Sunday, September 19, 2021

Worried Oh Well

 Recently Redefined,


Charles Hugh Smith:  
  Here is America in a nutshell: we no longer solve problems, we manipulate the narrative and then declare the problem has been solved. 
Actually solving problems is difficult and generally requires sacrifices that are proportionate to one's wealth and power. But since America's elite are no longer willing to sacrifice any of their vast power for the common good, sacrifice is out in America unless it can be dumped on wage earners. But unfortunately for America's elite, four decades of hidden-by-manipulation sacrifices have stripmined average wage earners, and so they no longer have anything left to sacrifice.
​  ​Enter the Ministry of Manipulation, which adjusts the visible bits to align with the narrative that the problem has been fixed and the status quo is godlike in its technocratic powers. All this manipulation doesn't actually solve the problems, it simply hides the decay behind gamed statistics, financial trickery and glossy PR. The problems fester until they break through the manipulated gloss and the public witnesses the breakdown of all the systems that were presented as rock-solid and forever.

​  I have been noticing that what should be a smallish third wave of COVID cases and deaths in Texas, is anything but small. Cases are not dropping like a rock, to mimic their rise.The rapid spread of Delta should give a rapid rise AND a rapid fall of cases if the susceptible population is getting used up by developing natural immunity. Natural immunity is still the gold standard for this coronavirus, no matter what is being advertised.
  It looks like something is feeding more susceptible people to the virus, so it can keep spreading, at a time when we should be reaching natural herd immunity. The actual number of infections is about 6 times the number of confirmed cases. It's a pretty stable multiplier.
  The only intervention that looks big enough to make that large of a population influence is the vaccination campaign, which has included somewhere over half of Americans. There are mechanisms of antibody enhancement of viral pathogenicity. This has been found with fully tested vaccines, in the US, like the rotavirus vaccine, like the respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, and globally with the Dengue vaccine that killed so many children in 2015. They died when they got Dengue, a lot more than unvaccinated children died when they got dengue.
  This happened in all of the animal vaccine trials for SARS and MERS vaccines in the 2000s. All of the coronavirus vaccines caused more vaccinated animals to die than unvaccinated animals, when both groups were exposed to the virus.
  That was a "good" reason to NOT do animal testing on the current vaccines, and to give the manufacturers complete freedom from liability, through Emergency Use Authorizations, which is still how they are administered in the US, despite the Comirnaty-Pfizer bait-and-switch dance being performed.


There were 3 different waves of illness during the pandemic, starting in March 1918 and subsiding by summer of  1919. The pandemic peaked in the U.S. during the second wave, in the fall of 1918. This highly fatal second wave was responsible for most of the U.S. deaths attributed to the pandemic.

​I can't copy the graphs of cases and deaths for Texas, which I follow, but Texas cases and deaths are on track for this third wave to be as big as the second. It is just not tapering off.  ​https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2020/texas-coronavirus-cases-map/

Our World in Data has the US national graphs, which are similar to Texas, but have the 2 bumps in 2020, from the northern bump leading the southern bump.

 The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is poised to acquire complete resistance to wild-type spike vaccines  
  Abstract: mRNA-based vaccines provide effective protection against most common SARS-CoV-2 variants. However, identifying likely breakthrough variants is critical for future vaccine development. Here, we found that the Delta variant completely escaped from anti-N-terminal domain (NTD) neutralizing antibodies, while increasing responsiveness to anti-NTD infectivity-enhancing antibodies. Although Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2-immune sera neutralized the Delta variant, when four common mutations were introduced into the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the Delta variant (Delta 4+), some BNT162b2-immune sera lost neutralizing activity and enhanced the infectivity. Unique mutations in the Delta NTD were involved in the enhanced infectivity by the BNT162b2-immune sera ...

Infection-enhancing anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies recognize both the original Wuhan/D614G strain and Delta variants. A potential risk for mass vaccination?
Abstract​:​
​  ​Antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) of infection is a safety concern for vaccine strategies. In a recent publication, Li et al. (Cell 184 :4203–4219, 2021) have reported that infection-enhancing antibodies directed against the N-terminal domain (NTD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein facilitate virus infection in vitro, but not in vivo. However, this study was performed with the original Wuhan/D614G strain. Since the Covid-19 pandemic is now dominated with Delta variants, we analyzed the interaction of facilitating antibodies with the NTD of these variants. Using molecular modeling approaches, we show that enhancing antibodies have a higher affinity for Delta variants than for Wuhan/D614G NTDs. We show that enhancing antibodies reinforce the binding of the spike trimer to the host cell membrane by clamping the NTD to lipid raft microdomains. This stabilizing mechanism may facilitate the conformational change that induces the demasking of the receptor binding domain. As the NTD is also targeted by neutralizing antibodies, our data suggest that the balance between neutralizing and facilitating antibodies in vaccinated individuals is in favor of neutralization for the original Wuhan/D614G strain. However, in the case of the Delta variant, neutralizing antibodies have a decreased affinity for the spike protein, whereas facilitating antibodies display a strikingly increased affinity. Thus, ADE may be a concern for people receiving vaccines based on the original Wuhan strain spike sequence (either mRNA or viral vectors).

​ ​An advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration on Friday recommended against approving a booster shot of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to most Americans.
The scientific advisory committee voted 16-to-3 against recommending the additional shots, thwarting the Biden administration’s hopes that the FDA would approve the third shot in time to begin rolling out the extra dose for Pfizer recipients next week.
However, the panel voted 18-0 in favor of recommending a booster shot for anyone over 65 or anyone who is at high risk of severe disease from COVID-19...​  ​Jonathan Sterne, a professor of medical statistics and epidemiology in the U.K., said his analysis of 76 different studies on the vaccines’ real world effectiveness found that a number of factors can skew the results, including how many unvaccinated people in a study have natural immunity from earlier COVID-19 disease. He cautioned against drawing conclusions from short-term results from booster shots, such as data from Israel which shows that a booster can strengthen protection for a few weeks in older adults.

​As time goes by, bad turns to worse for disappointed vaccine recipients. 
Israeli Doctor Kobi Haviv: 'Fully vaccinated account for 85-90% of hospitalizations'​ (Yeah, but it would be worse if they weren't vaccinated!)

​  ​Two-thirds of the San Antonio Independent School District employees who tested positive for the coronavirus in August were fully vaccinated. Out of the 285 cases staff members reported to SAISD, 197 were breakthrough cases, according to district records...
​  ​“Fortunately, the vast majority of these individuals do not experience the extreme symptoms that those who are not fully vaccinated are experiencing when they are positive,” Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Toni Thompson told trustees.
​  ​“But it also shows you that for those who have been vaccinated for around six months, that they're the ones that are most often showing up as positive again, which says something about the need to have access to boosters,” Thompson said.
District officials estimate 90% of employees are vaccinated. More than half of the employees with breakthrough cases were vaccinated in January, February or March.​  ​​  
Thanks Steve

​If only there were some alternative early treatment to keep people out of hospitals, now that Republican Governors are getting punished for their impudence!​
Florida & Texas fume as Biden seizes and RATIONS supply of life-saving Covid treatments
​  ​“The manufacturer has confirmed supplies are ample but due to the Defense Production Act, the White House and it’s agencies are the only entities who can purchase and distribute this treatment,” Keough added.
​  ​“So, less than a week after the president tells us his patience is wearing thin and he is mandating vaccines to millions of Americans, his administration limits and all but removes a non-controversial and highly successful treatment from our war chest of combating this virus,” he said.

The Indian state of Kerala has 3% of India's population, and 67% of its inhabitants have at least one vaccination. One would expect Kerala's COVID cases to be so low as to be invisible in a chart of India's very low overall cases. Yet this state of just 33 million people accounted for 65% of all of India's cases on Thursday, and even more in recent weeks. It has essentially been the only state experiencing a surge in recent months. It also happens to be the Indian state that has rejected ivermectin.

​The Plot Against Ivermectin:  (Complete timeline)
HOW THE MEDIA FULLY FAILED US IN REPORTING THE STORY OF IVERMECTIN, COLLECTIVELY LABELING A NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING, SAFE AND FDA-APPROVED HUMAN DRUG THAT’S BEEN SAVING COVID PATIENTS AS A TOXIC “HORSE DEWORMER” ​  ​ BY LINDA BONVIE

Covid-19: An issue at UNGA in more ways than one​    
(In the capital of "The Empire State")
​  ​The General Assembly has not exactly gotten off to a unified start.
​  ​Despite a letter from the US encouraging member states to call in virtually and help avoid creating "a super spreader event," the speaker schedule for the General Debate -- which begins on Tuesday -- shows more than 100 heads of state and government coming in person, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and US President Joe Biden...
​  ​New York City requires proof of Covid-19 vaccination for indoor gatherings -- a rule local authorities have asked the UN to follow. To facilitate compliance, a one-shot vaccination station will even be set up on-site. But visiting dignitaries are not proving entirely cooperative.
(Brazil's Bolsonaro ​already ​had COVID and has natural immunity. Russia's Putin had Sputni​k​ vaccine, not on New York's approved list.​ Who pokes whom?)​
​  ​Brazil and Russia are already giving their local hosts a poke in the eye, vocally rejecting the health requirement. "We strongly object that only people with a proof of vaccination should be admitted to the GA hall," wrote Russia's UN representative Vassily Nebenzia in a letter to the organization, according to state news agency TASS. Nebenzia also noted that not all countries use the vaccines approved in New York.
​  ​Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro threw down the gauntlet on social media, declaring point-blank on Thursday that he would not get vaccinated before the General Debate. He is due to address the assembly in person on Tuesday morning, in Brazil's traditional role as the first speaker.

Brazil's Main COVID Strategy Is A Cocktail Of Unproven Drugs
...In Brazil, where more than 488,000 people have already died due to COVID-19 — second only to the United States — pseudoscience has become government policy. Bolsonaro regularly promotes repurposing unproven and cheap drugs to his nearly 40 million social media followers as he continues to minimize the gravity of the pandemic and dismiss its victims. Meanwhile, his administration has spent millions of dollars to produce, purchase and promote pills such as the lice medication ivermectin, the antimalarial chloroquine and popular antibiotic azithromycin as well as anticoagulants, painkillers and a set of vitamins. The Ministry of Health and numerous doctors endorsed using a combination of these medications to treat COVID-19, even though there is no solid evidence that it works.

​So Brasil's Bolsonaro is opening for this classier act.  
Biden to Convene Virtual COVID Summit at U.N.General Assembly
The meeting will center around four key themes:
Vaccinate the World: Leaders will discuss increasing equitable access to vaccines to up shots-in-arms around the world.
Save Lives Now: Leaders will discuss how to solve the oxygen crisis in struggling nations by making life-saving therapeutics more widely available.
Build Back Better: A reference to Biden’s domestic agenda, leaders will discuss partnerships to address emerging threats and the creation of a “sustainable health security financing mechanism,” per the White House.
Calling the World to Account: Leaders will align on targets and discuss benchmarks to meet common goals.
  I'm sure Joe Biden will be a commanding presence on the world stage and get 70% of Africans vaccinated by the end of the year.​
  Still, there's always the chance, the off chance, that all these world leaders might take some other tack.
  This would be the place and time to do it. The US just lost face pretty badly.
 Non-US Heads of State might feel emboldened, especially Putin, Bolsonaro, Xi, Duterte, and some of those other guys.

​New York Minute​

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