Big Tech, the Death of Medicine, Censorship, and Pregnancy Loss; or, How Covid Ruins Everything

 

I just got a YouTube notification that a physician I follow, Suneel Dhand, who posted a new video titled “Dr. Peter Doshi Capitol Hill video REMOVED by YouTube.” I had watched the referenced video featuring Dr. Doshi, in which he pointed out the inconsistencies in the arguments used for the current push for vaccine and mask mandates.

Dr. Dhand had shown Dr. Doshi’s video in the context of his own video raising similar concerns. Dr. Dhand is by no means “antivaxx,” but favors a multifaceted approach towards treating and preventing Covid that does not coincide with the one-size-fits-all vaccine or nothing. Dhand has also been a strong proponent of ongoing discussions in the name of scientific rigor, that there is no “settled science.”

To blindly follow what a few people are saying would fly in the face of the most basic of scientific and medical reasoning. However, YouTube removed his video stating it violated community standards. He appealed its removal and received word that they would not budge from their position.

This is one of many videos that has been struck for not following the party line. YouTube is censoring scientists and physicians acting in good faith. I fully understand that YouTube as a private company can do whatever it wants. It does fall under the umbrella of big tech companies that are using their social media presence to censor free speech, and it now extends to censoring genuine scientific debate. Do these companies fall under the heading of monopolies? Do we have any ground to stand on to step in and demand they uphold freedom of speech?

Debate and discussion have been foundational to science and medicine since they became fields of study. It is how these fields grow and develop, through constant reexamination. Instead, we’re seeing science shut down in favor of a narrative that has been chosen by a few. The doctors raising questions about Covid treatments, vaccines, and masking are being silenced regardless of their political bent.

Dr. Vinay Prasad, a self-avowed Progressive, has come out loudly against the label of “misinformation” for anything that doesn’t support the vaccine or nothing position. In fact, after listening to Prasad speak in his videos, one starts to wonder if he really is as progressive as he claims. I’m heartened to see physicians speaking out against censorship and trying to uphold the critical thinking that has been a hallmark of medicine for centuries. I am heartened because my own experience with the physicians I work with has been so disheartening.

When Covid first hit, my hospital, like so many others, shut down elective surgeries and minimized inpatient hospitalization in an effort to stop the spread and keep beds open for the flux of Covid patients that must be on the horizon. My service, cardiothoracic surgery, only did elective cases for lung cancer patients and those with critical heart disease. We went from having 30+ patients on our list at any given time to three or four. The five of us advanced practice providers (PAs and NPs) were repurposed temporarily, and I was sent to manage patients in the Covid ICU alongside our colleagues in critical care and pulmonology. This was a brief sojourn of a few weeks, and we were back to our normal service.

Months later, no longer consistently caring for Covid patients, I asked a few of my colleagues in critical care if they had read any of the literature about Ivermectin, which had just come out as a possible cheap and safe treatment. I was told, “the CDC doesn’t endorse it, so we won’t consider it.” Only one critical care physician had taken the time to read the available literature. I was shocked that the physicians I worked so closely with and trusted would choose to not even read the studies to decide for themselves.

As the months went on, it became increasingly clear that the majority of doctors I work with are not reviewing the literature themselves, but rather going along with whatever the CDC and their colleges/associations say. My favorite doctor, a strong conservative normally suspicious of anything that smacks of collectivism or socialism, told me during surgery one day that I just needed to get the vaccine because “everyone is going to mandate it, and you won’t be able to go anywhere or do anything without being vaccinated, so you might as well get it.” He said this in July after the vaccine mandate was announced at hospitals across my state. I have not gotten the vaccine because I have had Covid, and natural immunity is a thing, despite what the CDC says. I have seen healthy doctors in their thirties lining up to get their Pfizer vaccines and subsequent boosters, despite the fact that Covid has a less than 1% mortality rate for that demographic. I’ve also seen doctors who had native infection roll their sleeves up to get the vaccine afterward.

While we are being beaten over the head to get everyone and their dog vaccinated, only a small group of physicians are talking about risk stratification and mitigation. When the delta strain took over, the headlines in my in-basket from medical email blasts read “Delta variant more likely to kill those under the age of 50” and “Covid deaths amongst young people highlight need to get vaccinated.” Not working in the Covid ICU consistently anymore, I was unsure about these claims. But I started hearing rumblings about the risk factors these young people had that made them susceptible to death from Covid.

I was sitting in the critical care NP office one day when one of my friends in critical care came in to call one of the large tertiary hospitals, trying to see if they would accept the transfer for a 35-year-old woman who was in the Covid ICU maxed out on her ventilator settings and getting worse. “Hi, I’ve got a 35-year-old lady with Covid. She completely maxed out on the vent, and her sats are continuing to drop and she’s increasingly difficult to oxygenate. I was wondering if you guys would be open to putting her on ECMO? She’s pretty healthy, just has diabetes and hypertension … her BMI? 45.”

Ah, there it is. My coworkers and I had noted that the young patients with Covid we were putting on ECMO in a last-ditch effort to save their lives were all very overweight. Not just overweight, but morbidly obese. A five-foot, six-inch woman would have to weigh 250 lbs to reach a BMI of 40. When I surveyed nurses and NPs in the Covid units, they all said the young people that are dying from Covid all have BMIs over 40, and often also have diabetes and hypertension, or other comorbidities.

No one is talking about this. One’s weight, blood sugar, and blood pressure are all things that can be controlled and modified. A study also showed that 97% of those who died from Covid were deficient in vitamin D. Again, something that can be addressed. But no one will talk about these things. Instead, we have vaccine mandates and a singular focus on the vaccines, even though you can still catch and spread Covid after being vaccinated.

The blind following of whatever the CDC says, the abandonment of critical thinking, and the lack of a multifaceted approach to treatment and prevention have almost destroyed my faith in the medical community. In fact, I’m almost to the point of wanting to leave. I’m not blind to the dangers of Covid, not in the least. I experienced a stillbirth in February at 33 weeks gestation. It was caused by a combination of tight nuchal cord and clot in 50% of the placenta leading to placental insufficiency. I was worked up for clotting disorders after I delivered my son, and have none. We do know, however, that Covid has a significant embolic aspect to it. At the time, I read one study that showed an increase in clots in the placentas and umbilical cords of women that had Covid during pregnancy. Even though we know this, OB/GYNs are not treating Covid-positive pregnant women with full or even partial anticoagulation. Of course, I’ll never know, but I wonder if my son would be alive today if my Covid infection had been treated differently.

Next week, Mustangman and I fly back to Portland to spend the first holiday with his family since we moved cross-country. We wanted to get together with our good friends while we’re there. The first question they asked was if we were vaccinated. I told them that Mustangman is, and I had Covid. They will only get together with us if we can find a place that has outdoor heated dining because of my unvaccinated status. They do not believe that natural immunity is a thing when it comes to Covid. We are unsure if we will be able to see our friends. Covid ruins everything.

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  1. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    If full discussion of the issue is not allowed, it is definite that the issue is being used for monetary gain combined with a need for control over a population.

     

    You omitted the fact that the people are probably either being lied to or fed deliberate deception. How else can we explain the initial lie about fifteen days to flatten the curve. This was ostensibly to ease the hospital burden. The pandemic itself has never been any worse than anticipated and known about at the beginning. Notice the recent change in the viewpoint of party politicians towards the corporate powers that be, a complete reversal. We can tell who the fascists are.

    And if this were really a national emergency, for which 100% (even babies) need to be vaccinated, or else apparently the intention is that everyone will lose their jobs and not be able to provide for their families, Why is the border deliberately left open, and new-comers are not vaccinated, but instead are whisked off in the middle of the night to communities all over the US to seed local populations?

    This isn’t the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. This is coordinated at the top of the current administration.

    Quick, look away!  Before you turn into a pillar of salt!

    • #61
  2. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    GLDIII Purveyor of Splendid Ma… (View Comment):

    Not all vaccination reluctance is unfounded. Of course this can be chalked up as antidotal, but we are all individuals who’s first charge looking after our personal situations.

    It’s a longish story, but my was a father regular recipient of the annual flu shot per the recommendations of “health inc” for those over 60, and after a decade or so, and being in his late 60, he had a reaction to the flu shot (uncontrolled bleeding) which did not become apparent until ~2 weeks post injection. It took over a month of tests to determined, he was producing platelets, but his immune system was scooping then all up. Eventually he was back to normal, but no connection was made to the shot.

    The next year again he received the annual flu shot, and before the end of the day he was hyperglycemic and could not see due to the changing density index in his eyes effected his vision to the point he could not drive. This got everyone’s attention immediately, and again it was determined he was producing insulin, but his immune system was being indiscriminate not differentiating invader vs whatever was handy and started removing all his insulin.

    The shot was clearly the instigator, and his Federal health unit (where he was getting the shots) dutifully documented the events and the ho hum response back was they are aware of these issues, but do not make them “that public” because it will not serve its mission to get as many folks as vaccinated as they want.

    Moral of the story, to the CDC you individually do not count, and the amorphous many need to be lead to the promised land thru the CDC’s superior intelligence and benevolence.

    I have long believed that many of our Federal agencies are more concerned with 1st “their budget”, 2nd “not being found guilty of visible incompetence”, and 3rd “whatever their assigned mission is currently defined as relevant to securing priority 1”.

    Given that I share a very large fraction of my father’s DNA has me always on the alert with any vaccine, however so far I have had no adverse reactions and continue to submit to getting vaccination shots. However as I get older and my immune system gets to it’s end of life, the decisions carry more weight.

    That’s what I find immoral about doctors and the like who say, Take the vaccine, for societies sake, the because the deaths are insignificant.

    • #62
  3. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Vicryl Contessa: Instead, we have vaccine mandates and a singular focus on the vaccines, even though you can still catch and spread Covid after being vaccinated.

    I have been struck ever since Covid become public is how much everything has revolved around singular focus on one thing, as though it isn’t possible for millions of people to have different areas of primary focus.

    First (and to some extent still) everything revolved around Covid. Everything had to be looked at through the lens of Covid. Nothing else mattered. Not your other health concerns (heart disease, cancer, joints, your children’s routine checkups and vaccinations, etc). Not your mental well-being. Not your role in a functioning society. Not yours or your children’s education and social development. 

    Then the singular focus within Covid was to try to prevent spread. Keep people away from each other. Put barriers between people who can’t be kept apart. No interest in possible treatments or in otherwise reducing the risks and consequences of having the disease. Yes, during that time, vaccines were being developed, but we were told that won’t affect us for a long time – it would be years (if ever) for that to come to fruition.

    Once vaccines became available, the singular focus became vaccination. Everybody must be vaccinated as the only possible answer. Again, treatments are ignored or suppressed. Possible immunities other than vaccination are ignored or suppressed. Vaccination only and vaccination ever.

    I am mystified why it seems we can focus on one thing only at a time. We have millions of people in this country (and billions on the planet), each different from all the others. Society has been able to multi-task in the past. The current insistence on one focus at a time, and that everything must fit in that focus is baffling. 

    • #63
  4. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):
    Then the singular focus within Covid was to try to prevent spread. Keep people away from each other. Put barriers between people who can’t be kept apart.

    Not everything is Star Trek.  But as you wrote it it seems so bizarre, like a Star Trek episode where Spock would be recalling the horrors of the 21st century covid scare.

    Then again, we are ruled by John Gill.

    • #64
  5. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    La Tapada (View Comment):

    Caryn (View Comment):

    Covid outcomes in pregnancy–both for the disease itself and the pregnancy–are far worse than the vaccine. I recommend the vaccine to both males and females in the childbearing years because the risks during pregnancy, and decreases in sperm production, are increased with infection.

    This is interesting, @ Caryn. I would not have gotten the vaccine if I was still of childbearing age. I am three months shy of 65, at the higher end of a healthy BMI, have been double vaccinated. But to be honest, I am ready to get Covid and get it over with. I feel I will be better protected afterwards (if I survive, of course :-) ). Many young friends of ours of childbearing age have refused the vaccine and I support them. (Maybe my attitude is due to my childhood and early adulthood in the South American tropics and experience with very severe flu.)

    The fetal wastage rate (ie death rate) & prematurity rate in pregnant COVID women is very high. In Alabama the vaccination rate was low & ObGyns were not pushing vaccinations until Univ Alabama Birmingham got a floor full of pregnant women with COVID- the result was many fetal deaths & premature births. That changed things and now they are recommending vaccinations.

    https://www.uab.edu/news/health/item/12238-uab-hospital-icu-population-includes-alarming-number-of-pregnant-women

    • #65
  6. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    EJHill (View Comment):

    Two notes from the UK (courtesy of Toby Young’s Daily Sceptic site):

    Why Have We Doctors Been Silent? and does the stats show that the vaccines actually increase your chances of getting Covid? Mike Hearn, formerly of Google, takes a look at raw data from the NHS and shows that the vaxxed are twice as likely to come down with the disease and that the statistics are massaged to show otherwise.

    His analysis is likely flawed-

    A-the main reason is we do not know the rate of infection since many are mild & few are tested. This has plagued our understanding of COVID all along.

    “we don’t have a very good idea what the rate of infection among all unvaccinated people was”

    that is why DEATH is the best measure- hard to hide and all the death stats support vaccination ( except when anti-vaxxers willfully distort the VAERS data).

    B-secondly- he fails to separate unvaccinated but post COVID patients from unvaxxed but never infected people- two groups with a very different immune status.

    C- he also assumes (w/o any supporting data) that the vaxxed & unvaxxed are otherwise similar populations. A common mistake and a frequent source of errors in medical reports.  It is very likely that the vaxxed are more urbanized (ie higher risk), that being vaxxed encourages people to go out (higher risk of infection) and that there are unvaxxed who are taking extra precautions (thereby lowering their risk- I know of several cases myself).

    https://fullfact.org/health/daily-sceptic-phe-over-40s/

    there is data that the vaxxed have a much lower ALL cause mortality- that is most assuredly not just b/c of the vaccine- but most likely b/c they have a healthier lifestyle and are more health conscious (& thereby possibly  more likely to get COVID tested if they have mild symptoms). At hospitals serving blue collar neighborhoods we used to say men don’t come in with angina they only come in with frank heart attacks- it is the health conscious who come in with angina.

    • #66
  7. DrewInWisconsin, Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    EJHill (View Comment):

    Two notes from the UK (courtesy of Toby Young’s Daily Sceptic site):

    Why Have We Doctors Been Silent? and does the stats show that the vaccines actually increase your chances of getting Covid? Mike Hearn, formerly of Google, takes a look at raw data from the NHS and shows that the vaxxed are twice as likely to come down with the disease and that the statistics are massaged to show otherwise.

    Yeah, I read that yesterday. Alarming.

    But let’s all line up for the next booster and wonder why we’re having another spike in cases!

    • #67
  8. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    I think the information on the virus, the variants, and the vaccines is extremely hard to analyze.

    See, for example, this study from Massachusetts from July 2021:

    About three-fourths of people infected in a Massachusetts Covid-19 outbreak were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus with four of them ending up in the hospital, according to new data published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . . .

    A CDC document that was reviewed by CNBC warned that the delta variant sweeping across the country is as contagious as chickenpox, has a longer transmission window than the original Covid strain and may make older people sicker, even if they’ve been fully vaccinated.

    This virus seems to stay one step ahead of us all the time. And I don’t understand the push to mandate the “vaccine” when it doesn’t do what it was hoped it would. I have no doubt it is offering some protection to some people, but not enough for any government anywhere to make it a law that every citizen has to have it. It seems to not be doing well in the battle against the variants. As the number of breakthrough cases rises, the number of vaccine-hesitant people who are seeing a reason to not try it is growing too.

    The only way to get decent information is to set up a sample of the population and gather all of their health histories. Test them and monitor their health every day.

    Massachusetts endeavored to do just that at one point in 2020. But I have not been able to find interim results of that impressive study.

    • #68
  9. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    MiMac (View Comment):

    EJHill (View Comment):

    Two notes from the UK (courtesy of Toby Young’s Daily Sceptic site):

    Why Have We Doctors Been Silent? and does the stats show that the vaccines actually increase your chances of getting Covid? Mike Hearn, formerly of Google, takes a look at raw data from the NHS and shows that the vaxxed are twice as likely to come down with the disease and that the statistics are massaged to show otherwise.

    His analysis is likely flawed-

    A-the main reason is we do not know the rate of infection since many are mild & few are tested. This has plagued our understanding of COVID all along.

    “we don’t have a very good idea what the rate of infection among all unvaccinated people was”

    that is why DEATH is the best measure- hard to hide and all the death stats support vaccination ( except when anti-vaxxers willfully distort the VAERS data).

    B-secondly- he fails to separate unvaccinated but post COVID patients from unvaxxed but never infected people- two groups with a very different immune status.

    C- he also assumes (w/o any supporting data) that the vaxxed & unvaxxed are otherwise similar populations. A common mistake and a frequent source of errors in medical reports. It is very likely that the vaxxed are more urbanized (ie higher risk), that being vaxxed encourages people to go out (higher risk of infection) and that there are unvaxxed who are taking extra precautions (thereby lowering their risk- I know of several cases myself).

    https://fullfact.org/health/daily-sceptic-phe-over-40s/

    there is data that the vaxxed have a much lower ALL cause mortality- that is most assuredly not just b/c of the vaccine- but most likely b/c they have a healthier lifestyle and are more health conscious (& thereby possibly more likely to get COVID tested if they have mild symptoms). At hospitals serving blue collar neighborhoods we used to say men don’t come in with angina they only come in with frank heart attacks- it is the health conscious who come in with angina.

    You did not comment on the other link in @ejhill wherein there is a medical professional’s opinion that her profession has shamed itself by complying without question to government authorities during the Covid pandemic. Is complicit derived from compliance?

    • #69
  10. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Vicryl Contessa: I experienced a stillbirth in February at 33 weeks gestation.

    So sorry to hear about this . . .

    • #70
  11. Sandy Member
    Sandy
    @Sandy

    MiMac (View Comment):

    La Tapada (View Comment):

    Caryn (View Comment):

    Covid outcomes in pregnancy–both for the disease itself and the pregnancy–are far worse than the vaccine. I recommend the vaccine to both males and females in the childbearing years because the risks during pregnancy, and decreases in sperm production, are increased with infection.

    This is interesting, @ Caryn. I would not have gotten the vaccine if I was still of childbearing age. I am three months shy of 65, at the higher end of a healthy BMI, have been double vaccinated. But to be honest, I am ready to get Covid and get it over with. I feel I will be better protected afterwards (if I survive, of course :-) ). Many young friends of ours of childbearing age have refused the vaccine and I support them. (Maybe my attitude is due to my childhood and early adulthood in the South American tropics and experience with very severe flu.)

    The fetal wastage rate (ie death rate) & prematurity rate in pregnant COVID women is very high. In Alabama the vaccination rate was low & ObGyns were not pushing vaccinations until Univ Alabama Birmingham got a floor full of pregnant women with COVID- the result was many fetal deaths & premature births. That changed things and now they are recommending vaccinations.

    https://www.uab.edu/news/health/item/12238-uab-hospital-icu-population-includes-alarming-number-of-pregnant-women

    Maybe that had something to do with the fact that 80% of pregnant women and virtually all African American women are deficient in Vitamin D.  Pre-term birth can be reduced substantially by raising D levels, as has been shown by research conducted at the Medical University of South Carolina.  

    • #71
  12. Hammer, The (Ryan M) Inactive
    Hammer, The (Ryan M)
    @RyanM

    Flicker (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oaf (View Comment):

    Ed G. (View Comment):
    I already wanted to find a new doctor, but now it’s vital. I just don’t even know how to proceed, though. As I start seeing new doctors, one screening test I’ll use is what they think about me waiting for long term analysis and testing before taking the vaccine.

    Yep. I’m in the same boat with my doctor. After many of his statements over the last year, it’s clear to me that I need to find a new one, and I don’t even know where to start. But I will be asking certain screening questions.

    My PA still hasn’t gotten the vaccine.

    PAs and chiropractors, who I used to refer to as fake doctors, have risen in my esteem beyond most doctors. Turns out they were right – the medical system is corrupt beyond repair.

    • #72
  13. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    If they have degenerated into monkey see, monkey do, then they are no longer doctors but purveyors of CDC bad advice. 

    • #73
  14. Hammer, The (Ryan M) Inactive
    Hammer, The (Ryan M)
    @RyanM

    And as more and more evidence keeps pulling up, the medical establishment and left wrong politicians continue to double down. I doubt these idiotic mask mandates will ever be lifted in my state.

    https://www.cato.org/working-paper/evidence-community-cloth-face-masking-limit-spread-sars-cov-2-critical-review

    https://vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com/p/do-masks-reduce-risk-of-covid19-by?justPublished=true

    (and on and on and on and on…)

    • #74
  15. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    MiMac (View Comment):

    EJHill (View Comment):

    Two notes from the UK (courtesy of Toby Young’s Daily Sceptic site):

    Why Have We Doctors Been Silent? and does the stats show that the vaccines actually increase your chances of getting Covid? Mike Hearn, formerly of Google, takes a look at raw data from the NHS and shows that the vaxxed are twice as likely to come down with the disease and that the statistics are massaged to show otherwise.

    His analysis is likely flawed-

    A-the main reason is we do not know the rate of infection since many are mild & few are tested. This has plagued our understanding of COVID all along.

    “we don’t have a very good idea what the rate of infection among all unvaccinated people was”

    that is why DEATH is the best measure- hard to hide and all the death stats support vaccination ( except when anti-vaxxers willfully distort the VAERS data).

    B-secondly- he fails to separate unvaccinated but post COVID patients from unvaxxed but never infected people- two groups with a very different immune status.

    C- he also assumes (w/o any supporting data) that the vaxxed & unvaxxed are otherwise similar populations. A common mistake and a frequent source of errors in medical reports. It is very likely that the vaxxed are more urbanized (ie higher risk), that being vaxxed encourages people to go out (higher risk of infection) and that there are unvaxxed who are taking extra precautions (thereby lowering their risk- I know of several cases myself).

    https://fullfact.org/health/daily-sceptic-phe-over-40s/

    there is data that the vaxxed have a much lower ALL cause mortality- that is most assuredly not just b/c of the vaccine- but most likely b/c they have a healthier lifestyle and are more health conscious (& thereby possibly more likely to get COVID tested if they have mild symptoms). At hospitals serving blue collar neighborhoods we used to say men don’t come in with angina they only come in with frank heart attacks- it is the health conscious who come in with angina.

    You did not comment on the other link in @ ejhill wherein there is a medical professional’s opinion that her profession has shamed itself by complying without question to government authorities during the Covid pandemic. Is complicit derived from compliance?

    All NHS doctors are guilty of serving in a bad healthcare system-many well trained MDs but a lousy system- luckily I live in the US not the UK…..

    • #75
  16. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    Hammer, The (Ryan M) (View Comment):

    And as more and more evidence keeps pulling up, the medical establishment and left wrong politicians continue to double down. I doubt these idiotic mask mandates will ever be lifted in my state.

    https://www.cato.org/working-paper/evidence-community-cloth-face-masking-limit-spread-sars-cov-2-critical-review

    https://vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com/p/do-masks-reduce-risk-of-covid19-by?justPublished=true

    (and on and on and on and on…)

    Not so on & so on when it is the same sources repeated……

    • #76
  17. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    MiMac (View Comment):

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    MiMac (View Comment):

    EJHill (View Comment):

    Two notes from the UK (courtesy of Toby Young’s Daily Sceptic site):

    Why Have We Doctors Been Silent? and does the stats show that the vaccines actually increase your chances of getting Covid? Mike Hearn, formerly of Google, takes a look at raw data from the NHS and shows that the vaxxed are twice as likely to come down with the disease and that the statistics are massaged to show otherwise.

    His analysis is likely flawed-

    A-the main reason is we do not know the rate of infection since many are mild & few are tested. This has plagued our understanding of COVID all along.

    “we don’t have a very good idea what the rate of infection among all unvaccinated people was”

    that is why DEATH is the best measure- hard to hide and all the death stats support vaccination ( except when anti-vaxxers willfully distort the VAERS data).

    B-secondly- he fails to separate unvaccinated but post COVID patients from unvaxxed but never infected people- two groups with a very different immune status.

    C- he also assumes (w/o any supporting data) that the vaxxed & unvaxxed are otherwise similar populations. A common mistake and a frequent source of errors in medical reports. It is very likely that the vaxxed are more urbanized (ie higher risk), that being vaxxed encourages people to go out (higher risk of infection) and that there are unvaxxed who are taking extra precautions (thereby lowering their risk- I know of several cases myself).

    https://fullfact.org/health/daily-sceptic-phe-over-40s/

    there is data that the vaxxed have a much lower ALL cause mortality- that is most assuredly not just b/c of the vaccine- but most likely b/c they have a healthier lifestyle and are more health conscious (& thereby possibly more likely to get COVID tested if they have mild symptoms). At hospitals serving blue collar neighborhoods we used to say men don’t come in with angina they only come in with frank heart attacks- it is the health conscious who come in with angina.

    You did not comment on the other link in @ ejhill wherein there is a medical professional’s opinion that her profession has shamed itself by complying without question to government authorities during the Covid pandemic. Is complicit derived from compliance?

    All NHS doctors are guilty of serving in a bad healthcare system-many well trained MDs but a lousy system- luckily I live in the US not the UK…..

    The same unquestioning compliance is present in America today, too much connection between federal government and healthcare delivery. When I retired I took my federal employees health with me. When I went on Medicare my health insurance plan paid all deductibles and co-payments as long as I use providers who take Medicare approved amount as full payment, but they pay nothing beyond that. That smells fishy.

    • #77
  18. Hammer, The (Ryan M) Inactive
    Hammer, The (Ryan M)
    @RyanM

    MiMac (View Comment):

    Hammer, The (Ryan M) (View Comment):

    And as more and more evidence keeps pulling up, the medical establishment and left wrong politicians continue to double down. I doubt these idiotic mask mandates will ever be lifted in my state.

    https://www.cato.org/working-paper/evidence-community-cloth-face-masking-limit-spread-sars-cov-2-critical-review

    https://vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com/p/do-masks-reduce-risk-of-covid19-by?justPublished=true

    (and on and on and on and on…)

    Not so on & so on when it is the same sources repeated……

    Keep proving my point. It doesn’t matter what evidence you see, and that is the problem. But, as I’ve said fairly recently, truth has a way of sticking around even when people deny it. 

    • #78
  19. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Jim McConnell (View Comment):

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    Jim McConnell (View Comment):

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    There are several reasons why people might choose to suppress dissenting viewpoints and enforce a consensus narrative, not all of which involve money or the accumulation of power. Some people — unfortunately, a seemingly increasing number of people — just think it’s good to prevent bad ideas from gaining currency. They have little faith in the ability of normal people to critically evaluate opposing viewpoints, and they want to save them the trouble and the risk of perhaps deciding wrongly.

    I reject that kind of elitism, and believe restriction of the free exchange of ideas is the single most important challenge we face right now. Unfortunately, proponents of censorship and thought control have various motives, some of which sound — and perhaps are, in a sense — noble.

    I was with you until that last phrase.

    I’m simply saying that people can do bad things for good motives. I think that’s hard to dispute. The things they do are still bad.

    Perhaps a quibble, but I have yet to find anything about political censorship noble.

    Plus it is far more likely that the “bad things” that have been done repeatedly during this COV crisis were done because of monetary incentives, rather than good intentions.

    Why else would doctors be fired when using HCQ on COV cases last year, or using ivermectin this year? But 13,000 bucks for every COV admission meant that hospital administrators sure as heck were not going to deviate from the NIH/CDC guidelines which instructed the entire med field to ignore people complaining of COV symptoms until they were in the hospital and being thrown on ventilators. ($ 39,000 for each ventilated COV patient. Yet HCQ and/or ivermectin given to a person within the first 96 hours of symptoms could transform this “deadly infection” into a mild mannered cold.)

    • #79
  20. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    k

    Plus it is far more likely that the “bad things” that have been done repeatedly during this COV crisis were done because of monetary incentives, rather than good intentions.

    Why else would doctors be fired when using HCQ on COV cases last year, or using ivermectin this year? But 13,000 bucks for every COV admission meant that hospital administrators sure as heck were not going to deviate from the NIH/CDC guidelines which instructed the entire med field to ignore people complaining of COV symptoms until they were in the hospital and being thrown on ventilators. ($ 39,000 for each ventilated COV patient. Yet HCQ and/or ivermectin given to a person within the first 96 hours of symptoms could transform this “deadly infection” into a mild mannered cold.)

     

    1. HCQ doesn’t work -no reputable MD thinks so at this time- Ivermectin probably doesn’t work either- hence there disuse.
    2. Carol you try to bamboozle the ignorant by saying $39,00 per ventilated patient like that is a massive amount of money. The median cost for care for the ICU COVID patients was $40K- ie it isn’t the monetary bonanza you claim. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2777028
    • #80
  21. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Heartbreaking. So sorry VC and MM. God bless you both.

    • #81
  22. James Salerno Inactive
    James Salerno
    @JamesSalerno

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    If full discussion of the issue is not allowed, it is definite that the issue is being used for monetary gain combined with a need for control over a population.

     

    You omitted the fact that the people are probably either being lied to or fed deliberate deception. How else can we explain the initial lie about fifteen days to flatten the curve. This was ostensibly to ease the hospital burden. The pandemic itself has never been any worse than anticipated and known about at the beginning. Notice the recent change in the viewpoint of party politicians towards the corporate powers that be, a complete reversal. We can tell who the fascists are.

    And if this were really a national emergency, for which 100% (even babies) need to be vaccinated, or else apparently the intention is that everyone will lose their jobs and not be able to provide for their families, Why is the border deliberately left open, and new-comers are not vaccinated, but instead are whisked off in the middle of the night to communities all over the US to seed local populations?

    This isn’t the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. This is coordinated at the top of the current administration.

    All of this is coordinated. Michael Malice brought up a good point. When Joe Rogan took Ivermectin, every journalist ridiculed him for using “horse medicine.” Well, Ivermectin is used for a lot of animals. You would think at least one journalist would say “cat medicine” when they’re ripping on him. But no, they’re all repeating each other. It’s a hive mind.

    • #82
  23. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    James Salerno (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    If full discussion of the issue is not allowed, it is definite that the issue is being used for monetary gain combined with a need for control over a population.

     

    You omitted the fact that the people are probably either being lied to or fed deliberate deception. How else can we explain the initial lie about fifteen days to flatten the curve. This was ostensibly to ease the hospital burden. The pandemic itself has never been any worse than anticipated and known about at the beginning. Notice the recent change in the viewpoint of party politicians towards the corporate powers that be, a complete reversal. We can tell who the fascists are.

    And if this were really a national emergency, for which 100% (even babies) need to be vaccinated, or else apparently the intention is that everyone will lose their jobs and not be able to provide for their families, Why is the border deliberately left open, and new-comers are not vaccinated, but instead are whisked off in the middle of the night to communities all over the US to seed local populations?

    This isn’t the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. This is coordinated at the top of the current administration.

    All of this is coordinated. Michael Malice brought up a good point. When Joe Rogan took Ivermectin, every journalist ridiculed him for using “horse medicine.” Well, Ivermectin is used for a lot of animals. You would think at least one journalist would say “cat medicine” when they’re ripping on him. But no, they’re all repeating each other. It’s a hive mind.

    And, didn’t human usage actually come first?

    • #83
  24. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    James Salerno (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    If full discussion of the issue is not allowed, it is definite that the issue is being used for monetary gain combined with a need for control over a population.

     

    You omitted the fact that the people are probably either being lied to or fed deliberate deception. How else can we explain the initial lie about fifteen days to flatten the curve. This was ostensibly to ease the hospital burden. The pandemic itself has never been any worse than anticipated and known about at the beginning. Notice the recent change in the viewpoint of party politicians towards the corporate powers that be, a complete reversal. We can tell who the fascists are.

    And if this were really a national emergency, for which 100% (even babies) need to be vaccinated, or else apparently the intention is that everyone will lose their jobs and not be able to provide for their families, Why is the border deliberately left open, and new-comers are not vaccinated, but instead are whisked off in the middle of the night to communities all over the US to seed local populations?

    This isn’t the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. This is coordinated at the top of the current administration.

    All of this is coordinated. Michael Malice brought up a good point. When Joe Rogan took Ivermectin, every journalist ridiculed him for using “horse medicine.” Well, Ivermectin is used for a lot of animals. You would think at least one journalist would say “cat medicine” when they’re ripping on him. But no, they’re all repeating each other. It’s a hive mind.

    The term “conspiracy theory” is spoken of with contempt by those who engage in it. Much of the American electorate has been slow to recognize that more evil exists among those we sometimes refer to as the “elite” at the top of our society than at the bottom among the people. The Founders enumerated a few specific individual rights at the last minute and recognized that there were many that were not enumerated. The Constitution was designed to guarantee all these rights and protect against infringement by an authoritarian government. A conspiracy that essentially says there is no freedom to be exercised by the people except with approval of the governing authority needs no ongoing direction. The Communist conspiracy we face has been at work in the “hive” for more than a century.

    • #84
  25. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):
    The Founders enumerated a few specific individual rights at the last minute and recognized that there were many that were not enumerated. The Constitution was designed to guarantee all these rights and protect against infringement by an authoritarian government. A conspiracy that essentially says there is no freedom to be exercised by the people except with approval of the governing authority needs no ongoing direction.

    This is why I have no problem with SCOTUS finding a right to privacy in the Constitution.  I just don’t think it extends to the right to murder unborn children.

    • #85
  26. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    James Salerno (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    If full discussion of the issue is not allowed, it is definite that the issue is being used for monetary gain combined with a need for control over a population.

     

    You omitted the fact that the people are probably either being lied to or fed deliberate deception. How else can we explain the initial lie about fifteen days to flatten the curve. This was ostensibly to ease the hospital burden. The pandemic itself has never been any worse than anticipated and known about at the beginning. Notice the recent change in the viewpoint of party politicians towards the corporate powers that be, a complete reversal. We can tell who the fascists are.

    And if this were really a national emergency, for which 100% (even babies) need to be vaccinated, or else apparently the intention is that everyone will lose their jobs and not be able to provide for their families, Why is the border deliberately left open, and new-comers are not vaccinated, but instead are whisked off in the middle of the night to communities all over the US to seed local populations?

    This isn’t the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. This is coordinated at the top of the current administration.

    All of this is coordinated. Michael Malice brought up a good point. When Joe Rogan took Ivermectin, every journalist ridiculed him for using “horse medicine.” Well, Ivermectin is used for a lot of animals. You would think at least one journalist would say “cat medicine” when they’re ripping on him. But no, they’re all repeating each other. It’s a hive mind.

    The term “conspiracy theory” is spoken of with contempt by those who engage in it. Much of the American electorate has been slow to recognize that more evil exists among those we sometimes refer to as the “elite” at the top of our society than at the bottom among the people. The Founders enumerated a few specific individual rights at the last minute and recognized that there were many that were not enumerated. The Constitution was designed to guarantee all these rights and protect against infringement by an authoritarian government. A conspiracy that essentially says there is no freedom to be exercised by the people except with approval of the governing authority needs no ongoing direction. The Communist conspiracy we face has been at work in the “hive” for more than a century.

    Conspireality: Strong enough evidence short of absolute proof of conspiracy to make people change their view of reality.  (I’m sorry I don’t remember which member coined this.)

    • #86
  27. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    James Salerno (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    If full discussion of the issue is not allowed, it is definite that the issue is being used for monetary gain combined with a need for control over a population.

     

    You omitted the fact that the people are probably either being lied to or fed deliberate deception. How else can we explain the initial lie about fifteen days to flatten the curve. This was ostensibly to ease the hospital burden. The pandemic itself has never been any worse than anticipated and known about at the beginning. Notice the recent change in the viewpoint of party politicians towards the corporate powers that be, a complete reversal. We can tell who the fascists are.

    And if this were really a national emergency, for which 100% (even babies) need to be vaccinated, or else apparently the intention is that everyone will lose their jobs and not be able to provide for their families, Why is the border deliberately left open, and new-comers are not vaccinated, but instead are whisked off in the middle of the night to communities all over the US to seed local populations?

    This isn’t the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. This is coordinated at the top of the current administration.

    All of this is coordinated. Michael Malice brought up a good point. When Joe Rogan took Ivermectin, every journalist ridiculed him for using “horse medicine.” Well, Ivermectin is used for a lot of animals. You would think at least one journalist would say “cat medicine” when they’re ripping on him. But no, they’re all repeating each other. It’s a hive mind.

    The term “conspiracy theory” is spoken of with contempt by those who engage in it. Much of the American electorate has been slow to recognize that more evil exists among those we sometimes refer to as the “elite” at the top of our society than at the bottom among the people. The Founders enumerated a few specific individual rights at the last minute and recognized that there were many that were not enumerated. The Constitution was designed to guarantee all these rights and protect against infringement by an authoritarian government. A conspiracy that essentially says there is no freedom to be exercised by the people except with approval of the governing authority needs no ongoing direction. The Communist conspiracy we face has been at work in the “hive” for more than a century.

    Conspireality: Strong enough evidence short of absolute proof of conspiracy to make people change their view of reality. (I’m sorry I don’t remember which member coined this.)

    Looks to be Rodin.

     

    https://ricochet.com/1092328/conspireality/

    • #87
  28. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    James Salerno (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    If full discussion of the issue is not allowed, it is definite that the issue is being used for monetary gain combined with a need for control over a population.

     

    You omitted the fact that the people are probably either being lied to or fed deliberate deception. How else can we explain the initial lie about fifteen days to flatten the curve. This was ostensibly to ease the hospital burden. The pandemic itself has never been any worse than anticipated and known about at the beginning. Notice the recent change in the viewpoint of party politicians towards the corporate powers that be, a complete reversal. We can tell who the fascists are.

    And if this were really a national emergency, for which 100% (even babies) need to be vaccinated, or else apparently the intention is that everyone will lose their jobs and not be able to provide for their families, Why is the border deliberately left open, and new-comers are not vaccinated, but instead are whisked off in the middle of the night to communities all over the US to seed local populations?

    This isn’t the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. This is coordinated at the top of the current administration.

    All of this is coordinated. Michael Malice brought up a good point. When Joe Rogan took Ivermectin, every journalist ridiculed him for using “horse medicine.” Well, Ivermectin is used for a lot of animals. You would think at least one journalist would say “cat medicine” when they’re ripping on him. But no, they’re all repeating each other. It’s a hive mind.

    The term “conspiracy theory” is spoken of with contempt by those who engage in it. Much of the American electorate has been slow to recognize that more evil exists among those we sometimes refer to as the “elite” at the top of our society than at the bottom among the people. The Founders enumerated a few specific individual rights at the last minute and recognized that there were many that were not enumerated. The Constitution was designed to guarantee all these rights and protect against infringement by an authoritarian government. A conspiracy that essentially says there is no freedom to be exercised by the people except with approval of the governing authority needs no ongoing direction. The Communist conspiracy we face has been at work in the “hive” for more than a century.

    Conspireality: Strong enough evidence short of absolute proof of conspiracy to make people change their view of reality. (I’m sorry I don’t remember which member coined this.)

    Looks to be Rodin.

    https://ricochet.com/1092328/conspireality/

    Thanks.  I owe him credit for that.  I’ll be using it a lot.

    • #88
  29. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    Hammer, The (Ryan M) (View Comment):

    MiMac (View Comment):

    Hammer, The (Ryan M) (View Comment):

    And as more and more evidence keeps pulling up, the medical establishment and left wrong politicians continue to double down. I doubt these idiotic mask mandates will ever be lifted in my state.

    https://www.cato.org/working-paper/evidence-community-cloth-face-masking-limit-spread-sars-cov-2-critical-review

    https://vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com/p/do-masks-reduce-risk-of-covid19-by?justPublished=true

    (and on and on and on and on…)

    Not so on & so on when it is the same sources repeated……

    Keep proving my point. It doesn’t matter what evidence you see, and that is the problem. But, as I’ve said fairly recently, truth has a way of sticking around even when people deny it.

    I am not the one denying the vast weight of the medical evidence and cherry picking reviews from ideological organizations (even ones I tend to agree with). N0 relevant medical organization denies masks are effective (I do not include ideologues like AFLD, AFCCC or AAP&S-none are respected). ACCP, AHA, ALA, SCCM, ASIM, ACP (and so on & so on) all support the use of masks and are longtime leaders in their respective fields in improving the state of medical knowledge. The data supports the idea that masks have limited but real effectiveness-that effectiveness is probably less with the delta variant and mask quality matters- but, particularly when we had nothing else, they were the obvious step.

    the CATO paper you cite has important facts in it-to wit:

    “Unfortunately, only two randomized controlled trials (RCT) have evaluated the efficacy of cloth face masking against the spread of COVID-19.

    [Those studies were the DANMASK study (oft misrepresented by anti-maskers) and the Bangladesh study. The Danish study did not test efficacy of masks as source control-an important omission (and the CATO paper points this out-to their credit) and has been analyzed to be consistent with a 20-30% effectiveness of masks as respiratory protection (added effectiveness is to be expected as source control). The Bangladesh study SUPPORTS the use of masks.] So you favorite author grants that the only high quality studies are consistent with the idea that masks work. Prasad et al state they looked at 16 meta analysis and found 8 “eight were equivocal or critical as to whether evidence supports a public recommendation of masks, and the remaining eight supported a public mask intervention”- hardly a damning indictment of masks. If you read the section on SARS-CoV-1 (the best natural model for COVID)you will find most studies support the use of masks-to quote your favorite author: “SARS-CoV-1 epidemic found that 39.4% (268/681) of cases reported mask wearing compared to 62.0% (1573/2535) of controls. The authors concluded that “simple mask-wearing was highly effective ..”.

    Further down the article:  “Of the 15 solely qualitative reviews identified by the authors, seven concluded that evidence for the use of community masking was weak…seven cautiously concluded that mask benefits outweigh risks in various settings, often conceding that the evidence was only of low to moderate quality, and one unequivocally concluded that facemasks were beneficial”. [ie NO study was negative on masks -all at least weakly beneficial].

    Any policy maker facing such data would logically assume we should adopt masks ESPECIALLY since there was no other intervention that wasn’t more disruptive

     

    https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj-2021-068302

    https://www.pnas.org/content/118/4/e2014564118

    NB-the above are peer reviewed-UNLIKE the sources you choose- there is a reason for that.

    Masks are unpopular- but the truth isn’t decided by a majority of votes on a website.

    Addendum-The CATO paper puts too much weight on data from non-SARS studies (ie the flu- this ain’t the flu)-at this point-over 18 months in- it is foolish to use such data since we have plenty of data from SARS infections to use. I would use SARS-CoV-1 data b/c it is a very similar virus but not rhinovirus and flu virus data in any analysis. I need not emphasize  the fact that we had a record low flu season last year-almost certainly due to COVID mitigation steps(ie they work!) but no sane person wants to fight the flu by going thru what we just did..

    addendum2- another major review published yesterday-“This systematic review identified a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of covid-19 through the implementation of mask wearing and physical distancing.”  https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj-2021-068302

    • #89
  30. Blondie Thatcher
    Blondie
    @Blondie

    MiMac (View Comment):
    Masks are unpopular- but the truth isn’t decided by a majority of votes on a website

    I would go along with the idea of masks if people wore them correctly, but they don’t. Never have. Heck, it is an issue with professional healthcare workers. Ask anybody that has worked in and around any OR (@vicrylcontessa). Therefore, no, masks are not effective. It is just all theater. 

    • #90
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