Covid-19 News

Quote from Zephir_AWT

Nope, because of much lower mortality of delta variant independent of vaccination rate. Public Health England reported that the Delta variant in England had a case fatality rate (CFR) of 0.2%, while the Alpha variant's case fatality rate was 1.9%. It's also visible on global mortality rates, once delta variant became prevalent. See also:

Kids and the Delta Variant: Should you Act Differently? Several studies out of the UK showed extremely low child death rates. Of almost half a million infections, there were 25 deaths, 15 of which were in children with serious underlying illness. The hospitalization rate of coronavirus - while already low for children - dropped to nearly zero for kids at the case of delta variant. Corona has a lower death rate than flu/pneumonia in children.

LOL

You are double-counting here. The low CFR of delta in the UK - and many other places - is because of the vaccine!

(In some underveloped countries it is due to lack of proper death counting - e.g. in Uttar Pradesh in india there has been a mysterious rash of fever deaths throughout the Province not counted as deaths, and in towns the reports from those running cemetaries are completely inconsistent with official COVID deaths by a factor of 10).

Your argument about children is a different one - there have been very low death rates for original, alpha, and delta COVID. The best research on delta deadliness is as I said - double of original, a bit worse than alpha. Which you would expect, given what we know about its differences.

I'd also caution you to use CFR as a proxy measure for IFR with great care. In many places (e.g. some parts of India) there is known undercounting of both cases and deaths - both by a lot. So CFR becomes almost meaningless. Even in most places where deaths are well counted, cases are not always related to infections because they depend on the level of testing. The UK first wave dramatically undercounted cases because of a lack of testing. Many other countries have the same effect. So look at the amount of testing and the test positivity rates, and the seroprevalence surverys, and put it all together (as the ONS data does in the UK) before coming to conclusions about IFR - e.g. how deadly is the vaccine.

And then look at how much of the at risk population is vaccinated!

Please look at the data with curiosity and engagement? All of the data here fits together, to understand it you need to take a bit of time and ask questions. I will help. Sometimes it is uncertain, which is why I stick to the UK where we have exceptionally high quality data from the ONS infection survey.

Quote from Zephir_AWT

at the case of delta variant. Corona has a lower death rate than flu/pneumonia in children.

Although coronavirus has a low death rate for children, and it can be lower than Flu for some age ranges, you have to be careful not to confuse Flu IFR and CFR, and also COVID IFR and CFR. With enough testing COVID IFR is 40% larger than CFR. Whereas Flu IFR is typically 10X lower than CFR because only Flu cases that end up in hospital are counted, and mostly you just go to bed. You can get IFR estimates from seroprevalence surveys.

Of course, we vaccinate children for Flu exactly because they have a high death rate (if not vaccinated). One thing you should take into account is that in countries that vaccinate children the statistics show the reduced death rate after vaccination...

Anyway Zephir, can I suggest that rather than jump about posting more (disprovable with some time and effort) antivax propaganda you concentrate on the things we have looked at these last two pages. Go over your initial ideas, my explanations, see how they fit together, see which is correct, if you feel I am not correct challenge me in detail and some time tomorrow I will get back to you with further details.

We need to stick to specific arguments and see them through. otherwise we will like grasshoppers continually bounce around different arguments each of which will take both of us some time to consider, reflect on, and check.

THH

Summary:

• Delta is a bit more deadly than alpha (I can cite detailed evidence on this - but to determine it you need to look carefully at data as some recent research papers do)
• Vaccines reduce death from alpha (enormously) and delta (less - but still for at risk populations a factor of 5 - 20 - for at least 6 months after second jab).
• The low death rates and high COVID rates in the well vaccinated UK now show that clearly.

NB - Robert Malone conspiracy theories - the antidote

Is "mRNA vaccine inventor" Robert Malone "being erased from Wikipedia" for his claims about COVID-19?

Robert Malone claims to be the "inventor of mRNA vaccines,." His fans are editing Wikipedia, and he's spreading COVID-19 misinformation.

respectfulinsolence.com

A fun story - one small part:

Between 2017 and recently an account has existed purely, it seems, for the purposes of adding Malone’s name to multiple articles on Wikipedia.[6] On 8 June this year the account added Malone’s name to this article.[7] Such additions were not backed by the sources cited; in fact no reputable source identifies Malone as the “inventor of RNA vaccines”, or even as a significant figure. The account was blocked for self-promotion/spam and the article returned to its longstanding form and improved in other ways. Meanwhile, on social media and in the scummier parts of the web, a lie has been spread that “longstanding” information on Wikipedia was scrubbed. Some people have been suckered in by this. Alexbrn (talk) 10:44, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

OK - that is me done for today! Thx Zephir for raising a whole load of issues that are worth airing.

THH

Quote from Zephir_AWT

This is really great - but how high the Pfizer its vaccine efficiency originally claimed to have? 95%? Now we already have ten-times higher efficiency, which gives some 950%.

A ten-fold decrease is another way of saying 90% efficiency. It means you are 10 times less likely to be infected than an unvaccinated person.

Quote from Zephir_AWT

Official UK data shows twice as many people have died

after the Covid-19 Vaccines in 6 months than people who have died of Covid-19 in 15 months.

That is because there are many more vaccinated people than unvaccinated people in the UK, especially among elderly people who are likely to die. You have to look at per capita rates, rather than absolute numbers. Per capita, vaccinated people are far less likely to be infected or to die.

See:

Israeli data: How can efficacy vs. severe disease be strong when 60% of hospitalized are vaccinated?

A surge involving the rapidly-transmitting Delta variant in heavily vaccinated countries has led to much hand-wringing that the vaccines are not effective…

www.covid-datascience.com

If you have to be persuaded, reminded, bullied, pressured, incentivized, lied to, guilt tripped, coerced, socially shamed, censored, threatened, paid, punished, and criminalized, if all of this is necessary to gain your compliance, you can be absolutely certain what is being promoted is not in your best interest

Quote from Seatrout

If you have to be persuaded, reminded, bullied, pressured, incentivized, lied to, guilt tripped, coerced, socially shamed, censored, threatened, paid, punished, and criminalized, if all of this is necessary to gain your compliance, you can be absolutely certain what is being promoted is not in your best interest

This is absolutely a global crime of a proportion so immense the people of the world are truly unable to comprehend the matrix they are in. The fact that this board is being used to promote this is despicable. The Towne Criers who are on constant post and respond are just a small bit of evidence.

At least they help point out all the enmy sites, when its time ~

use them as they used us.

Karma

Quote from Fm1

Recently in the New York Times, White House Spokesperson Chris Meagher declared, “We always said we would follow the science, and this is all part of a process that is now underway.”

This is the basic twist of reality. Potus is following money or the claimed non existing science in Pfizer marketing.

Science an international consent clearly state: No vaccine mass application before a 2 years primate test has been done. No vaccination into a ongoing pandemic. No vaccination if a better treatment is available.

So USA denies science!

Quote from Fm1

The World’s Real World Lab: Israel

Israel has become a sort of a laboratory for the rest of the Western world, particularly America, to follow as an aggressive third booster campaign starts to yield data.

The people that escaped Auschwitz go back on their own will...Pfizer claims success of the boosters by delivering data nobody can verify because nobody knows how badly the 2 shots did protect people as ADE started to play a big role now.

So a 10X protection is nothing as it means 90% effective versus 95 claimed originally.

It is easy to predict that the whole story will end in a big mess as we know that boosters do not enhance the immune memory and only make autoimmune situation worse.

Naturally enhanced neutralizing breadth against SARS-CoV-2 one year after infection - Nature

Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 continue to evolve 6 to 12 months after infection in patients who have recovered from COVID-19, increasing in potency and breadth…

www.nature.com

There was no significant difference in numbers of mutations

between conserved and newly arising clones at the 12-month time point

in vaccinated individuals (Extended Data Fig. 5c). Moreover, phylogenetic

analysis revealed that sequences found at 6 and 12 months after

infection were intermingled and similarly distant from their unmutated

common ancestors (Extended Data Fig. 6). We conclude that

clonal re-expansion of memory cells in response to vaccination is not

associated with additional accumulation of large numbers of somatic

mutations as might be expected if the clones were re-entering and

proliferating in germinal centres.

Quote from THHuxleynew

Zephyr, maybe you started reading this thread after my long posts on the ivermectin study issue.

Why should Zephir read you FUD????

Quote from THHuxleynew

Your argument about children is a different one - there have been very low death rates for original, alpha, and delta COVID. The best research on delta deadliness is as I said - double of original, a bit worse than alpha.

You again reference fake studies not taking into account, that with delta we have more than 10 silent cases while we had 3 with alpha and 6 with gamma! So delta is far less deadly than alpha. The vaccine argument is mot as most like most vulnerable age > 65 have been killed by Alpha and gamma. As said the real vaccine protection is anywhere between 30..50% if you look at UK data (50%), Israel (15%).

So what you reference is fake data from the first 2-3 post vaccine months.

Quote from JedRothwell

That is because there are many more vaccinated people than unvaccinated people in the UK, especially among elderly people who are likely to die. You have to look at per capita rates, rather than absolute numbers. Per capita, vaccinated people are far less likely to be infected or to die.

See:

https://www.covid-datascience.…spitalized-are-vaccinated

Don't forget in addition to this the vulnerable get vaxed effect. Those vaccinated tend to be (initially) at much higher risk than those who do not bother. Vaccination reduces your original risk. You can have vaccinated people more likley to die of COVID than unvaccinated and the vaccine is still protecting 10X - because that vaccinated cohort would have been 10X more likely toi die without the vaccine.

Quote from THHuxleynew

You can have vaccinated people more likley to die of COVID than unvaccinated and the vaccine is still protecting 10X - because that vaccinated cohort would have been 10X more likely toi die without the vaccine.

THH FUD Alert!

Why did even in the worst affected care homes 50% of the unvaccinated people survive CoV-19? Now you claim the vaccine is protecting them??? This is the highest degree of self deception you can reach in your live.

> 50% of all older folks already has had an infection so this is what protects them! This is why UK data currently shows only 50% protection if they compare vaccinated/unvaccinated.

To find a good number for gen therapy protection you must look at people that had no prior contact with CoV-19 and no prior contact to classic corona. Pfizer,Astra (Oxford) etc. never did this because they exactly know how to cheat the public!!

The behavior of the NIH is indistinguishable from that of a crime syndicate

Settlement on FOIA response in NIH ivermectin deception case … except for a signature

Settlement on FOIA response in NIH ivermectin deception case … except for a signature

Note that views expressed in this opinion article are the writer’s personal views and not necessarily those of TrialSite. This article is an update on a

trialsitenews.com

Note that views expressed in this opinion article are the writer’s personal views and not necessarily those of TrialSite.

This article is an update on a lawsuit filed against the National Institutes of Health, JinPyong Peter Yim v National Institutes of Health. I am the plaintiff in that case. The lawsuit seeks to prove that the NIH never held a vote on its ivermectin recommendation using the Freedom of Information Act process.

On August 27, the attorney representing the NIH sent an email to me with the following statement:

“Please be advised that the link you supplied, to wit (NIH link), is a valid NIH link that directs you to the document responsive to your FOIA request (#55822). As you will recall, on or about May 5, 2021, the NIH supplied you with the link to the archive tab and with specific directions regarding how to find the exact document you requested. It appears you were able to locate the publicly available document with those directions.”

The email was a response to a Freedom of Information Act request from January 29, 2021:

“All updates to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Treatment Guidelines that were endorsed by a vote of the Panel. (Date Range for Record Search: From 01/01/2021 To 01/28/2021)”

The intent of the FOIA request was to determine if the NIH recommendation on ivermectin was endorsed by a vote the NIH COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel. FOIA does not require federal agencies to answer questions. Instead, questions must be framed as document requests. A conference was recently held on the case. The presiding judge ordered settlement discussions. I accepted the NIH FOIA response, which would mean that the NIH ivermectin recommendation was endorsed by a vote of the Panel, but only if it were included in a document signed by an NIH employee. NIH did not accept that offer. Instead, they offered an alternative language for the FOIA response.

The behavior of the NIH is indistinguishable from that of a crime syndicate.

Australia’s University of Sunshine Coast to Lead Study Combining Annual Flu Shot & Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine

Australia’s University of Sunshine Coast to Lead Study Combining Annual Flu Shot & Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine

Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, the COVID-19 vaccine will be administered along with the annual influenza shot. That’s in the works in Australia as

trialsitenews.com

Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, the COVID-19 vaccine will be administered along with the annual influenza shot. That’s in the works in Australia as the University of Sunshine Coast (USC) soon commences a clinical trial in South East Queensland to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of an investigational combined COVID-19 and influenza vaccine. USC clinics in Brisbane, Moreton Bay, and Sunshine Coast will serve as study trial site locations involving the combination of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine combined with an influenza vaccine candidate called NanoFlu, for this “two-in-one” vaccination experiment. How will the immune responses be of study subjects first receiving each candidate by itself then combined? Led by Principal Investigator Dr. Nischal Sahai at South Bank in Brisbane, USC seeks healthy volunteers in the age range of 50 to 70 for the study, which starts in several weeks. The study represents the very first time in the nation of Australia that a COVID-19 vaccine is combined with an influenza vaccine for a “single jab “approach, reports Lucas Litewka, Clinical Trials Director for USC.

USC has some familiarity with the American clinical sponsor Novavax, given the track record of working on two previous COVID-19 Novavax studies.

NanoFlu

Developed by Novavax, this investigational product is a recombinant hemagglutinin (HA) protein nanoparticle influenza vaccine developed in an Sf9 insect cell-baculovirus system. The candidate is developed using HA protein amino acid sequences similar to recommended wild-type HA sequences. Novavax employs its patented saponin-based Matrix-M adjuvant, which exhibits promise as the candidate has been well-tolerated and stimulates quality and sustained antibody responses in addition to CD4 and CD8T-cell responses.

Background

By June 14, Novavax issued a press release announcing data from the first co-administration study of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate (NVX-COV2373) and an approved influenza vaccine [Seqirus, adjuvanted, trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine (aTIV) or a cell-based, quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccine (QIVc)]. The findings suggest simultaneous vaccination may be a viable immunization strategy. The American biotech company reported that protection afforded by the candidate vaccine was comparable to the main vaccine study at 875% and 89.8%, respectively. Data were included in the preprint server medRxiv.

Novavax, as part of a Phase 3 clinical of NVX-CoV2373, evaluated its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the UK with 431 volunteers who also enrolled in a co-administration sub-study led by St. George and the University of London at St. George’s Hospital, London. The study administered the seasonal influenza vaccine with approximately half the participants co-vaccinated with NVX-CoV2373 while the remaining subjects received a placebo.

This study indicated the potential that vaccine efficacy appeared to be preserved in those subjects receiving both vaccines compared to those with the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine alone.

The USC Study

This study’s formal title is “A Phase 1/2, Randomized, Observer-Blinded Study to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of a Quadrivalent Hemagglutinin Nanoparticle Influenza and SARS-CoV-2 rS Nanoparticle Combination Vaccine with Matrix-M™ Adjuvant in Healthy Participants ≥ 50 to ≤ 70 Years of Age” and was recently approved by the Ethics Committee (EC) from the Alfred Hospital.”

The study team seeks healthy volunteers between 50 and 70 years old who have received either A) both COVID-19 vaccinations or B) have had COVID-19 at least eight weeks before the first vaccination visit. The subjects are required to attend scheduled visits to the clinic amounting to eight times over six months. Additional screening criteria is introduced in a volunteer interview.

The study involves up to 3 vaccinations using an intramuscular injection between two to three months apart. Eligible participants are reimbursed for time and expenses related to the study.

Principal investigator Point of View

Dr. Sahai, the PI, shared about the study, “This combined protein-based influenza and COVID-19 vaccine candidate is expected to have some important advantages over existing vaccines.” The PI continued, “We are initially targeting older adults for this study because this population bears a disproportionate burden of morbidity and mortality for both influenza and COVID-19.”

In providing a rationale for combining the COVID-19 and flu shot, the PI further elaborated, “We can see the merits of combining vaccines that may require an annual schedule of delivery, and hope people who have already been vaccinated against COVID-19 can see the value in participating.”

The University of Sunshine Coast Clinical Trials

Established in 1994, the University of Sunshine Coast (USC) is a public university based on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. Overall the university has consistently high rankings from independent agencies across several areas.

USC runs a clinical trials office with over 40 drug and device studies completed and ongoing across Phases 1 to 4. TrialSite includes a USC clinical trial summary sheet here.

Lead Research/Investigator

Dr. Nischal Sahai

COVID-19 Research

Register your interest to participate in COVID-19 research at USC Clinical Trials.

www.usc.edu.au

Should Children With Disabilities Wear Face Masks in School?

Should Children With Disabilities Wear Face Masks in School?

There’s been much to do about the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the agency’s guidance for masking and COVID-19 mitigation in

trialsitenews.com

There’s been much to do about the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the agency’s guidance for masking and COVID-19 mitigation in school settings. Notably, the CDC remains adamant about the need for masking during the surge of the Delta variant and several other emerging variants from all over the world. Based on the latest guidance from the CDC, it’s recommended that indoor masking is for all individuals age two years and older, including students, teachers, staff, and visitors, regardless of vaccination status.

The guidance also emphasizes that people generally do not have to wear masks when in outdoor settings. This includes playgrounds. However, some exceptions for students could be made for students and staff who are not fully vaccinated or immunocompromised. But, the guidance is still fairly broad as it applies to school students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Per the definition of a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, students who are incapable of wearing masks are exempt from mandates.

However, the debate related to mask mandates in schools has yielded spates of what seems to be partisan contention. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida blocked from implementing a statewide prohibition on mask mandates in school districts. A judge ruled that DeSantis committed a textbook violation of executive overreach.

Legal battle

Judge John Cooper, benched on the 2nd Judicial Circuit Court of Florida in Leon County, issued an order prohibiting the DeSantis administration and state education officials from banning local school districts from enacting universal school mandates for students. Plus, the state cannot punish districts for doing so. The governor has already filed an appeal.

Per state law, the filing of an appeal automatically triggers a stay of Judge Cooper’s order. This means that state education officials can continue to pursue penalties against the school districts that have enacted sweeping mask requirements for students and staff. If the stay is lifted for any reason, enforcement of the prohibition will cease. The debate, here, has also focused on DeSantis holding the argument that masking children lies solely with parents and guardians under the so-called Parents’ Bill of Rights. Note, Judge Cooper has interpreted the law to indicate that “there is no prohibition in the Parents’ Bill of Rights against schools adopting mandatory face mask policies without a parental op-out.” He added that the governor had no authority to enforce a mandate against a local school board and district’s mandatory face mask policy.

The federal response to mask bans in schools

How this story ties together is the focus of a recently announced US Department of Education multi-state civil rights investigation into state governments who have implemented prohibitions on districts employing mask mandates. According to a news release, the department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened directed investigations in five states “exploring whether statewide prohibitions on universal indoor masking discriminate against students with disabilities who are at heightened risk for severe illness from COVID-19 by preventing them from safely accessing in-person educational settings.

“The department has heard from parents from across the country – particularly parents of students with disabilities and with underlying medical conditions – about how state bans on universal indoor masking are putting their children at risk and preventing them from accessing in-person learning equally,” said Miguel Cardona, secretary of education. The states in question are Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah.

The department does note that it has yet to open an investigation in states like Florida. Much of the reason here, according to OCR, is that state courts are currently litigating these policies, and it’s the primary position of the department not to intervene yet. But, the role of the administration to counter these sorts of policies will lead to intervention.

Even though the Department of Education intends to investigate the risks of mask bans to students with disabilities, there is still a contentious debate over whether or not masking for these students is in their best interest. The discussion then escalates to the broad student population in the United States and whether the CDC guidance has the best intentions for millions of school-going children and teenagers. Suppose the federal Department of Education has cause to investigate the impacts of mask bans on students with disabilities. In that case, the result could linger into another foray of litigation.

The question the department should ask is this: If prohibiting mask mandates in schools is a public health risk and puts the civil rights of students at stake, then how do stakeholders — the student’s parents, teachers, school administrators, lawmakers, state officials — deal with cases where students are incapable of wearing masks under a universal mandate?

TrialSite News intends to investigate this further. Meanwhile, we wish to present the findings of a recently published study investigating the impact of masking students with disabilities and how policymakers and public health practitioners could further dictate policy moving forward and for the remainder of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

A study detecting changes in IDD masking policies

A research team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis recently published a study in the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders examining SARS-CoV-2 screening in schools for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It was discovered that in schools dedicated to special education students, the rate of R0 transmission for the virus and the contraction of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was surprisingly rare among children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

“Our research shows that safety protocols can work in high-risk school settings,” said Dr. Christina A. Gurnett, M.D., PhD., A. Ernest, and Jane G. Stein, Professor of Developmental Neurology and the director of the Division of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. “In-person instruction during the pandemic has been shown to be beneficial to students. However, what was lacking was specific guidance on how to safely return to in-person learning at schools serving students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We wanted our work to help provide clarity.”

Gurnett, with several other researchers from Washington University, found that rapid saliva test screenings aimed at early detection of the virus contributed to what they define as an “exceedingly low transmission of the virus among students, teachers, and staff” across the six schools managed and overseen by the Special School District of St. Louis County, Mo.

Central findings to the study

The district, for reference, is the largest provider of specialized education for children with IDD needs in the entire US state of Missouri. While Gurnett et al. reference studies that find that in-school transmission of COVID-19 is rare with masking, social distancing, and other safety measures, the findings for their study in the schools run by the Special School District of St. Louis County provide much-needed guidance and clarification for how to approach masking and other protective measures while dealing with children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Such a class of individuals often cannot mask or maintain social distancing, and may have underlying preexisting conditions that place them in extremely high-risk classifications for determining susceptibility to the virus. However, the methodology that Gurnett et al. adopted provides a promising finding.

Weekly saliva testing detected fewer than two cases of school-based COVID transmission during a six-month period at the six dedicated schools in the district from November 2020 to May 2021. The screenings were also voluntary and open to both students and school staff. Further, the weekly positivity rates from the saliva tests were compared to rates in the local healthcare systems and undergraduate student screening data. The rate of school-based transmission was also assessed among participants who had to quarantine due to in-school exposure. Other school administrators completed a standardized survey to assess school- and district-wide COVID mitigation and exposure prevention strategies.

Other results from the study

According to the study and its focus on saliva screening tests, masks were mandated, and administrators at all six schools estimated that 75% to 100% of staff reliably masked.

The school staff, upon return, reported widely that they also held the assumption that masking would be complicated for children with IDD status to mask. Despite the challenges for several students to mask, students were more consistent at wearing masks than initially expected — the rate was estimated to be above 50% in all district schools. At the end of the school year, researchers followed up with school staff and estimated that the rate of mask compliance for students was about 70%.

The staff contended that masks presented the greatest risk and challenge for students with severe autism. Even with these challenges, the staff adapted to alternatives, including clear eye protection by students and staff, hand wipes, and adequate room ventilation. Most classrooms, in this case, also permitted viable spacing between students.

COVID-19 transmission at school rare for children with disabilities

Weekly saliva tests contributed to low rates during previous school year

COVID-19 transmission at school rare for children with disabilities | Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Weekly saliva tests contributed to low rates during previous school year

medicine.wustl.edu

The public is fighting back, we want ivermectin available!!! Get out of the way!

Florida official wants Gov. Ron DeSantis to make the controversial and unproven COVID-19 treatment ivermectin more widely available

Florida official wants DeSantis to make ivermectin widely available

Ivermectin is a drug typically used to treat parasitic infections in livestock. US health agencies have warned against using it for COVID-19.

www.businessinsider.com

A Florida county commissioner wrote a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis pleading that the livestock deworming drug ivermectin become more widely available for people who are struggling with COVID-19.

In the letter, Commissioner Neil Combee called ivermectin a "wonder drug," according to NBC affiliate WFLA.

"We are hearing from many of our citizens that larger hospital chains and some pharmacies are refusing to prescribe safe and effective therapeutics like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin," Combee's letter said. "When a citizen is facing a potentially life-threatening case of COVID-19, he or she should receive the 'right to try' potentially life-saving therapeutics."

Commissioners in Polk County, Florida, are expected to vote on whether to send the letter to the governor on Tuesday, WFLA reported.

Ivermectin is a drug typically used to treat parasitic infections in livestock like horses.

Health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have repeatedly warned that the drug can cause adverse side effects in humans, like dizziness and nausea. In some cases, it can lead to overdose and death, as well as hallucinations and seizures.

Despite these warnings, several high-profile figures have publicly touted the drug as a cure for the coronavirus. Sens. Ron Johnson and Rand Paul, for example, have baselessly promoted the drug as a COVID-19 cure. And most recently, Joe Rogan said he took ivermectin after testing positive for COVID-19.

Hospitals in Oklahoma have been so backed up with ivermectin overdoses that gunshot victims are unable to receive treatment quickly.

Ivermectin can be used by humans but only through a prescription ordered by a doctor, usually to get rid of parasitic worms, according to the FDA. Sometimes, ivermectin can be used to treat lice and skin conditions like rosacea. But no health agency recommends that people infected with the coronavirus take ivermectin.

Quote from Wyttenbach

You again reference fake studies not taking into account, that with delta we have more than 10 silent cases while we had 3 with alpha and 6 with gamma! So delta is far less deadly than alpha.

I am careful to consider IFRs, which is why I usually use data from UK and ONS where true community infection values over time are well recorded. My analysis (a week or two ago) of IFR pre and post vaccine was based on ONS random sample community infection data, and so would not be affected by a high delta asymptomatic infection proportion.

Don't trust my back of envelope calcs. Others better than me have done the same thing. The UK ONS survey is perfectly placed to determine "silent" cases from random-sample whole population testing longitudinally over 4 weeks (for individual households) and more than a year (for the overall results).

recent data for England:

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey: England - Office for National Statistics

This is a flat infection rate over several weeks, great for getting accurate results.

5 August weekly averaged infection rate : 385,200, daily equivalent 385,200/7 = 55,029

allow 5 days infection -> recorded case (this is only a small correction)

10 August cases per day (England) 7 day average 24781

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases?areaType=nation&areaName=England

Cases will normally be symptomatic but could sometimes be asymptomatic where a contact, or somone travelling etc, is tested. Equally, infections which are not cases will be mild but may not be asymptomatic.

So from this we have an approximate value of the fraction of infections asymptomatic of 55%. That compares with asymptomatic fraction under alpha of 40%. This is an increase in asymptomatic rate of 14% - not the 200% W claims above.

So - no - there is no significant increase in asymptomatic infections with delta in the UK. (With the small proviso that I need to discover what fraction of cases are symptomatic). This small number could well not be the effect of delta, but the effect of vaccination which will make most infections milder. Note that for all the data using cases to be valid, what matters is this ratio - undiagnosed infections versus cases + undiagnosed infections.

The small increase in likely asymptomatics does not mean delta is less deadly than alpha, since the CFR (for those unvaccinated) adjusted for age and other comorbidities, is higher.

Thanks W for making me check this data on asymptomatic fraction. Of course, you expect competent researchers to do this, but it is not always mentioned and the check is needed if like all the conspiracy theorists here you believe most of the published information here is biassed or incompetent.