You gotta be kidding me—Anthony Fauci just published an article pointing out viruses that replicate in mucosal passages cannot be effectively controlled by vaccines that create systemic immunity? After 3 years he just announces this obvious point? cell.com/cell-host-micr… “Viruses that replicate in the human respiratory mucosa without infecting systemically, including influenza A, SARS-CoV-2, endemic coronaviruses, RSV, and many other “common cold” viruses, cause significant mortality and morbidity and are important public health concerns….

Mandatory masking rules are an extraordinary accomplishment in one sense— it is hard to think of any other social policy that has zero benefits but positive costs (ie, increased severe illness in terms of re-inhalation of virus from a contaminated mask (the Foegen Effect)). Most policies have at least some benefit, even if small. Or at least minor costs. But it takes a diabolical genius to design a policy with zero benefits and non-trivial costs.

A thread to collect the multiple studies that report negative VE vs omicron. The pattern is consistent: VE starts off low and turns negative around 5-6 months. Boosters follow same trajectory. realclearmarkets.com/articles/2022/… Toronto medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

Fat people are a Covid risk to everyone else, not just themselves. Time for bariatric surgery mandates. nature.com/articles/s4136… “These findings indicate that the increased BMI and obesity convey an increased risk of infection for their contacts,@. It is known that patients with obesity and influenza shed the virus for a significantly longer period of time than people who are lean…

There is a great column by Jay Hart on Yahoo Sports today "Following the Science?" I received it via email and can't find it on the website. It discusses the appalling behavior of Washington State U toward its football coach Nick Rolovich. Here's the money line in the article... "Back in the fall of 2021, Washington Governor Jay Inslee declared all state employees would be required to be vaccinated, unless they had exemptions. Rolovich, as the head football coach at WSU drew attention when he stated he would not get the jab based on religious reasons.

This is a very precise paper. Conclusion: “The overall adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for SARS-CoV-2 infection was 0·47 after previous natural infection versus BNT162b2 vaccination, and 0·51 after previous natural infection versus mRNA-1273 vaccination.” thelancet.com/journals/lanmi… That’s right—you were half as likely to be infected if you had natural immunity than the shot. Yet still no legal recognition for NI.

Judge Pryor's opinion in Norwegian Cruise v [Fl] SG upholding state ban on discrimination based on Covid vax status is admirable for its legal reasoning. The dissent is appalling for revealing the thuggishness and moral callousness of pro-mandaters. media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/f… The rationale behind the law is simple and substantial--to protect individuals from discrimination and to protect their medical privacy. Norwegian, for example, made no exemptions for customers with religious or medical reasons not to get jabbed.

Hey university presidents and trustees--how many cardiac deaths are acceptable as collateral damage? "This analysis found... an 84% increase in the relative incidence of cardiac-related death among males 18-39 years old within 28 days following mRNA vax." floridahealth.gov/newsroom/2022/… "With a high level of global immunity to COVID-19, the benefit of vaccination is likely outweighed by this abnormally high risk of cardiac-related death among men in this age group. As such, the State Surgeon General recommends against males aged 18 to 39 from receiving mRNA...

The 11th Circuit via the great Judge William Pryor upholds Florida law banning discrimination against customers based on providing proof of Covid vaccination. wsj.com/articles/appea… “‘Flor­ida’s statute is a reg­u­la­tion of eco­nomic con­duct that only in­ci­den­tally bur­dens speech,’ wrote Judge William Pryor…. He said the law served the state’s in­ter­est by pro­tect­ing un­vac­ci­nated res­i­dents from dis­crim­i­na­tion and in­va­sions of pri­vacy.”

So I just discovered a recent precedent for Justin Trudeau's freezing of the bank accounts of Canadian anti-mandate protestors--the similar actions taken by the Nigerian government against the #EndSARS anti-police brutality protests in 2020. hrw.org/news/2021/02/1… "By freezing bank accounts during the protests, the Central Bank prevented many of the protesters from supporting themselves for over three months. Some of them told Human Rights Watch about the difficulties they faced in trying to sustain themselves, their families and their...

Huh, I wonder where all the nurses went? news.yahoo.com/u-covid-hospit… "In New York state, the shortage is at an “all-time high,” said Matthew Allen, a registered nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and a board member of the New York State Nurses Association."

VERY exhaustive and useful paper. Buries the lede to some extent though bc only passing discussion of mucosal immunity and IgA abs but notes it is the only sterilizing immunity.

https://twitter.com/profshanecrotty/status/1547970544015798274

“Overall, the evidence suggests that nAbs at nasal, oral, and lung tissues are important for protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 and are likely present proportionally to serum IgG titers after infection.” Interesting correlation. @gerdosi any thoughts?

U.S. Public Health Agencies Aren't ‘Following the Science,’ Officials Say. ⁦@FCCPS⁩ ⁦@peternoonan⁩ You should be ashamed of yourself for forcing boosters on our kids. Read this and tell me how you sleep at night. ⁦@ishapiro⁩ commonsense.news/p/us-public-he… “Anyone who is vaccinated and exposed/close contact with COVID can continue attending school/work provided they do not have any symptoms. Anyone who is unvaccinated and exposed/close contact must quarantine for 5 days after exposure or participate in a “test to stay” program.”

There seems to be much discussion lately about T-cell depletion, which is attributed to reinfection. But it sounds to me like it could be immune exhaustion, which can be caused by repeated stimulation of the immune system. jci.org/articles/view/… "the second injection might be detrimental in this context, possibly leading to a functional exhaustion of
Spike-specific lymphocytes. [We] observed a decrease in the frequency of both B and T cells at day 28... but also a decline in the titer of neutralizing Ab at day 50."

This article is an unintentional howler--the whole premise of the article is that while boosted people APPEAR to be testing positive more Covid, there must be something wrong with the data! news.yahoo.com/why-boosted-am… SCIENCE! So instead of starting with the hypothesis and testing it with data, we will now start with what we "know" the correct answer is, and only accept the data if it comes up with the "right" pre-determined answer. The old saying, "If you beat the data long enough it will confess."

Study published last week in NEJM on the protection provided by the 4th dose in Israel. Compared to "just" 3 doses, protection peaked at 4 weeks and declined to near-equivalence by 8 weeks. "Protection against confirmed infection appeared short-lived." nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.105… "From the fifth week (29 to 35 days) onward, the rate ratio for confirmed infection started to decline. The adjusted rate of infection in the eighth week after the fourth dose was very similar to those in the control groups; the rate ratio for the three-dose
group...

I finally had a chance read the most recent paper from the amazing Qatari research group on natural immunity, vax, and omicron. They have consistently been class of the field on this research. What they find confirms that once again NI>vax. Not even close. medrxiv.org/content/10.110… For Pfizer vs original omicron BA.1: "Effectiveness of only prior infection against symptomatic BA.1 infection was 50.2%. Effectiveness of only two-dose (primary series) BNT162b2 vaccination was negligible at -4.9%." Median time since infection was 324 days vs 268 days since vax.

Thank goodness for experts like Anthony Fauci? After only 2 years The Science has spoken, "'Classical' herd immunity [for Covid], leading to disease eradication or elimination, almost certainly is an unattainable goal." academic.oup.com/jid/advance-ar… "As noted, mass vaccination and aggressive public health approaches have struggled to control other (seemingly more controllable) respiratory infectious diseases, such as smallpox, measles, and rubella, all
caused by viruses with limited phenotypic evolution....

The WSJ today reports breaking news that that scientists are finally "bringing into focus... one of the biggest mysteries of the pandemic... children's seeming imperviousness to Covid-19's worse effects." wsj.com/articles/the-s… Are you ready for their shocking discovery...? "Children mobilize a first line of defense known as the innate immune system more effectively than adults." What is going on that somehow this is considered a novel discovery?

More evidence of zero VE for 2 doses of vax and NEGATIVE VE vs Omicron after about 6 months. jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/… Relative odds ratio: 3 doses v unvaxxed (OR=0.33) and 3 doses v 2 doses (OR=0.34) For all mRNA. Note negative VE from 6-10 months.

Remember when Houston Methodist Hospital was so proud of firing a bunch of nurses with natural immunity for refusing to get vaccinated too? How's that working out? Incredibly, the WSJ article today DOES NOT MENTION that the hospital fired a bunch of nurses this summer. Even though the newspaper reported on the firings as recently as November 29 and provided gushing self-congratulatory quotes from CEO Marc Boom. wsj.com/articles/some-…