Gibralter is pandemic-famous for being the first nation to vaccinate its entire adult population. The effort only took nine weeks and was completed in March 2021. Gibralter has only 34,000 inhabitants in its 2.6 square miles.
So Gibralter should be wide open an back to normal life now, right?
Destinations that fall into the “very high” risk category have had more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days, according to CDC parameters.
These vaccines are increasingly looking like a pig in a poke.
Some 96 per cent of all Icelandic women over 16 have received at least one vaccine dose. The figure for men is about 90 per cent.
In total, 86 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated.
It is an outstanding result – so much so, the Reykjavík government felt they had this pandemic beaten.
In June, they rolled back social distancing, mask and travel restrictions.
But those restrictions have been reimposed as a Covid-19 Delta outbreak has sent case numbers soaring.
And even with a significantly reduced rate of severe illness, the explosive outbreak is seriously straining the tiny nation’s health system.
I was vaccinated against tetanus, polio, rubella, whooping cough, and measles: and I never came down with any of those infections. Not even mild forms of them.
It’s starting to look like the COVID-19 vaccines aren’t all they were promised to be.
Posted onAugust 10, 2021|Comments Off on QOTD: C.S. Lewis on Omnipotent Moral Busybodies
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.
Posted onAugust 9, 2021|Comments Off on Who Says the Mediterranean Diet Is Best?
U.S. News and World Report once again ranks the Mediterranean diet #1 in Best Overall Diets:
It’s generally accepted that the folks in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea live longer and suffer less than most Americans from cancer and cardiovascular ailments. The not-so-surprising secret is an active lifestyle, weight control, and a diet low in red meat, sugar and saturated fat and high in produce, nuts and other healthful foods. The Mediterranean Diet may offer a host of health benefits, including weight loss, heart and brain health, cancer prevention, and diabetes prevention and control. By following the Mediterranean Diet, you could also keep that weight off while avoiding chronic disease.
Posted onAugust 8, 2021|Comments Off on Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine Losing Effectiveness in Israel
“I’m healthy and young. The vaccine is more dangerous to me than the ‘rona.”
The experts said we’d get back to normal when enough of us got vaccinated. They promised we could start socializing again, stop wearing the masks. Well, it hasn’t turned out that way for Israel, which has one of the highest fully vaccinated rates in the world at 62% fully vaccinated. The predominant (only?) vaccine there is Pfizer/BioNTech’s.
“Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is warning that Israelis over 60 are at risk unless they go get their third booster shot immediately.
“In a recorded audio message meant to be forwarded to friends and family, Bennett said that in the next two to three weeks anyone who is over the age of 60 and has not yet received their third vaccine is six times more likely to become seriously ill from the coronavirus, compared to those who are five days past their third shot.
“Bennett warned that all those over the age of 60 take extreme caution until they get their third dose, including not being in crowded places, and only seeing their grandchildren outside and masked.
“Israel is facing a new wave of infections, with 3,430 testing positive on Wednesday according to the Israeli Ministry of Health, while 250 people are listed as in serious condition. Two weeks ago, that figure stood at 62.”
The article also mentions that if you’re traveling to Israel from the U.S., you have to quarantine upon arrival, even if you’re vaccinated. Gee, that makes me think they don’t have much faith in the vaccine. I’m guessing the quarantine is for 10-14 days.
I wonder if U.S. businesses and governments requiring COVID-19 vaccination for employees (and customers) will change course with all the recent news about disappointing effectiveness.
Posted onAugust 7, 2021|Comments Off on Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccines: Ronald B Brown on Absolute versus Relative Risk Reduction
Ronald B Brown has criticized the initial clinical trials (three months long?) of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for not reporting the absolute risk reduction of COVID-19 infection by the vaccines. What’s been reported is the relative risk reduction, aka efficacy or effectiveness. The absolute risk reductions were 0.7% (Pfizer) and 1.1% (Moderna), compared to relative risk reductions of 95% or so. Brown says the much higher figures for effectiveness (relative risk reduction) tend to convince the general public and many healthcare providers that the vaccines are much more beneficial than in reality. Ignorance of the “absolute versus relative risk reduction” issue is how many physicians get tricked into prescribing drugs that provide very little, if any, benefit to the average individual patient.
Posted onAugust 6, 2021|Comments Off on Where’s the Beef: Six-Month Clinical Data from the Moderna Vaccine EUA Trial
Two years of Moderna stock performance as of Aug 5, 2021.
Moderna’s original clinical trial that led to Emergency Use Authorization enrolled ~30,000 participants, half of whom got a placebo injection instead of the vaccine. I tried, unsuccessfully, to find the six-month clinical data from this trial. Mostly what I found was press releases touting ongoing high “effectiveness” (93%), without defining effectiveness. From an article at Reuters Aug 5:
The six-month data also suggests that Moderna’s vaccine still provides 98% protection against severe disease and was 100% effective at preventing death caused by COVID-19. There were three deaths in the placebo arm of the trial.
Posted onAugust 5, 2021|Comments Off on Wasteful Spending on Heathcare in the U.S.: $1,800 to $5,700 per person per year
From a December 2020 article in the American Journal of Public Health:
Landmark reports from reputable sources have concluded that the United States wastes hundreds of billions of dollars every year on medical care that does not improve health outcomes. While there is widespread agreement over how wasteful medical care spending is defined, there is no consensus on its magnitude or categories. A shared understanding of the magnitude and components of the issue may aid in systematically reducing wasteful spending and creating opportunities for these funds to improve public health.
To this end, we performed a review and crosswalk analysis of the literature to retrieve comprehensive estimates of wasteful medical care spending. We abstracted each source’s definitions, categories of waste, and associated dollar amounts. We synthesized and reclassified waste into 6 categories: clinical inefficiencies, missed prevention opportunities, overuse, administrative waste, excessive prices, and fraud and abuse.
Aggregate estimates of waste varied from $600 billion to more than $1.9 trillion per year, or roughly $1800 to $5700 per person per year. Wider recognition by public health stakeholders of the human and economic costs of medical waste has the potential to catalyze health system transformation.
Posted onAugust 4, 2021|Comments Off on Does Smoking Prevent COVID-19?
A few of you are old enough to remember cigarette ads from the 1950s in which physicians touted the health benefits of cigarettes. Several recent international studies suggest that current tobacco smokers are half as likely to get COVID-19. Whether related to nicotine, one or more of hundreds of other chemicals in smoke, or some other factor is unclear.
If you wanna go down this rabbit hole, click through to this article at American Council on Science and Health. Dig deeper by reading the comments there and read the links in the article. You’ll learn about the scientific process and conflicts of interest.
If that’s TL;DR for you. Here’s an excerpt from Cameron English’s post at ACSH:
“No one should take up smoking for fear of COVID-19, and nothing in tobacco has been shown to prevent or treat SARS-COV-2 infection. The point is that we don’t have enough evidence to determine if this protective effect is real or, if so, what causes it. Anyone who says otherwise, whether they’re trying to confirm or debunk it, is overstepping the research. We need (and should want) better data to find out what’s going on.”
Posted onAugust 3, 2021|Comments Off on COVID-19: A West Coast Outbreak of Delta Variant Among the Vaccinated
“Didn’t Dr Fauci say we’d get back to normal after our vaccinations? If the masks work, why the six feet? If the six feet work, why the masks? If distancing and masks work, why the lockdowns? If those three measures work, why the vaccines? If the vaccines are safe, why the “no liability” clause?
At least 233 staffers at a pair of San Francisco hospitals have tested positive for COVID-19, the majority of whom were fully vaccinated but became infected with the delta variant.
Fifty-five cases were discovered among staff members at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital as of July 31, Cristina Padilla, a public relations officer at the hospital, told The Hill. Of those who tested positive, roughly 75 to 80 percent were fully vaccinated, according to The New York Times. More than 7,000 staff members reportedly work at the facility. [I question the 7,000 staffers since they only have 386 beds.]
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center, said 183 staff members had tested positive as of Friday, 153 of whom were fully vaccinated, the Times reported.
Most of the infections were reportedly from the highly infectious delta variant, which has taken hold in the U.S. as the dominant COVID-19 strain.
Two of the infected staff members from UCSF Medical Center were hospitalized, according to the Times.
Padilla told The Hill that none of those who tested positive at San Francisco General required hospitalization. Most of the infections caused mild to moderate symptoms, according to the Times.
The article said that UCSF’s chief medical officer, Lukejohn Day, indicated that “cases would be far worse if staff members were not vaccinated.” Ivor Cummins would disagree with that. Either the delta variant generally is not very dangerous or they know how to treat it much better in the UK.
Steve Parker, M.D.
PS: Thank you, WordPress, for not censoring and/or de-platforming bloggers who post material not 100% in line with the official narrative.
Advanced Mediterranean Diet 