Covid-19 News

in some areas they are using the national guard to run down people to give them the jab, So wrong.. and yes jed I have the video..

what a thing to have on your mind if you don't want to have your DNA affected.

Quote from Alan Smith

These vaccines are intended for intramuscular injection, not intravenous. See below..

But unluckily muscles also contain blood vessel and quite often you hit one. That's why real professional do the test. I wont like to have even smallest amounts in my blood circulation.

1 comment from Nederlands re: ivermectin

"Here in the Netherlands doctors are being threatened with getting a fine

when they prescribe ivermectin for COVID-19. This fine can be as high €150.000.

Which is ridiculous, since off label prescription is legal here

and the mountains of evidence in favour of ivermectin is undeniable"

Maybe Nederlands should follow Tamil nadu

"Tamilnadu changed it a few days back to recommending IVZm"..

Juan Chamie/Dr Been

Analysis of Mexico City ivermectin intervention.. Dr Chamie

The WHO hasn't seen it yet.

0.24 million people..

"

Objective
To measure the effect of Mexico City’s population-level intervention –an ivermectin-based Medical Kit –

– in hospitalizations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods
A quasi-experimental research design with a Coarsened Exact Matching method using administrative data from hospitals and phone-call monitoring. We estimated logistic-regression models with matched observations adjusting by age, sex, COVID severity, and comorbidities. For robustness checks separated the effect of the kit from phone medical monitoring; changed the comparison period; and subsetted the sample by hospitalization occupancy,
Results
We found a significant reduction in hospitalizations among patients who received the ivermectin-based

medical kit; the range of the effect is 52%- 76% depending on model specification.
Conclusions
The study supports ivermectin-based interventions to assuage the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health system.

https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/r93g4/download

Covid-19: UK in early stages of third wave - scientist

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57304515.amp

Prof Ravi Gupta, from the University of Cambridge, said although new cases were "relatively low" the Indian variant had caused "exponential growth".

He said ending Covid restrictions in England on 21 June should be postponed.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said the government could not rule out a delay to the planned lockdown easing.

On Sunday, the UK reported more than 3,000 new Covid infections for a fifth successive day.

Prior to this, the UK had not surpassed that number since 12 April.

'Very few' Covid hospital patients had two jabs

Where is the Indian variant and how is it spreading?

When can I get the vaccine?

Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether the UK was already in a third wave of infections, Prof Gupta said: "Yes, there has been exponential growth in the number of the new cases and at least three-quarters of them are the new (Indian) variant.

"Of course the numbers of cases are relatively low at the moment - all waves start with low numbers of cases that grumble in the background and then become explosive, so the key here is that what we are seeing here is the signs of an early wave."

However, he said the number of people who have been vaccinated in the UK meant this wave would probably take longer to emerge than previous ones.

"There may be a false sense of security for some time, and that's our concern."

Chart showing the number of UK infections is rising slowly

Prof Gupta - a member of the government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) - said ending restrictions in June should be delayed "by a few weeks whilst we gather more intelligence".

"If you look at the costs and benefits of getting it wrong, I think it is heavily in favour of delay, so I think that's the key thing," he added.

Another leading scientific adviser to the government, Prof Adam Finn, also urged caution over the 21 June date for easing restrictions.

"I think it's unfortunate that everyone's got this particular date in their head, because really what we need to do is understand how things are going and adjust accordingly," he told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

"This time around, we should be cautious, wait to see what's happening, and then let everyone free, if you like, once we know for sure that that's safe and that we can do that without having another round of lockdowns."

The final stage of the government's roadmap for lifting lockdown, which would remove all limits on how many people you can meet - either indoors or outdoors, is due no earlier than 21 June.

However, Mr Eustice told the BBC the government had to take things "one step at a time".

"We can't rule anything out. We know this has been a difficult pandemic, a dynamic situation. We have to make that judgment a couple of weeks before.

"It will only be by then that we will see the impact of the latest easement we made on 17 May."

A final decision on whether restrictions will be lifted in England will be reached on 14 June.

The timetable for relaxing Covid measures varies across the UK. The Scottish government hopes to lift more restrictions on 7 June, while in Wales there is due to be a review on 3 June. In Northern Ireland some measures were relaxed on 24 May - the next review is due on 10 June.

Vietnam detects a suspected new coronavirus variant that's a hybrid of the UK and India strains

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/0…riant-intl-hnk/index.html

(CNN)Vietnam's health ministry has detected a suspected new coronavirus variant which it said appears to be a hybrid of two highly transmissible strains.

"A new coronavirus variant with characteristics from the existing Indian and UK variants had been detected in Vietnam for the first time," Vietnam's Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long told a national news conference Saturday.

The Southeast Asian country was held up as a leading example in containing the virus thanks to an aggressive strategy of early screening of passengers at airports and a strict quarantine and monitoring program.

But since late April, Vietnam has reported a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases. Almost half its 6,396 confirmed infections were reported in the past month alone, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

It is not clear if the suspected new variant is behind the sudden rise in infections. If it is, it could suggest it is more transmissible.

"The fourth wave of Covid-19 in Vietnam included infections in industrial zones, multiple sources of infections and the presence of various coronavirus variants. It will spread very fast and it will be very difficult to control," the health minister said.

The World Health Organization said on Saturday its Virus Evolution Working Group was working with officials in Vietnam to confirm the possible new coronavirus variant after four people were confirmed to be infected with a suspected new strain.

We have not yet made an assessment of the virus variant reported in Vietnam. We expect that more variants will continue to be detected as the virus circulates and evolves and as sequencing capacities are enhanced worldwide," said WHO's technical lead for Covid-19 Maria Van Kerkhove in a statement.

"From what we understand, the variant they detected is the B.1.617.2 variant possibly with an additional mutation, however we will provide more information as soon as we receive it."

The B.1.617.2 variant was first detected in India, where officials have said it and other variants have driven the country's spike in Covid-19 cases.

British health officials earlier this month upgraded B.1.617.2 to a variant of concern due to its rapid spread in the UK.

New restrictions as cases rise

On Sunday, the government announced social distancing restrictions for Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest and most populous urban area, according to Reuters news agency.

The new measures, in place for two weeks from Monday, include the closure of non-essential services, such as shops and restaurants, and the suspension of religious activities.

Ho Chi Minh City has seen a rise in cases related to a religious mission that has recorded at least 125 positive tests, accounting for most of the city's infections, Reuters reported, citing a government statement.

Public gatherings of more than 10 people are also banned, and the city is considering halving that number, according to Reuters.

Last week, Vietnam widened lockdown measures in its industrialized north after the country saw its biggest jump in Covid-19 cases, driven by clusters in factory zones in Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces, Reuters reported.

The outbreak has spread to more than 30 of Vietnam's 63 cities and provinces, including the capital Hanoi, which has shut restaurants and banned public gatherings.

In a country of more than 96 million people, fewer than 30,000 -- 0.03% -- have been vaccinated, according to JHU data.

The health ministry is working to secure 10 million vaccine doses under the COVAX cost-sharing scheme, as well as a further 20 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine and 40 million of Russia's Sputnik V, according to Reuters.

Vietnam has so far received 2.9 million doses and aims to secure 150 million this year, Reuters reported.

WaPo columnist roasts media on COVID-19 lab theory about-face: ‘Zero self awareness'

Rogin encourages the mainstream media to 'just report the facts'

https://www.foxnews.com/media/…b-theory-fail-readers.amp

Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin once again knocked the mainstream media for previously dismissing the theory that COVID-19 potentially originated from a Wuhan lab leak in China, tweeting on Saturday that journalists should "own up" when they "fail" their readers and encouraged them to "just report the facts."

"Most MSM [mainstream media] reporters didn’t ‘ignore’ the lab leak theory, they actively crapped all over it for over a year while pretending to be objective out of a toxic mix of confirmation bias, source bias (their scientist sources lied to them), group think, TDS [Trump Derangement Syndrome] and general incompetence," Rogin, who was one of the very few journalists who previously reported on China's role in the pandemic and raised questions about the origins of the virus, tweeted on Saturday.

He went on to say that, "Also, the lab leak theory didn’t change. It didn’t suddenly become credible. It didn’t jump from crazy to reasonable. The theory has always been the same. The people who got it wrong changed their minds. They are writing about themselves, with zero self awareness

Rogin then noted that "all these reporters scrambling to defend their own records on the lab leak theory are exposing their own hypocrisy & ignoring their basic error."

"Just report the facts," he stressed. "Don’t act like it’s your job to tell us what’s OK to think or talk about. Own up to it when you fail your readers."

After a bombshell report from the Wall Street Journal revealed that U.S. intelligence believes that at least three Wuhan scientists were hospitalized in November 2019 with COVID-like symptoms, much of the media has revisited the possibility that what they previously described as a "conspiracy theory" could actually be true.

On Thursday former State Department official David Asher told Fox News that a government probe last year into the origins of the coronavirs found practically no evidence COVID-19 originated from nature.

The probe was led out of the State Department’s arms control and verification (AVC) bureau and was initially launched at the request of former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before ending this year.

Asher, the lead contractor on the subject, said the team investigated the two chief hypotheses for the virus' origins, the other being the lab-leak theory that has gained credence after widespread media dismissal over the past year.

"The data disproportionately stacked up as we investigated that it was coming out of a lab or some supernatural source," he said.

Rogin also shamed those who were quick to reject the lab leak theory earlier this month, tweeting, "If you are writing a piece defending yourself for being wrong for a year about the lab leak hypothesis by blaming everyone else except yourself for your own wrongness, you haven't learned a thing and you are just engaged in bulls--- navel-gazing that literally nobody cares about."

"I think a lot of science writers are racing to think ‘How can I position myself’ and ‘How can I seem reasonable while changing my position’ and ‘Aren't I great for eventually being objective after failing for a year.' It's transparent and besides the point," he continued.

He went on to say that "what all these science journalists won't admit is they got took by their best scientist sources, who misled them, on purpose, to the detriment of science, journalism and our public health."

Rogin added that "the scientists who got it right were the ones who had no conflicts of interest."

"And then to say ‘oh well I guess we'll never know’ is an awful copout," he continued in another tweet. "If you are willing to admit the lab leak theory is plausible, you MUST call for a full investigation NOW, including our labs who have crucial information. In any sane world, that would already be underway."

Fox News medical contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier responded to Rogin’s series of tweets writing that when she had "mentioned the possibility of a lab escape a year ago" she was "immediately canceled because ‘the claim had been rejected by experts.’"

Members of the media have already tried spinning their newfound realization of the lab leak hypothesis. New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman blamed former President Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who both publicly suggested that the virus originated in the Wuhan lab, for casting doubt within the media for withholding evidence to back their claims.

Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler similarly raised eyebrows for declaring that the theory is "suddenly credible."

Last week, Pompeo said that it is "outrageous" that top government epidemiologist Anthony Fauci and others early in the pandemic dismissed the possibility that COVID-19 could have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab located in Wuhan, China, the city where the outbreak began.

Pompeo's comments came after a former State Department official told Fox News that about a month before COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan, foreign government contacts told State Department officials that several workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had fallen ill in mid-November 2019.

Over the weekend, I had news of two more people passing unexpectedly from blood clots. One a distant cousin, the second, a nephew of a friend.

This brings to five, the number of people I either know personally or was related to close to a friend, that has passed unexpectedly from blood clots within the past 3 weeks or so. In well over fifty years previous, I have personally known of no cases of fatal blood clots that was not related to a traumatic injury. This is becoming beyond coincidence.

These people ranged from 41 to 60 years old and did not have conditions that I know of. The clear common factor was all had vaccines within a week or so of dying.

None were reported as vaccine induced, although one was reported as "Covid19 related".

I do not know all the details nor does this absolutely prove anything. However, the growing evidence around the world, both in number of cases and theory, make it likely there is indeed an issue with vaccines and blood clots. How bad, how under reported ?????? It certainly is not over reported!

Since I have contracted Covid and in my case, it was much less severe than most flu's I have had. I should have as much immunity as a vaccine would give. Yes, I know there are arguments that the vaccine is "better" and there are also arguments that vaccines are no better or possibly not as good as "natural" immunity. Who knows? The medical community is not in agreement with this. You can find legitimate studies on both veiws. Main stream media however spins only one side of the dispute. It simply depends on what "Experts" you listen to.....

I do know that I will NOT be getting a vaccine any time soon. I have more confidence in my natural immunity than untested MRNA vaccines for certain. I will wait at least another six months and likely longer to see what pans out. Time will tell. Especially for the unproven MRNA vaccines that have had ZERO long term testing done for human use. Factually, early human testing for some early MRNA vaccines were stopped due to severe problems with animals.

"All the vaccines used in this research experiment in 2012 triggered hypersensitivity of Th2 immunity. Th2 cells are a subset of CD4+ T helper cells hence the name Th2. The results from this study showed as Th2 immunity triggered by the vaccines increased, the body’s defense system was pushed out of balance and this reaction started to cause tissue breakdown in the lung. This, of course, is concerning."

I realize that this study was not the Covid vaccine and that there are differences. However one cannot argue that MRNA vaccines have NOT had long term testing and that early versions were ripe with severe side effects. The current vaccines are using the world as a test tube now, concerning long term problems.

Already, more and more negative issues are being published world wide.... no this is not a conspiracy theory. Main stream media censors or refuses to simply report any negative issues or sidelines it behind other "important" stories.... just like YouTube and Facebook removes any posts they "do not like" that is negative.

However, just as the origins is now being scrutinized again and is looking more and more like Covid was human engineered, (mainstream poo-poohed the idea for months and YouTube/Facebook censored this) there will be more information about vaccines come out as time passes. I hope it is not bad news, I really do. But I will not be blind to the issues either, like some here are. It IS possible that current Covid vaccines could have serious long term ramifications... the testing has NOT been done.

No, I will not be taking a Covid vaccine for some time...

1) because I have natural immunity (yes, I understand what level is unknown, just as with vaccines)

2) my previous case of Covid indicated that I am likely not to have serious conditions

3) I take Vit. D, Zinc and Quercetin, all shown to have good immune supporting properties.

4) I have ivermectin ready in case I contract a second bout of Covid

and...

5) These vaccines need to go through long term testing before I will trust them. Giving millions of people doses gives short term evaluations, but millions of doses does squat for long term effects... only time will tell that and it is beginning to look concerning.

People should research and make their own minds up, not listen to internet bloggers with agendas. I am not pushing for anyone to do anything other that that.... do your own research. I wish the above five people above would have.

Keep safe every one.

Quote from Fm1

Prof Ravi Gupta, from the University of Cambridge, said although new cases were "relatively low" the Indian variant had caused "exponential growth".

This is conspiracy: Cases did increase about 70% over 3 weeks, but not deaths. You can always change the figures by manipulating the PCR threshold and the test number. Thus what is the UK positive test percentage??

The only thing that counts is: Deaths and patients going to hospital/ICU.

For me it looks like an urgently needed extension for the vaccine business case as now India shows that we don't need them.

Quote from Bob#2

Over the weekend, I had news of two more people passing unexpectedly from blood clots. One a distant cousin, the second, a nephew of a friend.

Usually at most 1/10 of all cases shine up in CDC VERS. It could also be just 1% worst. So you have to expect 100'000 direct vaccine deaths for USA only. Already with this low cases numbers yearly USA deaths from vaccination rose 5000% !!

Quote from Bob#2

Since I have contracted Covid and in my case, it was much less severe than most flu's I have had. I should have as much immunity as a vaccine would give.

In fact the infection protects factors better than any vaccine. Other conspiracies telling it lasts only 6 months is just vaccine promotion. As said: A Japanese paper did show at least 97% protection after 1 year.

Quote from Shane D.

Better be careful. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin

Big pharma spends millions for adding promotion to Wiki. Wiki is no reliable source of information about things that are political.

In this case: It's criminal as now close to 2 billion (all India now including Tamil Nadu!) people world wide do use Ivermectin, with greatest success.

Quote from Alan Smith

That's very sad. I don't know (personally) of any in the UK.

ETA- the BBC say (April 3rd)

Seven people have died from unusual blood clots after getting the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK, the medicines regulator has confirmed to the BBC. In total, 30 people out of 18 million vaccinated by 24 March had these clots.

It is still not clear if they are just a coincidence or a genuine side effect of the vaccine. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency says the benefits continue to outweigh any risk. The World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency have echoed this conclusion.

A spokeswoman for AstraZeneca said: "Patient safety remains the company's highest priority."

However, concern has led to other countries including Germany, France, the Netherlands and Canada to restrict the vaccine's use only to older people.
The data released by the MHRA on Friday showed 22 cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) which is a type of blood clot in the brain.

These were accompanied by low levels of platelets, which help form blood clots, in the body. The MHRA also found other clotting problems alongside low platelet levels in eight people.

Display More

Indeed, I agree that the 5 cases I know of personally do not prove anything. I personally and sincerely hope that they are coincidental and long term Covid vaccine complications are rare and minor.

However, once does have to open their eyes in many cases. Yes, the manufacturers are touting safety.... do you expect anything else from them?

Governments are touting safety, but then it has become so political that they are also touting Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin as being extremely unsafe..... totally false information as proved by decades of use an d multi-millions of doses.

The stoppage or regulation by some countries also give great credence to how serious this is. If only 30 out of 18 million were really the case, would they have restricted the use?????

I listen to main stream and other scientist about LENR. There is great consensus that it does not exist and is tin-foil hat science. (Yes Jed, I have read your opinion about the difference, but it is just your opinion. The fact is that major universities and science groups still disbelieve LENR) These groups follow what is fed them and this is likely what is happening in the medical field as well. I give the Hydro / Iver safety agenda that is published as clear and provable examples

I am not against vaccines. I am not stating Covid is to be ignored. It can kill.

But for once, I would simply like an informed person concede that MRNA vaccines have not had ANY long term testing done on humans and that very little long term testing on animals have been done, that there were serious side effects and that MRNA vaccines have not been approved or used on humans before. We are in the middle of a giant test tube with the world's population.

I also understand that the chances of me getting a blood clot is small. Tell that to the 5 people that I know who died!

I will take my chances on my own immunity, Vit. D, Zinc and yes, even Ivermectin if needed, over an MRNA vaccine for the near future. Hopefully in six to 12 months, the proof will be found if they really are safe or not.... Wyttenbach says no! (In current configuration, perhaps good in the future) Rothwell touts them as "not a single person has died" from the vaccines, which is false.

My research tells me, (and only me due to my situation) to wait.....

Bob

Quote from Toffoli

Covid-19 Vaccines Lead to New Infections and Mortality: The Evidence is Overwhelming

We know this since more than 4 months now... Good to see that some others now get it too.

Keyword: vaccine induced death/mortality: Pfizer leading with significant immune suppression after first jab. This is dramatic in case of RSA/BRA/J/IN virus where the first Pfizer jab gives zero = "0" protection and the second one only a marginal.

But $$$$ kills people as usual...

After suffering COVID-19 vaccine-caused blood clots, Colorado Springs woman sees problems with federal compensation system

https://gazette.com/news/after…eb-bc0c-2f09adb3f051.html

Kendra Lippy, a healthy 38-year-old, nearly died this spring after severe blood clots thought to be caused by the Johnson and Johnson vaccine sent most of her organs into failure. Now facing a life without most of her small intestine, she wants to see a complex and opaque federal compensation system for those who suffer a COVID-19 vaccine injury improved.

Her blood clots developed in March before the severe potential side-effect from the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was well publicized. She spent 33 days in the hospital as her doctors tried to determine the source of the problem. The treatment, including 22 days in intensive care, left the Colorado Springs resident with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. She is anxiously awaiting the final total of her uninsured care.

Despite her experiences, Lippy is not against the COVID-19 vaccine.

I was doing the right thing,” she said. She wanted to get vaccinated to protect her older co-workers at Cheers Liquor Mart, her family and the two men with disabilities her parents care for as host home providers. She also wanted to get back to traveling and felt like getting vaccinated was an important step in that direction.

Now her focus is on getting back to some normalcy. Before her illness she would take long walks, go to the gym regularly and run around with her 15-month-old nephew. Following weeks in the hospital, she is in occupational and physical therapy, working to regain basic functions like walking 20 minutes at a time and climbing her stairs at home.

Part of her road to recovery is federal compensation that will cover her extensive medical bills. She wants to see a federal compensation system that is fair to her and others who suffer rare complications from COVID-19 vaccines.

The only current option for people who suffer COVID-19 vaccine injuries is the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program, a system known for turning most applicants down. Since 2010, the program has received 701 requests for compensation and granted financial benefits to 29 people. Currently, 210 of those claims are pending, according to data updated on April 1 by the program.

As of Wednesday, the program has received 152 claims involving COVID-19 vaccines and 293 involving other treatments, said David Bowman, spokesman with the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.

Administrative staff within the countermeasures program decide who receive benefits and review appeals. People alleging harm must file within one year of getting a vaccine, according to the program's website.

The program also will not compensate anyone for non-economic damages, such as pain, suffering and disfigurement, said Stephen Justino, Lippy's lawyer.

“It’s a woefully inadequate system,” he said.

Patients hurt by measles, flu and other common vaccines can apply for compensation through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a system that provides an open court process, compensation for pain and suffering, and a longer window to apply.

Congress must act to allow COVID-19 vaccine claims to go through the more transparent process, said lawyer Renée Gentry, director of the Vaccine Injury Litigation Clinic at George Washington University. Gentry said that would likely be the easiest way to ensure the system is fair for people like Lippy.

The existing option for those seeking compensation can seem simple, but those who don't have a lawyer can get tripped up in the filing deadlines and other technicalities, she said.

“It’s a program to file and lose in,” she said.

The more transparent system has compensation built in for lawyers, she said, so it’s much easier to get professional representation.

Gentry expects Congress will allow COVID-19 cases to go through the more transparent process eventually, and her clinic is advocating for the change. But the shift may not happen in time to help people like Lippy, who were hurt at the beginning of the vaccination effort, she said.

In order for the better federal process to accept COVID-19 vaccination claims, they must be recommended for children and pregnant women and meet other specific criteria, Bowman said.

Since the Pfizer vaccine is already recommended for those 12 and up, Gentry said, she expects vaccines will be recommended for most children eventually and meet the criteria for the other system.

However, the more robust system is facing a large backlog of cases already without any COVID-19 claims. About 4,000 cases are pending, and only eight people are employed to judge them, Gentry said. It can take two years to get a trial scheduled and a year to get an opinion, the system needs Congress to allow it to have more judges, she said.

Sinovac Shot Controls Covid in Brazil Town After 75% Covered

https://www.bloomberg.com/news…zil-town-after-75-covered

A study of a small Brazilian town vaccinated with the shot made by Sinovac Biotech Ltd. showed it can control Covid-19 outbreaks more effectively than expected from clinical testing, giving another boost to the Chinese-made inoculation that’s relied on by dozens of developing countries.

While neighboring cities were being hit hard by the pandemic, Serrana -- a town of 45,000 people where the study was carried out by the Sao Paulo state government -- saw deaths fall by 95% in the five weeks right after the mass-vaccination was completed. Symptomatic cases dropped by 80% and hospitalizations decreased by 86%.

About 75% of the town’s residents were fully vaccinated; of the target adult population, 95% came forward to receive both doses.

No severe side effects from the vaccine were reported and there were no Covid-related deaths among participants 14 days after the second dose was applied. The area around Serrana, some 315 kilometers (195 miles) from Sao Paulo, was overrun by the P1 variant during the study, affirming the jab’s effectiveness against the strain first found in Brazil, said Ricardo Palacios, research director at Butantan Institute.

Now we can say that it’s possible to control the pandemic with vaccines,” Ricardo Palacios, research director at Butantan said, adding that Covid-19 numbers also fell for children. “This shows that it isn’t necessary to vaccinate children to open schools.”

The Serrana study may offer clues for other developing nations on how much of the public needs to be vaccinated in order to begin moving past the pandemic that continues to wreak havoc in Latin America and beyond. It is also the latest in a string of real-world evidence validating the controversial Chinese shot, which only just cleared the minimum 50% efficacy threshold in clinical trials, the lowest among first-generation Covid vaccines. Sinovac, a Bejing-based company, has also been criticized for disclosing less trial and safety data than western vaccine makers.

How well Sinovac’s shot works is a high-stakes question for the developing world, which is largely reliant on the Chinese vaccine after rich countries snapped up the extraordinarily effective mRNA inoculations by western companies BioNTech SE, Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc.

The vaccine, called CoronaVac, is being used by several dozen places ranging from Hong Kong to Peru, and over 600 million doses have already been distributed. It also forms the backbone of the immunization effort in China, where more than 20 million doses of six different vaccines are administered every day.

The study was led by the Butantan Institute, which produces CoronaVac in Brazil. Almost two-thirds of Serrana’s inhabitants got the vaccine between February and April with another third ineligible to receive the shot if they were under 18 years old or pregnant.

“This is the first study of its kind in the world,” Dimas Covas, Butantan’s director, said at a press conference Monday. “This is primary data on the effects of vaccination in a population that will help authorities develop public policies.”

The Chinese vaccine, made from the traditional method of injecting an inactivated form of the virus to stimulate immune response, came under intense international scrutiny and criticism early this year after the shot’s clinical trials across Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia put the vaccine’s efficacy anywhere between 50% to over 90%. The company and its trial partners didn’t address the discrepancies, further fueling doubt.

The World Finally Accepts a Much-Maligned Covid Shot

But data that’s emerging from countries that widely deployed the shot in recent months has been broadly positive. Last month, a study based on nearly 130,000 health workers in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta shows the shot is 94% effective against symptomatic infection, and slashes hospitalization and death by 96% and 98% respectively, rates comparable to mRNA vaccines.

It’s still unknown how well the shot works to stop onward transmission, that is, whether it can also halt the spread of infection and not just sickness.

While infection rates improved after first doses were administered, Covid-19 wasn’t properly controlled in Serrana until after a second shot was given. A complete study will be published soon.

That underlines the importance of people returning for a second shot. In Brazil, some 66 million vaccines have been administered, covering 21.4% of the population with a single dose. About 10.5% of the country is now considered to be fully inoculated, according to the Bloomberg vaccine tracker.

Despite the vaccine’s widespread use around the world, it has yet to be granted emergency use listing from the World Health Organization, the body’s version of regulatory approval that has been given to western vaccines and a similar shot from China’s Sinopharm.

The international health agency’s stamp of approval would enable the shot to be distributed even more widely through the Covax facility that aims to ensure access to safe and effective vaccines especially for poor countries. WHO is seeking more data from the company on the shot’s safety and manufacturing process, Dow Jones reported last week, citing people familiar with the matter.

Quote from Fm1

Despite her experiences, Lippy is not against the COVID-19 vaccine.

I was doing the right thing,” she said. She wanted to get vaccinated to protect her older co-workers at Cheers Liquor Mart, her family and the two men with disabilities her parents care for as host home providers.

It is outrageous to see how naive and uneducated Americans are. With a CoV-19 vaccine you only protect yourself and never others. In some rare cases "others" works too. But in the COV-19 case absolutely not.

Further the protection after an infection lasts up to 20 years (we know from SARS). After a vaccine is only partially with unknown duration.

Quote from Wyttenbach

It is outrageous to see how naive and uneducated Americans are. With a CoV-19 vaccine you only protect yourself and never others. In some rare cases "others" works too. But in the COV-19 case absolutely not.

Further the protection after an infection lasts up to 20 years (we know from SARS). After a vaccine is only partially with unknown duration.

To understand American thinking, look to the mainstream media, which is controlled by corporate greed. Eisenhower warned of this 60 years ago. Why are you so surprised?