Does the coronavirus merit investment, or personal, concern or consideration?

5940

Excellent discussion, guys. Pursuant to your colloquy:

Dr. Richard H. Ebright (Harvard), Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University, has commented at length regarding the most recent data dump (posted up thread by xerty), finally just released due to a FOIA submission months ago, concerning your topic. Before I post the links:

Executive summary: The 900 page Intercept release makes it clear both Fauci and Collins lied. It also now appears blame for secretiveness must be shared between China and America. Culpable people here, at the highest levels, were playing CYA for over a year. And I’m obviously not condemning Trump. But sadly I am referring to people Trump understandably trusted, particularly at the commencement of the pandemic.

This material is too lengthy and involved for me to copy and paste. If you really want to know what happened, here are the links:

Link to the Intercept’s discoveries thanks to FOIA

Link to Dr. Ebright’s insightful analysis of those 900 pages

I will quite Dr. Ebright’s final tweet:

The documents make it clear that assertions by the NIH Director, Francis Collins, and the NIAID Director, Anthony Fauci, that the NIH did not support gain-of-function research or potential pandemic pathogen enhancement at WIV are untruthful.

My bet is that, despite this most recent and most damaging revelation, Fauci will continue to be respected, idolized, and worshipped by the American mainstream media, and will never be asked about any of this by them.

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5941

Almost everything you wrote and quoted doesn’t seem to fit my understanding of the definition of “gain of function research”, with the following exceptions:

but I’m not an expert, so maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t fit the definition. I withdraw my objection for now. I am curious why The Intercept didn’t just come out and say it.

5942

lots of nice macro charts as well as vaccine related ones half way thru. Good humor in the presentation as well

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5943

another long, evenhanded, article from our favorite Hawaiian physician, Buzz Hollander, This time about ivermectin.

My summary:

The evidence for ivermectin’s efficacy in treating covid infections and, I believe, in preventing them is not good.

There are finally large studies. initial results are not promising.

He is a proponent of vaccination, which I agree with, If belief in the efficacy of ivermectin keeps people from getting vaccinated that is not a good result.

The article gives references and his argument. It is long but it is well worth reading.

p.s. I agree with the Goose that this guy is a reason to move to Hawaii.

https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2021/09/08/lessons_from_the_ivermectin_debacle_793483.html

Edit. Perhaps I was too negative. Here is Hollander’s summary

In all, the matter of ivermectin’s value as a Covid-19 therapeutic is still an open question under investigation. In fact, several of the sorts of large, high-quality trials most of us covet are currently underway. One, the TOGETHER trial, presented interim results last month that were unfavorable to ivermectin, announcing the study arm was being stopped due to futility. However, I observe the modest trend towards a (statistically insignificant) 9% improvement in ER/hospital stays and 18% mortality reduction, and wonder: “perhaps the other studies will show some real, if not miraculous, benefit?”

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5944

Good article, thanks. Speaking of Rogan, this was a great parody.

5945

In case anyone still thought the CDC was hanging on to any legitimacy when it comes to their orders regarding kids masking in schools.

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5946

More “reporting” focused on pushing a narrative rather than sticking with the facts.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/parents-of-students-with-disabilities-sue-to-stop-desantis-from-enforcing-school-mask-ban/ar-AAOgyJx?li=BBnb7Kz

" Parents of students with disabilities sue to stop DeSantis from enforcing school mask ban"

Of course, there is no mask ban to be enforced in the first place. But dont tell the headline that, gotta ensure people get pissed off before they get to the actual details involved.

On a side note, it’s really sad how allowing everyone to make their own choice is being denounced as oppressive, while forcing your choice onto everyone else is being cheered as as protected freedom. Really, really sad.

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5947

Ivermectin is so good they’re making up fake studies saying it attacks your manhood and causes infertility. And some credulous media are publishing them too, although at least these guys retracted it.

A new study by researchers at three universities have concluded that ivermectin causes sterility in 85% of men

Oops, maybe not

"FOR THE RECORD: A national story regarding Ivermectin and a study regarding its effect on men’s reproductive health that KTSM published, has been removed from our website.

Concerns over the scientific research methods, the veracity of the original, peer-reviewed report and public statements by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) saying that infertility is not a known side effect of Ivermectin all led to our editorial decision to remove the story."

Gotta buy enough time for those Pfizer and Merck ivermectin knockoffs to get through phase 2 trials so they can get approved and everyone (except you) can make the big bucks selling patented new covid therapeutics to the government / taxpayer.

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5948

The same was said in the old country about Pfizer, Moderna and Astra-Zeneca. There are nuts and evildoers on all ends of the spectrum.

5949

You don’t have a thing to worry about. The mainstream media fact checkers will be all over this, multiple times a day, for weeks on end.

Additionally, you can bet facebook, insta-whatever, and twitter are disabling all of the accounts that are posting this drivel. Since those false reports could affect the health of many people, it’s their responsibility … or so some have squawked.

5950

Yes, the CDC speaks again, about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. They also speak fire and brimstone to the covid (variant of the day) … and I thought the sky-is-falling weather worriers were a religious bunch.

I’m not exactly happy to risk my life on judging the govt to not have my best interest at heart/wallet, but I can’t imagine the pain that thinking parents are putting themselves through. They’re responsible for making the right decision, and what a tough call to make.

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5951

The only group the CDC advised some caution for in administering second doses was young men who’ve had myocarditis after their first vaccine dose. They may want to defer a second dose, or discuss the situation with their doctor first.

“If the vaccine gave your kid heart problems you might not want to give your kid a second dose.”

ya-think-ווופ-memegenerator-net-ya-think-nick-cage-52873393

5952

From a guy who thinks an awful lot about government and power structures. Covid as an institutional failing (if it escaped) or at least a big risk that Obama’s short-lived pandemic-creating research ban failed to reign in.

It is certainly necessary to have institutions of knowledge, but these institutions must be subordinate to powers outside and above them. This is true for both religion and science.

For an example of this principle, look no farther than Covid. There was no power outside and above virology that could say to virology: Wow, I see you want to go out and collect bat viruses and tinker with them so they can infect humans. And the goal of this research is to make these crossover viruses intentionally, to… predict they might evolve accidentally? And what would we do with this prediction, anyway? Exterminate all the bats? No? Okay… guys, really sorry

The consequence of this sanity filter is that crazy ideas are no longer dominant… Obviously, in a monarchy, this filter is an extension of executive power. In an oligarchy, there is no executive power, leaving no one who can say no to the virologists. Virologists and other scientists are delicate creatures and should not be exposed to the temptations of sovereignty.

Here’s looking at you Tony.

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5953

Half of covid hospitalizations appear not to be serious, or at least not due to a serious case of covid.

if you’ve got mild covid and need to go to the hospital for an accident or unrelated health issue, you’re counted too.

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5954

I’m still trying to understand how hospitals are full and desperate when hospitalizations are a fraction (about 60%) of last January and trending downward…

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5955

More covid patients in ICU and on ventilators.

Take high amount of resources.

Trend locally is slightly down from a few weeks ago but still pretty crazy high. Still 350 ICU and over 200 covid on ventilators in my city.

Children’s hospitals especially are also overburdened (even though the raw numbers are lower, there was less capacity to begin with), and each child patient take up even more resources (partly because the survivability value is higher per patient)

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5956

A quick reminder that zinc deficiency interferes with lots of aspects of immunity, including antibodies, and is necessary for proper function of most immune cells. It also has various anti-viral properties generally, such as impeding viral entry, replication, and distribution within your body.

The RDA for zinc is 8mg daily for women and 11mg for men.

Of course you get some zinc from your diet, so this full amount may not be necessary, but apparently some 10-20% of people are zinc deficient, something more common in older people.

I noticed that my multivitamin does not include any zinc, while those targeted to the elderly (Centrum Silver, or similar) do often include some 11-15mg of zinc.

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5957

Which one is that? All the Centrum and One-A-Day I checked have some Zinc (the “for men” ones have 11mg, more for “silver” or “50+”).

5958

oysters are an excellent source of zinc. A typical 3 ounce serving has over six times the adult RDA. I buy canned oysters from Walmart and I have a couple of them every day with crackers. I like the taste. Canned oysters are a lot safer than raw oysters.

Edit: no other food comes close to oysters. The first column is mg per serving, the last column is percent RDA

Oysters, cooked, breaded and fried, 3 ounces 74.0 673
Beef chuck roast, braised, 3 ounces 7.0 64
Crab, Alaska king, cooked, 3 ounces 6.5 59
Beef patty, broiled, 3 ounces 5.3 48
Lobster, cooked, 3 ounces 3.4 31
Pork chop, loin, cooked, 3 ounces 2.9 26
Baked beans, canned, plain or vegetarian, ½ cup 2.9 26
Breakfast cereal, fortified with 25% of the DV for zinc, 1 serving 2.8 25
Chicken, dark meat, cooked, 3 ounces 2.4 22
Pumpkin seeds, dried, 1 ounce 2.2 20
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5959

Except for Jews. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

ETA: [We’re not exclusive, so] … and maybe Seventh Day Adventists, WWCG’ers, etc.