September 5, 2024 - "A new paper in JAMA analyzes survey respondents in the US over the period of time right after the Covid pandemic started in April 2020 and through early 2024. It reveals a significant decline in trust in physicians and hospitals, dropping from 71.5% in April 2020, to 40.1% in January 2024. Lower trust levels were strongly associated with reduced likelihood of receiving Covid-19 vaccinations and boosters....
"One incredibly interesting part of this study was the revealing of the open-text responses that survey respondents gave for their lack of trust. From the supplement, here are the top 4 themes why patients have lost trust.
Financial Motives Over Patient Care: This theme includes perceptions of healthcare as primarily profit-driven, where financial incentives outweigh patient welfare. Respondents believe that decisions are made based on profitability rather than the best interests of patients.
Poor Quality of Care and Negligence: Responses that mention experiences of neglect, inadequate care, misdiagnosis, or dismissive attitudes from healthcare providers fall under this category. This also includes perceptions of healthcare professionals not listening or taking patient concerns seriously.
Influence of External Entities and Agendas: Here, the focus is on the belief that decisions in healthcare are unduly influenced by pharmaceutical companies, government entities, or other external powers. This includes suspicions of dishonesty or withholding information for nonmedical reasons.
Discrimination and Bias: Responses indicating experiences or beliefs that healthcare providers exhibit bias, discrimination, or lack of cultural competency. This can include racial discrimination, gender bias, or insensitivity to patient backgrounds.
"Another interesting analysis in the supplement was the inclusion of political affiliation. The tendency for Republicans and Independents to have lower trust overall than Democrats should not surprise anyone, as the polarization of vaccines, masks, and lockdowns made it clear that the left was in favor of doing anything at all in the name of combating Covid, no matter the cost.
"As we witnessed firsthand in 2020 and 2021, and even today, the condescension, overt political motivations, and outright derision directed at those who were rationally skeptical of a brand-new vaccine, masks, and the extreme and harmful lockdown policies by medical practitioners and hospital systems have finally led to an inevitable consequence: the public simply does not trust them anymore. And not by a small margin — there has been a massive swing from majority trust to majority distrust. For anyone who was paying attention, this is not shocking....
"I hope that the practitioners we truly need to rely on when we require medical care see this as a wake-up call and understand just how much damage they have done to their long-term doctor-patient relationships. Now, instead of starting from a place of trust, they are starting from a deficit. This is not just bad for their careers; it’s bad for the patients."
Alberta virologist Dr. Roger Hodkinson has been charged with professional misconduct by the provincial regulatory body for giving his medical opinion on the coronavirus during the pandemic.
July 24, 2024 - "The Democracy Fund (TDF) is defending Dr. Roger Hodkinson in his legal fight with respect to several complaints brought against him by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA).
Dr, Roger Hodkinson (courtesy TDF).
"The CPSA has charged Dr. Hodkinson with professional misconduct, alleging that he wrongly commented on the efficacy of masks and social distancing in preventing the spread of COVID-19, the usefulness of vitamin D in protecting against COVID-19, the necessity and unqualified safety of COVID-19 vaccines, and the COVID-19 testing protocol.
Dr. Hodkinson's lawyer, Sarah Miller, said: 'The CPSA continues to prosecute Dr. Hodkinson for expressing his opinions on the government's response to COVID-19. We are proceeding to a five-day hearing in November for the CPSA to hear and determine whether Dr. Hodkinson breached his obligations under the Code of Ethics and Professionalism. The hearing represents a considerable use of resources to exercise authority over Dr. Hodkinson's public expression of his closely held beliefs.'
"About The Democracy Fund: Founded in 2021, The Democracy Fund (TDF) is a Canadian charity dedicated to constitutional rights, advancing education, and relieving poverty. TDF promotes constitutional rights through litigation and public education and supports an access to justice initiative for Canadians whose civil liberties have been infringed by government lockdowns and other public policy responses to the pandemic."
Ontario ER physician Mark Trozzi has asked Elon Musk for financial help to appeal a license suspension imposed by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons for opposing Covid-19 mandates and handing out medical exemptions.
March 28, 2024 - "Dr. Mark Trozzi has called on Twitter ('X') billionaire Elon Musk for support in his case against the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO). Trozzi, of Bancroft, is the second Ontario-based medical doctor to be usurped by the regulatory body and call on Musk for assistance in court.
"Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill of Brampton reached out to Musk to help settle her $300,000 court bill before the March 25 deadline after his promise to help those censored by their employers on the platform.... Gill’s was a failed libel case; the court ordered her to pay $1.1 million in legal fees [when] she took detractors to court for a smear campaign against the pediatrician after she spoke against COVID-19 mandates. 'We will help,' Musk replied to her tweet.
"Trozzi ... has filed an appeal with the divisional court of Ontario after the CPSO suspended his license for six months for opposing COVID-19 public health measures [sic]. Trozzi, along with fellow Ontario physicians Patrick Phillips and Crystal Luchkiw, earlier said orders were unconstitutional and the CPSO was targeting 'anti-vaxxers' and 'anti-maskers.'
"However, the three doctors’ claims were rejected by a CPSO tribunal in January. The college accused Trozzi of 'professional misconduct by making misleading, incorrect or inflammatory statements about vaccinations, treatments and public health measures concerning COVID-19 through his email and online communications about the pandemic,' according to the National Post.
"After the ruling, Trozzi published an in-depth open letter on the 'Plan-demic,' arguing COVID-19 wasn’t the real threat.... 'I have resigned all my hospital positions thus forfeiting my entire income. I have sold my house and greatly downscaled my family’s standard of living, while surviving on limited savings and committed myself to do my part to help counter the criminal covid enterprise,' the letter said....
'[C]herished rights have been denied to Canadians by governments and regulators during the so-called Covid-19 pandemic. Our mission is to restore them by making principled arguments before regulatory tribunals and the courts based on the common law, administrative law, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the first principles of liberal democratic government,' Trozzi’s website states, highlighting his crowdfunding site Justice for Medicine.
"Musk has yet to respond to Trozzi's plea for help."
March 23, 2024 - "Billionaire and Tesla owner Elon Musk has pledged to support a Canadian physician entangled in legal and professional challenges due to her criticism of COVID-19 lockdown measures. Musk’s response came after Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill asked him for help on X, the social media platform he now owns.
“'As one of the first Canadian MDs to oppose lockdowns on Twitter in 2020… I’ve been persecuted for four years solely due to my Tweets. Please help a fellow Canadian! ~$300k in court-ordered costs due in four days,' said Gill. She included a screenshot of a post from Musk last August vowing to support those facing hardship from employers over things they do on X....
"In response to Gill’s request, Musk wrote in a reply, 'We will help.'
"Gill spoke about her ordeal in a podcast interview with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the creator of the Great Barrington Declaration that criticized lockdowns early in the COVID pandemic. 'I was starting to read about the devastating, catastrophic harms of the actual lockdowns. All of this compelled me to speak out in the summer of 2020 about everything that was being ignored, both in the media’s coverage and in the daily conversations that Canadians were having. I didn’t anticipate the response that I received,' said Gill.
"Just weeks before the World Health Organization officially declared the pandemic, Gill said she was considered a leader in her profession — one who received positive media coverage. 'Suddenly, when I went against the narrative, I was seen as a black sheep and as someone who should be shunned,” said Gill. “Rather than engaging in any sort of debate or having any conversation about what I was trying to convey, I was being attacked with labels. The media didn’t seem interested in actually hearing why I was concerned.' Despite even to this day not receiving a single patient complaint to her professional regulator, Gill became the target of a 'very malicious campaign'....
"In an effort to clear her name, Gill launched a defamation lawsuit against the individuals she accused of campaigning against her. Before any evidence was heard, an anti-SLAPP motion was brought forward. Anti-SLAPP legislation intends to prevent powerful entities from silencing 'the small guy.' However, Gill said it was used in the opposite fashion against her, where well-funded defendants with big teams of lawyers succeeded in having her lawsuit dismissed. In October 2022, an Ontario judge ruled a $1.2 million cost order against Gill. She appealed both the cost and actual decisions.
"Finally, Gill was ordered to pay $300,000 ... with a deadline at the end of March. This is money she said she doesn’t have following her legal battles.... She added that she could have never imagined that the cost of speaking truth to power or being compelled to speak her conscience would lead to this.
“'Everything I warned about in 2020, which at the time was based on peer-reviewed evidence, has now come to pass,' said Gill. 'It’s been absolutely heart-wrenching and devastating watching the carnage unfold. And being helpless. Because it was all completely preventable'....
"As of Friday afternoon, Gill’s fundraiser was at $170,000 of its $300,000 goal."
Brampton Ontario doctor Kulvinder Kaur Gill faces financial ruin after a libel suit against those who defamed her on social media for her opposition to Covid lockdowns was dismissed without trial and she was ordered to pay their legal fees.
March 21, 2024 - "As a physician, I see the best of my generation being destroyed.... There is a great purge occurring in the medical establishment, a purge that runs along strict ideological and ethical lines. The issue of Covid-era 'misinformation' is the main pretext for this purge, but there is no reason to believe it will stop there. And although the American medical system is the most Pharma-captured and Deep State-riddled medical system in the world, this purge is by no means limited to the United States.
"The list of honest, courageous, and self-sacrificing physicians and scientists who have been fired, censored, de-licensed, defamed, subjected to lawfare, or otherwise persecuted in the name of Covid conformity is far too long to list. Just a very few of the names include Peter McCullough, Meryl Nass, and Martin Kulldorff in the USA, David Cartland and Ahmad Malik in the UK, and Kulvinder Kaur in Canada.
"Dr. Kaur faces imminent financial ruin at the hands of the Canadian court system, which has imposed a punitive $300,000 ‘cost order’ upon her, due by the end of March 2024. This is in addition to other legal expenses she has incurred since the beginning of the Covid lockdowns. Dr. Kaur’s cardinal sin was speaking out against the harsh lockdowns imposed upon citizens of Ontario, where she practices medicine, treating mostly immigrant families and other poor members of the population.
"Stanford epidemiologist and Great Barrington Declaration co-author Jay Bhattacharya recently interviewed Dr. Kaur on his Illusion of Consensus podcast. I encourage readers to watch this interview. It is compelling for a number of reasons, not the least of which is this: Kulvinder Kaur comes across as the most modest, sincere, and likable person imaginable – quite literally the last person who would invoke the ire of any honest organization, and quite possibly the first person you would want as your personal physician.... Her combination of earnestness and modesty shines through her descriptions of both her first class education and scientific training and her clinical practice, devoted as it is to poor immigrants, in large part because she herself is an immigrant.
"Prior to Covid, she says, she was a very conventional practitioner, observant of the standard vaccine schedules, and never in trouble with the authorities. But when the lockdowns began, she felt compelled by conscience to speak out against the collateral harms these repressive measures caused her patients. She cited sources such as the Great Barrington Declaration. She took to Twitter. She refused to shut up. And so, the Canadian establishment set out to destroy her.
"In her interview with Jay, Kulvinder Kaur appears to me to be very idealistic, sometimes almost to the point of naivete. At one point she states, 'I never thought that this would be the cost of speaking truth to power.' She seems genuinely surprised that even now, when her predictions from early in the pandemic have all been proven correct, she is still being persecuted.
"The ideologues are hell-bent on destroying the idealist, and the idealist cannot understand why. But persecuted she is. The Canadian government, media, and medical establishment long ago determined that it would publicly crucify (and financially ruin) this highly intelligent, deeply moral, and utterly sincere young woman. They intend to make an example of her, just in case some other idealistic young physician is thinking of following in her footsteps.
"A GiveSendGo fund for Dr. Kaur’s financial crisis has been started, and I encourage readers to donate to it as soon as possible if they are able. She needs to raise $300,000 by the end of March. Hopefully the goal will be reached, and Dr. Kaur will be saved from financial ruin.
"But the ruin of medicine in the so-called Western democracies will continue apace. The best of my generation of physicians will be destroyed by the madness of their corrupt, captured, and deteriorating profession. And then where will patients turn for care?.... The outstanding, outspoken, and independent physicians will be run out of the profession. The remaining rank-and-file, already more submissive than their persecuted betters, will quietly comply with orders from above, knowing what will happen to them if they don’t. The newly minted doctors, freshly indoctrinated in today’s Pharma-driven curricula, and pre-selected for compliance via mandatory vaccinations and other human resource department litmus tests, will goose-step through their practice directives and clinical protocols, no questions asked."
August 17, 2022: "Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones stated that she was 'looking at all options,' but was strongly criticized because this might lead to increased privatization. Of note is that health care is already 30% privately-funded in Canada. Meanwhile, Quebec is short 8,000 health workers compared to last summer. As a result, it is partially closing six emergency departments and will reduce services in some neonatal units.
"Yet consider countries ranked highest for health outcomes and wait times such as Denmark, Austria, France, Germany, and Belgium. They all have in common universal healthcare that covers everyone, but also a hybrid public-private system..... [W]e need to look at Europe — not the United States — to see what these countries are doing right. [As] Vancouver orthopedic surgeon Dr. Brian Day stated, 'Canada is the only country in the world where accessing private health care is outlawed, and where you’re forced onto a state wait-list of harm'....
"from 1997 [through] 2021, the cost of our public health insurance has increased by 210.2%. We spend over 11% of our GDP on health care — more than 27 comparable [OECD] countries. Yet among OECD countries, we are 25th of 26 in acute care beds/1000 population, 26th of 28 in MDs, 14th of 24 in nurses and 21st of 24 in MRI scanners....
"Residents of Nova Scotia face long waits in the emergency department and last year 43,000 left without being seen. At least 15 ERs have closed in British Columbia, 20 in Ontario, six in Quebec, three in New Brunswick, one in PEI, and a dozen in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. Most of this is due to a severe staffing shortage, especially of nurses. Last September, nearly half of Nova Scotia nurses worked overtime — the highest of any province. Many across Canada are burning out from poor working conditions and lack of financial incentives, and are leaving for Alberta or the United States.
"The Ontario College of Nursing processed only 2,000 applications last year and 4,300 to date this year; 26,000 are still waiting. Ironically, a nurse from Windsor recently applied for a licence in Michigan and was approved in only four days. Foreign-trained MDs are likewise limited. An advocacy group represents over 1,200 international medical graduates who have not yet been able to obtain a licence to practice in Canada. Of note is that last October, the Labour Mobility Act now requires Alberta regulatory bodies to review and accept or reject credentials within 20 business days; Quebec and all provinces should follow this example.
"Our Canadian health system is in crisis due to lack of adequate federal funding, a severe shortage of nurses and other health professionals, and the need to revamp the system to look for efficiencies. Germany has twice the population of Canada, yet we have 10 times as many health administrators. Money could be saved by pruning the bloated number of paper-pushers in hospitals and ministries of health, and redirecting savings into hiring more nurses and other health workers....
"[I]n Ontario, nurses’ salary increases have been limited to 1% annually by Bill 124, which should be repealed. Many orthopedic and other surgeons are underemployed and the increased money could provide increased OR time (possibly in privately-funded free-standing facilities) to shorten wait times for knee and hip replacements and cataract extractions.... One obvious fear of increased privatization is that nurses, MDs, etc. will leave the public system for the private one, leaving the former even more short-staffed. Hence ... adequate sick benefits and other financial incentives must be provided in the public system immediately so as to encourage nurses and other to return to the workforce....
"If federal transfer payments do not increase and various creative means are not found to alleviate the staffing shortage, the status quo will continue. Most Canadians will continue to wait, many will suffer, and a few will die unnecessarily.... We must be open-minded, not fear change, and should learn from Europe how to successfully blend public and private systems so as to be more efficient and yet fair to all patients and health professionals."
April 27, 2022 - "Doctors who criticise vaccines or lockdown policies on social media could face being struck off if regulators rule they are guilty of spreading fake news.... The core guidance for medics has been updated for the first time in almost a decade to cover media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The rules on use of social media include a duty to be 'honest' and 'not to mislead', as well as to avoid abuse or bullying.
"The draft regulations from the General Medical Council (GMC) - which the watchdog describes as a 21st-century version of the Hippocratic Oath - also say doctors must speak out if they encounter 'toxic' workplace cultures that threaten patient safety. And they say medics must take action if they encounter workplace bullying, harassment or discrimination.
"The watchdog regulates doctors, who can face a range of sanctions - including being struck off the medical register - if they are found to have failed in their duties.
Charlie Massey, the chief executive of the GMC, said ... the fundamental principles of the guidance remained the same, but had been updated to reflect the modern world. 'We’ve had feedback that doctors want more clarity on using social media. We are already clear that doctors must be honest and trustworthy in their communications, and are now emphasising that this applies to all forms of communication. The principles remain the same whether the communication is written, spoken or via social media,' he said.
"The use of social media by medics has become an increasingly vexed issue during the pandemic. In December a judge ruled that the GMC’s interim orders tribunal had made an 'error of law' when it ordered a GP accused of spreading misinformation to stop discussing Covid on social media. Dr Samuel White, who was a partner at a practice in Hampshire, raised concerns about vaccines and claimed 'masks do nothing' in a video posted last June. The GMC’s Interim Orders Tribunal imposed restrictions on Dr White's registration as a result. But the High Court said this decision was 'wrong' under human rights law....
[T]he tribunal [had] concluded Dr White's way of sharing his views 'may have a real impact on patient safety'. It found Dr White allegedly shared information to a 'wide and possibly uninformed audience' and did not give an opportunity for 'a holistic consideration of Covid-19, its implications and possible treatments'. But the GP's barrister, Francis Hoar, argued the restrictions imposed on his client's registration were a 'severe imposition' on his freedom of expression.
"The draft guidance says doctors can be held accountable for promoting misleading information or stepping outside areas of their expertise. They are told to 'be honest and trustworthy … make clear the limits of your knowledge.. [and to] make reasonable checks to make sure any information you give is not misleading. This applies to all forms of written, spoken and digital communication,' the draft guidance states.
"And doctors are warned that online rows and trolling could jeopardise their professional futures. 'You must not abuse, discriminate against, bully, exploit, or harass anyone, or condone such behaviour by others. This applies to all interactions, including on social media and networking sites,' the draft rules state."
April 8, 2022 - "'If there's one thing they do right in Cuba, it's health care,' said Michael Moore in a 2007 interview. 'Cuba has the best health care system in the entire area,' according to Angela Davis, 'and in many respects much better than the U.S.' 'One thing that is well established in the global health community is the strength of the Cuban national health system,' said Clare Wenham, a professor at the London School of Economics. Claims like these have appeared in hundreds of documentaries, newspaper articles, and magazine features.... It's a testament to the effectiveness of the Castro regime's propaganda apparatus that this myth, so deeply at odds with reality, has persisted for so long.
"'The Cuban health care system is destroyed,' Rotceh Rios Molina, a Cuban doctor who escaped the country's medical mission while stationed in Mexico, tells Reason in Spanish. 'The doctor's offices are in very bad shape.' 'People are dying in the hallways,' says José Angel Sánchez, another Cuban doctor who defected from the medical mission in Venezuela, interviewed by Reason in Spanish.
According to Rios, Sánchez, and others with firsthand experience practicing medicine in Cuba, the island nation's health care system is a catastrophe. Clinics lack the most routine supplies, from antibiotics to oxygen and even running water, and their hallways are often occupied by ailing patients because there aren't enough doctors to treat their most basic needs. Cuban hospitals are unsanitary and decrepit. It's exactly what you'd expect in a country impoverished by communism.
"The only thing that's changed is that because of social media and the COVID-19 pandemic, the government's propaganda facade has finally started to shatter. And yet in 2021, some journalists were falling for the claim that the Cuban government had set the model in its response to COVID-19. By July of that year, ordinary Cubans had taken to the streets — and to Twitter and Facebook — in part to call attention to what the pandemic had actually meant for Cuban hospitals and clinics. In the 15 years since the release of Michael Moore's documentary Sicko, which celebrated Cuban health care, everyday citizens have been armed with smartphones, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, empowering them to tell the truth about what it's really like to walk into a Cuban hospital.
"So how did the Castro regime's propaganda machine manage to fool so many for so long? According to Maria Werlau, executive director of the Cuba Archive, the answer lies with Cuba's foreign medical missions, which are teams of health care professionals dispatched to provide emergency and routine care to foreign countries. The first medical mission was sent to Algeria in 1963. After the fall of the Soviet Union, when the government lost its major source of aid, the program was ramped up significantly as a source of revenue for the impoverished nation. The Cuban government has promoted the missions as a humanitarian endeavor, and a demonstration of the community spirit and selflessness central to the communist project....
"The myth of Cuban physicians as selfless healers started to fracture in 2000 when two doctors from the mission in Zimbabwe slipped a note to an airline official with the handwritten word kidnapped. They had denounced the Castro regime and were being brought back to Cuba against their will, possibly to face jail time. Instead, they wound up in the U.S. and were granted political asylum.... In 2006, the George W. Bush administration created the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program, granting health care workers stationed abroad permanent resident status. All they had to do was make it to a U.S. embassy. Over 7,000 medical workers took advantage of the program.... In 2018, a group of Cuban doctors who defected from the medical missions sued the Pan American Health Organization, which is part of the World Health Organization, for aiding in human trafficking and for earning $75 million in fees by acting as a middle man'....
"When defenders of Cuban health care acknowledge its deficiencies at all, they usually point the finger at the U.S. trade embargo, which has been in place since 1962. But the deplorable conditions in Cuban hospitals have more to do with a lack of basic health care supplies, which are readily available from other countries, such as antibiotics and steroids. Cuban hospitals also have a shortage of beds and stretchers, and some were without water for six to 12 hours a day at the height of the pandemic....
"Despite reports early in the pandemic that Cuba was an outlier in its success in combating COVID-19, by August of 2021 The New York Times was reporting that Cuba's health care system was 'reeling,' with oxygen supplies running low, a shortage of syringes, and mortuaries and crematories 'overwhelmed.' Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel blamed the U.S. trade embargo."
November 26, 2021 - "With natural exposure immunity and early outpatient treatment and when combined with no reports of increased lethality, the WHO’s reaction of generating panic toward 'Omicron' is causing needless fear.... So too with the Biden administration’s newly imposed travel restrictions, which will achieve nothing and will once again disrupt trade and violate human rights.
"The WHO has said that the Omicron variant can spread more quickly than other variants. Likely true. The virus is behaving just like how viruses behave. They are mutable and mutate and via Muller’s ratchet, we expect this to be milder and milder mutations and not more lethal ones.... The virus will mutate downward so that it can use the host (us) to propagate itself via our cellular metabolic machinery. The Delta has shown us this: it is very infectious and mostly non-lethal. Especially for children and healthy people. So is the WHO panicking the globe needlessly? Is this Covid-19 February 2020 once again?
"The problem with South Africa as is with Australia and New Zealand and even island nations like Trinidad is ... low natural immunity to SAR-Cov-2. This is because, as we witnessed over the last year and more, if you lock down your society too long and too hard, you deny the nation and population from inching closer to population-level herd immunity. And you have no economy or society [into] which to reemerge. You devastate your society for a pathogen that is largely harmless to the vast majority of people especially children....
"These nations thought that they could stay locked down and wait for a vaccine. This is a reasonable view though I was against lockdowns as they would and did cause crushing harms on especially poor persons and children. The problem is there was an opportunity cost because the vaccine we were waiting on was suboptimally developed without the proper safety testing or assessment of effectiveness.
"We have data that the Pfizer vaccine loses 40% of antibodies per month, meaning in 3 months post-shot, you have low effective vaccinal immunity.... For example, the vaccine has failed to stop infection and spread against Delta. We have research findings by Singanayagam et al. (fully vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections have peak viral load similar to unvaccinated cases and can efficiently transmit infection in household settings, including to fully vaccinated contacts), by Chau et al. (viral loads of breakthrough Delta variant infection cases in vaccinated nurses were 251 times higher than those of cases infected with prior strains early 2020), and by Riemersma et al. (no difference in viral loads when comparing unvaccinated individuals to those who have vaccine 'breakthrough' infections and if vaccinated individuals become infected with the delta variant, they may be sources of SARS-CoV-2 transmission to others) that reveal the vaccines have very suboptimal efficacy.
"This situation of the vaccinated being infectious and transmitting the virus has also emerged in seminal nosocomial outbreak papers by Chau et al. (HCWs in Vietnam), the Finland hospital outbreak (spread among HCWs and patients), and the Israel hospital outbreak (spread among HCWs and patients). These studies have also revealed that the PPE and masking were essentially ineffective within the healthcare setting. All of the HCWs were double-vaccinated yet there was extensive spread to themselves and their patients.
"In addition, Nordström et al. (vaccine effectiveness of Pfizer against infection waned progressively from 92% day 15-30 to 47% day 121-180, and from day 211 and onwards no effectiveness), Suthar et al. (a substantial waning of antibody responses and T cell immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, at 6 months following the second immunization), Yahi et al. (with Delta variant, neutralizing antibodies have a decreased affinity for the spike protein, whereas facilitating antibodies display a strikingly increased affinity), Juthani et al. (higher numbers of patients with severe or critical illness in those who received the Pfizer vaccine), Gazit et al. (SARS-CoV-2-naïve vaccinees had a 13-fold increased risk for breakthrough infection with the Delta variant, and substantially elevated risk of symptomatic Covid and hospitalization), and Acharya et al. (no significant difference in cycle threshold values between vaccinated and unvaccinated, asymptomatic and symptomatic groups infected with Delta) collectively reveal the poor efficacy and even negative efficacy of the Covid vaccines. Levine-Tiefenbrun et al. reports that the viral load reduction effectiveness declines with time after vaccination, 'significantly decreasing at 3 months after vaccination and effectively vanishing after about 6 months.'
"As an example, the Swedish study (retrospective with 842,974 pairs (N=1,684,958) is particularly alarming for it shows that while the vaccine provides temporary protection against infection, the efficacy declines below zero and then to negative efficacy territory at approximately 7 months, underscoring that the vaccinated are highly susceptible to infection and eventually become highly infected (more so than the unvaccinated). A further example emerges from Ireland whereby reporting suggests that the Waterford city district has the State’s highest rate of Covid-19 infections, while the county also boasts the highest rate of vaccination in the Republic (99.7% vaccinated). Reports are that the U.S. Covid-19 deaths for 2021 surpassed the deaths from 2020, leading some to state that 'more people have died from COVID-19 in 2021, with most adults vaccinated and nearly all seniors), than in 2020 when nobody was vaccinated.'
"Thus these nations that locked down and stayed that way are in a quandary for they do not know what to do now. If you open you will get surges in infection. Where is the money that was to go to hospital preparation?....
"We have a lot of natural immunity in the US, e.g. near 65-70% of the population. The open states (those that did not lock down too long and too hard and opened quickly) will likely do very well with this Omicron or any new variant. This also is the power of natural immunity. And we need not forget the potency of the overlooked ‘innate’ immunity with the innate antibodies and innate natural killer cellular compartment. This innate response is particularly potent in children (our first line of defense against pathogens) and is what has spared children from Covid and how children typically stave off pathogens, especially young children still laying down immunological memory.
"Moreover, there is no reporting of increased virulence/lethality of this new Omicron variant. As yet this will remain the case based on Delta and prior variants. There are no guarantees but we operate based on risk and all things point to the same for this new variant. Just because there is a wave in SA does not mean that there will be waves in the US or Israel or other places with greater natural immunity. This was the prize of letting people enjoy day-to-day living. The nations that have ended lockdowns are likely to move past this new variant scare.... This is more of an overreaction by the WHO and governments and much ado about nothing."
Dr Alexander ... PhD. ... has experience in epidemiology and in the teaching [of] clinical epidemiology, evidence-based medicine, and research methodology. Dr Alexander is a former Assistant Professor at McMaster University in evidence-based medicine and research methods; former COVID Pandemic evidence-synthesis consultant advisor to WHO-PAHO Washington, DC (2020) and former senior advisor to COVID Pandemic policy in Health and Human Services (HHS) Washington, DC (A Secretary), ... currently a COVID-19 consultant researcher in the US-C19 research group.
"Dr. Bridle is a viral immunologist.... One arm of his research program is dedicated to designing and optimizing novel biotherapies ... to harness the natural power of a patient's immune system to eliminate their own cancer cells ... to treat cancers more effectively, safely, and at lower cost than current options. The second arm of his research program focuses on studying host responses to viruses and other inflammatory stimuli.... The Bridle lab is harnessing their expertise in making potent cancer vaccines and combining this with their interest in anti-viral immunity to develop vaccines to protect against infectious diseases such as those caused by highly pathogenic coronaviruses.... He also counts it a privilege to teach students in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, graduate and undergraduate programs at the University of Guelph." Read more: https://ovc.uoguelph.ca/pathobiology/people/faculty/Byram-W-Bridle
U of G prof says he is receiving workplace harassment after sharing vaccine concerns | Guelph Today - Kenneth Armstrong: June 19, 2021 - "A University of Guelph professor says he is being harassed by colleagues after speaking out publicly about concerns he has with current COVID-19 vaccines. Byram Bridle is an associate professor of viral immunology at U of G and for over a year has been speaking publicly about concerns he has about current COVID-19 vaccines being offered to the public.... In a previous interview with GuelphToday, Bridle expressed concerns with vaccines, but did not label himself as anti-vaccination. 'As an immunologist, I like to point out that I really promote the value of vaccines,' he told GuelphToday last December.
"Bridle ... was interviewed on a Global News radio program two weeks ago where he was asked if there could be a possible link between reports of heart inflammation and COVID-19 vaccines. 'I felt I could express concern and that there might be a possible link between this heart inflammation that is occurring and these COVID-19 vaccines,' said Bridle. He said his life was turned upside down after the interview aired and likened the response by many to a nuclear bomb going off.
'I have been undergoing daily attacks either through email or people attempting to call me,' said Bridle. “I should also mention I am experiencing harassment — lots of harassment — in the workplace'.... One form of harassment, said Bridle, is a web site that was registered under his name.... He said the web site that was created is libellous and a Twitter account that was also developed seeks to slander him. Bridle also claims that private medical information about his parents was leaked....
Controversial U of G prof criticizes school's vaccine mandate | Guelph Today - Daniel Caudle: Sep 27, 2021 - "University of Guelph associate professor Byram Bridle has penned an open letter to U of G president Charlotte Yates calling for an end to the vaccine mandate. The letter from Bridle, associate professor of viral immunology at the Department of Pathobiology, requested the ‘favour of a reply’ from Yates, asking that the response not be deferred to public health officials or a committee. 'Instead, a reply with the scientific rigour expected from a scholarly colleague rebutting each of my comments and addressing each question' ... Bridle’s letter stated.
"Bridle’s letter states he could not be in stronger disagreement with Yates for forcing the current COVID-19 vaccines upon everyone who is part of the campus community. He outlines those with naturally-acquired immunity don’t need to be vaccinated and are at greater risk of harm if vaccinated and how testing for naturally-acquired immunity was a viable option but ignored. The U of G was reporting recently that of those who submitted information, 99 per cent are partially or fully vaccinated and one per cent have requested or been granted an exemption....
"Bridle said in his letter: 'My concern is not primarily for myself. I am using my case to highlight how wrong your vaccine mandate is. I am more concerned for the more vulnerable on our campus. I hold tenure, and if ever there was a time when this was important, it is now.'
"Going against the university's mandate which requires all faculty to have both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine or a medical exemption, Bridle said he has been 'banned' from campus for at least the next year. 'I can show proof of immunity against SARS-CoV-2 but you will not allow me to enter buildings. But someone else can show a receipt saying that someone saw two needles go into their arm and you will allow them to enter,' he said in the letter....
"'I have found it necessary to write this so you can fully understand my perspective. With my life and that of my family, many friends and treasured colleagues being destroyed under your watch, I figure the least you can do is read and consider this very carefully. It is incredible to note that many, if not most, of my on-campus detractors have judged me without reading any of my scientific arguments or talking to me about them.'"
October 26, 2020 - "If you’re on social media and you follow news related to the coronavirus pandemic, chances are you’ve stumbled upon some panicked pandemic posts coming from a man named Eric Feigl-Ding,* a nutritionist and longtime democrat political operative who has succeeded in impersonating a medical professional, and is generating a cult following in the process. With one hysterical tweet after another, Feigl-Ding went from having a small social media following to accumulating a massive army of influence. Feigl-Ding’s consistent elevation of fear and panic, doom and gloom, and his relentless themes of chaos and destruction ,,, brought his accounts millions of clicks and views, and hundreds of thousands of new followers. And he did it all without having a clue what he’s talking about.
"At the beginning of 2020, Feigl-Ding was an unpaid, visiting scientist in Harvard’s nutrition department. His academic research centered entirely around nutrition, diet, and exercise. If Eric Feigl-Ding was interested in pandemics and the study of viruses, his research and academic credentials did not reflect that. When the coronavirus pandemic began to make waves in the media, everything changed. Feigl-Ding, an aspiring politician, appeared to see an opening to influence the masses and build up his brand....
"But ... Feigl-Ding’s frequent use of Harvard-associated credentials to elevate his baseless COVID-19 proclamations greatly upset some of his colleagues (despite many of them advocating for the same draconian measures proposed by Feigl-Ding to 'combat' the virus), and landed him in hot water.... Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard, described him as a 'charlatan exploiting a tenuous connection for self-promotion.' The Association of Health Care Journalists also took notice, reporting that he has 'precisely zero experience in infectious diseases.' An unnamed source at Harvard told the Chronicle on Higher Education in April [2020] that Feigl-Ding has 'been asked many times to stop promoting himself as having specialized knowledge.' In [the second half of 2020], Feigl-Ding updated his profile to show that he is no longer associated with Harvard....
"In order to sell his purported expertise on COVID-19, Feigl-Ding has repeatedly misrepresented his credentials.... [P]rior to the pandemic, Ding clarified that he was a PhD nutritionist, and not a medical doctor. He has since removed the PhD label from his account. [He] has continued to muddy the waters surrounding his credentials, taking it to new heights ... in a pro-Biden Super PAC (funded by Silicon Valley billionaires) ad about the coronavirus pandemic. It features 'Dr' Feigl-Ding in a lab coat with tie ensemble that is associated with the attire worn by a medical doctor.... 'Joe Biden has a plan,' Feigl-Ding says in the ad. 'He listens to medical experts. Joe Biden will do what needs to be done so we can live a healthy, normal life again.' Many reporters were falsely led to believe that Feigl-Ding was one of the medical doctors featured in the ad spot.....
"Feigl-Ding has long been a far-left activist who advances his agenda under a healthcare reform label. In 2018, he ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in Pennsylvania. Universal healthcare and medicare for all, or socialized medicine, was the centerpiece platform of his congressional run. According to Science Magazine, Feigl-Ding was supported in his run by political networks associated with far-left democrat mega donor George Soros, and FEC records reflect that. Feigl-Ding’s ties with Soros go back many years. In 2008, he received a Soros scholarship for his medical school studies (he would later drop out).... Feigl-Ding finished an unimpressive third place in the PA-10 2018 Democratic Primary.
"Feigl-Ding remains closely connected to the Soros network. He currently serves as Treasurer of the The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellows Association (PDSFA). And through his Twitter and Facebook feeds, Feigl-Ding has utilized his unwarranted credential as a 'COVID-19 health expert' to promote his far-left politics, disguised as healthcare expertise, to hundreds of thousands of people....
"Feigl-Ding’s political aspirations did not cease with his failed congressional run. During [the 2020] election cycle, he ... contributed over $110,000 of his own money to a non-profit he founded called Health Justice For All. His organization’s website claims to be 'building a grassroots network to expose Big Pharma, to fight for affordable medications, and to elect a bold new generation of leaders who will not stop fighting Big Pharma until there is health justice for all.' However, there is nothing particularly health oriented about this organization. FEC records show that Feigl-Ding uses Health Justice for All to run attack ads against Republicans and supportive ads for Democrats.
"Social media’s foremost COVID-19 hysteric has leveraged his baseless pandemic panic promotion to achieve newfound fame. [During the presidential race last year] the hyper-political nutritionist turned 'COVID-19 expert' ... dedicated his social media feed to nonstop promotion of Joe Biden’s candidacy for president. What happens next is anyone’s guess, but it’s safe to say that Eric Feigl-Ding’s rise to 'public health' stardom has delivered plenty of opportunities to resurface as a true contender in the future political arena."
September 15, 2021 - "It’s okay to have an incorrect scientific hypothesis. But when new data proves it wrong, you have to adapt. Unfortunately, many elected leaders and public health officials have held on far too long to the hypothesis that natural immunity offers unreliable protection against covid-19 — a contention that is being rapidly debunked by science.
"More than 15 studies have demonstrated the power of immunity acquired by previously having the virus. A 700,000-person study from Israel two weeks ago found that those who had experienced prior infections were 27 times less likely to get a second symptomatic covid infection than those who were vaccinated. This affirmed a June Cleveland Clinic study of health-care workers (who are often exposed to the virus), in which none who had previously tested positive for the coronavirus got reinfected. The study authors concluded that “individuals who have had SARS-CoV-2 infection are unlikely to benefit from covid-19 vaccination.” And in May, a Washington University study found that even a mild covid infection resulted in long-lasting immunity.
"So, the emerging science suggests that natural immunity is as good as or better than vaccine-induced immunity. That’s why it’s so frustrating that the Biden administration has repeatedly argued that immunity conferred by vaccines is preferable to immunity caused by natural infection.... That rigid adherence to an outdated theory is also reflected in President Biden’s recent announcement that large companies must require their employees to get vaccinated or submit to regular testing, regardless of whether they previously had the virus.
"Downplaying the power of natural immunity has had deadly consequences. In January, February and March, we wasted scarce vaccine doses on millions of people who previously had covid. If we had asked Americans who were already protected by natural immunity to step aside in the vaccine line, tens of thousands of lives could have been saved. This is not just in hindsight is 20/20; many of us were vehemently arguing and writing at the time for such a rationing strategy.
"One reason public health officials may be afraid to acknowledge the effectiveness of natural immunity is that they fear it will lead some to choose getting the infection over vaccination..... But we can encourage all Americans to get vaccinated while still being honest about the data. In my clinical experience, I have found patients to be extremely forgiving with evolving data if you are honest and transparent with them. Yet, when asked the common question, 'I’ve recovered from covid, is it absolutely essential that I get vaccinated?' many public health officials have put aside the data and responded with a synchronized 'yes,' even as studies have shown that reinfections are rare and often asymptomatic or mild when they do occur.
"The tide may finally be shifting, as pressure has grown on federal officials. Last week on CNN, Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease specialist, hinted that the government may be rethinking its stance on natural immunity, saying, 'I think that is something that we need to sit down and discuss seriously.' Some large medical centers, like Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Mich., have already announced they will recognize natural immunity for their vaccine requirements. Some Republican governors have picked up on public frustration over how the scientific guidance is inconsistent with the data, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accusing the Biden administration of 'not following science' by crafting its vaccine mandate without taking into consideration 'infection-conferred immunity.'
"The current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention position about vaccinating children also dismisses the benefits of natural immunity. The Los Angeles County School District recently mandated vaccines for students ages 12 and up who want to learn in person. But young people are less likely to suffer severe or long-lasting symptoms from covid-19 than adults, and have experienced rare heart complications from the vaccines. In Israel, heart inflammation has been observed in between 1 in 3,000 and 1 in 6,000 males age 16 to 24; the CDC has confirmed 854 reports nationally in people age 30 and younger who got the vaccine....
"The incorrect hypothesis that natural immunity is unreliable has resulted in the loss of thousands of American lives [and in] avoidable vaccine complications, and damaged the credibility of public health officials. Given the recent mandate announcement by the White House, it would be good for our public health leaders to show humility by acknowledging that the hypothesis they repeatedly trumpeted was not only wrong, but it may be harmful.... Public health officials changing their position on natural immunity, after so much hostility toward the idea, would go a long way in rebuilding the public trust."
Marty Makary is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, editor-in-chief of Medpage Today, and author of “The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care — and How to Fix It.
As readers know, the blog is interested in possible treatments for Covid19. I do not think, like some, that vaccines make those unnecessary; even if it were true (which it is not) that vaccines provided complete protection against catching covid, they would still be useless for those who have already caught it. Plenty of people are still catching it these days, many of whom had no access to a vaccine anyway (either because it was not available, or due to government restrictions). So Covid medicines and treatments should concern us.
One of the medicines I have blogged about is ivermectin (IVM); some of those stories have been encouraging, but the truth is still out there. We are a long way from having all the data we need on the drug's efficacy, or possibly (despite its 40 years of approved use as a human medicine) even on its safety. That is why this weekend's news from Oklahoma was so alarming. I have seen plenty of stories about ivermectin poisoning before, but those usually concluded, like this recent report from Mississippi, that "No one has been hospitalized" from ingesting it. The news out of Oklahoma was different.
The rise in people using ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug usually reserved for deworming horses or livestock, as a treatment or preventative for Covid-19 has emergency rooms “so backed up that gunshot victims were having hard times getting” access to health facilities, an emergency room doctor in Oklahoma said.
This week, Dr. Jason McElyea told KFOR the overdoses are causing backlogs in rural hospitals, leaving both beds and ambulance services scarce.
“The ERs are so backed up that gunshot victims were having hard times getting to facilities where they can get definitive care and be treated,” McElyea said.
“All of their ambulances are stuck at the hospital waiting for a bed to open so they can take the patient in and they don’t have any, that’s it,” said McElyea. “If there’s no ambulance to take the call, there’s no ambulance to come to the call.”
The doctor added that IVM OD victims "have arrived at hospitals with negative reactions like nausea, vomiting, muscle aches, and cramping — or even loss of sight. 'The scariest one that I’ve heard of and seen is people coming in with vision loss,' the doctor said."
The one thing that amazed me was that there was no attempt to corroborate Dr. McElyea's report, or to factcheck it either; it was reported as a factual account requiring no independent support. Rolling Stone did cite a story in Tulsa World, which reported that "a rural emergency room physician, had a gunshot victim in his facility whom for hours he was unable to transfer to a higher level of care because no one had space." However, (1) the gist of that article was that a surge in patients suffering from Covid (not IVM overdoses, which were not mentioned) was causing the problem; and (2) the physician in question turned out to be Dr. McElyea himself.
Not one of the media outlets running the story bothered to pick up a telephone, or get onto the internet, and check with a single Oklahoma hospital. Only one source, BBC News, bothered even to speak with Dr. McElyea to verify his quotes. What McElyea told the BBC, though, was only that "a 'handful' of people overdosing on [IVM] were putting further strain on hospital staff already stretched by a surge in Covid cases." Oklahoma hospitals were being overwhelmed, but by Covid cases, not by "horse dewormer overdoses."
After reading the BBC story, I began thinking that McElyea's original remarks had been either misunderstood, or misrepresented for the sake of a better story, by the KFOR reporter, Katelynn Ogle. Meanswhile, over at Reason magazine, Robby Soave had reached a similar conclusion:
One might be tempted to blame McElyea for embellishing his story.... But a closer look at the KFOR story reveals something quite startling: At no point did McElyea actually come out and say that ivermectin overdoses were straining hospitals.... McElyea clearly states that ivermectin overdoses have been a problem, and he claims that some hospitals are dealing with strain. But he never actually connects these two issues. It was the journalist, Ogle, who added that framing. She did not respond to a request for comment.
Although Dr. Jason McElyea is not an employee of NHS Sequoyah, he is affiliated with a medical staffing group that provides coverage for our emergency room. With that said, Dr. McElyea has not worked at our Sallisaw location in over 2 months. NHS Sequoyah has not treated any patients due to complications related to taking ivermectin. This includes not treating any patients for ivermectin overdose. All patients who have visited our emergency room have received medical attention as appropriate. Our hospital has not had to turn away any patients seeking emergency care.
Once again, no hospitalizations due to use of IVM. But that was not the end of the story. A day later, a second hospital had issued its own statement, which confirmed Dr. McElyea's claims about IVM overdoses. However, the same statement also noted that the doctor had repudiated the KFOR story:
Jason McElyea, D.O. ... has privileges at INTEGRIS Grove Hospital. He also works in several other emergency departments in rural Oklahoma. There is a lot of media attention surrounding remarks reportedly made by Dr. McElyea. While we do not speak on his behalf, he has publicly said his comments were misconstrued and taken out of context. What we can confirm is that we have seen a handful of ivermectin patients in our emergency rooms.... And ... while our hospitals are not filled with people who have taken ivermectin, such patients are adding to the congestion already caused by COVID-19 and other emergencies.
That looks like the end of the story. Dr. McElyea had told KFOR-TV about this "handful" of IVM overdoses (the same word the BBC quoted him as using), some of which might have led to hospitalization (though the hospital does not confirm that any did). KFOR-TV selectively used the good doctor's recorded comments to construct a piece of fake news, and thereby spread misinformation.
Updated, September 8, 2021
One more thing needs to be said on the subject. While the above story was pure misinformation, there was a real problem throughout the summer, not just in Oklahoma, with some people eating horse dewormer paste, and other livestock medications containing IVM, and accidentally overdosing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found it necessary to issue an advisory warning:
Never use medications intended for animals on yourself or other people. Animal ivermectin products are very different from those approved for humans. Use of animal ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in humans is dangerous.... animal drugs are often highly concentrated because they are used for large animals like horses and cows, which weigh a lot more than we do — a ton or more. Such high doses can be highly toxic in humans. Moreover, the FDA reviews drugs not just for safety and effectiveness of the active ingredients, but also for the inactive ingredients. Many inactive ingredients found in products for animals aren’t evaluated for use in people.
While the FDA considers both human- and animal-formulated IVM to be ineffective, it calls only "Use of animal ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in humans" dangerous. IVM for humans is formulated in a dosage safe for humans, and uses only ingredients that the FDA has approved for use in humans. So why were so many people taking animal-formulated products like horse dewormer paste instead?
The answer is simple: The FDA has approved the over-the-counter (OTC) sale of horse dewormer paste; but it has not allowed the OTC sale of IVM formulated for humans. To get the latter, those wishing to try the medicine need a doctor's prescription, which creates a high (in some cases impassable) barrier to access. If Americans could buy ivermectin for humans OTC, there would have been no reason for them to eat horse dewormer paste instead. That the horse dewormer epidemic happened at all was solely due to the FDA's own regulations; any increased danger to Americans caused by it was danger caused by the FDA itself.
(It is theoretically possible to overdose on human-formulated IVM. However, the chance of that is extremely improbable; not only is the dosage fully controlled, but the labelling and the pharmacist are both available to instruct users on how to safely use it.)
In the above video, Dr. McElyea says: "There’s a reason you have to have a doctor to get a prescription for this stuff because it can be dangerous.' However, in this case it looks like the doctor reversed causation. Ivermectin was only dangerous, in this instance, because Americans were taking an unsafe formulation; and they were taking an unsafe formulation because without a doctor's approval they could not take a safe one.
July 6, 2020 - "Singer Richard Ashcroft has pulled out of an upcoming festival in Sheffield, due to its vaccination requirement and participation in government coronavirus research. Ashcroft is one of several Covid-skeptic Britpop icons. The former Verve frontman announced on Monday that he was pulling out of the Tramlines festival in Sheffield later this month, telling fans on Instagram that he 'wouldn’t be playing concerts with restrictions.' Ashcroft said that he made the decision once he learned that Tramlines would be 'part of a government testing programme.'
"Under its Events Research Programme, the British government will allow a full capacity audience to attend the festival without masks and social distancing, and will study any transmission of Covid-19 that occurs over the weekend. Attendees will still need to show either proof of full vaccination or a negative lateral flow test to gain entry....
"Stone Roses singer Ian Brown congratulated Ashcroft on pulling out of the festival, calling it a 'solid decision.' Brown stepped down in March from performing at this September’s Neighbourhood Weekender festival in Warrington, due to the likelihood that it would require proof of vaccination. Brown ... railed on Twitter ... last month that 'every singer and musician who plays an event requiring ‘vaccination’ with a gmo concoction still in experimental trials… is a wretch and a collaborator who deserves to be tarred and feathered.'"
May 4, 2021 - "In mid-April, vaccine scientists and regulators were alerted to six serious adverse events after administration of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine ... in women ages 18 to 48 ... similar to reports from Europe regarding the other adenoviral-based vaccine made by AstraZeneca. The syndrome is best described as vaccine-induced thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT)....
"VITT can result in death, but also, serious and irreversible neurological impairment in an otherwise young healthy individual. After the FDA and CDC were alerted to these six cases, the agencies called for a pause or moratorium to be placed on use of the J&J shot pending further review. A few days later, a panel of experts extended the pause by 1 week, during which time at least nine additional cases of the syndrome were identified. After a hearing to discuss the risk and benefit, the Advisory Committee of Immunology Practices (ACIP) voted to resume vaccination with J&J without any restrictions by age or gender, though they recommended placing a warning....
"The moment six cases were publicly reported and the pause was instituted, a large number of experts expressed anger on social media. They claimed the denominator was the seven million doses of the vaccine that had been administered, and this event rate -- less than one in a million -- was a trivial safety signal. Some were critical of the pause itself -- which I will discuss in the next section -- while others worked to immediately downplay concerns of the risk. A popular series of memes compared the risk of CVT and VITT to the risk of thrombosis from other events. One compared VITT to the risk of clot with oral contraception and thrombosis after COVID-19. These went viral (no pun intended).
"Unfortunately, these comparisons perpetuated at least five errors.
First, one in a million was almost surely the wrong number. The moment a novel safety signal is identified, preliminary estimates of frequency are utterly unreliable.... There are likely more unreported cases, which will raise the numerator, and the denominator should not include all vaccinated individuals. The correct denominator is the fraction of vaccinated individuals in the demographic group experiencing the severe event -- in this case, women ages 18 to 48. I tweeted that I would not be surprised if the true incidence jumped one order of magnitude when we had more facts -- a prediction that has since been vindicated.
Second, comparing the risk of CVT in the setting of VITT to a garden variety venous thromboembolism is misleading. A deep vein thrombosis of the leg is not comparable to one in the cerebral vein in the setting of runaway platelet activation. I have long wondered how much anatomy should be taught in medical school, but I can now confidently say we should definitely clarify the difference between veins that drain the brain and those that drain the leg.
Third, comparing the risk of CVT and VITT after vaccination to the risk of clot after COVID-19 is inappropriate. Getting COVID-19 and getting vaccinated are different. A vaccine's risk cannot be changed, while the risk of COVID-19 can be altered or modified by behavior. In fact, the bulk of this past year has been making behavior changes to modify SARS-CoV-2 risk.
Fourth, some numbers are simply wrong. A 16.5% risk of clot among someone with COVID-19 is an inflated figure that, as far as I can tell, comes from meta-analyses of ICU patients in the first wave. These analyses likely suffer from selection, surveillance, and ascertainment bias, among other problems.
Fifth, comparing the risk of CVT and VITT to oral contraception was objectionable.... [I]nformation about the risk of clot is available before women start taking the pill and they can balance this against their other desires. With CVT and VITT, women did not know the precise risk, still don't know exactly, and these folks were essentially arguing against providing women that information.
"The first crux of the public communication failure is to ask why, when we hear of a novel adverse event, is the reaction of so many experts to downplay or trivialize the risk? Why construct minimizing memes when you have not even gathered all the relevant facts? The answer to this question warrants reflection, but I will offer a hypothesis.
"In 2021, there is clearly a small, but vocal minority of individuals opposed to nearly all vaccinations.... In response, there is a group of individuals on the other extreme. To them, either one must embrace all vaccines for all indications for all ages, or one can be lumped with the other extreme. They favor universal child vaccination of SARS-CoV-2 via an EUA, even before they have the data for that claim. They were quick to embrace vaccination for pregnant woman prior to appropriate trials establishing safety. Suppressing critical thinking to extol vaccines is also wrong and may backfire, but I believe this explains why it occurs. It is, to some degree, a counter-movement against the anti-vaxxers, which can go too far.
"All of this discussion is not a referendum on the pause, which must be considered on its own merits.... [W]hether the FDA and CDC should have issued a total pause for J&J vaccine ... cannot be settled by rhetoric. It requires careful studies. Pauses have complex downstream effects. Yes, they may poison vaccine acceptance. On the other hand, inaction, while the tally of women with CVT and VITT rises, is also a dangerous game."
March 22, 2021 - "What media stories about long Covid ... describe is frightening. Ed Yong, a writer for The Atlantic, has been particularly influential in sculpting this narrative. In 'Long-Haulers Are Redefining Covid-19,' he describes a mysterious syndrome that strikes even those with mild Covid-19, people who never required hospitalization, oxygen, or ventilators, but who never seem to recover. One such individual, he noted, described some five months of 'extreme fatigue, bulging veins, excessive bruising, an erratic heartbeat, short-term memory loss, gynecological problems, sensitivity to light and sounds, and brain fog.' For some of these people, Yong noted, 'months of illness could turn into years of disability'....
"Almost everyone who dies of Covid-19 develops a condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a form of pneumonia.... ARDS can have myriad long-term effects, including physical and cognitive impairments, reduced lung function, mental health problems, and poorer quality of life.... Still, even if these ailments are sometimes acknowledged in media reports of long Covid, most narratives evoke something entirely different: a debilitating syndrome seemingly affecting multiple organ systems for months on end – and perhaps indefinitely – but without any specific diagnosis.... It is also notable that reports often suggest that even those with only mild acute symptoms – or no acute symptoms at all – are at risk....
"Other reports describe something even more frightening. In October, a New York Times article described a dementia-like illness following a mild infection like this: 'It’s becoming known as Covid brain fog: troubling cognitive symptoms that can include memory loss, confusion, difficulty focusing, dizziness and grasping for everyday words.' Another Times story asserted that an entirely resolved mild infection could cause severe psychosis months later, even leading to thoughts of committing murder.
"Reporting on long Covid needs to be more cautious for several reasons.
"First, consider that at least some people who identify themselves as having long Covid appear never to have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus....Yong ... cites a survey of Covid long-haulers in which some two-thirds of them had negative coronavirus antibody tests – blood tests that reveal prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. Meanwhile, a survey organized by a group of self-identified long Covid patients that recruited participants from online support groups reported in late December 2020 that around two-thirds of those surveyed who had undergone blood testing reported negative results.... But ... studyafter study has found that antibodies remain positive in a majority of people with confirmed infections for many months. So it’s highly probable that some or many long-haulers who were never diagnosed using PCR testing in the acute phase and who also have negative antibody tests are 'true negatives'....
"[I]f some proportion of long Covid patients were never infected with SARS-COV-2, it shows that it’s possible for anyone to misattribute chronic symptoms to this virus.... But what’s more notable is that the late-December survey also found virtually no difference in the long-haul symptom burden between those with and without antibody evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection (or any positive test), which undercuts the likelihood of a causative role for SARS-CoV-2 as the predominant driver of chronic symptoms in that cohort. After all, the symptoms reported as consistent with long Covid are associated with many conditions....
"Add to that the fact that the past year has produced skyrocketing levels of social anguish and mental emotional distress.... [T]here’s no question that mental suffering can produce physical suffering. A New England Journal of Medicine report showed that, across multiple continents, about half of people with depression also had unexplained physical symptoms, which often predominated over their mental ones. Sleeping problems, physical and mental slowing, persistent fatigue, and concentration problems (aka 'brain fog') are among the actual criteria for major depression in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V).
"The sad truth is that we are living through a time of incredible trauma, sorrow, and hardship. The loved ones of more than 500,000 Americans who have died of Covid-19 are in mourning. Tens of millions have lost their jobs. This has been a period of prolonged social isolation with no obvious parallel in history. We should expect a surge in both mental anguish and physical suffering that, while connected to the once-in-a-century pandemic, will not always be directly connected to SARS-COV-2 itself....
"[T]he suffering described by long Covid patients is debilitating and real ... [and] every such patient deserves careful, empathetic evaluation and appropriate treatment and referrals.... And rigorous research into the long-term effects of Covid-19 must continue. But at the same time we need to start thinking more critically — and speaking a bit more cautiously — about long Covid."
Adam Gaffney is a pulmonary and critical care physician at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Mass., and an assistant professor in medicine at Harvard Medical School.
