Covid is over? But Dengue is back...

cross posted from my main blog

 Joe Biden in at least two interviews claimed the epidemic of covid is over (a milder form is now endemic: sort of as covid morphed from killer flu that needed intervention to control the spread to an ordinary cold that will be with us forever).

....

Dr. C discusses, and one does hope that youtube won't censor him for quoting what any doctor knows about the vaccines: They did work, and saved lives. 

but now that the pandemic is over, why the push on vaccinating low risk folk including children?

The newer varients don't kill except for a few high risk folk, and the shots don't give good protection. 

but he points out that there is now a covalent vaccine that gives immunity against the newer strains: The problem is the lack of  data in humans, including safety data (the experts assume the side effects are similar to the original vaccine). Eight mice confirm it works.

One hopes that Dr C doesn't get banned from Youtube for saying such things (he is, like myself, pro vaccine, but in publich health you have to know about side effects and efficiency of vaccines, and the way you do this is open discussion, not censoring anyone who dares to question the authorities).

theTablet has an article on how government officials pressured media and social networks like you tube etc. to ban publicizing the Great Barrington Declaration, that questioned the extensive use of the vaccines on low risk groups and the high cost of the extreme lockdowns.

To my shame, liberal media websites like the UKGuardian, which are usually sceptical of power pushes from governments and profit making ventures of Big Pharma, added their voice to silence the discussion. 

the problem is made worse because private companies can censor stories and give their opinion, but when the government is behind this, it is against the first amendment.

Ironically, the way most ordinary folk found out the details of what was going on was by listening to Joe Rogan who let one of the docs behind this give his side of the story for two hours, transcript here.

---------------------------------

The big danger here is Dengue fever, not just here in the Philippines but also in other countries. LINK

TimesOfIndia discusses the problems of using a vaccine to stop Dengue: what kills you is the reaction to the disease, which causes the hemorrhagic type of sickness.

The Philippines was pressured into giving the vaccine to kids a couple years ago but improper screening led to some deaths, 

Background: a few docs pointed out that giving it to kids who had not had dengue in the past could cause the hemorrhagic type complication, and there was a natural suspicions that Filipino kids were being used as guinea pigs, (and of course locals wondered if maybe small gifts encouraged approval of giving out the vaccine),

ScientificAmerican article on the dengue debacle.

Full medical details about dengue from a 2018 article in Lancet.

One side effect:  epidemics of other diseases such as measles because parents refused any vaccine for their kids.

another side effect: The DOH refused to approve of the Pfizer vaccine for covid that the US planned to send to the Philippines in January 2021, so we didn't start vaccinating until later in the year.

----------------------------

And guess what? Ebola is breaking out in Uganda. Luckily they have a vaccine for this now, so it will probably be stopped before it kills a lot of folks. The problem: This is not the strain that the vaccine stopped in DRC, it is a strain from Sudan, so maybe the vaccine won't work as well as hoped.

sigh.

----------------

.

She who cannot be discussed: Behavior

 Cross posted from my regular blog, but more details.

the US Navy has implemented a "don't ask don't tell" program for sailors, and pushing education on those with old fashioned ideas.

What is not discussed: The behavior. Even though the Tailhook scandal was mentioned as the reason the Navy realized they had a problem. 

In a ship, there is a hot house atmosphere, and minor micro aggressions can become real problems. One of my friend's son deserted during the VietNam war because he couldn't take the racial bigotry he was faced with every day.

But what worries me about this: in their zeal to retrain sailors to drop their beliefs (in this case, deep seated cultural and religious beliefs), will the result of the policy be not harmony but a blindness to real sexual agresseion by predators who will twist the policy to silence those who object? LINK UKGuardian article from ten years ago about cover up of sexual assault against military women...  but this also hapens in men.

and the number or reports have increased in recent years, although it is not certain if the numbers are higher because micro agressions are included in the reports, or if the increase is because people are more willing to report serious cases that in the past would not bave been reported because of shame or fear.

The Pentagon's latest survey on reported sexual assaults in the military show that in 2021 an estimated 8.4% of active duty women and 1.5% of active duty men indicated experiencing at least one incident of unwanted sexual contact.

Also not discussed: without discussing how this training goes against religious beliefs that some behavior is wrong, (italics mine) the end rsult  might mean a lot of the best and brightest will either leave or will tell their kids not to join the service. 

-----------------------------

Similarly, in this monkeypox in an infant report leaves out the question: Why is a small baby sleeping in the same bed as two caregivers, one of whom had done high risk behavior and started having symptoms three weeks before the child's rash started ? 

Sleeping with an infant in the same bed is an African custom, so if the case is in immigrants that custom should be explained. If it is white Americans, then we have to ask why an educated white adult with a rash and fever and a known behavior that makes him or her high risk for monkeypox is exposing their baby to an illness by sleeping in the same bed.

CBS news laments the west isn't helping with cases in Africa, but a close look shows only small numbers of cases until the recent spread via high spreader events in the west resulted in 50 thousand reported cases, most in countries where it is not endemic.

But what I wonder: In an epidemic that spread in the white MSM community, why have cases in more recent weeks changed to having 41 percent African American and 25 percent Hispanic?

Instead of trying to change behavior by shutting down raves and high risk meeting places, we see an outreach to the gay community to get a vaccine. Problem: Is there an outreach to the minority gay community also? Culturally gays are less welcome in black and Hispanic communities, so they might not have gotten the message.

But given the reports that monkey pox was a white middle aged MSM disease, even I was aghast that in recent weeks that there had been an increase in the numbers of people who were minority background.

NBC report about this, and the barriers to minority men who suspect they have the disease: not just the stigma against MSM, but the bureaucratic problems that stopped people from getting tested and treated, including the slowness in contacting possible contacts to the gentleman who first came down with symptoms.

Meanwhile, the disparity in those who have contracted monkeypox and those who have access to vaccines is glaring. While Black people account for about a third of monkeypox cases in the U.S., about 10% of vaccines have been administered to the group, according to the CDC. The vaccine distribution disparities come as Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the CDC, acknowledged that the agency must make drastic changes to respond better and faster to public health emergencies, following missteps during the Covid pandemic.

one of the untold stories of covid is the refusal of the black community to get the vaccine, partly due to lack of outreach, but also because of mistrust in the medical community that dates from the Tuskegee study. 

Outreach and local clinics where people know you would help, but no one wants to admit that the takeover of medicine by bureaucrats who stress efficiency spending time documenting everything you do rather than having a doc waste time getting to know you personally has lowered the trust in the medical community.

And the problems of rural and inner city health outreach is not just about the black community, but about other minorities, including working class whites.

Covid in Asia

Several articles include information on covid in Asia.

 
StrategyPage includes this information:

September 10, 2022: Currently China has 33 cities and about 65 million people under covid19 lockdowns. Those cities account for a disproportionate amount of the national GDP because factories in these cities supply vital components for manufacturing operations all over China, and the world.

The heavy use of lockdowns to achieve zero covid19 cases Initially (2020) this was a success and allowed China to claim far fewer covid19 deaths than it actually suffered. Other industrialized East Asian nations (South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore) adopted similar policies with similar success but also accurately reported covid19 deaths. This annoyed China, but worse was yet to come. Covid19 evolved into strains that spread more easily but were much less likely to kill. The other East Asian nations adjusted to this and did not use large scale shutdowns because of the economic damage. These nations trusted their citizens to test themselves and self-quarantine if infected. China was not as trusting of its citizens and continued with large scale lockdowns that did more damage to the Chinese economy without reducing covid19 deaths much.

Another difference with China was their refusal to buy the more effective Western mRNA vaccines or license the technology. There were hacking efforts against the mRNA vaccine developers early on but those hacks failed to get the mRNA tech. China used less- effective vaccines developed locally. These vaccines were less successful in preventing infections and this resulted in strict lockdowns to overcome this problem. China now has an mRNA vaccine design that is being tested.

 There is a minor scandal in the USA about how covid and/or the vaccines for covid are causing myocardopathy and sudden death in young people.

the scandal was not because of the problem, but because the anti vax types noticed this first, but it took months for the government to admit they had a problem. 

Here in Asia, there is a genetic factor that causes sudden death (we lost a cousin and our cook lost her son from this). But now there is a report that Japan is planning to put automatic defibrillators in schools. making one wonder if there has also been an increase in sudden cardiac deaths in recent years.

Almost all schools in Japan now have an AED, and cases of sudden cardiac death have been gradually decreasing. However, 12 children died in 2017 of cardiac arrest in schools, accounting for about 20 percent of all deaths in schools that year.

Here in the Philippines, the death rate has stablized:

Updates

• 2,619 new cases and 32 new deaths in the Philippines [source]

 

but there is a lot around: “NCR’s positivity rate increased from 13.2% last week to 16.4% at present

here everything is open and things are busy: And in the farms folks are busy at the rice fields. (Hope that the typhoons stay away).

But we are seeing dengue cases but no one has sprayed the open drainage ditches yet.

I had two AZ shots, but didn't get the booster even when the mRNA shot became available because it gave limited immunity against omicron and newer covid versions.

However, there is now a bivalent vaccine that is supposed to hit them, and Moderna is going to make it in Japan.

latest opioid from China can be bought on line

 

 synthetic opioids such as Nitazene, which is stronger than Fentanyl, have been seen in Europe and in the USA for a couple of years, but now seem to be spreading in the USA.

CDC report on it's use in Tennesee notes 

During 2019–2021, a total of 52 nitazene-involved fatal drug overdoses were identified using TN SUDORS data, including no cases in 2019, 10 in 2020, and 42 in 2021

the average person was a middle aged white male, but the article notes that many overdose deaths from this new synthetic opioid are probably missed since the specific test is not done in many areas.

So where is this coming from? Anyone? Anyone?

well, a simple google shows you where you can buy it (you don't even have to go to the dark web to find it)

Place of Origin:ChinaBrand Name:HuiduoCertification:SGSModel Number:Lab Research Chemical

 who brags you can buy it from them instead of buying it on the street where you can't be sure of the quality of the drug.

The substance is one of the latest products of our specialists. Its formula was improved and researched and now it is ready to be sold online. To provide our customers with the opportunity to test the substance our online vendor offers to purchase online a sample of this legal powder at a reasonable price and free delivery. For the smaller research chemicals suppliers which are intended to resell the substance we can consider the wholesale terms of collaboration in order to promote the substance at the research chemicals market and among the clients. You can also figure out a lot of other already well known designer chemicals for sale at our web-site. The substance can bring a lot of pleasant emotions. The lasting of this legal powder is extremely long and it causes absolutely no comedown. You can enjoy the mild euporia from the substance or it can help you to stimulate your organism to work longer. But there will be no consequences the day after. The process of research chemical online purchase here is simple. You need to fill in the electronic order from at the page of item you have chosen, then pay for the package and then wait. The delivery of product will not take long.

Product Details:

Place of Origin:	China
Brand Name:	Huiduo
Certification:	SGS
Model Number:	Lab Research Chemical

Payment & Shipping Terms:

Minimum Order Quantity:	10g
Price:	300$
Packaging Details:	By standard sea worthy package
Delivery Time:	Within 7 days after payment
Payment Terms:	Western Union, MoneyGram, T/T, D/P, D/A, L/C
Supply Ability:	100mt/month

two years ago the FDA noted that you could buy it illegally on certain websites (and didn't have to use the Dark web to find it).

wikipedia notes: 

While several substances in this class have found applications in research, they have never been used in clinical medicine due to their profound risk of respiratory depression and death,.

But hey, the US government is right up there stopping this legal drug use: 

.the FDA has proposed to make them illegal as of last December...

this video is from last year and includes a lot of pharmacology information 

 

Sad news day

a malaria vaccine?

 late last year there were reports of a malaria vaccine. the hope about this was that it would hit the falciparum form, that is most lethal and is more resistant to anti malarial medicines.

But now the BBC (and Lancet) reports initial studies suggest 70 to 80 percent protection.

 A good discussion here not just about malaria but about how public health authorities implement disease protection: Start at 9 minutes if you are in a hurry.

WHO report on malaria.