Coronamonomania Lives Forever, Part 149

The state of Minnesota has decided to move to just weekly reporting of CV-19 stats.  This is long overdue.  Helping people move past the epidemic requires that governments stop providing the fuel for the obsession with the virus.  I think they should stop reporting altogether.  But let us not be fooled for one minute by the timing.  Walz is behind this because the last thing he wants is people reminded of how abysmally he handled the response to the epidemic and the lasting damage that was done by the response.  So he is trying to clear the decks to lessen the spotlight on CV-19.  Dave Dixon is analyzing the new data provided to ascertain what tables and charts we can still provide, particularly in regard to breakthroughs.

One of the obvious harms from the lockdown and isolation and school closing policies was that children’s immune systems would not have the opportunity to develop and strengthen and that ordinary exposure to pathogens would result in more serious disease than if they were allowed to have their normal interactions.  This health damage, which was completely predictable, is just one of the ways in which the response will kill more children than CV-19 ever could.  This story from Australia, which had some of the most extreme lockdown responses, notes that that country is experiencing a wave of serious infectious disease cases among infants, resulting in babies being in the ICU for infections they normally would be able to defend against.  RSV and influenza are particularly concerning.  (Australia Story)

This large study from England found that during the Omicron surge since December of 2021, vaccine effectiveness was reduced to zero in regard to infection and was substantially diminished with respect to hospitalization or death as well.  The important aspect of the study is that it included an assessment of boosters, finding the same lack of effectiveness during this period.  And the lack of effectiveness was especially notable among the elderly.    (Medrxiv Paper)

Here is a still misleading rewrite of the paper CDC tried to use to justify vaxing very young children.  Now we see that CV-19 has dropped significantly down the list of supposed causes of death in young children, but the paper still completely fails to adjust for deaths in which a CV-19 positive test really had nothing to do with death.  And the absolute number of deaths in the very young group is miniscule.  Our experts continue to find ways to lie with research so they can push a desired message or policy.  Oh look, Imperial College in the UK is largely responsible for the paper.  The same whacked modeling source that led to lockdowns killing hundreds of thousands of people.  Why do we need to go to the UK for our bad research, we have plenty of that here.  (Medrxiv Paper)

This paper found a weak association between receipt of an influenza vaccine and likelihood of a CV-19 infection and a somewhat stronger one regarding receipt of a pneumonia vaccine.  (Medrxiv Paper)

This review of hospitalizations from a region in the UK found that severity was significantly reduced during Omicron, even after adjusting for vax status and other factors.  (Medrxiv Paper)

And a study from Italy also finds that two-dose vaccine effectiveness against either infection or hospitalization during Omicron was very low and dropped quickly.  While a third dose appeared to restore some protection, the follow-up period was too short to truly assess whether a booster made a lasting difference.  Other research, including the UK study referenced above, finds that it does not.  (SSRN Study)