Coronavirus, Monkeypox, and Other Contagious Diseases

[Bact PhD]

Jan 18, 2022 1:03:10 GMT AnBr said:

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I am a microbiologist and I approve this message.

[LFC]

TPM talks about the pattern of Omicron cases seen in NYC and South Africa. It looks like about peak cases come in about 4 weeks. That sounds like a lightning fast spread.

New York City was one of the first parts of the United States hit by the Omicron variant. The trajectory of the city’s surge now appears remarkably similar to the pattern we saw earlier in South Africa and other countries.

Data out of South Africa showed a roughly four week interval between the start of the Omicron surge and its peak. “Peak in four weeks and precipitous decline in another two,” said Fareed Abdullah of the South African Medical Research Council. “It was a flash flood more than a wave.”

New York City numbers appear to match this pattern almost exactly.

It’s difficult to know the precise date at which the Omicron wave begins in New York City. As you can see from this New York Times graph below it seems to be begin the week of December 5th, with an arguable start on December 9th.

There are too many potentially confounding factors to isolate one date specifically, at least from the available public data. The region was already in the midst of a surge of Delta infections, presumably driven by cold weather seasonality. We also don’t have good genomic studies of case percentages, at least not that I could find. The best we can say is that Omicron’s rapid growth seems to begin the week of December 5th and it’s clearly well underway by the week of December 12th. By the end of that week (December 17th) cases had risen nearly 5-fold the number from two weeks earlier.

[LFC]

I'm both fascinated and fearful of this kind of triage AI. I would hope that the top factor, above all others separately or combined, is vaccination status.

As the Omicron variant rages across the U.S. and the rest of the globe, we’re seeing hospitals everywhere maxing out their capacity to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients—not all of whom have an obvious risk factor. In the ICU, it’s often difficult to determine who might survive and beat the infection, and who might end up succumbing to the disease.

That could change very soon thanks to a new AI tool that can predict the survival outcome of severe cases of COVID weeks in advance—all from a single blood sample. The new model, described in a peer-reviewed paper published in PLOS Digital Health on Tuesday, could help doctors make more informed treatment plans for COVID patients during initial hospitalization, to minimize the odds of mortality and improve patient care down the road.

“The clinical picture of COVID-19 is exceptionally diverse, ranging from asymptomatic infection to very severe disease and death,” Florian Kurth, a clinical researcher at Charity-University Medicine in Berlin and a lead author of the new study, said in a statement. “For physicians, it is difficult to estimate the individual risk for a patient of deterioration and/or death from COVID-19.” The new AI model “can fairly well predict the probability that an individual patient will die or survive COVID-19.”

[LFC]

Aug 26, 2021 14:39:56 GMT LFC said:

Arkansas, where using drugs made for animals with zero track record for use against COVID can freely be used on prison inmates and at 5X the recommended dosage. Welcome to the land of ignance.

[snip]

This "doctor" needs to be fired, stripped of his medical license, arrested, prosecuted, and jailed. Of course it is Arkansas so finding 12 people who aren't also stupid would be tough. Instead it would likely be a "jury of his peers."

The doctor, his company, the county, and prison employees are being sued by inmates over being used as human guinea pigs without their knowledge or consent.

Detainees at an Arkansas jail were given ivermectin without their knowledge or consent, a new lawsuit alleges. As early as November 2020, Dr. Robert Karas, the jail’s doctor, told inmates who had contracted COVID that he was giving them a cocktail of vitamins, antibiotics, and steroids when in fact he was administering dangerously high doses of the dewormer. Ivermectin is not authorized by the FDA to treat or prevent COVID, and the agency has repeatedly told people not to take it outside its approved use as an anti-parasitic.

“At no point were Plaintiffs informed that the medications they were consuming included Ivermectin,” the lawsuit says. “Further, Plaintiffs were not informed of the side effects of the drug administered to them or that any results would be used for research purposes.”

Four detainees are suing Dr. Karas and his company, the Washington County sheriff, and the Washington County Detention Center and 10 of its employees, alleging that they violated the inmates’ rights to informed consent. The ACLU of Arkansas filed the lawsuit on their behalf. The plaintiffs are seeking medical evaluations by independent providers and an injunction preventing Dr. Karas from administering ivermectin to COVID patients.

“No one—including incarcerated individuals—should be deceived and subject to medical experimentation. Sheriff Helder has a responsibility to provide food, shelter, and safe, appropriate care to incarcerated individuals,” Gary Sullivan, legal director of the ACLU of Arkansas, said in a statement.

The dosing that this quack gave was also well over approved levels which, AFAIC, is yet further grounds for pulling his medical license. He has no business ever being allowed near patients again. He should also be jailed, perhaps in the same prison, for reckless endangerment.

At least two of the inmates were given incredibly high doses of the drug, according to the lawsuit. For its use as an anti-parasitic drug, the FDA has approved 0.2 mg per kilogram of body weight in a single oral dose. If necessary, second doses are only given three to 12 months after the first. One 72 kg inmate, though, received 48 mg over four days, or 3.4 times the approved dose. Another, who weighed 87 kg, received 108 mg over four days, or 6.3 times the approved dose.

As a result, these men experienced diarrhea, bloody stools, stomach cramps, and vision problems, the lawsuit says, all of which suggest ivermectin poisoning. “To add insult to injury, Plaintiffs were subject to the payment of fees for medical examinations they sought after suffering side effects from the Ivermectin treatment.”

I'm no doctor but my wife and I have taken a lot of prescription drugs over our combined lifetimes and I can't ever remember a drug being prescribed above the approved maximum level, much more 6X that level.

[LFC]

COVID dick. Yes, it's a real thing.

It seems we can add sexual dysfunction to the long list of unexpected and unpleasant effects of the coronavirus. Thankfully, this doesn’t appear to be a common occurrence, and there are some potential remedies that those afflicted can try.

This week, the Slate-run sex advice podcast How to Do It discussed the harrowing tale of an anonymous letter writer who was suffering from what’s come to be known as “covid dick.” The writer, who identified as a heterosexual man in his 30s, said that he had gotten very sick and was hospitalized from covid-19 last July. After he was discharged, he began experiencing erectile dysfunction (ED). Though his symptoms did improve after seeing a doctor, the man reportedly was left with a glaring reminder of his ordeal. Describing himself as above average in penis size before covid-19, he said that his penis had now shrunk about 1.5 inches and that he had “become decidedly less than average.”

The podcast hosts, to their credit, also interviewed a pair of urologists who rightly noted that there’s a clear trail of evidence linking covid-19 to erectile or sexual dysfunction. A study this past November, for instance, found that men with covid-19 were about three times as likely to develop a new case of ED than those who didn’t catch covid-19. Some research has suggested that the risk may be nearly six times higher, yet other estimates are smaller, suggesting around a 20% increased risk. A small percentage of people with long covid, including women, have also reported sexual dysfunction as one of their symptoms. And sometimes, ED can indeed lead to shrinkage, especially if it’s caused by physical damage and scarring that causes the penis to stop becoming regularly erect.

[LFC]

Let's all find out who owned stock in the company that makes Ivermectin while pushing it as a COVID cure.

Researchers analyzing insurance claims data estimate that U.S. insurers have paid tens of millions of dollars for ivermectin as a covid-19 treatment, despite little good evidence that ivermectin does anything to treat or prevent the viral illness. During a single week in August 2021, private and Medicare insurance plans forked over about $2.5 million for covid-related prescriptions of ivermectin, according to the new study, published Thursday in JAMA.

Ivermectin is a cheap and effective antiparasitic that’s been in wide use for around 40 years. At the start of the pandemic, it was one of many existing drugs to receive a second look as a possible antiviral treatment for covid-19, based on early lab results. During the past two years, however, the field of covid-related research on ivermectin has been riddled with poor quality data and allegations of widespread fraud. There are still important ongoing studies of ivermectin for covid-19, but the largest and likely most rigorous trials to date have found no clear benefit for the drug in either treating or preventing covid-19.

This lack of solid evidence hasn’t stopped ivermectin from being adopted as the covid treatment of choice by some people and doctors. These devotees tend to be politically right-wing and espouse unsupported claims about the dangers of vaccines. They’re also, strangely enough, often dismissive about the pandemic, downplaying its harms even as they stock up on drugs like ivermectin to seemingly stay safe.

[Bact PhD]

Jan 18, 2022 21:58:07 GMT LFC said:

Let's all find out who owned stock in the company that makes Ivermectin while pushing it as a COVID cure.

Researchers analyzing insurance claims data estimate that U.S. insurers have paid tens of millions of dollars for ivermectin as a covid-19 treatment, despite little good evidence that ivermectin does anything to treat or prevent the viral illness. During a single week in August 2021, private and Medicare insurance plans forked over about $2.5 million for covid-related prescriptions of ivermectin, according to the new study, published Thursday in JAMA.

Ivermectin is a cheap and effective antiparasitic that’s been in wide use for around 40 years. At the start of the pandemic, it was one of many existing drugs to receive a second look as a possible antiviral treatment for covid-19, based on early lab results. During the past two years, however, the field of covid-related research on ivermectin has been riddled with poor quality data and allegations of widespread fraud. There are still important ongoing studies of ivermectin for covid-19, but the largest and likely most rigorous trials to date have found no clear benefit for the drug in either treating or preventing covid-19.

This lack of solid evidence hasn’t stopped ivermectin from being adopted as the covid treatment of choice by some people and doctors. These devotees tend to be politically right-wing and espouse unsupported claims about the dangers of vaccines. They’re also, strangely enough, often dismissive about the pandemic, downplaying its harms even as they stock up on drugs like ivermectin to seemingly stay safe.

Interestingly enough, Merck makes the branded version, but it's also produced by any number of generic manufacturers. Merck had this to say about a year ago (bold mine):

Feb. 4, 2021 – Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today affirmed its position regarding use of ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic. Company scientists continue to carefully examine the findings of all available and emerging studies of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19 for evidence of efficacy and safety. It is important to note that, to-date, our analysis has identified:

No scientific basis for a potential therapeutic effect against COVID-19 from pre-clinical studies;
No meaningful evidence for clinical activity or clinical efficacy in patients with COVID-19 disease, and;
A concerning lack of safety data in the majority of studies.

We do not believe that the data available support the safety and efficacy of ivermectin beyond the doses and populations indicated in the regulatory agency-approved prescribing information.

From this BB piece, it's the generic manufacturers that are more likely to be making bank:

Before the pandemic, Taj Pharmaceuticals Ltd. shipped negligible amounts of ivermectin to Russia for veterinary use. But over the past year it’s become a popular product for the Indian generic drug maker: Since July 2020, Taj Pharma has sold $5 million worth of the pills for human use in India and overseas. That’s a bonanza for a small family-owned company with an annual revenue of about $66 million.

Sales of the drug, which is primarily approved to treat diseases caused by parasites in livestock and humans, have surged around the world as anti-vaccine propagandists and others tout it as a Covid-19 cure. They claim it could end the pandemic if only people like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, would open their eyes to it. “We are working 24/7,” says Shantanu Kumar Singh, Taj Pharma’s 30-year-old executive director. “The demand is huge.”

The company, which has eight production facilities in India, is among a raft of drugmakers—many of them in developing countries—seeking to cash in on ivermectin’s sudden popularity, unfazed by advisories from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration saying that clinical studies haven’t shown conclusive evidence of the drug’s effectiveness against coronavirus infections. Undeterred, manufacturers have sharpened their sales pitches and cranked up output.

[snip]

Since the patent held by original manufacturer Merck & Co. expired in 1996, small generic drug makers like Taj Pharma have taken up production, accounting for a slice of the global supply. Merck, which still sells ivermectin under the brand name Stromectol, warned in February there was “no meaningful evidence” it was effective against Covid.

[goldenvalley]

Here's a company that doesn't care what the Supreme Court says, it requires employees to be vaccinated and they've disappointed their customers with this stand.

After the Supreme Court’s decision that large companies do not have to force workers to get coronavirus shots or tests, employees nationwide have wondered how the high court’s ruling on the vaccination mandate from the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration would affect them.

The issue bubbled up so much among employees at Carhartt, the Michigan-based workwear and other clothing company, that CEO Mark Valade emailed workers a day after the Supreme Court ruling to provide some clarity: Vaccination remained mandatory.

“We put workplace safety at the very top of our priority list and the Supreme Court’s recent ruling doesn’t impact that core value,” Valade wrote Friday, according to a copy of the email published to social media. “We, and the medical community, continue to believe vaccines are necessary to ensure a safe working environment for every associate and even perhaps their households.”

Valade, who noted how the private company was not changing the mandatory vaccination policy that would result in termination for employees who don’t comply, added: “An unvaccinated workforce is both a people and business risk that our company is unwilling to take.”

Customers are noticing or at least pundits are making sure customers have noticed what Carhartt ordered.

But the attention surrounding the company’s vaccination policy was amplified Tuesday after a screenshot of Valade’s email was widely shared by conservative pundits, causing Carhartt to trend on Twitter all day. The workwear brand once championed by Republican politicians such as Sarah Palin and Rick Perry found scorn from conservatives online.

“Went from ‘Buy Carhartt’ to ‘Bye Carhartt’ real quick!” tweeted conservative author Ashley St. Clair.

I guess some folks don't think that businesses should be left alone to pursue their business in any way they deem necessary.

[Bact PhD]

Jan 19, 2022 3:40:28 GMT goldenvalley said:

Here's a company that doesn't care what the Supreme Court says, it requires employees to be vaccinated and they've disappointed their customers with this stand.

I guess some folks don't think that businesses should be left alone to pursue their business in any way they deem necessary.

And those same folks think that if those individuals/businesses DARE to violate any tenet of their social “code,” that trash-talking and turning their backs on said individual or business is A-OK…it isn’t like they’re “canceling” their new-found enemy, is it??

[goldenvalley]

Jan 19, 2022 3:59:36 GMT Bact PhD said:

Jan 19, 2022 3:40:28 GMT goldenvalley said:

Here's a company that doesn't care what the Supreme Court says, it requires employees to be vaccinated and they've disappointed their customers with this stand.

I guess some folks don't think that businesses should be left alone to pursue their business in any way they deem necessary.

And those same folks think that if those individuals/businesses DARE to violate any tenet of their social “code,” that trash-talking and turning their backs on said individual or business is A-OK…it isn’t like they’re “canceling” their new-found enemy, is it??

Cancel???  GASP!  

[andydp]

FYI: if your kids haven't told you, the free test kit request site has been operational since yesterday.

www.covid-tests.gov

We've ordered ours and a four pack for my MIL.  

[LFC]

Hundreds of schools in Virginia tell the softer, quieter Trumpian governor to go f*** himself.

School district officials who oversee hundreds of schools in Virginia are actively defying their new Republican governor’s efforts to tamp down COVID-19 mitigation measures in the state.

The backlash is similar to what we saw play out in Texas and Florida when Republican Govs. Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis enacted similar executive orders late last year, attempting to block individual schools and municipalities from creating their own policies for combatting the pandemic.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) began his term as governor as any right-wing Republican who rose to prominence in the Trump or (hardly) post-Trump era might: he signed executive orders on his first day in office last week barring school districts from enforcing mask-related policies for students and staff under their purview. Some of the largest school districts in the commonwealth shot back almost immediately, with Arlington Public Schools declaring its mask mandate would remain in effect for in-person learning, regardless of the governor’s statewide order.

It’s all a bit of déjà vu for those of us who have been following how these anti-mask mandates have played out in schools in red states for some time.

Youngkin’s response was similar to that of DeSantis and Abbott: He threatened he would use state resources to force compliance. In Florida that bark was worse than the bite, at least initially. The state’s top education official did make good on a threat to pull funding from some districts whose board members voted for universal masking policies for their students, defying the governor’s orders. The Florida state education arm opened “investigations” into the districts, but ultimately only cut funding in the ballpark of the defiant school board members’ salaries for some of the school systems that opposed DeSantis — barely thousands of dollars in some cases. The issue is still being litigated in the courts, even after Florida’s Republican state legislature codified DeSantis’ order into state law in November.

They were warned. Youngkin is every bit as bad as the rest of them, just in a slicker fascist package. But he's clearly just as willing to murder children and teachers for political gain.

[LFC]

Floriduh's COVID response under DeSatanist fails yet again. He's literally doing everything wrong. He is a truly perfect representation of the "know nothings." Bold of accusing the other side of what you are doing is mine.

If Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis were a responsible leader dedicated to the well-being of his constituents, he would have made clear that the Regeneron monoclonal antibody being administered at his five new treatment sites is all but useless in the current COVID-19 surge.

But DeSantis is DeSantis, and therefore his own top priority. He is happy to offer false hope in the middle of a pandemic—as his state breaks infection records week after week—if he believes it is to his political advantage.

Last month, DeSantis held a press conference outside Ocala Medical Center with a sign reading “Early Treatment Saves Lives” and touted monoclonal antibodies as the answer to the COVID crisis. His surgeon general, Joe Ladapo, described vaccines, masks, and testing as a “trifecta” of “lunacy.”

Omicron had already begun to spread in Florida and elsewhere, so quickly that it was soon responsible for the overwhelming majority of new cases. The federal government stopped distributing two of the three mjaor monoclonal antibody treatments—Regeneron and bamlanivimab—on the grounds they were ineffective against the new variants. The third treatment, sotrovimab, remains in such short supply it is reserved for only the most vulnerable people.

DeSantis accused the Biden administration of falling victim to “hysteria.” Lapado made public a letter he wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra saying, “The federal government is is actively preventing the effective distribution of antibody treatments in the U.S.” Never mind that it was because the treatments themselves are ineffective.

[LFC]

Two thirds of reported vaccine side effects aren't from the vaccine.

Approximately two-thirds of the negative side effects reported from COVID-19 vaccinations were also seen among people who got the placebo in clinical trials, suggesting they were caused by the expectation, rather than the vaccine itself — something researchers hope will encourage vaccinations in the future.

Researchers have taken another look at side effects reported in studies that led to the approval of COVID-19 vaccines last year. Reactions not severe enough to prevent approval, but still unpleasant, were two-thirds as common among people who received a placebo, they report in JAMA Network Open. This means the reactions deterring people from getting vaccinated are usually, although not always, caused by expectation, fear, or worry about vaccination, not the jab itself. We have little to fear from injections but fear itself.

We know the "placebo effect" — just thinking you've been given medication — can often improve people's health, although the reasons behind this are not understood, and the extent to which this occurs is still debated. Consequently, medical trials now almost always involve some participants getting a placebo as a control. In vaccine trials, this is usually a biologically inert saline solution. By subtracting any benefits this produces from what we see for those who received the actual vaccine, we can find out the real level of protection.

Placebos can also lead to negative effects, known as "nocebo", where people get sick because they expect to, including those not actually exposed. Scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center decided to test the size of the nocebo effect for 12 COVID-19 vaccine trials and found more nocebo than vaccine effects.

[LFC]

Starbucks wasted no time in taking advantage of the SCOTUS ruling on vaccine mandates. Enjoy your coughee!

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration from forcing large employers to mandate vaccination or testing for employees, an irrational and deadly decision that will likely prove ruinous for American workers.

But not only did the justices rob millions of people of the right to a safe workplace, they provided cover for CEOs to relax worker health and safety rules. On Tuesday, the largest coffee company on the planet gave us a grim preview of what could prove a deadly race to the bottom powered by fear and political consequences.

After the court’s ruling, it was predictable that many companies that had taken steps to comply with the federal rule would stop requiring vaccination of employees. As was widely reported Wednesday, Starbucks was among the first out of the gate. Chief Operating Officer John Culver sent a sterile memo to all employees announcing the move. He didn’t use these words, but effectively made it clear that baristas and other employees now have to go to work in crowded cafés and take their chances with COVID-19.

Meanwhile, we can be sure that most Starbucks white-collar executives are fully vaccinated, and rarely—if ever—put in position to face unvaccinated customers just to earn a living.

But the Seattle coffee giant was not just making it more difficult for hardworking employees. It was also being at least somewhat dishonest about it. Culver said he was simply responding to the Supreme Court’s edict. “We respect the court’s ruling and will comply,” he wrote.

Really? The court’s ruling applied only to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the agency that issued the rule, and the Biden administration. It said nothing about private businesses. Corporations like Starbucks have long had the full legal authority to require health and safety standards for all employees, including testing, masking, and vaccinations—and they should.

[LFC]

I wish the owners could be charged with separate counts of reckless endangerment for each and every test they threw away. This is beyond disgusting, it's outright pathological.

Federal and state investigations into a large national chain of COVID-19 testing sites have turned up tests that were never labeled with patients' names, tests piled into trash bags stored for long periods at room temperature, tests that were never processed, and test results that were clearly fake.

Behind the testing sites are two Illinois-based companies: Center for COVID Control (CCC) and Doctors Clinical Laboratory, Inc., which is said to carry out COVID PCR testing for CCC. The two companies share the same address, though CCC is owned by Chicago-area couple Akbar Syed and Aleya Siyaj, while the clinical company is owned by Mohammed Shujauddin.

Together, the companies claim to provide rapid and PCR testing for COVID-19, with fast turnaround times and no appointments necessary. So far, they have collected more than 400,000 samples from over 300 locations across the US. And they have billed the federal government over $113 million for running many of those tests.

The companies are currently under investigation by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), as well as multiple states. On Wednesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit alleging numerous counts of deceptive or fraudulent practices by the pair.

[Rue Bella]

www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/01/unvaccinated-medical-care-hospitals-omicron/621299/

It’s a Terrible Idea to Deny Medical Care to Unvaccinated People

Omicron is pushing hospitals to their limit, but the medical system still has an ethical responsibility to all patients—no matter the choices they make.

More Americans are now hospitalized with COVID-19 than ever before. Their sheer numbers are overwhelming health-care workers, whose ranks have been diminished by resignations and breakthrough infections. In many parts of the country, patients with all kinds of medical emergencies now face long waits and worse care. After writing about this crisis earlier this month, I heard from a number of readers who said that the solution was obvious: Deny medical care to unvaccinated adults. Such arguments were aired last year, as the Delta variant crested, and they’re emerging again as Omicron spreads. Their rationale often goes something like this:

More at link.

I'd guess this is already happening, though not obviously. 

[Bact PhD]

Jan 21, 2022 2:52:27 GMT Rue Bella said:

www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/01/unvaccinated-medical-care-hospitals-omicron/621299/

It’s a Terrible Idea to Deny Medical Care to Unvaccinated People

Omicron is pushing hospitals to their limit, but the medical system still has an ethical responsibility to all patients—no matter the choices they make.
... After writing about this crisis earlier this month, I heard from a number of readers who said that the solution was obvious: Deny medical care to unvaccinated adults. Such arguments were aired last year, as the Delta variant crested, and they’re emerging again as Omicron spreads. Their rationale often goes something like this:

More at link.

I'd guess this is already happening, though not obviously. 

Hmmm. I know such a thing has been discussed in the open, even in this forum. The author should hardly be dismayed that such discussions are taking place. Mr. Yong preaches about what “should” be occurring as if hospitals don’t already have some sort of triage procedure in place in the event of the unthinkable. I am unaware, however, of a situation where dire triage protocols have been implemented…as if ANY hospital would willingly publicize such information.

[LFC]

Jan 21, 2022 15:17:31 GMT Bact PhD said:

I am unaware, however, of a situation where dire triage protocols have been implemented…as if ANY hospital would willingly publicize such information.

I wouldn't be shocked to find out that unofficial triage protocols have been practiced without any guidance from the hospitals. There are a lot of angry, burned out, PTSD (minus the "P") ridden healthcare workers who have risked their lives and the lives of their families for two years only to have people callously risk them again.

[Rue Bella]

Jan 21, 2022 15:26:34 GMT LFC said:

Jan 21, 2022 15:17:31 GMT Bact PhD said:

I am unaware, however, of a situation where dire triage protocols have been implemented…as if ANY hospital would willingly publicize such information.

I wouldn't be shocked to find out that unofficial triage protocols have been practiced without any guidance from the hospitals. There are a lot of angry, burned out, PTSD (minus the "P") ridden healthcare workers who have risked their lives and the lives of their families for two years only to have people callously risk them again.

I'm thinking it's more widespread than I might have imagined. I see anger directed at the unvaccinated in many places from gardening forums to places where tennis is talked about. And if ordinary citizens are feeling this way, those in the medical profession certainly must be too. And if many people are needing help at the same time, they can do something about it simply by helping the ones they want to, and perhaps looking the other way with other cases, and then keeping quiet.
With thousands and thousands of cases everywhere, this has got to be happening. If I were a medical person, I'd consider it too.

In a way, it's a winning proposition.  The more unvaccinated people have poor results (because of less care), the worse a compilation of their graphs look, and hopefully more will get vaccinated out of fear. Ooooo... a new conspiracy theory!

[jackd]

It would be hard to blame them; I'm guessing they don't do it.

[LFC]

Thoughts [snicker] ... thhhh .. [snicker, snicker] ... outghts [snort] ... a ... aaand ... [snort, snicker] ... p-p-p-p-p ... praaaaayers [ROTFL].

Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor, has tested positive for the coronavirus, as she had been set to begin a defamation trial against The New York Times on Monday.

Palin's positive test was announced by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan, who is presiding over the case.

"She is of course unvaccinated," the judge said, referring to Palin.

Palin is to be retested on Monday morning, to determine whether jury selection can begin later that day or the trial should be adjourned, likely until Feb. 3.

Rakoff said Palin's positive test came from an at-home test whose reliability was lower than tests administered at the courthouse and required for the trial.

[LFC]

The anti-vax death cult marched on D.C.

A hodgepodge of Trumpworld superfans, disillusioned Democrats, far-right extremists, self-identifying independents, and street preachers assembled Sunday morning to rally against equal parts COVID-19 vaccines and mandates.

The event started at the Washington Monument, with attendees making the trek to Lincoln Memorial to hear from many anti-vax superstars, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., controversial virologist Dr. Robert Malone, and Fox Nation’s Lara Logan, who has been ghosted by her employer.

Ahead of the march to the Lincoln Memorial, attendees gathered to speak with each other and hold sporadic demonstrations, including dancing and chanting to anti-vax rap songs.

Far-right fanatics were out in full force, from the extremist members of the hate group Proud Boy to rank-and-file supporters who consume everything that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones utters.

John Kopel, a staunch advocate against COVID-19 vaccines and an InfoWars loyalist, told The Daily Beast ahead of the rally he is a “fan of Alex Jones.” Carrying a sign that promoted Jones’ media entity and claimed “[Dr. Anthony] Fauci is a mass murderer,” Kopel said that he remains upset with former President Trump’s initial push of what he calls the “bio-weapon.” The rally-goer added that Trump’s endorsement of the vaccine is a “serious issue.” “We are for medical freedom,” he continued before suggesting that Trump might have been “corrupted.”

But it wasn’t only right-wingers in attendance, as many self-identifying Democrats and others also showed up to the event.

Clare Tobin, a lifelong Democratic voter from Chicago, voiced her frustrations with politicians pushing mandates and vaccines. “I don’t trust the vaccine,” she said. “You can’t even trust the Democrats, either. They all have the same message. They all had the same agenda.”

Then there was the straight-up bizarre, which included one attendee dressing up as Uncle Sam with a vaccine going through his top hat.

Elliot Crown, from New York, who dressed in garb resembling Uncle Sam, told The Daily Beast he was there to protest Americans’ “rights being curtailed,” citing the pandemic as a “fraud.” “They [both Democrats and Republicans] are taking orders, it is a global thing. They all use the same phrase ‘Build Back Better.’”

Loads of nuttery follows in the rest of the article. This is why America can't have nice things. We're just filled to the brim with too much entitlement and ignorance.

[LFC]

Another f***ing child who can't deal with reality because it's inconvenient. This is the crowd that would have been whining during WWII that it was unfair they had to do without so supplies could be sent to the troops. Nothing but immature, spoiled, whining little shits.

CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner on Sunday condemned journalist and author Bari Weiss for saying she was “done with COVID” after nearly two years. Speaking to anchor Jim Acosta, Reiner said of Weiss’ remarks, “She needs to grow up, because she’s acting like a child.”

Weiss had let loose her frustration with the failure to return to normal life in a Friday appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher. “I’m done with COVID. I’m done. I went so hard on COVID,” she told Maher. “I sprayed the Pringles cans I bought at the grocery store. Stripped my clothes off because I thought COVID would be on my clothes. I did it all.”

Weiss called it “ridiculous” that the vaccine for the coronavirus hadn’t brought about a complete return to pre-pandemic times. “This is going to be remembered by the younger generation as a catastrophic moral crime,” she added. The journalist said that many of her “liberal and progressive” friends agreed with her but were afraid to say so out of fear that they might be “smeared” as anti-vaxxers, Trump supporters, or “science-deniers.”

On Saturday, Reiner tweeted out an acerbic response to Weiss. “I’m glad she’s done with it but 3600 Americans died yesterday and over 860k have died in the last 2 years,” he wrote. “Yes you were told that vaccines would bring us out of this but 25% of this country refuse to vax. Grow up.”

And this. One million times this.

Reiner likened the pandemic-stricken U.S. to a waterlogged, sinking boat, with the race to protect people from the virus part of the effort to bail water out of the vessel. “And now we have people like Bari Weiss basically saying, ‘I’m done. I’m not bailing the water out anymore,’” he said. “And when somebody who is relatively young and relatively healthy says that, what they’re saying is: ‘I’ll be OK if I get this virus. Screw you. Doesn’t matter to me what happens to you.’ That’s the message I get from her.”

“Yeah, I’m done with that attitude, honestly,” Acosta replied. “I mean, she needs to understand that trolling people to ‘own the libs’ is not a sacrifice.”

[LFC]

More studies on the impact of the current Omicron wave on the vaccinated, the boosted, and the stupid.

Amid the stratospheric rise of the omicron variant, real-world data on the effectiveness of COVID-19 booster doses is now rolling in—and it is only looking up for boosters.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported three studies Friday, two published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) and another, appearing in JAMA, by CDC scientists.

One of the MMWR studies looked at the vaccination status of nearly 10 million COVID-19 cases from 25 state and local health departments. CDC scientists and health officials compared weekly rates of COVID-19 infections between unvaccinated people, fully vaccinated people, and fully vaccinated people who were also boosted. In the month of December, as cases of the ultra-transmissible omicron variant skyrocketed, unvaccinated people were nearly three times more likely to report a case of COVID-19 than people fully vaccinated. Compared with fully vaccinated and boosted people, the unvaccinated were five times more likely to report a case.

The study in JAMA supported this finding. In that work, CDC scientists looked at nationwide pharmacy-based COVID-19 test results collected in December from around 70,000 people whose vaccination status was known. The analysis concluded that omicron infections were significantly less likely to occur in fully vaccinated and boosted people than in both the unvaccinated and fully vaccinated.

Still, both studies noted a drop in vaccine effectiveness against omicron compared with the previously dominant coronavirus variant, delta. In the MMWR study, researchers looked at cases reported from October to November, when delta was raging. They found that unvaccinated people were four times more likely to be infected with delta late in the year than fully vaccinated people and nearly 14 times more likely to get a delta infection than fully vaccinated and boosted people.