The COVID-2019 Thread

[panama hat]

Large disparity amongst population numbers of course, so percentages are of less importance

Percentage of population is the only way to compare, though. 1 shot, two shots.

[cyrille]

Exactly! Disparity amongst population totals makes the percentages more relevant, not less!

Admittedly, comparison with Malta and Ireland is not hugely revealing.

But after all that crowing about the vaccines BoJo's been doing, in answer to questions not even about the vaccine...

[harrybarracuda]

Exactly! Disparity amongst population totals makes the percentages more relevant, not less!

Admittedly, comparison with Malta and Ireland is not hugely revealing.

But after all that crowing about the vaccines BoJo's been doing, in answer to questions not even about the vaccine...

Given that the UK's vaccination program was primarily targeted at high risk groups first, your figures don't really show the important data.

If you are going to focus on current data, a more useful table would be current hospitalisation and death rates per capita of infected.

Added - This is up to the end of June. Perhaps you can find something similar for the others you think are doing better.

Covid-19 death rates have plummeted to 1 in 1000 as more Britons register for coronavirus vaccines, according to new research.

The Medical Research Council’s biostatistics unit at Cambridge has estimated the jab roll-out contributed to the death rate dropping to about 0.085 per cent.

From more than 15 per cent of people, aged 75 and over, catching coronavirus and dying at the winter wave peak has dropped to under two per cent now, reported The Times.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/c...s-b942957.html

[harrybarracuda]

Not peer reviewed yet, but promising.

A single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson is highly effective in preventing severe illness and death from the Delta and Beta variants of the coronavirus, data from a clinical trial in South Africa suggest.

The study is the first real-world test of the vaccine’s efficacy against Delta, a highly contagious variant of the virus surging across the United States and much of the world. South Africa’s Ministry of Health reported these preliminary results at a news conference on Friday. The data have not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal.

In the trial, called Sisonke, the researchers evaluated one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in nearly 500,000 health care workers, who are at high risk of Covid-19. The vaccine has an efficacy of up to 95 percent against death from the Delta variant, and up to 71 percent against hospitalization, the researchers reported. (The vaccine did slightly worse against the Beta variant, which is thought to be more adept at sidestepping the immune response than Delta.)

“We believe this vaccine is doing what it was designed to do, which was to stop people going to hospital and stop them ending in I.C.U.s and dying,” said Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker, co-lead of the study and director of the Desmond Tutu H.I.V. Centre at the University of Cape Town.

The results suggest that people who have received one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine don’t need a booster shot, Dr. Bekker said.

New Data Suggest J. & J. Vaccine Works Against Delta - The New York Times

[harrybarracuda]

Meanwhile in trumpanzee country, the dumb keep getting dumber.

Missouri Taxi Company Bans Vaccinated Riders

[Latindancer]

^ That article gets better as it goes on.

"On Facebook, one woman said a Yo Transportation driver had denied her a ride because she was vaccinated and "shedding skin cells with poison in them" — likely a reference to the theory, which has no basis in reality, that vaccine "shedding" can sicken people nearby".

Talk about the dumbing down of America...

[harrybarracuda]

^ That article gets better as it goes on.

"On Facebook, one woman said a Yo Transportation driver had denied her a ride because she was vaccinated and "shedding skin cells with poison in them" — likely a reference to the theory, which has no basis in reality, that vaccine "shedding" can sicken people nearby".

Talk about the dumbing down of America...

Seriously retarded. Lets hope the 'rona takes them. It would be the humane thing to do.

[bsnub]

Lets hope the 'rona takes them.

We can only hope.

[harrybarracuda]

Oh dear, the Cambodian puppet will not be popular with his master....

PHNOM PENH, Aug 7 (Xinhua): Cambodia will begin offering a third dose or booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine to frontline health workers, civil servants and armed forces in seven provinces along the Cambodia-Thailand border on Sunday, a health ministry's spokesperson said on Saturday.

Those provinces include Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Pailin, Koh Kong, Oddar Meanchey, Pursat and Preah Vihear, health ministry's secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine said in a statement.

"The move is to fight against Covid-19, particularly the Delta variant, which may spread into our community on a large scale if we all have not taken timely measures to prevent it," she said.

Vandine said Britain's AstraZeneca vaccine will be used as the booster shots for those who had already been vaccinated with China's Sinovac or Sinopharm vaccines in their first two doses.

Cambodia to give third dose of Covid-19 vaccine to frontline officials | The Star

[harrybarracuda]

I'm surprised a country like Israel is not being stricter with the fools that have yet to vaccinate. Realistically every country should simply exclude them from situations where they can spread the disease.

Israel is heading to a nationwide lockdown by September, most health officials understand, but there are 1.1 million ways to prevent it, according to Prof. Eran Segal, a computational biologist for the Weizmann Institute of Science who has been advising the government throughout the pandemic.

Writing for N12, Segal said that Israel’s closure will be the result of the 1.1 million Israelis who can get vaccinated and have not yet.

“There is no real progress against this group,” he said. “We all feel, and will continue to feel, the consequences.”

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/11-million-ways-to-prevent-a-covid-lockdown-in-israel-eran-segal-676085

[harrybarracuda]

Silly chinkies still trying to blame the Wuhan virus on others. I think they are smarting because it has come back to bite them in the arse.

China doubles down on baseless 'US origins' Covid conspiracy as Delta outbreak worsens - CNN

[harrybarracuda]

Thank you Darwin, keep up the good work.

A Trump-loving right-wing shock jock who described the COVID-19 vaccines as "poison" just over a month ago has now died from COVID-19.

Local news station WPTV reports that South Florida-based radio host Dick Farrel passed away from complications related to COVID-19 this week -- and his friends say he had a change of heart about the vaccine after he got infected.

In a Facebook post dated June 27th, Farrel said he would never take "the Poison" that "Pfizer and Moderna and J&J are peddling."

"I know I don't need it nor ever will," he added.

After getting infected with the disease, though, friends say he called them and encouraged them to get vaccinated.

"He is the reason I took the shot," Farrel's friend Amy Leigh Hair wrote on her Facebook page. "He texted me and told me to 'Get it!' He told me this virus is no joke and he said, 'I wish I had gotten it!'"

Right-wing shock jock dies from COVID-19 weeks after he called vaccines 'poison' - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

[harrybarracuda]

And in case you're worried Darwin is forgetting people outside the US...

A Cambridge-educated man who posted a video to social media downplaying the threat of COVID-19 has died from the virus, the Evening Standard reports.

Solicitor Leslie Lawrenson, 58, died in home in Bournemouth, Dorset, just over a week after he shared a video claiming that COVID is nothing to be afraid of. Lawrenson refused to be vaccinated because he felt he didn't need it. He had no underlying health problems.

In June, he posted two videos where he said his COVID symptoms were no worse than a cold. He also said that getting sick is just a part of life and that he was actually glad to have contracted COVID-19. But his parter Amanda Mitchell says, "I feel incredibly foolish. Les died unnecessarily."

"Les made a terrible mistake and he's paid the ultimate price for that," she said. "It was a daily thing that he said to us: 'You don't need to have it, you'll be fine, just be careful.'"

"Les was highly educated... so if he told me something, I tended to believe it," she added.

‘Nothing to be afraid of’: Anti-vaxxer said he was ‘glad’ to catch COVID – it killed him days later - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

[PAG]

[cyrille]

On the way down?

[Slick]

On the way down?

Weekends are usually low.

[harrybarracuda]

SINGAPORE - Local clinical trials will soon commence for two Covid-19 vaccines, developed by a United States-based company to target four variants of concern, including the Delta.

The early-stage clinical trial, which has just received approval from the Health Sciences Authority, will evaluate the vaccines' safety and immune response against the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants, and as possible booster shots for vaccinated people. The vaccines were developed by pharmaceutical firm Arcturus Therapeutics.

The trial is looking to recruit healthy volunteers, both male and female, who are between 21 and 65 years old.

It will be administered by SingHealth's Investigational Medicine Unit, which is led by Associate Professor Jenny Low.
Prof Low, the unit's deputy clinical and scientific director, told The Straits Times: "The two new vaccines, ARCT-154 and ARCT-165 will be tested together with the original ARCT-021 vaccine, where we will compare all three vaccines against one another for their safety and antibody protection."

The ARCT-021 vaccine, which was previously known as the Lunar-Cov19 vaccine, is still undergoing phase two of its clinical trials, which began earlier this year. It was co-developed by Duke-NUS and Arcturus Therapeutics, and targets the original or wild-type Sars-CoV-2 virus.

The ARCT-154 vaccine targets the D614G spike protein mutation that has become dominant globally, whereas the ARCT-165 vaccine targets a wider range of viral mutations, Prof Low noted.

Singapore to start clinical trials for two Covid-19 vaccines that target Delta, among other variants, Health News & Top Stories - The Straits Times

[harrybarracuda]

Interesting. Was published a month ago and now in full trials and may be over the counter.

Interesting typo too: "Snotize"

Made-in-Israel anti-viral nasal spray found effective against COVID

An anti-viral nasal spray called Enovid that was developed in Canada and tested in the UK can reduce the viral loads in confirmed COVID-19 cases by 95% in 24 hours and 99% in 72 hours, a press release said on Sunday.

The Israeli-manufactured spray can be used up to five times a day after coming in contact with viruses, according to the release. It's suitable for children as young as 12 years old, and the Ministry of Health approved it in January this year. It will go on sale in the coming week.

"The spray we developed has been proven not only as a virus blocker that causes Covid-19 but also as a killer," Dr. Gili Regev, CEO and founder of Snotize (the company that developed the spray) said.

Since most COVID-19 infections are nasal, SaNOtize believes this is an effective way to reduce the spread and infection of COVID-19. It has been able to suppress the SARS-CoV-2 virus within two minutes, including the Alpha and Gamma variants, according to the release. It is currently being tested against the Delta variant.

The spray employs nitric oxide as a mechanical and chemical barrier against viral infection in the nose, which is where respiratory diseases like COVID-19 infiltrate the body.

The spray is also effective against other respiratory viruses such as those that cause flu.

Made-in-Israel anti-viral nasal spray found effective against COVID - The Jerusalem Post

[harrybarracuda]

Quite how Thailand stayed in Amber with Delta running riot I have no idea...

[PAG]

[bsnub]

A rightwing TV and radio host who was a vociferous critic of Dr Anthony Fauci and who urged his listeners not to get vaccinated against Covid-19 has died after contracting the virus.

Dick Farrel, who had described Fauci as a “power-tripping lying freak” who conspired with “power trip libb loons”, had urged people not to get vaccinated as recently as June.

He reportedly changed his opinion about vaccines after falling ill and later being admitted to hospital before passing away on 4 August aged 65. “He texted me and told me to ‘Get it!’ He told me this virus is no joke and he said, “I wish I had gotten [the vaccine]!” close friend Amy Leigh Hair wrote on Facebook.

Farrel, a native of Queens, New York, anchored radio shows in Florida and also acted as a stand-in anchor for the rightwing news outlet Newsmax, was described as a pioneer “shock talk” host.
His partner, Kit Farley, said: “He was known as the other Rush Limbaugh. With a heavy heart, I can only say this was so unexpected. He will be missed.”

Described as an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, Farrel went all-in on unsubstantiated 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories about election fraud and questioned the efficacy of coronavirus vaccines.

Hair told WPTV: “I was one of one the people like him who didn’t trust the vaccine. I trusted my immune system. I just became more afraid of getting Covid-19 than I was of any possible side effects of the vaccine. I’m glad I got vaccinated.”

Rightwing radio host and anti-vaxxer dies of Covid | US news | The Guardian

[Klondyke]

Israeli scientist says COVID-19 could be treated for under $1/day

Double-blind study shows ivermectin reduces disease’s duration and infectiousness

FDA and WHO caution against its use
AUGUST 2, 2021



Ivermectin, a drug used to fight parasites in third-world countries, could help reduce the length of infection for people who contract coronavirus for less than a $1 a day, according to recent research by Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer.

Prof. Eli Schwartz, founder of the Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Disease at Sheba, conducted a randomized, controlled, double-blinded trial from May 15, 2020, through the end of January 2021 to evaluate the effectiveness of ivermectin in reducing viral shedding among nonhospitalized patients with mild to moderate COVID-19.

Ivermectin has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration since 1987. The drug’s discoverers were awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in medicine for its treatment of onchocerciasis, a disease caused by infection with a parasitic roundworm.

Over the years, it has been used for other indications, including scabies and head lice. Moreover, in the last decade, several clinical studies have started to show its antiviral activity against viruses ranging from HIV and the flu to Zika and West Nile.

The drug is also extremely economical. A study published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Therapeutics showed that the cost of ivermectin for other treatments in Bangladesh is around $0.60 to $1.80 for a five-day course. It costs up to $10 a day in Israel, Schwartz said.
In Schwartz’s study, some 89 eligible volunteers over the age of 18 who were diagnosed with coronavirus and staying in state-run COVID-19 hotels were divided into two groups: 50% received ivermectin, and 50% received a placebo, according to their weight. They were given the pills for three days in a row, an hour before a meal.

The volunteers were tested using a standard nasopharyngeal swab PCR test with the goal of evaluating whether there was a reduction in viral load by the sixth day – the third day after termination of the treatment. They were swabbed every two days.

Nearly 72% of volunteers treated with ivermectin tested negative for the virus by day six. In contrast, only 50% of those who received the placebo tested negative.

IN ADDITION, the study looked at culture viability, meaning how infectious the patients were, and found that only 13% of ivermectin patients were infectious after six days, compared with 50% of the placebo group – almost four times as many.

“Our study shows first and foremost that ivermectin has antiviral activity,” Schwartz said. “It also shows that there is almost a 100% chance that a person will be noninfectious in four to six days, which could lead to shortening isolation time for these people. This could have a huge economic and social impact.”

The study appeared on the MedRxiv health-research sharing site. It has not yet been peer reviewed.

Schwartz said other similar studies – though not all of them conducted to the same double-blind and placebo standards as his – also showed a favorable impact of ivermectin treatment.

His study did not prove ivermectin was effective as a prophylactic, meaning that it could prevent disease, he cautioned, nor did it show that it reduces the chances of hospitalization. However, other studies have shown such evidence, he added.

For example, the study published earlier this year in the American Journal of Therapeutics highlighted that “a review by the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance summarized findings from 27 studies on the effects of ivermectin for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 infection, concluding that ivermectin ‘demonstrates a strong signal of therapeutic efficacy’ against COVID-19.”

“Another recent review found that ivermectin reduced deaths by 75%,” the report said.

BUT IVERMECTIN is not without controversy, and hence, despite the high levels of coronavirus worldwide, neither the FDA nor the World Health Organization have been willing to approve it for use in the fight against the virus.

Prof. Ya’acov Nahmias, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem researcher, has questioned the safety of the drug.

“Ivermectin is a chemical therapeutic agent, and it has significant risks associated with it,” he said in a previous interview. “We should be very cautious about using this type of medication to treat a viral disease that the vast majority of the public is going to recover from even without this treatment.”

During Schwartz’s study, there was not any signal of significant side effects among ivermectin users.

Only five patients were referred to hospitals, with four of them being in the placebo arm. One ivermectin patient went to the hospital complaining of shortness of breath on the day of recruitment. He continued with the ivermectin treatment and was sent back to the hotel a day later in good condition.

The FDA said on its website it “received multiple reports of patients who have required medical support and been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin.”

The “FDA has not approved ivermectin for use in treating or preventing COVID-19 in humans,” it said. “Ivermectin tablets are approved at very specific doses for some parasitic worms, and there are topical (on the skin) formulations for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea. Ivermectin is not an antiviral (a drug for treating viruses). Taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm.”

The World Health Organization has also recommended against using the drug except in clinical trials.

IN CONTRAST, Schwartz said he was very disappointed that the WHO did not support any trial to determine whether the drug could be viable.

Last month, Oxford University announced a large trial on ivermectin effectiveness.

Schwartz said he became interested in exploring ivermectin about a year ago, “when everyone was looking for a new drug” to treat COVID-19, and a lot of effort was being put into evaluating hydroxychloroquine, so he decided to join the effort.

“Since ivermectin was on my shelf, since we are using it for tropical diseases, and there were hints it might work, I decided to go for it,” he said.

Researchers in other places worldwide began looking into the drug at around the same time. But when they started to see positive results, no one wanted to publish them, Schwartz said.

“There is a lot of opposition,” he said. “We tried to publish it, and it was kicked away by three journals. No one even wanted to hear about it. You have to ask how come when the world is suffering.”

“This drug will not bring any big economic profits,” and so Big Pharma doesn’t want to deal with it, he said.

SOME OF the loudest opposition to ivermectin has come from Merck Co., which manufactured the drug in the 1980s. In a public statement about ivermectin on its website in February, it said: “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.”

But Merck has not launched any studies of its own on ivermectin.

“You would think Merck would be happy to hear that ivermectin might be helpful to corona patients and try to study it, but they are most loudly declaring the drug should not be used,” Schwartz said. “A billion people took it. They gave it to them. It’s a real shame.”

And not moving forward with ivermectin could potentially extend the time it takes for the world to be able to live alongside the virus, he said.

“Developing new medications can take years; therefore, identifying existing drugs that can be re-purposed against COVID-19 [and] that already have an established safety profile through decades of use could play a critical role in suppressing or even ending the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic,” wrote the researchers in the American Journal of Therapeutics. “Using re-purposed medications may be especially important because it could take months, possibly years, for much of the world’s population to get vaccinated, particularly among low- to middle-income populations.”

Israeli scientist says COVID-19 could be treated for under $1/day - The Jerusalem Post

[bsnub]

As usual, Klondick posting up fake news...

COVID-19. We’ve been living with it for what sometimes seems like forever. Given the number of deaths that have occurred from the disease, it’s perhaps not surprising that some consumers are looking at unconventional treatments, not approved or authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Though this is understandable, please beware. The FDA’s job is to carefully evaluate the scientific data on a drug to be sure that it is both safe and effective for a particular use, and then to decide whether or not to approve it. Using any treatment for COVID-19 that’s not approved or authorized by the FDA, unless part of a clinical trial, can cause serious harm.

There seems to be a growing interest in a drug called ivermectin to treat humans with COVID-19. Ivermectin is often used in the U.S. to treat or prevent parasites in animals. The FDA has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical support and been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses.

Here’s What You Need to Know about Ivermectin

• FDA has not approved ivermectin for use in treating or preventing COVID-19 in humans. Ivermectin tablets are approved at very specific doses for some parasitic worms, and there are topical (on the skin) formulations for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea. Ivermectin is not an anti-viral (a drug for treating viruses).
• Taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm.
• If you have a prescription for ivermectin for an FDA-approved use, get it from a legitimate source and take it exactly as prescribed.
• Never use medications intended for animals on yourself. Ivermectin preparations for animals are very different from those approved for humans.

What is Ivermectin and How is it Used?

Ivermectin tablets are approved by the FDA to treat people with intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis, two conditions caused by parasitic worms. In addition, some topical (on the skin) forms of ivermectin are approved to treat external parasites like head lice and for skin conditions such as rosacea.

Some forms of ivermectin are used in animals to prevent heartworm disease and certain internal and external parasites. It’s important to note that these products are different from the ones for people, and safe when used as prescribed for animals, only.

When Can Taking Ivermectin Be Unsafe?

The FDA has not reviewed data to support use of ivermectin in COVID-19 patients to treat or to prevent COVID-19; however, some initial research is underway. Taking a drug for an unapproved use can be very dangerous. This is true of ivermectin, too.

There’s a lot of misinformation around, and you may have heard that it’s okay to take large doses of ivermectin. That is wrong.

Even the levels of ivermectin for approved uses can interact with other medications, like blood-thinners. You can also overdose on ivermectin, which can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hypotension (low blood pressure), allergic reactions (itching and hives), dizziness, ataxia (problems with balance), seizures, coma and even death.

Ivermectin Products for Animals Are Different from Ivermectin Products for People

For one thing, animal drugs are often highly concentrated because they are used for large animals like horses and cows, which can weigh a lot more than we do—a ton or more. Such high doses can be highly toxic in humans.

Moreover, FDA reviews drugs not just for safety and effectiveness of the active ingredients, but also for the inactive ingredients. Many inactive ingredients found in animal products aren’t evaluated for use in people. Or they are included in much greater quantity than those used in people. In some cases, we don’t know how those inactive ingredients will affect how ivermectin is absorbed in the human body.

Meanwhile, effective ways to limit the spread of COVID-19 continue to be to wear your mask, stay at least 6 feet from others who don’t live with you, wash hands frequently, and avoid crowds.

Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19 | FDA

[harrybarracuda]

It's amazing how many dopey twats you see pushing this Ivermectin shit.

All based on one dubious trial that has now been withdrawn for plagiarism and faked data.

Large Ivermectin Study Retracted | MedPage Today

[Klondyke]

As usual, Klondick posting up fake news...

Even the American Journal of Therapeutics posting the fakes...

Ivermectin for Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 Infection: A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Trial Sequential Analysis to Inform Clinical Guidelines

Abstract
Background:
Repurposed medicines may have a role against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The antiparasitic ivermectin, with antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties, has now been tested in numerous clinical trials.

Areas of uncertainty:
We assessed the efficacy of ivermectin treatment in reducing mortality, in secondary outcomes, and in chemoprophylaxis, among people with, or at high risk of, COVID-19 infection.

Data sources:
We searched bibliographic databases up to April 25, 2021. Two review authors sifted for studies, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias. Meta-analyses were conducted and certainty of the evidence was assessed using the GRADE approach and additionally in trial sequential analyses for mortality. Twenty-four randomized controlled trials involving 3406 participants met review inclusion.

Therapeutic Advances:
Meta-analysis of 15 trials found that ivermectin reduced risk of death compared with no ivermectin (average risk ratio 0.38, 95% confidence interval 0.19–0.73; n = 2438; I2 = 49%; moderate-certainty evidence). This result was confirmed in a trial sequential analysis using the same DerSimonian–Laird method that underpinned the unadjusted analysis. This was also robust against a trial sequential analysis using the Biggerstaff–Tweedie method. Low-certainty evidence found that ivermectin prophylaxis reduced COVID-19 infection by an average 86% (95% confidence interval 79%–91%). Secondary outcomes provided less certain evidence. Low-certainty evidence suggested that there may be no benefit with ivermectin for “need for mechanical ventilation,” whereas effect estimates for “improvement” and “deterioration” clearly favored ivermectin use. Severe adverse events were rare among treatment trials and evidence of no difference was assessed as low certainty. Evidence on other secondary outcomes was very low certainty.

Conclusions:
Moderate-certainty evidence finds that large reductions in COVID-19 deaths are possible using ivermectin. Using ivermectin early in the clinical course may reduce numbers progressing to severe disease. The apparent safety and low cost suggest that ivermectin is likely to have a significant impact on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic globally.

Read more
Ivermectin for Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 Infectio... : American Journal of Therapeutics