Getting vaccinated

[BoSoxGal]

[BoSoxGal]

[Bicycle Bill]

I'm not saying I get all my info through Yahoo, but its news feed does pop up as my home page when I turn on my computer — and every day I seem to see an article about how "anti-vaxxer dies of COVID" or "conservative talk radio host who ridiculed masks tests positive for COVID" (today it's someone called Phil Valentine).

Looks to me like Darwin's law about 'survival of the fittest' will eventually winnow them down to where they will no longer be a significant faction any more.

-"BB"-

[Bicycle Bill]

Big Pharma has been rather reluctant to discuss this particular side effect...

-"BB"-

[ex-khobar Andy]

Big Pharma has been rather reluctant to discuss this particular side effect...

-"BB"-

Big Pharma always gets it wrong. Just another boob from those guys . . .

[ex-khobar Andy]

In the Daily Mail's reporting of the death of conservative talk show host Phil Valentine (BB's post above) we have this gem:

'Phil Valentine was a visionary for the conservative movement, and he made an enormous impact on the lives of many Tennesseans,' U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn tweeted.

I don't celebrate anyone's death from this nasty disease, but this is idiotic even for someone of her political stripe.

A visionary is someone who sees the truth before anyone else and tells the rest of us. That he clearly is/was not. The second part I agree with, although perhaps not in the way Sen Blackburn intended. I have no doubt that Mr Valentine's mocking of the vaccine and masks has, in fact, had an enormous impact on the lives of many Tennesseans.

[Econoline]

Pfizer vaccine.jpg (9.18 KiB) Viewed 1030 times

[Bicycle Bill]

I said something similar earlier in this thread.   If Pfizer can raise the dead, they surely should be able to help the living.

-"BB"-

[Gob]

Stealing that!!

[Econoline]

From Leviiticus 13:45 – 46:

“Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp.”


(Read it again, in case you missed the part on masks and social distancing.)

[ex-khobar Andy]

From Axios discussing the requirements by some cities that their police and firefighters (etc) become immunized:

"We are a union and we will defend our members," [Fraternal Order of Police] executive director Jim Pasco told Axios. "You cannot tell people what to do. It's still an individual and personal choice."

Irony meter meme thingy pegging!

[BoSoxGal]

[Crackpot]

Stolen!

[Bicycle Bill]

Forwarded!!

-"BB"-

[Gob]

The cull continues...

A Covid sceptic who thought he couldn't get ill because he exercised five times a week has died from the virus.

Father-to-be Marcus Birks had been in intensive care with flu-like symptoms and blood clots after testing positive for coronavirus.

The 40-year-old patient and former Bad Lads' Army contestant said he was 'shocked' to have become so unwell because of his healthy lifestyle.


He said he regretted being 'kind of ignorant' about vaccines and 'putting off' getting his jabs.

He died at the Royal Stoke University Hospital on Friday.

His pregnant wife Lis paid tribute to her husband, writing: 'My heart has been completely ripped out and I don't know how you are supposed to deal with such pain and hurt.'

Marcus, a musician from Leek, Staffordshire had been sceptical about Covid vaccinations and thought that he could not get ill because he ate healthily and exercised five times a week.

But after contracting coronavirus earlier in the month, he said his symptoms got progressively worse, and he was eventually admitted to hospital, suffering from breathing difficulties.

In an interview from his hospital bed on August 11, he said his condition had come as a shock because he rarely got ill.

[BoSoxGal]

An Ohio judge has just ordered a hospital there to give ivermectin to a covid patient despite the CDC and FDA advisories against such treatment.

Obviously it’s a whole level of crazy for courts to be mandating medical treatment on such a micromanaging level, although certainly there is some precedent for courts to intervene when patients or their families disagree with a hospital care team’s plan of treatment.

But what I really need somebody to explain to me is why do these people, some of them doctors (this patient’s GP, Rand Paul, some other quacks out there), believe that an anti parasitic will work as an antiviral?!?!

My zoology/pre-med days are a quarter century ago, but I still read a lot of science and I haven’t read anything in the intervening years that suggests the basic science about parasites and the basic science about viruses has fundamentally changed.

This is all so maddening. I wish Camus was around to write the novel about covid19 pandemic behavior.

[Big RR]

If I recall, there were some publications attesting to some antiviral properties of chloroquinone and hydroxychloroquine, but no effectiveness against Covid 19. Nothing I have seen regarding the drug in question, but so long as the patient finds a licensed physician who is willing to order the treatment, and the patient is otherwise terminal, I cannot fault the court for telling the hospital they cannot block the treatment, absent some kind of compelling reason to do so (and a belief that it will be ineffective is not sufficient). Apparently this could not be demonstrated to the court.

[ex-khobar Andy]

There is some plausibility* to the idea that an anti-parasitic might also be an antiviral agent but the studies which have been done so far don't suggest that this one is the golden spike or the silver bullet. Studies are small and because whatever effects being measured are also small, the studies show nothing above placebo or no action.

There's a meta-analysis of the studies conducted so far here. The conclusion, in plain English, was:

We found no evidence to support the use of ivermectin for treating or preventing COVID‐19 infection, but the evidence base is limited.

Scientists use 'We found no evidence to support . . . ' meaning 'nothing to see here, move on.' Because the studies are small, the 95% confidence intervals (95% is usually taken to be the indicator of significance) are huge. I cannot see if there is an indication that the study has been peer reviewed.

On the other hand, there is strong scientific evidence that the vaccines work. Much much much better than the neutral evidence for invermectin. Continuing to believe in this stuff is just sheer obtuseness.

* Re the plausibility: the 'Background' paragraph is as follows:

Ivermectin, an antiparasitic agent used to treat parasitic infestations, inhibits the replication of viruses in vitro [i.e., in a Petri dish]. The molecular hypothesis of ivermectin's antiviral mode of action suggests an inhibitory effect on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) replication in the early stages of infection. Currently, evidence on efficacy and safety of ivermectin for prevention of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection and COVID‐19 treatment is conflicting. [i.e., there's nothing to see here]

[Big RR]

No argument that the vaccines work, but not after infection. Monoclonal antibodies would be better, but if they do not work, I wouldn't begrudge a dying man from grasping at straws, even though a vaccine could have prevented it all.

[BoSoxGal]

Sounds like there is no evidence it is any more effective than a zinc supplement at inhibiting viral reproduction.