Here are a few quick hit to supplement my last post: OMG: COVID Crisis Just Ended. Most of the world has ended its COVID restrictions by now, but how much have our leaders really learned from this experience? Will those lessons further the public interest or will they be for our leaders own or their party’s benefit only? Perhaps some items below should be considered by our political leaders (and pushed forward by a fed-up and outspoken public). I certainly hope in the U.S. at least, there will be an investigation into the mistakes, failures, neglect, and corruption that we appear to be witnessing at an alarming level the last two years.
Vaccines
Note that while the US currently vaccinates children above the age of five, several countries do not vaccinate anyone under twelve (UK, Sweden, Switzerland, among others). Further, many countries are now recommending just one dose of the vaccine for minors given the risk of myocarditis (heart inflammation).
A new study published by JAMA Pediatrics found adolescents were seven times more likely to be hospitalized for myocarditis after receiving a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
“In weighing the risk of myocarditis against the benefit of preventing severe COVID-19, Norway, the UK, and Taiwan have suspended the second dose of mRNA vaccine for adolescents. Similarly, adolescents (aged 12-17 years) in Hong Kong have been recommended to receive 1 dose of [the Pfizer vaccine] instead of 2 doses 21 days apart since September 15, 2021.”
The US FDA has also acknowledged the risk of myocarditis and adding vaccine warnings. However, the article goes on to say that the FDA has removed data regarding the risks of myocarditis. Perhaps, someone is trying to avoid the consequences of their prior behavior?
FDA removes data
In February, after an inquiry from the Epoch Times, the FDA removed from its website a document with details about an unpublished meta-analysis that found the rates of post-vaccination heart inflammation were higher than any U.S. agency previously had reported. The incidence in males aged 18 to 25 was 148 per 1 million vaccinated. Another peer-reviewed study in Hong Kong of Chinese male adolescents, as WND reported in December, found a rate of 37 per 100,000, or 370 per 1 million. The study found the onset of myocarditis came a median of two days after vaccination.
Today in the U.S., there is a push to vaccinate kids under five years old. Do you want your infants vaccinated when there is so little COVID risk to them and there are so many open questions regarding the safety of vaccines for minors? Given the track record of the last two years, I would wait on vaccinating an infant. Perhaps, time will provide us a more definitive answer or the risk for minors will change, but I would wait until such a time and err on the side of caution.
Aspiration is a vaccination technique I have discussed in prior posts; it appears to be simple and safe and is endorsed by many credentialed physicians and adopted by a few European countries (Germany, Norway, and Denmark among them). Dr. Campbell and his colleagues have noted this very simple adjustment could limit the risk of myocarditis and blood clots further. In the last few minutes of the following video, Dr. Campbell, discusses, and then thoroughly discredits, a written response from a British MP who defends the British government’s lack of support for aspiration. Perhaps the MP was attempting to provide an honest answer, but it seems this person did not due their due diligence in any case. Fast forward to minute 17 for the aspiration discussion:
This video, by the way also highlights the spread of COVID in the U.S. The CDC published a study in January in which they estimated 140 million Americans have been infected by COVID. This is a large percentage of the total population, but still likely a significant under-estimation as millions more have been infected since the study was conducted. Again, it is important to note our method for exiting this pandemic has been natural immunity, not the American Rescue Plan or any of the other supposed remedies touted during the State of the Union speech last week.
The past two years, our leaders have shown they are not as concerned about our kids’ future as they are about their own. Admitting they were wrong, even partially wrong, is a pill they just cannot bear publicly–even when the consequences of continuing failed policies are so tragic. The quote from the FDA official below is from the WND article mentioned above, but it could just as well be one of our government leaders or one of its bureaucrats speaking:
Members of an FDA panel last October that eventually approved the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 expressed concern about the risk of myocarditis. Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, called myocarditis “a side effect that we can’t measure yet,” but he concluded the shots should be given to children anyway.
“We’re never going to learn about how safe the vaccine is unless we start giving it,” he argued. “That’s just the way it goes.”
Rubin makes such a bizarre and troubling statement in support of his argument. It appears he wants all our kids to be part of a grand experiment. Yes, let’s look at the data which says healthy children are not impacted by COVID, but let’s push to vaccinate them in any case. Why not? Lollipops are not good for them either, yet we still tolerate them. Let’s also ignore the vaccine risks that have been posed by many credentialed doctors, including the warning added by the FDA last summer. Let’s not take a more deliberate approach and do more studies and randomized control trials as is recommended for Ivermectin (see below). Let’s just see what happens when we give the vaccine to millions of our kids and then we’ll get back to you later, unless we have moved on to some other problem by then.
I received feedback after sharing this link with liberal family members and friends. First, I received this comment:
CDC is reporting about 2300 cases of myocarditis and have confirmed about 1350 of them. Of the 553 million doses there have been 12,775 preliminary reports of death. Even if all are vaccine related this is 0.0023% of all the doses administered. Reducing to individual risk rather than based on dose it increases the risk to 0.0038%, still not very high as compared to the risk of dying of COVID
I won’t challenge these numbers for now, but I will note that reported cases to the CDC may not constitute the full universe of myocarditis events. Instead, I will do a few calculations of my own.
- For 2 years, US COVID minor deaths are 865 or about 432/year.
- Per the census, there are roughly 75 million minors in the US.
Therefore, a minor’s chance of dying from COVID is 432/75,000,000 per year = .00057%.
Note this number is less than my friend’s calculated risk of death from the vaccine, less by a factor of four, although both are indeed very small.
I calculated the risk for all kids, regardless of pre-existing conditions, but the chance of a healthy minor dying from COVID is far less as most minor deaths have been of those with underlying health conditions. Furthermore, the chance a healthy minor who has natural immunity dying from COVID is reduced even more.
So, why vaccinate a healthy minor, much less one who already has natural immunity? Furthermore, why does my friend, the officials at my school, the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Fauci, and so many others continue to press upon me and other parents the importance of vaccinating our kids? As I have said all along, the vaccines are good for some but not all; it is certainly a different calculation if you are a senior citizen They pretend (some may actually believe) they are following the science, but the indiscriminate vaccination of all individuals, regardless of unique circumstances, is simply an immoral policy, especially when the supporting evidence is not on your side.
If COVID had the same case fatality rate as smallpox (smallpox CFR is 60 times greater), it would be a different ballgame, but healthy kids are at exceptionally low risk of dying from COVID and the vaccines currently provide very limited, if any, protection from contracting COVID. Why keep pressing us on this issue?
Another sent me the following comment. I share it and the link provided so you get more flavor of the other side of the debate:
The study you mention here (the same one that Dr Malone mentions in his interview with Joe Rogan) does not at all support the claim that COVID vaccines cause myocarditis in teenage boys. When all the facts are considered, not just those that may seem to support the claim, one should come to a very different conclusion. Yes the study does involve teen age boys that had symptoms of myocarditis after taking the vaccine: however all of the cases that were examined were mild and the only reason they went to the hospital was to be tested; not because they were in any danger. Hong Kong has taken a very thorough approach to finding any symptoms (not just myocarditis) that arise after taking vaccines. Here is a good examination of this study (by way of looking at the Rogan interview of Malone): https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs/49hngng/joe-rogan-the-malone-interview; they speak to one of the authors of the Hong Kong study
I will note that Dr. Malone was the inventor of the mRNA vaccine, so he seems like a good source. In addition, several studies do indeed show young males to be most at risk for this side effect. Also, in July 2021, the FDA added a warning label to the mRNA vaccines, so the risk is real, right?
(CNN)The US Food and Drug Administration added a warning about the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis to fact sheets for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines Friday.
The warning notes that reports of adverse events following vaccination — particularly after the second dose — suggest increased risks of both types of heart inflammation.
The FDA is advising vaccine recipients to seek immediate medical attention if they experience “chest pain, shortness of breath, or feelings of having a fast-beating, fluttering, or pounding heart after vaccination.”
Banning Vaccines for Minors?
I obviously am not a fan of politicians or political parties (or their acolytes who parrot their messages). Some of our leaders seem like statesmen for a while, but then eventually disappoint. Nonetheless, after almost four years, I can’t say enough about the good work Ron DeSantis is doing as Florida governor. He cuts through the nonsense and is willing to take the flack for opposing the interests that want another narrative pushed. He is a rare breed that hope is not eventually corrupted:
Florida’s surgeon general announced Monday morning the state has become the first to recommend against vaccinating healthy children for COVID-19.
The announcement by Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo came at the end of an 85-minute roundtable of epidemiologists and other medical scientists hosted by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The team assembled to make this recommendation is not out of a Cracker Jack box. I believe DeSantis isn’t pushing this because it is what his base wants. On many issues, the past two years, he is leading and then the base is following.
Among the participants were Drs. Robert Malone, Harvey Risch of Yale, Jay Battacharya of Stanford, Sunetra Gupta of Oxford and Martin Kulldorf, formerly of Harvard.
Furthermore, they are not recommending against vaccinating everyone, just healthy kids. However, this will likely be painted as an extreme when, in fact, it seems like a good precaution and well founded. I share again an email from our pediatrician who we recently consulted regarding the vaccinations of our kids; he said a similar thing:
myself included, the need to vaccinate after having natural infection makes little sense unless a child or person is in a high risk category. Each person must decide on the personal place they find themselves. Our practice’s stance all along has been that each person must weigh and measure risk over benefit.
I suppose the debate often comes down to who you choose to believe. Neither I nor those who objected to my comments are doctors, so it seems pointless for us to debate the finer points of epidemiology. We seek the opinions of experts and then make our own judgements when experts differ. I will stack the experts I have referred to against the likes of Dr. Fauci and Dr. Wallensky who have lost all credibility by clearly misleading (often outright lying to) us often in the past.
Ivermectin
The following is a very interesting interview of a doctor from the UK who was involved with the initial evaluation of Ivermectin for the World Health Organization (WHO). This interview weaves in opinions of other experts and tells us a frightening story, but one that we should all hear.
The interview first refers to Congressional testimony from Dr. Pierre Kory in December 2020 ( https://covid19criticalcare.com/team/pierre-kory-m-d-m-p-a/), the first year of the pandemic. Dr. Kory unequivocally touts Ivermectin as a drug which could save thousands of lives, a game changer. Dr. Kory then communicated with Dr. Tess Lawrie who is a physician in the UK who often consults with the WHO on research.
Dr. Lawrie was unaware of the benefits of Ivermectin, so took time to research Dr. Kory’s claims on Ivermectin; she quickly came to affirm his opinion. In fact, she stressed that it was the obvious choice at the time. Dr. Lawrie then reached out to Dr. Andrew Hill who was writing the WHO recommendation paper on Ivermectin. Dr. Hill seemed ostensibly in alignment with Dr. Kory and Dr. Lawrie on the benefits of Ivermectin and included much evidence for its benefits in his paper. However, at the end of his paper, he puts in a poison pill, recommending more studies of Ivermectin and stops short of fully endorsing it.
In this interview, Dr. Lawrie discusses the interaction between her and Dr. Hill and concludes this one paper led to much of the opposition of Ivermectin. She also videotaped her conversation with Dr. Hill regarding his paper; it is quite revealing as she presses him to understand why he added language that would discourage immediate use of Ivermectin. She dresses him down quite a bit and Dr. Hill has no good answer for her.
All three doctors, one from the U.S. and two from the UK agreed Ivermectin was the miracle drug (the words Dr. Kory used in Congressional testimony), yet more than a year after this paper was released, Ivermectin is still living under the cloud of being a horse medicine. We do not fully know how this happened, but Dr. Lawrie provides excellent clues. Please, take the time and listen to this interview. It is important to understand how the truth can be manipulated.
High-Wire-Dr-Tess-Lawrie-interview (Episode 257: Who Killed Ivermectin?)
Unfortunately, these days, it is hard to distinguish truth from fiction. That has become a necessary skill for all of us, as there are multiple competing narratives for us choose from. Everyone can find one to support their own case it seems.
I share all this information regularly so that people have what is needed to make a good decision for themselves. Ultimately, how to deal with COVID in our own lives is our decision not the government’s and not an expert’s. We do not want “experts” to tell us how to live our lives. Give us the information, but don’t micro-manage us. I do not intend to tell any of you what to think, but I do share information you may not be getting elsewhere. We should be given the unfiltered truth, which unfortunately so many in high positions are not doing, which is why we have to go to such lengths to share this information that should already be accessible and more freely shared with us by our experts.
Numbers
The U.S. COVID numbers, along with world-wide numbers continue to decline. Cases are below 40,000 per day as of Tuesday, March 8, and these numbers continue to decline at a good clip. A week earlier, the average stood at 60,000 per day. The 7-day average has now declined 55 straight days.
Only twice in the last two years has the U.S. dropped below the 40,000 threshold. Given the continued rapid rate of decline (34% in the last 7 days), it is clear we will go lower, likely below 30,000 per day in the next week, a threshold reached only once in the last two years (May – July 2021).
Will case count remain low throughout the Spring and into the rest of the year? The signs continue to be positive and there are many reasons for optimism at this point, but we will have to keep watching.
COVID deaths in the U.S. remain high, but may soon fall below the 1,000 per day mark given the remarkable drop in cases.
For much more evidence on these and other COVID topics, see my recent posts: https://seek-the-truth.com/category/covid/.
Seek the Truth 
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