Tag Archives: SARS-VOVID-2

Jan 13 2022

Danish study shows negative vaccine effectiveness


Posted originally on TrialSite New by Staff on January 12, 2022

Danish study shows negative vaccine effectiveness

Researchers at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark published a pre-print study suggesting that the second doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may increase people’s likelihood of infection after 90 to 150 days. The same study suggested that a third Pfizer shot re-establishes efficacy for an indefinite period.

The large number of so-called breakthrough infections after second doses of vaccines suggest that vaccine clinical trials may have badly miscalculated efficacy rates.

The Danish Study

The study, which was published in December on the Medrxiv pre-print to await peer-review, explores SARS-CoV-2 protection against infection by the Omicron or Delta variants five months after one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

Lead author, Dr. Christian Holm Hansen, assistant professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and his co-authors are affiliated with the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Prevention and the Department of Infectious Disease Preparedness, Statens Serum Institut, Denmark. The study received no external funding. 

The authors extracted data of positive polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, test results, and vaccination data from Danish registries between November 20 and December 12, 2021. The authors compared the rate of COVID-19 infections, of both Omicron and Delta variants, in unvaccinated individuals with those who received two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

By December 12, there were 5,767 Omicron cases in Denmark. Researchers discovered that vaccine effectiveness against Omicron was 55% and 37% for Pfizer and Moderna respectively. Vaccine efficacy waned rapidly over five months.

Initially, vaccine effectiveness was 87% for Pfizer and 88% for Moderna against Delta but decreased over the five months, to 54% and 65% respectively. 

The study found that VE was re-established after a Pfizer booster vaccine to 55% against Omicron and 81% against the Delta variants. The authors determined they lacked similar data about Moderna. 

Controversially, the authors found negative vaccine efficacy – a higher likelihood of infection – against Omicron during the period between 90 and 150 days after vaccination. The authors calculated Pfizer’s vaccine efficacy at -76.5% and Moderna’s at -39% during that period for Moderna. 

“The negative estimates in the final period arguably suggest different behavior and/or exposure patterns in the vaccinated and unvaccinated cohorts causing underestimation of the VE,” the authors said implying that unvaccinated people may have behaved more cautiously and exposed themselves to less risk or that more vaccinated people got tested for COVID-19 or engaged in behaviors that exposed themselves to more risk.

Data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that fully vaccinated people and those having received a booster vaccine are more than four times as likely to test positive for Omicron than the unvaccinated. Although this data is provisional, it supports claims that Omicron is evading vaccines. The data does not show anything about the severity of the Omicron cases, or whether the vaccines protect against serious infections and severe symptoms. 

Reuters fact-checked ONS’ data and claimed it does not show that vaccinated people are more likely to be infected than unvaccinated but only the probability of an infected person being infected with Omicron. “This means it doesn’t tell us that vaccines are making things worse overall, only that they are making it much more likely that a vaccinated person is infected with Omicron.”

A different pre-print paper titled “The BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 reprograms both adaptive and innate immune responses” concluded that the Pfizer vaccine is causing immune system dysregulation. The paper concludes that the Pfizer vaccine reprograms innate immune responses “may contribute to a diminished innate immune response towards the virus.”

Are vaccines making us more vulnerable?

Because the Danish paper is still in preprint and awaiting peer review it is not conclusive. The study also looked at a small cohort of people in Denmark using publicly available data and lacks scale.

Negative vaccine effectiveness could be due to different behaviors or exposure patterns in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, resulting in an “underestimation of the vaccine’s effectiveness,” according to the authors, or because Omicron is highly transmissible and spreading rapidly. Dr. Astrid Blicher Schelde from the Statens Serum Institute, and one of the authors of the study, wrote an email to PolitiFact offering additional reasons including higher testing rates among vaccinated than unvaccinated people. Schelde also said that data from early Omicron cases might be skewed by international travelers’ more cautious behavior by unvaccinated. 

Schelde said vaccinated people are not necessarily more likely to be infected with Omicron more vaccinations and booster doses are required to combat Omicron and other COVID-19 variants. 

The UK Health Security Agency also reported zero or negative vaccine from a double dose of AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Moderna vaccines after five months. A booster dose increased vaccine effectiveness to 40-60%. The report warned that these results should be interpreted with caution, due to low counts and possible biases related to populations with high exposure to Omicron.

A Norwegian paper published by Euro Surveillance in December 2021 also reported negative effectiveness of vaccines against as Omicron. The Norwegian case study focused on one “super spreader” event, where guests to a Christmas party became infected with Omicron. The authors suspected this high level of transmission between fully vaccinated people was due to the indoor location, crowding, and loud talking.

Should we be concerned?

Although the authors of the Danish study explained the reason for the negative vaccine effectiveness found in their study, other studies produced similar results with the effectiveness dependent upon booster vaccinations.

Jan 13 2022

Senator Alex Antic – Djokovic, Totalitarianism, New Camps


Posted originally on JAN 12, 202 on https://zeeemedia.com

INTERVIEWS

Jan 13 2022

Does the Belief in a God Temper One’s Actions?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Tyranny Re-Posted Jan 13, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Many questions have come in about our computer forecasting that this grand effort to take over the world will fail. What you must understand is that when people do not believe in any God, they tend to think that they are also above the law, and that is justified for it is a bigger purpose.

Soros has publicly stated that he does not believe in God, and thus it is up to him to manipulate the world economy to fulfill his grand visions. He has also stated that he had no remorse for helping the Nazis against the Jews when he was a Jew pretending to be a Christian.

Then you have Klaus Schwab implying that he too does not believe in God, for he simply says that the future is up to us to create. That suggests that there is also no divine design to how everything functions.

Bill Gates cleverly answered the question for “Rolling Stone.” He actually said: “I agree with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths. Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm – not all – that religion used to fill.” He then tried to soften his response saying: ” I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don’t know.”

What all three seem to have in common is this idea that God is really irrelevant and it is just a myth spun to control the people thereby agreeing with Karl Marx. This all seems to follow a pattern that if you also do not believe in God, then you do not have any restraint or remorse. This reminds me of the monk Arnaud Amalric who died in 1225. The European crusade was primarily led by the French crown in an attempt to bring southern France, which was largely controlled by the Counts of Barcelona, under their political control. It was during the acclaimed religious war, which was really for French political gain, that the monk Amalric is best remembered for allegedly advising a soldier who was worried about killing orthodox Catholics in the process of killing declared Cathar heretics. He said:

 “NovitenimDominusquisunteius.” (“Kill them. For the Lord knows those that are His own.”)

The Cathars believed in two Gods or philosophies, with the first one being good and the second being evil. This idea emerged from the clash between the vengeful God of the Old Testament and the Love Thy Neighbor God of the New Testament who they saw as the creator of the spiritual realm, contrasted with the evil Old Testament God who was viewed as the creator of the physical world they identified as Satan.

This lack of belief in anything seems to inspire the evilest times throughout history. It appears that the absence of any belief in any God really leads to the total absence of any moral consideration, for there is also nobody waiting to judgment. Hence, they fear not being sorted out by anyone after death.

Jan 13 2022

Biden’ Spending Spree – The Real Agenda


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics Re-Posted Jan 13, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Many people have written in asking why are all the government spending like there is no tomorrow? The answer is – there is no tomorrow! This Great Rest is all about defaulting on the national debts and so they are all going nuts spending whatever they like knowing that the end game is the default.  There is no longer any pretense of fiscal management. Everything will simply vanish according to the forecasts of Klaus Schwab. This is also why they have been using COVID to enforce lockdowns and terrorize people. Washington State has a bill floating around to imprison the unvaccinated because they know they are the anti-government faction. In Quebec, they are proposing taxing the unvaccinated into poverty.

NEVER in the history of government has there ever been such reckless spending and we have Chuck Schumer desperately trying to overthrow the Filibuster to usher in this dictatorship. Schummer has clearly become a traitor to our Constitution.

This is the real agenda. Do not try to think for one moment this is good for the country or it is just the politics of Republican v Democrat. All Western governments are moving as fast as they can to flood the economy so they can just force the fault and suppression of the people.

Jan 13 2022

US Population Reaches Historic Low


Armstrong Economics Blog/North America Re-Posted Jan 13, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The US Census Bureau stated that the US population grew by a mere 0.1% (392,665) in 2021, marking the lowest rate of growth in US history. This is the first time since 1937 that the nation grew by fewer than one million people. The US has not experienced such low levels of growth since 1918-1919, when both the Spanish Flu and World War I were unwinding.

Noting the chart above, the population began to plummet in the mid-2010s. This is a result of decreased fertility and migration as well as an aging population. The COVID pandemic only contributed to a declining population, but the trend was already in motion. Part of the problem is cultural as well. Over half of Millennials witnessed their parents divorce. Women have increased options for employment and career motivations, often opting to have fewer children. There is also a school of thought that it is unethical to have children, as certain US politicians have mentioned in the past.

The biggest issue and cause of population decline comes down to finances. Home prices are at historical highs. Putting the real estate bubble aside, the USDA released a report entitled “The Cost of Raising a Child” that is based on historical prices from 1960 to 2015. The report found that parents could expect to pay $233,610 on raising a child from birth to the age of 17. Factoring in inflation, the cost is over $273,952.64 today.

However, children typically do not leave home at 17, again due to finances. Americans are saddled with student loan debt, and a 2019 poll indicated that over 30% of Millennials expected to move back in with their parents after college. That was an optimistic guess as the Pew Research Center found that 52% of young adults were still living with their parents as of September 2020. Part of it is due to the pandemic, but in February 2020, 47% of young adults were still living at home. The figure has not been seen since the Great Depression when 48% of young adults reported living with their parents.

On an annual basis, the USDA estimates that middle-class Americans will spend $12,980 per year per child, which roughly translates to $15,221.55 today. Of course, this figure does not account for unexpected expenses, as any parent knows are inevitable. Simply put, young adults can no longer afford to have children.

Jan 13 2022

IRS Targeting Payment Apps


Armstrong Economics Blog/The Hunt for Taxes Re-Posted Jan 13, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

No one earning under $400,000 will experience a rise in taxes, the Biden Administration repeatedly promised. Unfortunately, albeit unsurprisingly, this is not true as the IRS is now hunting for new taxes for nearly every transaction that takes place. Payment apps such as Venmo, Zelle, Cash App, and PayPal were easy ways to transfer money in an instant, and people do not typically use these apps for large sums. Yet, this month the IRS will begin collecting taxes on commercial transactions amounting to $600 or more per year.

PayPal users may have received the following notice asking for detailed personal information to provide the IRS:

“You may notice that in the coming months we will ask you for your tax information, like a social security number or tax ID, if you haven’t provided it to us already, in order to continue using your account to accept payments for the sale of goods and services transactions and to ensure there aren’t any issues when these changes take effect in 2022. This helps us meet our obligations to the IRS.”

Before the American Rescue Plan Act changed the tax code, mobile payment apps were only required to report anyone with over 200 commercial transactions that exceeded $20,000 in value. The IRS claims that it will only amass taxes on “commercial transactions,” but that is a fine line. If someone pays their child a monthly allowance for services, does that count as a commercial transaction? If someone pays their neighbor for parts, for, say, fixing their car, would that count as a commercial transaction? Would buying an item on a site such as Craigslist be considered a commercial transaction? If someone lies and says a transaction was personal, will they be convicted of tax evasion? The IRS will need to dive deep into our private lives to determine exactly where our money is going.

Another discounted issue here is that many of these payment platforms incentivize users to connect their personal bank accounts to avoid a credit card fee (typically 3%). Let me be clear – if you do not abide by the new rules, these payment platforms will lock you out and, at best, freeze your funds. The original intention of payment apps being a simple person-to-person transaction has been destroyed due to the American Rescue Plan Act. In this regard, cash is still king, but the IRS will likely plan an assassination.

Jan 13 2022

Canada Drops Trucker Vaxx Mandate at Last Minute, But Retains Vaxx Mandate for American Truckers


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on January 12, 2022 | Sundance | 92 Comments

We have talked about this quite a bit. {Go Deep} I’m not sure how this attempted needle threading is going to work out in the longer term. The announcement has come as a surprise to the Canadian trucking industry.

Apparently fearing the economic consequences, the Canadian government has dropped the vaccination requirement for Canadian truck drivers, and instructed border officials to permit unvaccinated Canadian truckers to cross the border.

The vaccine mandate for cross border truckers was scheduled to begin in a few days, January 15th.  However, the Canadian vaccination rule for U.S. truckers will remain in place.

MONTREAL — The federal government is backing down from its vaccine mandate for Canadian truckers three days before it was set to take effect.  Ottawa announced in mid-November that truck drivers crossing into Canada would need to be fully vaccinated by this Saturday.

But on Wednesday evening Canada Border Services Agency spokeswoman Rebecca Purdy told The Canadian Press that Canadian big-riggers will not have to quarantine if they are unvaccinated or have received only one dose.

[…] The new rule will still take effect for American truckers, who will be turned away at the border unless they’ve been inoculated starting this weekend. (read more)

How the hell can Canada justify dropping the vaxx mandate for Canadian truck drivers, but not for U.S. inbound shipments?  Are they preparing for a massive amount of rig switching at the border?   Good grief, what a mess.

♦ Here’s where the weakness of Biden and Buttigieg comes into play. If the U.S. side of the border enforces the vaccine mandate, the Canadian truckers will still be blocked, as the U.S. truckers are now stopped from entering Canada. However, that would take a U.S. administration ready to enforce equality in the supply chain against Canada.

There could already be an agreement between the White House and Canadian officials, and we just don’t know about it. However, I would not make that assumption. With this administration everything is done on the fly as a reaction to the politics of events.

Surely some enterprising journalist in DC is going to ask the White House what the U.S. response is?

Then again, maybe not.  After all, the insufferable DC doofus tribe likely have no concept of the chaos that can unfold over this trucker vaccine mandate writ large; which is scheduled to take effect on January 15th for cross border trucking, and then on January 22nd for all truck drivers inside the U.S. hauling domestic routes.

If Canada has dropped the vaccine requirement for their truckers, but not U.S. drivers, the Biden administration needs to hit them back.

Keep watching this issue, because the January 15th deadline was also supposed to take place at the U.S-Mexico crossing.

This situation reminds me of the Pennsylvania state government shutting down truck stops, rest areas and fuel stations during the beginning of the pandemic, then wondering why all their stores were empty within days? Duh!

Jan 13 2022

Quinnipiac Poll Shows Support for Joe Biden has Collapsed, Hispanics Now Consider Biden an Abject Failure


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on January 12, 2022 | Sundance | 161 Comments

A Quinnipiac poll released today [DATA HERE] shows just how far Joe Biden has fallen in the eyes of most Americans.  Of particular note inside the data is how Hispanics and Latinos view the Biden policies as complete failures.

Among adults overall, Americans give negative scores on the following issues when asked about Biden’s handling of…

  • The economy: 34 percent approve, while 57 percent disapprove;
  • Foreign policy: 35 percent approve, while 54 percent disapprove;
  • The response to the coronavirus: 39 percent approve, while 55 percent disapprove.

(See Full Poll Results Here)

Jan 13 2022

Biden Administration Erecting Concrete Blast and Security Wall Around White House


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on January 12, 2022 | Sundance | 528 Comments

Recently revealed video shows the Joe Biden White House is erecting a concrete (K-Rail) blast and security containment wall directly around the White House.   There doesn’t appear to be any explanation readily available.  Pictures below:

(Screen grab from Source Video)

These types of security barriers are sometimes erected when heads of state are planning to come to the White House.  However, there doesn’t appear to be any information about an anticipated delegation or foreign dignitary.  Additionally, according to one researcher on social media {LINK}, all of the publicly available CCTV video-streams have been disabled as this work is taking place.

The perimeter fence appears to be approximately 10′ high and is made from reinforced concrete k-rails.  It is also being installed directly around the White House building itself.  Quite odd. Video Below:

You never want to jump to conclusions, but given the COVID pandemic situation it’s doubtful the fencing would be for a head of state arrival.

What is the White House preparing for?

Jan 13 2022

Consumer Inflation Reaches 7 Percent in December, Highest Rate in Forty Years and Still Climbing


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on January 12, 2022 | Sundance | 243 Comments

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the December inflation data today [DATA HERE] for December.  Readers on these pages are not surprised to discover that inflation in the U.S. economy has now reached a forty year high at 7 percent.  {Go Deep}

Unfortunately, the 7% in June of 1982 was when inflation was on the way down from Jimmy Carter’s failed economic policy.  This time our 7% milestone has been achieved while inflation is on the climb thanks to Joe Biden’s failed economic policies.

Carter’s mess was created by regulation, policies and oil prices.  Biden’s mess is created by the same and much more.

Yes, it will be getting worse.

That weird picture with the Bidens and the Carters comes to mind.  The scale within the picture is appropriate when considering inflation and what is to come.  Biden’s inflation is much larger than Carter’s.

As you know, the top line number of 7% is a false premise.  We are feeling much, much higher overall prices in our lives with gasoline, home heating fuel, electricity costs, housing and the astronomical prices at the grocery store.  The BLS data is backward looking, meaning it was compiled in early December 2021 for comparison to December 2020.  Where we are CURRENTLY is much worse than where we were in early December.

We are feeling the front side of the inflation hurricane right now. The consumer prices at end of January and through February are now reflecting new purchase order prices and contract prices to wholesalers, buyers and retailers.  The higher energy costs, fuel costs, warehousing costs, transportation costs and delivery costs are cumulative. As a result, the December report is simply the precursor to what will be much more damaging inflation data in Feb (showing this month) and March (showing Feb).

Additionally, the BLS data captured gas prices at their slight drop from oil prices in late November and early December.  The price of oil has now gone even higher, and the price of gasoline is once again on the rise.  We have not yet seen the worst of this folks.  Hopefully most are prepared.

I modified BLS Table-1, taking out some of the noise, to give the snapshot of how the bureau is compiling data:

You can review BLS Table-2 Here for a detailed breakdown of each category.

As previously mentioned, the contracted price for goods delivered (depending on sector) are net terms in 30, 60 or 90 days. Meaning, the purchase price on final goods wholesalers were receiving in November, 2021, were agreed upon months before. Those terms for current arriving goods are no longer valid. The new Q1 2022 terms (purchase orders) carry higher costs, and as an outcome, higher prices to consumers are still coming.

The media are trying to put a spin on the inflation data in an effort to protect the Biden administration from the catastrophic damage caused by policy.  Some of the talking points the media are trying to use are just ridiculous, Pravda would be proud.

Reuters delivers this nonsense: “But Americans have so far remained upbeat, thanks to a tight labor market. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose again in December, this time above projections by economists surveyed by Reuters. That’s fueled spending: Holiday retail sales increased almost 11% in 2021 compared with 2019, according to the Mastercard Spending Pulse. Consumers may be able to take certain supply-chain related cost hikes read more in their stride.”

But I must credit ABC as an example of the most laughable deflection which has been deployed by the White House….

As noted by Joe Biden, Jen Psaki, Ron Klain and now ABC news pushing their talking points, who do they blame?  YOU.

The Biden administration is blaming consumers by saying DEMAND is too high, DEMAND is the problem. WATCH:

As crazy as this sounds, it was predictable.   The Biden administration actually wants the demand for goods and services to contract.  Repeat, they want demand to stop.  This is the basic premise behind “lower your expectations.”

First, the DC politicians delivered the “rust belt” to us as an outcome of their favoring Wall Street over Main Street, and now they are wiping out our checking accounts with massive inflation.  Remember the oft repeated -and infuriating- catch phrase, “The U.S. is a service driven economy?“, said by both wings of the UniParty?   Well, put another way… first they off-shored our jobs, now they off-shore our wealth.   This is not an accidental outcome of flawed policy, they are doing this intentionally.

We are being gutted from the inside.

You don’t accidentally stop pipelines, cancel oil leases, shut down refining capacity, change port regulations and then act surprised by saying: ‘Whoopsie’ gasoline seems to be costing more?  Duh! It’s a feature not a flaw.   Many of the people behind Joe Biden are stupid, but they ain’t *THAT* stupid.  They know what they are doing, but they have to pretend not to know things in order to avoid the tar and feathers.

If they can reduce demand by making things unaffordable, they can claim victory over inflation (mid/late 2022) and proclaim their economic policies a success. The prices will never drop, but the percent of change will stall out.  They will push the windmills, sustainable algae cakes, and other ideological quests from the Moonbat tribe who worship at the altar of climate change.

The downside of the White House achieving what they call “success” is unfortunately, by the time we reach that point we will have nothing left; we’re broke. Prices will finally level off, but the savings of Americans will have been depleted, and wage growth will take years, if ever, to catch up.  You will own nothing, and be happy.