COVID-19 News and Discussions

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Ivermectin Prophylaxis Used for COVID-19: A Citywide, Prospective, Observational Study of 223,128 Subjects Using Propensity Score Matching
Lucy Kerr, Flavio A. Cadegiani, Fernando Baldi, Raysildo B. Lobo, Washington Luiz O. Assagra, Fernando Carlos Proença, Pierre Kory, Jennifer A. Hibberd, Juan J. Chamie-Quintero
January 15, 2022
DOI: 10.7759/cureus.21272

https://www.cureus.com/articles/82162-i ... e-matching

"Large, peer-reviewed research study proves ivermectin works” as a COVID-19 preventative





January 28, 2022

Ivermectin is not FDA-approved for use against COVID-19 and there’s no scientific consensus yet of its effectiveness in treating or preventing the virus. But a new study out of Brazil has advocates of the drug again proclaiming the drug’s effectiveness on social media and beyond.

"Large, peer-reviewed research study proves ivermectin works," read the headline of a Jan. 25 article shared widely on Facebook.

The article was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

We wanted to know more about whether the study might indeed be a course-changer in the ongoing debate about using ivermectin for COVID-19. But experts in the field criticized the study as having critical flaws involving methodology and incomplete data that detract from what, if anything, it adds to the research.

The article was written by a group called the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, also called FLCCC, which described itself as a nonprofit organization of critical care specialists dedicated to developing prevention and treatment protocols for COVID-19. According to the group’s website, it advocates for the use of ivermectin in treating COVID-19.

Conflicts of interest concerns

[...] two of its authors received money from a pharmaceutical company that manufactures ivermectin.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2 ... on-flawed/

[R8Z]

Trusting fact checkers in the west at face value is like listening to Putin in East and believing what he says is the absolute truth. There's no better way to say this.

For instance, check this wonderful one: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2 ... killed-re/

An article claiming it's "false" that it's killing people, while the drug causes horrible side effects and gives literally and absolutely no benefit against COVID. Sorry, it's really this ridiculous.

It's easy to remember: fact checkers are a thing americans invented to fight on the political field, not for advocating for truth.

[caltrek]

It's easy to remember: fact checkers are a thing americans invented to fight on the political field, not for advocating for truth.

Since when is protecting the public health "fighting on the political field"?

I think there is a need to understand how these issues became so political:

• Disputes over product effectiveness between corporations.

• The resistance of freedumb loving Americans to common sense and science, which is an extension of common sense.

• Opportunistic politicians looking to appeal to their base regardless of adverse health effects of their policies and publicly shared opinions.

[weatheriscool]

Even mild Covid is linked to brain damage, scans show
Source: NBC News

During at least the first few months following a coronavirus infection, even mild cases of Covid-19 are associated with subtle tissue damage and accelerated losses in brain regions tied to the sense of smell, as well as a small loss in the brain’s overall volume, a new British study finds. Having mild Covid is also associated with a cognitive function deficit.

These are the striking findings of the new study led by University of Oxford investigators, one that leading Covid researchers consider particularly important because it is the first study of the disease’s potential impact on the brain that is based on brain scans taken both before and after participants contracted the coronavirus.

“This study design overcomes some of the major limitations of most brain-related studies of Covid-19 to date, which rely on analysis and interpretation at a single time point in people who had Covid-19,” said Dr. Serena S. Spudich, a neurologist at the Yale University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the research.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-n ... -rcna18959

[caltrek]

Genetic Study Gives Extensive Insights into Severe Covid-19
March 7, 2022

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/945446

Introduction:

(EurekAlert) The world’s largest study of the genetics of critical Covid-19, involving more than 57,000 people, has revealed fresh details about some of the biological mechanisms behind the severe form of the disease.

Some 16 new genetic variants associated with severe Covid-19, including some related to blood clotting, immune response and intensity of inflammation, have been identified.

These findings will act as a roadmap for future efforts, opening new fields of research focused on potential new therapies and diagnostics with pinpoint accuracy, experts say.

Researchers from the GenOMICC consortium – a global collaboration to study genetics in critical illness – led by University of Edinburgh in partnership with Genomics England, made these discoveries by sequencing the genomes of 7,491 patients from 224 intensive care units in the UK.

Their DNA was compared with 48,400 other people who had not had Covid-19, participants in Genomics England's 100,000 Genomes Project and that of a further 1,630 people who had experienced mild Covid.

[raklian]

Covid-19 is not over by a long shot.

I'm really starting to wonder if Covid-19 will be largely responsible for ending the Ukraine-Russia war in the months to come.

[erowind]

.

[weatheriscool]

Hawaii will drop its mask mandate, the last state to do so.
Source: New York Times

Hawaii on Tuesday became the 50th and final state to announce that it will drop its universal indoor mask mandate, as the United States attempts to move on from the once ferocious Omicron wave. Gov. David Ige, a Democrat, said at a news briefing on Tuesday afternoon that the mandate would no longer be in effect starting on March 26.

“We have reduced Covid-19 in a way to the point where most of us will be safe without masks indoors,” he said.Like the rest of the country, Omicron cases surged in Hawaii from December to mid-January before plummeting fast. As the surge receded, many authorities on the mainland rushed to end mask mandates, leaving Hawaii and Puerto Rico some of the last holdouts. Puerto Rico announced Monday that its mask mandate would be lifted for most places starting on Thursday.

Masks are still required indoors at schools in Hawaii, even though the state’s education department on Tuesday lifted the outdoor mask mandate on school campuses. But the end of the blanket mandate marked an abrupt reversal from a week ago, when Mr. Ige said that the state’s indoor mask mandate would remain in place even though he was lifting other restrictions.

He had said that, on March 25, he would end the state’s strict entry requirements for travelers and the mandate that state and county employers provide their vaccination status or show negative test results at work. However, even though the indoor mask mandate is lifting, the state authorities still recommend that people wear masks if they are in a crowded setting or around immunocompromised people. Masks are also recommended at health care facilities, schools and prisons.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/08 ... e-to-do-so

[R8Z]

Masks no longer required in my city (as it is a city-mandated policy here). I was the first one without a mask at a local grocery store

Edit: ironically I was the first one wearing a mask in the German city I used to live in early 2020. People used to look at me and think I was a weirdo (like weird looks) when there were no COVID case reported yet in Germany at the time (remembering that at the time we were receiving those videos of people dying on the streets of Wuhan).

[Cyber_Rebel]

And we have the government to blame for this. The amount of flipflopping and misinformation spread by various government agencies is simply astonishing. The American CDC has effectively started to deny the virus exists at all refusing to track cases directly anymore, removing mask recommendations, and continuing to lie about the incubation period and give false information on safe quarantine times.

Which is exactly what the American public wanted. See, the people themselves are as every bit to blame as the officials which they put into place. The government does not have totalitarian power over people's hearts & minds to direct them, even if said direction were to be the correct one. They made their choice from the very onset of this pandemic and that has hardly changed. How in the world can you get an expert scientific consensus when people don't trust said experts no matter what they say?

This whole idea of the masses being led astray by bad actors just doesn't fit with what actually happens. People vote against their own interest literally all the time, and every time they do so, some excuse has to be made for their own self ignorance.

[raklian]

[erowind]

.

[raklian]

To those of us who have been paying attention, this is not surprising, unfortunately.

[weatheriscool]

Global Covid-19 death toll 'may be three times higher than official figures'

The Covid-19 pandemic may have claimed 18.2 million lives around the world, more than three times the official death toll, a new study suggests.

The higher figure is a better estimate of the true global casualty figure to the end of 2021, according to an analysis by a consortium of health researchers published in the Lancet.

They have based their calculation on the number of "excess deaths" which they believe were caused directly or indirectly by the pandemic. These are calculated by looking at the difference between the number of deaths recorded from all causes and the number of expected based on previous patterns.
...
The research is based on what Wang and his collaborators say are the first peer-reviewed estimates of excess deaths due to the pandemic in 191 countries and territories.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... al-figures

[raklian]

Yep, it's definitely BA.2. As I've been repeating, COVID is not finished with us.

[caltrek]

^^^From The Hill article cited in the Tweet:

"Over 90 percent of the deaths were those who had not been fully vaccinated. We need to catch up and vaccinate every Hong Kong citizen," Lam said at a news briefing, per Reuters.

So, the good news for those in regions that have a high percent of vaccinated individuals is that they are relatively well protected. This also argues for a higher rate of vaccination across the globe. I wonder, what Hong Kong's current rate of vaccination?

Not to say that means we are totally out of the woods. There are those 10 percent who were totally vaccinated and still died. Also, that this thing keeps flaring up again increase the chances of vaccine eluding mutated versions to arise and spread. So, on balance and all things considered, definitely not good news.

[raklian]

^^^From The Hill article cited in the Tweet:

Not to say that means we are totally out of the woods. There are those 10 percent who were totally vaccinated and still died. Also, that this thing keeps flaring up again increase the chances of vaccine eluding mutated versions to arise and spread. So, on balance and all things considered, definitely not good news.

It's worse considering a majority of people received their boosters at least several months ago. It is a problem because we know the vaccine's efficiency wanes over time.

[weatheriscool]

Pfizer CEO says a fourth booster shot 'is necessary'
Source: The Hill

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on Sunday that a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will be necessary to continue to help keep hospitalizations manageable and sicknesses more mild.

"Right now, the way that we have seen, it is necessary, a fourth booster right now. The protection that you are getting from the third, it is good enough, actually quite good for hospitalizations and deaths," Bourla said while appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"It's not that good against infections, but doesn't last very long. But we are just submitting those data to the FDA and then we will see what the experts also will say outside Pfizer," he added.

In August, the Food and Drug Administration fully approved Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for people at least 16-years-old or older. A third dose of Pfizer's vaccine has been granted emergency use authorization.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... ar-AAV0vIL

It's about money!!!

[wjfox]