The Totally Civil Covid Thread. (Closing 31/05)

Tunneling nanotubes provide a route for SARS-CoV-2 spreading

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abo0171

Abstract

Neurological manifestations of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection represent a major issue in long coronavirus disease. How SARS-CoV-2 gains access to the brain and how infection leads to neurological symptoms are not clear because the principal means of viral entry by endocytosis, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor, are barely detectable in the brain. We report that human neuronal cells, nonpermissive to infection through the endocytic pathway, can be infected when cocultured with permissive infected epithelial cells. SARS-CoV-2 induces the formation of tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) and exploits this route to spread to uninfected cells. In cellulo correlative fluorescence and cryo–electron tomography reveal that SARS-CoV-2 is associated with TNTs between permissive cells. Furthermore, multiple vesicular structures such as double-membrane vesicles, sites of viral replication, are observed inside TNTs between permissive and nonpermissive cells. Our data highlight a previously unknown mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 spreading, likely used as a route to invade nonpermissive cells and potentiate infection in permissive cells.

Age-related Smell and Taste Impairments and Vitamin D Associations in the U.S. Adults National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Age-related Smell and Taste Impairments and Vitamin D Associations in the U.S. Adults National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Smell and taste decline with aging, and markedly deteriorate when nutritional deficiencies occur. This study aims to examine the associations between Vitamin D…

www.mdpi.com

Abstract

Smell and taste decline with aging, and markedly deteriorate when nutritional deficiencies occur. This study aims to examine the associations between Vitamin D (VD) deficiency and smell and taste impairments among adults. This paper details a cross-sectional study utilizing data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 2013–2014.). Smell impairment was assessed by the Pocket Smell Test and defined as failing to correctly identify six or more of the eight odors. Taste impairment was defined as failing to correctly identify quinine or sodium chloride. VD was measured as serum 25-hydroxyvitamin. Multivariable weighted logistic regressions were utilized. Adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were presented. Overall, 2216 (smell sample) and 2636 (taste sample) participants were included, aged between 40 and 80 years old. Of those, 18.3% had taste impairment, 12.2% had smell impairment, and 20% had VD deficiency (<20 ng/mL). Compared to participants with sufficient VD (>30 ng/mL), those with VD deficiency were more likely by 39% to report a higher prevalence of smell impairment (OR = 1.39, 95%CI: 1.02–1.89); and only participants aged 70–80 years with VD inadequacy (20–30 ng/mL) were more likely by 96% to report a higher prevalence of taste impairment (OR = 1.96, 95%CI: 1.35–1.85). VD may have a significant role in age-related smell impairment in adults aged 40 years or older, and in age-related taste impairment in the elderly aged 70–80 years.

Quote from THHuxleynew

Child hepatitus mystery mostly solved...

(Nope - it aint vaccines what done it).

From the article:

"The two teams of researchers, from London and Glasgow, say infants exposed later than normal - because of Covid restrictions - missed out on some early immunity to:

• adenovirus, which normally causes colds and stomach upsets
• adeno-associated virus two, which normally causes no illness and requires a coinfecting "helper" virus - such as adenovirus - to replicate

That could explain why some developed the unusual and worrying liver complications."

TH - are you anti-lockdown??!!!

Excellent point made - it's not just the vaccines it's the lockdowns and other NPIs that have cause so much damage as well.

Also from that article:

"More than 1,000 children - many under the age of five - in 35 countries are thought to have been affected."

Child Mortality under 5

So one has to wonder if, according to the WHO, 1902 children under the age of 5 have died due to Covid worldwide (likely most with severe co-morbidities) and if about 1,000 kids have come down with hepatitis (and that is just one of many other harms) that have been caused by lockdowns, was it worth it?

Also, from the WHO article:

"In 2020 an estimated 5 million children under the age of 5 years died, mostly from preventable and treatable causes. Approximately half of those deaths, 2.4 million, occurred among newborns (in the first 28 days of life)."

"The leading causes of death in children under 5 years are preterm birth complications, birth asphyxia/trauma, pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria, all of which can be prevented or treated with access to affordable interventions in health and sanitation."

I would suggest that all the actions of the past couple of years from vaccines to lockdowns, to masks have in some ways harmed the small children the most. Of the billions that have been handed over to Big Pharma, a fraction of that amount could have been used to actually save childrens' lives in a big way. I wonder how far a billion dollars would go to provide clean water and malaria pills to children and how any many lives that would have saved!

Quote from Mark U

This is simple not true.

So you say, but the doctors, the CDC, and every other public health agency says it is true. So who are we going to believe? You, or every doctor and expert on God's Green Earth?

You anti-vaxxers amaze me with your chutzpah. Your indefatigable ignorance and world-class self confidence built on a foundation of cotton candy and spider webs.

Quote from uncertainH

So one has to wonder if, according to the WHO, 1902 children under the age of 5 have died due to Covid worldwide (likely most with severe co-morbidities) and if about 1,000 kids have come down with hepatitis (and that is just one of many other harms) that have been caused by lockdowns, was it worth it?

Here in Switzerland children age <12 never had to wear masks at any place and never had a lockdown.

Quote from JedRothwell

So who are we going to believe?

it depends on your age. For age <60 Cov19 is no added risk. for age > 70 is a real risk and >80 is a deadly risk.

Quote from uncertainH

From the article:

"The two teams of researchers, from London and Glasgow, say infants exposed later than normal - because of Covid restrictions - missed out on some early immunity to:

• adenovirus, which normally causes colds and stomach upsets
• adeno-associated virus two, which normally causes no illness and requires a coinfecting "helper" virus - such as adenovirus - to replicate

That could explain why some developed the unusual and worrying liver complications."

TH - are you anti-lockdown??!!!

Excellent point made - it's not just the vaccines it's the lockdowns and other NPIs that have cause so much damage as well.

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I am unpolitical about lockdown. And I particularly dislike the way that politics seem to have got aligned with science and public health.

I've noticed (and I said this at the start) that in a democracy not all deaths are equal. The millions of people who die early due to aggressive advertising of biologically addictive unhealthy fast food and obesity (more generally due to the availability of ultra-cheap processed food) count much less than 3,000 Two Towers victims, or 100,000 Covid victims when the media can show the health system overwhelmed.

That is just the way things are. We do not in many areas of heath and wellbeing act as utilitarians. I'm not even sure that we should.

So I see lockdowns early in the epidemic as something that was almost impossible for any democracy to resist. Personally I've seen the pros and cons, and also seen how nearly impossible it is to know what in the long run is best. Long-term effects are not easy to predict. But, to equate them, for consistency, you would need to give poverty and subsidy of addictive foods the same concern you gave to the long-term bad effects of lockdowns. I've never noticed Western democracies doing that.

Although I am therefore not a great fan of lockdowns, I am an even smaller fan of the "how terrible, our inalienable freedoms are being infringed by mandatory mask-wearing" argument. Pandemics are more deadly than wars, and we do not hesitate to mandate (sometimes stupid and wrong) things in wartime.

All of these arguments are nuanced and complex - with (at the start) a lot of uncertainty. At least they are once people stop being political and look at the science.

THH

Quote from THHuxleynew

Child hepatitus mystery mostly solved...(Nope - it aint vaccines what done it).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61269586

Of course it's vaccines which wake up dormant viruses. We discussed it here many times.

Quote from Mark U

What I said is "not true" was Jed's statement : "The attending doctor is asked what the symptoms and cause of death was. In every case, it has been clear that the person died from a known cause and not the vaccine."

Well, the CDC says that is true, and they say they keep detailed records of every death, and a panel of experts reviews every death. That's what they say on their web site. In great detail. Do you think they are lying? The doctors and patients all know this what they are supposed to do. The doctors hand out a sheet of paper to every patient who gets the vaccine, stating that the doctor must report any adverse effect, including death. So, you are saying the CDC is not actually doing this, and the doctors are risking their medical licenses as part of the conspiracy to avoid doing this, and all of the patients' survivors are also on in the conspiracy. And not a single one of those hundreds of thousands of people has ratted out the conspiracy and told the press, "the CDC is not doing what they say!!!"

You say this is "not true." Where do you get your information? Who told you it is not true? Oh, wait . . . I know. You made that up.

Quote from Mark U

There is Jed, saying that in *every* case the doctor knows the cause of death and knows it wasn't the vaccine. That's crazy talk. We all know that doctors don't function as forensic pathologists, and they are often not certain what was ultimately behind the immediate cause of death, such as heart failure. So no, neither the CDC nor doctors would say it is true, that they are always sure of the causal chain of events leading to death.

Agreed.

Which is why the many scientists who look tirelessly and continuously at all the evidence on vaccine risks and side effects have a tough job - which is made a bit easier by the fact that for COVID vaccines the whole developed world has been immunised.

We put much more effort into detecting possible side-effects and interactions of vaccines than we do other drugs.

When you look at risk versus gain the harm done to the US and UK (maybe other developed countries) by Andrew Wakefield's cheating, and its use by the antivaxxers, was quite extraordinary. The fact that it is the vaccine-hesitant parents 20 years later whose children are damaged in this situation is ironic - and tragic.

Note the (temporary) effect of lockdown on measles cases. We are not up to anything like the bad old days yet - and perhaps vaccine awareness campaigns will stop that from happening in spite of the large reduction in vaccination caused by Wakefield. Since 2006 only 2 children have died in the UK from measles (though many more have been permanently damaged).

Rubella is fine, with lower R the current vaccination rate is fine to stop it.

Quote from JedRothwell

and a panel of experts reviews every death.

Seems like it will take them some more 100 years to complete the review...In the good old days 20 deaths did go into VAERS mostly after the flue vaccine, that has been given to 200'000'000 US folks every year.. About the same number of people that got the fake vaccines...

Zealand Despite Near Universally Vaxxed and Heavily Boosted Population

Record COVID-19 Deaths in New Zealand Despite Near Universally Vaxxed and Heavily Boosted Population

Much like Japan, Australia, South Korea, and many other heavily vaccinated nations covered by this media, breakthrough COVID-19 cases seem to skyrocket, along…

www.trialsitenews.com

Much like Japan, Australia, South Korea, and many other heavily vaccinated nations covered by this media, breakthrough COVID-19 cases seem to skyrocket, along with hospitalizations and deaths. For example, in Australia twice the people Down Under died from COVID-19 in the first three months of 2022 than all of 2020 and 2021. The heavily vaccinated population of New Zealand experienced a horrible surge of SARS-CoV-2 infections as covered by TrialSite during March of this year. This media reported that while a great majority of Kiwis were fully vaccinated with near record boost dose levels, new SARS-CoV-2 cases, hospitalizations, and even deaths have surged.

Disturbingly, by March of this year, like Australia, New Zealand achieved new records in what were primarily breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths, given vaccine product durability issues and a mutating Omicron variant (and subvariants).

Fast forward four months, and what has occurred? Has the heavily boosted population mounted defenses from the Omicron-based driven COVID-19 surges?

Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case. The reported 7-day average of new deaths in this nation of just under 5.1 million people hit 10 deaths on March 25, 2022. By May 25th that 7-day average hit 12 deaths per day. Again, for relative comparison, for most of the pandemic few to no persons died on a daily basis. Fast forward to July 21, and that average death toll has steadily increased to 25 deaths per day based on the 7-day average.

On July 22, Indian press WION News reported that due to the infectious subvariants of Omicron (BA.5), 24 persons died from COVID-19 in New Zealand. They were all over 60, and again, the vast majority of the elderly in this nation complied with the national countermeasure strategy of mass vaccination.

They reported, “Medical facilities, including emergency rooms, general practices, and clinics are under stress.” However, the New Zealand Health Ministry reports that hospitalizations still are under the peak levels seen back in March.

Meanwhile, at least in some areas, medical professionals advocate for a reintroduction of restrictions in the public. These include mandatory mask wearing and social distancing measures, yet due to politics and pandemic burnout the demonstration is rejecting any such measures.

Because of horrible public health messaging across Western nations many populations assumed that once they received their vaccinations, they would be safe, and all would go back to normal. America’s track record isn’t great on this front during the pandemic, for example. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructed the public that if they were vaccinated, they wouldn’t need a mask for public places, yet once it became clear that the mutating virus could evade vaccine-induced antibodies that policy changed again. Of course, much unfolds in a pandemic situation, but public health authorities never leveled with the public that an RNA-based virus like SARS-CoV-2 would likely mutate. While some scientists sounded this alarm, they were ignored by the broader medical scientific community.

TrialSite will continue to monitor and report on places such as New Zealand and Japan currently experiencing surges

MIT study finds COVID vaccines 'significantly associated' with 25% jump in emergency heart problems

MIT study finds COVID vaccines 'significantly associated' with jump in emergency heart problems. Israeli data on 16-39 year-olds adds fuel to campaigns against coerced jabs. Italian court strikes down mandate, and U.S. pilots accuse FAA of ignoring severe adverse reactions among pilots.

25% seems to be quite a lot, but Covid vaccines still have luck here: most of these heart problems occurs in young males, which survive them most easily. So that the increase of myocarditis/pericarditis rate doesn't render directly into increase of mortality - well, for now. Because every myocarditis has permanent consequences (heart muscle scars, elevation of inflammatory markers, etc.) which will manifest itself at the end of life by its shortening. See also:

• Increased emergency cardiovascular events among under-40 population in Israel during vaccine rollout and third COVID-19 wave
• Study links Covid vaccines to 25% increase in cardiac arrest for males & females
• Covid infection of unvaccinated patients is not associated with increased myocarditis and pericarditis

  Carefully dosed information, one would say. First they publish, that myocarditis isn't associated with Covid - just after then they tell about association of myocarditis with vaccines for to advance disinfo of lightning fast "fastcheckers" like Reuters. The opposite order would already have some trust issues:

• Fact Check-Study using Israeli emergency services data does not prove COVID-19 vaccines cause heart problems - well, it doesn't.

  Another study already did it instead - just eat it...

The severity of acute myocarditis doesn't affect long-term outcomes, however, it was associated with cardiovascular/all-cause death within 3 months after discharge (due to heart muscle fibrillation or even puncture). OK - so I survived myocarditis, I even survived next three months - what should I expect now...?

Patients with acute fulminant myocarditis, once they survive the acute illness, had an excellent long-term prognosis of 93% at 11 years, compared with 45% of the patients presenting with acute non-fulminant myocarditis.

I wouldn't perceive it so excellent if I would get myocarditis in 20 years age after vaccine - it would just mean that I have 7% probability of dying in 11 years, which is normally the probability of 55 years old man's death...

Quote from Zeus46

Dear Anti-Vaxxers, 200 million people have been vaccinated without issue.

Without anti-vaxxer's issue, being more specific..

Hopefully while you are butting heads here you do not miss what is going on at the ICCF? We do have a thread running about it, with more (threads) to come...if you were unaware.

It was a very impressive first day IMO and others. Would not hurt for you to take a break from this cat fight, and refresh yourselves with some real science. Even make a comment if you so choose. Hate to see all this IQ wasted on just one topic.

Quote from Fm1

Much like Japan, Australia, South Korea, and many other heavily vaccinated nations covered by this media, breakthrough COVID-19 cases seem to skyrocket, along with hospitalizations and deaths.

That is incorrect. COVID cases in Japan have increased to record levels, but deaths are close to the lowest levels they have been since the pandemic began, at around 30 per day. That is not much in a population of 126 million. There are no reports of hospitals being overwhelmed, as there were earlier in the pandemic, so evidently hospitalizations are not skyrocketing either. The BA.5 variant kills unvaccinated people at the same rate previous variants did, so if Japan was not heavily vaccinated, deaths would be at record high levels. Deaths stopped tracking cases soon after a significant fraction of the older population was vaccinated in Japan, and everywhere else. That is proof the vaccines work -- as if anyone needed more proof! It as obvious as the world being round, and if you don't believe it, you are as stupid as any flat-earth believer.

Japan COVID: 1,725,696 Cases and 18,331 Deaths - Worldometer

www.worldometers.info