COVID-19 Link Dump: Dr Makary Lambastes CDC’s Child Immunization Policy, Ivermectin Available By Law In Tennessee, Ministry of Truth Cancelled, Dr Crislip’s Review of the Pandemic Response #COVID-19

Dr Marty Makary in the news again. From UK’s Daily Mail:

One of the nation’s leading public health experts has slammed the CDC’s top advisory panel over its approval of Covid booster shots for children as young as five years old – just as leading jab manufacturer Pfizer reveals plans to submit an application to give the shots to babies as young as six-months this week.

Dr Marty Makary, a public health expert from Johns Hopkins University, told DailyMaill.com that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is a ‘kangaroo court’ full of nothing but like-minded individuals pushing what he describes as ‘low value care’.

He also said that they never have seen a vaccine they would not approve, and that others who had previously gone against the pro-jab dogma had been forced off of the panel. 

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From The Tennessee Star: Ivermectin Effective for Early Treatment of COVID-19 Now Easily Accessible in Tennessee Without Prescription

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) has signed a bill that makes ivermectin, an antiviral drug that has been found to be an effective early treatment for COVID-19, available in the state without a prescription.

Lee signed SB 2188, approved by the State Senate, 66-20, and the State House, 22-6, which authorizes a pharmacist to provide ivermectin to patients 18 years of age or older, “pursuant to a valid collaborative pharmacy practice agreement containing a non-patient-specific prescriptive order and standardized procedures developed and executed by one or more authorized prescribers.”

Liberty Counsel, a Christian ministry and litigation firm, noted about the legislation:

“That means that adults can explain their symptoms to the pharmacist, fill out a sheet listing any preexisting conditions and other medications they are taking, and the pharmacist can determine the right dosage.”

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Joe Biden’s plans for a Ministry of Truth are tabled for now. This video may have contributed to its (hopefully permanent) demise. Or his lawyers finally convinced him the Ministry of Truth was unconstitutional. Ever heard of the 1st Amendment, Joe?

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Again from UK’s Daily Mail: FDA LIMITS use of Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine due to risk of life-threatening blood clots – a year after it lifted pause on one-shot regimen taken by 18 million

The agency is now only authorizing the pharmaceutical giant’s Janssen COVID vaccine to people 18 or older for whom other authorized or approved vaccines are not accessible or clinically appropriate, and to those 18 years or older who otherwise would not get a COVID vaccine.

The decision comes following an investigation into reports of thrombosis and thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) – a rare and potentially life-threatening disease that creates blood clots and creates low levels of blood platelets – from those who have received the vaccine. 

There have been 60 confirmed cases, including nine fatalities, through March 18, 2022 from the nearly 19 million doses administered nationwide. The FDA  determined that the reporting rate of TTS is 3.23 per million doses of the vaccine administered, and the reporting rate of TTS deaths is 0.48 per million doss of vaccines administered.

Symptoms began in the confirmed cases about one to two weeks after the individual received the vaccine.

We haven’t seen much of the J&J vax in south central Arizona. Mostly Pfizer and Moderna.

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A COVID-45 Retrospective by Infectious Disease Dr Mark Crislip at Science-Based Medicine. Some snippets:

Is it too soon for a COVID 45 retrospective? Perhaps. [I don’t know why he calls it COVID 45] I suspect COVID is going nowhere in my lifetime, as the current, likely undercounted, surge indicates. But there are two endpoints that could mark the end of the COVID pandemic. One is that the infection goes away. Never gonna happen. The other is when as a society we transition back to normal and at some level decide to live with COVID. I marked that point when the US resumed mass killings. Sadly, back to business as usual.

….It is impressive how the R₀, the number of people that a single infected person can be expected to infect, goes up with each variant. I suspect the increasing infectivity, but not virulence, is a result of our half-assed approach to COVID infection control. With semi-masking, semi-social distancing, and semi-vaccination, we have probably been selecting for more infectious strains of COVID. 

….The other reason COVID is going nowhere is the relative lack of immunity after vaccination and disease. The vaccine is still great for preventing severe illness and death, both good endpoints, but with emerging variants partially evading prior immunity and large, in both numbers and BMI, populations of unvaccinated people, this virus will continue to circulate forever. Omicron seems particularly good at causing reinfection.

….COVID looks to be a perfect storm for perpetual disease: genetic variation, marginal immunity, half-assed infection control, and a susceptible population. Like what we have seen for the at least 500 years with influenza. 

….Like all ID docs, I prefer prevention over treatment, and preventing, or at least decreasing, the spread of COVID is simple. Mask and vaccine.

….The six-foot rule? I never bought into that one. In the hospital, where the infected patient is spewing infected droplets while lying in bed not moving in a room with hospital air handling, six feet of distance to prevent droplet spread is reasonable. The patient isn’t going anywhere and the air is being turned over rapidly.

….The slow course of the disease [in its early progression to death] is also why interventions directed at the virus seem to do so little. As a clinician, I can’t tell that remdesiver, or any treatment, is doing all that much.

….But steroids and other immunomodulators are effective in treating the late inflammatory phase of COVID and that surprised me. Immumomodulation has a dismal treatment record for most infectious disease, it was nice to see it work.

Dr Crislip credits masking for the relative absence of flu and some other respiratory infections over the last few years. “From the epidemiology so far, masks should be de rigueur during URI season.”

I recommend you RTWT.

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Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: Reduce your odds of serious COVID-19 by losing excess fat and exercising. Let me help.