Click to Translate to English Click to Translate to French  Click to Translate to Spanish  Click to Translate to German  Click to Translate to Italian  Click to Translate to Japanese  Click to Translate to Chinese Simplified  Click to Translate to Korean  Click to Translate to Arabic  Click to Translate to Russian  Click to Translate to Portuguese  Click to Translate to Myanmar (Burmese)

PANDEMIC ALERT LEVEL
123456
Forum Home Forum Home > Main Forums > General Discussion
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Gestalt#76-SARS-2 Pandemic
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Now tracking the new emerging South Africa Omicron Variant

Gestalt#76-SARS-2 Pandemic

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Message Reverse Sort Order
Littlesmile View Drop Down
V.I.P. Member
V.I.P. Member
Avatar

Joined: July 18 2016
Location: Northern irelan
Status: Offline
Points: 1815
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Littlesmile Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Gestalt#76-SARS-2 Pandemic
    Posted: December 18 2021 at 3:11am

Unfortunately (for here anyway) I think boosters have come just too late..

:-)
Back to Top
carbon20 View Drop Down
Moderator
Moderator
Avatar

Joined: April 08 2006
Location: West Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 65816
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 17 2021 at 1:02pm








I wouldn't be listening to anyone,

Go with your common sense,

Get booster if you feel you need it,I think a booster will stop you getting ill, without it you might get a bad cold/flu dose for a week or so.....

It's not fair ,that the wealthy countries ,can give out boosters,

But as my grandmother used to say .....

"Nothing fair in this world".....

Take care all 😷😉💉

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

Marcus Aurelius
Back to Top
pheasant View Drop Down
Admin Group
Admin Group
Avatar

Joined: May 20 2006
Location: Florida
Status: Offline
Points: 9851
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pheasant Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 17 2021 at 12:57pm

I had to chuckle when I saw the Rochelle Walensky critique, we were talking about her and the cdc this morning at 3:am over tea.

Can't make this stuff up:

 https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/12/mask-guidelines-cdc-walensky/621035/


Science

The CDC’s Flawed Case for Wearing Masks in School

The agency’s director has said, repeatedly, that schools without mask mandates have triple the risk of COVID outbreaks. That claim is based on very shaky science.

By David Zweig
Chip Somodevilla / Getty; INA FASSBENDER / Getty; NurPhoto / Getty; SOPA Images; Getty; The Atlantic

The debate over child masking in schools boiled over again this fall, even above its ongoing high simmer. The approval in late October of COVID-19 vaccines for 5-to-11-year-olds was for many public-health experts an indication that mask mandates could finally be lifted. Yet with cases on the rise in much of the country, along with anxiety regarding the Omicron variant, other experts and some politicians have warned that plans to pull back on the policy should be put on hold.

Scientists generally agree that, according to the research literature, wearing masks can help protect people from the coronavirus, but the precise extent of that protection, particularly in schools, remains unknown—and it might be very small. What data do exist have been interpreted into guidance in many different ways. The World Health Organization, for example, does not recommend masks for children under age 6. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recommends against the use of masks for any children in primary school.

Seen in this context, the CDC has taken an especially aggressive stance, recommending that all kids 2 and older should be masked in school. The agency has argued for this policy amid an atmosphere of persistent backlash and skepticism, but on September 26, its director, Rochelle Walensky, marched out a stunning new statistic: Speaking as a guest on CBS’s Face the Nation, she cited a study published two days earlier, which looked at data from about 1,000 public schools in Arizona. The ones that didn’t have mask mandates, she said, were 3.5 times as likely to experience COVID outbreaks as the ones that did.

Read: Parents are not okay

This estimated effect of mask requirements—far bigger than others in the research literature—would become a crucial talking point in the weeks to come. On September 28, during a White House briefing, Walensky brought up the 3.5 multiplier again; then she tweeted it that afternoon. In mid-October, with the school year in full swing, Walensky brought up the same statistic one more time.

But the Arizona study at the center of the CDC’s back-to-school blitz turns out to have been profoundly misleading. “You can’t learn anything about the effects of school mask mandates from this study,” Jonathan Ketcham, a public-health economist at Arizona State University, told me. His view echoed the assessment of eight other experts who reviewed the research, and with whom I spoke for this article. Masks may well help prevent the spread of COVID, some of these experts told me, and there may well be contexts in which they should be required in schools. But the data being touted by the CDC—which showed a dramatic more-than-tripling of risk for unmasked students—ought to be excluded from this debate. The Arizona study’s lead authors stand by their work, and so does the CDC. But the critics were forthright in their harsh assessments. Noah Haber, an interdisciplinary scientist and a co-author of a systematic review of COVID-19 mitigation policies, called the research “so unreliable that it probably should not have been entered into the public discourse.”

This is not the only study cited by Walensky in support of masking students, but it’s among the most important, having been deployed repeatedly to justify a policy affecting millions of children—and having been widely covered in the press. The agency’s decision to trumpet the study’s dubious findings, and subsequent lack of transparency, raise questions about its commitment to science-guided policy.


The Arizona study, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, looked at school-associated outbreaks in Maricopa and Pima Counties, comparing rates across schools with and without mask mandates for students and staff. “The school year starts very early in Arizona, in mid-July, so we had the advantage of being able to get an early look at data,” one of the lead authors, J. Mac McCullough, told The New York Times. The early look revealed that just 16 outbreaks had occurred among the 210 schools that had a mask mandate in place from the start of classes, versus 113 among the 480 schools that had no mandates at all. According to McCullough and his colleagues, this amounted to a 3.5-fold increase in incidence of outbreaks for the no-mandate schools.

Yet the study’s methodology and data set appear to have significant flaws. The trouble begins with the opening lines of the paper, where the authors say they evaluated the association between school mask policies and school-associated COVID-19 outbreaks “during July 15–August 31, 2021.” After reviewing school calendars and speaking with several school administrators in Maricopa and Pima Counties, I found that only a small proportion of the schools in the study were open at any point during July. Some didn’t begin class until August 10; others were open from July 19 or July 21. That means students in the latter group of schools had twice as much time—six weeks instead of three weeks—in which to develop a COVID outbreak.

When I brought this issue to Megan Jehn, the study’s corresponding author and an epidemiologist at Arizona State University, she acknowledged that exposure times varied across schools. The ones without mask mandates were open longer overall, she told me—but the difference was too small to matter. Their median start date was August 3, versus August 5 for the schools that did have mask mandates. In a follow-up correspondence, Jehn and McCullough wrote, “It is highly improbable that this difference alone could explain the strong association observed between mask policies and school outbreaks.”

Yet Ketcham said that a comparison of median start dates is insufficient. “If schools with mask mandates had fewer school days during the study,” he told me, “that alone could explain the difference in outbreaks.”

Ketcham and others also criticized the Arizona study’s use of school-related outbreaks, rather than cases per student per week, as the relevant outcome. The authors defined an outbreak as being two or more COVID-19 cases among students or staff members at a school within a 14-day period that are epidemiologically linked. “The measure of two cases in a school is problematic,” Louise-Anne McNutt, a former Epidemic Intelligence Service officer for the CDC and an epidemiologist at the State University of New York at Albany, told me. “It doesn’t tell us that transmission occurred in school.” She pointed to the fact that, according to Maricopa County guidelines, students are considered “close contacts” of an infected student—and thus subject to potential testing and quarantine—only if they (or that infected student) were unmasked. As a result, students in Maricopa schools with mask mandates may have been less likely than students in schools without mandates to get tested following an initial exposure. This creates what’s known as a detection bias, she said, which could grossly affect the study’s findings. (Jehn and McCullough called it “highly speculative to make the assumption that identified close contacts are more likely to be tested than other students.”) McNutt believes that masks are an important prevention tool in the pandemic, but she maintained that the Arizona study doesn’t answer the specific question it purports to answer: whether mask mandates for students reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

Read: The pandemic of the vaccinated is here

There are other issues, too. Jason Abaluck, an economics professor at Yale and the lead investigator on a 340,000-person randomized trial of masking in Bangladesh, called the Arizona study “ridiculous” for failing to control for the vaccination status of staff or students. If more people had been immunized at the schools with mask mandates—or if those schools were more likely to have other mitigation measures in place, such as improved ventilation—then they likely would have seen fewer outbreaks regardless. According to the paper, data on vaccination coverage were unavailable on a per-school basis.

Even basic elements of the data set inspire some concerns. According to the paper, 782 of the 999 public, non-charter schools included in the study were in Maricopa County. In response to a public-records request, the Arizona Department of Education sent me what it said was the same list of schools that had been provided to the researchers, with 891 relevant entries for Maricopa. But closer inspection revealed that about 40 of them were virtual learning academies, about 20 were preschools, and about 90 were vocational programs associated with otherwise-listed schools. That left at most roughly 740 schools for inclusion in the study, not 782. If dozens of entries were inappropriately included in the final data set, were “outbreaks” counted for them too?

Starting at the end of October, I reached out to Jehn and MMWR about the number of schools, and repeatedly asked for the list of those included in the study. I also asked about the fact that schools with mask mandates and those without mandates opened at different times. Neither the journal nor the study’s authors agreed to share the list of schools, or any other data from the study. The journal replied: “MMWR is committed to quickly correcting errors when they are identified. We reviewed the specific items that you describe below and found no errors.” This week the authors finally shared their narrowed-down list of Maricopa schools as used for the study. Yet it still included at least three schools in Pima County, along with at least one virtual academy, one preschool, and more than 80 entries for vocational programs that are not actual schools. In response to a follow-up inquiry, they acknowledged having included the online school by mistake, while attributing any other potential misclassifications to the Arizona Department of Education.

A media-relations manager from the lead authors’ university told me that “the data used for this study were entirely appropriate for the study’s objectives,” and that “Drs. Jehn and McCullough stand by the methodology and results from the data analyses of the 999 schools included in the study.”


The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself......FDR
Back to Top
ksc View Drop Down
Adviser Group
Adviser Group


Joined: February 09 2020
Status: Offline
Points: 10995
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ksc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 17 2021 at 11:45am

I'm sure when booster numbers start to dwindle they will revise the "definition". It takes time to vaccinate 250-300 million people....

Back to Top
Tabitha111 View Drop Down
Adviser Group
Adviser Group
Avatar

Joined: January 11 2020
Location: Virginia
Status: Offline
Points: 11640
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tabitha111 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 17 2021 at 11:00am

The CDC has NOT changed it's definition of "fully vaccinated" to INCLUDE the booster. It still states on it's website that after 2 doses of MRNA jabs you are fully vaccinated and after 1 dose of J& J....please read here:

When You’ve Been Fully Vaccinated | CDC

'A man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door.'
--Confucius

Back to Top
ksc View Drop Down
Adviser Group
Adviser Group


Joined: February 09 2020
Status: Offline
Points: 10995
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ksc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 17 2021 at 9:24am

WHO Director Calls For No Boosters Until More Nations Get First Doses

The World Health Organization wants a temporary moratorium on third-dose covid shots in wealthy countries when so many residents in poorer ones have not had any yet.

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

On September 17, an advisory committee to the Food and Drug (FDA) Administration voted 16 to 2 against approving booster doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for all adults ages 16 and older. It did, however, recommend boosters for certain people—including those at high risk for serious illness and people over the age of 65. 

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

Oct 21, 2021 · Today, CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recommendation for a booster shot of COVID-19

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

Nov 29, 2021 · Today, CDC is strengthening its recommendation on booster doses for individuals who are 18 years and older. Everyone ages 18 and older should get a booster shot 

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

COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Shots

Updated Dec. 9, 2021

CDC has updated its recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines with a preference for people to receive an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna). Read CDC’s media statement.

Back to Top


Back to Top
ksc View Drop Down
Adviser Group
Adviser Group


Joined: February 09 2020
Status: Offline
Points: 10995
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ksc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 17 2021 at 9:07am

The CDC has been recommending boosters for months. I believe it was the WHO who stated boosters shouldn't be given due to global supply issues. 

Back to Top
KiminNM View Drop Down
V.I.P. Member
V.I.P. Member


Joined: January 22 2020
Location: NM
Status: Offline
Points: 6605
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote KiminNM Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 17 2021 at 8:54am

Thanks for posting this.  It really is mind boggling how "incompetent" the CDC is.    I put incompetent in quotes, because I can't rule out they decided on their various idiotic actions for a stupid reason.  

They're doing SO much damage, and I cannot get anyone to pay attention to sources other than them.  

Back to Top
Tabitha111 View Drop Down
Adviser Group
Adviser Group
Avatar

Joined: January 11 2020
Location: Virginia
Status: Offline
Points: 11640
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Tabitha111 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 17 2021 at 6:30am

Note from me: I haven't been posting these lately -but I liked this one so I wanted to share....Tabitha

by monotrome 1000 Dec 17, 2021

Rochelle Walensky is an idiot and should be fired


This not an ad hominem attack, although it might appear so. When I suggest that the Director is an "idiot", I truly mean that she has subnormal intelligence.

The evidence is that the CDC continues to maintain that someone with 2 doses of mRNA vaccine or one dose of J&J is fully vaccinated. This position is dangerously wrong. Study after study has shown that a booster is needed to protect against Omicron.

I cannot imagine how somone as stupid as Dr. Walensky became a Professor at Harvard, but I'm sure there is a story there somewhere. Some of the higher IQ Universities, which notably does not include Harvard at this time, are going to require boosters of their students and staff before they return in January. Good for them. However, many institutions will wait to require boosters until the CDC changes its definition of "fully vaccinated".

 I'm hoping at some point that prominent health authorities make it clear to President Biden that Dr. Walensky must be removed from control of the CDC before more Americans die unnecessarily. They don't have to call her an idiot, although I'm sure many of them are thinking it. Just "unfit to lead the CDC" would do.


Omicron is the most dangerous strain yet for children


Lost in the "Omicron is mild" meme is that Omicron is putting more chldren in the hospital than any other strain of SARS-CoV-2. In the US, only 20% of children have gotten even one dose of vaccine. Is it any mystery what is going to happen next?


800,000


Unless US policy changes, we will see 1,000,000 dead Americans from this virus.

'A man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door.'
--Confucius

Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply
  Share Topic   

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down