Delta variant and all future global variant surges (all are free post)

[Gondwanaland]

Gondwanaland, the UK is among the worst-performing countries in the Western world throughout Covid, largely due to their terrible conservative government making pretty much every mistake possible, including being in Trumpian-denial of the problem of covid for a long time before becoming schizophrenic about lockdowns.

Yet Sweden didn't do any lockdowns.

If you compare Sweden to the similar countries around it, such as Norway, Denmark, Finland, it did way worse than them in terms of deaths per capita from covid. e.g. see A year and a half after Sweden decided not to lock down, its COVID-19 death rate is up to 10 times higher than its neighbors.

It did far better than the rest of the EU.

[Roy]

Yet Sweden didn't do any lockdowns.


It did far better than the rest of the EU.

Sweden is doing worse than Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Estonia, and (non-EU) Switzerland and Albania. It is shown as 21st of 48 European countries listed, putting it near the middle in terms of per capita fatalities. It has not done far better than the rest of the EU.

[seanD]

From the mouth of Eric Rubin himself. WaPo did its best at damage control and made sure to "add the context," which doesn't add or takeaway from anything he said...

This is a much tougher one, I think, than we had expected coming into it. The data show that this vaccine works and it’s pretty safe … And yet, we’re worried about a side effect that we can’t measure yet, but it’s probably real. And we see a benefit that isn’t that same as it is in older patients. …

It’s a very, sort of, personal choice. If I had a child who was a transplant recipient, I would really want to be able to use a vaccine. And there are certain kids who probably should be vaccinated. The question of how broadly to use I think is a substantial one. And I know it’s not question, and I know we’re kind of punting that to ACIP.

But I do think that it’s a relatively close call.As Dr. [Ofer] Levy just said, and Dr. [Hayley] Gans said, it really is going to be a question of what the prevailing conditions are.

But we’re never going to learn about how safe this vaccine is unless we start giving it. That’s just the way it goes.

That’s how we found out about rare complications of other vaccines like coronavirus vaccine. And I do think we should vote to approve it.

[Mountain Man]

From the mouth of Eric Rubin himself. WaPo did its best at damage control and made sure to "add the context," which doesn't add or takeaway from anything he said...

I mentioned that in another thread, and the COVID cultists immediately jumped to his defense and said that "You have to take the vaccine to find out what's in it" is perfectly acceptable scientific methodology.

Personally, I see it as people who have nothing to lose literally gambling with our lives.

[seanD]

I mentioned that in another thread, and the COVID cultists immediately jumped to his defense and said that "You have to take the vaccine to find out what's in it" is perfectly acceptable scientific methodology.

Personally, I see it as people who have nothing to lose literally gambling with our lives.

If you called the jab too experimental to give to children, you'd get folks like ox defensive and likely get banned on social media for saying that. You must believe an alternate reality and use acceptable words and phrases as part of covid cult society.

[seanD]

I at least give them an A for effort...

Attorneys General in 10 States Join Fight Against Biden Admin’s Vaccine Mandate

Ten attorneys general in states with Republican governors filed a lawsuit against the White House’s vaccine mandate for federal contractors.

The lawsuit, dated Oct. 29, was filed by the attorneys general of Alaska, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. They described (pdf) the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for contractors as a “power grab.”

“If the federal government attempts to unconstitutionally exert its will and force federal contractors to mandate vaccinations, the workforce and businesses could be decimated, further exacerbating the supply chain and workforce crises,” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in a statement as the lawsuit was filed.

Schmitt, a Republican, further argued that the federal government “should not be mandating vaccinations, and that’s why we filed suit today,” saying the move is “illegal” and “unconstitutional.”

President Joe Biden on Sept. 9 announced sweeping COVID-19 vaccine mandates for federal workers and contractors, and set a Dec. 8 deadline. Federal workers and contractors under the mandate won’t be able to submit weekly COVID-19 tests and instead have to get vaccinated or seek a religious or medical exemption.

In the same breath, the president said he would direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to create a rule for employers with 100 or more employees to mandate vaccines or weekly COVID-19 testing for employees, affecting some 80 million private-sector workers. Health care staff who work at Medicaid- or Medicare-funded facilities also have to get the vaccine, with no option to submit to weekly testing.

While Biden has said that the vaccine mandates are needed to deal with the Delta variant surge, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data has shown that COVID-19 cases have persistently dropped across the United States in recent weeks. Meanwhile, some trade groups have issued warnings that Biden’s mandates on vaccines would trigger significant staffing and supply chain issues nationwide.

[Starlight]

An initial study found a cheap generic antidepressant drug, Fluvoxamine, quite effective early in the covid infection cycle. And its mechanism of action makes medical sense.

It might be next hydroxychloroquine / ivermectin, but this time it might actually work. Bonus.

Hospitals around the world already treat covid infections with cheap generic drugs to prevent blood clots and prevent immune overreaction, as well as patented drugs like monoclonal antibodies and remdesivir. If further studies agree this antidepressant helps, it will be added to the existing treatments.

[NorrinRadd]

An initial study found a cheap generic antidepressant drug, Fluvoxamine, quite effective early in the covid infection cycle. And its mechanism of action makes medical sense.

It might be next hydroxychloroquine / ivermectin, but this time it might actually work. Bonus.

Hospitals around the world already treat covid infections with cheap generic drugs to prevent blood clots and prevent immune overreaction, as well as patented drugs like monoclonal antibodies and remdesivir. If further studies agree this antidepressant helps, it will be added to the existing treatments.

Has there been any meaningful progress on testing telmisartan and other ARBs against Covid?

[Mountain Man]

Italy recently reduced its China flu death toll from over 130,000 to less than 4000 (article is in Italian. This is from Google Translate):

According to the latest report from the Italian Higher Institute of Health (ISS), only 2.9% of the 130,468 deaths officially attributed to Covid-19 since February 2020 are actually due to the disease. Indeed, it appears that 97.1% of deceased people already had between one and five pathologies before being affected by the coronavirus. 67.7% had at least three, and 18% at least two.

In detail, the ISS indicates that 65.8% of Italians officially deceased from Covid-19 had high blood pressure. 29.3% also suffered from diabetes, 24.8% and 23.5% from dementia. Even more, 16.3% had had cancer in the past five years, 15.7% suffered from heart failure, 24.8% from atrial fibrillation, 28% from heart disease and 17.4% from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Finally, they were 11.5% to have already had a stroke.

https://www.francesoir.fr/societe-sa...combe-au-virus

[Gondwanaland]

Apparently the lack of Covid in Africa (which has dealt with it far better than most Western areas, despite a rock-bottom level of vaccinations and very poor health infrastructure), if a real headscratcher for scientists:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientist...074905034.html

It's almost as if there's something behind it. Like, maybe a continent filled with chronic issues like malaria and parasites might be the place that also gets frequent treatments for those things with drugs like ivermectin and HCQ, and it's surely just a coinkydink they are doing so good against covid. Boy that's a real headscratcher.

[Mountain Man]

Apparently the lack of Covid in Africa (which has dealt with it far better than most Western areas, despite a rock-bottom level of vaccinations and very poor health infrastructure), if a real headscratcher for scientists:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientist...074905034.html

It's almost as if there's something behind it. Like, maybe a continent filled with chronic issues like malaria and parasites might be the place that also gets frequent treatments for those things with drugs like ivermectin and HCQ, and it's surely just a coinkydink they are doing so good against covid. Boy that's a real headscratcher.

The medical community seems curiously disinterested in any remedy for the China flu other than the vaccine.

[Gondwanaland]

The medical community seems curiously disinterested in any remedy for the China flu other than the vaccine.

Not entirely true - they're now showing interest in anti-virals by Pfizer and Merck (who once had the patent for Ivermectin and interestingly and conveniently the demonization of Ivermectin came at the same time they were readying their announcement of their drug.......). They're just not interested in readily available stuff that is cheap and doesn't make money for Big Pharma.

[seanD]

Apparently the lack of Covid in Africa (which has dealt with it far better than most Western areas, despite a rock-bottom level of vaccinations and very poor health infrastructure), if a real headscratcher for scientists:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientist...074905034.html

It's almost as if there's something behind it. Like, maybe a continent filled with chronic issues like malaria and parasites might be the place that also gets frequent treatments for those things with drugs like ivermectin and HCQ, and it's surely just a coinkydink they are doing so good against covid. Boy that's a real headscratcher.

Couple that with the EU, where some countries are once again going back into lockdown. This was the continent that was the most forceful and draconian when it came to pandemic mandates.

[seanD]

The medical community seems curiously disinterested in any remedy for the China flu other than the vaccine.

Why am I not surprised that profit and greed seem to be influencing the scientific community that wields the most power and influence? I see it as par for the course.

[NorrinRadd]

It would not shock me if cases and deaths jump in Africa if they manage to get more people to take the jab.