Coronavirus

[tokyojoe]

Had the booster today. No reaction at all so far.

[3 Stacks]

The new anti viral pill Pfizer came up with that in studies was 89% effective against hospitalization and death, if that holds up and lives up to promise, then in conjunction with vaccines, yeah, Covid will essentially be the flu.

[Bjornebye]

5 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

The new anti viral pill Pfizer came up with that in studies was 89% effective against hospitalization and death, if that holds up and lives up to promise, then in conjunction with vaccines, yeah, Covid will essentially be the flu.

If Covid was the flu then it would just be the flu. 

[3 Stacks]

3 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

If Covid was the flu then it would just be the flu. 

Good point, mate. Noted.

[Rico1304]

 

[Barrington Womble]

17 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

The new anti viral pill Pfizer came up with that in studies was 89% effective against hospitalization and death, if that holds up and lives up to promise, then in conjunction with vaccines, yeah, Covid will essentially be the flu.

You miss the point. We have an NHS that is already fucked with the flu. Without change, having 2 flus is not an option, let alone one we are still learning about. 

[3 Stacks]

3 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

You miss the point. We have an NHS that is already fucked with the flu. Without change, having 2 flus is not an option, let alone one we are still learning about. 

I'm not missing anything. You're arguing against a point I haven't made. It was just a statement.

[3 Stacks]

What's with people losing it if you put flu and covid in the same sentence? It's simply a frame of reference. If you have an extremely effective anti viral and vaccines, covid and the flu will become more similar in the way they can be handled, that's all. I.e covid will possibly not stop society in its tracks.

[TheHowieLama]

56 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

 I.e covid will possibly not stop society in its tracks.

It already has and without continuing appropriate safety measures (which were unheard of before Covid) it very well may again. To the extent it did last winter - who knows.

It is not going to ever go away, and it will always be more virulent and deadly than the flu. 

 

Now people are rationilsing it by comparing the numbers of today vs. the worst flu season on recent record. The numbers next month will be a different story is my guess.

[Red Phoenix]

22 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

The new anti viral pill Pfizer came up with that in studies was 89% effective against hospitalization and death, if that holds up and lives up to promise, then in conjunction with vaccines, yeah, Covid will essentially be the flu.

 

If it's just Pfizer's studies you're talking about probably a load of bullshit. Like Bernie said, fraud is their business model. Saying that though I do hope it has some decent effect and can help, and with less of the side effects that vaccines have.

[3 Stacks]

Just now, Red Phoenix said:

 

If it's just Pfizer's studies you're talking about probably a load of bullshit. Like Bernie said, fraud is their business model. Saying that though I do hope it has some decent effect and can help, and with less of the side effects that vaccines have.

Yes, of course. Thanks for the opinion.

[Rico1304]

1 hour ago, Red Phoenix said:

 

If it's just Pfizer's studies you're talking about probably a load of bullshit. Like Bernie said, fraud is their business model. Saying that though I do hope it has some decent effect and can help, and with less of the side effects that vaccines have.

So a medical trial in which some of the volunteers fucking died is ‘probably’ bullshit because of something Bernie said.  Moron. 

[DJLJ]

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-40739139.html

 

Quote

Researchers identify gene that doubles risk of respiratory failure from Covid-19

Researchers uncover a gene that doubles the risk of respiratory failure from Covid-19 (Jane Barlow/PA)

 

SUN, 07 NOV, 2021 - 19:00

NINA MASSEY, PA SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT

Researchers have identified the gene responsible for doubling the risk of respiratory failure from coronavirus.

Some 60% of people with South Asian ancestry carry the high-risk genetic signal, a new study found.

Scientists say this partly explains the excess deaths and the impact of Covid-19 in the Indian subcontinent.

The gene is also common in the European population, occurring in about 15%.

Study co-lead James Davies worked as an NHS consultant in intensive care medicine during the pandemic and is an associate professor of genomics at Oxford University’s Radcliffe Department of Medicine.

He said: “If you have the high risk genotype and you get very unwell with Covid, there’s a 50% chance that that wouldn’t have happened to you had you had the lower risk genotype.”

The study, published in Nature Genetics, also found that the gene does not alter immune cell function.

Because the effect is in the biology of the lungs, people with the higher risk version of the genes should respond fully to vaccination, the scientists say.

They stress that they are not suggesting that socio-economic factors are not important for Covid risk and outcome.

Previous research had identified a stretch of DNA on chromosome three which doubled the risk of adults under the age of 65 from Covid.

But it was not known how this genetic signal worked to increase the risk, nor the exact genetic change that was responsible.

Study co-lead Jim Hughes, professor of gene regulation at the University of Oxford, said: “The reason this has proved so difficult to work out, is that the previously identified genetic signal affects the ‘dark matter’ of the genome.

“We found that the increased risk is not because of a difference in gene coding for a protein, but because of a difference in the DNA that makes a switch to turn a gene on.

“It’s much harder to detect the gene which is affected by this kind of indirect switch effect.”

The gene was identified using a combination of artificial intelligence and cutting-edge molecular technology which visualises the structure of DNA inside cells in unprecedented detail.

Dr Damien Downes, who led the laboratory work from the Prof Hughes research group, said: “Surprisingly, as several other genes were suspected, the data showed that a relatively unstudied gene called LZTFL1 causes the effect.”

The researchers found that the higher risk version of the gene probably prevents the cells lining airways and the lungs from responding to the virus properly.

They hope drugs and other therapies could target the pathway preventing the lung lining from transforming to less specialised cells, raising the possibility of new treatments customised for those most likely to develop severe symptoms.

Prof Davies said: “The genetic factor we have found explains why some people get very seriously ill after coronavirus infection.

“It shows that the way in which the lung responds to the infection is critical.

“This is important because most treatments have focussed on changing the way in which the immune system reacts to the virus.”

The study also found that 2% of people with Afro-Caribbean ancestry carried the higher risk genotype, meaning this genetic factor does not completely explain the higher death rates reported for black and minority ethnic communities.

Prof Davies added: “Although we cannot change our genetics, our results show that the people with the higher risk gene are likely to particularly benefit from vaccination.

“Since the genetic signal affects the lung rather than the immune system it means that the increased risk should be cancelled out by the vaccine.”

 

Looks like they are now one step closer to discover why some people are more likely to get very sick from Covid-19.

[Red Phoenix]

54 minutes ago, Rico1304 said:

So a medical trial in which some of the volunteers fucking died is ‘probably’ bullshit because of something Bernie said.  Moron. 

 

I meant that Pfizer probably made out like it was more effective than it is, there was nothing in my post about disrespecting those that died at all.

 

Keep twisting and trolling though.

[Captain Turdseye]

They’re approaching the point where they declare it as an “outbreak” in Turdsette’s primary school now and close it down. More positive tests today, this time they’re in her class and asymptomatic. All kids have to take a PCR. 
 

Wish it would hurry up and fuck off. 

[Bjornebye]

21 hours ago, TheHowieLama said:

It already has and without continuing appropriate safety measures (which were unheard of before Covid) it very well may again. To the extent it did last winter - who knows.

It is not going to ever go away, and it will always be more virulent and deadly than the flu. 

 

Now people are rationilsing it by comparing the numbers of today vs. the worst flu season on recent record. The numbers next month will be a different story is my guess.

The shit spouters have stopped using numbers all of a sudden. Inventing a new reality as we speak. 

[SasaS]

On 07/11/2021 at 15:40, 3 Stacks said:

What's with people losing it if you put flu and covid in the same sentence? It's simply a frame of reference. If you have an extremely effective anti viral and vaccines, covid and the flu will become more similar in the way they can be handled, that's all. I.e covid will possibly not stop society in its tracks.

 

The F-word.

[DalyanPete]

Sinovac approved by UK covid police, whoopdefuckinwhoop!!!!

I don't have to isolate for 10 days. 

Crimbo in Liverpool, bring it baby.

So fuckin happy.

[Bjornebye]

1 minute ago, DalyanPete said:

Sinovac approved by UK covid police, whoopdefuckinwhoop!!!!

I don't have to isolate for 10 days. 

Crimbo in Liverpool, bring it baby.

So fuckin happy.

Superb news, made up for you 

[Bjornebye]

In more depressing scenes...

 

 

 

 

[Kepler-186]

Inside the social media channel where anti-vaccine activists target Merseyside schools

On the messaging app Telegram, we’ve seen videos that show 14 different local schools being harassed in person by campaigners 

Harry Shukman Oct 22 10 25

 

Dear readers — we’re dropping into your inboxes this morning with a fascinating report about anti-vaccine activists targeting schools across Merseyside. It’s by Harry Shukman, who used to be a staff reporter at The Times and has just joined our team part-time to do some reporting for The Post. 

Harry has been monitoring a series of messaging groups on the social media app Telegram and has seen videos of more than a dozen local schools being targeted in recent weeks. He’s also found messages where campaigners talk in threatening terms about teachers, including one user who says: “Time to follow the headmaster home.” 

---

By Harry Shukman

On 10 October, a message dropped into an anti-vaccine social media group called Liverpool Fight for Freedom. It seemed to come from a parent at a school in Toxteth. “St Hilda’s near Sefton Park tomorrow jabbing the kids  has this school not been served?”

Four days later, a video began to circulate in various online groups used by anti-vaccine activists on Merseyside. It showed two men and a woman in the reception area of St Hilda’s School, demanding to speak to the headteacher Jo Code. It’s soundtracked by triumphant martial music and shows a large man in a suit and tie standing close to Code. He follows her around the room, reading aloud from a sheet of paper.

“I stand under common law,” says the man. “I am here on behalf of concerned parents to hand over these lawful, legally binding documents to you… you personally will be held responsible if any child suffers death or harm from these experimental vaccines.” By this point in the video Code is backed into a corner. She repeatedly asks the activists to stop filming. They ignore her and the footage ends abruptly.

Headteacher Jo Code being confronted by protestors. Screenshots obtained via Harry Shukman/The Post.

The clips were shared via the online messaging app Telegram, which has become popular among anti-vaccine campaigners because users are less likely to be banned for spreading misinformation. For the past two weeks, we have been monitoring the communications of a network of Merseyside-based activists, who have been organising via Telegram in their campaign to put pressure on local teachers.

In total, we’ve seen videos that show 14 different local schools being harassed by campaigners in the past month. The campaigners tend to do the same thing on each visit: filming inside schools without permission in order to post evidence that they have served “notices of liability” to headteachers, which are based on dubiously interpreted items of common law. They hope that by delivering these documents they will be able to take legal action against the schools for harming children.

We’ve counted six different anti-vaccine activists making the visits — none of whom identified themselves as the parent of a child at the school. They boast about frightening teachers and giving them sleepless nights, and at one point say about a headteacher: “She can’t run, she can’t hide.” According to a representative from Liverpool Council, these activists have been able to secure meetings with headteachers by pretending to be solicitors, although this detail was not visible in any of the footage we saw.

The Merseyside schools where we have seen videos of activists turning up. 

The Telegram group where we first saw the videos is called Liverpool’s People’s Resistance UK, which has just over 300 members. “We are looking for people who want to fight back for our God-given freedoms,” it says. “We need boots on the ground.” Messages from its administrator — a man named George — suggest it is unaffiliated to the other protesters who this month tried to serve similar notices to the broadcaster Jeremy Vine at his home in London and the celebrity doctor Hilary Jones.

Members can ask George to serve their child’s schools, and his activist team will go and harass them with a “notice” and some unauthorised filming. Ostensibly the visits are born out of concern about in-school vaccinations, but one post suggests parents are using the group to settle petty grievances with teachers. On 14 October, a parent said St Margaret’s Academy in Aigburth “needs doing” after their son had a “run in with the head”. “Wouldn’t mention my name like as he’s proper got it in for me atm [at the moment],” the parent wrote. 

The reply from George came less than a minute later. “Ok leave it with me,” he wrote. “Should have our vid by midday. ” The next day, a video of St Margaret’s being targeted by George’s team surfaced in the group. The same school was picketed in early October by a separate group called Liverpool Fight for Freedom.

The Telegram group chat where activists plan. Screenshots obtained via Harry Shukman/The Post.

As the videos of notices being served started to trickle into Liverpool's People’s Resistance UK, members congratulated each other on successfully hounding the teachers. The video from St Hilda’s was met with George excitedly posting: 

Jo Code near had a nervous breakdown. She’ll be having a sleepless night that’s for sure. Wait till the morning until the penny drops and she realises the severity of it all. I can see her going on the sick. She can’t run, she can’t hide.

What makes these Telegram channels different to the countless other conspiracy theorist groups on social media is that their members are taking real-life action, harassing teachers in person rather than just posting about them online. Code and the headteachers of the other schools declined to comment for this article.

We understand that dozens of schools across Merseyside have been “served” or picketed for vaccinating children since the government broadened eligibility to 12-15-year-olds last month. The Echo reported on Monday that Merseyside Police have told teachers to "check they are not being followed" after activists turned up. 

We’ve found that many of those efforts are organised via these Telegram groups. Three men posted in Liverpool Fight for Freedom with pictures of them leafleting a school in Ormskirk, writing that they felt “totally out of our comfort zones handing out leaflets outside a school but it needed to be done”. 

Their distinctive yellow signs, which read “The experimental COVID jabs” and “Heart damage in teens”, bear resemblance to those used by Rebels on Roundabouts, a group of 5,000 members who demonstrate at roadsides in the North West.  

An anti-vaxx protestor at a school. Screenshots obtained via Harry Shukman/The Post.

In a related incident, The Post can report that a school in the Wirral called the police recently after a parent and her brother-in-law turned up to confront him over mask-wearing. Kevin Flanagan, head of Pensby High School, was targeted after a dispute with a parent over her son’s right to not wear a face mask in class.

Because the mum had posted about her experience online, it soon made its way onto a blog called Hugo Talks, which trafficks in conspiracy theories about Prince Charles being the Antichrist. From there, it ended up in the Merseyside Telegram groups, which opened a sluice gate of abuse against Flanagan. “Time to follow the headmaster home,” added one commenter, joining in the suggestions that Flanagan’s address be shared online. “Sounds like he needs a visit from the resistance,” another said. 

Members of groups like Liverpool Freedom & Health or Hold The Line — Liverpool gleefully encouraged one another to phone up Pensby High School and give “this headteacher the verbal abuse that he deserves”. Others shared screenshots of their vitriolic emails to the school. Flanagan was called a “nazi”, a “cunt”, and a “genocidal supporter” and it was insinuated that he was a paedophile. Flanagan declined to comment for this article, but a spokesperson for Wirral Council said every single secondary school on the peninsula had been picketed by anti-vaccine protesters in recent weeks. 

An anti-vaxx protestor at a school. Screenshots obtained via Harry Shukman/The Post.

The Telegram groups we have been watching might be local to Merseyside, but the harassment of teachers is a national problem. Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has said anti-vaccine protests targeting schools are "completely unacceptable" and added: "This appalling behaviour must stop. The vaccines are safe, effective and have built a huge wall of defence around us that is keeping the virus at bay.”

Stella Creasy, the Labour MP, has separately called for "buffer zones" outside schools to stop activists from picketing students. "You don't have an open, uncontested right to foist your views on other people,” she told PoliticsHome, “especially when it's very clear these kids have said no, and these adults are continuing.”

Meanwhile, in the Telegram groups, activists continue to share the names of schools where vaccinations are taking place. Requests for schools to be served are still coming in, as are the upcoming dates of school vaccination days. George, the administrator of Liverpool People’s Resistance, is now encouraging parents to serve notices to schools themselves. “You all need to send them,” he wrote. “If we don't fight back we’re all fucked.”

[DJLJ]

Corona now found in deer in Iowa. 
 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/science/deer-covid-infection.html

[Red Phoenix]

 

[Mudface]

2 hours ago, Red Phoenix said:

 

Clickbait headlines, but if you actually read the articles, then it makes it very clear what the figure relates to. The Sky one even has a piece at the end-

 

ITV- https://www.itv.com/news/2021-11-08/hospital-covid-admissions-14-times-higher-than-this-time-in-2020-nhs-boss-says

 

Quote

Earlier Pritchard said Covid cases were 14 times higher than this time last year. NHS England later clarified she was referring to the most recently published statistics in August.

 

i News- https://inews.co.uk/news/covid-booster-vaccine-first-jab-nhs-patients-hospital-last-year-1289141

 

Quote

 

Ms Pritchard also claimed that there had been 14 times as many Covid patients in hospital as this time last year, saying: “We had 14 times the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 than we saw this time last year.”

NHS England later clarified that Ms Pritchard misspoke and was referring to August 2021 compared with August 2020. In August last year, 1,629 Covid positive patients were admitted to hospital compared to 22,877 in the same month in 2021.

 

 

Sky- https://inews.co.uk/news/covid-booster-vaccine-first-jab-nhs-patients-hospital-last-year-1289141

 

Quote

 

Ms Pritchard said there was "14 times the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 than we saw this time last year" - based on the latest published month-on-month NHS data for August.

"We also had a record number of A&E attendance and a record number of 999 calls," she added.

"As we look into winter, I think we're very clear this is going to be a difficult winter, and the things we encourage people to do is anything they can do to protect themselves, so that's the COVID-19 vaccine, it's the flu vaccination in particular."

The NHS clarified the chief executive was referring to the latest published NHS performance data - comparing August 2020 and August 2021. She had been talking in the context of pressures on the NHS ahead of winter, and being able to deliver other care with pressure from COVID.

 

ANALYSIS BY ED CONWAY, DATA EDITOR
Are there really 14 times more people in hospital with COVID-19 than there were this time last year?

The short answer to this question is, contrary to what the NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard might have you believe: no.

In fact, over the past fortnight, the number of people in hospitals in England with COVID has been lower than last year. In other words, it’s not so much that she’s got the magnitude of her claim wrong, the entire basis of it is wrong, as of now.

To see how this has all happened it’s worth briefly pondering the precise words Ms Pritchard used: “We HAVE HAD 14 times the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 than we saw this time last year.” Note the past tense.

The NHS tell us this statistic was based on NHS monthly data for August 2021, compared with the August of 2020. And indeed, if you look at the number of people in hospital this August and compare it with the previous year, there is a big difference: 5,400 on average this August vs 625 last August. Lo and behold, that’s about fourteen times bigger.

But there are two big clanging issues with this comparison. The first is that in terms of hospital numbers last August was quite literally the low point of the pandemic. Pretty much any month’s numbers would look high in comparison with it. As it was, this August numbers were not exactly low, but were still, to put it into perspective, about a sixth the level they were at the peak of the second wave.

The second problem is that even if this absurdly unrepresentative ratio were true for the briefest of moments in August (and only because the previous year’s numbers were unusually low) it should have been patently clear that it is no longer true now.

In fact, as of 5 November 2021 the Pritchard ratio, as it should perhaps be called, was running at 0.64, and will probably fall further in the coming weeks, since we are comparing the current post-vaccine era with the pre-vaccine period when the Kent/Alpha variant was about to take the UK health system by storm.

Here at Sky News we do our best to check these facts as quickly as we can. We don’t always get it right, but if we notice something fishy we’ll do our best to correct it or provide context as soon as we can. It’s quite unusual – and I say this as someone who’s been sifting through this stuff since the very beginning - to come across something quite so fishy coming from such a senior figure. But perhaps this tells you as much about the state of mind at the top of the NHS ahead of this winter as it does about their grasp of the numbers.

 

 

DO YOUR RESEARCH SHEEPLE.

[DalyanPete]

10 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

Superb news, made up for you 

Cheers mate, so fuckin happy.