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

[Saul]

On 10/6/2023 at 1:12 PM, AlanPater said:

“The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it,” the programmer, Alberto Brandolini, wrote in 2013.

Well said!

🙂

  --  Saul

[Gordo]

On 10/7/2023 at 12:22 AM, Ron Put said:

Yep. But the irony of it obviously escapes some.

The BS that Trump was a "racist: for stopping flights from China in January 2020 (But Biden was not for banning flights to South Africa in January 2022.

The BS of "the West should lockdown like China because Covid is NOT contagious and can be stopped" (WHO, March 2020).

The BS of Faucci's "masks don't work" in May 2020 but then forcing mask-wearing outdoors in August 2020. They still don't work, based on real studies...

The BS of CDC's 42-cycle mandatory PCR tests pre-election to inflate "Covid deaths" (plus the changing the reporting rules to inflate "Covid deaths" and the financial Covid-classification incentives to hospitals). Only to have Fauci quip after the election that "anything over 36-cycles is garbage." (I believe the Ct is around 29 nowadays.)

The BS of Kamala Harris's "I won't take Trump's vaccine" in October of 2020, and the forced vaccinations imposed a few months later with the now Biden's vaccine.

The BS of the unprecedented state-led censorship and canceling of prominent scientists, for challenging Covid BS, and for discussing the "lab origins theory."

The pile of BS is really too big to list. But if we don't spend the energy to clear it, the next time it may bury the liberal democracies.

A lot of CRAZY things sure did happen, and I can't help but feel like we as a society haven't really acknowledged it or learned from it, so that means more of the same is sure to follow.  Along those lines, Rand Paul apparently has a new book out.  Remember when he was absolutely raked through the coals for questioning the BS?  He was completely vindicated but it got little attention from the mainstream.

 

And this gem...

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by Gordo

[AlanPater]

I got the latest Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, with about the same pain reaction as the fourth shot, as well as the flu shot, the day before yesterday.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Life expectancy for men in U.S. falls to 73 years — six years less than for women, per study
By Annalisa Merelli Nov. 13, 2023
https://www.statnews.com/2023/11/13/life-expectancy-men-women/
"... according to new research published on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
At least partially as a consequence of over 1 million Covid-19 deaths, life expectancy in the U.S. has declined significantly over the past few years, falling from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77 in 2020 and 76.1 in 2022 — undoing over two decades of progress. This puts the country far behind its wealthy peers: Countries such as Japan, Korea, Portugal, the U.K., and Italy all enjoy a life expectancy of 80 years or more. Countries such as Turkey (78.6) and China (78.2) also fare better. ..."
https://data.oecd.org/healthstat/life-expectancy-at-birth.htm 

[Dean Pomerleau]

I got Moderna this time around (along with the flu) and for the first time I felt pretty crappy for the next 24 hours.

[Saul]

I also got Moderna and Fluzone (flu for seniors).  No problem whatever.

  --  Saul

[BrianMDelaney]

As I've noted, I was involved in RaDVaC [*], so I've learned quite a bit about vaccines.

My plan is to get the new Novavax vaccine, which seems a bit safer than the mRNA vaccines.

Brian

[*] Past tense because the RaDVaC team is now wearing its Mind First Foundation hat, and focusing on AI safety.

[IgorF]

I am not 100% sure but AFAIR I saw somewhere in the news that Moderna introduced a bit redesigned stuff recently, thus it could be the case that some people will react on it as on a novel thing. Unlike weakly adjuvated (thus high hostile protein concentration -> high systemic response) AZ I got as a primary/1st buster shots my 3rd and 4th done with Moderna were completely unnoticed, like all the other stuff I did in the last years, I assumed they were able to do it more locally visible allowing less hostile stuff to be injected (and distributed through the whole circulation).

Br,

Igor

 

[Gordo]

12 hours ago, BrianMDelaney said:

My plan is to get the new Novavax vaccine, which seems a bit safer than the mRNA vaccines.

I like the moth and tree bark technology they used 😇

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-novavax-covid-vaccine-better-than-mrna-vaccines-what-we-know-so-far/

Less myocarditis is also a bonus.

[Gordo]

Great interview. I hope we can avoid repeating the mistakes.

 

 

[mccoy]

I took nothing and intend to take nothing, I had enough of the mandatory vaccines two years ago. SASRSCOV2 virus is still very much around and some people say it has been worse than the 1st time. But I suspect that so many people got it with no or minimal symptoms, a flu-like virus which is probably still challenging the human immune system.

[AlanPater]

On 10/8/2023 at 10:13 AM, Saul said:

On 10/6/2023 at 11:12 AM, AlanPater said:

“The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it,” the programmer, Alberto Brandolini, wrote in 2013.

Well said!

Put another way:

“a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Pocket worthy Stories to fuel your mind
The Golden Age of Junk Science Is Killing Us
Misinformation is being spewed, weaponized, and consumed at a deadly rate. Fortunately, there's a way out. Here's how to make sense of what you're seeing.
Men’s Health
    Timothy Caulfield
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-golden-age-of-junk-science-is-killing-us?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

[AlanPater]

On 10/6/2023 at 11:13 AM, AlanPater said:

 

Organ aging signatures in the plasma proteome track health and disease.
Oh HS, Rutledge J, Nachun D, Pálovics R, Abiose O, Moran-Losada P, Channappa D, Urey DY, Kim K, Sung YJ, Wang L, Timsina J, Western D, Liu M, Kohlfeld P, Budde J, Wilson EN, Guen Y, Maurer TM, Haney M, Yang AC, He Z, Greicius MD, Andreasson KI, Sathyan S, Weiss EF, Milman S, Barzilai N, Cruchaga C, Wagner AD, Mormino E, Lehallier B, Henderson VW, Longo FM, Montgomery SB, Wyss-Coray T.
Nature. 2023 Dec;624(7990):164-172. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06802-1. Epub 2023 Dec 6.
PMID: 38057571
Abstract
Animal studies show aging varies between individuals as well as between organs within an individual1,2,3,4, but whether this is true in humans and its effect on age-related diseases is unknown. We utilized levels of human blood plasma proteins originating from specific organs to measure organ-specific aging differences in living individuals. Using machine learning models, we analysed aging in 11 major organs and estimated organ age reproducibly in five independent cohorts encompassing 5,676 adults across the human lifespan. We discovered nearly 20% of the population show strongly accelerated age in one organ and 1.7% are multi-organ agers. Accelerated organ aging confers 20–50% higher mortality risk, and organ-specific diseases relate to faster aging of those organs. We find individuals with accelerated heart aging have a 250% increased heart failure risk and accelerated brain and vascular aging predict Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression independently from and as strongly as plasma pTau-181 (ref. 5), the current best blood-based biomarker for AD. Our models link vascular calcification, extracellular matrix alterations and synaptic protein shedding to early cognitive decline. We introduce a simple and interpretable method to study organ aging using plasma proteomics data, predicting diseases and aging effects.

[Ron Put]

On 11/15/2023 at 11:54 PM, BrianMDelaney said:

My plan is to get the new Novavax vaccine, which seems a bit safer than the mRNA vaccines.

I was in the Novavax clinical trial. The South African phase had just concluded and based on my research at the time, I enrolled.

I still believe that Novavax is probably the best Covid vaccine, all things considered. I also believe that the FDA's favorable treatment of Pfizer (and by extension, Moderna) was criminal, based on the obvious quid pro quo between Pfizer delaying trial results until after the election, and then being amply rewarded for it by being granted a virtual monopoly by the Biden Administration.

I've had three Novavax shots and for what it's worth, when I called last year the coordinator told me that I don't really need to worry about booster for at least another year. I will not vaccinate again in the foreseeable future, because based on what I have learned about the virus, there is no significant benefit for me.

This may change if new information comes along. For the record, I have not had symptomatic Covid (and I have had more tests than I care to count, as I fly around a lot, and was in South Africa about a month a bit after Omicron emerged). But I get my flu shot annually because I believe that it has a benefit, and I am probably more extensively vaccinated than most in the First World, mainly because I travel to random places with random diseases.

Those who choose to vaccinate against Covid are free to do so, of course. Unlike many of them, I don't feel a compulsion to impose my beliefs on them by force. But I do believe that those in power who forced the lockdowns, the mandatory vaccinations, the vaccine passports, the censorship, and the destruction of people's lives and careers, should face a reconning.

Or, it will happen again, and the liberal democracies may not survive another round of such abuse of power unscathed.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Ron Put

[BrianMDelaney]

Ron, I appreciate your unusually level-headed reflections.

I will note again that I think there was -- and still is -- criminality, irrationality, and hysteria on all sides of the issues related to COVID-19, and that we will need more time to sort out what sort of reckoning is warranted. (That isn't to say we have to suspend judgment about everything until some future date. Some wrongs can certainly be judged now.)

[BrianA]

"Researchers have discovered that misreading of therapeutic mRNAs by the cell’s decoding machinery can cause an unintended immune response in the body. They have identified the sequence within the mRNA that causes this to occur and found a way to prevent ‘off-target’ immune responses to enable the safer design of future mRNA therapeutics."

 

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/researchers-redesign-future-mrna-therapeutics-to-prevent-potentially-harmful-immune-responses

 

N1-methylpseudouridylation of mRNA causes +1 ribosomal frameshifting

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06800-3

[Todd Allen]

SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination and the Multi-Hit Hypothesis of Oncogenesis

Quote

After reviewing the available literature, we are particularly concerned that certain COVID-19 vaccines may generate a pro-tumorigenic milieu (i.e., a specific environment that could lead to neoplastic transformation) that predisposes some (stable) oncologic patients and survivors to cancer progression, recurrence, and/or metastasis. This hypothesis is based on biological plausibility and fulfillment of the multi-hit hypothesis of oncogenesis (i.e., induction of lymphopenia and inflammation, downregulation of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) expression, activation of oncogenic cascades, sequestration of tumor suppressor proteins, dysregulation of the RNA-G quadruplex-protein binding system, alteration of type I interferon responses, unsilencing of retrotransposable elements, etc.) together with growing evidence and safety reports filed to Vaccine Adverse Effects Report System (VAERS) suggesting that some cancer patients experienced disease exacerbation or recurrence following COVID-19 vaccination. In light of the above and because some of these concerns (i.e., alteration of oncogenic pathways, promotion of inflammatory cascades, and dysregulation of the renin-angiotensin system) also apply to cancer patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, we encourage the scientific and medical community to urgently evaluate the impact of both COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccination on cancer biology and tumor registries, adjusting public health recommendations accordingly.

 

[Ron Put]

Good and well-reasoned perspective on boosters:
 

 

[Ron Put]

IgG4 Antibodies Induced by Repeated Vaccination May Generate Immune Tolerance to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein

"... 

It has been suggested that an increase in IgG4 levels could have a protecting role by preventing immune over-activation, similar to that occurring during successful allergen-specific immunotherapy by inhibiting IgE-induced effects. However, emerging evidence suggests that the reported increase in IgG4 levels detected after repeated vaccination with the mRNA vaccines may not be a protective mechanism; rather, it constitutes an immune tolerance mechanism to the spike protein that could promote unopposed SARS-CoV2 infection and replication by suppressing natural antiviral responses. Increased IgG4 synthesis due to repeated mRNA vaccination with high antigen concentrations may also cause autoimmune diseases, and promote cancer growth and autoimmune myocarditis in susceptible individuals."

[BrianA]

Interesting paper Ron, thanks for posting it. I think for me it reinforces my idea that the immune system is actually a limited resource, and it's best to guard it jealously against using it up, whether that might come from pathogen exposure or "over-vaccinating".

[Ron Put]

On 12/23/2023 at 7:39 PM, BrianA said:

... the immune system is actually a limited resource....

Yes, this does make sense and some had noted early on that too frequently repeated doses may have such an effect. It may have been the reason for the higher infection rates in countries where the time interval between shots was shorter as in the US.

It may also be why the Novavax coordinator suggested that I do not do a fourth dose any time soon.

On another note, I just came across a sort of weird correlation with infant mortality, which may or may not be a real concern, but as other potential issues, should be a part of a non-partisan discussion for any new vaccine.

Reaffirming a Positive Correlation Between Number of Vaccine Doses and Infant Mortality Rates: A Response to Critics

"A positive correlation between the number of vaccine doses and IMRs is detectable in the most highly developed nations but attenuated in the background noise of nations with heterogeneous socioeconomic variables that contribute to high rates of infant mortality, such as malnutrition, poverty, and substandard health care."

[BrianA]

The spike protein now shown to cause neurons and glial cells to fuse together, likely permanently, with the result being worsening neural activity.

 

I've still never been able to get a straight answer as to whether spike protein generated from the mRNA vaccines penetrates the blood-brain barrier, but the continuing widely increasing negative effects being discovered for that protein make me pretty sure I'm going to avoid any vaccines going forward that utilize the entire protein, or any part of it that could cause these types of problems.

 

SARS-CoV-2 infection and viral fusogens cause neuronal and glial fusion that compromises neuronal activity

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adg2248

[BrianA]

Evidence of fetal brain damage from maternal covid infection:

 

Study shows infants exposed to COVID in utero at risk for developmental delay

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/study-shows-infants-exposed-covid-utero-risk-developmental-delay

 

Haemorrhage of human foetal cortex associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection

https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/146/3/1175/6985751?login=false

[Ron Put]

Interesting find on how dietary cholesterol intake affects the outcomes of infections, at least in mice:

Dietary cholesterol worsens inflammation, sickness in mice with influenza
 

Surprisingly, inflammatory changes in the lungs were detectable in the high-cholesterol mice even before they were infected with influenza.

"Some of the changes in the lungs' immune function were already present before infection. It would be interesting to see exactly how dietary cholesterol increased inflammation prior to infection," says corresponding author Steelman, associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, the Neuroscience Program, and the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Illinois.

"Nevertheless, our data collectively show that dietary cholesterol increased morbidity in influenza-infected mice. The response appeared to be a result of an aberrant immune response occurring in the lungs rather than an effect of the virus itself. These results demonstrate the need to consider how host factors contribute to disease outcome."

 

[Saul]

2 hours ago, Ron Put said:

Interesting find on how dietary cholesterol intake affects the outcomes of infections, at least in mice:

Dietary cholesterol worsens inflammation, sickness in mice with influenza
 

Surprisingly, inflammatory changes in the lungs were detectable in the high-cholesterol mice even before they were infected with influenza.

"Some of the changes in the lungs' immune function were already present before infection. It would be interesting to see exactly how dietary cholesterol increased inflammation prior to infection," says corresponding author Steelman, associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, the Neuroscience Program, and the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Illinois.

"Nevertheless, our data collectively show that dietary cholesterol increased morbidity in influenza-infected mice. The response appeared to be a result of an aberrant immune response occurring in the lungs rather than an effect of the virus itself. These results demonstrate the need to consider how host factors contribute to disease outcome."

 

Interesting read.

  --  Saul

 

[Ron Put]

Vegetarian and plant-based diets associated with lower incidence of COVID-19

"Results Plant-based and vegetarian groups had a higher intake of vegetables, legumes and nuts, and lower intake of dairy and meat. After adjusting for important confounders, such as body mass index, physical activity and pre-existing medical conditions, the plant-based diet and vegetarian group had 39% (OR=0.61, 95% CI 0.44 to 0.85; p=0.003) and 39% (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.88; p=0.009) lower odds of the incidence of COVID-19 infection, respectively, compared with the omnivorous group. No association was observed between self-reported diets and COVID-19 severity or duration.

Conclusion Plant-based and mainly vegetarian diets were associated with a lower incidence of COVID-19 infection. These dietary patterns may be considered protective against COVID-19 infection."