Lots of real scientific info here about covid
New Your times – Nov 11, 2021
What we Know So Far About Waning Vaccine Effectiveness. HERE
One takeaway from this chart is the difference between the US study and Canadian Study. This type of thing is why no one should dismiss the views of people who think vaccines are magic or those who would rather not get one. Either side can point to this chart to make their case.
Covidiots are actually those who don’t believe that the other side has solid points in their favor.
Your Covid Test Was Positive, Maybe It Shouldn’t Be (HERE)
This is an article in the New York Times where they discuss how the covid test actually works. Some experts say that the test is being high-graded too much and is too sensitive.
The standard test are diagnosing huge numbers of people who may be carrying relatively insignificant amounts of the virus.
The article explains why this might be.
It was first published Aug 29,2020 and updated July 3, 2021
Ivermectin: How False Science created a Covid ‘miracle’ Drug (HERE)
Oct 6, 2021
Here’s an article in BBC news where a group of scientists looked at 26 studies that some people have been touting as solid scientific evidence that Ivermectin is effective against covid. They found that in 5 of the studies there was evidence that data may have been faked. In 5 others there were major red flags, for example, numbers didn’t add up, percentages were calculated incorrectly or local health bodies weren’t aware that the studies had taken place.
The sample of research papers examined by the independent group also contains some high-quality studies from around the world. But the major problems were all in the studies making big claims for ivermectin – in fact, the bigger the claim in terms of lives saved or infections prevented, the greater the concerns suggesting it might be faked or invalid, the researchers discovered.
The group of independent scientists examined virtually every randomised controlled trial (RCT) on ivermectin and Covid – in theory the highest quality evidence – including all the key studies regularly cited by the drug’s promoters.
The largest and highest quality ivermectin study published so far is the Together trial at the McMaster University in Canada. It found no benefit for the drug when it comes to Covid.
No Vaccine and if you get Covid you might get:
Acute Kidney Injury
Arrhythmia – irregular heartbeat.
Deep Vein Thrombosis – blood clot in your legs or pelvis.
Myocardial Ingarction – heart attack
Pulmonary Embolism – Blood clot in lungs. (I’ve had this. Didn’t love the statistic that this kills 1 in 10 people who get it.)
On the other Hand, Getting the mRNA vaccine and not getting Covid gives you a greater chance of getting:
Lymphadenopathy – Swelling of the lymph nodes.
Herpes Zoster Infection – Shingles.
The original article is HERE. In the New England Journal of Medicine.
Remember that this was in March- Just when vaccines were getting going.
Amazing how much Democrats overestimate the seriousness of getting Covid. 41% thought that if you caught Covid you had a 50/50 (Or better) chance of having to be hospitalized. Republicans definitely did better, a quarter got the correct answer, but half also overestimated..
The article is HERE.
Will media outlets go so far as to make up numbers? Or are reporters just bad at math.
Here’s an article from Aug 27, 2021 from NBC news.
The title is Delta Variant Doubles the Risk of Hospitalization, Study Confirms.
In the article they site a study published in The Lancet HERE which looked at 43,338 covid positive patients in the UK between Mar 29 and May 23, 2021
8682 with the delta variant, 34,656 with the alpha variant.
Under FINDINGS there is:
“196 (2·3%) patients with the delta variant versus 764 (2·2%) patients with the alpha variant were admitted to hospital within 14 days” after testing positive.
Is 2.3% twice as much as 2.2% ???? I’d say that it’s exactly the same.
Also the FINDINGS include: “498 (5·7%) patients with the delta variant versus 1448 (4·2%) patients with the alpha variant were admitted to hospital or attended emergency care within 14 days.”
But the NBC article says that the Lancet study says “They (Delta patients) were also 1.5 times more likely to need emergency medical care.”
First – the study is talking about people who went to the emergency room and then went home (IE they weren’t admitted). NBC makes that into ‘Need Emergency Medical Care’ – much more alarmist language.
Second – I wouldn’t round 1.36 up to 1.5.
Third – The study does a disservice by giving us numbers for hospital admissions, and then another number for hospital admissions AND ER visits. It should have just stated ER visits alone. Doing math, those are: 302 (3.5%) for Delta people, and 684 (2.0%) for Alpha people. That is close to twice as many, but ER visits are not Hospital admissions. So the NBC article is really alarmist, and can’t get the facts straight.
Finally – The Lancet study only looks at people who have tested positive. There’s a bias right there, because it excludes people who had covid but weren’t sick enough to go get tested. What would the numbers be if you included asymptomatic people? Don’t know.
(If you read the article and study and find a place where it shows that hospitalizations were double – I’d love it if you pointed that out to me. I can miss things.)
New York Times – Aug 17, 2021
Headline reads: American Hospitals Buckle Under Delta, With I.C.U.s Filling Up
See the story HERE.
The map below accompanies the story
Looking at actual data for the hospital mentioned in the NY Times article. Jackson Memorial Hospital. The hospital is 90% full, with 29% covid patients. The ICU is 27% covid while 83% full. However the headline infers that a lot of American hospitals are filling up with covid patients – that is just not true. The headline is true for some local areas. This is how the media has been operating for some time now. Find the hotspot (in the world) scare everyone by reporting on it – ignore that area when everything calms down a few weeks later – repeat. It’s no wonder half the country is scared.
On Oct 8th a headline appeared in the online version of The New York Times:
A Delta-driven surge is pushing hospitals in North Dakota to the brink.
on the same day, I pulled the map below from the NY Times. Does ND look bad to you? Not to me. But scary headlines get clicks.
Purple is 80 patients per 100,000 population. Colorado is showing as less than 20 per 100,000.
BTW Gulf Coast hospitals are fine again. Less than 2 months later. The media isn’t going to discuss that – just the alarmist stories.
New England Journal of Medicine article (July 21, 2021)
Effectiveness of Covid-19 Vaccines against the B.1.617.2 (Delta) Variant
My Summary – This shows that two doses of either the Pfizer or AstraVeneca vaccines are way more effective than one dose. Also that the effectiveness is about the same for the UK variant (Alpha) – 94% and the Delta variant (India) – 88% Meaning that 94% of those who got 2 doses of the Pfizer vaccine won’t develop symptomatic covid.
ChAdOx1 is AstraZeneca ……. (J&J would be similar)
The actual article is found HERE. Effectiveness of Covid-19 Vaccines against the B.1.617.2 (Delta) Variant
Prevention and Attenuation of Covid-19 with the BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 Vaccines
New England Journal of Medicine July 22, 2021
My Summary: They followed 9475 participants from Dec 2020 to April 2021, and found Covid in 204 participants, of those 5 were fully vaccinated, 11 partially vaccinated, and 156 unvaccinated.
BNT162b2 is the Pfizer vaccine. mRNA-1273 is the Moderna vaccine
Rich’s Note: There were more people in the vaccinated groups than in the unvaccinated group so the numbers actually lean even further than 16 to 156
Click HERE to see the original article at the New England Journal of Medicine’s website.