It's rage-inducing.

CNN and MSNBC have devoted the first ~30 minutes of the hour to it and they have no signs of stopping. In fact - they might have even done it ad-free.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, announces she has cancer | CNN.

Edit

Are they going to devote the entire fucking hour to this shit?

I'm seeing this fucking article everywhere. Capital loves this so hard.

The asshole didn't publish his findings. There's no link anywhere to the article. I did a good faith search in Google Scholar and Pubmed, and can't find his findings. He's going to present his findings to a fucking conference in a months time. For those of you who don't know, the bar of entry to academic conferences is much lower than an academic journal. ECCMID isn't even a prestigious conference, they'll accept nearly everyone that submits and pays. Conferences are considered just the beginning of the scientific journey, before the research goes further and gets actual peer review in an actual journal.

For those of you who don't know, John Gerrard was brought in as chief health minister to Queensland specifically to transition to open the country up and forget about COVID. Nearly 100% of the COVID cases and deaths happened after his tenure started. Fuck him

Sorry for the pedantic formatting, but this upsets me so hard.

Back in February 2020: "There's no need to wear masks. Feel free to use the subway."

Quotes might be a bit off, but Fauci's words basically amounted to this

I've seen people try to write this off as "not wanting to start a panic" and "trying to secure masks for hospitals" but that's just a copout.
If they'd initiated a lockdown sooner millions of people wouldn't have died. They killed them on purpose because they were elderly and didn't serve the machine. Also millions of people wouldn't have gotten long-COVID with nearly as bad a viral load.

I have no analysis, just anger right now.

SEND A FUCKING EMAIL, YOU DON'T NEED TO SEE ME IN PERSON YOU ABSOLUTE USELESS PISSLIB

I told these people at least 5 times that my partner is struggling. What sort of level of shitheadedness do you need to have?? Don't fucking ask my what's wrong, I literally told you over and over and over. My email is buttbidet@stalinacademy.edu.

Story from December 2023

CDC data shows nearly 18m people could be living with long Covid even as health agency relaxes isolation recommendations

Some 6.8% of American adults are currently experiencing long Covid symptoms, according to a new survey from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), revealing an “alarming” increase in recent months even as the health agency relaxes Covid isolation recommendations, experts say.

That means an estimated 17.6 million Americans could now be living with long Covid.

“This should be setting off alarms for many people,” said David Putrino, the Nash Family Director of the Cohen Center for Recovery From Complex Chronic Illness at Mount Sinai. “We’re really starting to see issues emerging faster than I expected.”

When the same survey was conducted in October, 5.3% of respondents were experiencing long Covid symptoms at the time.

The 1.5 percentage-point increase comes after the second-biggest surge of infections across the US this winter, as measured by available wastewater data.

1. There is no cure for long covid. Sometimes symptoms get better with time, sometimes they don't. Reinfections can make everything worse, or destroy any progress you've made in getting better.
2. Covid can effect systems in the entire body, so persistant symptoms could be anything and everything going wrong.
3. Follow long covid communities and you will realize a lot of doctors are arrogant assholes and will likely imply you are fat and/or lazy and need to get more exercise and change dietary habits before they admit "a cold" could be causing new debilitating onset symptoms after an infection.

The rate of adults currently experiencing long Covid has not been this high since November 2022; the greatest height since CDC began tracking the illness was 7.6% in June and July 2022.

So the rate of long covid went from 7.6% in mid 2022, to 5.3% in october 2023. At which point minimizers took it as great news that the virus was "mild now" and the "immunity wall" was working. Now it's gone up to 6.8%. Nevermind the problem of underdiagnosing covid because we stopped testing requirements in mid 2023 because the emergency was declared over. You can be certain this is missing a lot of people who just assume it's just age, or lack of exercise, or "sometimes bodies just do that".

Most of all, no one relishes watching their loved ones react with annoyance and anger rather than solidarity and empathy as they attempt to survive a new normal designed to infect them. It is painful beyond imagination that so many- even close loved ones- are perfectly happy to cosplay normal even if that normal involves vulnerable groups’ long-term exclusion from public spaces. It is grief on top of injustice on top of dangerous physical harm.

The biggest issues in the world today are global warming and the bioweapon that the US government released in 2019.

Like literally nothing else even vaguely matters in comparison to these issues, which will indirectly kill millions or even billions (including westoids when China's/India's climate gets bad enough, because 1,000 nukes don't give a damn)

The climate is the top priority, but COVID comes immediately after. So many people, even people who "haven't had COVID" (lul) have weird symptoms popping up since 2022, and there's a guy here on hexbear whose friend's dad died around December 2023 after contracting it for the first time

German man got 217 COVID shots over 29 months—here’s how it went

It conflicts with concerns of repeat boosters, but authors warn against hypervaccination.

A 62-year-old man in Germany decided to get 217 COVID-19 vaccinations over the course of 29 months —for "private reasons." But, somewhat surprisingly, he doesn't seem to have suffered any ill effects from the excessive immunization, particularly weaker immune responses, according to a newly published case study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The case is just one person, of course, so the findings can't be extrapolated to the general population. But, they conflict with a widely held concern among researchers that such overexposure to vaccination could lead to weaker immune responses. Some experts have raised this concern in discussions over how frequently people should get COVID-19 booster doses.

In cases of chronic exposure to a disease-causing germ, "there is an indication that certain types of immune cells, known as T-cells, then become fatigued, leading to them releasing fewer pro-inflammatory messenger substances," according to co-lead study author Kilian Schober from the Institute of Microbiology – Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene. This, along with other effects, can lead to "immune tolerance" that leads to weaker responses that are less effective at fighting off a pathogen, Schober explained in a news release.

My guess is that his t-cells are fine because he's had constant antibodies so the t-cells haven't had to mop up anything, and also it's not a live virus. If you are living life like it's pre-covid times, you're most certainly being constantly exposed to covid anyway.

If you aren't over 65, or immunocompromised, and you find a way to get two vaccines a year, you'll probably be fine. People doing this have had mixed results in regards to how the 1-per year recommendation is being enforced and the CDC official covid advice is now "fuck it, do whatever, yolo", so why not?

If you got an MRNA in the fall, maybe try novavax for less side effects and a slightly different spectrum of protection.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel PLZ build a time machine, go back in time, and convince Castro to nuke us. Someone kill Thatcher, too. There's no such thing as a society 🤡 clown shit.

So the guideline is to stay home until symptoms improve and then go ahead and be a plague rat after a day. Before it was 5 day quarantine once you caught it, right? I don't actually keep up with this stuff since it's all fake. Isn't the actual protocol 2 weeks since infection?

How COVID-19 leaves its mark on the brain

Here are some of the most important studies to date documenting how COVID-19 affects brain health:

spoiler

• Large epidemiological analyses showed that people who had COVID-19 were at an increased risk of cognitive deficits, such as memory problems.

• Imaging studies done in people before and after their COVID-19 infections show shrinkage of brain volume and altered brain structure after infection.

• A study of people with mild to moderate COVID-19 showed significant prolonged inflammation of the brain and changes that are commensurate with seven years of brain aging.

• Severe COVID-19 that requires hospitalization or intensive care may result in cognitive deficits and other brain damage that are equivalent to 20 years of aging.

• Laboratory experiments in human and mouse brain organoids designed to emulate changes in the human brain showed that SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers the fusion of brain cells. This effectively short-circuits brain electrical activity and compromises function.

• Autopsy studies of people who had severe COVID-19 but died months later from other causes showed that the virus was still present in brain tissue. This provides evidence that contrary to its name, SARS-CoV-2 is not only a respiratory virus, but it can also enter the brain in some individuals. But whether the persistence of the virus in brain tissue is driving some of the brain problems seen in people who have had COVID-19 is not yet clear.

• Studies show that even when the virus is mild and exclusively confined to the lungs, it can still provoke inflammation in the brain and impair brain cells’ ability to regenerate.

• COVID-19 can also disrupt the blood brain barrier, the shield that protects the nervous system – which is the control and command center of our bodies – making it “leaky.” Studies using imaging to assess the brains of people hospitalized with COVID-19 showed disrupted or leaky blood brain barriers in those who experienced brain fog.

• A large preliminary analysis pooling together data from 11 studies encompassing almost 1 million people with COVID-19 and more than 6 million uninfected individuals showed that COVID-19 increased the risk of development of new-onset dementia in people older than 60 years of age.

Here's another article from Eric Topal summarizing some of these studies showing significant brain damage: Long Covid and Cognitive Deficits

Whenever you run across a story about how kids these days are dum-dums with behavior problems, keep in mind that we lied about how little covid effects them so as a population kids are undervaccinated and were basically used to infect the rest of the population pursuit of "herd immunity" through repeated infections.

"inappropriate requests of staff" truly a horrible read

really interesting account full of some of the worst shit I've ever read though

Mortality data of the past four years show a wave of deadly cardiovascular and metabolic illness.

From 2020 to 2022, a quarter of a million more Americans over 35 years old succumbed to cardiovascular disease than predicted based on historical trends, according to Bloomberg analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2023, age-adjusted stroke mortality was almost 5% above pre-pandemic levels, according to preliminary data, while rates from deaths related to hypertensive heart disease, rhythm abnormalities, blood clots, diabetes and kidney failure were 15-28% higher. Covid had a muted impact on other common causes of death such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, the data show.

“The cardiometabolic aftereffects of SARS-CoV-2 have been profound, persistent, and peculiar — really peculiar,” said cardiologist Susan Cheng, director of public health research at Cedars-Sinai’s Smidt Heart Institute in Los Angeles.

vaxxed?

Greater immunity and the emergence of less severe variants have since lowered the incidence of deadly complications, but the problem hasn’t gone away. Each coronavirus infection a person experiences, no matter how mild, might be acting like its own cardiovascular risk factor, she said. The longer-term effects are even more mysterious.

Doctors in the article are puzzled about if the cause is because Americans are too fat, or "the lockdowns" (not the hospitals being flooded with sick people for months at a time) caused people to avoid doctors, while noting that the healthcare system itself broke down and has made it harder for people to find care in the first place ever since. Could it be that these "less severe" variants are still causing heart problems? Gosh, maybe, but it's just a big ol' puzzle and no one can be sure of anything yet.

threads on this article are full of people describing the new heart conditions they developed after getting covid.

The race for next generation vaccines is steadily heating up now. And this month, we’ve passed a major milestone: The first data suggesting that an already-authorized nextgen vaccine could outperform the BNT/Pfizer vaccine – with its manufacturers ramping up production facilities for potentially wide distribution in the next year or so.

Most vaccines that reach first-in-human trials don’t make it all the way to major regulator approval. The odds improve, though, for those that make it to mid-stage trials (phase 2). On top of that, there’s a lot of variation in effectiveness between vaccines – so a good range of approaches reaching that mid-stage increases the odds of having much better vaccines.

Though it’s not going at the blistering pace of the early pandemic, the scene is encouraging now. The number of next generation vaccines moving past first-in-human trials is into double digits. With another 2 pancoronavirus vaccines starting clinical trials this month, there’s even a handful of vaccines reaching the early stage at least in this tough category. And the body of clinical evidence seems to be growing steadily, too: We’ve been getting at least some results for an average of 2 clinical trials a month for the last 6 months.

It’s still early days in many ways, though. Even for late-stage trials, most of the efficacy data is for signs of immunity only. We don’t know critical things, especially whether or not there will be mucosal vaccines that can make a major – and lasting – impact on getting and transmitting infection in people. But at least it looks as though more durable boosters are on the horizon.

There’s a lot to get to this month for all types of vaccines, including news from clinical trials for 3 vaccines. This update starts with news from Project NextGen, with funding for another mini-efficacy trial for a mucosal vaccine. After that, I have recent results broken down into 3 categories of next-generation Covid vaccines (definitions below).

This is a good overview of long covid, and what we are trying to avoid.

From an extensive body of mechanistic research in people affected by Long Covid, there appear to be multiple potential pathogenic pathways, including persistence of the virus or its components in tissue reservoirs; autoimmune or an unchecked, dysregulated immune response; mitochondrial dysfunction; vascular (endothelial) and/or neuronal inflammation; and microbiome dysbiosis (2). In people with severe COVID-19, systemic acute infection can arise in which SARS-CoV-2 replicates in pulmonary and extrapulmonary tissue, and its genomic RNA may persist for months in multiple sites, including the brain and coronary arteries (3). To what extent this happens in milder cases and whether this contributes mechanistically to Long Covid is not yet clear. SARS-CoV-2 may also reactivate dormant viruses, including Epstein-Barr virus and varicella zoster virus, as well as lead to gut-brain and neuroendocrine dysfunction, mitochondrial dysfunction, and impaired coagulation (4, 5) (see the figure).

Preventing infections and reinfections is the best way to prevent Long Covid and should remain the foundation of public health policy. A greater commitment to nonpharmaceutical interventions, which include masking, especially in high-risk settings, and improved air quality through filtration and ventilation, are requisite. Updating building codes to require mitigation against airborne pathogens and ensure safer indoor air should be treated with the same seriousness afforded to mitigation of risks from earthquakes and other natural hazards. Reducing the risk of serious outcomes after COVID-19 and some prevention of Long Covid can be attained with vaccination of a wider spectrum of the population. Given the dwindling appetite for COVID-19 boosters, strategies to improve uptake (e.g., pairing it with the annual influenza vaccine) may be effective. Development of more durable, variant-proof vaccines that are not vulnerable to evasion by the ever-mutating virus needs to be accelerated (12). Nasally or orally administered vaccines that induce strong mucosal immunity to block infection and transmission should be pursued, and there are preliminary supportive data from clinical trials (10). It is also necessary to broaden the pipeline of SARS-CoV-2 antivirals, especially because of rising resistance (13).

https://biobot.io/data/covid-19

This is normally the time of year when our lull starts to kick in, but there's spikes still happening all over the country. It's frankly rather depressing to look at the last 6 month view and over and over seeing county after county stop reporting data and then just seeing random counties spiking at an all time high. Whatever wave we went through over the holidays is still going strong. Mask up, nasal spray, and be careful out there when you have to go out.

ngl, I'm curious to see if this is the end of lulls at a nationwide level. We'll have to see how much immunity all these JN.1 infections are giving people to the other variants out there.

They managed to get someone on TV telling people to wear masks! 🎉

Apparently they’re going either way, so the question is if I want to indirectly contribute just myself to Covid spread. I’ve had Covid relatively recently so I think I’m supposed to still have immunity but that doesn’t stop me from spreading it, right? It’s a Friday at noon so the movie theater will be mostly empty ish.

The World Trade Organization has failed to reach an agreement to waive intellectual property rights on Covid-19 tests and treatments for poorer countries.

Members of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) council said it could not reach consensus after years of discussion, despite the “considerable efforts” of members.

Campaigners said the news was a “slap in the face”.

Research published last year found that more than 50% of Covid deaths in low and middle-income countries could have been avoided if people had the same access to vaccines as wealthy states. According to data published by the World Health Organization in January 2023, 75% of people living in high-income countries have been vaccinated compared with fewer than 25% in low-income states.

“Clearly, to the governments of rich countries, protecting the monopoly profits of pharmaceutical companies was more important than saving lives in the global south,” said Mohga Kamal-Yanni, the policy co-lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, an organisation advocating for equitable medicine access across the world.

The international community will continue to use covid to cull the population of the global south.

Before a recent hospital visit, Christine Link requested that her healthcare providers wear masks because of her autoimmune disease and medications that further suppress her immune system. A phlebotomist initially refused her request, leaving her feeling “shocked, scared.”

Escalating her concern to the Mass General Brigham’s patient advocacy office, she received this response: “While the request by a patient to an employee to wear a mask is not an ADA-related accommodation, it is a patient-centered and trauma informed best practice, and we encourage patients to make this request with the provider who is ordering the testing. The provider would determine if it would be in the patients’ best interest clinically to have staff wear a mask while interacting with the patient. Then they would need to communicate the decision to all staff providing services to the patient, such as phlebotomy staff.”

The patient advocate’s response left Link feeling, “foolish for thinking that Mass General Brigham would actually care enough to follow the law regarding reasonable accommodations. Instead I was gaslit about my needs.” She added, “Each time I have an in-person appointment, I have to go through being made to feel as less than any other human being as a result of my disabilities, bullied, and forced into unsafe care as a condition of getting the healthcare I need.”

Link is not alone. She is one of the many patients who reached out to tell me about how the refusal of this simple ADA accommodation is ruining their lives. One of the most worrisome bits of fallout is that many patients now fear they will get Covid-19 in the hospital or medical office. They are delaying getting medical care, including cancer screening and infusions of drugs, putting off vital appointments. This risks seriously damaging their health.

Fuck this piece of shit country.

"Just a cold"

Here is the last decade:

Source:

https://nitter.poast.org/greg_travis

https://x.com/greg_travis

“We will continue to make decisions based on the best evidence and science to keep communities healthy and safe,” said Dave Daigle, a spokesperson for the CDC.

Since 2021, the agency has said people should isolate for at least five days if they tested positive for Covid-19, and then continue to mask. The updated guidance would bring Covid-19 in line with guidance for other respiratory viruses, such as flu.

"Feeling sick? Eat shit. Everyone is sick. No one cares, go back to work. Fuck you. This country doesn't make money if your at home recovering you lazy fuck face baby" CDC director Mandy K. Cohen, was reported to have said. "oh, woah is me, i got a widdle cold" she continued, while pantomiming crying.