Posts by Fm1

China Wanted to Show Off Its Vaccines. It’s Backfiring.

https://news.google.com/articl…=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

China’s coronavirus vaccines were supposed to deliver a geopolitical win that showcased the country’s scientific prowess and generosity. Instead, in some places, they have set off a backlash.

Officials in Brazil and Turkey have complained that Chinese companies have been slow to ship the doses and ingredients. Disclosures about the Chinese vaccines has been slow and spotty. The few announcements that have trickled out suggest that China’s vaccines, while considered effective, cannot stop the virus as well as those developed by Pfizer and Moderna, the American drugmakers.

Not a lot of good news on the vaccine front. IVERMECTIN!

In a major setback, Merck to stop developing its two Covid-19 vaccines and focus on therapies

https://www.statnews.com/2021/…s-and-focus-on-therapies/

Merck said Monday it will stop developing both of the current formulations of the Covid-19 vaccines the company was working on, citing inadequate immune responses to the shots.

Work will continue on at least one of the vaccines, which is being developed in partnership with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), to see if using a different route of administration would improve how effective it is.

The announcement marks a shocking setback for one of the most storied vaccine makers, and will raise tensions around readouts expected soon from other companies, including Johnson & Johnson and the upstart NovaVax.

Vaccine supply hinders expanding beyond goal of 100 million shots, Biden health official says

https://www.washingtonpost.com…s-updates/?outputType=amp

The United States needs to move faster to immunize the public against the coronavirus, but efforts to accelerate beyond President Biden’s goal of 100 million shots in 100 days may be hindered by the supplies of vaccine doses, according to Rochelle Walensky, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I think that the supply is probably going to be the most limiting constraint early on, and we’re really hoping that after that first 100 days, we’ll have much more production,” Walensky said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“We’re really hoping we’ll have more vaccine and that will increase the pace at which we can do the vaccinations,” she said.

Is Covid-19 merely a transatlantic epidemic?

Covid-19, it appears, is more a transatlantic epidemic than a pandemic as such. The social media and a globally undifferentiated policy response, however, make it seem and feel like a pandemic

https://news.google.com/articl…=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

New Zealand’s new COVID case is the South African variant

https://news.google.com/articl…=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

The woman, who recently returned from Europe, tested positive on Saturday, 10 days after she completed her compulsory two weeks in isolation at a hotel in the city of Auckland.

The case represents the first time the virus has breached a quarantine facility in more than two months, after New Zealand eliminated community spread of the virus. The Pacific nation has been widely praised for its handling of the pandemic, with just 25 deaths from 1,927 confirmed virus cases in a population of five million.

“We can confirm that the strain of infection is the South African variant and the source of infection is highly likely to be a fellow returnee during the person’s stay at the Pullman hotel,” Hipkins told reporters in the capital, Wellington.

Genome testing indicates the woman may have contracted the virus from a person on the same floor of the hotel who tested positive two days before she left quarantine, he said.

10 days after a 2 week quarantine she tested positive?

China pushes fringe theories on pandemic origins, virus

https://apnews.com/article/pan…bb2d8d22d811bb3d0c90f7418

The Communist Party sees the WHO investigation as a political risk because it focuses attention on China’s response, said Jacob Wallis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

The party wants to “distract domestic and international audiences by pre-emptively distorting the narrative on where responsibility lies for the emergence of COVID-19,” Wallis said.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying got the ball rolling last week by calling for the WHO investigation of the U.S. military lab. The site had been mentioned previously by CGTN and other state-controlled outlets.

“If America respects the truth, then please open up Ft. Detrick and make public more information about the 200 or more bio-labs outside of the U.S., and please allow the WHO expert group to go to the U.S. to investigate the origins,” Hua said

How COVID-19 Attacks The Brain And May Cause Lasting Damage

https://www.npr.org/sections/h…-may-cause-lasting-damage

understand other, less obvious mechanisms, though, scientists needed brain tissue from patients with COVID-19 who died. And early in the pandemic they couldn't get that tissue, says Dr. Avindra Nath of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

"Because it was such an infectious organism, people were not conducting autopsies at most places," Nath says. They simply lacked the protective gear that would allow them to remove a brain safely.

That's changing, though, says Nath, who was part of a team that studied brain tissue from 19 COVID-19 patients.

The team saw widespread evidence of inflammation and damage, they reported Dec. 30 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

They also found a possible explanation for the damage.

"What we found was that the very small blood vessels in the brain were leaking," Nath says. "And it wasn't evenly — you would find a small blood vessel here and a small blood vessel there."

The injuries resembled those from a series of tiny strokes occurring in many different areas of the brain, Nath says.

The finding may explain why COVID-19 patients have such a wide range of brain-related symptoms, Nath says, including some related to brain areas that control functions such as heart rate, breathing and blood pressure

Military task force warns that Israeli COVID variant could emerge

https://www.timesofisrael.com/…variant-could-emerge/amp/

military-led task force has warned of the potential emergence of a mutated Israeli variant of the coronavirus resistant to vaccines.

In a report for the Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center on Saturday, Military Intelligence recommended that due to fears over the possible development of an Israeli strain, those who have received vaccines or recovered from COVID-19 be tested for the coronavirus and be subject to quarantine requirements upon entering the country.

The mass vaccine campaign taking place parallel to the active outbreak in Israel may lead to ‘evolutionary pressure’ on the virus,” the report said.

Nearly 2.5 million Israelis have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, and over 946,000 have received both shots. Israel has set a target to vaccinate its entire eligible adult population by March.

Quote from Roseland67

FM

Does the article say to what extent the

re-infection will happen?.

I guess, if everyone can get infected multiple times but no one dies or even goes to the hospital, it might be a good sign that the virus is mutating to a less infectious form.

No but other study's estimate up to 10% right now but climbing and mutating to a less infectious form,

That outcome would be great but evidence now is pointing to the virus becoming more deadly and vaccine not very effective with infection and transmission still posible, and those infected requiring treatment are getting younger and younger. MIS-C is rising, more long Covid.cases. without early treatment this is not going away.

Vitamin D Vital in Managing Autoimmune Disease

http://carolinatotalwellness.c…%20and%20even%20Parkinson's%20disease.

What vitamin D does for you

Vitamin D is actually a hormone, and along with thyroid hormone, is one of the two hormones every cell in your body needs. It regulates hundreds of different pathways throughout the body.

Bone density. Vitamin D has long been known to play a role in preventing breakdown of bones and increasing the strength of the skeletal system.

Mood regulation. Low vitamin D is linked to a 14 percent increase depression and a 50 percent increase in suicide rates. Increasing vitamin D intake can help improve anxiety and depression.

Brain health. Vitamin D’s biologically active form has shown neuroprotective effects including the clearance of amyloid plaques common to Alzheimer’s Disease. Associations have also been noted between low 25-hydroxyvitamin D and dementia.

Reduced cancer risk. Optimal vitamin D levels are associated with lower rates of cancers of the breast, ovaries, prostate, and pancreas.

Sleep quality. Adequate vitamin D is associated with improved sleep.

Immune regulation. Vitamin D plays a key role in promoting regulatory T cells, which decide whether to dampen or promote inflammation in the body.

This is particularly important in dampening autoimmunity such as Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, when the immune system attacks body tissue.

Studies show more than 90 percent of those with autoimmunity have a genetic defect that promotes vitamin D deficiency.

Low vitamin D levels are associated with autoimmune conditions such as Hashimoto’s, hypothyroidism multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, and even Parkinson’s disease.

A common thread in all chronic illnesses, inflammation is shown to be reduced by adequate vitamin D levels.

Autoimmune Diseases: Types, Symptoms, Causes, and More

https://www.healthline.com/health/autoimmune-disorders

What is an autoimmune disease?

An autoimmune disease is a condition in which your immune system mistakenly attacks your body.

The immune system normally guards against germs like bacteria and viruses. When it senses these foreign invaders, it sends out an army of fighter cells to attack them.

Normally, the immune system can tell the difference between foreign cells and your own cells.

In an autoimmune disease, the immune system mistakes part of your body, like your joints or skin, as foreign. It releases proteins called autoantibodies that attack healthy cells.

Some autoimmune diseases target only one organ. Type 1 diabetes damages the pancreas. Other diseases, like systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), affect the whole body.

SARS-CoV-2, the autoimmune virus - NCBI - NIH

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p…MC7598743/?report=classic

Increasing evidence accumulated from the past year on the outbreak of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, suggesting a strong association between the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and autoimmunity. The reported inflammatory/autoimmune-related symptoms by patients, the appearance of circulating autoantibodies and the diagnosis of defined diverse autoimmune diseases in a subgroup of SARS-CoV-2-infected patients, indicate the critical and pivotal effect of SARS-CoV-2 virus on human immunity, and its capability to trigger autoimmune disorders, in genetically predispose subjects.

UK regulator, vaccine makers discuss virus variants

https://news.google.com/articl…=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

LONDON: The UK’s medicine regulator has discussed with vaccine manufacturers the need for “potential modifications” to vaccines to ensure they protect against the new coronavirus variants emerging around the world.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said that “there was no evidence that vaccines failed to work against new variants,” but that it had made the issue a priority.

AstraZeneca, which partnered with Oxford University to manufacture a vaccine, said scientists had begun work on a modified vaccine in case it was necessary.

A spokesman said: “It is known that viruses constantly change through mutation, leading to the emergence of new variants.

“These changes are being monitored closely by scientists.

Fist phase of the vaccine rollout not even completed and already taking of tweaking the vaccine. A potential catastrophe. But the experts said............

10% of all cases will become long haulers. What have we learned? In my opinion without early outpatient treatment it will be long haulers that overwhelm the healthcare system

22-year-old COVID ‘long hauler’ fights symptoms 11 months after infection

https://news.google.com/articl…=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

I didn’t have a super severe infection but it was unusual for me. It started off with a really tight chest. I felt like I couldn’t take a deep breath. Then I started coughing and had some other symptoms over the next couple of weeks,” said Powell.

Powell never tested for COVID-19 as testing supplies were not widely available at the time. After the pandemic forced her to return home, her symptoms improved but only temporarily. To this day, most of her symptoms are lingering to some degree.

“A lot of strange inflammatory symptoms here and there with the most consistent being headaches, fatigue, eczema and then the chest tightness has also stayed on,” said Powell.

Treat early, treat often, and treat all!

Canadian study says oral medicine effective in treating COVID-19

https://gulfnews.com/world/ame…-covid-19-1.1611422157491

The results of the study are a "major scientific discovery" and make colchicine - a medicine used to treat gout - "the world's first oral drug that could be used to treat non-hospitalized patients with COVID-19," the Montreal Heart Institute said in a statement late Friday.

The study results show that colchicine reduced by 21 percent the risk of death or hospitalizations in patients with COVID-19 compared to placebo, the institute said.

The study was carried out in Canada, the US, Europe and South America among a population of 4,488 patients.

Oxford University to test potential COVID-19 ‘wonder drug’ Ivermectin

https://news.google.com/articl…=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

LONDON: Oxford University researchers are planning to trial a drug that has shown signs of reducing COVID-19 deaths in developing countries.

The Principle trial is aiming to find a drug that works soon after virus symptoms appear in a patient, and one that is most effective during the primary stages of the illness, The Times reported.

The trial is assessing Ivermectin, a medicine used on livestock and people who have been infected by parasitic worms, which has been hailed by some as a “wonder drug” with the potential to save thousands of lives, the report added.

The South African coronavirus mutation can infect multiple times, could hamper vaccine

A new study reveals that a large number of people with COVID-19 antibodies may not be protected from the new strain

https://www.salon.com/2021/01/…mes-could-hamper-vaccine/

Amutant strain of the novel coronavirus discovered in South Africa appears to be able to ward off antibodies from individuals who had previously recovered from COVID-19 — meaning if the new strain becomes widespread, we may see more people getting infected multiple times

send joe biden a one word message.... IVERMECTIN!!!

https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

I believe when the pandemic ends we will read study's, very similar to this one. No accountability!

The Reemergent 1977 H1N1 Strain and the Gain-of-Function Debate

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4542197/

ABSTRACT

The 1977-1978 influenza epidemic was probably not a natural event, as the genetic sequence of the virus was nearly identical to the sequences of decades-old strains. While there are several hypotheses that could explain its origin, the possibility that the 1977 epidemic resulted from a laboratory accident has recently gained popularity in discussions about the biosafety risks of gain-of-function (GOF) influenza virus research, as an argument for why this research should not be performed. There is now a moratorium in the United States on funding GOF research while the benefits and risks, including the potential for accident, are analyzed. Given the importance of this historical epidemic to ongoing policy debates, we revisit the evidence that the 1977 epidemic was not natural and examine three potential origins: a laboratory accident, a live-vaccine trial escape, or deliberate release as a biological weapon. Based on available evidence, the 1977 strain was indeed too closely matched to decades-old strains to likely be a natural occurrence

Quote from gerold.s

But aren't they widely using ivermectin on a regular basis and therefore are in a "better" position than US or Europe?

Many people in Africa should have a prophylaxis with IVM or are the dosages too low or any other reason which could pose problems like in South Africa?

Great catch gerold

COVID-19: The Ivermectin African Enigma

https://colombiamedica.univall…omedica/article/view/4613

Abstract

Introduction: The low frequency of cases and deaths from the SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 virus in some countries of Africa has called our attention to the unusual behavior of this disease.

Aims: Describe SARS-CoV2 infection and death rates in African countries that participated in an intensive Ivermectin mass campaign carried out to control onchocerciasis and compare them with those of countries that did not participate.

Methods: Data from 19 countries that participated in the WHO sponsored African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC), from 1995 until 2015, intended to treat over 90 million people annually and protect an at-risk population of 115 million, were compared with thirty-five (Non-APOC), countries that were not included. Information was obtained from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ database.

Results After controlling for different factors including the Human Development Index, APOC countries, show statistically significant 28% lower mortality (0.72 IC 95% 0,67-0,78) and 8% lower rate of infection (0.92 IC95% 0,91-0,93) due to COVID-19.

Conclusions: The incidence in mortality rates and the number of cases is significantly lower among the APOC countries compared to non-APOC countries. That a mass public health preventive campaign against COVID-19 may have taken place, inadvertently, in some African countries with massive community ivermectin use is an attractive hypothesis. Additional studies are needed to confirm it.