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Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic

Covid variant that originated in Colombia has been detected in Miami - accounting for 10% of cases - as health officials urge residents to get vaccinated
By Mansur Shaheen
Published: 17:46 EDT, 29 July 2021 | Updated: 17:46 EDT, 29 July 2021

  • Variant B.1.621 originated in Colombia, where, at its peak in late June, it accounted for around 70% of cases
  • The mutant strain is starting to be found in South Florida after not being detected for a month, accounting for 10% of cases in Miami
  • Health officials are urging residents to get vaccinated to prevent and outbreak as seen with the Indian 'Delta' variant
  • Cases in Florida are beginning to rise, growing by more than 100% over the past two weeks

A new coronavirus variant that originated in Colombia has been detected in South Florida.

Variant B.1.621 has yet to receive a Greek letter designation from the World Health Organization (WHO), but it is starting to make an impact in Miami.

Carlos Miyoga, CEO of Jackson Health System in Miami, told Local 10 that the strain accounts for around 10 percent of cases in the area.

Health experts suspect that constant travel between Miami and Colombia caused the variant to travel in the state and are urging residents to get vaccinated.

The variant was first discovered in January in the Colombia, where, at its peak in late June, it accounted for around 70 percent of cases.

It has since also been traced to 28 other countries, according to outbreak.info.

The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention listed B.1.621 as a variant of interest.

Variants that are named often have some sort of quality that makes them unique from other strains of the virus.

The Indian 'Delta' variant, for example, is highly contagious, earning its own designation.

As of now, experts are unsure of any unique qualities the unnamed variant could have.

'The only time it becomes important is if it gives virus selective advantage, which we've seen with delta variant,' John Sellick, a biomedical sciences professor at the University of Buffalo, told The Washington Post.

'We'll see with this one. . . . What we have to see is two weeks from now, or four weeks from now, is this going to do another trick and wind up being more?'

Cases of the variant are still barely registering nationally, and they still account for a small portion of Florida's total COVID-19 outbreak as well.

The variant did cross the one percent of total cases threshold for the first time this month, though.

Some fear it could explode in the coming weeks around the country, as many visit Florida over the summer, then return back to their home community carrying the variant.

'If you have a lot of unvaccinated people gathering and then they're going back home, you could have very rapid transmission in few weeks,' Dr Preeti Malani, chief health officer of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Michigan, told The Post.

Another variant, the Delta variant, is currently causing a massive outbreak in the state of Florida.

Day-to-day COVID data in Florida is not longer reported, after Gov Ron DeSantis declared the pandemic defeated in May.

In the time since the pandemic was 'defeated' cases have exploded in the Sunshine state.

Data from the White House found that the state accounted for 20 percent of active cases in the nation at some point two weeks ago.

Most recent data show the state is averaging more than 13,500 cases a day, more than double the 5,000 case per day figure recorded only two weeks ago.

Florida has a higher vaccination rate than many of its peers going through similar outbreaks, with 57 percent of the population having received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine.

In Miami-Dade county it is even better, as 74 percent of residents are at least partially vaccinated.


see also: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/28/colombia-variant-coronavirus-florida/


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Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)


Behind the Masks, a Mystery: How Often Do the Vaccinated Spread the Virus?
The C.D.C.’s new masking advice was based in part on data showing that the virus can thrive in the airways of vaccinated people. The findings are expected on Friday.

By Apoorva Mandavilli
July 29, 2021

The recommendation that vaccinated people in some parts of the country dust off their masks was based largely on one troublesome finding, according to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New research showed that vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant carry tremendous amounts of the virus in the nose and throat, she said in an email responding to questions from The New York Times.

The finding contradicts what scientists had observed in vaccinated people infected with previous versions of the virus, who mostly seemed incapable of infecting others.

That conclusion dealt Americans a heavy blow: People with so-called breakthrough infections — cases that occur despite full vaccination — of the Delta variant may be just as contagious as unvaccinated people, even if they have no symptoms.

That means fully immunized people with young children, aging parents, or friends and family with weak immune systems will need to renew vigilance, particularly in high-transmission communities.

There are 67,000 new cases per day on average in the United States, as of Thursday. If vaccinated people are transmitting the Delta variant, they may be contributing to the increases — although probably to a far lesser degree than the unvaccinated.

The C.D.C. has not yet published its data, frustrating experts who want to understand the basis for the change of heart on masks. Four scientists familiar with the research said it was compelling and justified the C.D.C.’s advice that the vaccinated wear masks again in public indoor spaces.

The research was conducted by people outside the C.D.C., the scientists said, and the agency is working quickly to analyze and publish the results. The agency expects to publish the research on Friday, one official said.

Some of the research may be related in part to an outbreak in Provincetown, Mass., where Fourth of July festivities have led to 882 cases as of Thursday. Nearly three-quarters of those people were fully vaccinated.

The agency also has tracked data from the Covid-19 Sports and Society Workgroup, a coalition of professional sports leagues that is testing more than 10,000 people at least daily and sequencing all infections.

It’s still unclear how common breakthrough infections are and how long the virus persists in the body in those cases. Breakthroughs are rare, and unvaccinated people account for the bulk of virus transmission, Dr. Walensky said.

Regardless, the data that the C.D.C. is reviewing suggest that even fully immunized people can be unwilling vectors for the virus. “We believe at individual level they might, which is why we updated our recommendation,” Dr. Walensky said in her email to The Times.

The conclusion also suggests that vaccinated people who are exposed to the virus should get tested, even if they feel fine. (In Britain, vaccinated people who are contacts of a known case are required to isolate for 10 days.)

The new data do not mean that the vaccines are ineffective. The vaccines still powerfully prevent severe illness and death, as they were meant to, and people with breakthrough infections very rarely end up in a hospital.

About 97 percent of people hospitalized with Covid-19 are unvaccinated, according to data from the C.D.C. But scientists warned even last year that the vaccines might not completely prevent infection or transmission. (Immunity from natural infection may offer even less protection.)

Previous versions of the virus rarely broke through the immunization barrier, which prompted the C.D.C. to advise in May that vaccinated people could go mask-free indoors. But the usual rules don’t seem to apply to the Delta variant.

The variant is twice as contagious as the original virus, and one study suggested that the amount of virus in unvaccinated people infected with Delta might be a thousand times higher than seen in people infected with the original version of the virus. The C.D.C. data support that finding, said one expert familiar with the results.

Anecdotes of clusters of breakthrough infections have become increasingly frequent, with groups of vaccinated people reporting sniffles, headache, sore throat, or a loss of taste or smell — symptoms of an infection in the upper respiratory tract.

But the overwhelming majority do not end up needing intensive medical care, because the immune defenses produced by the vaccine destroy the virus before it can get to the lungs.

“We’re still going to see a huge, huge, huge impact on severity of disease and hospitalization,” said Michal Tal, an immunologist at Stanford University. “That’s really what the vaccine was made to do.”
Image

The coronavirus vaccines are injected into muscle, and the antibodies produced in response mostly remain in the blood. Some antibodies may make their way to the nose, the main port of entry for the virus, but not enough to block it.

“The vaccines — they’re beautiful, they work, they’re amazing,” said Frances Lund, a viral immunologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “But they’re not going to give you that local immunity.”

When people are exposed to any respiratory pathogen, it may find a foothold in the mucosal lining of the nose — without causing any harm beyond that. “If you walked down the street and swabbed people, you would find people that had viruses in their mucosa who were asymptomatic,” said Dr. Michael Marks, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “Our immune system is mostly fighting these things off most of the time.”

But the Delta variant seems to flourish in the nose, and its abundance may explain why more people than scientists expected are experiencing breakthrough infections and cold-like symptoms.

Still, when the virus tries to snake down into the lungs, immune cells in vaccinated people ramp up and rapidly clear the infection before it wreaks much havoc. That means vaccinated people should be infected and contagious for a much shorter period of time than unvaccinated people, Dr. Lund said.

“But that doesn’t mean that in those first couple of days, when they’re infected, they can’t transmit it to somebody else,” she added.

To stop the virus right where it enters, some experts have advocated nasal spray vaccines that would prevent the invader from gaining purchase in the upper airway. “Vaccine 1.0 should prevent death and hospitalization. Vaccine 2.0 should prevent transmission,” Dr. Tal said. “We just need another iteration.”
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
EXCERPT FROM JOE BIDEN PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY. Go to link to read the entire transcript (too long to post in one post)

QUESTION:
Secretary Austin said he was already considering mandating the vaccine after it was fully approved. Would you like to see the mandate go into effect before full approval, and do you think he’s open to that?

President Biden:
I know he’s open to it, and the question is when is the right time to get the most bang for the buck when you do it? A lot of this is timing. So I think it’s going to happen. But look, the one thing that you all are politely and appropriately referencing is that it’s still a temporary approval. So when does the final approval come? It usually takes a lot of work to get there. I made a commitment I would not tell anyone in the Justice Department who they should prosecute and I would not tell the health industry, excuse me, the government health entities what they should say and do. But my expectation is they’re going to reach that conclusion in the early fall.

(fair use applies)
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

More Insanity: Goofy Surgeon General Vivek Murthy Says Vaccinated People Need to Wear Masks to Protect Unvaccinated People

By Jim Hoft
Published July 30, 2021 at 7:55am
vivek-murthy.jpg

Last week Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stood in front of his liberal peers in the White House press room and labeled ‘disinformation’ a severe national “health risk.”

Of course, the ‘disinformation” is selected by the regime and can be altered or updated at any time.


This week Vivek Murthy told MSNBC that vaccinated people need to wear masks to protect unvaccinated people.

He even practices this at home to protect his young children who have a greater chance of drowning than being harmed by the China virus.

View: https://youtu.be/UJ_MYzznpLo
8:28 min

The Blaze reported:

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is recommending that fully vaccinated individuals wear face masks outdoors to protect the unvaccinated. Murthy made the suggestion during an appearance on MSNBC, where he said fully vaccinated individuals wearing masks indoors and outdoors was an “extra step” of protection to unvaccinated people.
MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell asked Murthy about “breakthrough cases,” specifically the possibility of a fully vaccinated person being infected with COVID-19 and spreading the virus to unvaccinated individuals, such as young children or immunocompromised adults.

“So the people that we’re most concerned about are the unvaccinated,” Murthy responded to the question from the cable TV host. “For example, if you happen to have a lot of interaction with folks who are unvaccinated, let’s say you’re a parent like me who has young children at home who are not vaccinated, that’s a circumstance where we’re being extra cautious and wearing that mask even if you’re fully vaccinated, wearing it outside, when you’re in indoor public locations, is an extra step to protecting those at home.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pv2qvE0m7k
17:27 min

352 - COVID-19 Research Update: The Delta Variant

Jul 30, 2021


Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health


In this episode, Dr. Josh Sharfstein talks with researchers who break down three papers about the delta variant. Carli Jones, a PhD student at Hopkins School of Medicine talks about a preprint study on the emergence and spread of the delta variant in India. Wendy Grant-McAuley, also a PhD student, talks about an Oxford University paper on how the delta variant responds to various antibodies in a lab setting. Shirlee Wohl, a post-doctoral fellow at the Bloomberg School talks about a preprint looking at an outbreak of the delta variant among vaccinated people at a Texas wedding. [Starts at 11:33 min]

These researchers are part of the Hopkins novel coronavirus research consortium, with many summaries of new studies available at http://ncrc.jhsph.edu.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

"The War Has Changed" - Leaked CDC Report Claims Delta Spreads As Easily As "Chickenpox"

FRIDAY, JUL 30, 2021 - 09:00 AM

The CDC is clearly concerned that it's losing the PR war to convince Americans that they must mask up and get vaccinated. Because less than a week after declaring that it would revive its mask mandate, the CDC has just pulled a classic media trick: turning the fearmongering nob up to '11' by leaking an "internal report" that supports the official narrative (even making it look like the more moderate of two options) while laundering the source of the information by allowing a reputable news org to market the story as an "exclusive".

A slide deck apparently shared widely inside the agency in the weeks after it first lifted the original mask mandate in May shows that the delta variant appears to cause more severe illness in younger patients, while spreading as easily as "chickenpox." What's more, it warns that the vaccine's ability to spread via infecting the already vaccinated means the CDC should impose even more stringent guidance - the presentation called for "universal masking." The document "strikes an urgent note, revealing the agency knows it must revamp its public message to emphasize vaccination as the best defense against a variant so contagious that it acts almost like a different novel virus."



Most critically, the slide deck includes "still-unpublished data" from studies showing that even the vaccinated might be able to transmit the virus as easily as the unvaccinated.

According to the Washington Post, the material in the report was "so alarming" that it prompted the CDC to reconsider its masking guidance, and President Biden to impose his federal employee vaccination mandate (with a few notable exceptions) despite his earlier promises not to do so.

Not only does the presentation include "new science", it also suggests "a new strategy" for communicating the urgency of the situation to the public, noting that "public trust in vaccines might be undermined" when people hear about breakthrough infections. At one point, the deck declared that "the war has changed," describing delta as if it were a totally new virus.

Well, maybe Pfizer and the government should have thought about that before they published obviously inflated efficacy numbers of +90%.

Despite that obvious blunder, WaPo was still able to fund a talking head to praise the government's vaccine strategy.
Matthew Seeger, a risk communication expert at Wayne State University in Detroit, said a lack of communication about breakthrough infections has proved problematic. Because public health officials had emphasized the great efficacy of the vaccines, the realization that they aren’t perfect may feel like a betrayal.

“We’ve done a great job of telling the public these are miracle vaccines,” Seeger said. “We have probably fallen a little into the trap of over-reassurance, which is one of the challenges of any crisis communication circumstance.”
Data showing the vaccines aren't as effective against the variants isn't exactly groundbreaking. We've seen similar reports from other sources, notably the Israeli Health Ministry.

The thing to remember here is that this data is already dated. The story readily admits the presentation was circulated months ago.

Former FDA head Dr. Scott Gottlieb has highlighted data suggesting that the US outbreak will follow a similar trajectory as delta-driven outbreaks in the UK and Europe. The pattern is already most obvious in states like Missouri, one of the original hotbeds for the delta outbreak.



The key to understanding this is a rate known as Rt, a representation of how many people are being infected by each new case. When it falls below 1, that means the rate of viral spread is slowing. And the data suggest that it's already on that trajectory.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Panic Mode: Internal Document Reveals CDC Pushing for More Forceful Messaging

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WILMINGTON, DELAWARE - DECEMBER 08: Dr. Rochelle Walensky, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to head the Centers for Disease Control, (CDC) speaks during a news conference at the Queen Theater December 08, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. With the novel coronavirus pandemic continuing to ravage the country with daily records for infections …
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
HANNAH BLEAU30 Jul 2021582

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) appears to be in panic mode over its messaging, according to an internal document highlighting the federal agency’s desire to ramp up its vaccine and masking pushes while millions of Americans question the agency’s agenda and the science behind its latest guidance.

The internal document, which the Washington Post obtained, reportedly shows the health agency confessing a need to “revamp its public messaging” to coerce Americans to get vaccinated, touting it as the “best defense against a variant so contagious that it acts almost like a different novel virus.”

According to the outlet, one of the slides featured in the internal presentation points to higher virus risk rates for older age groups than younger — a fact that has remained consistent throughout the pandemic — even among vaccinated individuals.

Per the memo, the CDC is concerned by the line it must walk, because pushing mass vaccinations is the top priority of federal health officials. At the same time, however, it admits the vaccines are not foolproof and estimates roughly 35,000 symptomatic infections per week among vaccinated Americans:
But it also states that the CDC must “improve communications around individual risk among [the] vaccinated” because that risk depends on a host of factors, including age and whether someone has a compromised immune system.

The document includes CDC data from studies showing that the vaccines are not as effective in immunocompromised patients and nursing home residents, raising the possibility that some at-risk individuals will need an additional vaccine dose.
The presentation includes a note that the findings and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the CDC’s official position.
The internal document also “contains some of the scientific information that influenced the CDC to change its mask guidance.” This is notable, as the CDC has come under fire for failing to release the specific data on which it based its revamped mask guidance.

Public skepticism, the federal agency continues, is an issue — particularly the narrative that “vaccines no longer work.” Part of the CDC’s mission now, it appears, is moving the goalposts and ultimately, its definition of success.

“We really need to shift toward a goal of preventing serious disease and disability and medical consequences, and not worry about every virus detected in somebody’s nose,” Kathleen Neuzil, a vaccine expert at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said.

However, even prior to the vaccines being available to virtually everyone, the virus survival rate was over 99 percent for individuals 69 and younger:
CDC recently updated estimated infection fatality rates for COVID. Here are the updated survival rates by age group:
0-19: 99.997%
20-49: 99.98%
50-69: 99.5%
70+: 94.6% Healthcare Workers
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) September 23, 2020
The Biden administration has also struggled with messaging and has been utterly unable to explain how the CDC’s guidance, instructing vaccinated individuals to mask up, does not undermine their narrative that the vaccine is the answer to return to maskless, pre-pandemic life.

“The public health leaders in our administration have made the determination, based on data, that that is a way to make sure they’re protected,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday after Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked why vaccinated Americans need to mask up, given their narrative that vaccines work.

This week, Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, admitted officials are worried the virus is “a few mutations” away from evading vaccines. altogether.

Meanwhile, Democrats are changing their tune on unvaccinated Americans, as President Biden, as well as Walensky, blame them for new restrictions and mandates. All the while, far-left politicians, such as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), are admitting that the carrot and stick approach is fading.

“We’ve got to shake people at this point and say ‘c’mon now.’ We tried voluntary.

We could not have been more kind and compassionate as a country. Free testing … incentives, friendly warm embrace — the voluntary phase is over,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC this week:
NYC Mayor de Blasio on vaccines:
“We’ve got to shake people at this point and say ‘c’mon now.’ We tried voluntary. We could not have been more kind and compassionate as a country…free testing, incentives, friendly warm embrace — the voluntary phase is over.” pic.twitter.com/9Ulgs7ISjz
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 28, 2021

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey released this month found that a majority of unvaccinated Americans do not plan on getting the shot, indicating their decisions stand firm and are not a result of hesitancy or a matter of convenience, given how widely available the vaccines are.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Health officials less confident in COVID vaccine efficacy with rise of Delta variant
Earlier optimism is being replaced with new warnings, fresh wave of mask mandates.

Updated: July 30, 2021 - 5:34am

Public health confidence in the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine appears to be waning as officials warn of enhanced danger — even for vaccinated individuals — from the "Delta variant" of the SARS-Cov-2 virus.

For most of the past year officials have claimed that vaccinations are the only viable path back to normalcy and away from lockdowns and other aggressive mitigation measures. "Look at the folks in your community who have gotten vaccinated and are getting back to living their lives — their full lives," President Joe Biden said at a May press conference, arguing that the vaccine was "going to help them and their loved ones be safe, get our businesses open again, and get us back to normal."

The rollout of the vaccines starting last year and continuing throughout the spring and summer of this year has been hailed as the driving force behind the reopening of the economy and the ending of masking mandates and similar restrictions.

Yet over the past week the tone from public officials has grown increasingly grim, with leaders now appearing to doubt that the vaccine is sufficient to forestall COVID transmission and potential catastrophe due to the rise of the Delta variant.

An internal government document published Friday morning in The Washington Post stated clearly that vaccinated individuals can still transmit the Delta variant, creating new alarm among medical professionals. The document also stated that the vaccine appeared to provide less protection to the elderly, nursing home residents and those with compromised immune systems than previously thought.

The document urged public health officials to change their messaging about vaccines, saying they are still the best way to prevent getting the most serious symptoms while acknowledging the shots alone may not stop the spread of the virus and that vaccinated people are going to see more breakthrough infections.

“Vaccines prevent >90% of severe disease, but may be less effective at preventing infection or transmission,” the memo stated. “Therefore, more breakthrough and more community spread despite vaccination.”
You can read the document here.

File
753667d6-8c61-495f-b669-5308f2827155..pdf

A marked shift was seen this week from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reversed its earlier masking guidance and claimed that fully vaccinated individuals should wear masks indoors in areas with high COVID transmission.

The Delta variant "behaves uniquely differently from past strains of the virus that cause COVID-19," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a press conference this week.

"Information on the Delta variant from several states and other countries indicate that in rare occasions, some vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant after vaccination may be contagious and spread the virus to others," she claimed. "This new science is worrisome and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendations."

White House coronavirus expert Dr. Anthony Fauci signaled a similar shift during an interview with NPR when he called the Delta variant "a different virus."

The Delta variant "is much more capable of transmitting from people to people," Fauci claimed, stating that when even fully vaccinated people contract the virus "they are capable of transmitting the infection to someone else."

The shift from strong confidence in the vaccine to the masking of fully vaccinated individuals comes after several weeks of steadily rising COVID-19 cases throughout the United States. Experts have feared that the Delta variant could cause a surge in hospitalizations and deaths, leading to catastrophic scenarios of the kinds hypothesized at the outset of the pandemic last year.

Left uncertain amid the revised recommendations is at what point, if ever, it will be safe for vaccinated individuals to go maskless. Both Fauci and Wallensky have acknowledged that infections in vaccinated individuals are "rare," and both have continued to argue strongly that vaccines are effective at fighting the virus. The disconnect between that confidence and the new guidance has rendered the new directive somewhat opaque in its reasoning.

Fauci's office did not comment on the doctor's thinking on the matter. The CDC, meanwhile, declined to comment beyond referring to unspecified research it says is guiding its decisions.

"CDC bases its guidance on the latest science and will update its guidance accordingly as the science warrants," agency spokesman Tom Skinner said via email.

The new guidance, meanwhile, has received pushback, both from Republican opponents of the Biden administration and others.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said on Tuesday that the new guidance "sends exactly the wrong message: that no matter what you do, you will be required to wear a mask — indefinitely."

Arizona Republic columnist Elvia Davis, meanwhile, wrote this week that the new guidance "sends a confusing message over the effectiveness of the vaccine."

"[T]he CDC, the ultimate scientific arbiter in public health, is confusing the heck out of everyone," she wrote, "and angering people like me who supported and advocated for severe lockdowns and strict mask mandates."

And George Washington University Professor of Medicine Jonathan Reiner called the CDC's new guidance rollout "astonishingly bad."

"Instead of clearly articulating the problem which is 80 million adults have chosen not to get vaccinated and they are largely also unmasked, CDC suggests that the problem is rare transmission from vaxed to unvaxed people," he wrote. "This is so wrong."
 
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pv2qvE0m7k
17:27 min

352 - COVID-19 Research Update: The Delta Variant

Jul 30, 2021


Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health


In this episode, Dr. Josh Sharfstein talks with researchers who break down three papers about the delta variant. Carli Jones, a PhD student at Hopkins School of Medicine talks about a preprint study on the emergence and spread of the delta variant in India. Wendy Grant-McAuley, also a PhD student, talks about an Oxford University paper on how the delta variant responds to various antibodies in a lab setting. Shirlee Wohl, a post-doctoral fellow at the Bloomberg School talks about a preprint looking at an outbreak of the delta variant among vaccinated people at a Texas wedding. [Starts at 11:33 min]

These researchers are part of the Hopkins novel coronavirus research consortium, with many summaries of new studies available at http://ncrc.jhsph.edu.
Any mention of IVM wiping Delta’s ass in India? 97% reduction in Delhi.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

JUST IN: 111,000+ Vaccine Breakthrough Cases Identified in US – More Than **10X** CDC’s Count When They Stopped Tracking in May

By Cristina Laila
Published July 30, 2021 at 2:48pm
vaccines.jpg

According to data Bloomberg collected from 35 states, 111,748 vaccine breakthrough cases have been identified in the US through the end of July.

This is 10 TIMES the CDC’s count when they stopped tracking breakthrough cases in May.

Recall, the CDC stopped collecting data on breakthrough cases in May unless it ended up as a hospitalization or death.

The CDC stopped tracking these cases as the Delta variant began to spread.

The Biden Admin, Big Media and CDC have since called this the “pandemic of the unvaccinated” – simply because they stopped tracking Covid cases of the vaccinated.

Bloomberg reported:
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped comprehensively tracking what are known as vaccine breakthrough cases in May, the consequences of that choice are only now beginning to show.
At the time, the agency had identified only 10,262 cases across the U.S. where a fully vaccinated person had tested positive for Covid. Most people who got infected after vaccination showed few symptoms, and appeared to be at low risk of infecting others.

But in the months since, the number of vaccine breakthrough cases has grown, as has the risk that they present. And while the CDC has stopped tracking such cases, many states have not. Bloomberg gathered data from 35 states and identified 111,748 vaccine breakthrough cases through the end of July, more than 10 times the CDC’s end-of-April tally.

In a statement, the CDC said it continued to follow trends in breakthrough cases using studies it has set up.

“CDC is actively tracking breakthrough cases as part of what are called cohort studies, which often involve tens of thousands of people across the country,” agency spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said in an email. “We will continue to publish additional results from these cohort studies as they are available.”

The CDC is now recommending masks for everyone regardless of vaccination status.
!! 110,000+ vaccine breakthrough cases identified in the U.S.
Bloomberg data from 35 states found 111,748 vaccine breakthrough cases through the end of July

That’s more than **10x** the CDC’s count when they stopped comprehensively tracking them in May Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
— Emma Kinery (@EmmaKinery) July 30, 2021
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Biden Spox: “A National Vaccine Requirement is Not Under Consideration at This Time” (VIDEO)

By Cristina Laila
Published July 30, 2021 at 3:23pm

IMG_3577.jpg

Karine Jean-Pierre

White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday said a federal vaccine mandate is not currently under consideration.

Joe Biden on Thursday was asked about vaccine mandates in the private sector.
Advertisement - story continues below

Joe Biden said he supports vaccine mandates in the private sector then said he isn’t sure if the government can implement mandates on a federal level.

“I would like to see them continue to move in that direction… it’s still a question whether the Federal government can mandate the whole country. I don’t know that yet,” Biden said.

Biden received major backlash for his comments on a federal vaccine mandate.
On Friday, Biden’s spox Karine Jean-Pierre was deployed to do damage control.

“A national vaccine requirement is not under consideration at this time,” Jean-Pierre said.

VIDEO:
View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1421186822814769153
1:13 min
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Nearly 1.6 billion disposable masks polluted oceans in 2020, will take 450 years to decompose

Fifty-two billion masks were produced in 2020, and about 1.6 billion entered earth's oceans, according to a new report.

Updated: July 30, 2021 - 5:13pm

Nearly 1.6 billion disposable face masks ended up in the earth's oceans in 2020, out of the roughly 52 billion produced in response to the pandemic, according to a study.

While governments around the world continue to support mask mandates in public spaces, the impact of disposable masks is only just emerging.

The report, by the Hong Kong-based marine conservation group OceansAsia, title "Masks on the Beach," also estimated that roughly 5,500 tons of plastic pollution entered the ocean in 2020 from masks.

The figure is equal to 7% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a mass of plastic debris floating in the ocean that is twice the size of Texas.

While a cigarette butt or plastic bag takes 20 years or less to degrade in the ocean, according to Visual Capitalist, a plastic bottle, disposable diaper or a disposable mask takes nearly 450 years to fully break down.

The majority of disposable masks – like N95 respirators and surgical masks – were produced in China factories, which were reportedly producing 450 million masks per day in April 2020.

Despite a reduction of mask-wearing in recent months, officials appear to be ramping up masks yet again, with the emergence of the virus' highly-contractable delta variant.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

CNN Warns Americans: ‘It’s About to Get Much Harder to Not Be Vaccinated’

1
TRURO, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 09: A staff nurse at the Royal Cornwall Hospital prepares to administer Covid-19 vaccinations as the hospital began their vaccination programme on December 9, 2020 in Truro, United Kingdom. More than 50 hospitals across England were designated as covid-19 vaccine hubs, the first stage of what …
Hugh Hastings/Getty Images
HANNAH BLEAU30 Jul 20212,035

CNN is warning Americans that it is “about to get much harder not to be vaccinated” — a caution which follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expressing the need to ramp up its messaging as the American people question its motives and science behind its latest edicts.

This week, President Biden blamed unvaccinated Americans for the CDC’s updated guidance, requiring vaccinated people to wear masks in indoor areas “of substantial or high transmission.”

“We have a pandemic, because of the unvaccinated and they’re sowing enormous confusion,” Biden said. “If those other 100 million got vaccinated, we’d be in a very different world.”

US President Joe Biden speaks to the media as he walks to Marine One prior to departure from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, July 29, 2021, as he travels to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland where First Lady Jill Biden is having a medical procedure. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
US President Joe Biden speaks to the media as he walks to Marine One. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Millions of Americans have expressed concerns over the vaccines, all of which have yet to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Some have cited a lack of trust in the expedited vaccine development, while others worry about adverse side effects — both short-term and long-term, the latter of which remains largely unknown. Others have cited a lack of trust in drug companies and the government itself. Ultimately, a majority of unvaccinated Americans have indicated that they remain solid in their decision to forgo the vaccine as the Biden administration attempts to grapple with it. An internal CDC document obtained by the Washington Post this week revealed the federal agency’s internal panic, expressing the need to ramp up its messaging to urge Americans to get the shot.

The CNN article, however, contends it may not even be necessary for the federal government to do something as radical as mandating the vaccine, suggesting it may become nearly impossible to participate in everyday life without one if employers, stores, and hospitals impose requirements one by one.

“The federal government may not try to force people to get the Covid vaccine,” the report reads. “And it may not have to.”

“Your employer, the restaurant where you want to eat, the concert venue you want to visit or the country where you want to travel may do it for them,” it adds.

MOOSIC, PA - SEPTEMBER 17: Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden participates in a CNN town hall event on September 17, 2020 in Moosic, Pennsylvania. Due to the coronavirus, the event is being held outside with audience members in their cars. Biden grew up nearby in Scranton, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Joe Biden participates in a CNN town hall event (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

While some states, including Texas and Florida, have taken action to bar vaccine passports and such mandates, private companies, primarily in Silicon Valley, are beginning to mandate inoculation. The federal government is also taking action, imposing vaccine rules for hundreds-of-thousands of federal workers while essentially encouraging private companies to follow suit.

“In addition to providing incentives to encourage vaccination, it’s time to impose requirements on key groups to make sure they’re vaccinated,” Biden said Thursday.

“I’d like to see them continue to move in that direction,” he said of private businesses.

“Local communities can do that, local businesses can do that, it’s still a question whether the federal government can mandate the whole country,” he said of a widespread vaccine mandate. “I don’t know that yet.”

Some surmise widespread vaccine mandates ride on full FDA approval, which is what CNN identified as the “next step”:
What could turbocharge requirements is full FDA approval of the vaccines. The military is being exempted from Biden’s vaccine requirement and leaders have suggested they will wait for full FDA approval before requiring soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines to get the shot.

Many companies may be waiting for that green light as well.

“You get the FDA to say, ‘It’s final, it’s approved,’ and I can guarantee you all the places I’m involved in, if you don’t get vaccinated you will get fired,” Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone told CNBC on Wednesday. He sits on the board of trustees of the NYU Langone Medical Center. “You have an obligation to your fellow man to protect him as well as yourself.”
But until then, Biden said he will continue to promote vaccine mandates around the nation. “I’m going to keep at it,” Biden told reporters Thursday. “I’m going to be talking about it around the country.”

Texas is the latest state to take action. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed an executive order barring cities from implementing mask or vaccine requirements.
 

Mprepared

Veteran Member
“We have a pandemic, because of the unvaccinated and they’re sowing enormous confusion,” Biden said. “If those other 100 million got vaccinated, we’d be in a very different world.”

“The federal government may not try to force people to get the Covid vaccine,” the report reads. “And it may not have to.”

“Your employer, the restaurant where you want to eat, the concert venue you want to visit or the country where you want to travel may do it for them,” it adds.

The restaurants are already closing early in my town because of lack of help. One hospital is shutting down some of their services because of lack of help. I just saw a local news report saying you may want to stay away from Fred Meyer right now because there are only 3 cashiers and lines backed up almost to the wall and self-checkup backed up with people with overloaded carts, which are probably stocking up getting ready for your forcing anything you blithering idiot!
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic

"The War Has Changed" - Leaked CDC Report Claims Delta Spreads As Easily As "Chickenpox"

FRIDAY, JUL 30, 2021 - 09:00 AM

The CDC is clearly concerned that it's losing the PR war to convince Americans that they must mask up and get vaccinated. Because less than a week after declaring that it would revive its mask mandate, the CDC has just pulled a classic media trick: turning the fearmongering nob up to '11' by leaking an "internal report" that supports the official narrative (even making it look like the more moderate of two options) while laundering the source of the information by allowing a reputable news org to market the story as an "exclusive".

A slide deck apparently shared widely inside the agency in the weeks after it first lifted the original mask mandate in May shows that the delta variant appears to cause more severe illness in younger patients, while spreading as easily as "chickenpox." What's more, it warns that the vaccine's ability to spread via infecting the already vaccinated means the CDC should impose even more stringent guidance - the presentation called for "universal masking." The document "strikes an urgent note, revealing the agency knows it must revamp its public message to emphasize vaccination as the best defense against a variant so contagious that it acts almost like a different novel virus."



Most critically, the slide deck includes "still-unpublished data" from studies showing that even the vaccinated might be able to transmit the virus as easily as the unvaccinated.

According to the Washington Post, the material in the report was "so alarming" that it prompted the CDC to reconsider its masking guidance, and President Biden to impose his federal employee vaccination mandate (with a few notable exceptions) despite his earlier promises not to do so.

Not only does the presentation include "new science", it also suggests "a new strategy" for communicating the urgency of the situation to the public, noting that "public trust in vaccines might be undermined" when people hear about breakthrough infections. At one point, the deck declared that "the war has changed," describing delta as if it were a totally new virus.

Well, maybe Pfizer and the government should have thought about that before they published obviously inflated efficacy numbers of +90%.

Despite that obvious blunder, WaPo was still able to fund a talking head to praise the government's vaccine strategy.



Data showing the vaccines aren't as effective against the variants isn't exactly groundbreaking. We've seen similar reports from other sources, notably the Israeli Health Ministry.

The thing to remember here is that this data is already dated. The story readily admits the presentation was circulated months ago.

Former FDA head Dr. Scott Gottlieb has highlighted data suggesting that the US outbreak will follow a similar trajectory as delta-driven outbreaks in the UK and Europe. The pattern is already most obvious in states like Missouri, one of the original hotbeds for the delta outbreak.



The key to understanding this is a rate known as Rt, a representation of how many people are being infected by each new case. When it falls below 1, that means the rate of viral spread is slowing. And the data suggest that it's already on that trajectory.


More on this:
(fair use applies)

'Delta' variant is as infectious as chickenpox or Ebola and infected vaccinated people transmit it as easily as unvaccinated, CDC document claims as agency says data that led to mask U-turn will be released today
By Harriet Alexander
Published: 00:29 EDT, 30 July 2021 | Updated: 09:16 EDT, 30 July 2021
  • On Friday the CDC will publish the scientific data behind its decision, announced on Tuesday, to bring back recommendations for mask wearing indoors
  • The CDC had on May 13 lifted its mask recommendations, and the U-turn surprised and angered some
  • The research to be published on Friday is expected to claim that the Delta variant is easily transmissible by fully-vaccinated people, even if they remain unlikely to get ill
  • Previously it was believed that fully-vaccinated people were unlikely to be spreading COVID-19
  • A presentation obtained by The Washington Post claimed that the Delta variant was more transmissible than chickenpox or Ebola, and recommended that the CDC work on improving its messaging
  • Much of the new data is believed to have come from a July 4 outbreak in Provincetown, Cape Cod
  • As of Thursday, 882 people were tied to the Provincetown outbreak. Among those living in Massachusetts, 74 per cent of them were fully immunized, ABC News reported, and seven hospitalized
  • The glimmer of hope came from Britain, where the Delta variant has peaked far sooner than expected and the number of new cases is now rapidly declining
Health officials in the United States will on Friday explain the science behind their U-turn on face masks, as Republicans express skepticism over the decision - which appears to have stemmed from research into a July 4 outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday announced that they were updating their previous guidance to now recommend that vaccinated people wear face masks once more, when indoors and in parts of the country with substantial COVID-19 transmission.

They did not explain their reason for the shift in policy - which has sparked fevered debate - and merely said it was due to new data on the highly contagious Delta variant. On May 13 the American public was told they no longer needed to wear masks indoors if vaccinated.

An internal federal health document obtained by The Washington Post claimed that the Delta variant was as infectious as chickenpox or Ebola - with each infected person passing the virus to eight or nine others, on average. That infectivity is known as R0.

The original lineage was about as transmissible as the common cold, with each infected person passing it to about two others, on average.

CDC Dr Rochelle Walensky has previously noted the rarity of viruses with such high R values, telling CNN: 'When you think about diseases that have an R0 of eight or nine -- there aren't that many.'

Officials, the document stated, must 'acknowledge the war has changed.'

The source of the data was unclear but it appeared to have been provided to the Post and the New York Times at the same time - suggesting the possibility of a coordinated leak.

The slide presentation said that the CDC must improve its messaging on COVID-19, and emphasize the urgency of the situation.

'I finished reading it significantly more concerned than when I began,' said Robert Wachter, chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.

Walensky, director of the CDC, said that the new data - to be published on Friday - showed that vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant carry tremendous amounts of the virus in the nose and throat.

Walensky told The New York Times that the data suggest that even fully immunized people can be unwilling vectors for the virus - a change from the previously-held belief that vaccinated people were unlikely to increase the spread of COVID-19.

Walensky privately briefed members of Congress on Thursday, drawing on much of the material in the slide presentation obtained by The Washington Post.

I think people need to understand that we're not crying wolf here. This is serious,' she told CNN.

One of the slides states that there is a higher risk among older age groups for hospitalization and death relative to younger people, regardless of vaccination status.

Another estimates that there are 35,000 symptomatic infections per week among 162 million vaccinated Americans.

The document outlines 'communication challenges' fueled by cases in vaccinated people, including concerns from local health departments about whether coronavirus vaccines remain effective and a 'public convinced vaccines no longer work/booster doses needed.'

The CDC was criticized this week for updating the mask guidance without detailing the science behind it.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, told The Washington Post that their move violated scientific norms.

'You don't, when you're a public health official, want to be saying, 'Trust us, we know, we can't tell you how,' Jamieson said.

'The scientific norm suggests that when you make a statement based on science, you show the science.

'And the second mistake is they do not appear to be candid about the extent to which breakthroughs are yielding hospitalizations.'

Kevin McCarthy, the most senior Republican in the House, claimed the House doctor told them the study was conducted in India using a vaccine that was not approved in the U.S.

'The mask mandate is based upon a study in India, based upon a vaccine that isn''t approved in America that didn't pass peer review. Could this be a plan to keep our schools closed?' he asked on Twitter.

The CDC cites research from India on viral loads as adding to global concerns about transmission post-vaccination, but they make clear that other research and additional studies were under way.

McCarthy, however, tweeted a May 13 video of Joe Biden stating: 'Folks, if you're fully vaccinated — you no longer need to wear a mask.'

McCarthy captioned the clip: 'Total hypocrisy.'

Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, was asked about the backlash to the new mask mandates, and McCarthy's anger.

'He's such a moron,' she reportedly said, in a scarcely-audible clip.

Yet at the same time, Democratic-run cities have said they cannot make changes without being in full possession of the facts.

Even officials in Democrat areas were unsure.

Mitchell Katz, president of New York City Health and Hospitals, said at a press conference with Mayor Bill de Blasio that he wanted more information.

'While the CDC issued their guidance yesterday at about 3 p.m., they have not yet released their scientific reports on the data that underlies their recommendation,' he said.

He added that his focus remained on getting people vaccinated.

'I think we owe it to New Yorkers to very carefully, as you say, review that information and understand its implications,' he said.

The CDC experts have been paying particular attention to an outbreak in Provincetown, on Cape Cod, after the July 4 celebrations.

As of Thursday, 882 people were tied to the Provincetown outbreak.

Among those living in Massachusetts, 74 percent of them were fully immunized, ABC News reported, yet officials said the vast majority were also reporting symptoms.

Seven people were reported hospitalized.

The initial findings of the investigation led by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, in conjunction with the CDC, seemed to have huge implications.

All indications now are that the Provincetown outbreak investigation is among the pieces of new evidence behind the CDC's decision to ask Americans to once again put on their masks indoors, even if they are vaccinated.

The one glimmer of hope came from Britain, where the Delta variant has wreaked havoc, but is now dramatically slowing down.

Experts hope that this may indicate the U.S. surge could also be over soon.

Last week, the leading British COVID modeler said that the country was 'almost certain' to hit 100,000 cases per day, and the U.K.'s daily case count crossed the 50,000 threshold for the first time since January.

Yet since July 20, cases have fallen fast.

From a high of nearly 54,000 on July 17, the daily tally slid to 43,404 last Wednesday; and 28,652 on Sunday.

This Monday, the U.K.'s case count slipped below 25,000 - a 50 percent reduction in a single week.

'In the United Kingdom, cases are clearly coming down at this point,' said Dr Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, on Monday.

'If the U.K. is turning the corner, it's a pretty good indication that maybe we're further into this than we think, and maybe we're two or three weeks away from starting to see our own plateau here in the United States.'

The CDC's sudden U-turn on masks sparked a political firefight on Capitol Hill as Republicans blasted a new mask mandate in the House of Representatives.

Capitol Police backed down on Thursday and said they would ask people in the House not wearing a face mask to leave after Republican lawmakers blasted a memo that stated such individuals would be arrested.

The agency did not specifically rule out arrests, but did say it should never come to that.

'Regarding the House mask rule, there is no reason it should ever come to someone being arrested. Anyone who does not follow the rule will be asked to wear a mask or leave the premises. The Department's requirement for officers to wear masks is for their health and safety,' US Capitol Police tweeted in a statement.

The statement came after it was revealed officers been ordered to arrest visitors and staff who refuse to wear a mask on the House side of the Capitol complex. The policy did not apply to lawmakers who refuse to wear masks.

Many Republicans have refused to wear masks, citing it as an issue of personal freedom, criticizing the Capitol physician over implementing a mask policy for the House and not the Senate, and arguing the science means vaccinated individuals shouldn't have to mask up.

Several staffers and visitors were seen walking around the House side of the Capitol without masks on Thursday but were not arrested.

Additionally, several conservative Republicans gathered in the Capitol Rotunda without wearing face masks to protest the policy. 'Arrest us,' one shouted as their maskless staff recorded them to post the event to social media.

No one was arrested.

The GOP lawmakers marched to the Senate side of the Capitol, which does not have a face mask requirement. Nearly 100 per cent of the Senate is vaccinated.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie told reporters they walked across the Capitol building 'for a taste of freedom.'

'You don't have to wear a mask on the Senate side,' he pointed out.

Many House Republicans blasted Pelosi for the 'tyrannical' directive, but the Democrat's office responded that she 'does not control the US Capitol Police.'

The chief of the Capitol Police reports to the three-member Capitol Police board, which is made up of the House sergeant at arms, the Senate sergeant at arms and the architect of the Capitol.

The chief does not answer to the speaker. The mask mandate in the House - which requires everyone, including those fully vaccinated, to wear one - was ordered by the Office of the Attending Physician but Pelosi said she would enforce it, which falls under her purview as speaker.

The controversy on Capitol Hill came the same day that Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced masks will be required indoors throughout the District, including for those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
APPARENTLY THE BRITS DO NOT AGREE:

(fair use applies)

Why the Delta Covid variant ISN'T really spreading as quickly as chickenpox (even though US health officials say the mutant strain is just as contagious)
By Luke Andrews
Published: 11:50 EDT, 30 July 2021 | Updated: 13:40 EDT, 30 July 2021
  • CDC officials have claimed the Indian 'Delta' variant may be as infectious as chickenpox
  • But British scientists have today slammed the claim as not 'plausible' because of falling infections in the UK
  • They point to the vaccination drive leaving enough people with immunity to limit the spread of the virus
Top scientists today claimed the Indian 'Delta' variant is not spreading as quickly as chickenpox, despite US health officials saying it is just as contagious.

Data circulating within America's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claimed people infected with the mutant strain can go on to infect eight others.

The same internal document also alleged that fully-vaccinated people can spread the Indian variant just as easily as unvaccinated people because they carry a similar amount of the virus in their nose and mouth.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, insisted the agency was 'not crying wolf', saying the situation was 'serious' and that the measures needed to tackle the spread of Delta were 'extreme'.

But British scientists have questioned some of the claims made by the department, which has urged Americans to keep their coverings on indoors regardless of whether they've been vaccinated or not.

Professor David Livermore, an infectious diseases expert from the University of East Anglia, said vaccine-triggered immunity and the endless waves of Covid which nations have endured meant there were fewer susceptible people around for people to infect.

'The US, like the UK, has substantial immunity from prior infection and from vaccination,' he told MailOnline. 'This will surely be a major drag on Delta's spread, precluding (viral spread) numbers of that magnitude.'

And Professor Julian Tang, a virologist at Leicester University, said the theory was likely just 'speculation' because it was very difficult to track down the number of cases sparked by a single infection.

46091165-9843201-image-a-2_1627648709769.jpg

This graph shows how many people someone infected with the above diseases is likely to transfer them on to. For people who catch chickenpox, scientists estimate they will pass on the infection to between 10 and 12 others. And for those who catch measles, they are thought to pass it on to 12 to 18 others. Scientists at the CDC have estimated every person who catches the Indian 'Delta' variant of Covid could pass it on to eight other people. But British scientists say this is not correct


The R0 — the basic reproduction rate which shows just how contagious every disease is — of Delta is thought to be around eight, the CDC says.

That means, in theory, anyone infected with the mutant strain — which is now dominant in dozens of countries — will pass it on to eight others.

For comparison, the original strain of Covid that triggered the pandemic in the Chinese city of Wuhan had a figure of around 2.5. The Kent 'Alpha' variant's rate is around 4.5.

But measles — which is one of the most contagious viruses known to exist — has an R0 of approximately 18, and the estimate for chickenpox sits between 10 and 12.

This does not mean, however, that everyone infected with Delta is actually passing the virus on to eight others.

The actual R rate — which reflects how quickly an outbreak is growing or shrinking — is always much lower than R0.

This is because it takes into account real-world data which can easily skew the shape of disease outbreaks, such as population immunity.

Professor Livermore said if everyone with Delta was really spreading it to eight others, then Britain's daily Covid cases would not have dipped.

'I don’t find it plausible,' he told MailOnline when asked whether infected patients were truly passing the virus on to so many other people.

'Were it the case, the rise in the UK wouldn’t have stalled in the way that it has.'

Professor Tang said the R0 value was very hard to work out because it was so difficult to establish exactly how many people an infected person passed the virus on to.

He added, in some cases, the virus may spread to many others by one person because of factors including location, but that in other cases someone may not even pass the virus to anyone.

Professor Tang said: 'If you have someone infected and handing out leaflets by the door of a department store they may not be a super-spreader themselves but just passing it on.

'But if you stand them near a fan you may find there is an R of 20.'

The CDC's claim is partially based on an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts, which sparked more than 700 cases.

Leaked slides published by the Washington Post said it happened after July 4 Independence Day, when looser restrictions again allowed Americans to come together to celebrate the national holiday.

Covid finds it easier to spread when people are packed together inside, such as for celebrations and events.

The CDC also claimed that vaccinated people may pass on the virus as well as those who are not jabbed at all because they had similar amounts of the virus in their mouths and noses.

The amount of virus an infected person is carrying is calculated as the Ct value, or the number of times testers need to tweak a sample before they detect the virus. For this reason, a lower score indicates a higher viral load, making it more likely someone is infectious.

Among the 80 double-vaccinated people they checked they had to run the cycle 21.9 times on average before Covid was spotted.

And among the 65 un-vaccinated people included in the study the cycle had to be run 21.5 times.

British Government officials warn Ct values are only approximate, and can even vary if the same swab is tested twice meaning it is hard to make firm conclusions from the data.

But the officials said if the virus is detected after less than 30 tweaks of the sample, then it suggests the infected patient is carrying a lot of virus.

Samples are generally tweaked up to 40 times before someone can be said not to be infected with the virus.

Professor Young said it was 'hard to believe' vaccinated people would pass on the virus as well because the jabs slash the risk of someone becoming infected.

Professor Young said it was still clearly sensible to wear masks — even if you are double-jabbed — to limit your risk of catching the virus.

'Face masks are something I think we still need to be doing,' he said. 'A small proportion of people who are jabbed are still able to get re-infected, so people should be cautious.'

Although vaccines are not perfect, they have drastically changed the game against the virus.

Jabs currently being deployed in America and Britain slash the risk of death by up to 95 per cent, even against the Delta variant.

But real-world data of roll-outs in countries where the mutant strain is dominant show they are slightly less effective at blocking symptoms of the illness, as well as transmission.

Yet No10's top scientists have still publicly backed their ability at curbing the spread of the virus.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK Government's chief scientific adviser, said in January: 'You don't have vaccines of this efficacy without there being some effect on transmission.' The latest SAGE modelling given to ministers suggests the vaccines cut the risk of infected people passing it on by around 50 per cent.

Dr Walensky said yesterday the Delta variant was 'one of the most transmissible viruses we know about'. She drew a comparison between the virus and measles and chickenpox, which are both highly contagious.

She also called for masks to be worn again. 'The measures we need to get this under control — they're extreme,' Dr Walensky said. 'The measures you need are extreme.'

The CDC said in May that fully vaccinated people no longer needed to wear face coverings because of falling infection rates and the fact jabs significantly cut the risk of being infected.

But they rowed back on this assertion two days ago, urging fully-vaccinated Americans to again wear the masks amid surging cases in the country and concern over the Delta variant.

The CDC report also claimed vaccinated people who are infected with Covid are likely to shed as much Covid as people who have not been jabbed.

Dr Walter Orenstein, who heads the Emory Vaccine Centre in the US, told CNN the report suggests vaccinated and un-vaccinated people have similar viral loads.

He said: 'The bottom line is, in contrast to the other variants, vaccinated people, even if they don't get sick, got infected and shed the virus at similar levels to unvaccinated people who got infected.'

But he also pointed to data from the CDC showing vaccines cut the risk of severe disease by 90 per cent, and reduce the risk of death by tenfold.

Professor Ian Jones, a vaccine expert at Reading University, said: 'The issue in the US is that there is still a large pool of unvaccinated people so any transmission finds them and they suffer the full range of symptoms.

'Every variant to date has transmitted better, that's why they succeed in spreading, but none have evaded the immune response completely.

'Mask wearing and other social measures continue to make sense while there is a susceptible population but the overall message dose not change, increasing vaccine coverage is the way to bring cases down.'

~~~~~~~~~

What does the CDC claim in its latest report?


Leaked slides from a presentation by the US-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention have made several claims about the Indian 'Delta' variant of Covid.

Its director, Dr Rochelle Walensky, said they highlighted how 'serious' the situation had become.

Below, MailOnline has gone through the key claims.

Indian 'Delta' variant of Covid is as infectious as chickenpox

The R0 — the basic reproduction rate which shows just how contagious every disease is — of Delta is thought to be around eight, the CDC says.

That means, in theory, anyone infected with the mutant strain — which is now dominant in dozens of countries — will pass it on to eight others.

For comparison, the original strain of Covid that triggered the pandemic in the Chinese city of Wuhan had a figure of around 2.5. The Kent 'Alpha' variant's rate is around 4.5.

But measles — which is one of the most contagious viruses known to exist — has an R0 of approximately 18, and the estimate for chickenpox sits between 10 and 12.

This does not mean, however, that everyone infected with Delta is actually passing the virus on to eight others.

The actual R rate — which reflects how quickly an outbreak is growing or shrinking — is always much lower than R0.

This is because it takes into account real-world data which can easily skew the shape of disease outbreaks, such as population immunity.

Infected vaccinated people may pass on the virus 'as well' as un-vaccinated people

The CDC also claimed in its internal presentation that vaccinated people may pass on the virus just as well as those who are not jabbed.

It based the claim on a study looking into how much of the virus is carried by infected jabbed and non-jabbed people.

This is called the viral load and it is tested using the Ct value, the number of times a swab for SARS-CoV-2 must be tweaked before the virus is detected. For this reason, a lower score indicates a higher viral load which suggests someone is more infectious.

The claim was based on an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts, which sparked more than 700 cases.

The outbreak happened after July 4 Independence Day, when looser restrictions again allowed Americans to come together to celebrate the national holiday.

Testing data showed among the 80 double-vaccinated people, their average Ct scores was 21.9.

And among the 65 un-vaccinated people included in the study it was 21.5.

Studies warn Ct values are only approximate, and can vary even if the same swab is tested twice.

But studies say a result above 30 suggests a high amount of the virus in someone's body, and that someone can only be declared negative if the samples are tweaked 40 times without the virus being detected.

British experts said it was highly unlikely that vaccinated people were as infectious as unvaccinated people.

One said the results may be down to there being fewer vaccinated people in America, giving the virus more opportunities to spread.
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
Biden Spox: “A National Vaccine Requirement is Not Under Consideration at This Time”
By Cristina Laila
Published July 30, 2021 at 3:23pm

White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday said a federal vaccine mandate is not currently under consideration.

Joe Biden on Thursday was asked about vaccine mandates in the private sector.
Advertisement - story continues below

Joe Biden said he supports vaccine mandates in the private sector then said he isn’t sure if the government can implement mandates on a federal level.

“I would like to see them continue to move in that direction… it’s still a question whether the Federal government can mandate the whole country. I don’t know that yet,” Biden said.

Biden received major backlash for his comments on a federal vaccine mandate.
On Friday, Biden’s spox Karine Jean-Pierre was deployed to do damage control.

“A national vaccine requirement is not under consideration at this time,” Jean-Pierre said.

VIDEO: View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1421186822814769153
1:13 min


More on this:
(fair use applies)

Chaos in the White House over COVID messaging: Biden advisor Jeff Zients insists they are NOT exploring national vaccine mandates 'at all' - after president said it is 'still a question'
By Emily Goodin
Published: 10:38 EDT, 30 July 2021 | Updated: 13:17 EDT, 30 July 2021
  • The White House is struggling with its messaging on COVID vaccines
  • President Joe Biden said his administration is exploring a vaccine mandate
  • 'It's still a question whether the federal government can mandate the whole country,' Biden said
  • COVID adviser Jeff Zients quickly walked it back
  • 'That's not an authority that we're exploring at all,' Zients told CNN
  • The White House COVID team has not held a briefing since July 22
The White House is struggling with its messaging on COVID vaccines after President Joe Biden said his administration is exploring a mandate but an adviser quickly walked that back.

The confusion comes as the White House COVID team - consisting of adviser Jeffrey Zients, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky - have not briefed the public in over a week. Their last briefing was July 22nd.

The trio have made individual appearances in the media and Walensky held a press conference on Tuesday, the day the CDC changed its mask guidelines to ask those fully-vaccinated in high infection areas to wear face masks again.

But the changing guidelines and significant percentage of Americans still unvaccinated has led to questions about a national vaccine mandate.

About 67% of eligible US residents have received at least one dose, and the rate of new vaccinations has fallen drastically since the spring. From a peak of 3.4 million shots per day in April, the number of daily new injections is down to around 600,000. About 60% of the country is fully vaccinated.

Biden said on Thursday it was still 'a question' as to whether a national vaccine mandate would be legal but said the Justice Department was looking into it.

'I had asked the Justice Department to determine whether that is -- they're able to do that legally, and they can. Local communities can do that. Local businesses can do that. It's still a question whether the federal government can mandate the whole country. I don't know that yet,' he said.

But Zients went on CNN later that night to clarify the matter. He said the DoJ wasn't exploring a national mandate but whether employers can mandate the vaccine.

'That's not an authority that we're exploring at all. But I think what the president was referring to is his Justice Department has said that it is legal for employers to require vaccination,' he said.

Biden also said on Thursday that areas with high vaccination rates do not need to wear masks if individuals are fully vaccinated - which is not quite the CDC guidelines.

'Like in my home state of Delaware, where I lived in New Castle County, where I was yesterday in Pennsylvania. Because people got vaccinated. They got vaccinated. They don't need a mask when the majority, the vast majority of the people got vaccinated,' the president said.

But the CDC mask guidance is based on the level of transmission and COVID case rate in an area, not specifically the rate of vaccination.

Some places with high vaccination rates, like Vermont, also have low levels of transmission. But other areas with high vaccination rates, like Washington D.C., has a high rate of transmission and is re-instituting face mask wearing for everyone.

The messaging and confusion comes as more data is to be released on Friday to explain why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reissued its mask policy. On May 13 the American public was told they no longer needed to wear masks indoors if vaccinated.

An internal federal health document obtained by The Washington Post claimed that the Delta variant was as infectious as chickenpox or Ebola - with each infected person passing the virus to eight or nine others, on average. That infectivity is known as R0.

The original lineage was about as transmissible as the common cold, with each infected person passing it to about two others, on average.

Walensky said that the new data coming out on Friday showed that vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant carry tremendous amounts of the virus in the nose and throat.

'I think people need to understand that we're not crying wolf here. This is serious,' she told CNN.

She told The New York Times that the data suggest that even fully immunized people can be unwilling vectors for the virus - a change from the previously-held belief that vaccinated people were unlikely to increase the spread of COVID-19.

COVID cases are on the rise in the United States, mainly due to the highly-contagious Delta variant.

On Wednesday, the country recorded 68,771 new cases with a seven-day rolling average of 63,842, which is a 322 percent increase from the 15,126 average recorded three weeks ago.
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
You have to just love the propaganda reporting. " ONLY FOUR OF 346 PEOPLE WHO HAD SHOTS WERE HOSPITALIZED" is the glaring headline. Read the article. Notice there is no emphasis on this 'incidental' fact: "ONLY ONE OF 345 WHO DID NOT HAVE SHOTS WERE HOSPITALIZED" (my paraphrasing, deduced from the line that only five total were hospitalized - I did the math. ;) See highlighted part in article).


(fair use applies)

CDC FINALLY releases data behind new mask guidance: Study claims vaccinated people who get COVID have same viral levels of Indian 'Delta' variant as the unvaccinated - but only four of 346 people who had shots were hospitalized and none died
By Mary Kekatos
Published: 13:00 EDT, 30 July 2021 | Updated: 15:19 EDT, 30 July 2021

  • A new CDC report detailed 469 cases of COVID-19 linked to an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts between July 3 and July 17
  • Of the infections, 74% occurred in fully vaccinated people who had one of the three FDA-emergency approved vaccines and 80% had symptoms
  • Only four of the vaccinated people were hospitalized, two of whom had underlying conditions, and there were no deaths
  • Results showed that vaccinated people who get COVID-19 have same viral levels as the unvaccinated
  • The CDC says this outbreak was behind its recent recommendations for vaccinated Americans to wear masks in indoors places in COVID-19 hot spots
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has finally released the data that was behind its recent backtrack on mask recommendations for vaccinated Americans to wear masks in indoor places in COVID-19 hot spots.

In a report published on Friday, the federal health agency detailed a COVID-19 outbreak earlier this month in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, linked to the spread of the Indian 'Delta' variant.

Researchers found nearly three-quarters of the infections occurred in people who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with either of three shots approved in the U.S. for emergency use.

What's more, tests showed that immunized people carried about the same viral levels in their noses and throats as unvaccinated people did.

However, there were just four hospitalizations and no fatalities among the fully vaccinated group, showing that the vaccines are very effective against severe disease and death.

For the report, the team looked at COVID-19 cases linked to summer events and large gatherings in Provincetown, on Massachusetts's Cape Cod, between July 3 and July 17.

Thousands of residents and tourists flocked to the summer town for Independence Day celebrations as well as family vacations, resulting in crowded bars, restaurants, rental homes and more.

On July 10, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health began receiving reports of an increased number of cases linked to the county.

The 14-day rolling average of COVID-19 cases in the county rose from zero cases per 100,000 persons on July 3 to 177 cases per 100,000 persons.

By July 26, 469 cases had been identified, of which 74 percent - or 346 - were among fully vaccinated with at least 14 days since their final dose.

Among this group, 46 percent had received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 38 percent got the Moderna vaccine and 16 percent got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The remaining 26 percent, or 84 cases, were among people who were unvaccinated, had only received one dose or whose vaccination status was unknown.

Nearly 80 percent of those with 'breakthrough' infections had signs or symptoms such as cough, fever or a headache.

Of the five COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized, four were fully vaccinated of whom two had underlying conditions.

No deaths were reported in either group.

This is evidence that the Pfizer, Moderna and J&J vaccines are highly effective against severe disease and death.

To measure levels of the virus, CDC researchers looked at a figure known as the cycle threshold (Ct) value.

After an infected person is swabbed, the sample is isolated and has to undergo several amplification cycles to detect if there is any viral RNA, or genetic material.

The Ct value is the number of cycles necessary to spot the virus at which point the machine will stop running. Any number under 30 is considered a high viral load.

There was virtually no difference in the Ct value between vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

Fully vaccinated patients has a Ct value of 22.77 while the unvaccinated group had a Ct value of 21.54.

Ideally, the number among vaccinated people should be higher than 35 and closer to 40, which would indicate low levels of the virus.

'High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raised concern that, unlike with other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus,' CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.

'This finding is concerning and was a pivotal discovery leading to CDC's updated mask recommendation.

'The masking recommendation was updated to ensure the vaccinated public would not unknowingly transmit virus to others, including their unvaccinated or immunocompromised loved ones.'

The release of the data comes after The Washington Post obtained and published internal documents from the CDC.

The documents claim the Delta variant has an R0, or is as infectious, as chickenpox or Ebola and that an infected person can spread the virus to eight or nine other people.

Meanwhile, the original strain that originated in Wuhan, China, could be passed on two or three others, making it as transmissible as the common cold.

'When you think about diseases that have an R0 of eight or nine - there aren't that many,' Walensky told CNN on Thursday.

'I think people need to understand that we're not crying wolf here. This is serious.'

The CDC's mask guidance states that masks only need to be worn in counties with 'substantial' or 'high' transmission of the virus.

As of Friday, 73.8 percent of counties fall into one of these two categories, up from 69.3 percent the week before.

The CDC was criticized this week for updating the mask guidance without detailing the science behind it.

'Yes, CDC should release all data in a timely manner,' Dr Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist with the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, told DailyMail.com on Thursday.

'In my opinion, it is criminal to sit on data during a pandemic.'
 

StarryEyedLad

désespéré pour le ciel
“We have a pandemic, because of the unvaccinated and they’re sowing enormous confusion,” Biden said. “If those other 100 million got vaccinated, we’d be in a very different world.”


Maybe like this?
very different world.jpg
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic

Here is the article in full. It seems to my unscientific eyes that it falls in line with Karl Denninger and Geert Vanden Bossche had been saying when the vaccines were rolled out.



The next Covid variant could kill up to one in THREE people: SAGE warns doomsday scenario is 'realistic possibility' and UK's vaccine roll-out may even speed up mutant strain's emergence
By Joe Davies For Mailonline
Published: 14:56 EDT, 30 July 2021 | Updated: 19:21 EDT, 30 July 2021

  • SAGE today warns a future Covid mutant strain could be as deadly as MERS
  • No10's expert panel say coronavirus mutates most when it is in high prevalence
  • Group warns strains could become more resistant to vaccines and antivirals
A doomsday new Covid variant that could kill up to one in three people is a 'realistic possibility', according to the Government's top scientists.

Documents published by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) today warned a future strain could be as deadly as MERS — which which has a case fatality rate of 35 per cent — could be on the way.

No10's expert panel said the likelihood of the virus mutating is highest when it is most prevalent — as is currently the case in Britain.

And a downside of Britain's hugely successful vaccine drive, it appears the country's greater levels of immunity could help speed up the process.

Scientists said Britain should bring in booster vaccine doses over the winter, minimise new variants coming from abroad and consider culling animals — including minks and even cats, which can harbour the virus — to prevent the mutant strain occurring.

Scientists unveiled the threat of a super mutant variant in a paper looking at potential scenarios that could emerge in the not-so-distant future.

Experts said a future strain could be resistant to vaccines if it came about by the jab-resistant 'South Africa' Beta variant combining with the more transmissible 'Kent' Alpha or 'India' Delta variants.

The process — known as recombination — could lead to a strain with 'increased morbidity and mortality'.

The team admitted vaccines should work unless there was an extra-potent mutation that rendered jabs much less effective at blocking serious disease — which many experts say is unlikely.

But they said the extra lethality would be expected 'even in the face of vaccination since vaccines do not provide absolute sterilising immunity.'

The prospect of a deadlier variant is a 'realistic possibility' and would have a huge impact on the UK's death toll moving forward, the scientists said.

And experts and politicians have warned the damning report shows the Government 'must not be complacent' as Britain appears to be coming out its current third wave of the pandemic.

Dr Philippa Whitford, vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, said: 'This report, which should have sent shock waves through the UK Government, was instead quietly snuck out among a glut of reports during parliamentary recess.

'Recommendations and comments made by SAGE bring home the simple reality — that we have not yet "defeated" this virus.

'The UK only donated its first vaccine doses internationally this week and, unless there is a rapid increase in global production, through sharing knowledge and technology, it simply will not be possible to vaccinate the world and bring the pandemic to an end.

'Without stricter border control measures we risk importing vaccine-resistant variants while uncontrolled spread here could lead to yet another UK variant.'

The Scottish National Party MP: 'The government mustn't stick its head in the sand or it will run the risk of un-doing the progress we have made over the past eighteen months.'

Professor Martin McKee, an expert in public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: 'These stark words from the Government's own advisors underlines what many of us have been warning about and confirms there are still obstacles to overcome.

'The government can't be complacent, they must continue their support for the development of the next generation of vaccines and prioritise the reduction of infections here at home to reduce the possibility of another domestic variant emerging.'

The warnings about variants were scattered in a series of reports unveiled by the Government advisory group as part of a weekly transparency pledge.

SAGE warned that the virus can infect a host of different animals including minks — which have had to be culled in Denmark in their thousands.

The group warned further culling or animal vaccinating may be needed in other species to prevent them becoming reservoirs for the virus.

They listed dogs, cats, mice, rats and ferrets as animals who are known to have been infected with Covid.

Another potential issue they found is the use of antvirals to treat Covid once a patient is already infected.

Britain invested heavily in the new technologies — which were used to treat Donald Trump during his bought with the virus last year — but scientists warn overuse could lead to more mutant strains and warned doctors to only prescribe them in the most serious cases of Covid.

But in more hopeful news, the group also predicted it is a 'realistic possibility in the long term' that as Covid continue to mutate it will cause less serious disease.

The group wrote: 'In other words, this virus will become like other human CoV that causes common colds, but with much less severe disease predominantly in the old or clinically vulnerable.'
 

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
Walmart is requiring vaccines for all corporate staff and traveling managers (I assume district, regional level). They are not requiring it of any store workers. They probably realize their store workers will quit if they mandate vaccines and that will leave them in a lot of hot water as the holiday season is about to start.

(fair use applies)

Walmart says it will require vaccinations for most corporate employees
Áine Cain and Allana Akhtar
14 hours ago
  • Walmart said Friday it will require vaccinations for certain employees.
  • The rule applies to "home office associates" as well as other employees who "work in multiple facilities."
  • The vaccination deadline will be October 4, 2021.
Walmart will require certain employees to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, the company said Friday.

The retailer's new rule will apply to employees based at the retailer's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, according to a company-wide memo. "Market, regional, and divisional" management-level employees who travel and "work in multiple facilities" will also need to get vaccinated, the memo said.

The deadline for getting vaccinated is October 4, 2021. According to the memo, Walmart will also "implement a new process for verification of vaccine status" for its workers.

The vaccination requirement does not apply to employees who work in stores, clubs, or warehouses, the memo said.

Walmart also announced Friday that it would require store workers in areas with "high transmission" to mask up at work.

Walmart is the first major retailer to require certain corporate employees get vaccinated, and among the first to reinstate mask requirements for some store workers.

Other retailers will likely follow suit, as Walmart led the way for stores to close on Thanksgiving and raise the minimum age to purchase firearms.

"We continue to watch with deep concern the developments of the pandemic and the spread of variants, especially the Delta variant," Walmart chief people officer Donna Morris said in an email to employees. "We know vaccinations are our solution to drive change. We are urging you to get vaccinated."

Walmart's new policies come as the Delta variant of COVID-19 spreads rapidly across the US. The current 7-day average of daily new cases increased by 64% compared to the previous 7-day average, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A leaked presentation from the CDC found the variant is more transmissible than the common cold and seasonal flu, but did not lead to severe illness or death in vaccinated individuals. The University of California Davis Health found 97% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated as of July 22.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Gates Foundation Is Longtime Partner Of Chinese Communist Group Which Funded Military-Linked Coronavirus Research At Wuhan Lab.
gates
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The National Natural Science Foundation of China, which has extensive ties to China’s military and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on scientific research for over five years.

The unearthed ties between the Gates Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) follow a National Pulse exposé revealing how the Chinese scientific organization funded People’s Liberation Army (PLA) research and bat coronavirus studies at the Wuhan lab. Beyond describing itself as a state-owned scientific group that is “guided by President Xi Jinping’s Socialist thoughts,” the NSFC has inked “strategic cooperative agreements” with the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission.

In October 2015, however, the Gates Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding with the NSFC to “jointly support research projects and bilateral workshops.” Together, the Gates Foundation and NSFC would “co-fund awards of up to US$1M and 4 years for collaborations between Chinese and international investigators.”

The agreement is still active, as the Gates Foundation’s most recent annual report details collaborative work on “joint research projects” and “bilateral workshops.” The two foundations “will accept joint research applications in the areas of global health and agriculture in the year of 2020,” the NSFC summary adds.

The Gates Foundation and NSFC have also collaborated on COVID-19 research, as the group was one of several Chinese Communist Party-run scientific organizations identified as a “partner” on a $5 million grant to “identify and confirm cases, safely isolate and care for patients and accelerate the development of treatments and vaccines.”

NSFC officials have also visited Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle, including Vice President Hou Zengqian, who met with the foundation’s current CEO in October 2019. In 2016, an NSFC delegation met with the Gates Foundation Deputy Director of Discovery & Translational Sciences.
https://thenationalpulse.com/breaking/tencent-to-buy-military-tech-simulator/
10-19-3208151875705876-800x599.jpeg
GATES FOUNDATION HQ MEETING.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Vegans May Be Exempt from Compulsory Vaccines, Law Firm Claims
271
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) campaigner Ashley Fruno holds a sign encouraging people to go vegan whilst painted as Mother Earth at a intersection in Bangkok on April 21, 2016. PETA are promoting a plant-based diet in an effort to combat climate change and the depletion of …
LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP via Getty Images
VICTORIA FRIEDMAN31 Jul 2021295

Ethical vegans may be exempt from being forced by their employers to be vaccinated because their lifestyle beliefs are protected by law, a legal firm has claimed.

Last year, a judge presiding over an employment tribunal ruled that ethical veganism — where a vegan avoids all animals products, products that used animals in testing, or services associated with animal exploitation — was a “philosophical belief”, making it a protected characteristic like race, religion, or sexuality, with its adherents covered under the Equality Act 2010.

Referencing the case, a spokesman from law firm Lewis Silkin said, according to The Telegraph: “Some ethical vegans may disagree with vaccinations on the basis that they will inevitably have been tested on animals. Ethical veganism has previously been found by an [employment tribunal] to amount to a belief, capable of being protected.”

The remarks come weeks after the government passed legislation to force all care home staff to be vaccinated against the Chinese coronavirus. Silkie Carlo, the director of the privacy and civil liberties pressure group Big Brother Watch, warned that the passing of the law could embolden employers to make similar demands, leaving “millions” of employers to face a choice between a jab and their job.

Some employers have been considering introducing mandatory vaccines for several months, including the anti-Brexit Charlie Mullins of Pimlico Plumbers, who vowed in January to impose a “no vaccine, no job” rule.

Mr Mullins is not alone, however, according to a recent poll by the British Chambers of Commerce of large businesses employing more than 50 people.
Around one-third of large businesses said they were considering introducing vaccine demands, with eight per cent saying they would “likely” do so in the future. Nearly one in ten (nine per cent) said they already had required employees to prove their vaccination status.

1627746636371.png

A senior figure in the British government appeared to give his tacit approval for employers to demand mandatory vaccination of staff. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News on Thursday: “We want everyone to be double-jabbed.”

“I can understand why employers think that that would be a smart policy or approach to encourage, whether or not there should be hard and fast legal rules I think we need to look at carefully. But our message overwhelmingly is get the jab,” he said.

Transport Minister Grant Shapps was forced to confirm on Friday that the government would not be mandating vaccines in order for people to return to work, but again expressed that it was a “good idea” and some employers may decide to do so.

“We are not going to make that legislation, that every adult has to be double vaccinated before they go back to the office, but yes it is a good idea and yes some companies will require it,” Mr Shapps said.

The Telegraph notes that ethical vegans could take their employers to court if they claim they were forced to resign if faced with an order to be vaccinated.
There are some 500,000 vegans in the United Kingdom, and around 100 have already contacted the Vegan Society over concerns they could be asked to be vaccinated at work.

However, others may challenge company policies on vaccination included so-called “anti-vaxxers” on the grounds that their beliefs should be protected in the same way that ethical vegans’ philosophies are.

Solicitor Clare Chappell from Peacock & Co noted that “somebody at some point who is an anti-vaxxer is going to bring a claim that an anti-vax belief is a philosophical belief.

“I think it’s going to throw a lot of interesting developments into discrimination law over the coming months and years.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Need a Vaccine Exemption? Here Are Pre-Formatted Letters You Can Use

by JD Rucker
July 30, 2021

Need a Vaccine Exemption_ Here Are Pre-Formatted Letters You Can Use

Medical freedom is not explicitly mentioned in the Bill of Rights for a very simple reason. The founding fathers never envisioned a world in which medical procedures would be forced on a free people. This oversight has been corrected for the most part by laws at the state and national level protecting an American citizen’s right to choose how they will handle their own healthcare.

Patients’ rights have been attacked more and more in recent years, but never has there been a more draconian onslaught than what we’re seeing with the so-called “Covid vaccines.” Government, private businesses, and organizations are pressing mandates of various degrees of severity onto the American people with limited methods through which a vaccine-hesitant person can seek exemptions to operate as normally as possible in society.

The folks over at Gab surfaced a set of documents that can help. We have not independently confirmed their efficacy in getting exemptions from various organizations, including the United States military, but they seem well-researched and properly ordered. They may be an excellent resource for those of us who have no intention of getting the jabs.

According to CEO Andrew Torba at Gab:

I have been receiving dozens of direct messages on Gab over the past week with people from around the country sharing the horrors from inside the United States Military and their places of employment regarding “mandatory” non-FDA approved experimental Covid vaccinations.

Many people are being forced to choose between feeding their families and getting injected with a potentially deadly experimental substance. This is a fundamental violation of not only human rights, but the religious rights that we are guaranteed in the United States of America.

At the bottom of this post are Word docs and PDF files constructing what the creator of the documents calls an “air tight religious exemption request” for the COVID vaccine if it is mandatory for you at work, school, or in the military. You can download these and customize them to your individual scenario.

The Full Document is everything necessary for a US Army Soldier to submit a religious exemption request to his immediate commander, with only certain portions needing to be edited to include your name, unit, and details.

The “Religious + Practical Side Supporting Documents” contains all of the details giving both the religious reasons for why Christians cannot receive the Vaccine, and the practical reasons for why it isn’t actually necessary to receive the Vaccine.

The Religious and Practical Side Supporting Documents are also separated in case you specifically need either one without the other.

We are human beings made in the image of God. We have God-given human rights and should not be forced to choose between feeding our families and putting something that is potentially deadly into our bodies. As a reminder Gab.com is the only social network on the internet that allows criticism and discussion about the experimental non-FDA approved Covid vaccine.

God be with us all.

Source of docs: Kaleb of Atlanta


I cannot stress enough that I do not know if these will work. They seem to be in order; I’m neither an attorney nor an expert on exemptions. But we have to start somewhere. We MUST be armed with all of the legal methods through which we can protect ourselves, our families, and our communities. While a good chunk of Americans today are firm in their opposition to vaccines, the pressure is mounting. It will be harder and harder for them to remain diligent.

Yes, there are already mandates and those mandates are spreading. They are becoming more authoritarian in nature and we can expect both state and federal governments to make vaccines compulsory in the near future. But even without government mandates, citizens are facing intense pressure campaigns across the board. Mainstream media, academia, Big Tech, and even our friends and family are doing everything they can to shame us into getting injected.

The need to spread the truth in this nation has never been greater. It isn’t just the stakes which are as high as they can be. It’s also the censorship we’re experiencing; telling the truth is dangerous. We encourage all of our readers to help us spread the word. Donations are the lifeblood of our efforts to get the truth out to the masses. We appreciate you more than you know.

If these documents can help you or anyone you know in their plight against vaccination pressure, please use and share them. We need freedom-loving Americans to have the resources necessary to fight the nefarious agenda before us

Here are the documents supplied by Gab… be sure to follow us there.

DOWNLOAD THE WORD DOCUMENTS HERE
DOWNLOAD THE PDF VERSION HERE
For US Air Force service members
While the Air Force tailors religious requests to each individual, the following can be used to start the process should the Air Force make this Covid shot mandatory. Folks can drop this text into their unit letterhead, fill in their name, and submit to their commanders.

MEMORANDUM FOR Immediate Commander

SUBJECT: Request for Religious Accommodation – Rank Name

1. I request a religious accommodation to not be required to receive a vaccination for COVID-19 in accordance with policies and procedures contained in DoDI 1300.17 (Accommodation of Religious Practices Within the Military Services), 22 Feb 2014; AFI 48-110 (Immunizations And Chemoprophylaxis For The Prevention of Infectious Diseases), 6 Oct 2013; and AFPD 52-2 (Accommodation of Religious Practices in the Air Force), 27 Jul 2020.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

CDC: Almost 400 reports of heart inflammation in children after Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine

DATED: JULY 30, 2021 BY SHARYL ATTKISSON 5 COMMENTS

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has published the most extensive statistics yet involving reports of adverse events among children who received Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine.

According to CDC, there were about 400 cases of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, reported in young people aged 12-17 after the Pfizer-BioNTech shot as of July 16.

According to the data, about 8.9 million children aged 12-17 had gotten the Pfizer-BioNTech shot as of July 16.

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) received 9,246 reports of illnesses after the Pfizer shots in the youth age group; the vast majority for what CDC considers "nonserious events."

About nine percent (9%) of the reports were for "serious adverse events" including myocarditis.

Read more here.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

BREAKING: GOP Senators Reveal Contents of Redacted Fauci Letter – HHS Hid His Collaboration with Dr. Daszak and Wuhan Lab

By Jim Hoft
Published July 30, 2021 at 4:54pm
Dr-Daszak-and-Fauci.jpg
Dr. Peter Daszak and Dr. Tony Fauci

THIS IS SHOCKING!

On Thursday Republican Senators Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, James Lankford, Rick Scott, and Josh Hawley sent a letter to Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Senator Gary Peters.

The letter was to inform Peters that the Biden HHS and NIH was refusing to produce all unredacted copies of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails, some of which had already been made public through heavily redacted FOIA requests.

But HHS refused to be transparent and redacted the requested information.

letter-wuhan-fauci-collaboration.jpg


But on Thursday Republican Senators released the redacted part of the email the HHS was hiding from the American public.

And it’s not good.

The redaction includes Dr. Peter Daszak admitting that he and Fauci were doing work in collaboration with the Chinese virologists at the Wuhan virology lab.

collaboration-fauci-wuhan.jpg


This information is very damning and proved that Dr. Anthony Fauci has been lying under oath and lying to the American people about his involvement with the Wuhan lab.

We now know that Dr. Fauci funded the lab, approved the gain of function research and was fully aware of their work.

This letter by the GOP senators also reveals that the CDC, DIH and HHS cannot be trusted to tell the truth.

The letter continues to say “the paragraph above does not appear to contain any information that could reasonably be expected to interfere with law enforcement proceedings. HHS is hiding information from the American public — and from Congress.

This is a serious violation.

HHS is lying to the American public about the Chinese research of the COVID virus to protect evil Dr. Fauci.

What else are they hiding?


Here is the full letter from the Republican Senators to Chairman Peters.

(Scribd doc. on website) HHS Withholding Info on Fau… by Jim Hoft
1627752040940.png
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Massive Crowds Protest Vaccine Passports And Mandatory Vaccinations All Over France

By ProTrumpNews Staff
Published July 31, 2021 at 10:50am
France-Protests.jpg

French citizens have had enough.

According to Disclose.tv, millions have French citizens have taken to the streets all across France in protest of vaccine passports and mandatory vaccinations.

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1421462935717781514
.19 min

Here are some more videos:

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1421490533420109826
.59 min

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1421469026308575232
.45 min

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1421467546847485952
.45 min

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1421466782699765763
.21 min

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1421425655594590210
.42 min

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1421400965186473986
.22 min

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1418965625423151106
1:04 min

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1418956215271444494
.30 min

This is at least the third straight weekend of protests:

July 24th:

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July 17th:
1627762042998.png
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

American Couple Fined $50,000 For Traveling To Canada With Fake Vaccination Documents

BY TYLER DURDEN
SATURDAY, JUL 31, 2021 - 02:30 PM

Canada has for more than the past year become known as having arguably the most stringent and far-reaching travel screening and lockdown/quarantine polices of any country. For example the US-Canada border is still closed, but is set to open August 9th - only for the fully vaccinated.

Throughout what's essentially been more or less a 'permanent' state of lockdown since the start of the pandemic, even Canadians re-entering the country from outside have had to quarantine for at least two weeks if they can't show proof of vaccination. This policy has been in effect in other countries as well, especially in Europe, which has perhaps made it inevitable that foreign travelers have sought to find ways around the restrictions. Authorities have worried about fake vaccination certificates popping up globally as the concept of 'COVID passports' has remained under discussion and is already fast becoming a reality at least in practice.
Via CTV News

One particular recent instance being reported this week included a pair of American travelers busted by the Canadian government for what were described as fake COVID-19 vaccination documents, apparently in their bid to avoid quarantine measures and successfully enter the country.

They were reportedly fined 20,000 Canadian dollars each - or about $25,000 USD - after getting caught with the fakes. In total the pair will pay a whopping $50,000 fine.

"The unnamed travelers arrived from the U.S. in Canada the week of July 18. Officials from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) fined each traveler four times for a total of 19,720 CAD per traveler" Fox details.

Official protocol required that they also show a negative COVID test before boarding the inbound plane, after which travelers are required to be confined in a government-approved hotel for three days at the end of which they have to test negative again. All of this is at the traveler's expense of course.

In this latest falsified documents case, the American pair even had fake negative tests:
The fake documents consisted of proof of vaccinations and pre-departure tests; officials also cited the pair for "non-compliance" with government requirements for accommodation and on-arrival testing, according to a PHAC press release.
Via City News/The Canadian Press
The press release further laid out the maximum possible penalty for traveling with fake COVID documents or lying to enforcement officers as follows:
Violating any quarantine or isolation instructions provided to travellers by a screening officer or quarantine officer when entering Canada is also an offence under the Quarantine Act and could lead to a $5,000 fine for each day of non-compliance or for each offence committed, or more serious penalties, including six months in prison and/or $750,000 in fines.

But likely this is only the beginning - as what are tantamount to 'vaccine passports' becomes the de facto new normal across various parts of the globe, there's little doubt that an entire sophisticated counterfeit documents industry will arise - if it hasn't already.
 
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marsh

On TB every waking moment

Mouthwash Covid test just as accurate as Nasal Swab…
Posted by Kane on July 31, 2021 2:28 pm
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Simple mouthwash test for COVID just as accurate as nasal swabs

JULY 30, 2021
by John Anderer

WASHINGTON — Anyone who has undergone a SARS-CoV-2 nasopharyngeal swab test knows that they aren’t exactly a pleasant experience. Despite this “brain-tickling” test being quite uncomfortable, scientists still consider it the gold standard of COVID tests. That may soon change, however. New research indicates that a gargle lavage (mouthwash) test is just as accurate as a swab assessment and a much simpler process to boot.

Among a group of 80 individuals, 26 tested positive for COVID-19 via swab testing. When that same group used a mouthwash test, the exact same 26 individuals tested positive as well. Importantly, both the nasal and mouthwash tests were of the polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) variety. Researchers say these tests are highly sensitive and capable of producing a result in real-time.

“Our results show that in all cases, where people were positively tested by the gold standard nasal swabbing, one could also detect the virus in gargle lavage by the same RT-PCR method,” says corresponding study author Christof R. Hauck, PhD, a professor of cell biology at the University of Konstanz in Germany, in a media release.

Even better, whereas the swab test requires medical personnel to conduct the exam and wear PPE, individuals can do the mouthwash test by themselves.

“This sampling procedure can be conducted safely in a general practitioner’s office without extra protective equipment for physicians’ staff, as the patients themselves perform the sampling,” Dr. Hauck explains. “We usually sent the patients with the gargle solution and sampling container outside.”

Mouthwash COVID test can be done at home, keeping everyone safe

All medical staff have to do is watch the patient from a window to ensure they gargle the solution and spit it back into a cup correctly.

“We need not expose trained personnel to the danger of taking samples from so many potentially infected people,” Dr. Hauck adds.

All tested subjects were either dealing with some respiratory symptoms or had come into contact with a COVID-positive individual. Everyone underwent a swab test first, and then performed the mouthwash test themselves.

“These paired samples were then transferred to the central diagnostic lab, where they were analyzed in parallel, so that the results could be directly compared,” Dr. Hauck notes.

“Besides performing diagnostics on symptomatic patients, we are involved in regular SARS-CoV-2 surveillance on our university campus, where we test people twice a week. As nasal swabbing is not very pleasant, we were looking for an alternative, and gargle lavage turned out to be highly accepted,” he continues.

The fact that both tests came to the exact same results leads the research team to conclude that “the painless self-collection of gargle lavage provides a suitable and uncomplicated source for reliable SARS-CoV-2 detection.”

The findings appear in the journal Microbiology Spectrum.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Libtards Are Starting to Break
Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Jul. 29, 2021
(excerpted)

The mixed messages from our public health "authorities" are becoming too much for them.


Before:

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1417196675395883009
2:16 min

After:

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1420552283360727040
.57 min
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

CDC FINALLY releases data behind mask guidance U-turn: Study claims vaccinated people infected with 'Delta' variant have same viral levels as the unvaccinated - but only four of 346 sick were hospitalized and NONE died
  • A new CDC report detailed 469 cases of COVID-19 linked to an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts between July 3 and July 17
  • Of the infections, 74% occurred in fully vaccinated people who had one of the three FDA-emergency approved vaccines and 80% had symptoms
  • Only four of the vaccinated people were hospitalized, two of whom had underlying conditions, and there were no deaths
  • Results showed that vaccinated people who get COVID-19 have same viral levels as the unvaccinated
  • The CDC says this outbreak was behind its recent recommendations for vaccinated Americans to wear masks in indoors places in COVID-19 hot spots
By MARY KEKATOS ACTING U.S. HEALTH EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 13:00 EDT, 30 July 2021 | UPDATED: 02:07 EDT, 31 July 2021

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has finally released the data that was behind its recent backtrack on mask recommendations for vaccinated Americans to wear masks in indoor places in COVID-19 hot spots.

In a report published on Friday, the federal health agency detailed a COVID-19 outbreak earlier this month in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, linked to the spread of the Indian 'Delta' variant.

Researchers found nearly three-quarters of the infections occurred in people who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with either of three shots approved in the U.S. for emergency use.

What's more, tests showed that immunized people carried about the same viral levels in their noses and throats as unvaccinated people did.

However, there were just four hospitalizations and no fatalities among the fully vaccinated group, showing that the vaccines are very effective against severe disease and death.

A new CDC report detailed 469 cases of COVID-19 linked to an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts between July 3 and July 17, of which 74% were in fully vaccinated people


A new CDC report detailed 469 cases of COVID-19 linked to an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts between July 3 and July 17, of which 74% were in fully vaccinated people

Only four of the vaccinated people were hospitalized, two of whom had underlying conditions, and there were no deaths showing vaccines are effective even against the Delta variant, which now makes up 83% of all new infections


Only four of the vaccinated people were hospitalized, two of whom had underlying conditions, and there were no deaths showing vaccines are effective even against the Delta variant, which now makes up 83% of all new infections
CDC Covid-19 community transmission time lap

https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/prev...752882434/636x382_MP4_5374877034752882434.mp4 1:27 min

'The new data is scary,' Dr Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist with the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, told DailyMail.com
'This is a stubborn virus and this mutation is a game changer.'

For the report, the team looked at COVID-19 cases linked to summer events and large gatherings in Provincetown, on Massachusetts's Cape Cod, between July 3 and July 17.

Thousands of residents and tourists flocked to the summer town for Independence Day celebrations as well as family vacations, resulting in crowded bars, restaurants, rental homes and more.

On July 10, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health began receiving reports of an increased number of cases linked to the county.

The 14-day rolling average of COVID-19 cases in the county rose from zero cases per 100,000 persons on July 3 to 177 cases per 100,000 persons.

By July 26, 469 cases had been identified, of which 74 percent - or 346 - were among fully vaccinated with at least 14 days since their final dose.

Among this group, 46 percent had received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 38 percent got the Moderna vaccine and 16 percent got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The remaining 26 percent, or 84 cases, were among people who were unvaccinated, had only received one dose or whose vaccination status was unknown.

Results showed that vaccinated people who get COVID-19 have same viral levels as the unvaccinated


Results showed that vaccinated people who get COVID-19 have same viral levels as the unvaccinated

Nearly 80 percent of those with 'breakthrough' infections had signs or symptoms such as cough, fever or a headache.

Of the five COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized, four were fully vaccinated of whom two had underlying conditions.

No deaths were reported in either group.

This is evidence that the Pfizer, Moderna and J&J vaccines are highly effective against severe disease and death.

To measure levels of the virus, CDC researchers looked at a figure known as the cycle threshold (Ct) value.

After an infected person is swabbed, the sample is isolated and has to undergo several amplification cycles to detect if there is any viral RNA, or genetic material.
The Ct value is the number of cycles necessary to spot the virus at which point the machine will stop running. Any number under 30 is considered a high viral load.

There was virtually no difference in the Ct value between vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

Fully vaccinated patients has a Ct value of 22.77 while the unvaccinated group had a Ct value of 21.54.

Ideally, the number among vaccinated people should be higher than 35 and closer to 40, which would indicate low levels of the virus.

'The findings are troublesome,' Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist and a professor of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told DailyMail.com.

'Frankly it's not what I would have expected. II would have frankly expected vaccinated people to have lower viral loads...That makes me uneasy and explains it's much more contagious than the original Covid virus.'

CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky, said there are few diseases as transmissible as the Delta variant, which can allegedly be spread to eight or nine people by an infected person. Pictured: Walensky at a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, July 2021


CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky, said there are few diseases as transmissible as the Delta variant, which can allegedly be spread to eight or nine people by an infected person. Pictured: Walensky at a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, July 2021

46103235-9844761-image-a-47_1627666289276.jpg


46103237-9844761-image-a-48_1627666292130.jpg


President Joe Biden mulls national COVID-19 vaccine mandate

https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/prev...300374299/636x382_MP4_6330334903300374299.mp4 8:50 min

Dr Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, said the report is like receiving a mix of good news and bad news.

'The bad news is sure, it seems the Delta variant can cause breakthrough infections in vaccinated people. And the other bad news is they are likely to be able to spread it,' he told DailyMail.com.

'The good news is it's still not causing a lot of illness. No matter how you slice and die the pie, people are not getting really ill if they've been vaccinated.

'There's a big difference between someone having the virus land on them and someone getting infected, going to the ICU and dying.'

'The masking recommendation was updated to ensure the vaccinated public would not unknowingly transmit virus to others, including their unvaccinated or immunocompromised loved ones.'

The release of the data comes after The Washington Post obtained and published internal documents from the CDC.

The documents claim the Delta variant has an R0, or is as infectious, as chickenpox or Ebola and that an infected person can spread the virus to eight or nine other people.

The CDC's mask guidance states that masks only need to be worn in counties with 'substantial' or 'high' transmission of the virus.

1627769669511.png

https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/vide...451555833/640x360_MP4_5722483612451555833.mp4 .50 min

As of Friday, 73.8 percent of counties fall into one of these two categories, up from 69.3 percent the week before.

Chin-Hong said that if the CDC guidelines had been in place at the beginning of June, it would not have prevented the outbreak.

'If you were in Provincetown...you wouldn't have needed to wear a mask indoors because that county did not fall into high or substantial transmission,' he said.

'There's not enough nuance and context in the CDC guidance. It's not a one size fits all Even if you have low prevalence, you can still see transmission.'

Dr Gregory Poland, a Mayo Clinic professor of infectious disease, agreed, saying the CDC recommendations didn't go far enough to prevent an outbreak in the summer town.

'The case load in Provincetown started as zero and quickly zoomed to 177 cases per 100,000,' he told DailyMail.com.

'If there had been universal masking, then the outbreak would have been prevented.'

Schaffner added that the CDC had to change its mask guidance because of what it learned about the Delta variant.

'We have to adjust preventions strategies to the characteristics of the virus. We can't issue guidance and then keep it the same for a year,' he said.

'If the wildfire moves in a new direction, you don't keep working in the old direction to try to put it out. The virus moved in a new direction so we had to change whst we do to fight it.'

Provincetown: How July 4 weekend turned the partygoing playground of New England into the center of a Covid cluster

Located near the northern-most point of Cape Cod, Provincetown - or P-Town - is known for its beaches, artists and as a popular vacation spot for the LGBT+ community.

It has a population of just under 3,000 people year-round, but this raises to as high as 60,000 in the summer months.

Young party-goers descend on the town to make the most of the plethora of bars and clubs found along it's famous Commercial Street.

Wealthy tourists usually found in nearby cities such a Boston and Manhattan will often use the town as their playground to spend their hard earned cash - or that of their parent's.

But a week after crowds descended to celebrate the Fourth of July -- the holiday President Joe Biden hoped would mark the nation's liberation from COVID-19 -- the manager of the Cape Cod beach town said he was aware of 'a handful of covid cases among folks who spent time there'

Within weeks, the outbreak rapidly grew until, as of Thursday, 882 people were tied to an outbreak in the town, with 74 per cent of those having had both doses of the vaccine. It was reported that seven people were hospitalised, ABC News reported.

Before this, health officials were assuming that it was rare for a vaccinated person to become infected with the virus and, if they were, they probably wouldn't infect others.

The assumption was based on studies of an earlier virus, and not the new Delta variant, which was first detected in India earlier this year.

It is indicated that this outbreak is among the new evidence behind the decision to make masks compulsory indoors again, even if they have had both doses of the vaccine.

The owner of Marine Specialties, a long running Army-Navy store, had been leery of officials dropping virus safety mandates ahead of what many expected would be a busy summer season. He even tried to require customers to mask up in his store through the summer, before finally relenting in June.

'If we'd stuck with masks all along, I don't think we'd be having this conversation,' Patrick said, adding that he's required all his staff to be masked and vaccinated. 'They're not entirely fun, but we wore them all last summer, and we didn't have a single case in Provincetown. Now see where we're at.'

https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/prev...238219922/636x382_MP4_3215612730238219922.mp4 2:20 min
 
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