Posted onNovember 7, 2021|Comments Off on Here’s Why CDC Recommends COVID-19 Vaccination Even If You’ve Already Recovered from COVID-19
“In this multistate analysis of hospitalizations for COVID-19–like illness among adults aged ≥18 years during January–September 2021 whose previous infection or vaccination occurred 90–179 days earlier, the adjusted odds of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 were higher among unvaccinated and previously infected patients than among those who were fully vaccinated with 2 doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine without previous documentation of a SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
Posted onNovember 6, 2021|Comments Off on Israeli Study Supports 3rd Dose (Booster) of Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine
The patient is wise to look away. If you watch the needle go in, it’ll hurt more.
The study at hand compared thousands of folks in Israel who got the booster dose with those who didn’t. Everybody got the original Pfizer 2-shot vaccine at least six months previously. The study period included some months when the delta variant was dominant (about seven weeks starting in August 2021). Median follow-up of study participants was a surprisingly low 13 days.
Nevertheless, the booster seemed to reduce hospitalization, severe disease, and death from COVID-19.
1,564,000 adults were tested for COVID-19 between April 1 and August 15, 2021. Of those, 114, 706 had a positive PCR test for COVID-19 and were deemed “cases” irrespective of symptoms. 201 deaths were attributed to COVID-19.
The AztraZeneca vaccine was also judged very effective against death.
As of mid-June 2021, 80% of the adults in Scotland had received at least the first dose of a vaccine. Scotland has 5.5 million residents.
Posted onOctober 30, 2021|Comments Off on QOTD: Men and Women…Together
“Yes, the kids are long gone, but we’re still together.”
Men offer women what other women can’t, and when they do it right, everyone is better off. Women at their best bring out the best in men. They — men, that is — are more inclined to behave themselves, to work harder, scrape off their rougher edges, and be more dependable. This extends into other arenas of social life, like being a good father, a reliable worker, and a helpful neighbor. Women get to have men around to be “the fathers” to the children that they cannot be, to share the burdens and joys of child-rearing, and, together, ease the chastening of old age.
-Stephen Paul Foster, July 1, 2021 (I’d link to the source but the website owner has blocked my IP address)
“At the country-level, there appears to be no discernable relationship between percentage of population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases in the last 7 days (Fig. 1). In fact, the trend line suggests a marginally positive association such that countries with higher percentage of population fully vaccinated have higher COVID-19 cases per 1 million people. Notably, Israel with over 60% of their population fully vaccinated had the highest COVID-19 cases per 1 million people in the last 7 days. The lack of a meaningful association between percentage population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases is further exemplified, for instance, by comparison of Iceland and Portugal. Both countries have over 75% of their population fully vaccinated and have more COVID-19 cases per 1 million people than countries such as Vietnam and South Africa that have around 10% of their population fully vaccinated.
Across the US counties too, the median new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the last 7 days is largely similar across the categories of percent population fully vaccinated (Fig. 2). Notably there is also substantial county variation in new COVID-19 cases within categories of percentage population fully vaccinated. There also appears to be no significant signaling of COVID-19 cases decreasing with higher percentages of population fully vaccinated (Fig. 3).”
So why are vaccines being mandated? Cui bono? Big Pharma. Us sheep are being fleeced.
Steve Parker, M.D.
PS: I admit the possibility that the vaccines reduce the odds of hospitalization and death. I await further data. But can we trust date generated and released by Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J?
People who already had their first heat attack or stroke were excluded from the study.
The research was published in FEBS Journal in Feb 2021.
How could aspirin have an antiviral effect? The researchers report “Host response and clearance of viral infections heavily depend on the expression of type I interferon (IFN), which modulates cell responses and reprograms cells into an “antiviral state” [[16]]. RNA viruses, such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, can escape immune system recognition via suppression of type I IFN signaling through an inhibition of STAT family transcription factor phosphorylation [[17]]. Another specific mechanism used by RNA viruses to evade host antiviral responses involves upregulation of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) levels, which leads to an inhibition of type I IFN production and apoptosis in macrophages, thereby causing increased viral replication [[18]]. As low-dose aspirin inhibits PGE2 biosynthesis [[19]], this mechanism might enhance antiviral immunity via induction of type I INF [[20]].”
Read the full free report for additional possible antiviral mechanisms.
I didn’t read the entire report. I couldn’t find the average dose of aspirin these subjects were taking. If you find it, please comment below. I’ll assume 81 mg/day for now.
Aspirin can be harmful. Check with your personal physician before starting taking it.
A key to his argument is differentiating between early and late COVID-19 disease. In the early phase (lasting 5-7 days), viral replication is predominant, causing the fever, chills, myalgias, malaise, etc. His late phase is when blood oxygen levels start to drop and patients are admitted to the hospital. I assume the late phase is the inflammatory response of the lungs, the cytokine storm. Of course, not everyone advances to the late phase. Many of the studies finding no benefit of HCQ involved hospitalized patients in the late phase. It’s too late then, according to Risch.
Dr Risch also says HCQ alone probably is not adequate. Many of the studies he cites utilized one or more of following: azithromycin, doxycycline, zinc, ivermectin, vitamin D, budesonide, low-dose aspirin, montelukast, colchicine, fluvoxamine, and others.
I don’t recall Dr Risch discussing who should be treated early with HCQ. I’m guessing just those with one or more risk factors for life-threatening disease, which might include everyone over 65-70 years old. Remember that the average survival rate for COVID-19 is over 99%.
His presentation is compelling. He’s reading his numbered slides, so you can get through it in half the time by turning off the sound and just reading. Why hasn’t YouTube (Google) censored this yet?
Steve Parker, M.D.
PS: I tried unsuccessfully to find the average age of those who die of COVID-19 in the U.S. But I ran across this report on the recent Italian experience (from Feb to Sept 2021):
MILAN, Oct 20 (Reuters) – People vaccinated against COVID-19 are highly unlikely to die of the disease unless very old and already badly ill before getting it, a study in Italy showed on Wednesday.
The study by the national Health Institute (ISS), contained in a regular ISS report on COVID-19 deaths, shows the average age of people who died despite being vaccinated was 85. On average they had five underlying illnesses.
The average age of death among those not vaccinated was 78, with four pre-existing conditions.
Cases of heart problems, dementia and cancer were all found to be higher in the sample of deaths among those vaccinated.
Note that median age in Italy is 47 compared to 38 in the U.S.
Advanced Mediterranean Diet 