaccinated individuals. We hypothesized that if there is lower vaccine effectiveness against one of the VOCs, its proportion among the breakthrough cases should be higher than among unvaccinated cases. Our results show that vaccinees that tested positive at least a week after the second dose were indeed disproportionally infected with B.1.351 [South African variant], as compared with unvaccinated individuals (odds ratio of 8:1, one-sided exact McNemar test, p=0.02).

  • Some “breakthrough” infections have happened among fully vaccinated people, but those infections tend to produce mild symptoms with few instances of serious illness or hospitalization, Adalja said. Vaccinated people are also less likely to spread the virus to others if they do catch it (SN: 3/30/21).


    There is a real problem with this statement. Breakthrough cases tent to be mild. Mild cases lead to long Covid in some, but hey it's for the best. The best for who?

    Less likely to spread? Based on what?




    Experts predict U.S. COVID-19 cases will dip in summer but surge in winter


    https://www.sciencenews.org/ar…n-summer-winter-surge/amp


    The coming months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States may feel a bit like a roller-coaster ride.


    The current surge in the number of cases will dip over the summer, then rise again in the winter, a health expert predicted April 22 during a news briefing sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Meanwhile, cases are expected to continue to rise globally, largely fueled by cases in South Asia, particularly India, said Ali Mokdad, a public health researcher at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle.


    As more Americans get vaccinated, daily deaths are predicted to decline, Mokdad said, from about 700 deaths per day as of April 21 to about 200 deaths per day by August 1. By then, the U.S. cumulative death toll from COVID-19 is expected to reach 618,000, up from about 570,000 currently.

    with other respiratory viruses, when cold weather drives more people back inside, cases and deaths could surge again, Mokdad said. How bad it gets depends on whether people wear masks (SN: 2/12/21). “Come winter… we expect a rise in cases and we’ll be swimming upstream,” he said. “We have a problem coming. Please, wear your mask.”


    If 95 percent of people wear masks, the rise in cases and deaths could be mild, he said. Vaccines, coronavirus variants, the number of people who have already had COVID-19 and how much people interact with others could change the equation as well.


    Looking longer-term, the coronavirus is here to stay, Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases doctor at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said in the briefing.


    “It’s a mistake to think that we’re going to get to COVID-zero. This is not an eradicable disease,” he said.

    But if enough people get vaccinated, the virus may eventually become more like a seasonal cold. “These vaccines … will change your life,” Adalja said. “These vaccines were made to defang or tame the virus, and they’re doing an excellent job at that.”


    Some “breakthrough” infections have happened among fully vaccinated people, but those infections tend to produce mild symptoms with few instances of serious illness or hospitalization, Adalja said. Vaccinated people are also less likely to spread the virus to others if they do catch it (SN: 3/30/21).


    Even so, until herd immunity has been reached, people will still need to wear masks, Adalja said. But, he added, “the more people we get vaccinated, the less likely we will have to think about masks again for COVID-19.”

  • Here you go roseland 67, should make you feel warm and cozy all over. A Covid success story. Enjoy brother!


    As World Isolates Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, New Zealand Band Plays to 50,000 Fans


    https://www.voanews.com/covid-…band-plays-50000-fans?amp


    Singer Matiu Walters grinned as he gazed out over 50,000 damp but delirious fans and said those magic words: "So, what's up Eden Park?"


    While much of the world remains hunkered down, the band Six60 has been playing to huge crowds in New Zealand, where social distancing isn't required after the nation stamped out the coronavirus. The band's tour finale on Saturday night was billed as the largest concert in the world since the pandemic began.


    Equally momentous for a band which met while playing rugby at university was getting to play the first concert ever held at the storied Eden Park rugby stadium. And finding themselves at the apex of world music came as a twist for Six60, which has enjoyed unparalleled success in New Zealand but whose forays abroad have ended without the breakthroughs they sought.


    Saturday's set by the five-piece band included powerful cameos by military musicians ahead of the nation honoring its war dead on Sunday, and Maori performers who stretched across the stage while the band switched to singing in the Indigenous language.


    One fan, Lucy Clumpas, found it a surreal experience to be surrounded by so many people after she spent last year living through endless lockdowns in Britain.


    "It's very important for us as humans to be able to get together and sing the same songs together," she said. "It makes us feel like we're part of something," Walters, the lead singer, said they desperately want their musician friends around the world to be able to play live shows again.


    "We know what it's like to be in lockdown. It sucked. And we didn't know if we'd be able to play gigs again," he said in an interview before the show. "But we are fortunate, for a few reasons, here in New Zealand."


    Guitarist Ji Fraser said the reception they received while on the road for their summer tour had been incredible.


    "It was amazing to see how fanatical people were, and excited about being out and seeing live music, and seeing something to drag them out of a long, brutal year," he said. "It was very special."


    Walters said they did worry that something could have gone wrong — that their gigs could have turned into super-spreader events. But he said there was not much to do other than play by the rules and follow the government guidelines.


    The band formed thirteen years ago after they started jamming in their rugby changing rooms, making their concert at the hallowed ground of the nation's All Blacks rugby team feel like completing a circle.

    The band had pushed for changes to civic rules to allow concerts at Eden Park, but not all the neighbors were happy.


    One who objected was former Prime Minister Helen Clark, who said at the time that the concerts would represent a "home invasion" of noise.


    "But the people wanted it. And the people spoke," Walters said. The singer added that Clark would have been welcomed at the concert. "Six60 is for everyone. And maybe if she came and enjoyed herself, she'd have a change of heart."


    Promoter Brent Eccles said they got permission to use the venue only at the last moment.


    "And we thought to ourselves, well, how crazy are we?" he said. "And the answer was, well, pretty crazy. So let's do it."


    It's been a heady rise for a group which began as a hard-partying student covers band. Their style has evolved and remains difficult to define, blending elements of reggae, pop, rock and soul.


    Bass guitarist Chris Mac said their fans now span rich and poor, young and old.


    "We're pretty lucky to have become the soundtrack of people's lives. Weddings, funerals, birthdays, engagements," he said, before breaking into laughter. "You know, gender-reveal parties, which are all the rage."


    As the band's popularity grew in New Zealand, it became a kind of sport for critics to knock them for being too bland. Walters said criticism of success remains a problem in New Zealand, and was something that annoyed him at the time. But he said it also energized the band.


    "We are very serious about the music," he said. "It's important for us to express an emotion and tell a story, and for our songs to be healing and magnetic for people. Because, it's not a fluke that we're playing to 50,000 people."


    The band has been trying to get more recognition abroad, although six months spent in Germany and a U.S. record deal both ended in disaster, as recounted in a behind-the-scenes documentary about the band "Six60: Till The Lights Go Out."


    But the band is ready to give it another shot, with a tour of Europe and the U.K. planned for November. They hope that by then, there will be many more places around the world where huge crowds can gather in song.

  • Hold up Covid 19 English subtitles


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  • FM,



    Good to hear,

    My band is gigging again, crowds are increasing, agent is busy.

    Hopefully back to “normal” in summer

  • There is a real problem with this statement. Breakthrough cases tent to be mild. Mild cases lead to long Covid in some, but hey it's for the best. The best for who?

    Are you saying that mild cases are more likely to lead to long-term effects? Where did you read that? As far as I know, long term effects are not correlated with severity. See:


    https://health.ucdavis.edu/hea…dless-of-severity/2021/03


    Studies show long-haul COVID-19 afflicts 1 in 4 COVID-19 patients, regardless of severity


    A patient’s age, prior health or severity of their COVID-19 case does not seem to matter

    (SACRAMENTO)

    More than one in four COVID-19 patients develop long-haul symptoms lasting for months – even if they had mild cases, according to a handful of studies that have emerged recently. . . .


    . . . Another consistent finding is that it does not appear to matter whether non-hospitalized patients had more severe cases of COVID-19, mild cases or even cases that caused no symptoms at all.


    Just as consistently, age or prior health – whether people were active and fit or had some previous health issues like diabetes or respiratory problems – made only a very small difference, if any, among non-hospitalized patients. . . .

  • DR John Campbell interviews

    DR Pierre Kory.


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  • Let's see what happens

    https://weatherboy.com/geomagn…atch-upgraded-to-warning/

    Geomagnetic Storm WATCH Upgraded to Warning


    The National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has upgraded the Geomagnetic Storm Watch that was in effect for today to a Geomagnetic Storm Warning after detecting the early arrival of a hearty solar wind.


    The SWPC says minor to moderate geomagnetic storm levels are being observed which shows the early arrival of an anticipated coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on April 22. The enhancement in solar wind parameters were first observed by the DSCOVR spacecraf


    The transient solar wind feature is expected to cause auroral enhancements that may be visible at night in the higher latitudes under favorable sky conditions. Due to the strength of this disturbance , aurora could be visible as far south as Idaho and New York and places in between

    According to the SWPC, a partial halo Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) was associated with a C3 flare from Region 2816 on the Sun. After a thorough analysis by SWPC forecasters and computer forecast models that have skill in these types of events, the initial forecast called for impacts to arrive on Earth early to mid-day on today. Instead, however, energy was detected arriving Saturday.


    Beyond this pulse of energy that is interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field now, it appears a solar tsunami was unleashed from the surface of the sun too by this CME.


    A solar tsunami, also known as a Moreton Wave or a Moreton-Ramsey Wave, is the signature of a large-scale solar corona shock wave generated by solar flares. Initially spotted in the late 1950’s, technology deployed by NASA in 2009 confirmed the presence and the mechanics of such a tsunami.


    Unlike a wave of water in the sense of a traditional tsunami, a solar tsunami is a wave of hot plasma and magnetism roughly 62,000 miles tall which races through the solar system at speeds of around 560,000 mph

  • Utterly disgusting': Big Pharma lobby blitz against vaccine patent waivers denounced


    https://www.rawstory.com/amp/big-pharma-2652770889


    As campaigners worldwide continue their efforts to unleash live-saving vaccine patents and technology from the profitable control of major pharmaceutical corporations this week, new reporting by The Intercept details the "army of lobbyists" Big Pharma has aimed at U.S. lawmakers in order to kneecap the global push to lift intellectual property through a waiver at the World Trade Organization.


    In a story published Friday, journalist Lee Fang cites "newly filed disclosure forms from the first quarter of 2021" to reveal that "over 100 lobbyists have been mobilized to contact lawmakers and members of the Biden administration, urging them to oppose a proposed temporary waiver" of patent protections at the WTO—a push led by India and South Africa and backed by the World Health Organization, over a hundred nations, and public health experts and justice advocates worldwide.


    According to Fang's reporting:


    Pharmaceutical lobbyists working against the proposal include Mike McKay, a key fundraiser for House Democrats, now working on retainer for Pfizer, as well asseveralformerstaff members to the U.S. Office of Trade Representative, which oversees negotiations with the WTO.

    Several trade groups funded by pharmaceutical firms have also focused closely on defeating the generic proposal, new disclosures show. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, and the International Intellectual Property Alliance, which all receive drug company money, have dispatched dozens of lobbyists to oppose the initiative.

    In response to the revelations, Heidi Chow, senior policy and campaign manager for the U.K.-based Global Justice Now, called the corporate lobbying blitz fighting against increased vaccine production "utterly disgusting and immoral" amid a global pandemic that has already claimed north of 3 million lives worldwide.


    "Millions continue to die because pharma monopolies have created vaccine scarcity in the global south," tweeted Chow. "We need a #PeoplesVaccine."


    Shailly Gupta, communications adviser to the Access Campaign with Doctors Without Borders, which advocates for a global system in which vaccine technology is made universally available to the world's poorest nations, also shared Fang's story as she bemoaned the "pandemic profiteering" it represents.

    On Friday, as Common Dreamsreported, Sen. Bernie Sanders led other U.S. lawmakers in Congress in a demand to the Biden administration to back the WTO waiver as they presented a petition signed by over 2 million people.

    We have the tools to save human lives, and those tools should be readily available to all people," said Sanders during an online event Friday. "Poor people in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and throughout the world have as much a right to be protected from the virus, to live, as people in wealthier nations. To me, this is not a huge debate, this is common human morality."


    Abby Maxman, president and CEO Oxfam America and who also participated in the event, said, "We have multiple safe and effective vaccines, what we lack now is the political will to increase their supply and facilitate the distribution of these vaccines everywhere." President Biden, she urged, "must seize this historic opportunity to mobilize vaccine access to all by supporting the WTO proposal by South Africa, India, and others to temporarily waive intellectual property rights related to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to encourage generic manufacturing in their own markets."


    But even as the international movement for the WTO waiver has gained steam, including in the U.S., Fang reports how the effort "has encountered fierce opposition from leading drug companies, who stand to lose profit and who fear that allowing a waiver would lead to less stringent IP enforcement in the future."

    In a column for The Guardian on Saturday, science and environmental writer Stephen Buranyi argues the intransigence of the wealthy nations "seems mind-bogglingly shortsighted." According to Buranyi:


    The world desperately needs coronavirus vaccines. About 430m doses have been produced so far this year, enough for about 215 million people. And of the doses already given, about half have gone to the richest 16% of the world's population. Covax, the World Health Organization initiative to transfer vaccines to nations in need, has delivered just 38m doses. According to analysis by the Center for Global Development and the Economist, nations in the global south may not reach widespread vaccination until 2023.

    The situation is dire, and we need more vaccines. At the moment, there is no worldwide joined-up effort to expand production. As incredible as it sounds, after all the public money that went into vaccine development, making and distributing them has been left entirely up to the market. Each company has its own—totally secret—recipes and supply chains, and they insist no other approach is possible.

    But public policy experts like Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), have endlessly explained that alternative approaches are both available and possible, but that Big Pharma interests continue to block the political pathway to achieving them.


    "With the pandemic costing millions of lives around the world and costing our economies trillions in lost output," Baker wrote earlier this month, "we really should be asking whether the current system serves us well in producing vaccines, tests, and treatments. Incredibly, public debate is so dominated by the pharmaceutical industry and its allies that we are primarily seeing celebration of the system's dubious claims to success, rather than discussions of the ways in which system was and is failing us in addressing the pandemic."


    As political activist Lauren Steiner tweeted in response to Fang's reporting, pharmaceutical giants who are blocking patent waivers that could save millions of lives and help bring a much faster and comprehensive end to the Covid-19 pandemic "should change their name from the health care industry to the death industry."

  • DR John Campbell interview Pierre

    Kory Part 2


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  • COVID-19: Israel finds possible link between vaccine, myocarditis cases


    https://m.jpost.com/health-sci…carditis-cases-666237/amp


    About one in 100,000 people who received the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine suffered from myocarditis – an inflammation of the heart muscle – a preliminary report redacted by the committee of experts tasked by the Health Ministry to monitor the inoculation’s side effect has found, Channel 12 reported on Friday.

    The researchers also stressed that more research is needed to confirm the connection between the vaccine and the phenomena.

    The leaked document showed that most cases were reported among young men aged 18-30. A total of 62 cases of myocarditis have occurred so far in Israel around the time of the vaccination, 56 of them after the second dose. Some 55 cases occurred among men.

    Without treatment, myocarditis can lead to cardiac arrhythmia and even death.

    In most cases, the patients were discharged from the hospital in good conditions. However, two people – a 22-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man – died. According to the report, they did not have any preexisting condition, but further investigation was needed to confirm the diagnosis.

    The physicians emphasized that a further study is needed also to confirm a link between the vaccine and the heart problems, but according to Channel 12 they described it as “likely” in the report.

    “These findings were presented to Pfizer, which said that it has not detected similar findings in the rest of the world at this time and that it will look deeper into the phenomenon... A possible reason for the lack of similar findings in other countries so far may be connected to the low vaccination rate among young people, since the majority of cases occurred among men under the age of 30,” the study said.

    The researchers wrote: “At this stage, according to preliminary findings, which need further corroboration, there is an impression of a higher number than expected, especially for ages up to the age of 30. A more advanced report on the subject will be prepared soon.”

    “The impression is that there is an increase in the incidence of the phenomenon especially in young men on the scale of 1:20,000 after vaccination,” they added. “It is likely that the onset of myocarditis is associated with receiving the vaccine (especially the second dose).”

    The findings have been transmitted to Health Ministry Director-General Chezy Levy, as well as to the US Food and Drug Administration and Pfizer.

    “The Health Ministry has set up expert committees for professional monitoring and is making great efforts to monitor phenomena that have appeared in the proximity of the vaccination,” the ministry said in response to the report according to Channel 12. “This is part of its responsibility to the health of the public and in transparency.”

    The ministry stressed that four in-depth reports on the vaccine’s side effects have been published.

    “The cited report does not show with certainty an increase in mortality due to the vaccine, nor is there any certainty that there is an increase in myocarditis compared to the same period last year,” it added. “This is an important report that is currently being discussed among experts in the Health Ministry, and the results and report will be made public, just like the reports that have already been published.”

  • Without treatment, myocarditis can lead to cardiac arrhythmia and even death.

    “These findings were presented to Pfizer, which said that it has not detected similar findings in the rest of the world at this time and that it will look deeper into the phenomenon...

    And you signed that you will be responsible for taking this crap... Pandora is a pretty woman. As said the Pfizer vaccine works like a soft immune suppressive. Not what you really want to have for more than a year...

    More damage will follow. I just wait for the increased number of uterus cancer induced by papiloma cases. This data will take some years to show up.

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