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08/02/21 11:51 AM #9729    

 

Michael McLeod

Here's a weird little post:

It's a section from a paper I'm editing for a student about the modern phenomenon of conspiracy theories and what psychologists have to say about it.

There's a little something for everybody, whichever way you roll, at the end.

 

Research has found that people who seek meaning and patterns, as well as those who believe in supernatural events such as out of body experiences, after death experiences, ghosts, and other mystical occurrences, are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories (6). An experiment conducted by van Prooijen, et. al showed that an individual’s tendency to find patterns in a random coin toss correlated with their belief in conspiracy theories (40). This could imply a need to pursue conspiracy theories as a way to provide order and comprehension to experiences that aren't clear.

Existential needs serve an individual’s desire to feel secure and safe in the world, and this need may translate to a drive to seek out conspiracy theories when these needs are threatened (18).  Experiments completed by van Prooijen, et. al found that when people believe they have no control over the outcome of a situation, they are more likely to believe in conspiracies, and when their sense of control is confirmed, they are less likely to believe in them (37). In this way conspiracy theories provide an individual with a sense of autonomy and control.

Another existential motive that appears to lead to belief in conspiracy theories is a lack of socio-political control (6). Research performed by political scientists have found evidence that individuals whose political party are not in a position of power are inclined to believe in conspiracy theories more often than those who do have their political party in office, suggesting that people will turn to conspiracy theories as a response to feeling out of political control (36). Hart, et al. (2018), performed research and found people are drawn to conspiracies that confirm or verify their political beliefs. For example, Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to believe Obama forged his birth certificate, and Democrats are more likely to believe Trump’s 2016 campaign was won with collusion from the Russians (44).


08/02/21 12:04 PM #9730    

 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

John, Mike.....I would like to respectfully reply to your comments.  Regarding previous vaccines that have been mandated for schools or travel to certain areas I can only say that over the course of my lifetime, I have come to acknowledge that there were many issues that I have rather blindly accepted relying on the expertise of the medical community and those in the government.  Over the past 13 years, I have become much more aware of my need to question more and always research that which causes me to doubt that I am following the right path.  As for the childhood vaccines, I understand that they underwent the rigorous testing required by the FDA and were eventually given full FDA approval. That is not the case with any of these vaccines....in fact Moderna has NEVER brought a product before the FDA that has been approved.... they all remain experimental and those who get them are part of a clinical trial.  More importantly the risk/benefit of taking them MUST remain the right of individuals who alone know fully all the particulars of their own immune health.  I remain gravely concerned about the coercion being exerted over the mandating that is accelerating and thus putting people's livelihoods at stake.  What about those who have already had COVID and have natural immunity, which is known to be greater than any vaccine immunity?  Furthermore, the most important issue to me is the fact that the government, in coordination with universities, health organizations, and big businesses are unconscionably forcing individuals to make a life choice against their will.  Perhaps this would be a moral undertaking were it not for the fact that for those under the age of 70 with no underlying health conditions there is a 99.8% chance of survival from COVID.  The mere fact that the coercion to vaccinate has moved from those who are at the greatest risk of actually dying from the virus, to the very least vulnerable in the population the children who, after a year and a half of studies, are known to have a 0.07% chance of dying.  Does no one care to ask why there is such a frantic push?  Additionally, as I have stated over and over......Ivermectin has become THE therapeutic, in conjunction with a couple of other meds which given early in the symptom stage, greatly reduce symptoms and shorten the duration of the virus.  And so, I ask WHY would these medications be censored/banned or demonized.  WHY??  I know why, it is because the government, the medical communities, the businesses are working together to make billions and to extract more and more power and control from the citizens.  There can not be any other logical reason for this constant fear-mongering and pressure, to say nothing of the government's threats to the unmasked, the unvaccinated, and those who voted for Trump's POLICIES, to become designated as "domestic terrorists".   

John, Mike et al....you can rip this post apart any which way you can, but I will stand 100% behind everything I have stated because as an observer of history and as one who has listened to the pleas of those who immigrated from Russia, Albania, Serbia, Cuba, Venezuela, etc, and were the outspoken voices of the 2020 #WalkAwayCampaign, warning Americans that the tyranny that they thought they had left behind was now fast beoming the future for our nation..


08/02/21 01:28 PM #9731    

 

Michael McLeod

I'll say coercion is overstating the case and leave it at that.

And the good news is that a substantial majority of seniors have been vaccinated and that the mortality  rate has plunged accordingly.

I agree tyranny is an issue to be keenly aware of at the moment, but from an entirely diffferent  and far more viral direction than the one you seem to be focused on. And I quote:

Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, and one of the country’s foremost election-law experts, told me, “I’m scared.” Referring to the array of new laws passed by Republican state legislatures since the 2020 election, he said, “It’s not just about voter suppression. What I’m really worried about is election subversion. Election officials are being put in place who will mess with the count.”

 


08/02/21 04:28 PM #9732    

Joseph Gentilini

I have been reading all the back-and-forth regarding the Covid vaccines: whether they are safe, whether people should take them, whether there should be mandates or not, etc.  People can have all sorts of opinions.

For those who think they are not safe or that there should be no mandates or that it is all a political dig at donald trump, there can be no answer that will safisfy. 

For those who believe the science, for thost who believe they are safe, for those who people there should be more government involvement with the vaccines, etc., no other answer is needed.

 

 


08/02/21 08:36 PM #9733    

 

Mark Schweickart

Here's some photos unrelated to the political discussion at hand. My wife Maddy and I visitied the Huntington Botantical Gardens in San Marino (just south if Pasadena) the other day. It surrounds the famous Huntington Library  known for its antique books (Gutenberrg Bible, Shakespearean Foilios, etc) and the Huntington Art Museum, all of which was donated to the city when the old railroad tycoon, Henry Huntington, died back in 1919, or thereabouts. It was his palatial residence. It is nice to see such an ultra-rich fortune put to  public use – certainly more edifying than an eight minute joyride to the edge of outerspace, wouldn't you say? Anyway, we had a lovely walk through the gardens (the library and art museum are still Covidly closed).

Shot of Maddy trying to upstage the beautiful pink-blossoming tree benind her.

A view from behind a waterfall.

A cool rock formation in front of reflections in the water  (a la some of Dr. Jim's photos).


08/02/21 11:02 PM #9734    

 

John Jackson

Mark - nice pictures and I couldn't agree more about all the recent ego trips to the edge of space. 


08/03/21 12:51 AM #9735    

 

David Mitchell

Janie,

Thanks for your articles in your post 9718 about "individual rights" vs. the "Common Good". Seems we have forgotten all of that ("the commonn good") and have instead emerged as the most selfish generation in modern history.

If those stupid women who were "forced " to go into our aircraft, ship, gun, and ammunition factories back in the early forties would have had the "courage" to stand up for their INDIVIDUAL rights and refused to take part in that "conspiracy" we could all be speaking German by now. 

What about the examples - speed limits, seat belts, driving and liquor licenses, etc. and my own earlier question about why you would be so "compliant" as to drive on the right side of the road? 

 

Damn! 

I knew I should'a told my dad that he was practicing a form of  "totalitarianism" when he came to Our Lady of Peace to give every kid a polio shots back in the 50's. All of us 4th graders should's walked out in protest.

 

-------------

I also thought Mary Margaret's article about the research in masking left some odd conflicts with every article I have ever read about dust vacuum systems in woodworking shops.

But most curious of all, the sentence that says "this has nothing to do with Dentistry".

HUH!   Why not?  

Does staring (and breathing) down into someone's open mouth cause a different effect? Should surgeons stop wearing those silly masks when they hunch down closely over an open heart surgery patient?  

No mask prevetns 100% of air particals to pass - if it did it would cause one to suffocate. It is well established that guys who wear masks in wood shop experience less cancer, and those who wear respirators even less - than those who wear nothing. There is a lot of research on this and those masks and respiratiors are sold in almost every woodworking website you can find.

I found that whole artilce to be quite odd in it's conclusuons. I surely don't know more than any of these guys, but I sure question the common sense aspect of this article.  I recall once reading a study that concluded that kids are not influenced by TV and TV commercials. The study was done by some professionals and with a multy-million dollar government grant. I completely disagreed, recalling my own small children's frequent recitation of common TV commercial "jingles" and my own influence by thousands of hours of Cowboys and Indians shows.


08/03/21 03:22 AM #9736    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mark, 

What a pleasant and relaxing way to spend a beautiful, blue sky day in southern California! Great photos also. Was that rock a sculpture or the real thing? I have seen pictures of the tufas in Mono Lake that have a similar appearance.

Jim


08/03/21 09:24 AM #9737    

 

Michael McLeod

wowie, Marq!

that's some gorgeous photography.

Jim: what are the chances that some day covid will just be covered by everybody's annual flu shot?

or is that vaccine - at least the ones we have right now, since it's based on a different technique, a separate, stand-alone affair?

and does the fact that it's zootropic also affect that possibility?

And finally: herd immunity. I'm thinking it will happen even though so many americans refuse to be vaccinated; it will just be delayed. People who didn't get vaccinated will either get sick or die. People who did get vaccinated will either sustain their immunity or won't get sick enough to die. Kids who will be exposed to it - well I don't know what will go on with them except that they do not manifest symptoms because, ironically, their immune systems aren't developed enough. Or something like that.

Thanks in advance for being patient with me and I won't feel bad if you turn down the assignment in favor of hanging out in nature and appreciating the sight of assorted mountaintops and waterfalls and deer butts. 

 

 


08/03/21 11:11 AM #9738    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike McL.,

Excellent questions and ones that I have been pondering for some time myself!

But first, for those who may have mistakenly thought that I talk for all doctors:

   _________________________________________

     DISCLAIMER: MY OPINIONS ARE MY OWN! cool

  _________________________________________

I really hope that science finds a way to combine the mRNA vaccines with the current technology used to produce the seasonal influenza vaccines. The non-mRNA Covid vaccines may lend themselves more to being combined with the flu shots but I know of no evidence that that is true. Certainly, other viral vaccines have been combined successfully in the past, such as the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and bacterial/toxin vaccines like Tdap (tetanus toxoid, diphtheria and pertussis).

Since virus are constatly mutating (as we have all seen in the past few months with this virus) I forsee having to get "seasonal coronavirus shots in the future. However, if researchers could discover a site on all coronaviruses that does not mutate and design a vaccine that allows our immune systems to target that site, that would be a real game-changer. Since several "common colds " are also caused be members of the coronavirus family, that would be a Nobel Prize worthy accomplishment.

I doubt that there should be a problem with zootropic viruses not being able to be included in human vaccines. 

And, yes, herd immunity can be established in several different ways but vaccines would definitely be preferable to having more people die first.

I would also like to mention masks. As I have stated in past posts I do think masks help prevent the spread of viruses (not just Covid) but to what extent is debatable. But they can also be harmful. Good masks do decrease droplet spread. They are questionable regarding aerosol spread. As I look around over the past 18 months I see many people wearing useless "face coverings" and others wearing masks in the wrong way. Bandana and Gaiter masks are probably useless. The N95 masks would most likely be the best for the mass populations but are expensive, uncomfortable and seldom seen. Masks can cause rashes, contain potentially harmful substances (graphene) and harbor pathogens. I doubt that most people change them often or clean them frequently or properly. They have all kinds of negative effects on the sociological and psychological health of many children and adults.

From a non-medical standpoint I do not feel that the federal government should mandate mask wearing in private buildings, businesses and offices. I also think that it should not demand vaccines for private citizens. Even the childhood vaccines that we all recieved and that children recieve today in order to attend schools are under the control of the states, not the federal government. 

If individual stores, companies, etc. want employees and customers to wear masks, that is their right. Vaccines, in my opinion, are a more controversial topic. 

In WWII a saying for the military became commonplace: "If the military wanted you to have a wife, it would have issued you one." (Back then most service members were male.) Perhaps today we might say "If the government wants you to wear masks, it should issue you boxes of them (preferably N95's)". 

Maybe that would add another trillion or so to the infrastructure bill!

 

Jim

 


08/03/21 11:54 AM #9739    

 

Michael McLeod

Dr. J: thanks for your quick response.

I was only in your waiting room for a few minutes.

All the other doctors in the world were out there with me. They said they always agree with you.

 

 


08/03/21 01:57 PM #9740    

 

David Mitchell

Yes, there are many useless masks out there. But i seem to recall a Columbus Physician who invented a type of nasal filter for poeple with allergies. It was made of a certain density of styrofoam and would filter much of the airborne particles one might breath in dayly tasks such as mowing the lawn, or working in a dusty atmosphere. 

And yes, it did NOT catch much of the aerosal type particles. So he learned through testing to impregnate the styrofoam with charcoal. This caught much of the aerosol particles and even the odors.

He had approval by the FDA and was licensed to sell the product nationwide. It was a small household biusiness and the ecomomies of scale rendered it rather un-profitable, but he had a passionate market demand and a desire to help people deal with their breathing problems. And his results were dramaticly in favor of the success of the filters.  

(Note: it was fitted (by friction) inside the the two nasal openings with a "yoke" connecting the two sides across the center of the nose - to be used "closed mouth" - so as to be smaller and less cumbersome device than full mouth covers.).

When the Doctor died, his customers pleaded with his son to keep the business open and not let them lose their supplies of filters, but I simply could not keep up with the produccttion, the bookkeeping, and the shipping.  

The company was called "NAFILCO" an the physcian was my dad. I actually still have some of the supplies in boxes in my garage.

I submit to you that such a type of filter does do some good, and those with the charcoal added were super-effective. 


08/03/21 03:52 PM #9741    

 

Michael McLeod

I just remember reading stories early on in the pandemic that cloth masks protected other people somewhat, more than the wearer, and that even though they were not foolproof they provided some level of protection. 

I wore them to avoid hassles and show a sense of solidarity. But when I was in a situation where I felt there was real risk I'd wear the real deal - as I will when I fly out for a wedding in a couple of weeks.

 


08/03/21 07:56 PM #9742    

 

Mark Schweickart

Dr. Jim – I would agree that the rock formaiton I took a picture of indeed also reminds me of the tufa one sees in Mono Lake. However, whether this object I photograpphed is actually tufa, or something made to look like it, I have no idea.I should ask about this the next time I visit the gardens.


08/04/21 10:05 AM #9743    

 

Joseph D. McCarthy

Before I get into my travelogue I have just a few comments,

Vaccines - Trump was the person who pushed for manufacturing of the vaccine,  After he had a bout with Covid, he and Melania were among the forst too be vaccinated.

Dr. J (I've always wanted to use that term) I've loved your pictures of the Deer in your yard,  While on I-74 headed towards Indianapolis I saw, but couldn't stop, when I saw a passale of over a thousand Deere off to the side in a "Yard".  What a site to see, all those Green Deere's lined up.

A short bit on the travels.  We left Rohnert Park, CA at 4:30 A.M. and by 6:00 A.M. were near Sacramento, CA when we first noticed heavy smoke.  Shortly, half hour, we passed the site of that smoke - burning storage units along the side of I-80.  As we passed by wecould feel the heat from the fire(s) inside the car with airconditioning turned on.  Smoke from forrest fires stayed with us through Nevada and up to Salt Lake City, UT.

Joe


08/04/21 11:43 AM #9744    

 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

"A free society that radically decentralizes decision-making and charity creates greater social harmony compared to the polarizing intervention of the state."

 

 

 


08/04/21 01:08 PM #9745    

 

Michael McLeod

From Kathleen Parker's column today:

 

"Obviously, no one likes being told what to do. Certainly, anyone with a conservative streak abhors the thought of any government requiring anything of our most-private personal property — our bodies, ourselves. This should be a lesson when conservatives next debate women’s reproductive rights. There’s very likely considerable overlap between those Republicans who are resisting the vaccine “because it’s my body, not yours” and those who wouldn’t hesitate to tell a woman how to manage her childbearing parts."


08/04/21 01:45 PM #9746    

 

Michael McLeod

Sing it with me, class:

"Bye....bye....birdie

We hate to see you go...."

 

Nearly all of the world’s emperor penguin colonies may be pushed to the brink of extinction by 2100, a study has found, as the United States moves to list them as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

 

If climate change continues at its current rate, more than 98 percent of emperor penguin colonies are expected to become quasi-extinct by the turn of the century, a group of global researchers wrote in the journal Global Change Biology on Tuesday. The scientists’ near-term predictions were equally grim: They estimated at least two-thirds of colonies would be quasi-extinct by 2050.


08/04/21 06:04 PM #9747    

 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

In response to Kathleen Parker's....'There’s very likely considerable overlap between those Republicans who are resisting the vaccine “because it’s my body, not yours” and those who wouldn’t hesitate to tell a woman how to manage her childbearing parts."  I offer this:  

No one has ever said differently.  Outside of Islam and Islamic law, where a woman's worth is often treated as only a fraction of that of a man, nobody wishes to control women.  A child in the womb is his/her own person....the child is not a "part" of a woman's body....it his/her own separate body and if his/her life is not respected, what reason is there to respect anyone's bodily autonomy and right to life?

As for it only being "conservatives" who choose not to take a vaccine....that is simply politicizing the vaccines.  Some Americans simply want the right to weigh their own personal risks vs benefits of taking a vaccine that has not been completely vetted as safe for the longer term.  Some fear the virus, some fear the vaccine.  Some think those who fear the virus are mistaken about the overall health risks and some think those who fear the vaccine are mistaken.....so whose fear should be acknowledged more?  

Personally, I don't trust our government nor do I trust any public entity taking millions of dollars from the government.  And I am especially suspicious of entities who fire, censor, ban or demonize anyone who dares to speak out against the politically correct narrative.  Dr. Charles Hoffe is one such person. He was fired from his position at a Canadian hospital for speaking out about the following: 

"In a virus, in a Coronavirus, that spike protein becomes part of the viral capsule. In other words, the cell wall around the virus, called the viral capsule. But it’s not in the virus. It’s in your cells. So it therefore becomes part of the cell wall of your vascular endothelium. Which means that these cells that line your blood vessels, which are supposed to be smooth so that blood flows smoothly, now have these little spikey bits sticking out.

So it is absolutely inevitable that blood clots will form. Because your blood platelets circulate around in your blood vessels. And the purpose of blood platelets is to detect a damaged vessel and block that vessel to stop bleeding. So when the platelet comes through the capillary, it suddenly hits all these all these Covid spikes that are jutting into the inside of the vessel, it is absolutely inevitable that a blood clot will form to block that vessel. That’s how platelets work.

So…as something containing carcinogens can predict a link to cause cancer, these spike proteins will predictably cause blood clots because they are in your blood vessels. The way to prove this according to one doctor is to do a blood test called a D-dimer test, to find out of this is really happening. So, the problem with the blood clots we hear about through the media, that they claim are very rare are the big blood clots. These are the ones that cause strokes and clots in your brain…those are the ones that show up on CT-scans and Angiograms and MRIs. The clots the doctor is talking about are microscopic. These are tiny…they are literally on a capillary level and they are scattered throughout your capillary network. They are not going to show on any scan. They are just too small and too scattered. So the only way to find out for sure if this predictable mechanism of clotting was actually happening was to do this blood test called a D-dimer. And so the D-dimer is a blood test that shows a recent blood clot. It doesn’t show anything else other than a recent blood clot. It won’t show an old blood clot. It only shows new blood clots. And so this doctor has been doing that now on his patients… finding those people who have recently had their Covid shot within the previous seven days…it needs to be between 4 and 7 days...and doing a blood test on them called a D-dimer.

So on the basis of this D-dimer test which proves that the majority of people are clotting, these six people who now have Reduced Effort Tolerance, actually what has happened to them is that they have plugged up thousands of tiny capillaries in their lungs. And the terrifying thing about this is not just that these people are short of breath and they can’t do what they used to be able to do. But once you block off a significant number of blood vessels to your lungs, your heart is now pumping against a much greater resistance to try and get the blood through your lungs. And the problem….so that causes a condition called Pulmonary Artery Hypertension.

It’s actually like high blood pressure in your lungs because the blood can’t get through because so many of the vessels are blocked. And the terrifying thing of this is that people with Pulmonary Artery Hypertension usually die of right sided heart failure within three years. So the huge concern about the mechanism of injury is that these shots are causing permanent damage. And the worse is yet to come. Because, you know, there are some tissues in your body like the intestine, liver and kidney that can regenerate to quite a good degree but brain, and spinal cord, and heart muscle and lungs do not. When they are damaged, its permanent. Like all these young people who are now getting Myocarditis from these shots, they have permanently damaged hearts.

And so the doctor is still trying to accumulate more information. But on the ones he has so far, 62% of them have evidence of clotting. Which means that these blood clots are not rare. It means the majority of people are getting blood clots that they have no idea that they are having. The most alarming thing about this is that there are some parts of your body like your heart and your brain, and your spinal cord and your lungs, which cannot regenerate. When those tissues are damaged by blocked vessels they are permanently damaged. So he now has 6 people in my Medical practice with reduced Effort Tolerance, which means that they just get out of breath more easily than they used to. Hoffe said he has one fellow that used to walk his office every week for an arthritis injection and told him that he could walk two miles without any problems, and now after a quarter of a mile he "is absolutely out of breath and it has been like that for five months."

Of course, not everyone agrees, as is pointed out here: 

Citing experts at the Meedan Digital Health Lab, Reuters Fact Check vigorously asserts that the spike proteins induced by the COVID vaccines do not kill or damage cells. Perhaps so, but something from the vaccines is causing deformations and apparent inflammation in red blood cells, as evidenced by images from microscopy photos. Images of blood cells taken before and after the vaccines can be seen starting about two minutes into the five-minute video. Postvaccine red blood cells exhibit rough instead of smooth edges, irregular shapes, and grouping together over time which is described as the “beginning form of thrombosis,” or blood clots. More research is needed to determine exactly what is causing these cell deformations. 

There are also numerous tiny white particles in the photographs which are presumed to be lipid nanoparticles (LNP). The delicate mRNA fragments from Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are encased in LNP, which serves to protect the mRNA from disintegrating before it can do its job in our bodies. Pfizer conducted a biodistribution study where they injected rats with bioluminescent RNA-encapsulated LNP and found that the LNP had traveled not only beyond the injection site, but throughout the circulatory and immune systems, and had accumulated in virtually every organ in the body.

Meanwhile, Spain and Russia are reportedly advising citizens to avoid air travel if they have been vaccinated for COVID-19. It’s common knowledge that flying frequently, especially on long-distance international flights, can cause blood clots, but talk about mixed signals! What’s next? Non-vaccination passports? The takeaway here ought to be that whether or not someone gets vaccinated should be a personal decision and that the practice of forcing people, especially students and younger adults, to get vaccinated, should be abandoned.

I firmly agree with that last sentence.....there should be no coercion from anyone, anywhere.....mask, social distance, stay home, get the vaccine........your choice!! 


08/05/21 07:35 AM #9748    

 

Michael Boulware

Dear Classmates,

The current death toll worldwide, from Covid-19, is over 4 million. The current death total in The United States is around 620,000. It does not hurt to wear a mask, but it just might help save a life. We need to prevent the spread of this killer. Statistics prove that the vaccine keeps people alive. Please get the shot and encourage others to do so as well. If we do this, the virus will be defeated.


08/05/21 09:56 AM #9749    

 

Michael McLeod

Mike:

Thanks for that.

It's a mess down here.

My sweetheart, who teaches elementary school children in a montessori public school near orlando, just assumes she'll contract the virus over the course of the school year. I have several vaccinated friends who already have. It is not fatal but it is not pretty. Rhetoric is easy. Reality is another matter. Thanks, anti vaxxers and idiot politicos. From the news:

 

 

Some of Florida’s largest school districts have announced they will either keep or issue new mask mandates in light of the coronavirus outbreak that is ravaging the state, challenging an order by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) threatening to withhold funds from school districts if they mandate that students wear face coverings.

 

At least four school districts in the state are pushing back against the governor’s staunch opposition to new virus restrictions or mask mandates after he issued an executive order Friday saying that recent guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that students wear masks “lacks” scientific justification and warning that the government could withhold state funds from “noncompliant” schools.


08/05/21 11:44 AM #9750    

 

Michael McLeod

Rats. I keep meaning to point this out. The science and research behind the breakthrough approach that brought us the covid vaccines goes back decades. So people who are afraid of it because they think it's some new and desperate measure are basing their opinion on a misunderstanding of the science involved and how solid and hard-fought the basis of it is. And politicians who either should know better or simply ignore the reality so they can play to their base are contemptible and incompetent.

It would be interesting to talk to an expert who could break down the strategies behind various vaccines and compare them to the strategy of the covid19 vaccines if they could do it in layman's language to see how they all stack up in terms of reliability, complexity, side effects, etc. The immune system being so damn complicated that might be hard to do, again, in layman's terms.

 

 


08/05/21 01:43 PM #9751    

 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

In the interest of looking at all sides of the Covid vaccine issue. 

Fram a recent interview with Dr. Robert Malone, a top vaccine scientist 
 
Dr. Malone notably claims to have been the chief inventor of mRNA technology and mRNA and DNA innovations while working with the Salk Institute in the 1980s. Both the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines rely on mRNA technology. Malone is also a licensed physician who received his medical training at Northwestern University, Harvard University medical school, and UC Davis.
 

“Emerging evidence suggests that fully vaccinated persons who do become infected with the Delta variant are at risk for transmitting it to others,” the agency’s guidelines now say, citing “unpublished data,” some of which was released Friday.

“We’ve seen a progression of increasingly desperate and abrupt rollouts of information, beginning with Pfizer’s alert a couple of weeks ago that they think we were going to need to have a booster after six months, and Fauci reprimanding them, and then the government flip-flopping and saying that we were going to have to have boosters for Pfizer recipients after six months in elderly and immunocompromised, and then the bomb dropped last night,” Malone said. “And I’m afraid that it’s precisely what I have been concerned about.”

He noted a report by NBC News on Tuesday that claimed that the CDC’s backtrack on masks reflected data showing that vaccinated people “could be carrying higher levels of virus than previously understood” and possibly infecting others, according to “multiple sources” close to the Biden administration. The NBC article has been heavily edited since publication.

Based on statements in the report, Malone inferred that viral levels were higher in vaccinated people than in unvaccinated people. As he later explained on Twitter, this has not been resolved.

A CDC report published today said that viral loads between the vaccinated and unvaccinated are likely “similar,” though “microbiological studies are required to confirm these findings.”

“This is precisely what one would see if antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) was happening,” Malone said regarding higher virus levels among the vaccinated. “What is antibody dependent enhancement? Briefly, it’s that the vaccine causes the virus to become more infectious than would happen in the absence of vaccination, would cause the virus to replicate at higher levels than in the absence of infection.” (See further ADE explanation here)

“This is the vaccinologist’s worst nightmare. It happened with the respiratory syncytial virus and in the ‘60s and caused more child deaths in vaccine recipients than unvaccinated. It happened with Dengvaxia, the dengue vaccine,” Malone continued.

“And it’s happened with virtually every other coronavirus vaccine development program, certainly in humans, known in history, and it’s what the vaccinologists like myself have been warning about since the outset, is the risk of antibody dependent enhancement.”

Malone said that antibody dependent enhancement seems most apparent in people injected with Pfizer’s vaccine. “So, we now know that the Pfizer protection is waning at six months,” he said. “And what the data seem to suggest is those who have received Pfizer, which is probably the least immunogenic of the three in terms of durability, length of protection, people that are now in the waning phase of the immune response to the Pfizer vaccine seem to be getting infected.”

“Notice they keep talking about Pfizer and not about the other two. So, this suggests this is exactly what you would anticipate, is the window of greatest susceptibility to antibody dependent enhancement is in this long tapering phase as the vaccine response declines.”

The top mRNA vaccine expert also criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci, who stated in an appearance on MSNBC this week that levels of virus in the noses of vaccinated people who contract COVID-19 are “exactly the same as the level of virus in an unvaccinated person who’s infected.”

“And I think Dr. Fauci is being very disingenuous,” Malone said. “I’m accused of being now an anti-vaxxer and promoting disinformation. But to my eyes, the government is obfuscating what’s happening here.”

“And I don’t mean to sound alarmist, but what seems to be rolling out is the worst-case scenario, where the vaccine in the waning phase is causing the virus to replicate more efficiently than it would otherwise, which is what is we call antibody dependent enhancement is what the word is. And people have been warning about this since the outset of this rushed vaccine campaign.”

Dr. Malone also criticized Fauci, who recently blamed unvaccinated people for variants, for a “misleading set of statements” about the mutations. Malone said “the escape mutants that are escaping vaccine selective pressure are most likely developing in the people that have been vaccinated, not in the unvaccinated.” “So that’s just another convenient lie,” he said, adding that “antibody dependent enhancement can be influenced by escaped mutants.”

“If the data are consistent with [antibody dependent enhancement], we have to stop the vaccine campaign,” Malone stressed. “We have to pivot to expediting as much as possible drug treatments, which have been largely blocked and suppressed at the FDA level, particularly for repurposed drugs.”


08/05/21 02:19 PM #9752    

 

Michael McLeod

Not to panic anybody, and continuing on my theme of rhetoric vs. reality, more scariness from the real world as of this afternoon:

COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to accelerate in Central Florida and beyond, in what doctors call the worst wave yet. Nobody's debating about ventilators, but I sure as hell don't want to be on one. Yesterday a student described his symptoms to me in detail I'd rather not have heard. Thank goodness I am teaching on line. 

Dr. Eduardo Oliveira, executive director of critical care services at AdventHealth, confirmed in a weekly news briefing on Thursday that Central Florida’s largest hospital system hasn’t avoided the statewide surge after Florida set a COVID-19 record for hospitalizations on Tuesday.

“Wave two, we felt that things were getting better, maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about COVID as much as before. But then comes this current wave, which has been pretty dramatic, more than any other wave we have experienced before,” Oliveira said.

On Thursday morning, there were 1,350 patients hospitalized at AdventHealth, topping last week’s numbers by about 300. The biggest determinant of whether someone ends up in the ICU is still whether they’ve been vaccinated, Oliveira said. Over 90% of patients in the ICU are unvaccinated at AdventHealth and Orlando Health.


08/05/21 09:27 PM #9753    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

I'll add my two cents worth of opinion regarding the mask and vaccine issues which have come up once again. I have been involved in these discussions several times before on this Forum and, like everthing that has to do with COVID, the questions and answers are in a constant state of flux. 

Masks are a two edged sword which is dependent on the type of masks, how a person wears them, the age of the person who wears them, who makes the rules and which science one believes. 

I strongly believe in vaccines and believe that they play a major role in promoting herd immunity and ending pandemics. Are they the whole answer? No. Are they perfect? No. Are they effective? Yes. Are they dangerous? Probably to some - it would be nice to know who those people are. Do they cause antibody induced enhancement? Some vaccines do (dengue) and some do in lab animals but not humans (some studies say that the COVID vaccines have not been shown to do so in humans). Do the benefits outweigh the risks? I believe so. Should the federal government mandate them? Not in my opinion. Do the COVID vaccines protect against the delta mutation? A recent UK study says the Pfizer vaccine is 88% effective (pretty good). 

How about young children and masks, vaccines and in school learning? Some talk about K-12 grades, others exclude age <16 in the discussion. My opinion is that masks have not been shown to be very useful in the younger kids. The negative effects seem to outweigh the positive ones. Staff to staff viral transmission is more of a problem than child to staff in some studies. My opinion/conclusion would be if staff want to wear masks they should be free to do so. If they don't then that should be their choice. School districts can make their own rules but parental input should be highly considered. 

The unvaccinated persons are at more risk than the vaxxed ones. Can vaxxed persons carry the virus in their nasopharynxes? Yes. Are they less likely to transmit it to others? Still debatable. 

Is the answer to anything with this virus crystal clear yet?  Not totally as we still have much to learn about this coronavirus and its variants. 

Unfortunately, politics has gotten involved - or taken over.

Jim

 


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