CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXaa4G4mcXk
11:47 min
7 COVID-19 Updates You Should Know Come Election Day
•Nov 3, 2020


Doctor Mike Hansen


In this video I discuss updates with the COVID surge that is here, controlling the pandemic, immunity to the virus, possible treatments on the horizon, and more. So let's start out with the first update which is…. COVID is SURGING.

And as if COVID-19 by itself is not bad enough, it has a domino effect on the rest of our society. It's not just the economy that suffers. It’s also the rest of healthcare in general that suffers. Not to mention increased rates of depression and suicide deaths during these times. If hospitals are overwhelmed, guess what happens to the care of other patients who don’t have COVID? Cancer treatment becomes delayed. Elective surgeries are being put off for things like heart surgery, hip replacement, and more. Also, who wants to go to a doctor's office, or an ER during these times, and possibly get COVID? It’s not like we don’t know how to get this pandemic under control. It can be done. Look at how well other countries handled it, and how well they are doing. And how well their economies are doing. Australia. New Zealand. South Korea. Tawain. What do all of these countries have in common? Testing, contact tracing, quarantine, distancing, and masks.

This pandemic is only going to get worse in the next couple of months, and more and more hospitals will be overwhelmed. The difference between what's happening now compared to what happened during the previous spike in cases is that the entire country is a hotspot. And because it is so widespread, we will soon reach a breaking point in our hospitals and number of healthcare workers. In all likelihood, one of three things is going to happen. One, there will be a federal mask mandate, because not enough people are wearing masks when they should be. If this does not happen, there will likely be a shutdown of most of the country. If neither of these things happen, it will be millions of deaths and an absolutely destroyed economy.

Now some people say, doctors are inflating the numbers. So this is not true. Part of my job as an ICU physician is to complete a death certificate, and I have to write the primary cause of death, and secondary causes of death. There is usually a chain of events that causes someone to die. Lots of times, there are multiple contributing factors that lead to someone’s death, but usually, we know the primary cause of death. And with COVID-19, it's usually pretty straight forward. Also, regarding the claim that doctors get paid more based on the diagnosis? It’s a lie, plain and simple.

Are people immune to the virus after they are infected? Antibodies are made by the body in response to a given infection or a vaccine. Usually, antibodies protect someone from future infection, and so they are called “neutralizing antibodies”. Researchers at Mount Sinai's Health System between March and October looked at the antibody responses of more than 30,000 people who tested positive for Covid-19. These people who had COVID had either mild or moderate illness. In the study, they described their antibody responses as either low, moderate or high. More than 90% had moderate to high levels of neutralizing antibodies to the spike protein of the virus, and the response was maintained for at least 5 months. So can you get infected with Covid-19 twice? Based on this, probably not. If it does occur, it’s the exception, not the rule. And this study also has implications when it comes to immunity from a vaccine. It’s likely that a vaccine will provide immunity, but for how long is another question. Based on this study, the answer is most likely at least 5 months.

There are over 70 monoclonal antibody treatments for Covid-19 in various stages of development. The two that have the most potential right now are the ones made by Eli Lilly and Regeneron. Both of these companies have already applied for FDA emergency use authorizations. Eli Lilly recently signed a $375 million deal with the government for 300,000 vials of this monoclonal antibody, called bamlanivimab. There was a recent study in NEJM that looked at Bamlanivimab, and it seemed to decrease the risk of hospitalization and ease some symptoms in this phase 2 trial that involved over 400 patients with either mild to moderate Covid-19. In this RCT, less than 2% of patients who received bamlanivimab had symptoms progress enough to the point of requiring hospitalization or a trip to the ER. For those who received placebo, it was 6%. For patients in higher risk categories – defined as those who were obese or older than 65 years - 4% who got the treatment were hospitalized, compared to 15% in the placebo group. The primary goal of the study was to see if the treatment eliminated the virus by day 11, which it did for the vast majority of patients.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tsUTAWBJ9M
LIVE
Herd Immunity as a Coronavirus Pandemic Strategy - November 6, 2020, 3:20P Central US
•Started streaming 24 minutes ago


JAMA Network

Would letting coronavirus infect the broad US and global population be a safe and effective means of ending the COVID-19 pandemic? Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, of Stanford University's Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research is a signatory of the 'Great Barrington Declaration,' which proposes to "allow those at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk." Marc Lipsitch, PhD, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a signatory of the 'John Snow Memorandum' which refutes the argument, responds.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAlRaCY3wGg
2:32 min
Over 126,000 COVID-19 cases reported in U.S., a new single-day record
•Nov 7, 2020


CBS This Morning

The United States saw more than 126,000 new COVID-19 infections Friday, setting a record for new cases for a third straight day, CBS News' Tom Hanson reports. Roughly 9.7 million people across the country have been infected as hot spots erupt across the country, stretching from the heartland to the West.
_________________________________

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4IpVSwmxhw
5:46 min
Gottlieb says Biden to take office at likely "apex" of latest coronavirus surge
•Nov 8, 2020


Face the Nation

The former FDA commissioner says the president-elect can begin formulating a plan to deal with the pandemic so he can "hit the ground running" in January.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq4k8HoRbMA
2:37:54 min
TWiV 679: Mink, mutation, and myocytes
•Nov 7, 2020


Vincent Racaniello

Daniel Griffin provides a clinical report on COVID-19, Slovlakia's plan to test all adults for SARS-CoV-2 infection, viral variants arising in Danish mink and their potential threat to humans, why it is unethical to carry out challenge trials, Nipah virus dynamics in bats and spillovers into humans, and direct cardiac damage by spike-mediated cardiomyocyte fusion.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QvvMDw6YQw&pbjreload=101
15:42 min
Mutation in Denmark
•Nov 6, 2020


Dr. John Campbell
Denmark 5.8 million people 17 million mink

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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjvyNfdbWy8
23:59 min
Mutation update and UK flattening
•Nov 7, 2020


Dr. John Campbell
Update on the Danish mutation and a flattening of cases in the UK Denmark

____________________________________________
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfkMywgDEdY
21:57 min
Mink mutation
•Nov 8, 2020


Dr. John Campbell
Danish government site
 

TammyinWI

Talk is cheap
The Coronavirus Has Been a Huge Psychological Warfare Program Carried Out on the American People

By Brannon Howse, 21 October, 2020

As you know, there is a massive worldview war going on in America. What most Americans don’t know is that the most powerful weapon in this war is brainwashing. Brainwashing is about power and control. Brainwashing relies upon lies, deception, manipulation, bullying, shaming, the destruction of individualism, the promotion of group consensus, an attack on people of convictions and courage, and the creation of chaos to induce fear and then surrender.

Today, the lies of brainwashing hide under many well-known masking terms such as social justice, the common good, white privilege, racism, multiculturalism, climate change, interfaith dialogue, political correctness, feminism, tolerance, globalism, deconstructionism, anti-authoritarianism, the peace movement, environmental justice, the right to die, universal healthcare, sustainable development, global values, situational ethics, children’s rights, family planning, reparations, gender-equality, group consensus, community standards, a livable wage, and democracy.

These are just a few of the masking terms that hide the agenda of socialism, cultural Marxism, and the end game goal of globalism. Through my new docuMovie that I am working on even now as you read this letter, l will expose and refute the brainwashing propagated by the power centers, their change agents and the useful idiots within education, media, religion and government.

The success of the decades of brainwashing can be clearly seen through the destructive nature of the values, beliefs, and actions of many Americans. From calls to defund the police, to the murder of police, to assaults on American conservatives, to the arrest of business owners, the lockdown on American churches or synagogues. From the calls for ending America’s free market system, to the burning and looting of American business and the murder of Americans defending those businesses, to the murder of American Jews worshipping in their synagogues, to the murder of children outside of the womb that is now legal in 19 states. These are but a few examples of how America has spiraled to the brink of society collapse because of the lawlessness and violence from enemies both foreign and domestic.

However, the tactics, philosophies and values of America’s enemies would be rendered virtually impotent at tearing the fabric of our society if their worldview had not found a prepared, conditioned, and fertile soil in the minds of Americans due to brainwashing.

Sadly, it is not just the useful idiots in the streets with their violence toward business owners, property, secret service agents, and police officers who have revealed they have been successfully brainwashed. Shockingly, and perhaps to our ultimate collapse as a free society, police officers, FBI agents, military officers and soldiers have also been brainwashed to become the useful idiots of the Communist and globalist agenda by taking a knee before anti-American revolutionaries.

Those within law enforcement and the U.S. military who have engaged in such asinine behavior have effectively broken their sworn oath to defend America from enemies both foreign and domestic. Their foolish belief that they could find some kind of common ground, dialogue, or even gain credibility or respect from the Communist street thugs by taking a knee reveals that they have been brainwashed to one degree or another.

A free society, a free people, a constitutional republic, the public officials sworn to uphold the rule of law, can in no way find common ground with socialists, communists, Marxists, anarchists or globalists. Such moronic thinking not only empowers the anti-American revolutionaries, but guarantees that the weakness of such fools who have taken the knee, will almost certainly find themselves once again on their knees. The next time, however, it might be they find themselves on their knees begging before their new masters for their very life or that of their loved ones or fellow Americans.

But how did we reach this point? The answer requires the historical, factual, and sobering docuMovie that I am producing even as you read this letter. The question can be answered in four words: Americans have been brainwashed.

When the American POWs from the Korean War came home and discovered they had been brainwashed, the common response was “if we had only known.” By knowing the tactics of brainwashing, by exposing the deception and manipulation, we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from this powerful weapon of brainwashing.

Many Americans have proven they have been brainwashed by believing that the source of all suffering and oppression is Christianity and the free market system. Social Justice propagandist Shaun King declared that statues of Jesus should be torn down as they promote white supremacy. Even the U.S. Army found itself in the summer of 2020 having to pull a handout to troops that stated that the slogan “Make America Great Again,” or the acronym MAGA, showed sympathy toward white supremacy.

Countless Americans now believe that America’s Founding Fathers were racists despite the numerous founders who never owned slaves, and the many who openly wrote about the need to abolish slavery. In fact, some schools now teach that America’s founders were actually terrorists. According to the propagandists, the founders were terrorists, but if you point out the connection between terrorism and Islam, then you are practicing Islamophobia, and thus, you are a racist.

So successful has the brainwashing operation in America been, that in the summer of 2020, Americans were tearing down one statue after another of American patriots who sacrificed their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor so that America might be conceived.

But it is not just the patriots of the past who are under siege, but the patriots of today. If you stand for the national anthem, celebrate the fourth of July, and believe in the free market system, national borders, and national sovereignty, then you are a racist, according to the purveyors of the politically correct propaganda that is at the very foundation of their brainwashing operation.

After years and years of research and study, I will, through this forthcoming docuMovie, reveal to you twelve steps that I have discovered which have been used over and over since at least the 1930s to brainwash billions of people to this day and counting.

I have spent 30 years researching, writing and speaking on such topics such as outcome-based education that was hiding under such federal education programs as America 2000, Goals 2000, No Child Left Behind, and Common Core. These programs, of course, were largely based on the brainwashing techniques of psychologist, Benjamin Bloom and behavior psychologist, B.F. Skinner. So the fact of the matter is, I have been studying this topic of brainwashing intensely since 1990.

While working on the script, I wondered many times how could I most effectively communicate to my audience just how dangerous and deliberate are the techniques of brainwashing. How could I show them that these brainwashing techniques are assisting in the attempted Marxist revolution now occurring in America? I also needed to convey to my audience how the techniques of brainwashing, the manipulation and the control are often undetectable to the untrained individual. What could I point to in culture, history, politics, and economics in order to prove to my audience they have been subjected to the lies, manipulation, and deception of a brainwashing operation?

And then the Communist Chinese Coronavirus exploitation of 2020 occurred. Now, please don’t get me wrong. I am not denying the reality of Coronavirus or Covid-19 or that many people became very sick or even developed respiratory infections that resulted in their deaths.

Continued here next post
 

TammyinWI

Talk is cheap
Part 2

However, it is a proven fact that the fatality rate of those who contracted the Coronavirus or Covid-19 was the average age of 78 years of age and many of those patients had underlying conditions.
When I began to report on the Coronavirus in January of 2020 on my national radio show, I urged caution because of the possibility, as stated by U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, that the virus could have come from a level-4 bioweapons lab in Wuhan, China.

In the March 1, 2020 episode of WVW hour, I began to warn my radio and television audience that the virus was going to be used as a political, social, and economic weapon to greatly transform America and even the world. I warned that fear and anxiety would be used to convince Americans to give up their liberties, freedoms, and way of life in a manner that would have been unthinkable in 2019. So unthinkable that anyone presenting a movie script in 2019 on the actual events that unfolded in 2020, would have been ridiculed as impossible, and not a plausible script or prediction.
Americans before 2020 would have thought it would be impossible that Americans could be so easily manipulated and controlled by contradictory facts, fake science, fake news, manipulated numbers, and tyrannical powers without a good old fashioned American uprising from coast to coast. Yet, Americans, and many others around the world, went as lambs to the slaughter, and allowed the very life blood of their business to be drained, their freedom to travel and move about to be restricted, their ability to socialize outlawed, to be married in a traditional manner eliminated, to collectively mourn at the funeral of a loved one prohibited, and the right to congregate and worship criminalized by large fines and even arrest.
Once the tragic death of George Floyd occurred, the same politicians and Marxist media members declared that while you could not go to church for the social good, they encouraged thousands to join in on the riots, looting and burning for the Marxism of social justice. Americans were told that going to a conservative political rally was selfish, dangerous, a threat to public safety and yet, attending a liberal protest or riot was declared vital to stopping the advancement of the so-called fascism of conservatives.

Americans were told that for two weeks they needed to shut down their schools, businesses, conferences, churches, synagogues, and even social events in their homes in order to flatten the curve and keep the hospitals from filling to beyond capacity. When the overflow of hospitals in the vast majority of America did not occur, Americans in many cities were told businesses must still remain closed or adhere to a 50% of capacity policy that would guarantee that countless businesses would forever have to shut their doors. Initially, Americans were told not to wear masks because they were not necessary and they did not prevent the spread of the virus. Then they were told they must wear a mask and practice social distancing or they could be fined thousands of dollars.

The largest employer in America is small business and yet, many small business were forced to close by tyrannical politicians who declared themselves medical and scientific experts. Ironically, many large multi-national corporations were allowed to remain open, while mom and pop businesses that sold the same products and services were closed due to legal demands. In some cities, abortion clinics, liquor stores, and pot stores remained open because they were deemed ‘essential services,’ while gun stores and churches were closed. The church doors were forced closed while the prison doors were flown open for countless criminals to return to the streets. Yet citizens were told that obtaining a firearm for personal protection was not an essential service.

The father of the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx said, “My object in life is to dethrone God and destroy capitalism.” Indeed, the Communist Chinese Coronavirus gave the Marxist left in America a great weapon by which to control when and where people could worship God and destroy untold businesses of capitalists.

The more I study the fake science, contradictions, government over-reach, and fear mongering that has been deployed by change agents, known cultural Marxists, globalists, and socialists within America, the more I believe their response to the Coronavirus has been a huge psychological warfare program carried out on the American people. After all, the daily site of people walking around wearing face masks, the inability to see their smile, and the prison-warden-like orders to stay six feet apart is all enough to steal your peace, and cause frustration for some, and understandable fear and anxiety in others. However, fear and anxiety is a powerful tool in a brainwashing operation.

In my last docuMovie released in December of 2019, I had a section on the Tavistock Institute. I warned Americans to be aware of the very psychological operation based on the Tavistock method that was ironically released on Americans and even the world, just a few weeks after my documentary Siege was released. (You can watch one hour of Siege for free at siegethemovie.com.)

The Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology was founded in 1920, and the Tavistock Institute was started in 1946. Dr. Dennis Cuddy gives us some important history when he writes:

John Rawlings Rees (who would be a co-founder of the World Federation for Mental Health in 1948) was Deputy Director of Tavistock at this time (he would become Director in 1932). Rees developed the “Tavistock Method,” which induces and controls stress via what Reese called “psychologically controlled environments,” in order to make people give up firmly held beliefs under “peer pressure.”

The goal is to make an example of those who are non-compliant to the agenda of the change agents. Then a psychological process rooted in brainwashing and control is deployed on the targeted subjects in order to pressure them into surrendering to the pre-determined anti-American, anti-Christian values of those running the psychological operation, lest they be embarrassed and labeled as “mentally ill,” “racist,” “a fascist,” suffering from “white privilege,” “toxic masculinity,” “selfishness,” and “narcism.”

On July 22, 2020, Newsweek ran the headline: “Narcissists and Psychopaths Are More Likely to Refuse to Wear Masks, Says New Research.” The study by a group of social sciences reported that those who did not comply with mask orders were likely suffering from "Dark Triad traits—narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism.”

Those who refused to conform to the herd mentality, fake science, hysteria and tyrannical orders to wear a face mask likely saw the “government coronavirus restrictions as a challenge to the individual's illusion of power.”

The Newsweek article reported: “the study found that ‘being rivalrous, caring little for others, and cynical and power-seeking may create a 'perfect storm' of dispositions that lead to an unwillingness to comply in a combative way.”

In early 2020, the CDC encouraged people not to wear a face mask, and then they did a 180 and the CDC said individuals should wear a mask. Then there was the flip flopping of Anthony Fauci. The constant contradictory information, whether on purpose or not, is key to confusing people and causing them to be so overwhelmed that they don’t know who or what to believe, and thus they just follow the herd.

One sure way to get Americans to “let go” of their values, reason, and logic, and ultimately their freedoms is to subject them to peer pressure by convincing them that they are in the minority
. Not only must they be convinced they are in the minority, they must also be afraid of being labeled or ridiculed by the majority for their “unacceptable” or selfish practice of their liberties, or the practice of their deeply held conservative or religious views.

The Tavistock Institute studied how to bombard individuals with stress and then a period of calm, and then truth mixed with lies. This mental assault using the Hegelian dialectic of opposites in constant conflict would confuse the subjects and leave them unable to reason or even concentrate for any length of time. The manufactured chaos, in part, was intended to mimic the emotions, fear, and anxiety an individual would experience in a time of war.
Psychiatrist, Dr. William Sargant of the Tavistock Institute explained this process in his 1957 book, Battle for the Mind. He wrote:

Various types of belief can be implanted in many people, after brain function has been sufficiently distributed by accidentally or deliberately induced fear, anger or excitement. One of the results caused by such disturbances, the most common one is temporarily impaired judgement and heightened suggestibility. Its various group manifestations are sometimes classed under the heading of ‘herd instincts,” and appear most spectacular in wartime, during severe epidemics, and in all similar periods of common danger, which increase anxiety and so individual and mass suggestibility.

Edward Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Freud. Bernays was a much praised expert in the area of public relations and propaganda. He worked with governments and corporations in how to control the masses and influence them both politically and in their purchases. Bernays was concerned with how to use crowd psychology to achieve a herd instinct, just as desired by the Tavistock Institute.

In his 1928 book entitled “Propaganda,” he wrote:

Those who manipulate the organized habits and options of the masses constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of the country…It remains a fact that in almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons… It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind and guide the world… As civilization has become more complex, and as the need for invisible government has been increasingly demonstrated, the technical means have been invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented.

The Rockefellers funded the Tavistock Institute
and ironically, they are now behind many agendas that the Communist Chinese Coronavirus has apparently furthered. In fact, the Rockefellers produced a document in 2010 that pretty much predicted the 2020 Coronavirus and the tyrannical response. The Rockefeller sponsored report was called Lockstep. The fictional Rockefeller scenario predicted the American people would embrace the loss of their liberties and freedoms with the promise of returning their lives and the economy to normal; the new normal.

In 1984, former KGB officer Yuri Bezmenov, who defected to the United States, sought to warn Americans about the four stages of a Marxist revolution and the role that brainwashing plays. He warned that the revolution, fueled by brainwashing, ends with a new normal. Demoralize, destabilize, chaos, and the new normal after the revolution
.
As we are now in the fall of 2020, America is clearly in the chaos stage of the four steps of revolution, just as Yuri warned in 1984. Sadly, America appears to be in the early stages of a pre-Marxist revolution. Whether we turn back this revolution is yet to be seen as it is not yet known if the silent majority of Americans will allow this red-green revolution to be successful.

To this very day, Communist countries continue to orchestrate disinformation campaigns and psychological warfare upon Americans because they know they have had success for many generations. Even the liberal foreign policy website declared in June of 2020 that the Black Lives Matter movement could count Communist China as an ally.
In 1984, Former KGB officer Yuri Bezmenov explained that much of the efforts of the Communists has been and continues to be a disinformation or brainwashing campaign in order to turn Americans against their own national values and to thus create chaos in the streets by which to collapse America from within.

Consider the Black Lives Matter agenda. I warned about this movement extensively in my 2018 documentary, Sabotage. This organization was founded by three women who do not hide their Communist ideology. Not only do the founders promote their Communist philosophies and mission statement on their own website, in 2015, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors declared, “We are trained Marxists.”

Yet, a July 2020 survey reported that 63% of Americans support the Black Lives Matter Movement.

The Black Lives Matter website has stated their goal is to defund the police and to divert that money to social programs for the redistribution of wealth, and the furtherance of socialism. In a recent video, 1 of the 3 founders of BLM admits that by defunding the police, they mean “abolish” the police. What we would be left with is Antifa and BLM black shirts running our major American cities, just like Hitler’s brown shirts in the 1930s.

 

TammyinWI

Talk is cheap
The thread that will not quit. You'd think it would have died of the Rona by now :D

No, I didn't allow it to today. Because of the article I copied over that I got today. While the few people that are not scared to death that are out & about are all in masks and face coverings. The Rona is not Equal Opportunity, unless it comes to the sheeple, then it is.
 

IdahoMom

Contributing Member
Real World Evidence? I-MASK+ Protocol: Ivermectin Key for Prophylaxis and Early Treatment of COVID-19


Real world evidence (RWE) means medical evidence obtained from real world data (RWD), that is observational data, secured from outside the context of clinical trials and rather produced during routine clinical practice. The 21st Century Cures Act, enacted as law in 2016, heavily supported by the pharmaceutical industry, mandated the use of Real World Evidence (RWE). The intention of the Act largely was to expedite the approval process including easing the requirements placed on clinical trial sponsors seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval on new products or new indications on existing drugs. For example, the new ACT supported a company to provide “data summaries” and “real world evidence”, such as observational studies, insurance claims data, patient input, rather full clinical trial results, at least in certain situations. With its passing, the FDA embraced RWE, noting that RWE and RWD are playing an increasing role in health care decisions. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a collaboration in Australia led by Monash University identified in a lab that an approved FDA drug, one with a well-established safety record, Ivermectin, is actually an inhibitor of the causative virus (SARS-CoV-2). They reported that in vitro there was a ~5000 fold reduction in viral RNDA at 48 hours. The rest is history as TrialSite has chronicled now the many dozens of case series, observational studies, a couple completed studies with randomized components, and in the aggregate off-label use cases in many countries around the world. A couple Ivermectin studies have surfaced in reputable peer review medical journals. Why put so much attention into the topic? There is a deadly pandemic that isn’t slowing down. In addition to the critical research supported by the pharmaceutical industry and National Institutes of Health (NIH), physicians seek to save lives in the present moment. Given Ivermectin was already FDA approved and in fact does have a well-known safety profile, could it in fact fall under the Act for purposes of accelerating FDA approval as part of some combined therapy? As that question may soon be pondered, the pandemic worsens. Enter groups of physicians such as the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (
FLCCC).


The FLCC is best known for its MATH+ COVID-19 treatment protocol. On October 14, TrialSite reported that this protocol included an Ivermectin option for prevention and early treatment of COVID-19. On October 31, the group formalized a new protocol for both prevention and early treatment of COVID-19, this time dubbed, I-MASK+. The “I” stands for Ivermectin, which is now the key ingredient in the protocol rather than an option. FLCCC was formed as a working group of doctors recognizing the emergency conditions of the early pandemic in reaction to many reports of COVID-19 patients with inexplicable need for ventilation and the high death rate of the prevailing “supportive care only” recommendations from major healthcare organizations. This “group of highly published leaders in critical care,” led by Dr. Paul Marik had expertise in severe infections including bacterial sepsis. Along with high patient-survival numbers of those following the FLCC’s protocols, “equally concerned and motivated colleagues from other specialties” reached out to join the efforts. The MATH+ Hospital Treatment Protocol was formulated in March, and it has been used successfully since then for the severely ill. For more on the background of the FLCCCC alliance, follow the link.


“The I-MASK+ protocol will revolutionize the treatment of COVID-19”


As noted, I-MASK+ is a new protocol for both prophylaxis and early outpatient treatment of COVID-19 patients. It is, “centered around the use of Ivermectin, the FDA approved, well-known anti-parasite drug with the discovered anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties and a rapidly growing published medical evidence base demonstrating its unique and highly potent ability to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication.” I-MASK+ and MATH+ are complementary in that the former excludes hospitalized patients while the later focuses on them. According to the FLCCC, all of their recommended medicines are, “FDA-approved, inexpensive, readily available and have been used for decades with well-established safety profiles.”


And according to Dr. Marik, “the I-MASK protocol will revolutionize the treatment of COVID-19.” FLCCC notes that recent studies have been negative for many treatments. These include remdesivir, HCQ, lopinavir, interferon, plasma, and mono-clonal antibody therapy. At present, the only thing officially “proven” to work is corticosteroids for moderate to severe illness and remdesivir. Of course remdesivir has a mixed record; the FDA and EMA approved despite the results of the Solidarity trial. The new protocol is based on the accumulation of published and unpublished trials showing that, “the drug Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug with increasingly well-known anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties has demonstrated profound activity against COVID-19.”


FLCCC: Ivermectin Can Deliver Population-Wide Protection


Per the FLCCC, the available evidence shows that Ivermectin: inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication, prevents transmission within households, hastens recovery and stops deterioration in mild to moderate cases, hastens recovery/avoidance of ICU, and “leads to striking reductions in case-fatality rates in regions with population-wide distribution and use.” Perhaps most importantly, as little as one dose a week can, “lead to population-wide protection and reduced transmission in a manner that is easier to achieve, more effective, and less expensive than the still elusive and widely suspect vaccine.” One study FLCCC believes deserves special attention is by Dr. Juan Chamie; his study gives us an analysis of, “large amounts of real-world epidemiologic data in support of Ivermectin as an effective population-wide intervention in Peru.” By comparing and contrasting eight regions, some of which used population-wide prophylactic Ivermectin, Dr. Chamie was able to reach strong confidence in the drug. As to the new protocol’s name, as noted “I” is for Ivermectin, “MASK” simply means wear a mask, and the “+” is differing amounts of vitamin D3, vitamin C, Quercetin, melatonin, zinc, and aspirin.


Meet the Physicians


Founded by highly published critical care specialists employed at major academic medical centers with over 1,000 medical publications, the FLCCC physicians came together to help patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.


∙ Pierre Kory, MPA, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center


∙ G. Umberto Meduri MD, Professor of Medicine, University of Tennessee


∙ Jose Iglesias, DO, Associate Professor of Medicine, Hackensack School of Medicine, Seton Hall


∙ Joseph Varon, MD, Professor of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center


∙ Keith Berkowitz, MD, Center for Balanced Health, New York


∙ Howard Kornfeld, MD, Medical Director, Recovery Without Walls


∙ Eivind Vinjevoll, MD Critical Care and Emergency Department Chief, Volda, Norway


∙ Scott Mitchell, MRCS, Associate Specialist, Princess Elizabeth Hospital, Guernsey


∙ Fred Wagshul, MD, Lung Center of America, Dayton, Ohio


∙ Paul E. Marik, MD, Professor of Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
I thought it was interesting in the TWiV 679: Mink, mutation, and myocytes interview that they were having trouble with people refusing to be tested. They didn't want to miss work, contact trace and quarantine. Then I saw this article on Biden's national plans. Wonder how he envisions enforcement. Don't think he won't use this to try and control conservative areas of the country.

Biden To Name COVID-19 Task Force Monday - Here's His Plan

Sun, 11/08/2020 - 16:35
While the Biden campaign has declined to discuss potential Cabinet posts after the MSM declared him the projected winner of the 2020 election, Joe Biden is planning to announce the creation of a 12-member coronavirus task force, according to Axios.



"On Monday, I will name a group of leading scientists and experts as transition advisers to help take the Biden-Harris COVID plan and convert it into an action blueprint that starts on Jan. 20, 2021," Biden said during a Saturday night speech.

According to the report, "By announcing a COVID task force even before unveiling his senior White House staff or a single cabinet appointment, Biden is signaling that addressing the coronavirus will be the immediate priority for his transition, and then his potential administration."

The task force will be led by three co-chairs: former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith from Yale University. -Axios
"We have to function as one nation. That means having a national plan," said Murthy, former surgeon general.

Several members of the task force have been advising Biden during his bid for presidency - adopting health protocols for the Biden campaign while also discussing public policy challenges.

Biden's plan: According to NPR, "Biden's plan calls for empowering scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help set national, evidence-based guidance to stop outbreaks as well as making significant investments in vaccine distribution, testing and the creation of a public health workforce to carry out contact tracing and other services."

"What you're going to see is a laser focus on ensuring that people get ... adequate testing and clear information," said Murthy.

So - 'more testing and clear information' - and CDC scientists will now be 'empowered' to dictate national policy.

Ezekiel Emanuel - brother of former Obama Chief of Staff and ex-Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel - has been advising Biden on health policy, and told NPR: "You're going to have rigorous evaluation and constant refinement" of policies and strategies.

Specifics of Biden's plan per NPR:
1. Set shared guidance for slowing community spread
Under Biden's plan, the CDC will be directed to provide specific guidance — based on the degree of viral spread in a community — for "how to open schools, open businesses," Emanuel says, or when to impose restrictions on gathering sizes or when stay-at-home orders may be called for.
It would create a national "pandemic dashboard" to share this information with the public. This is a strategy recommended by a top group of public health experts, who released a framework for assessing community risk.
And Biden says he'd work with every governor to make mask-wearing in public mandatory in their state. Many states already have mask mandates, but though research suggests that universal masking could save more than 100,000 lives, there's currently no nationwide coordination or requirement.
2. Seriously ramp up testing
The Biden campaign has said the goal is to "ensure that all Americans have access to regular, reliable and free testing." His administration will work to double the number of drive-through testing sites and invest in "next-generation testing," including home tests and instant tests.

"It's not enough to know in seven days or five days or three days whether or not you have COVID," Biden recently said on CBS' 60 Minutes. If there's a long lag time, a person may spread the disease unwittingly while waiting for results.

There are currently several home test kits that give quick results without being sent to a laboratory in development, but none are yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration. While there has been a significant expansion in testing, "testing is still not available and affordable to all people across the country," Murthy told NPR.

3. Hire thousands of public health workers
The Biden team pledges to "mobilize" 100,000 Americans to work with local organizations around the country to perform contact tracing and other health services for populations at high risk for COVID-19.

The idea is to empower local communities and health departments to assist people with challenges such as food insecurity and affordable housing.

"Imagine a public health workforce that was also helping train school officials in how to reopen safely," Murthy told NPR. Or helping run public education campaigns about a vaccine and how to stay safe in the pandemic. "Think about a workforce that was diverse, that looked like the country that we're trying to serve," Murthy said.

4. Help people get health insurance
Millions of American have lost health insurance during the pandemic. Biden's coronavirus plan proposes to have the federal government cover 100% of the costs of COBRA coverage for the duration of the crisis. "So when people lose their employer-based health insurance, they can stay on that insurance, given the moment we are in," Stef Feldman, Biden's national policy director, told NPR.

In addition, Biden will push to strengthen the Affordable Care Act, expanding coverage by making more people eligible for premium subsidies. Biden hopes also to push for expansion of Medicaid in states that have yet to do so, and he has proposed making Medicare coverage available to Americans beginning at age 60 (instead of 65).

During the pandemic, several governors asked the Trump administration to reopen the federal Obamacare marketplace for a special enrollment period. Feldman has told NPR that Biden would do so immediately after his inauguration to allow those who've lost insurance to sign up for new plans. She called it "a basic step that President Trump has refused to do."

5. Create a caregiving workforce
During the pandemic, Biden says many families are struggling to find affordable care for their children, aging relatives or loved ones with disabilities. "At the same time, professional caregivers have either lost their jobs or continue to work while putting their lives at risk without sufficient pay," his campaign plan noted.

Biden plans to work with states to speed up waiting lists for Medicaid-paid care in homes. In addition, the president-elect supports a variety of steps to expand caregiving, including ensuring access to preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds and supporting caregivers through job training and improved benefits and protections.

Expanding opportunities in the female-dominated caregiving workforce would play a dual role in both helping families, and helping improve women's employment outlook, said Sherry Glied, dean of New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, noting that this pandemic-fueled economic crisis has hit women harder.

6. Boost vaccine distribution and personal protective equipment production
States will need a lot of money to distribute a vaccine and make sure it gets to everyone who wants it. There are complex logistics that will require planning and resources. Currently state governors are asking for more guidance and financial assistance.

The Biden team proposes investing $25 billion in a vaccine manufacturing and distribution plan "that will guarantee it gets to every American, cost-free."

The president-elect also wants to solve the shortages of personal protective equipment that have plagued the U.S. health care system since the pandemic began. The Biden team says after the inauguration, it will work to make sure more of these critical supplies are produced and distributed "rather than leave states, cities, tribes, and territories to fend for themselves."

Biden says he'd use the Defense Production Act to increase production of masks, face shields and other personal protective equipment so that supply exceeds demand.
And with that Biden will wipe out COVID-19, which has apparently killed "230 million thousand Americans".

PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN: “230 million thousand Americans" have lost a loved one to COVID

pic.twitter.com/DHA8jFSK8A
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 8, 2020
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Thousands Gather Across UK To Denounce National Lockdown

Sun, 11/08/2020 - 13:45

England started its second covid lockdown on Thursday amid concerns of the virus pandemic's reemergence over September and October has resulted in soaring hospital admissions across the country. Nearly three days into the lockdown, on Sunday, anti-lockdown protesters flooded the streets in several cities, denouncing the latest round of restrictions.

In early October, Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced a three-tier system that would restrict travel among residents in virus hot spot regions. Then, on Oct. 31, Johnson announced the second lockdown would begin on Thursday.

The new measures have been introduced to mitigate the second wave of the virus pandemic, leading to record daily caseloads in the country. People are now confined to their homes for a month except for essential travel. All non-essential businesses have been closed, along with pubs and restaurants.

Three days into the new restrictions, anti-lockdown protesters rallied in Liverpool and Manchester on Sunday, creating a stir as they scuffled with police.

A video published by the Ruptly video agency shows thousands of demonstrators marching across Liverpool, defying a ban on rallies as they chanted "Shame on you!" and "Choose your side!"

View: https://youtu.be/uwibfNMlToQ
2:00 min

Anti-lockdown protesters were also spotted in Manchester. Again, the turnout appears to be in the thousands.
Anti-lockdown protest in Manchester, UK. pic.twitter.com/gR8yhjqZFl
— Ezra Levant (@ezralevant) November 8, 2020
One protester held a sign that read, "Covid1984 - survival rate 99.997% - you can shove the new world order up your arse! cause we are the 99%."



Huge crowds in Manchester despite restrictions banning rallies.


Many people were spotted without masks.
#Riseupmanchester Well done for a great afternoon, peaceful walk through the city, spreading the anti lockdown message pic.twitter.com/c51kPUsRQ8
— EmmaC (@fizznmore) November 8, 2020
One Twitter user couldn't spot anyone in the crowd wearing a mask.
Anti-lockdown demo in Manchester now...not a mask in sight..... pic.twitter.com/Q8ROczNVC4
— Citizen 1 (@citizen1448) November 8, 2020
Police are "dispersing" anti-lockdown protesters" in Central Manchester.
Police are currently dispersing an anti-lockdown protest in Central Manchester after protesters spraypainted "The North is not a petri dish" on the wall of Piccadilly Gardens pic.twitter.com/MZOnIOD1cM
— Anja Samy (@anjasamy) November 8, 2020
The next couple of weeks will be crucial for the UK to suppress the virus pandemic. If virus daily caseloads, hospitalizations, and deaths decrease by Dec. 2, the date when lockdown restrictions are expected to lift, then restrictions will have done their jobs but will come at a severe economic cost.

Surging UK COVID-19 Cases

If the second wave continues to rage, despite lockdowns, then there's a possibility an extension would be seen, which would fume further demonstrations.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Global COVID-19 Cases Top 50 Million, US Deaths Top 1k For 5th Day: Live Updates

Sun, 11/08/2020 - 14:10
Summary:
  • World tops 50 million COVID cases
  • US tops 1k deaths for 5th day
  • Dr. Gottlieb says Joe Biden needs to release COVID strategy
  • Italy reports another 30k+ new cases
  • Greece reports another 35 deaths
* * *
With most of the world focused on political developments in the US, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has surpassed the 50 million mark, almost exactly a year after the first cases were supposedly discovered in Wuhan, China.

Meanwhile, US deaths remained at more than 1,000 for a 5th day, a streak that we last saw in August, according to data from Johns Hopkins. On Sunday, the US reported more than 126,000 new infections for the third day. Globally, the world reported more than half-a-million new cases for at least a fourth day.




As the world waits to see how President-elect Joe Biden is going to handle the virus, or whether there is going to be another national lockdown in the US, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said that Biden needs to launch a national strategy.

"If you’re not going to have a federally led national strategy in the next couple of months, and it’s going to be led at the state level, you at least want to coordinate across different states so it starts to have the semblance of a more cohesive plan,” Dr. Gottlieb said on "Face The Nation".

View: https://youtu.be/mHQJNGftU2U
23:10 min

Here's some more COVID-19 news from Sunday:
Greece reported 35 additional deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday, a record number for the second straight day. With patients swamping intensive-care units, Greece began a nationwide lockdown on Saturday that’s scheduled to stay in place through November. Cases increased by 1,914 on the day to 56,698 (Source: Bloomberg).

Italy reported 32,616 new cases on Sunday, some 7,000 fewer than a record number the day before but the fifth consecutive day with more than 30,000.

Another 331 deaths were blamed on Covid-19. More Italian regions are considering lockdowns after authorities imposed tighter restrictions on the worst-hit areas, including Milan and Turin (Source: Bloomberg).

The UK reported more than 20,000 cases for the sixth straight day, though the 20,572 reported Sunday were below the seven-day average of 22,826. With 156 new deaths, the toll was less than half of the weekly average. Reporting has lagged on weekends (Source: Bloomberg).
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3idufWrIJsE
14:40 min
197 - What We’ve Learned About How COVID-19 Spreads
•Nov 9, 2020


Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Before the pandemic, we didn’t know as much about how infectious respiratory diseases spread. New knowledge about COVID-19 can help us make informed decisions about risks but it has also led to mixed messages. Hopkins environmental epidemiologist Dr. Tom Burke and dean of the University of Colorado School of Public Health Dr. Jon Samet talk with Stephanie Desmon about a panel they recently led on airborne transmission of COVID-19. They talk about everything we’ve learned about how COVID spreads, the CDC’s changing guidance on “close contacts,” the riskiest settings for transmission, and how current guidance may be even more effective than a vaccine.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Multiple States And FDA Warn Of "Careless" Rapid Antigen Testing In Asymptomatic COVID Cases

Mon, 11/09/2020 - 20:20

As if there wasn't enough confusion and broad misunderstanding going around about Covid, the states of Louisiana and Oregon are now warning against using rapid, low cost antigen tests in asymptomatic people to try and determine whether or not they are positive with coronavirus. Oh, and so is the Food and Drug Administration...

The appeal of these tests is that they can be spread widely and cheaply, giving the illusion of control over the virus to individuals and organizations that use them for quick blanket testing.

But these tests could "miss some infections that can be picked up by costlier gold-standard assays, and can incorrectly return positive results," according to Bloomberg.

As a result, the state is not recommending the tests to people without symptoms, who have not been exposed to someone with a positive test. The Louisiana Department of Health also says that people who undergo antigen tests should be made aware of its limitations.



Joseph Kanter, interim assistant secretary for the state’s Office of Public Health, said: “On the one hand, we have technology and testing platforms like this one which are new and likely valuable. And everybody has an interest in getting them to people that could benefit from them as quick as possible. On the other hand, we don’t have great data on them yet.”

The Oregon Health Authority has also warned against using the tests in asymptomatic people without confirmed Covid-19 exposure.

Mark McClellan, director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University, commented that antigen tests for one time use risks the chance of missing infections: “For people looking to one-time use of Covid antigen tests as a way to go back to normal, we’re not in that situation now. This is one more layer of protection as we try to reopen and get through the rest of the pandemic.”

On Tuesday, the FDA also warned about the tests, saying they can produce "incorrect positive results". Nursing homes and other care settings have reported false positives from antigen tests, the FDA noted.

These warnings apply to tests like Abbot's $5 BinaxNOW test that the U.S. government is spending $750 million on. Now, state health officials are reportedly "increasingly concerned that people without symptoms should be screened with more costly but more reliable polymerase chain reaction assays".



Jeff Engel, a senior adviser at the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, said: "HHS made this purchase without any studies on the novel use in which they’re deploying these tests. I think that’s careless.”

It's also one of the infinite reminders that government is not only an abhorrent allocator of other peoples' capital, but is also flailing wildly in trying to control a virus that is casually making its way across the globe regardless of what preventative measures we take.

HHS official Brett Giroir responded: “We do support asymptomatic testing being used. That is the only way that you’re going to screen millions of people a month.”

Abbot responded: "Widespread, affordable rapid antigen testing helps slow the virus’s spread, and tests like BinaxNOW, when used as intended, can detect those most likely to be infectious."
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Fed Warns Assets Could Suffer "Significant Declines" If Covid Is Not Contained

Mon, 11/09/2020 - 16:59

While it's a little odd to read about market and economic risks on the day the every major index hit an all time high (then slumped) amid expectations the economy is on its way to a full recovery thanks to some vaccine which may or may not be available in early 2021 and which half the population have sworn they will not take, moments ago the Fed published its latest semi-annial Financial Stability Report, in which it emphasized that risk assets could be hit if the coronavirus pandemic’s economic impact worsens in coming months, to wit: "the COVID-19 shock highlighted how vulnerabilities related to leverage and funding risk at nonbank financial institutions could amplify shocks in the financial system in times of stress."

While "asset prices have generally increased since May, and, when adjusted for low interest rates, valuation pressures appear roughly in line with their historical norms", the Fed warned that "uncertainty remains high, and investor risk sentiment could shift swiftly should the economic recovery prove less promising or progress on containing the virus disappoint."

So worried is the Fed about the impact of covid that it dedicated the entire first section in its "near-term risk" section to covid, in which it said that "investor risk appetite and asset prices have increased in recent months but could suffer significant declines should the pandemic take an unexpected course or the economic recovery prove less sustainable." The Fed also also warned that "the leverage of some nonbank financial institutions, such as life insurance companies and hedge funds, is high, exposing them to risks stemming from sharp drops in asset prices and funding illiquidity risks."
The effects of the pandemic have increased the vulnerabilities of the financial system to future shocks, including additional waves of substantial COVID-19 outbreaks

Most forecasters expect a moderate recovery in economic output in the United States and abroad following a global recession, but uncertainty surrounding this outcome is unusually high. The sharp slowdown in economic activity has disproportionately affected some businesses and households, and a further weakening in the balance sheets of those that are especially vulnerable could affect the financial system. Furthermore, monetary and fiscal policy tools have limited ability to moderate some dimensions of what is fundamentally a public health shock.

If the pandemic persists for longer than anticipated—especially if there are extended delays in the production or distribution of a successful vaccine—downward pressure on the U.S. economy could derail the nascent recovery and strain financial markets and financial institutions, particularly if many businesses are shuttered again and many workers are laid off and left without a normal income for a long period. If that were the case, a number of the vulnerabilities identified in this report could grow further, making them more likely to amplify negative shocks to the economy.

Investor risk appetite and asset prices have increased in recent months but could suffer significant declines should the pandemic take an unexpected course or the economic recovery prove less sustainable. Given the generally high level of leverage in the nonfinancial business sector, prolonged weak profits could trigger financial stress and defaults. In addition, a protracted slowdown could further harm the finances of even high-credit-score households, which could lead to defaults and place financial pressure on banks and other lenders. Broader solvency issues could impair the ability of some financial institutions to lend or induce increased asset sales and redemptions of withdrawable liabilities.
Although leverage remains at modest levels at banks, broker-dealers, and other financial institutions, the leverage of some nonbank financial institutions, such as life insurance companies and hedge funds, is high, exposing them to risks stemming from sharp drops in asset prices and funding illiquidity risks. Furthermore, prime MMFs and fixed-income mutual funds remain vulnerable to funding strains and sudden redemptions, as demonstrated during the acute period of extreme market volatility and deteriorating asset prices earlier this year. While government support has lowered the risk of adverse events associated with vulnerabilities in the nonbank sector, this sector would be vulnerable to funding risk should the government support be withdrawn.
Indicatively, the Fed is eyeing the following chart which shows that despite a record number of daily cases in the US, the number of corona-linked deaths have barely budged.



The smartest academics in the room also warned that "some segments of the economy, such as energy as well as travel and hospitality, are particularly vulnerable to a prolonged pandemic." Furthermore, "within CRE, retail, office, and lodging properties exhibit the highest vulnerability" while commercial property values which have been especially sensitive to the pandemic, have already begun falling.

As a result, "uncertainty remains high, and investor risk sentiment could shift swiftly should the economic recovery prove less promising or progress on containing the virus disappoint." Furthermore, some segments of the economy, "such as energy as well as travel and hospitality, are particularly vulnerable to a prolonged pandemic. Within CRE, retail, office, and lodging properties exhibit the highest vulnerability."

As such, a vaccine that lessens the virus’s threat is vital to commercial real estate, which has much to gain if people begin working, shopping and traveling again at pre-Covid levels, the Fed said.

Besides covid, the Fed listed risks in the following categories:
  • Disruptions in global dollar funding markets remain an important source of risk
  • Stresses emanating from Europe also pose risks to the United States because of strong transmission channels...
  • ... and adverse developments in emerging market economies with vulnerable financial systems could spill over to the United State
Additionally, as part of its market intelligence gathering for this report, the Federal solicited views from a wide range of contacts on risks to U.S. financial stability. From early September to mid-October, the staff surveyed 24 contacts at banks, investment firms, academic institutions, and political consultancies. As shown in the figure, respondents frequently cited concerns about U.S. political uncertainty as well as the risk of a COVID-19 resurgence generating renewed restrictions. Relatedly, a large share of respondents highlighted uncertainty surrounding the likelihood and efficacy of a policy response to economic weakness as well as concerns over the potential for increased insolvencies among nonfinancial corporates and small businesses.



The Fed also showed the size of the various asset markets discussed, with the largest asset markets are those for residential real estate, corporate public equities, CRE, and Treasury securities:



In what may be the most accurate thing it has ever said, the Fed warned that that vulnerabilities tend to build up over time - like for example the 11 years since the launch of QE - and are "the aspects of the financial system that are most expected to cause widespread problems in times of stress." As a result, the Fed's framework focuses primarily on monitoring vulnerabilities and emphasizes four broad categories based on research which include i) elevated valuation pressures, ii) excessive borrowings by businesses and households, iii) excessive leverage in the financial sector; and iv) funding risks.

According to Bloomberg, Fed Governor Lael Brainard, who has led the central bank’s stability reporting efforts and who is rumored to be Joe Biden's top choice for Treasury Secretary, said the report shows that some of the same nonbank financial sectors that were troublesome in the 2008 meltdown are posing dangers in this crisis, which "highlights the importance of a renewed commitment to financial reform" although it is unclear how the Fed is reforming the system when it keeps injecting $120BN in liquidity every month.

“If the pandemic persists for longer than anticipated -- especially if there are extended delays in the production or distribution of a successful vaccine -- downward pressure on the U.S. economy could derail the nascent recovery and strain financial markets,” the report said. “Given the generally high level of leverage in the non-financial business sector, prolonged weak profits could trigger financial stress and defaults.”

And while there is much more in the full report (embedded below and linked here), including a lot of pretty charts one thing to note is that for the first time ever, the Fed included a section discussing the "implications of climate change for financial stability." In other words, it's not the Fed's fault there is a massive bubble: blame the weather.



One final point: in perhaps the most ominous note in the report, the Fed warned that its own tools may soon be useless:

 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

German Doctors Urge Chancellor Merkel: Put An End To The COVID "Fear Machine"

Mon, 11/09/2020 - 02:00

Authored by By Dr. Robert Kluger, Dr. Bruno Weil, and et al.

Dear Chancellor Dr. Merkel,

We, the signatories, are doctors from all areas of healthcare, who have been serving people in practices and clinics for decades. During this time, we have witnessed more than one seasonal infection in Germany, most of them with far more severe conditions and significantly more deaths than since January 2020 from COVID infectious diseases. Together we serve approx. 70.000 people.




The circumstances of the coronavirus wave in the FRG have been perceived differently than the media and the ongoing warnings of politics, which were unjustified in fact, presented to the public for months. Predictions of individual advisory virologists with millions of seriously ill and hundreds of thousands of deaths in Germany have not been true in any way.

In the practices, hardly any infected patients were infected and if, then with normal, mostly mild progressions of virus flu. The hospitals have been more empty than ever before. There was no overload of ICU. Doctors, doctors and nurses were skillful in short-term work. Initially, we found the wave of the virus running towards us to be threatening and were able to understand the infection protection measures. However, there are months of secured evidence and facts that this wave of the virus is only slightly more intense than an ordinary seasonal flu and must be considered much more harmless than, for example, influenza infection in 2017/2018 with 27.000 deaths in Germany. According to the data situation, there hasn’t been a threat to the German population from Covid-19 for months.

This must be the reason to return to normal life in Germany – a life without restrictions, fear and infection hysteria.

We’re increasingly seeing older people with depression, young children and adolescents with severe anxiety and behavioral disorders, people with severe conditions who could have been cured in timely treatment. We notice disruptions in interpersonal cooperation, hysteria and aggression caused by fear of infection, there are more and more vigilations and denunciations of ′′ positive swab victims ′′ – all this leads to an unprecedented tension and division of the population. The development of additional severe chronic diseases is foreseeable. These diseases with their severe consequences are expected to far outweigh the possible Covid-19 damage in the FRG.

The signatories therefore call on those responsible for health care and politics to discharge their responsibilities for the people of our country and immediately avert this threatening development.
We demand an immediate revision of the available data by an independent panel of experts from all relevant specialized groups and a prompt implementation of the resulting consequences for the people of our country.We demand that ineffective and possibly even harmful anti-infection measures be stopped immediately and that mass testing is meaningful (e.g. Currently, 1,1 million tests / week, of which 99,3 % negative, cost per week: EUR 82,5 million) to be audited by a panel of independent experts.

We demand to intensify the protection of risk patients and only from them, where every viral infection can take a dramatic course – the healthy, immune competent population does not need protection beyond the general hygiene and health measures that have been known and proven for generations. Children and adolescents in particular need contacts with viruses to ′′ format ′′ your immune system. Coronavirus has always existed and will continue to exist. Natural immunity is the weapon against it. On the other hand, the mouth-nose cover demanded by politicians does not have a solid scientific foundation.

We call on politicians and medical professional representatives to refrain from daily public warning and fear machines in the press and talk shows – this creates a deep and unsubstantiated fear among the population.

The Bundestag has gem. § 5 IfSG identified an ′′ epidemic situation of national scope Obviously, the conditions for this are not fulfilled anymore. We therefore call on the members of the Bundestag to lift this statement immediately and thereby to shift the decision and responsibility for this to where they belong: into the hands of the democratically legitimate Parliament.

If there is an independent free press in Germany, we call on them to research in all directions and also allow critical voices. Opinion formation can only take place if all voices are heard without value and facts and figures are neutral.

Through daily contact with the people entrusted to us and many conversations, we as doctors working at the base of the population know that the hygiene awareness of people has grown so far through the experience of this virus wave that normal hygiene measures without coercion will be sufficient in the future.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech is strongly effective, early data from large trial indicate

By MATTHEW HERPER @matthewherper
NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Medical ampules
ADOBE

Pfizer and partner BioNTech said Monday that their vaccine against Covid-19 was strongly effective, exceeding expectations with results that are likely to be met with cautious excitement — and relief — in the face of the global pandemic.

The vaccine is the first to be tested in the United States to generate late-stage data. The companies said an early analysis of the results showed that individuals who received two injections of the vaccine three weeks apart experienced more than 90% fewer cases of symptomatic Covid-19 than those who received a placebo. For months, researchers have cautioned that a vaccine that might only be 60% or 70% effective.

The Phase 3 study is ongoing and additional data could affect results.

In keeping with guidance from the Food and Drug Administration, the companies will not file for an emergency use authorization to distribute the vaccine until they reach another milestone: when half of the patients in their study have been observed for any safety issues for at least two months following their second dose. Pfizer expects to cross that threshold in the third week of November.

“I’ve been in vaccine development for 35 years,” William Gruber, Pfizer’s senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development, told STAT. “I’ve seen some really good things. This is extraordinary.” He later added: “This really bodes well for us being able to get a handle on the epidemic and get us out of this situation.”

Although it is a bright spot in the battle against the pandemic and a triumph for Pfizer and BioNTech, a German company, key information about the vaccine is not yet available. There is no information yet on whether the vaccine prevents severe cases, the type that can cause hospitalization and death.

Nor is there any information yet on whether it prevents people from carrying the virus that causes Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, without symptoms.

Without more information, it’s too early to start predicting how much of an impact the vaccine could make, said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy.

“I don’t want to dampen any enthusiasm for this vaccine. I just want us to be realistic,” Osterholm said. “For a vaccine to really have maximal impact, it’s going to have to also reduce severe illness and death. And we just don’t know yet.”

Because the vaccine has been studied for only a matter of months, it is impossible to say how long it will protect against infection with the virus. The vaccine does cause side effects, including aches and fevers, according to previously published data. Gruber said that he believed the side effect profile was comparable to standard adult vaccines, but probably worse than Pfizer’s pneumonia vaccine, Prevnar, or a flu shot.

The results have not been peer-reviewed by outside scientists or published in a medical journal, and even Pfizer and BioNTech have been given no other details about how the vaccine performed by the independent monitors overseeing the study.

Initial supplies of the vaccine, if authorized, will be limited. Pfizer says up to 50 million doses could be available globally. by the end of the year, with 1.3 billion available in 2021. There are also expected to be distribution challenges. The vaccine must be stored at super-cold temperatures, which could make it extremely difficult to deliver to many places. Pfizer has said it is confident those issues can be managed.

Although the estimate of the efficacy of the vaccine could change as the study is completed, it is close to a best-case scenario. That also bodes well for other vaccines in the late stages of testing, including those developed by Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson.

“If that headline really number really holds up, that is huge. That is much better than I was expecting and it will make a huge difference,” said Ashish Jha, the dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University. He cautioned, however, that it is always difficult to evaluate science via press release and that researchers will need to see the full results. He noted that side effects are something to watch, because even if there are no serious long-term complications, people feeling sick for a day or two could lead some to be hesitant to take a vaccine.
“This really bodes well for us being able to get a handle on the epidemic and get us out of this situation.”

Both Pfizer’s vaccine and Moderna’s use messenger-RNA, or mRNA, technology, which uses genetic material to cause the body to create a protein from the virus; the immune system then recognizes the virus and learns to attack. Other vaccines in the late stages of development use genetically engineered viruses for a similar purpose, or pieces of protein that are directly injected. No mRNA product has ever been approved by regulators.

The story of how the data have been analyzed seems to include no small amount of drama. Pfizer, seeing an opportunity to both help battle a pandemic and demonstrate its research prowess, made decisions that were always likely to make its study the first of a Covid-19 vaccine to produce data — including its decision to have an independent group of researchers, known as a data safety and monitoring board, take an early look at the data in the 44,000-volunteer study before its completion.

The first analysis was to occur after 32 volunteers — both those who received the vaccine and those on placebo — had contracted Covid-19. If fewer than six volunteers in the group who received the vaccine had developed Covid-19, the companies would make an announcement that the vaccine appeared to be effective. The study would continue until at least 164 cases of Covid-19 — individuals with at least one symptom and a positive test result — had been reported.

video at site 2:02 min

Scientists can now design genetic material called mRNA to help us build immunity to certain viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. Find out how mRNA vaccines work in this video.HYACINTH EMPINADO/STAT

That study design, as well as those of other drug makers, came under fire from experts who worried that, even if it was statistically valid, these interim analyses would not provide enough data when a vaccine could be given to billions of people.

In their announcement of the results, Pfizer and BioNTech revealed a surprise. The companies said they had decided not to conduct the 32-case analysis “after a discussion with the FDA.” Instead, they planned to conduct the analysis after 62 cases. But by the time the plan had been formalized, there had been 94 cases of Covid-19 in the study. It’s not known how many were in the vaccine arm, but it would have to be nine or fewer.

Gruber said that Pfizer and BioNTech had decided in late October that they wanted to drop the 32-case interim analysis. At that time, the companies decided to stop having their lab confirm cases of Covid-19 in the study, instead leaving samples in storage. The FDA was aware of this decision. Discussions between the agency and the companies concluded, and testing began this past Wednesday. When the samples were tested, there were 94 cases of Covid in the trial. The DSMB met on Sunday.

This means that the statistical strength of the result is likely far stronger than was initially expected. It also means that if Pfizer had held to the original plan, the data would likely have been available in October, as its CEO, Albert Bourla, had initially predicted.

Gruber said that there will not be another interim analysis conducted in the study. He also said that Pfizer’s estimate that it could file for authorization of the vaccine by the third week of November was based on the assumption that the FDA would be willing to accept two-month safety data on half the volunteers in the study as initially planned, when it was to include 30,000 volunteers, not more than 44,000, as is now the case. Those discussions are ongoing.

But Gruber said he now expects that by the time of the planned meeting of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee in December, the study’s efficacy portion could be completed, having reached 164 cases of Covid-19.

He also emphasized that although there will only be a few months of data from this study, results from earlier studies make him optimistic that immunity from the vaccine will not wane rapidly.

The study has enrolled 43,538 volunteers the companies said, and 38,955 have received their second dose. About 42% of global participants and 30% of U.S. participants have racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds.

Bourla, Pfizer’s CEO, said the results mark “a great day for science and humanity,” in a statement, saying they provide “initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent Covid-19.” He added: “We look forward to sharing additional efficacy and safety data generated from thousands of participants in the coming weeks.”
 

Galoutofdixie

Contributing Member
I was watching the liberal news report on this earlier this evening. All smiles, and so happy. I'm happy that it looks like a vaccine will be available soon too... But, I kept shouting at the TV for the talking heads to say, "thank you President Trump, thank you for Operation Warp Speed:! Of course, that didn't happen. :(
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZQRtKxP_YQ
17:01 min
198 - Why Women Are Dropping Out of the Workforce During COVID-19 and What the Long-term Impacts...
•Nov 10, 2020


Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
A disproportionate number of women in the U.S. appear to be “dropping out” of the workforce during the pandemic, presumably to care for children or because they are more likely to have jobs that cannot be done remotely. Stefania Albanesi, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh who studies women in the workforce, talks with Stephanie Desmon about this phenomenon and what it could mean long-term for both their careers and the economy.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL-3MVHAg6E
16:20 min
Clinicians’ Perspectives on Resources and Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic
•Streamed live 71 minutes ago


JAMA Network
November 10, 2020 Catherine R. Butler, MD, MA joins JAMA Network Open Digital Media Editor, Seth Trueger, MD, MPH, to discuss a qualitative study describing the perspectives and experiences of clinicians involved in institutional planning for resource limitation and/or patient care during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Read the article here: https://ja.ma/32vBC0h.
 

TammyinWI

Talk is cheap

German Doctors Urge Chancellor Merkel: Put An End To The COVID "Fear Machine"

Mon, 11/09/2020 - 02:00

Authored by By Dr. Robert Kluger, Dr. Bruno Weil, and et al.

Dear Chancellor Dr. Merkel,

We, the signatories, are doctors from all areas of healthcare, who have been serving people in practices and clinics for decades. During this time, we have witnessed more than one seasonal infection in Germany, most of them with far more severe conditions and significantly more deaths than since January 2020 from COVID infectious diseases. Together we serve approx. 70.000 people.




The circumstances of the coronavirus wave in the FRG have been perceived differently than the media and the ongoing warnings of politics, which were unjustified in fact, presented to the public for months. Predictions of individual advisory virologists with millions of seriously ill and hundreds of thousands of deaths in Germany have not been true in any way.

In the practices, hardly any infected patients were infected and if, then with normal, mostly mild progressions of virus flu. The hospitals have been more empty than ever before. There was no overload of ICU. Doctors, doctors and nurses were skillful in short-term work. Initially, we found the wave of the virus running towards us to be threatening and were able to understand the infection protection measures. However, there are months of secured evidence and facts that this wave of the virus is only slightly more intense than an ordinary seasonal flu and must be considered much more harmless than, for example, influenza infection in 2017/2018 with 27.000 deaths in Germany. According to the data situation, there hasn’t been a threat to the German population from Covid-19 for months.

This must be the reason to return to normal life in Germany – a life without restrictions, fear and infection hysteria.

We’re increasingly seeing older people with depression, young children and adolescents with severe anxiety and behavioral disorders, people with severe conditions who could have been cured in timely treatment. We notice disruptions in interpersonal cooperation, hysteria and aggression caused by fear of infection, there are more and more vigilations and denunciations of ′′ positive swab victims ′′ – all this leads to an unprecedented tension and division of the population. The development of additional severe chronic diseases is foreseeable. These diseases with their severe consequences are expected to far outweigh the possible Covid-19 damage in the FRG.

The signatories therefore call on those responsible for health care and politics to discharge their responsibilities for the people of our country and immediately avert this threatening development.
We demand an immediate revision of the available data by an independent panel of experts from all relevant specialized groups and a prompt implementation of the resulting consequences for the people of our country.We demand that ineffective and possibly even harmful anti-infection measures be stopped immediately and that mass testing is meaningful (e.g. Currently, 1,1 million tests / week, of which 99,3 % negative, cost per week: EUR 82,5 million) to be audited by a panel of independent experts.

We demand to intensify the protection of risk patients and only from them, where every viral infection can take a dramatic course – the healthy, immune competent population does not need protection beyond the general hygiene and health measures that have been known and proven for generations. Children and adolescents in particular need contacts with viruses to ′′ format ′′ your immune system. Coronavirus has always existed and will continue to exist. Natural immunity is the weapon against it. On the other hand, the mouth-nose cover demanded by politicians does not have a solid scientific foundation.

We call on politicians and medical professional representatives to refrain from daily public warning and fear machines in the press and talk shows – this creates a deep and unsubstantiated fear among the population.

The Bundestag has gem. § 5 IfSG identified an ′′ epidemic situation of national scope Obviously, the conditions for this are not fulfilled anymore. We therefore call on the members of the Bundestag to lift this statement immediately and thereby to shift the decision and responsibility for this to where they belong: into the hands of the democratically legitimate Parliament.

If there is an independent free press in Germany, we call on them to research in all directions and also allow critical voices. Opinion formation can only take place if all voices are heard without value and facts and figures are neutral.

Through daily contact with the people entrusted to us and many conversations, we as doctors working at the base of the population know that the hygiene awareness of people has grown so far through the experience of this virus wave that normal hygiene measures without coercion will be sufficient in the future.

Good! Continuing to pray against all of this full-on stupidity, and global gulag. And for the protection of those that tell the truth in the media.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Joe Biden Coronavirus Adviser Urges National Lockdown for ‘4 to 6 Weeks’

272
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL - OCTOBER 29: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks to reporters while making a visit to a voter mobilization center on October 29, 2020 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Biden is campaigning in Florida on Thursday, with drive-in rallies in Tampa and Broward County. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty …
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
KYLE OLSON11 Nov 2020984

An adviser to Joe Biden on coronavirus has floated the idea of a nationwide lockdown for “four to six weeks.”

Dr. Michael Osterholm was appointed to Biden’s 12-person Covid advisory board on Monday.

On Wednesday, he appeared on CNBC and attempted to rationalize a national lockdown order.

“We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers, for losses to small companies, to medium-sized companies or city, state, county governments. We could do all of that,” he said.

“If we did that, then we could lock down for four-to-six weeks.”

Osterholm claimed that would help get the virus under control, “like they did in New Zealand and Australia.”

In August, Osterholm said the state-led lockdowns did not go far enough.
“The problem with the March-to-May lockdown was that it was not uniformly stringent across the country. For example, Minnesota deemed 78 percent of its workers essential,” he wrote in the New York Times, along with Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari.

“To be effective, the lockdown has to be as comprehensive and strict as possible.”

Biden said during the campaign that he would be open to a national lockdown if that is what the “scientists” told him to do.

In August, World News Tonight anchor David Muir predicted coronavirus and the flu would “combine” in January.
“I would shut it down. I would listen to the scientists.”
Joe Biden tells @DavidMuir in an exclusive interview that as president, he would shut the country down to stop the spread of COVID-19 if the move was recommended by scientists. https://t.co/T9rJgTWcDN pic.twitter.com/bapv7Rui6U
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) August 23, 2020
“Would you be prepared to shut this country down again?” Muir asked.
Biden indicated he would.

“So if the scientists say, ‘Shut it down’ ….” Muir continued.

“I would shut it down. I would listen to the scientists,” Biden said.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

It Begins: Cuomo Issues Lockdown Orders on Private Homes Just Before Thanksgiving

466
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo steps from his car as he arrives at NewYork Stock Exchange to ring the opening bell as the trading floor partially reopens, Tuesday, May 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
JOHN CARNEY11 Nov 2020976

Tell the guests that Thanksgiving dinner is canceled.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced orders Wednesday slapping a ten-person cap on gatherings in private residences, including apartments and houses. That means that a lot of family plans for even small Thanksgiving dinners will have to be canceled or risk moving ahead in violation of state law.
NYS is taking action to stop the spread in response to rising COVID numbers.
Any establishment with a state liquor license, including bars and restaurants, must close at 10pm.
Gyms must also close at 10pm.
These new statewide rules will take effect Friday, 10pm.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) November 11, 2020
Restaurants and bars are also being ordered to close at 10 p.m. Health authorities are convinced that late-night dining and drinking is riskier, perhaps because people can stay longer when drinking and dining places are open later.

Mysteriously, gyms must also close at 10 p.m.

The rules take effect at 10 p.m. Friday.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Illinois Gov. Pritzker Parties with Biden Election Crowd Despite Calling for State to Lock Down

216
SPRINGFIELD, IL - FEBRUARY 20: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is congratulated by lawmakers after delivering his first budget address to a joint session of the llinois House and Senate at the Illinois State Capitol on February 20, 2019 in Springfield, Illinois. (Photo by E. Jason Wambsgans/Pool/Getty Images)
E. Jason Wambsgans/Pool/Getty Images
WARNER TODD HUSTON11 Nov 2020156

Illinois’ Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker is once again making grave proclamations about shutting his state down due to the coronavirus. Still, despite the draconian measures to “save lives,” the governor was also seen partying in crowded Chicago streets last week celebrating Joe Biden’s purported 2020 election win.
Photos of the gov. partying with Chicagoans showed up on Twitter as people remarked on Pritzker’s parading joyously in the Windy City’s Boystown neighborhood:
Governor Pritzger showed up for the party! #Chicago #Illinois #Boystown #President #Biden #Harris #USA @JBPritzker pic.twitter.com/8n13gae1WG
— Shane (@somethingwitty_) November 7, 2020
Celebrants are wearing masks in the video, as is the governor. Still, there is nothing resembling social distancing, especially for a governor who had voluntarily sent himself into self-quarantine for a second time less than a month before.

Regardless of his joy over Biden’s possible election victory, Pritzker had already appeared on TV, telling Illinoisans that he was renewing massive shutdowns in the Land of Lincoln. The week before Election Day, for instance, the governor had again ordered restaurants to shut down to prevent the virus’s spread.

“Unfortunately, the virus doesn’t make exceptions, and it would be ill-advised to make exceptions to the rules we put in place as the best mitigations to stop the spread,” Pritzker said on October 28, as he delivered more coronavirus shutdown edicts.

Indeed, only four days before he was seen celebrating in the streets, Pritzker was heard warning that more harsh shutdowns were coming.

Yet, Pritzker thought it was fine to join hundreds of people on the streets of Chicago. Chicago columnist Mark Konkol slammed the governor, saying, “But there was Pritzker weaving through crowds of people to celebrate Biden’s victory when a social video message would have been a safer way to celebrate, given the out-of-control coronavirus outbreak currently overtaking Illinois.”

“What part of the ‘virus doesn’t make exceptions’ doesn’t apply to Pritzker?” Konkol pointedly asked.
 

TammyinWI

Talk is cheap
Continuing to Pray against this gestapo global gulag, all of their tactics including dangling carrots and bait and switch, and against this evil, not to prevail.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Biden 'Science' Advisor Calls For 4-6 Week Nationwide Lockdown To Avoid "COVID Hell"

Wed, 11/11/2020 - 20:00

Meet the esteemed Dr. Michael Osterholm, who serves as director of the Center of Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and is the latest "scientist" to join Joe Biden's "special coronavirus transition advisory team."


We have to do something, Osterholm argues, or - echoing the exact same words Dr. Fauci has fearmongered America with - the U.S. is headed for dark days before a vaccine becomes available.


The 'casedemic' does look terrifying.
So what is his suggestion?
Simple...
A nationwide lockdown would drive the number of new cases and hospitalizations down to manageable levels while the world awaits a vaccine, Osterholm told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday.
“We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers for losses to small companies to medium-sized companies or city, state, county governments. We could do all of that,” he said. “If we did that, then we could lockdown for four-to-six weeks.”
So a massive bailout for state and local governments... oh and "we, the people" while we all suffer locked-down like a dementia-ridden presidential candidate in our basements through Thanksgiving and Christmas... with depression and suicide rates soaring ever higher?



As a reminder, we note that this is the same 'scientist' who co-wrote an op-ed with Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari in which the two argued for more restrictive and uniform lockdowns across the nation.
“The problem with the March-to-May lockdown was that it was not uniformly stringent across the country. For example, Minnesota deemed 78 percent of its workers essential,” they wrote in the New York Times.
“To be effective, the lockdown has to be as comprehensive and strict as possible.”
In other words - Obey! Or the economy gets it... Again!


There's just one thing... the real 'science' - where actual experiments are undergone, results noted, and theses concluded - shows that lockdowns do not work...

As we detailed earlier, in a surprising report out of JPMorgan, the bank finds no meaningful curve development differences between countries with and without strong curve intervention.
This makes the bank question if existing public health intervention (i.e., lockdown/ stricter social distancing) should remain in place next year, and leads JPM to conclude that "public health policy should consider approaches biased towards economic/pubic mental health over the urge to close the curve in 2021."
To reach its "startling" conclusion, JPMorgan compared countries without lockdown, keeping the economy open under certain levels of social-distancing (Brazil, US, Sweden, Japan, Korea) to countries with strong curve intervention (UK, Germany, Italy, France, China, India) to see any meaningful differential in the curve development.

This outcome suggest that COVID-19 follows a similar diffusion and development process of other infectious diseases with certain life cycles. Therefore, JPMorgan would argue that public health policy should consider a bit more biased approach on economic/pubic mental health over the aim to close the infection curve in 2021 as lockdowns could be costly to the economy.

JPMorgan's conclusion: "Keeping public activities open and tracing susceptible people leveraging technology looks to have better risk reward to us."
And just in case you shrug off JPMorgan's 'scientific' findings, a recent study in The Lancet (yes, that scientific journal) found no correlation whatsoever between severity of lockdown and number of covid deaths. And they didn’t find any correlation between border closures and covid deaths either. And there was no correlation between mass testing and covid deaths either, for that matter.

Basically, nothing that various world governments have done to combat covid seems to have had any effect whatsoever on the number of deaths.


As Raul Ilargi Meijer noted, lockdowns are based on pretending we can make time stand still.
That, like in one of those slick videos, everything else stops moving while you can walk around it. All Else Being Equal. It never is, not for 6-7 months. And that the first lockdown didn’t work, at least not for long, should perhaps be a lesson. Maybe you should look for answers elsewhere. Because the damage just goes on, economically, psychologically, physically.

I’m not pretending I have the answers. I do have questions though. While the situation reminds me of Sisyphus, forced by Zeus to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity. Every time he nears the top of the hill, the boulder rolls back down.
We need to find a balance between the threat of COVID19 and the threat of everything else, very much including those things that are caused by our approach to COVID.
Presumably, Dr. Osterholm and the rest of his 11 wise men (and women and non-binary individuals) on Joe Biden's COVID advisory team did not bother to look at the actual science... or actual facts... preferring instead to tie their careers to a Federal Reserve president (with no background in 'sciencey' stuff - but very well versed in massive government-funded bailouts) and the belief that if we just keep puking borrowed- or tax-payer-funded cash at people while shutting down the economy, then we will "keep the coronavirus pandemic in check and get the economy on track until a vaccine is approved and distributed."


TL;DR: Ignore common sense and the real-world science experiment that just took place, shutdown the economy to get the economy back on track.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibody LY-CoV555 in Outpatients with Covid-19
List of authors.
  • Peter Chen, M.D.,
  • Ajay Nirula, M.D., Ph.D.,
  • Barry Heller, M.D.,
  • Robert L. Gottlieb, M.D., Ph.D.,
  • Joseph Boscia, M.D.,
  • Jason Morris, M.D.,
  • Gregory Huhn, M.D., M.P.H.T.M.,
  • Jose Cardona, M.D.,
  • Bharat Mocherla, M.D.,
  • Valentina Stosor, M.D.,
  • Imad Shawa, M.D.,
  • Andrew C. Adams, Ph.D.,
Abstract

BACKGROUND

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), which is most frequently mild yet can be severe and life-threatening. Virus-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies are predicted to reduce viral load, ameliorate symptoms, and prevent hospitalization.

METHODS
In this ongoing phase 2 trial involving outpatients with recently diagnosed mild or moderate Covid-19, we randomly assigned 452 patients to receive a single intravenous infusion of neutralizing antibody LY-CoV555 in one of three doses (700 mg, 2800 mg, or 7000 mg) or placebo and evaluated the quantitative virologic end points and clinical outcomes. The primary outcome was the change from baseline in the viral load at day 11. The results of a preplanned interim analysis as of September 5, 2020, are reported here.

RESULTS
At the time of the interim analysis, the observed mean decrease from baseline in the log viral load for the entire population was −3.81, for an elimination of more than 99.97% of viral RNA. For patients who received the 2800-mg dose of LY-CoV555, the difference from placebo in the decrease from baseline was −0.53 (95% confidence interval [CI], −0.98 to −0.08; P=0.02), for a viral load that was lower by a factor of 3.4. Smaller differences from placebo in the change from baseline were observed among the patients who received the 700-mg dose (−0.20; 95% CI, −0.66 to 0.25; P=0.38) or the 7000-mg dose (0.09; 95% CI, −0.37 to 0.55; P=0.70). On days 2 to 6, the patients who received LY-CoV555 had a slightly lower severity of symptoms than those who received placebo. The percentage of patients who had a Covid-19–related hospitalization or visit to an emergency department was 1.6% in the LY-CoV555 group and 6.3% in the placebo group.

CONCLUSIONS
In this interim analysis of a phase 2 trial, one of three doses of neutralizing antibody LY-CoV555 appeared to accelerate the natural decline in viral load over time, whereas the other doses had not by day 11. (Funded by Eli Lilly; BLAZE-1 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04427501. opens in new tab.)

Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) emerged in late 2019 and spread rapidly, resulting in a global pandemic. Infected persons can have a wide range of disease severity, with many patients showing mild or even asymptomatic disease. However, for unknown reasons, up to 10% of asymptomatic and mild infections lead to more severe outcomes, including respiratory distress requiring hospitalization.1 Although risk factors for more severe outcomes have been described (including an older age, obesity, hypertension, and underlying chronic medical conditions),2,3the connection between viral load and outcomes has not previously been tested in a longitudinal study. Several treatment options have been explored for hospitalized patients with Covid-19 (e.g., antimalarial drugs,4 antiviral agents,5-7 immunomodulators,8-12 glucocorticoids,13,14 and convalescent plasma15,16) with varying results. However, there have been no large randomized, controlled trials of targeted treatments that are specific for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and that are intended to attenuate disease progression in patients with early disease.

Preclinical studies of neutralizing-antibody treatments for SARS-CoV-2 infection in several animal models have shown promising results, with marked reductions in viral loads in the upper and lower respiratory tracts.17 SARS-CoV-2 gains entry into cells through binding of its spike protein to receptors for angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 on target cells.18 LY-CoV555 (also known as LY3819253), a potent antispike neutralizing monoclonal antibody that binds with high affinity to the receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2, was derived from convalescent plasma obtained from a patient with Covid-19. The antibody was developed by Eli Lilly after its discovery by researchers at AbCellera and at the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The discovery of LY-CoV555 and its passive protection against SARS-CoV-2 in nonhuman primates has been reported previously.19

Here, we report interim results from the Blocking Viral Attachment and Cell Entry with SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibodies (BLAZE-1) trial, an ongoing phase 2 trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of LY-CoV555 in patients with recently diagnosed mild or moderate Covid-19 in the outpatient setting. We examined the effect of the neutralizing antibody on viral load, symptom scores, and clinical outcomes and also report an observed connection between a persistently high viral load and disease severity.

Methods

TRIAL DESIGN, TREATMENT, AND OVERSIGHT

In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single-dose trial conducted at 41 centers in the United States, all the patients had positive results on testing for SARS-CoV-2 and presented with one or more mild or moderate symptoms. The investigators reviewed the symptoms, risk factors, and other inclusion and exclusion criteria before enrollment. (A full list of the inclusion and exclusion criteria is provided in the protocol, available with the full text of this article at NEJM.org.) Each patient received a single intravenous infusion of LY-CoV555 or placebo monotherapy over approximately 1 hour. Although the trial contains additional treatment groups, here we focus on the interim analysis of results from only four of these groups: LY-CoV555 at doses of 700 mg, 2800 mg, and 7000 mg and placebo. (Clinical details are also provided in the protocol.)

The preplanned interim analysis was triggered on September 5, 2020, when the last patient who was randomly assigned to receive LY-CoV555 reached day 11. The analysis includes all the data regarding virologic features and symptoms that were available at the time of the database lock. The doses of LY-CoV555 that were evaluated in this trial were based on pharmacologic modeling that predicted that the 700-mg dose would be efficacious. (Details about dose selection are provided in the Supplementary Appendix, available at NEJM.org.) Given the gravity of the pandemic, the doses that were administered in this trial were increased by up to a factor of 10 over the predicted efficacious dose to ensure adequate target coverage. The use of these doses was supported by safety data from a phase 1 trial of LY-CoV555 involving hospitalized patients.

Dose levels were fixed, and either LY-CoV555 or placebo was administered within 3 days after positive results on SARS-CoV-2 testing.

The trial, which was sponsored by Eli Lilly, was conducted in accordance with principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and the ethical guidelines of the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences. All the patients provided written informed consent.

OUTCOMES
The primary outcome was the change from baseline in the SARS-CoV-2 viral load at day 11 (±4 days) after positive results on testing. Data regarding virologic features and symptoms were collected up to day 29 in this trial. The viral load was measured by means of a nasopharyngeal swab, which was followed by quantitative reverse-transcriptase–polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) assay at a central laboratory. (Details regarding testing are provided in the Methods section in the Supplementary Appendix.) Key secondary outcomes were safety assessments, symptom burden as reported by the patient on a questionnaire, and clinical outcomes. The major clinical outcome was defined as Covid-19–related in-patient hospitalization, a visit to the emergency department, or death.

No deaths were reported, and since most emergency department visits resulted in hospital admissions, we refer to a composite of emergency department visits and in-patient hospitalizations simply as hospitalizations. This report includes an analysis of the primary outcome as well as safety and adverse-event data, information regarding symptoms, and clinical outcomes.

(see link for the rest of the article)
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Whitmer Concocting New COVID-19 Restrictions Because Of Course She Is

By Jeff Charles | Nov 11, 2020 10:00 PM ET

963459fb-fc5a-4253-946c-1ad560b1dcff-730x487.jpg
Michigan Office of the Governor via AP

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is at it again. On Tuesday, she stated that she is looking into the “next steps” that her administration will take to enact further coronavirus restrictions on Michigan residents.

During a recent press conference, Whitmer said that she is “having ongoing regular conversations” with Michigan Department of Health and Human Services officials about how to deal with the “very serious” increase in COVID-19 cases. She made the remarks in response to a question about whether or not she is considering imposing another stay-at-home order.

From The Detroit News:

“To date, there have been nearly 217,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 7,600 deaths from the virus in Michigan. The cases have increased during the past month, and hospitalizations have quadrupled since the beginning of October — numbers that are even ‘worse than what we were seeing in the spring,’ Whitmer said.”

While COVID-related deaths have not risen to the same levels as in the spring, officials are concerned that they could get worse if the state experiences a “second wave” of the virus.

“We’re working very closely with our local departments of public health and the administrators of our hospital systems,” Whitmer said. “I would love to have partnership where we can take the politics out of this moment and do everything we can to save lives here in Michigan and mitigate the harm.”

Early in October, the Michigan state Supreme Court struck down the law that Whitmer was using to issue her previous lockdown orders that many found to be onerous and excessively restrictive. The court also found that she illegally extended a state of emergency order after April without obtaining the legislature’s approval.

State Republican lawmakers have taken issue with the Health and Human Services implementation of some of the restrictions that the court struck down. They argued that this is nothing more than Whitmer trying to work around the court’s ruling. The courts have not indicated whether or not they will take a look at the governor’s recent actions.

Last week, Whitmer urged the legislature to pass a measure that would impose a statewide mask requirement, claiming that it would be “helpful to our health, our safety, and our economy.” However, GOP lawmakers stated that they would oppose any such legislation.

For now, it appears that the battle between Whitmer and state GOP continues. It comes as no surprise that the governor is cooking up new ways to restrict the residents of Michigan. After her stinging defeat in October, she is likely trying to figure out if there are other ways to impose her agenda. But it doesn’t seem that Republicans in the legislature are willing to allow her to have her way.
 

vestige

Deceased

Whitmer Concocting New COVID-19 Restrictions Because Of Course She Is

By Jeff Charles | Nov 11, 2020 10:00 PM ET

963459fb-fc5a-4253-946c-1ad560b1dcff-730x487.jpg
Michigan Office of the Governor via AP

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is at it again. On Tuesday, she stated that she is looking into the “next steps” that her administration will take to enact further coronavirus restrictions on Michigan residents.

During a recent press conference, Whitmer said that she is “having ongoing regular conversations” with Michigan Department of Health and Human Services officials about how to deal with the “very serious” increase in COVID-19 cases. She made the remarks in response to a question about whether or not she is considering imposing another stay-at-home order.

From The Detroit News:

“To date, there have been nearly 217,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 7,600 deaths from the virus in Michigan. The cases have increased during the past month, and hospitalizations have quadrupled since the beginning of October — numbers that are even ‘worse than what we were seeing in the spring,’ Whitmer said.”

While COVID-related deaths have not risen to the same levels as in the spring, officials are concerned that they could get worse if the state experiences a “second wave” of the virus.

“We’re working very closely with our local departments of public health and the administrators of our hospital systems,” Whitmer said. “I would love to have partnership where we can take the politics out of this moment and do everything we can to save lives here in Michigan and mitigate the harm.”

Early in October, the Michigan state Supreme Court struck down the law that Whitmer was using to issue her previous lockdown orders that many found to be onerous and excessively restrictive. The court also found that she illegally extended a state of emergency order after April without obtaining the legislature’s approval.

State Republican lawmakers have taken issue with the Health and Human Services implementation of some of the restrictions that the court struck down. They argued that this is nothing more than Whitmer trying to work around the court’s ruling. The courts have not indicated whether or not they will take a look at the governor’s recent actions.

Last week, Whitmer urged the legislature to pass a measure that would impose a statewide mask requirement, claiming that it would be “helpful to our health, our safety, and our economy.” However, GOP lawmakers stated that they would oppose any such legislation.

For now, it appears that the battle between Whitmer and state GOP continues. It comes as no surprise that the governor is cooking up new ways to restrict the residents of Michigan. After her stinging defeat in October, she is likely trying to figure out if there are other ways to impose her agenda. But it doesn’t seem that Republicans in the legislature are willing to allow her to have her way.
Is that a negro with an errant collar to her left?
 

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AMERICAN NEWS
Governor Whitmer pushes to criminalize refusing to wear a mask in Michigan
Michigan's governor Gretchen Whitmer is asking the State Legislature to codify the current order requiring people to wear face masks and make it law.

Michigan's governor Gretchen Whitmer is asking the State Legislature to codify the current order requiring people to wear face masks and make it law.

James AnthonyThe Post Millennial
November 5, 2020 1:08 PM1 Mins Reading

Michigan's governor Gretchen Whitmer is asking the State Legislature to codify the current order requiring people to wear face masks and make it law.

"We have got to take action now. This week I sent a letter to the Republican leaders in the legislature urging them to pass legislation that requires Michiganders to wear masks in indoor places and crowded outdoor areas," Whitmer said. "...we do think that it would be helpful to our health, our state and our economy if it was codified in a bipartisan way with our legislature."

According to M Live, the current order in place comes from an epidemic order emitted by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), but Whitmer possibly feels that it needs more legal weight.

Whitmer feels that many Republicans in the State Legislature (which currently has a Republican majority) are "anti-maskers" and are working against her on this issue.

State Senate majority leader Mike Shirkey has publicly spoken on the issue, saying that people should wear masks, but believes it should be voluntary, and not a legal issue. "I do NOT support a statewide mask mandate. I do encourage everyone to honor whatever policies individual businesses, organizations and schools establish," said Shirkey on Twitter in October.


I do NOT support a statewide mask mandate. I do encourage everyone to honor whatever policies individual businesses, organizations and schools establish. #MILeg #MIGov
— Sen. Mike Shirkey (@SenMikeShirkey) October 3, 2020
Whitmer also appears to be at odds with the Michigan Supreme Court, which ended a state of emergency she had previously declared, expanding her powers as Governor of Michigan. MDHHS then put their own mask mandate in place.

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan's Chief Medical Officer, commented on the pandemic at a press conference on Thursday:

"Our rates are rising exponentially and we have general community spread. This means that the cases we're seeing are not just associated with outbreaks. Many people, in fact, as many as 50% of positive cases that we investigate have no idea how they got the virus."


 
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