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230,000. Not including the six counties. With 37,000 significantly affected in their daily lives by it
Yes.
It's causing havoc in hospitals alongside high rsv rates plus flu plus covid infections.
CMO recommending mask wearing on public transport and anywhere there are gatherings of people.
 
the comments are also worth a read.

This one is now my favourite blag that I'm going to tell people that have a cough..."Oh yes, It was on the internet".

@stephanied3637

@stephanied3637

7 hours ago

I just wanted to share something that I have found helpful when having a virus, which is: sleeping upright. Uncomfortable yes, but I personally believe it's worth it. Late 2021 the three of us in our household got some sort of bad virus. Didn't bother testing. Stayed home and rested. My husband and son lied down at night to sleep, whereas I slept on the lounge recliner sitting upright. I could hear my husband continue to cough as soon as he lied down. (P.S. If you sleep in a different room such as the loungeroom, a good tip is to leave a light on in a nearby room or have a torch within reach as it can be strange initially to wake up in a different room especially if it's pitch black.)
 
Don't know quite where to put this so am putting it here:

U.S. FDA, CDC see early signal of Pfizer bivalent COVID shot's link to stroke​


 
Don't know quite where to put this so am putting it here:

U.S. FDA, CDC see early signal of Pfizer bivalent COVID shot's link to stroke​


Spotted that too.
It's worrying.
 
Spotted that too.
It's worrying.

I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point, it's just a possibility at the moment, and currently is most likely to be a data artefact (by my reading at least).

Note (from the article): "Although the totality of the data currently suggests that it is very unlikely that the signal in VSD (Vaccine Safety Datalink) represents a true clinical risk, we believe it is important to share this information with the public,"

and:

"Neither Pfizer and BioNTech nor the CDC or FDA have observed similar findings across numerous other monitoring systems in the U.S. and globally and there is no evidence to conclude that ischemic stroke is associated with the use of the companies' COVID-19 vaccines."

Personally I think their call to share this information with the public is not necessarily the right one, given that most of the public don't have the experience or expertise to recognise the signs of a "hmm that's interesting" signal in data (which mostly turn out to be nothing :)). While it's true that most (many) significant findings have started with a "hmm that's interesting" it isn't the case that a "hmm that's interesting" mostly leads to a significant finding. Followed up any number myself to null results (still useful science though - negative results are not as exciting as new findings, but still another little box filled in in the giant knowledge colouring book).

That's my take anyway.
 
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Spotted that too.
It's worrying.
Not really. There is no clear signal (as you would find out if you drilled down to the original source). Furthemore:

The real story is one of transparency regarding careful monitoring of all data.
 
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Not really. There is no clear signal (as you would find out if you drilled down to the original source). Furthemore:

The real story is one of transparency regarding careful monitoring of all data.


Not really. There is no clear signal (as you would find out if you drilled down to the original source). Furthemore:

The real story is one of transparency regarding careful monitoring of all data.


I don't mean to sound alarmist but for a while Astrazeneca was top dog and they took too long to admit it was problematic. My sister had her astrazeneca vaccine a day before they announced it could cause strokes in certain age group. Within two weeks she was hospitalised having had a stroke that has left her a changed person permanently.

So when I see the FDA and CdCstating that there could be a stroke link for the over 65s you'll have to pardon my belief that this means that some real people over 65 have had strokes associated with bivalent pfizer vaccines.

Not arguing against vaccines but wary at the same time from past lived experience
 
So when I see the FDA and CdCstating that there could be a stroke link for the over 65s
The FDA/CDC have not stated that there is any link.

They have stated that a monitoring trigger point has been reached, a signal condition that necessitates an extensive review of the data as per protocol.

† It is journalists (Reuters, at least) who repeatedly, and incorrectly, use the word 'link'.
 
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I don't mean to sound alarmist but for a while Astrazeneca was top dog and they took too long to admit it was problematic. My sister had her astrazeneca vaccine a day before they announced it could cause strokes in certain age group. Within two weeks she was hospitalised having had a stroke that has left her a changed person permanently.

So when I see the FDA and CdCstating that there could be a stroke link for the over 65s you'll have to pardon my belief that this means that some real people over 65 have had strokes associated with bivalent pfizer vaccines.

Not arguing against vaccines but wary at the same time from past lived experience
Sorry to read that. I had an AstraZeneka jab before hearing about the clot risk I think it was, I went ahead with a second AZ jab, didn't see many alternatives tbh, that was all they had, I consoled myself that the risk was minimal.
 
I don't mean to sound alarmist but for a while Astrazeneca was top dog and they took too long to admit it was problematic. My sister had her astrazeneca vaccine a day before they announced it could cause strokes in certain age group. Within two weeks she was hospitalised having had a stroke that has left her a changed person permanently.

So when I see the FDA and CdCstating that there could be a stroke link for the over 65s you'll have to pardon my belief that this means that some real people over 65 have had strokes associated with bivalent pfizer vaccines.

Not arguing against vaccines but wary at the same time from past lived experience
I'm very sorry about your sister - I also know someone who had a stroke, early last year, so I know what that's like. And she is convinced it was linked to the vaccine she had shortly before, and has been reluctant to have boosters since.

But in reality, both of our lived experience is no more than that we know someone who had a stroke, who also had a covid vaccine shortly beforehand. The reality is that most people who had strokes in 2021/22 will have had a vaccine dose shortly before, because nearly everyone was having the vaccine.

The stroke cases associated with the AZ vaccine were very rare, so the chance of it being associated is very tiny. And the risk of having a stroke as a result of contracting Covid is much much higher.
 
I'm very sorry about your sister - I also know someone who had a stroke, early last year, so I know what that's like. And she is convinced it was linked to the vaccine she had shortly before, and has been reluctant to have boosters since.

But in reality, both of our lived experience is no more than that we know someone who had a stroke, who also had a covid vaccine shortly beforehand. The reality is that most people who had strokes in 2021/22 will have had a vaccine dose shortly before, because nearly everyone was having the vaccine.

The stroke cases associated with the AZ vaccine were very rare, so the chance of it being associated is very tiny. And the risk of having a stroke as a result of contracting Covid is much much higher.

Stop.

Her case has been associated with Astrazeneca. Not only that, it was proven medically to be the cause.

When I posted I wasn't talking through my ass.
 
The nature of the Astrazenica problem did indeed lead to rather specific symptoms/specific condition which made it easier to correctly identify cases and for the existence of those cases to raise a warning flag.

It also showed up reasonably quickly with some statistical significance, so countries started to halt its use as a precaution. At the time some people thought those might have been political moves, due to various rhetoric between EU and UK etc, but the early indicators was that there was a real clinical reason for that caution, which later evidence further supported.

I dont think we've hit that sort of level of indication of concern for other vaccines so far.
 
(SSI Copenhagen, UHelsinki, NIPH Oslo & others) A population based cohort study across the four most populous Nordic nations (>23 million subjects; study period 01 Jan 2018 to early 2022 (varies with national data)) investigating the clinical outcomes of myocarditis associated with mRNA vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus compared with other types of myocarditis. Cohorts were stratified as to whether new onset myocarditis was on or after 1 January 2020, in order to separate patients with myocarditis occurring before or during the COVID-19 pandemic (baseline and baseline plus post-vaccine plus post-SARS-CoV-2-infection).

Chief findings:
  • In a population based study covering 23  million individuals, myocarditis after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination was associated with a lower risk of heart failure within 90 days of admission to hospital compared with myocarditis associated with COVID-19 disease and conventional myocarditis.
  • Among younger individuals with no predisposing comorbidities, myocarditis related to COVID-19 disease was associated with a markedly higher risk of heart failure or death within 90 days of admission to hospital compared with myocarditis associated with vaccination.
Additional findings:
  • The estimated risk of readmission to hospital was numerically lower for patients with vaccine myocarditis compared with those with conventional myocarditis, and comparable to COVID-19 myocarditis.
  • Among younger individuals (age 12-39 years), without predisposing comorbidities, vaccine myocarditis was associated with a non-significant reduced relative risk of heart failure or death compared with conventional myocarditis.
Furthermore, the study indicates that vaccinees were over 3.5 times less likely to get myocarditis, over 23 times less likely to get heart failure, and over 70 times less likely to die, than those with COVID-19.
DOI:10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000373.

Author commentary:
 
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It is not often these days that I can bring myself to watch that distorting shitheads videos, I had more than enough of his crap already. Since I am interested in that particular subject, and Im not aware of what angles he favours on that particular subject, I suppose maybe I will force myself to watch that one, not sure yet.

The last time I watched one of his videos he was distorting some European excess mortality data for his anti-vaccine audiences benefit, the shit.
 
WSJ reporting (leaked report) that the US Energy Department has concluded that SARS-CoV-2 arose from an accidental lab leak, but that apparently is rated as "low confidence".

Note that other US agencies have differing opinions: the FBI subscribe to a lab leak hypothesis with "moderate confidence", whilst the National Intelligence council and four other (unnamed) US government agencies, like the general consensus in the academic community, all lean towards natural animal transmission, albeit with "low confidence".
Original article.
 
Whatever changed the Energy Department's opinion apparently wasn't strong enough to shift the opinions of any other government agencies, though they seem to be coming at it from a different direction than other agencies.

Some officials briefed on the intelligence said that it was relatively weak and that the Energy Department’s conclusion was made with “low confidence,” suggesting its level of certainty was not high. While the department shared the information with other agencies, none of them changed their conclusions, officials said.

Officials would not disclose what the intelligence was. But many of the Energy Department’s insights come from its network of national laboratories, some of which conduct biological research, rather than more traditional forms of intelligence like spy networks or communications intercepts.


 
After 959 days, Hong Kong's mask mandate for public transport and public spaces, both outdoor and indoor, ended Wednesday, but a lot of people are keeping them on for now.

hkmask.jpg
 
This is why:

Why now?
The Johns Hopkins researchers point out that they don’t believe the pandemic has ended — and the move to stop updating the tracker shouldn’t be conflated as such. Instead, the decision comes amid a different phase of the pandemic and was made for two main reasons.

The first: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have built up their capacity to share covid data with the general public, which Gardner called the “appropriate” entities to be providing this information long term.

The second: The quality of the tracker depends on the quality of publicly available data. At the beginning of the pandemic, states, counties and even cities were providing daily covid updates, which scrapers for the tracker could collect data from. But that’s not the case anymore, and that has a direct impact on what the dashboard can do.

 
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