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Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Good News

Matt Vespa included a lengthy quote from highly regard Johns Hopkins doc Marty Makary, who was writing in the WSJ. Since the WSJ is subscription only I'm pasting in the portion that Vespa quotes, which is good news for anyone who was worried:


Stop the Fearmongering: Johns Hopkins Doctor Shreds Latest COVID Madness Peddled by CDC and Fauci


Here's Makary:


The news about the U.S. Covid pandemic is even better than you’ve heard. Some 80% to 85% of American adults are immune to the virus: More than 64% have received at least one vaccine dose and, of those who haven’t, roughly half have natural immunity from prior infection. There’s ample scientific evidence that natural immunity is effective and durable, and public-health leaders should pay it heed.

Only around 10% of Americans have had confirmed positive Covid tests, but four to six times as many have likely had the infection. A February study in Nature used antibody screenings in late summer 2020 to estimate there had been seven times as many actual cases as confirmed cases. A similar study, by the University of Albany and New York State Department of Health, revealed that by the end of March 2020—the first month of New York’s pandemic—23% of the city’s population had antibodies. That share necessarily increased as the pandemic spread.

[…]

Natural immunity is durable. Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis reported last month that 11 months after a mild infection immune cells were still capable of producing protective antibodies. The authors concluded that prior Covid infection induces a “robust” and “long-lived humoral immune response,” leading some scientists to suggest that natural immunity is probably lifelong. Because infection began months earlier than vaccination, we have more follow-up data on the duration of natural immunity than on vaccinated immunity.

[…]

Skeptics of natural immunity point to Manaus, capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, where reports in January suggested a wave of re-infections despite herd immunity. But the initial estimate of those infected was incorrect because it was based on antibody testing among those who donated convalescent plasma—an unrepresentative subgroup of the population. A follow-up study debunked the re-infection hypothesis and found only three confirmed re-infections in the entire state, whose population exceeds four million. Other studies have confirmed that re-infections are rare and usually asymptomatic or mild.

Some health officials warn of possible variants resistant to natural immunity. But none of the hundreds of variants observed so far have evaded either natural or vaccinated immunity with the three vaccines authorized in the U.S.

[…]

Dr. Fauci said last Aug. 13 that when you have fewer than 10 cases per 100,000, “you should be able to open up safely and clearly.” The U.S. reached that point in mid-May. It’s time to stop the fear mongering and level with the public about the incredible capabilities of both modern medical research and the human body’s immune system.



13 comments:

  1. I used to regularly download the stats from https://floridahealthcovid19.gov/ and analyze the demographics for deaths which are really the only metric that can't be as easily gamed as "cases". Sometime in the last few months, that capability went away and all they have is a weekly pdf report with 8 pages of junk data and only a by week bar chart of deaths in the state on page 8 which shows the trend dropping off significantly. I do have downloads from the past 4 weeks and it shows the total deaths in Florida for the week ending 7/22 was 282 (403 the week before). Worldometers.info has a more granular chart where you can see per day stats back to 3/12/20 which seems to comport with the FL pdf. Bottom line is it's been trailing off quickly and looks likely to continue to do so. That is unless the vaxed start having issues. Let's hope that's not the case. We'll know more on Friday when the next report drops.

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    1. Interesting, thanks. I went to Worldometers.info, sorted the deaths by country and wow.
      I reinforces my theory that the pandemic was weaponized against Trump, and the USA numbers were purposely increased with testing that included the flu and deaths were increased with numbers including other causes.
      Now they are using the vax to say, "see the government is saving your life" because they need to get back off this big lie. If they just declared the pandemic as being over everyone would say, "what changed?" But if everyone gets vax'd they can point to the vax.
      My employer is on the verge of a mandate, based on the federal works mandate. I think write now the Biden government is trying to determine the result of the mandate by floating the plan to gauge the push back.
      But why won't the FDA just approve the vax? If it is so safe that they can make it a condition of employment why don't they just approve it?
      What I also find strange, is both my wife and I have interacted with our doctors and medical staff and not once have they brought up the vax -- even while diagnosing possible covid symptoms which leads me to believe they don't want to have that conversation even though they don't know our stance on the vax. You would think my doctor would be pushing for the vax at every opportunity if they believed in it.
      The whole mask thing is bullshit too.
      I'd prefer they just injected people with water and we could all pretend we're vaxed and the covid could go away.
      When my employer mandates the vax I'm not sure which tact I'll take but as last resourt I'm going to try to delay for FDA approval because I don't think that will ever happen.

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    2. How possible is something like this?

      "I made it clear through my lawyer I would be begin to demand the status of all other employee’s health condition in regards to other forms of communicable diseases. We would be demanding information on employee’s with aids, hepatitis, flu, STDs, measles, mumps, and so on.
      My lawyer already had the papers drawn up so I could serve him the first day he tried it and part of the suit would be to force the company to make immediate policies to section off employees who had any illness they could spread, including the common cold. If they were going to take responsibility in stopping the spread of covid-19 in the building they were now liable for the spread of anything else.
      Within 24 hours we were all informed that they would no longer demand to see our papers."

      https://rifnote.com/2021/07/24/how-an-american-plans-to-respond-to-potential-vaccine-mandate-from-employer/

      Frank

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    3. If your employer tries to mandate the vaccine, send them a copy of this letter, signed by you... the future Employee of the Year:
      https://vivabarneslaw.locals.com/upost/889925/vaccine-mandate-protest-letter

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  2. I'll bet that you meant "highly regardED Johns Hopkins".
    Tucker now is implicitly touting the vaccines, as if we know that they slow the virus' spread.
    Does he really know zip about what folks like Denninger are telling us, about how the jabs stop no spread of anything?

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  3. Dr. Makary has been a sane voice in the wilderness, making frequent guest appearances on Fox News since almost Day One of the Covid nightmare. I notice that he uses McCullough’s description of natural immunity - “durable". McCullough also calls it “robust”, a great descriptive word that tells us much.

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  4. And counterpoint:
    Geert Vanden Bossche has a few thoughts before everybody gets to feeling too fat and happy. I read almost every piece on his website yesterday and while it is quite technical, he usually summarizes in a manner accessible to us mere mortals.

    His basic point: we have created an environment where vaccinated and non-vaccinated populations are bonded in a kind of downward spiral where a few more mutations could create variants that the vaccinated will not be able to survive--and the non-vaccinated will become the vector for perpetuating the strain.

    https://www.geertvandenbossche.org/post/opencall

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    1. But not really counterpoint. As I pointed out on the other post about the CDC mask announcement: "it's all very bad news for the vaxxed." And the science behind that bad news is exactly what Vanden Bossche and others like Yeadon and Bhakdi and Denninger and McCullough have been talking about for a long time.

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    2. I didn’t mean to be glib, but while Vander Bossche posits that the vaxxed are potentially in grave danger, the current state of affairs is not good for either population (vaxxed or not). In this piece:

      https://www.geertvandenbossche.org/post/a-last-word-of-caution-to-all-those-pretending-the-covid-19-pandemic-is-toning-down

      He says, “On the other hand, mass vaccination promotes natural selection of increasingly vaccine immunity (VI)-escaping variants in the vaccinated part of the population. Taken together, mass vaccination conducted on a background of high infectivity rates enables more infectious, increasingly VI-escaping variants to expand in prevalence. This evolution inevitably results in inclining morbidity rates in both, the non-vaccinated and vaccinated population and precipitates the emergence of circulating viral variants that will eventually fully resist vaccine-mediated immunity (VMI).

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    3. The other argument is that the vax induced mutations most likely target the S-protein, because that's what the gene therapy meds do. It's also claimed that they also harm overall immunity. Neither of these is true for the unvaxxed, whose immunity remains broadbased rather than narrowly targeted. Indeed, that narrow targeting is the greatest danger of ADE, as I understand it.

      I'm not a scientist.

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    4. Amusing error in the very first line, btw. He says he's "ALL but an anti-vaxxer", which is exactly the opposite of what he intends to say: he's ANYTHING but an anti-vaxxer. Allowances for non-native English, although Belgians and Dutch are usually excellent with their English.

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    5. Sounds to me like catching the covid and making it through alive is the best option. And that you have a 99.9% chance of making it through alive.

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  5. A personal story of another pandemic - the Spanish Flu of 1918. No one in either of my parents’ large families (there were 11 nearly or adult children in each) contracted the Spanish Flu except my Mother’s brother, who was on a troop ship headed for France (he died onboard the very crowded ship), and my Dad, who contracted it while in an Army camp in the south, and became very ill. His nurse saved his life. She said “you’ll never get well in here with all of these sick people’ and moved his bed outdoors. (Our current experts all recommend plenty of fresh air!) He recovered. There were no vaccines.
    I wonder what any treatments consisted of? My Dad lived to age 88, when a stroke hit him. He held on for 9 days in hospital, where he needed no life support except nourishment and hydration.

    One has to wonder about the current panic and the politics involved. The deliberate withholding of simple, inexpensive, safe (if prescribed properly) meds that, if administered prophylactically are known to prevent one’s contracting Covid-19/Sars2/whatever, and if given early to the sick have successfully provided relief and prevented hospitalization and intubation.

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