Coronamonomania Thrives in Darkness, Part 80

The four weeks has passed since the mask mandate ended as did almost every restriction.  Cases fell even faster.  The state didn’t even bother to have a briefing this week.  It is over.  Interestingly, we continue to see a few deaths, including among LTC residents.  These deaths continue to be heavily weighted toward the very elderly, and I don’t think the total age structure of deaths has changed, notwithstanding heavy vaccination of the oldest age groups.  This is consistent with knowledge about the weaker response of older persons’ immune systems to vaccines.  And the LTC group is very frail, so not much will keep them from dying, whether it truly is CV-19 or not.   Among this group, a good audit of deaths would, I am certain, reveal that almost all the deaths were not actually caused in any meaningful sense by CV-19, that most of these people were in very poor health and died with, not because of CV-19.  WE NEED A REAL AUDIT OF ALL THE MINNESOTA CV-19 STATS!

The study of the day comes from our friends at the CDC, who published research showing how devastating the lockdowns and terror campaign were on our children.  (CDC Article)   ER visits for apparent suicide attempts were studied from January 2019 through May 15, 2021 for people aged 12 to 25.  By late winter/early spring of this year, suicide attempts by girls aged 12 to 17 were over 50% higher compared to the same period in 2019.  Boys had a somewhat higher rate, but the increase was really concentrated among these young women.  Nice job, Governor Walz and all you other assholes who deprived these children of a meaningful educational and social life for absolutely no good reason.

Another blow against the fearful asymptomatic spread of CV-19, and against children spreading the virus.  This study finds that in adults and children, viral loads in asymptomatic persons are much lower than in symptomatic ones, meaning they are likely much less infectious.  (JAMA Study)   Although not emphasized by the study, children were five times less likely to be symptomatic than adults were, and even when children were symptomatic, they had fewer symptoms.

This research again demonstrates that infection with CV-19, even in unhospitalized patients, produces a strong immune response, including among T cells.  The response is as strong as, although having different features, as the response to influenza infection.  (Medrxiv Paper)

Another study showing the benefits of vaccination.  Fully vaccinated persons had far lower relative risk of emergency room use or hospitalization than did unvaccinated ones.  As we are seeing in Minnesota, however, the frail elderly continue to be at risk of serious disease, even after vaccination.  (Medrxiv Study)

Flu disappeared around the world this year, displaced by CV-19.  This study details that displacement.  (Medrxiv Paper)   The authors suggest that mask wearing and other interventions to prevent the spread of CV-19 also impacted flu, but that is garbage.  The interventions didn’t work against CV-19, so there is no reason to think they would work against flu, a very similar virus.  What is more likely is that CV-19 has the ability to exclude or defeat CV-19 infection, just as there is some suggestion that rhinovirus can exclude CV-19.

An interesting assessment from Norway about whether CV-19 vaccinations among nursing home residents was associated with deaths.  (Norway Report)  29,400 nursing home residents were vaccinated, or over 80% of the entire population.  100 deaths were reported and investigated, 10 were found to have a probable link, 26 a possible link.  The average age of the vaccinated persons was 87.7 years, not exactly in the prime of life.  On any given day, out of the 35,000 total nursing home patients in Norway, 45 deaths occur, so you would expect 36 deaths a day among the vaccinated group.  Now you see why it is so dangerous to believe nonsense like that spouted by Alex Berenson, who I otherwise admire, about the so-called risks associated with the vaccine.  When the background rate is that high, just looking at raw numbers with no context and no detailed examination is very misleading. While the vaccine may have delivered a shock that pushed these extremely frail people over the edge, they were not long for this world, which people attempt to paint as heartless, but what is really heartless is to treat this as a risk that justifies not using a vaccine which has been enormously beneficial in reducing cases and serious disease.  And the detailed statements about the extreme frailty and risk of near-term death in this population, have equal applicability to CV-19 infection in the group.  It really isn’t CV-19 that is killing them.

The epidemic has prompted a search for more information about coronavirus strains in various animals, especially bats, using both older stored samples and new research.  And the Chinese would of course be eager to find some clear evidence that CV-19 arose naturally, not from a lab leak, so take this study from China with a grain of salt.  But the researchers said they found a large variety of new strains of coronavirus in bat samples, including several that were genetically similar to CV-19.  (Cell Paper)   I think this is probably accurate, there are lots of bats throughout China and southeast Asia, and I believe one reason the epidemic was less intensive and deadly there was that there is constant exposure to many bat-based coronaviruses.  But, that isn’t inconsistent with the virus being manipulated in and escaping from a Chinese lab.