Wednesday, September 27, 2023

LInks - 27th September 2023 (1 - Covid-19)

Meme - Reddit Lies @reddit_lies: ""Zero covid" Redditor looks for a new therapist after his current therapist (that he sees once a week) told him to stop letting Covid control him."
"r/ZeroCovidCommunity
""You're letting COVID control you."
u/ripvantwinkle1
Casual Conversation
Today I had my typical weekly therapy appointment via Zoom. More or less, my therapist is understanding of my COVID cautiousness (I not only do not want to get COVID, but I live with an immunocompromised person) and he, himself, claims that he is COVID cautious. However, today, I explained that I was concerned about an upcoming event where I was going to be the only one wearing a mask (as usual) and that I was worried about it. He sighed and said, "You're letting COVID control you." I was a little taken aback by this statement because, well, COVID isn't like a demanding ex-boyfriend, its an airborne virus that we know very little about, in the gran scheme of things. That's like telling someone sexually active who is being cautious about HIV that they are "Letting HIV control them." He explained that his wife has lupus and wears a mask everywhere but then proceeded to say that he did not always wear a mask in public. Usually, the session doesn't wander into the territory of his personal life, but I just had to ask: "Why wouldn't you mask in public if she is?! You could very easily get COVID and give it to her once you are home." He didn't seem bothered by this and just shrugged and said, "I don't want COVID to control me." I do not understand. Also, I am looking for a new therapist."
Cultists get very upset when you question their worldview

Prestige Biotech: Illegal Lab Run by Chinese Biotech Firm Contained Mice Engineered to Spread Covid | National Review - "Prestige Biotech, a Chinese medical company, operated an illegal laboratory in California where they bioengineered and infected almost 1,000 mice with diseases including HIV, E. Coli, malaria, and Covid-19. The undercover lab was discovered in a warehouse in Reedley, Calif., when a garden hose was found to be illegally attached to the building... Wang Zhaolin, a spokesman for Prestige Biotech, told the San Joaquin Valley Sun that the mice “were genetically engineered to catch and carry the Covid-19 virus,” the newspaper reported. Court documents further showed that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) conducted tests on the more than 800 chemicals found at the site and that over 20 infectious agents were found present, including Hepatitis B and C, streptococcus pneumonia, chlamydia, rubella, and Herpes 1 and 5."
Damn misinformation and conspiracy theories! Damn CIA!

LeGate on Twitter - "Folks, do NOT buy the iPhone 13! They developed it in just 1 year. The first iPhone took billions of years to make… how can we trust an iPhone which was developed so fast?!"
Why are they spreading the misinformation that covid-19 was not a new virus? Presumably the Chinese government was collaborating with the vaccine makers by giving them samples before the world knew about it
Weird how we got so many articles talking about how revolutionary the mRNA vaccines were. More misinformation!

Effects of Vaccination and Previous Infection on Omicron Infections in Children
This provides more evidence for negative covid vaccine effectiveness

Meme - Carl Vernon: "Those friends who turned on you because the tv told them to. They'll do it again."

New Covid variant branded the 'real deal' could already be in BRITAIN, experts claim amid calls for return of face masks to slow spread of virus - "A new Covid variant labelled the 'real deal' may already be in the UK, scientists claimed today.  The Omicron spin-off — dubbed BA.6 but yet to be officially named — has sparked concerns of a fresh wave because of its catalogue of mutations."
Apparently some people still care about this

Prevalence of Symptoms ≤12 Months After Acute Illness, by COVID-19 Testing Status Among Adults — United States, December 2020–March 2023 - "In a multicenter study of adults with a COVID-like illness, symptom prevalence decreased over time after the acute illness. Approximately 16% of adults with COVID-like symptoms reported persistent symptoms 12 months after a positive or negative SARS-CoV-2 test result. At 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after testing, some symptomatic persons had ongoing symptoms, and others had emerging symptoms not reported during the previous period... Health care providers should be aware that symptoms can persist, emerge, reemerge, or resolve after COVID-like illness and are not unique to COVID-19 or to post-COVID conditions."
Doctor friend: "In other words, COVID or non-COVID respiratory infections, no difference re longer term symptoms. So "long COVID" is really no fundamentally new phenomenon at all."
More proof that long covid is not caused by covid

Commentary: Even mild cases of COVID-19 might be bad for our brains
Colds and cognition - ""The sort of cognitive impairment you see from a common cold is in the same ballpark with the consumption of alcohol, working at night or working for prolonged hours," says Andrew Smith, PhD, a psychology professor at Cardiff University in Wales who has researched the cognitive effects of colds for more than 25 years. "Activities where safety is critical, like driving or operating dangerous machinery, may be impaired when you have a cold."
Damn covid brain fog meaning it's an exceptionally disabling disease!

Meme - "When you see people wearing masks in Grocery Stores fill up their carts with bagels, Pop Tarts and processed foods"

Fauci declares lockdowns were 'absolutely justified' and suggests they should be used again to force vaccinations - "He went on to blame the tragedy in Maui on climate change."
Why doesn't he Trust the Science on lockdowns being useless?

Meme - "Jerm Cohen is with Hector Lopez.
Sponsored
I asked my friend @maxwellswift to take a portrait of me because I wanted a memory of how I felt in this historic moment. Vaccinated."
Of all the things to turn into your identity

Li Edelkoort says that the coronavirus will save the planet - "Edelkoort, who in recent years has become a fashion sustainability crusader, believes we can emerge from the health crisis as more conscientious humans. “We need to find new values—values of simple experience, of friendship,” she told Quartz. “It might just turn the world around for the better.”  “The virus will slow down everything,” Edelkoort notes. “We will see an arrest in the making of consumer goods. That is terrible and wonderful because we need to stop producing at such a pace. We need to change our behavior to save the environment. It’s almost as if the virus is an amazing grace for the planet.”"
From 2020. So much for that

A California city filled its skate park with sand to deter skateboarders. Then the dirt bikes showed up.
From 2020

Follow the Science…Off a Cliff - "When a fellow member dared to question “the science” behind school closures, Goldner responded with all the dignity one expects of a 2021 American teacher:
'Yes you’re [sic] fucking asshole of a president lied to you and so now you don’t fucking believe that people are dying at a rate that surpasses 9/11 on a daily basis, and this was fucking preventable. But the number of deaths is reconstructible about 7 fucking ways but fucking morons won’t believe that, yes, people are fucking dying. And so more people die. Fuck you for killing people.'
So, expressing an opinion in a foodies group is “killing people,” while having your kitchen remodeled in the middle of a pandemic, as the kids you prevent from going to school commit suicide at record rates, isn’t.   The Triton district meekly condemned Goldner’s post, and Goldner apologized, citing “strain and stress” (cut the guy some slack; he’s having to acclimate himself to a new fridge). The thing is, as the Turtleboy Sports website points out, Goldner has a history of “fuck you” posts. And each time he’s forced to apologize, he cites “strain and stress.” Good thing such an imbalanced individual is not teaching young children. Oh wait, he’s not just teaching them, he’s on a committee that sets policy. And his behavior is far from anomalous. “Fuck you murderer” is pretty much the standard teachers’-union response when confronted with dissenting opinions on school reopenings... As someone who constantly deals with Holocaust deniers, I can tell you a few basic truths about why Holocaust denial remains a thing... most of them went down the denial path because they asked a simple question about the Holocaust, or perhaps repeated a denier meme they saw on social media, and they got a response from an “expert” or “educator” or online know-it-all along the lines of “fuck you fuckity fucking Nazi fuck you.”   Deniers are created when questions are met with Goldner-style replies, which practically scream “I have no answers of substance so I’m just gonna cuss you out.”... , Dr. Prasad rejected using “follow the science” as a conversation killer...
'Science will never be sufficient to guide choices and trade-offs. Science cannot make value judgments. Science does not determine policy. Policy is a human endeavor that combines science with values and priorities. In other words, science can help quantify the increased risk (or lack thereof) of school reopening on SARS-Cov-2 spread, and help quantify the educational losses from continued closure, but science cannot tell you whether to open or close schools. Making the decision requires values, principles, a vision of the type of society we want to be. How much do we care about the kids that rely on public school? Is it enough to offset a theoretical (but unsubstantiated) risk of viral spread? On this topic, I agree with others that we have chosen poorly... When it comes to COVID-19 policy, we have faced and continue to face immense trade-offs. Every restriction we place may slow viral spread, but may carry dozens of unforeseen countervailing consequences. Scientists can help define these trade-offs, but scientists have no special ability to speak about values on behalf of all citizens. In other words, science is necessary but not sufficient to deal with COVID-19. Thinking otherwise is a dangerous view that steals political power from people and gives it to scientists under false pretenses.'  
Public school teachers around the country are hiding behind “follow the science” because they’re too cowardly, or perhaps too lacking in substantive arguments, to face the reality that Prasad outlines so well. “Follow the science” is a cop-out.  Prasad also makes a strong case against censorship of “wrong opinions” regarding Covid...   Prasad concludes by reminding his readers that “science is a tool. It is quite possibly the best tool human beings have ever devised, but just like any tool, it has limits. It cannot tell you how to adjudicate trade-offs. It is not merely what the majority believe. It requires open-mindedness and humility.”  Again, open-mindedness and humility being the exact opposite of “fuck you murderer.”  “We can and should embrace science, but we cannot follow it. It is up to us to make the hard choices.”... Whose opinion should carry more weight in determining whether your children return to school? The medical professional with the reasoned and measured views, or the guy who calls you a “fucking murderer” for suggesting that Covid lockdowns should be lifted, while he merrily interacts indoors with strangers because he wants a fancier kitchen?  It should be added that the guy with the nuanced views is also nonwhite and a resident of true-blue San Francisco. That makes him especially dangerous to leftists, because while he may not be immune to Covid, he’s certainly immune to being called a Red State white supremacist.  Dr. Mathew Mercuri is also no Red Stater. He’s an assistant professor at the Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. And like Dr. Prasad, Dr. Mercuri cautions against blindly accepting the “follow the science” talking point regarding Covid. In an October 2020 paper published in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, Dr. Mercuri explained how politicians hide behind “science” in order to absolve themselves of having to take responsibility for their decisions"
From 2021

Feet of Clay Stamping on a Human Face - "after months of being stonewalled I finally confronted one of the authors of a “scientific study” that purported to prove that last summer’s BLM riots actually made the Covid pandemic better. Last year, that study was paraded around like a victorious quarterback atop the shoulders of a cheering media grateful to have “proof” that violating Covid lockdowns is fine as long as you’re BLM.  The crux of the study was that fear of BLM riots kept ordinary folks at home and away from crowded establishments, thus mitigating Covid spread. The paper’s multi-credentialed authors used cell-phone “ping” data to measure foot traffic at bars and restaurants before and during the riots to “prove” that folks were staying home because of BLM.  So here I came, with no degree—no high school diploma, noch—and I got the corresponding author to cop to a flaw in his non-peer-reviewed study. The authors hadn’t taken into account the fact that in cities like L.A., where bars and indoor dining were not open during the surveyed period, food-buying foot traffic would’ve been in grocery stores, which in many cases became more crowded during the riot period due to panic buying and citywide curfews that slashed supermarket hours, thus forcing more shoppers into fewer hours.  The authors failed to measure foot traffic at grocery establishments. The PhD was forced to admit that the exclusion of grocery stores limited the value of his vaunted study. According to an op-ed last week in The New York Times, people should not do as I did. Thinking critically about information from “reputable” sources must not occur; our very democracy depends on curbing the practice.  In “Don’t Go Down the Rabbit Hole,” BuzzFeed technology writer Charlie Warzel argues that “critical thinking, as we’re taught to do it, isn’t helping in the fight against misinformation.” Relying on the work of Professor Michael Caulfield of Washington State University, Warzel declares that the traditional belief that people should be “taught to evaluate and think critically about information” is “fundamentally flawed.”  Caulfield insists that people should not be encouraged to “use reasoning,” because “that strategy can completely backfire.” Go by the source, not the information. Good source? Accept the info. Wikipedia-unapproved source? Reject the info. But don’t think about the info... Warzel makes clear that this rule is not for “reporters” and “researchers” but rather the common folk. The ones affected by the work of “reporters” and “researchers.” And if you haven’t already guessed, that’s the point. Certain people don’t want to be critiqued by commoners.  The past year has seen Americans at the mercy of “researchers” and the reporters who pick and choose which “experts” to champion. Because of researchers, Americans have been locked down, denied schooling, denied work, masked, double-masked, probably soon triple-masked. BLM broke all lockdown rules, so researchers said, “That’s cool, our research proves that their lockdown-breaking helps the pandemic, while yours does not,” and reporters said, “Right on!”   To be fair, much of the scientific research regarding Covid is indeed beyond the ken of non-scientists. And I’d go so far as to say that the biggest problem with the ever-changing recommendations regarding masks, transmissibility, ventilators, etc., is not that the researchers are crooked, but that they’re afraid to admit how little they actually know. Their “trust the science” admonition only harms their own credibility when “the science” changes. “We’re in uncharted waters; bear with us” is a lot better than “TRUST THE SCIENCE, PLEBES!” But the former requires humility, whereas the latter unlocks the God complex lurking beneath most lab coats.   But then you have studies like the one I debunked; studies based not on virus RNA but logical precepts. Popping that balloon required no medical know-how. All it took was to “follow the information’s logic and the inconsistencies,” exactly to the word what Warzel and Caulfield don’t want you to do. The reporters who breathlessly hyped the BLM/Covid study could have asked the same pointed questions I did. But they chose not to, because they agreed with the study’s conclusions. The last thing they wanted was for their readers to “think critically.” Better for the unwashed to look at the source not the substance, and make a “quick judgment” with “less information.”   Which brings us to another BLM/Covid study. “Black Lives Matter Protests and COVID-19 Cases: Relationship in Two Databases,” Journal of Public Health, November 2020. Authors Drs. Greg Neyman and William Dalsey of RWJBarnabas Health, the largest health system in N.J.  Neyman and Dalsey examined U.S. counties that experienced BLM protests last summer and compared them with similar-size counties that did not experience protests during the same period. The authors found that counties that witnessed BLM protests saw a “statistically significant” rise in Covid cases in the three weeks following the protests. This contradicts the study I critiqued last week. According to Neyman and Dalsey, not only did the protests not make the pandemic better, they made it worse in protest-affected counties.   But Neyman and Dalsey hedge their bets with this interesting bit of wordplay: While the Covid increase in BLM-affected counties was “statistically significant” compared with the control counties, it was also “societally insignificant.”... Neyman measured BLM protest counties against non-protest counties. He should have measured BLM protest (no-riot/no-curfew) counties against BLM protest (riot/curfew) counties, with non-protest counties as the control.  Maybe then he wouldn’t have had to reverse himself because he got an email from a high school dropout.  The problem with “follow the science” is that you’re not actually following science but scientists—humans with feet of clay. And for a year now we’ve let those clay feet stamp on our lives, our rights, and (as Orwell might say) our faces."
From 2021

KanekoaTheGreat on X - "The CIA's deception about COVID-19's origins becomes clearer when you consider that USAID, a frequent CIA front, provided over $53 million to Dr. Peter Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance, which funneled funds to the Wuhan lab.  Last year, Dr. Andrew Huff (@AGHuff ), a former Vice President at EcoHealth Alliance, publicly disclosed Dr. Peter Daszak's CIA affiliation.  Between 2009 to 2019, USAID partnered with EcoHealth Alliance on the PREDICT program, identifying 1,200 new viruses, training 5,000 people globally in disease detection, and improving 60 research labs.  This arrangement provided a significant avenue for the CIA to gather intelligence on global biological warfare capabilities.  Scientists involved in gain-of-function research, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Peter Daszak, have actively misled the world about the potential lab origin of SARS-CoV-2, not only serving their own interests but also those of the CIA (USAID), DOD, and the U.S. government, which also directed funds to the Wuhan lab.  So, the question arises: If COVID-19 potentially resulted from gain-of-function research, why does the United States continue to fund such research domestically and internationally?"
CIA tried to pay off analysts to bury COVID lab leak findings: whistleblower - "The Central Intelligence Agency offered to pay off analysts in order to bury their findings that COVID-19 most likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, new whistleblower testimony to Congress alleges."
More whistleblowing liberals hate

Ron Johnson’s unscientific take on the coronavirus vaccine - The Washington Post (2021) - "Benjamin D. Singer, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said “vaccination provides better and more durable immunity than natural infection.” He pointed to research findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine this year.  An NEJM study from January found that the Moderna vaccine “has the potential to provide durable humoral immunity” whereas “natural infection produces variable antibody longevity.” A study published last week compared two groups of people taking the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines: some who previously had covid-19 and some who did not. The recovered patients generally had higher antibody counts at the start of the vaccination period, but not always, and by the end of the vaccination period both groups had similarly high antibody levels."
Natural immunity as protective as Covid vaccine against severe illness (2023) - "The immunity generated from an infection was found to be “at least as high, if not higher” than that provided by two doses of an mRNA vaccine."
Ironic

CDC’s New Covid Guidance Finally Admits What NCLA’s Suits Said About Natural Immunity All Along - "the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finally followed the science and acknowledged the scientific fact that NCLA has defended all along—it makes no sense to treat people who are naturally immune to Covid-19 differently from those who have been vaccinated against the virus. This science was known and available to everyone this time last year when NCLA relied on the expert testimony of renowned epidemiologists, including Drs. Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, who have long explained that forcing a Covid-recovered person with natural immunity to take a vaccine that provides virtually no benefit, while risking adverse effects, is not rational.   CDC eased its Covid-19 guidance on Thursday, stating that “Covid-19 prevention recommendations no longer differentiate based on a person’s vaccination status.” Despite being comprised of unelected bureaucrats and lacking rule-making power from Congress, CDC has issued edicts during the entirety of the pandemic that have disrupted American life. Governments and employers alike have followed this “guidance” uncritically—which was hard to challenge in court since it was not final agency action—treating it as though it carries the force of law. Now, in a sudden about-face, the agency claims that due to breakthrough infections and naturally acquired immunity, there is no reason to treat vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals differently. CDC earlier chose to ignore or discount the voluminous proof, available for well over a year, that naturally acquired immunity was as or more protective than that achieved through vaccination. The agency chose to promote politically-motivated, flawed studies that reached unwarranted conclusions."
Vaxholes can't even pretend that vaccine mandates including those who have recovered from covid were justified to not overload the healthcare system

Opinion | How to stop overcounting covid deaths and hospitalizations - The Washington Post - "Two infectious-disease experts I spoke with believe that the number of deaths attributed to covid is far greater than the actual number of people dying from covid. Robin Dretler, an attending physician at Emory Decatur Hospital and the former president of Georgia’s chapter of Infectious Diseases Society of America, estimates that at his hospital, 90 percent of patients diagnosed with covid are actually in the hospital for some other illness... During some days, she said, the proportion of those hospitalized because of covid were as low as 10 percent of the total number reported"
A covid hystericist was still claiming that saying hospitals over count(ed) deaths is a conspiracy theory and those who believe that are retarded. Of course, presented with this article he just doubled down. So much for trusting the experts

Over- and under-estimation of COVID-19 deaths | European Journal of Epidemiology - "over-counting probably currently exists for several other countries, especially those with intensive testing and high sensitization and/or incentives for COVID-19 diagnoses. Death attribution in a syndemic like COVID-19 needs great caution"
The covid hystericist ironically claimed that I "only accept the opinions of people that fit into the narrative you're pushing and that "You people are insanely dishonest and engage as such", which made me wonder if this was really a troll job - it was just too perfect. But anyway he ignored this peer reviewed research after dismissing the experts from the previous article

Long-term COVID-19 booster effectiveness by infection history and clinical vulnerability and immune imprinting: a retrospective population-based cohort study - "In the seventh month and thereafter, coincident with BA.4/BA.5 and BA.2·75* subvariant incidence, effectiveness was progressively negative... Protection against omicron infection waned after the booster, and eventually suggested a possibility for negative immune imprinting."
The covid hystericist kept going on about how the vaccines were effective in reducing infection, but this is more evidence for negative effectiveness. He wasn't happy and pretended we don't know that boosters lose effectiveness either. Then he tried to do bait and switches about the vaccines reducing severe disease (which I had already publicly anticipated) and transmission and pretended the sources I cited on no reduction to transmission said the opposite

 Overestimating covid-19 mortality: Differential findings based on support for trump versus biden - "The Infection Fatality Ratio (IFR) is the percentage of persons who become infected, and subsequently die from the infection. Risk estimates for COVID-19 have varied since the virus first began spreading among humans, nonetheless, actual mortality risk has been quantifiable. The purpose of this study is to quantify lay persons’ estimations of danger from COVID-19 infection, and to determine if political affiliations influence perceptions. Data collected from late summer through autumn of 2020 asked university students to estimate the number of persons who would die if 1000 persons (of two age groups) were found to be infected with COVID-19. Results show that persons have been overestimating mortality risk, especially earlier in the pandemic. Of 272 respondents queried on how many deaths would occur in a retirement community outbreak with exactly 1000 infections, more than half guessed 500 or more deaths, a substantial overestimate. Hierarchical regression was employed to test the hypothesis that time and risk estimates interact differently for Trump versus Biden supporters. Results demonstrated that time and risk estimates interact differently for Trump versus Biden supporters. Support for Trump was associated with a decline in risk estimation over time. Policy implications are briefly discussed, with the goal of avoiding pitfalls regarding public trust of scientific expertise"
Yet more evidence linking covid hysteria to left wing ideology

Meme - "Spirit *Halloween Costume*
Fucking Retard
Includes:
1 Medical Mask
3 Boosters
1 Virtue Cape
1 Sense of Superiority
ADULT Size Costume
ONE SIZE FITS MOST"

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