Just curious, anyone have a plan, or preps for global pandemic?

[Ron Put]

And speaking of the opposite of skeptics. The true-believers (or, the simply corrupt), and the nowadays lonely persistence of the US to recommend vaccinations across the board:
 

 

[BrianA]

Article discussing evidence for hypothesis that covid could raise Parkinson's risk by 50% (taking absolute risk level in general population from 2% up to 3%).

 

https://www.salon.com/2023/04/24/long-parkinsons/

[Ron Put]

13 hours ago, BrianA said:

Article discussing evidence for hypothesis that covid could raise Parkinson's risk by 50% (taking absolute risk level in general population from 2% up to 3%).

The fact that infectious diseases of all sorts may have longer term effects in some people is well documented and it has been discussed numerous times here as well. It's a balance, if you are never exposed, you may die, and if you are exposed, you may develop certain long-term effects. But Covid has been a unique source of so many click-bait articles (and shoddy studies) touting it as something completely new and scary.

A quick search brings up the same for the flu...


The Flu Factor: Is There a Link to Parkinson’s? | Parkinson's Foundation

[BrianA]

Yes, it definitely sounds like avoiding as many different infections as possible is the best idea, at least if you want to reduce risks of all manner of sequelae.

 

Study suggests mild COVID-19 can have harmful effects on cardiovascular health

https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/news/study-suggests-mild-covid-19-can-have-harmful-effects-on-cardiovascular-health

[BrianA]

Astronomy Tool Can Now Detect COVID in Breath

Laser-based optical frequency combs, originally developed to time atomic clocks, can also perform fast, noninvasive tests for COVID—and potentially other diseases as well

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/astronomy-tool-can-now-detect-covid-in-breath/

[Gordo]

https://time.com/6271806/psychedelics-long-covid-treatment/

The Latest Promising Long COVID Treatment? Psychedelic Drugs

 

Getty Images

"psilocybin may help Long COVID patients by stimulating new neuronal connections and tissue growth in the brain  and reducing inflammation throughout the body." (will be put to the test by new study/clinical trial) 

[Gordo]

China 'tried to keep Covid outbreak a secret' and first death earlier than believed

On September 19, 2019 the lab shut down its online virus database in the middle of the night, the report claims.

Six days later it informed Wuhan airport it was carrying out a drill in case of an outbreak of a "novel coronavirus".

Days after that a Wuhan resident - referred to as 'Su' - died from what a biostatistician believes was Covid-19, the report adds.

In October, it says Chinese legislature was drafting biosecurity law and noted "currently the biosecurity situation in our country is grim" and listed "laboratories that leak biological agents" as a threat.

The following month the government was 'hiding' documented cases of the virus, the report claims.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials then published a report warning: "Once you have opened the stores test tubes, it is just as if having opened Pandora's Box. These viruses come without a shadow and leave without a trace."

A CCP official then traveled from Beijing to Wuhan with instructions from President Xi Jinping on the "complex and grave situation currently facing safety work", the report claims.

The government failed to alert the World Health Organisation of the outbreak of what was a virus of "unknown etiology", until the following January.

[BrianA]

Wow, that's more people than I imagined with perma-damaged smell/taste, thanks China

 

Researchers at Mass. Eye and Ear estimate around 28 million Americans never fully recovered their sense of taste or smell after contracting COVID-19

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/extremely-frustrating-millions-of-covid-patients-living-without-sense-of-taste-and-smell/3066333/

 

[Gordo]

New York Post: We now know the first three people to get COVID worked in the Wuhan lab

[BrianA]

Looking forward to tech like this being deployed, eventually hopefully personal/transportable versions since my suspicion is most commercial establishments and offices will definitely NOT want to know this info, or provide it to their customers/workers.

 

Washington University researchers develop air monitor that detects COVID-19 virus

https://www.stltoday.com/news/science/washington-university-researchers-develop-air-monitor-that-detects-covid-19-virus/article_481e2e38-1d9e-11ee-809d-dbb891d81bf0.html

[mccoy]

I've recently listened to the Stemtalk 2023 episode with Professor John Ioannidis, an esteemed epidemiologist and mathematician, one of the prominent figures in today's medical field.

I was impressed by his honest, lucid and humble recount of the vicissitudes he faced during the pandemic, being one of the few voices against the general craziness of lockdowns and draconian absolutistic measures.

He clearly explains what we have all noticed, simply that science was silenced because there were other powers in play, far stronger than science itself. He was a victim of the events but he simply recounts that he was very naive to believe that unbiased scientific considerations could be made public during those times.

After having listened to this podcast, I appreciate the man even better than I did before. 

 

[Ron Put]

12 hours ago, mccoy said:

science was silenced because there were other powers in play, far stronger than science itself.

Thanks for posting this, it was a nice recap. Ioannidis has shied away from the limelight for a while, after the woke mobs attacked him, and anyone else who dared to doubt their party line. He seems to be self-censoring by being way too generous to those who tried to destroy him, and who successfully destroyed the careers and lives of many others, literally and figuratively.

The Covid repression that swept the world did not emerge in a vacuum, similar repression has been and is evident in other spheres of Western societies. There has always been a religious zealousness in the Left: they are true believers and are never satisfied with mere obedience, but demand to see their beliefs in others, by propaganda, peer pressure, by control of life choices and livelihood, and if these fail, by force. It has been so in the USSR, in China, In North Korea, and now it reared its head in the US, and it spread to the other liberal democracies. The Left's ideology corrupts state institutions, corrupts business entities, and yes, it corrupts science.

I hope that the pendulum does not break in my lifetime. The problem too is that on the other side there is Trump, and similarly religious conservatism (although I do not see it as a significant immediate threat to liberal democracies).

[mccoy]

Ron, the Left alas is the same everywhere, as I noticed and is often ruled by its more radical exponents. As you say, pragmatism and evidence are left behind ideologies that must be respected no matter what. They cannot be wrong because they are the party line, the dogma, and whosoever is against them rises against the Truth.

Inquisition v 1.2

 

Edit: I respect the moderate leftists with a pragmatistic view like Prof. Pinker, but unfortunately the evidence presently is that extremism tends to rule.

Edited July 23, 2023 by mccoy

[Saul]

An interesting article about the origins of Covid19:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/25/magazine/covid-start.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20230726&instance_id=98464&nl=the-morning&regi_id=170725434&segment_id=140290&te=1&user_id=1da3be76b442cafede889f5686261531

  --  Saul

[Ron Put]

 

58 minutes ago, Saul said:

An interesting article about the origins of Covid19

The goal of this piece is to give comfort to the true believers, and  muddy the story in order to keep the "miracle" narrative alive. Just like with lockdowns, masks, Russia collusion and the "need" for censorship,  the origins narrative will be defended to the point of absurdity, because it's one of the pillars of the Left's current mythology.

The lead in structure of their thesis as the oh so reasonable miracle of natural origins being juxtaposed first to the "bioweapon" fringe, and then to the "more moderate," as they NYTimes points out, lab leak theory, should give one an inkling of where this is going.

Based on the facts that have been leaked and dragged out though FOIA court orders, the elephant in the room most likely came from the circus that is in town, methinks. The NYTimes article is mostly spin, reframing to story to keep the faithful believing.

[Saul]

/Hi Ron!

Who are the "true believers"?  The vast majority of Americans do not believe that the disease came from an animal -- that includes both the Left Wing and the Right Wing, the last two presidents, and the FBI.

Virologists opinions aren't seriously consulted.

Considering the existence of closely related coronaviruses in animals (pangolin, bats -- read the article), I have what I consider an intelligent (although unpopular) opinion.

I'm no fan of the NYT -- they have a ridiculous left wing bias.  I get the NYT and the WSJ digitally for free, being an employee (math prof) of a major university (University of Rochester).  I like the WSJ much better than the NYT -- but occasionally the NYT has an interesting article.

  --  Saul

I'

 

[Gordo]

20 hours ago, Saul said:

Considering the existence of closely related coronaviruses in animals

You DO know they were studying these coronavirii at the Wuhan lab right? So you still think the fact that this was the epicenter of the global pandemic was just a coincidence? Even though the bat's that carry the disease don't live in that part of the country? How do you explain why China’s government destroyed samples, hid records, and took databases offline from this lab? Oh and they imprisoned Chinese journalists, prevented Chinese scientists from saying or writing anything on pandemic origins without prior government approval, actively spread misinformation, and prevented an evidence-based investigation. Does that seem like a reasonable approach for a government to take? 

[mccoy]

10 hours ago, Gordo said:

Does that seem like a reasonable approach for a government to take? 

Very reasonable, to Chinese standards!!

[Ron Put]

On 7/26/2023 at 2:23 PM, Saul said:

Considering the existence of closely related coronaviruses in animals (pangolin, bats -- read the article), I have what I consider an intelligent (although unpopular) opinion.

Saul, I very much respect you and your opinions based on your posts here. I just remember that you mentioned a physician whose authority you trust as being a part of what convinced you in the zoonotic origins theory. Thus I suspect that there is some confirmation bias at play, to which we are all victims at one time or another.  🙂

But I would suggest that in addition to the evidence of the highly unusually aggressive destruction of data by China, and the suppression, outright censorship and personal attacks on those who proposed alternative theories, the main problem with the zoonotic theory is that despite all efforts to discover an intermediate animal host, humans remain the only host for this virus.

Neither the horseshoe bats virus nor the pangolin virus are sufficiently closely related (the bat virus's homology is 92%, which is far from sufficient, based on my understanding).

Add to this the fact that while the bat virus was likely present in the lab stocks for research, live bats are unlikely to have been sold at the market, due to the long distance to their habitat. Also add the infamous cleavage site repeatedly noted in the leaked emails, and the giant elephant starts taking sufficiently suggestive shape, to my eyes at least.

Edited July 28, 2023 by Ron Put

[AlanPater]

The Steep Cost of Ron DeSantis’s Covid Vaccine Turnabout
The Florida governor lost enthusiasm for the shot before the Delta wave. It’s a grim chapter he now leaves out of his retelling of his pandemic response.
12 min read
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/22/us/politics/ron-desantis-covid.html

Long-term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19.
Xie Y, et al.
Nat Med. 2022.
PMID: 35132265 Free PMC article.
Abstract
The cardiovascular complications of acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are well described, but the post-acute cardiovascular manifestations of COVID-19 have not yet been comprehensively characterized. Here we used national healthcare databases from the US Department of Veterans Affairs to build a cohort of 153,760 individuals with COVID-19, as well as two sets of control cohorts with 5,637,647 (contemporary controls) and 5,859,411 (historical controls) individuals, to estimate risks and 1-year burdens of a set of pre-specified incident cardiovascular outcomes. We show that, beyond the first 30 d after infection, individuals with COVID-19 are at increased risk of incident cardiovascular disease spanning several categories, including cerebrovascular disorders, dysrhythmias, ischemic and non-ischemic heart disease, pericarditis, myocarditis, heart failure and thromboembolic disease. These risks and burdens were evident even among individuals who were not hospitalized during the acute phase of the infection and increased in a graded fashion according to the care setting during the acute phase (non-hospitalized, hospitalized and admitted to intensive care). Our results provide evidence that the risk and 1-year burden of cardiovascular disease in survivors of acute COVID-19 are substantial. Care pathways of those surviving the acute episode of COVID-19 should include attention to cardiovascular health and disease.

[Ron Put]

On 8/1/2023 at 7:09 AM, AlanPater said:

The cardiovascular complications of acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are well described, but the post-acute cardiovascular manifestations of COVID-19 have not yet been comprehensively characterized.

As noted numerous times here and elsewhere, virtually every infection increases your chances for cardiovascular issues. It was documented that during the Civil War people who had had and survived typhoid were more likely to die of a heart attack in the following couple of years. It's the same with the flu, it's the same with salmonella.

Why would it be any different with Covid, especially where there are comorbidities? Other than because some scientists who would normally never be able to get this stuff published, are riding the wave of fear mongering and politicization of Covid.

Heck, PTSD significantly increases your chances of CVD, so arguably the lockdowns, the mandates and the CNN death ticker tape increased CVD significantly too.

The Young were not Spared: What Death Certificates Reveal about Non-Covid Excess Deaths

From April 2020 through at least the end of 2021, Americans died from non-Covid causes at an average annual rate of 97 000 in excess of previous trends. Hypertension and heart disease deaths combined were elevated 32 000. Diabetes or obesity, drug-induced causes, and alcohol-induced causes were each elevated 12 000 to 15 000 above previous (upward) trends. Drug deaths especially followed an alarming trend, only to significantly exceed it during the pandemic to reach 108 000 for calendar year 2021. Homicide and motor-vehicle fatalities combined were elevated almost 10 000. Various other causes combined to add 18 000. While Covid deaths overwhelmingly afflict senior citizens, absolute numbers of non-Covid excess deaths are similar for each of the 18 to 44, 45 to 64, and over-65 age groups, with essentially no aggregate excess deaths of children. Mortality from all causes during the pandemic was elevated 26% for working-age adults (18-64), as compared to 18% for the elderly. Other data on drug addictions, non-fatal shootings, weight gain, and cancer screenings point to a historic, yet largely unacknowledged, health emergency.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Ron Put

[Ron Put]

On 8/1/2023 at 7:09 AM, AlanPater said:

The Steep Cost of Ron DeSantis’s Covid Vaccine Turnabout

Florida, despite its significantly older and sicker demographics, had about the same overall death rate as California, where the population is younger and healthier. Florida did far better than NY which locked down tightly.

Remember that Cuomo was held as a hero and proclaimed a "true leader" as opposed to the evil Trump (whose Operation Warp Speed was instrumental in the speedy development of the vaccines, only to elicit the now forgotten Kamala Harris statement that nobody should trust "Trump's vaccine").

Lockdowns: the Self-Inflicted Disaster

"The researchers found no statistically significant effect from the restrictions. The mortality rates in states with stringent policies were not significantly different from those in less restrictive states. Two of the largest states, California and Florida, fared the same—their mortality rates both stood at the national average—despite California’s lengthy lockdowns and Florida’s early reopening. New York, with a mortality rate worse than average despite ranking first in the nation in the stringency of its policies, fared the same as the least restrictive state, South Dakota."

[Ron Put]

On 8/1/2023 at 7:09 AM, AlanPater said:

The Florida governor lost enthusiasm for the shot before the Delta wave. It’s a grim chapter he now leaves out of his retelling of his pandemic response.

Here is a good analysis
 

 

[Ron Put]

On 7/26/2023 at 7:00 AM, Saul said:

An interesting article about the origins of Covid19

An interesting interview that discusses the facts that have come to light recently, exposing the essentially criminal cover-up and censorship campaign that Fauci and those around him set in motion:

 

 

[Gordo]

Yet another new article related to covid origins, good read, a lot now coming to light... 

https://www.thefp.com/p/anthony-faucis-deceptions