Covid Roundup 8/14/21

Four items of interest.

First, Karl Denninger expands on some matters that--as I understand it--commenter Mikeyinfl has been talking up lately:  Well, ****.... In the excerpt that follows I present the technical part that KD quotes first, then go to KD's explanation of the significance. As I understand it, the significance is that ADE--Antibody-Dependent Enhancement is a very real thing with the Dread Delta. The result is that the Dread Delta is able to actually leverage vaccine originated antibodies for its own purposes:

I suspected this would occur....

Antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) of infection is a safety concern for vaccine strategies. In a recent publication, Li et al. (Cell 184 :1-17, 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 modelling 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).

You stupid, stupid bastards.....

Coronaviruses have a long history of doing this sort of thing and its one of the reasons we've never managed to have a vaccine developed for them before; it simply doesn't work.  

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So here's what happened.

In mid-December, before the first person had full vaccinated immunity, cases were falling dramatically in the United States.

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But we were stupid.

We jabbed a huge percentage of our population.  And as has occurred every other time with coronavirus vaccine attempts the virus mutated around the protection and in fact used the vaccine antibodies to enhance infection.  Delta is in fact promoted by those who were vaccinated.  As with all other Covid variants most people get a mild or no real illness, but some people get hammered.  However, prior infection doesn't help if you got jabbed since you took a drug that helps the virus attack you.  We created a third wave by our own stupidity: Stupidity seen in nation after nation, but only in nations with high vaccine prevalence; Israel, the UK, Iceland and here in the United States.

Woops!

At Legal Insurrection there's a timeline for Covid's development, dating back to 2003 with Chinese involvement in SARS Classic. However I'll excerpt the concluding portion that talks about what we can expect going forward:

What is the Future?

Reviewing the information above, I will project that:

• China will continue its substandard biological safety practices at all facilities, including the 25-30 new ones it proposes building.
• If there is an outbreak of any disease, new or otherwise, in the winter Olympics of 2022…China will not act to protect the athletes.
• China will continue to deny any problems and hide any evidence connecting them to any significant safety issue of international concern.

In terms of what will happen with the SARS-Cov-2 pathogen that we are now battling, I think that the “Russian Flu” epidemic of 1889 provides some clues.  This is the first coronavirus pandemic that has been identified.

The history of that event indicates that the world will experience cycles of infections for the next several years.  Only when enough immunity is developed and less potent but more infectious variants arise will the current virus strain join the other coronaviruses causing common colds.  It is unlikely we will immunize, mask, or social-distance ourselves from the cyclic process.

In other words, the Swedish model appears to be the sensible approach. Contrary to the daft notion that the vaccines will somehow stop the spread and stop the mutating--neither will happen--natural spread and the normal process of mutation will be our ticket out of this. The vaccines simply induce ADE type mutations that leave large numbers of people more vulnerable than they would be otherwise.

Next up, a fascinating article that covers the subject of whether the vaccines can lead to alterations in human DNA. This is one of the topics anti-vaxxers commonly raise, and that just as commonly gets labeled as "disinformation" or "conspiracy theory". This article was published at an anti-vax site. The author is a doctor who also has a PhD in molecular biology. He argues that the reality, as so often, is more complicated that supposed. As usua,l I'm excerpting. Note that, while the title references J&J, the author goes on to discuss the mRNA vaccines, as well:

Why I Won’t Take the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine — a Scientist’s Perspective

Children's Health Defense ^ | 04/12/21 | Ken Biegeleisen, M.D., Ph.D.

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No guarantees, despite what vaccine makers say

It seems that in many, perhaps most viral infections, integration of viral DNA into the host cells is a very real possibility. When this occurs, there is absolutely no way to “guarantee” that the genetic code of the host cell will not be re-written.

The question then arises: If this is the case, why do vaccine manufacturers “assure” us that their marginally tested products are genetically “safe?”

I would suggest three possible explanations, all equally reprehensible:

1. It may be that the scientists in these companies simply do not know the history of this field. What can one say? “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
2. It may be that anything in industry which does not improve the quarterly profit report is at great risk of being ignored.
3. It may be that calling a new vaccine “safe,” in the pharmaceutical world, means little more than that the company has the legal resources to deal with any liability claims that arise.

Which of these three possible explanations is the correct one? Or is it all three?

In any event, you now know why I shall not take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

What about RNA vaccines?

We’ve been discussing DNA vaccines. What about RNA vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna?

Although I have no personal experience working in the lab on genetic transformation of human cells by RNA viruses, it is appropriate to comment briefly on that subject before closing.

The RNA vaccines are alleged by their promoters to be genetically “safe” because RNA cannot be directly incorporated into human chromosomes.

Is that true? Yes. But does that make them “safe?” Perhaps not.

What the vaccine companies forgot to tell you is that our cells have several types of “reverse transcriptase” of their own, which can potentially convert the vaccine RNA into DNA.

In December 2020, a team of researchers from Harvard and MIT (Zhang et al) posted an article at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory-hosted bioRxiv preprint server showing that, in all probability, incorporation of coronavirus spike protein genes, into the chromosomes of infected cells, does indeed take place, and is mediated by the so-called “LINE-1” type of human reverse transcriptase. (For more on the Harvard-MIT study and its implications, read this article previously published by The Defender).

To be clear, this was not a vaccine study, but a study in which cells were deliberately infected with whole, non-inactivated virus, as happens in nature, and which apparently can result in genetic transformation of the cells after all.

This, suggested the authors, may account for the now-frequent observation of COVID-19 test “positivity” in people who are clearly not sick. That is, the bodies of such people are continually manufacturing corona spike protein, from the viral genes which have been permanently incorporated into their genetic codes.

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Moreover, reverse transcription is a known means of normal human chromosome-to-chromosome gene mobility, a fascinating process whose study goes back to the pioneering work of Barbara McClintock in the 1930s. It has thus been well-known, for the better part of a century, that the effects of moving genes around will very much depend on where they are moved, and on exactly and precisely what is moved.

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..., we’re all being pressured into taking hastily prepared genetic vaccines, which are likely to transform our heredity, permanently. Is there any reason for this, other than countless billions of dollars in windfall profits?

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Most sensible people are wary about “GMO,” even in food. Now we’re going to genetically modify ourselves? Why? What madness is this?

Finally, a new study published in the JAMA--the Journal of the American Medical Association (as mainstream as it gets)--appears to offer confirmation of a statement that Dr. Robert Malone made at the Liberty Forum. Malone briefly stated that he had reliably heard that cardio- side effects were much more common than the CDC has been letting on. That's exactly what this article is stating:

New Research Shows – Heart Inflammation After COVID Vaxx More Common Than CDC Claims

This article has a lot of information in it, so I'll just excerpt the bottom line as suggested by the title:

A new study published in JAMA shows 1 in 100,000 people had vaccine-related myocarditis and 1.8 in 100,000 people had pericarditis — compared to the CDC’s data that 4.8 people per 1 million suffer myocarditis after receiving a COVID vaccine.

U.S. public health officials claim cases of myocarditis and pericarditis following COVID vaccination are rare — but new research published online in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) shows they may happen more often than reported.

Post-vaccine myocarditis and pericarditis also appear to represent two “distinct syndromes,” Dr. George Diaz, with the Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, told Medscape Cardiology.

Of note, the study suggests that the side effects are not associated with Covid the disease but, instead, with the injections:

A telling figure looking at myocarditis rates at 40 hospitals in the Western US w/ recent ⬆️ rates correlated w/vaccination. An important thing I would say is COVID itself does not appear to be correlated with an uptick.

I'm NOT anti-vax & am vaccinated.https://t.co/BHlCG6FJtt pic.twitter.com/kjtSJCIBhO

— Tracy Høeg, MD, PhD (@TracyBethHoeg) August 5, 2021