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COVID-19 RNA Based Vaccines and the Risk of Prion Disease – Microbiol Infect Dis. 2021, Dr. J. Bart Classen

There is an old saying in medicine that “the cure may be worse than the disease.” The phrase can be applied to vaccines. In the current paper the concern is raised that the RNA based COVID vaccines have the potential to cause more disease than the epidemic of COVID-19. This paper focuses on a novel potential adverse event mechanism causing prion disease which could be even more common and debilitating than the viral infection the vaccine is designed to prevent. While this paper focuses on one potential adverse event there are multiple other potential fatal adverse events as discussed below.

https://scivisionpub.com/pdfs/covid19-rna-based-vaccines-and-the-risk-of-prion-disease-1503.pdf

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Annual deaths and mortality rates, 1838 to 2020 (provisional) – ONS

Number of deaths, crude and age-standardised mortality rates from 1938 to 2020. Age-standardised mortality rates start in 1942.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/adhocs/12735annualdeathsandmortalityrates1938to2020provisional

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Fear of Terrorist Attack Could Trigger Mass Psychogenic Illness – U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2006)

A phenomenon in which social trauma or anxiety combines with a suspicious event to produce psychosomatic symptoms, such as nausea, difficulty breathing, and paralysis. If many individuals come to believe that the psychosomatic outbreak is connected to the cause of the trauma or anxiety, these symptoms can spread rapidly throughout a population.

In December 2005 a mysterious illness marked by headache, fever, faintness, and numbness in extremities occurred in 13 school children in the Shelkov region of Chechnya. Many believed the illness was caused by a Russian chemical weapons attack, which precipitated the rapid spread of similar symptoms throughout the region. Medical officials determined the episode was a case of psychosomatic contagion—mass psychogenic illness—brought on by anxiety over Russian military activities in the area. There is no evidence the illnesses were caused by chemical weapons.

https://file.wikileaks.org/file/dhs-mass-psychogenic-illness-2006.pdf

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Assessing Mandatory Stay‐at‐Home and Business Closure Effects on the Spread of COVID‐19 – Wiley Online Library

Background and Aims
The most restrictive non‐pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) for controlling the spread of COVID‐19 are mandatory stay‐at‐home and business closures. Given the consequences of these policies, it is important to assess their effects. We evaluate the effects on epidemic case growth of more restrictive NPIs (mrNPIs), above and beyond those of less restrictive NPIs (lrNPIs).

Methods
We first estimate COVID‐19 case growth in relation to any NPI implementation in subnational regions of 10 countries: England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, and the US. Using first‐difference models with fixed effects, we isolate the effects of mrNPIs by subtracting the combined effects of lrNPIs and epidemic dynamics from all NPIs. We use case growth in Sweden and South Korea, two countries that did not implement mandatory stay‐at‐home and business closures, as comparison countries for the other 8 countries (16 total comparisons).

Results
Implementing any NPIs was associated with significant reductions in case growth in 9 out of 10 study countries, including South Korea and Sweden that implemented only lrNPIs (Spain had a non‐significant effect). After subtracting the epidemic and lrNPI effects, we find no clear, significant beneficial effect of mrNPIs on case growth in any country. In France, e.g., the effect of mrNPIs was +7% (95CI ‐5%‐19%) when compared with Sweden, and +13% (‐12%‐38%) when compared with South Korea (positive means pro‐contagion). The 95% confidence intervals excluded 30% declines in all 16 comparisons and 15% declines in 11/16 comparisons.

Conclusions
While small benefits cannot be excluded, we do not find significant benefits on case growth of more restrictive NPIs. Similar reductions in case growth may be achievable with less restrictive interventions.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eci.13484

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Corona children studies “Co-Ki”: First results of a Germany-wide registry on mouth and nose covering (mask) in children – Research Square

Narratives about complaints in children and adolescents caused by wearing a mask are accumulating. There is, to date, no registry for side effects of masks.

By 26.10.2020 the registry had been used by 20,353 people. In this publication we report the results from the parents, who entered data on a total of 25,930 children. The average wearing time of the mask was 270 minutes per day. Impairments caused by wearing the mask were reported by 68% of the parents. These included irritability (60%), headache (53%), difficulty concentrating (50%), less happiness (49%), reluctance to go to school/kindergarten (44%), malaise (42%) impaired learning (38%) and drowsiness or fatigue (37%).

https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-124394/v2

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Expected life loss due to Covid-19 suppression efforts – Prof Simon Wood, University of Edinburgh

[W]e require the current economic shock, which is much larger than 2008, to result in much smaller life loss than was associated with 2008. Otherwise we will lose more life to the economic effects of Covid-19 suppression efforts than were ever likely to have been lost to Covid-19 itself. Of course the consequences of the 2008 crisis were amplified by the policies adopted thereafter, and perhaps those consequences could have been substantially alleviated by a more enlightened approach. But the historical record from the UK does not suggest a willingness to vote for such an approach, even if any sort of credible plan for avoiding the economic life loss were actually to be proposed. The 1945 election was perhaps the exception, but it’s unclear that several months stuck at home on your sofa really leads to the same sort of cathartic re-evaluation of life’s priorities as storming the beaches of Normandy.

Source: Prof. Simon Wood, University of Edinburgh
Source: Prof. Simon Wood, University of Edinburgh

https://web.archive.org/web/20201101062720/https://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~swood34/

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COVID-19 outpatients: early risk-stratified treatment with zinc plus low-dose hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin: a retrospective case series study – Science Direct

First COVID-19 outpatient study based on risk stratification and early antiviral treatment at the beginning of the disease.

Low-dose hydroxychloroquine combined with zinc and azithromycin was an effective therapeutic approach against COVID-19.

Significantly reduced hospitalisation rates in the treatment group.

Reduced mortality rates in the treatment group.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201117161908/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924857920304258

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The year Big Tech became the Ministry of Truth – Spiked

In this year of lockdown, it is not just our movements, social lives and work that have been restricted. Big Tech has also stepped up its efforts at closing down what we can say and read. Two issues in particular have been central to Silicon Valley’s escalating war on wrongthink: the Covid-19 pandemic and the US presidential elections.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/12/28/the-year-big-tech-became-the-ministry-of-truth/

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Measures do not prevent deaths, transmission is not by contact, masks provide no benefit, vaccines are inherently dangerous: Review update of recent science relevant to COVID-19 policy – Denis Rancourt, Research Gate

The unprecedented measures of universal lockdowns, tight institutional lockdowns of care homes, universal masking of the general population, obsession with surfaces and hands, and the accelerated vaccine deployment are contrary to known science, and contrary to recent leading studies. There has been government recklessness by action and negligence by omission. Institutional measures have been needed for a long time to stem corruption in both medicine and public health policy.

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Assessment of Maternal and Neonatal SARS-CoV-2 Viral Load, Transplacental Antibody Transfer, and Placental Pathology in Pregnancies During the COVID-19 Pandemic – JAMA

Conclusions and Relevance  In this cohort study, there was no evidence of placental infection or definitive vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Transplacental transfer of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was inefficient. Lack of viremia and reduced coexpression and colocalization of placental angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 and transmembrane serine protease 2 may serve as protective mechanisms against vertical transmission.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201222162005/https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2774428

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Deaths within 28 days of positive test by date of death still well below April peak – UK Government Coronavirus Dashboard

Deaths within 28 days of positive test by date of death last updated on Sunday 20 December 2020.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths

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Anaphylaxis Following m-RNA COVID-19 Vaccine Receipt – CDC

  • December 9 – UK authorities confirmed 2 cases of anaphylaxis after vaccination
  • December 18*, 2020 – CDC has identified 6 case reports of anaphylaxis following Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine meeting Brighton Collaboration criteria for anaphylaxis
  • Persons with anaphylaxis following COVID-19 vaccination should not receive additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine

https://web.archive.org/web/20201219174137/https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2020-12/slides-12-19/05-COVID-CLARK.pdf

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Some Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine vials contain more doses than expected – Beckers Hospital Review

Hospital pharmacists discovered Dec. 16 that some vials of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines that are supposed to hold five doses actually contain six or seven, The New York Times reported.

The discovery may mean the U.S. supply of the vaccine is more robust than previously thought, but it has also caused confusion over whether to use the extra doses or throw them out, since the extra doses weren’t part of Pfizer’s guidance.

Federal officials have to carefully track the number of vaccine doses to make sure there’s enough for everyone who received an initial dose to receive a second dose three weeks later. The extra vials may complicate that effort, The Hill reported. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20201217164557/https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/pharmacy/some-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-vials-contain-more-doses-than-expected.html

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The rapid, massive infection of the scientific literature and authors by COVID-19 – Prof. John Ioannidis, bioRxiv

The scientific literature and publishing scientists have been rapidly and massively infected by COVID-19 creating opportunities and challenges. There is evidence for hyper-prolific productivity.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201230011303/https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.15.422900v1

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COVID-19 isolation having detrimental impact on children’s education and welfare, particularly the most vulnerable – Ofsted

Repeated isolation has chipped away at the progress pupils have made since returning to school in September

The effectiveness of remote education is varied and difficult to determine

Children arriving at secure children’s homes are, in effect, put into solitary confinement

Many children with special education needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are not attending school, are struggling with remote learning and are at risk of abuse or neglect.

Even more schools report at least one child now being home schooled. Many parents doing this say their children will not return to school ‘until pandemic is over’

https://web.archive.org/web/20201215125700/https://www.gov.uk/government/news/covid-19-isolation-having-detrimental-impact-on-childrens-education-and-welfare-particularly-the-most-vulnerable

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Effects of mask-wearing on the inhalability and deposition of airborne SARS-CoV-2 aerosols in human upper airway – American Institute of Physics

“It is natural to think that wearing a mask, no matter new or old, should always be better than nothing. Our results show that this belief is only true for particles larger than 5 micrometers, but not for fine particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers,” said author Jinxiang Xi.

The researchers found that wearing a mask with low (less than 30%) filtration efficiency can be worse than without.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201217105350/https://publishing.aip.org/publications/latest-content/the-mask-matters-how-masks-affect-airflow-protection-effectiveness/

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SARS-CoV-2 RNA reverse-transcribed and integrated into the human genome – PubMed

Prolonged SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding and recurrence of PCR-positive tests have been widely reported in patients after recovery, yet these patients most commonly are non-infectious. Here we investigated the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 RNAs can be reverse-transcribed and integrated into the human genome and that transcription of the integrated sequences might account for PCR-positive tests. In support of this hypothesis, we found chimeric transcripts consisting of viral fused to cellular sequences in published data sets of SARS-CoV-2 infected cultured cells and primary cells of patients, consistent with the transcription of viral sequences integrated into the genome. To experimentally corroborate the possibility of viral retro-integration, we describe evidence that SARS-CoV-2 RNAs can be reverse transcribed in human cells by reverse transcriptase (RT) from LINE-1 elements or by HIV-1 RT, and that these DNA sequences can be integrated into the cell genome and subsequently be transcribed. Human endogenous LINE-1 expression was induced upon SARS-CoV-2 infection or by cytokine exposure in cultured cells, suggesting a molecular mechanism for SARS-CoV-2 retro-integration in patients. This novel feature of SARS-CoV-2 infection may explain why patients can continue to produce viral RNA after recovery and suggests a new aspect of RNA virus replication.

http://archive.today/2021.12.24-130415/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33330870/

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Hospital acquired covid infections hit record high – HSJ

The number of covid-19 infections likely to have been acquired in hospital are rising again for the first time in three weeks and their proportion of all cases has reached record levels for the second wave, HSJ can reveal.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201211180106/https://www.hsj.co.uk/patient-safety/hospital-acquired-covid-infections-hit-record-high/7029149.article

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How kids’ immune systems can evade COVID – Nature

Young children account for only a small percentage of COVID-19 infections — a trend that has puzzled scientists. Now, a growing body of evidence suggests why: kids’ immune systems seem better equipped to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 than are adults’.

“Children are very much adapted to respond — and very well equipped to respond — to new viruses,” says Donna Farber, an immunologist at Columbia University in New York City. Even when they are infected with SARS-CoV-2, children are most likely to experience mild or asymptomatic illness.

Another clue that children’s response to the virus differs from that of adults is that some children develop COVID-19 symptoms and antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 but never test positive for the virus on a standard RT-PCR test. In one study, three children under ten from the same family developed SARS-CoV-2 antibodies — and two of them even experienced mild symptoms — but none tested positive on RT-PCR, despite being tested 11 times over 28 days while in close contact with their parents, who had tested positive.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201211205033/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03496-7

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Weekly national Influenza and COVID-19 surveillance report – Public Health England

Figure 49: Daily excess all-cause deaths in all ages, England, 1 January 2020 to 2 December 2020

https://web.archive.org/web/20201210142405/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/942969/Weekly_Flu_and_COVID-19_report_w50_FINAL.PDF