As more studies indicate heart inflammation among the young and healthy adults especially after the second dose, top doctors said on Sunday that this should not raise alarm bells as more conclusive studies are needed to prove that Covid-19 vaccines should be avoided.
The Journal of the American College of Cardiology has revealed that the risk of Myocarditis, Pericarditis or Myopericarditis (acute heart inflammation) is higher after the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
In this condition, inflammation in the heart’s muscles and the covering of the heart can cause various cardiac issues.
Other studies have also reported these incidences at around 0.3 to 5 per thousand population, making it a rare phenomenon.
More importantly, these cases have been treated timely and have not resulted in fatalities, although most of these patients’ required hospitalisation.
“In other words, these cases were relatively infrequent, and most of them recovered from their condition with a simple conservative symptomatic treatment with no requirement of significant intervention,” Dr Sanjith Saseedharan, Consultant and Head Critical Care, SL Raheja Hospital, Mahim, told IANS.
Whether there are long-term repercussions for this condition, only time will tell.
“However, this complication is seen more in young individuals, probably because they have a more robust immune system which can sometimes cause dysregulated inflammation,” explained Dr Saseedharan.
As more cases of unexpected heart attacks and even strokes come to light among the healthy, young and middle-aged Indians, a new survey revealed last week that both unvaccinated and vaccinated people have been impacted by this new health emergency.
About 51 per cent citizens said they have one or more individuals in their close network who have experienced heart or brain stroke, blood clots, neurological complications, cancer acceleration, or other sudden medical conditions in the last two years.
According to the survey by LocalCircles, a social community platform, 62 per cent citizens said those in their network developed such conditions were double vaccinated, 11 per cent said that those impacted were single-dose vaccinated, while 8 per cent said they were not vaccinated.
According to the cardiologists, the steep rise in people dying unexpectedly of heart attacks is of concern.
“Though we do not have sufficient data and evidence to prove whether this is a Covid-induced phenomenon; definitely this has increased post-covid. Long term Covid sequelae could possibly be responsible in some cases,” Dr Samir Kubba, Director-Cardiology, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Vaishali, told IANS.
According to Dr Sanjeev Gera, Director and Head, Cardiology, Fortis Hospital Noida, Covid or long Covid may cause persistent inflammation in heart vessels.
“This can rupture silent blockages and cause a heart attack, especially after an unaccustomed exercises like heavy weight lifting or walking on a treadmill or running in a cold weather and the risk increases when there are risk factors for heart disease like high BP, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking or obesity,” Gera told IANS.
At the moment, no significant evidence exists that this condition can have any adverse outcome since the vaccine’s benefits far outweigh the risk, added Dr Saseedharan.
CLEVELAND — The state of Ohio requires all students coming into kindergarten to have been vaccinated against things like measles, mumps, diphtheria and more. But how well are your kids’ schools following the rules? Our exclusive News 5 investigation uncovers a troubling trend.
Watch Investigator Jonathan Walsh’s report on News 5 at 6 p.m.
We are trying to come out of a worldwide pandemic, and Jenny Weiss from Cleveland is worried.
“I don’t want another outbreak. I don’t want to be stuck in my house,” said Weiss.
Her two sons attend Cleveland Metro’s Charles A. Mooney School on the west side, a school our investigation reveals that, even before the pandemic, more than half the kindergartners were missing at least one vaccination for infections like diphtheria, measles and whooping cough.
News 5
News 5 animation showing some of the diseases for which vaccination against is required before attending school in Ohio.
“My kids, in order to go to kindergarten, they had to be updated on all their shots,” said Weiss. “So, I had to call the doctor.”
And when the pandemic hit, things got worse in Ohio. We analyzed childhood vaccination rates from data provided by the Ohio Department of Health for kindergartners since 2017. We found that both during the pandemic and pre-pandemic, numerous schools in districts across our area have been falling short of what Ohio laws require. So much so that local doctors are concerned.
How did your child’s school fare? Below is a searchable database showing the percent of Kindergarten students missing at least one vaccination at every school in Ohio for the pre-pandemic 2018-2019 school year.
“It was fascinating to see which schools were on that list,” said Dr. Shelly Senders from Senders Pediatrics.
And it’s not just the Charles A. Mooney School. Many other CMSD schools had problems, too, before the pandemic. Cleveland parents we talked to had no idea.
News 5
Our investigation found what percent of Kindergartners at these CMSD schools are missing at least one required vaccine during the 2018-2019 school year.
“It ain’t like they’re going to go around saying, ‘Oh, I got a shot,’” said Heather Pesta, who has several kids in or about to attend school in CMSD.
Ohio law makes it clear: “Students who don’t meet the full requirements, do not provide proof of immunizations, do not have immunization exemption or who are not in-process (of getting the shots) are not permitted to remain in school for more than 14 days.”
“If they’re not going to do it, they should be remote,” said Weiss. “Have them do at-home learning until they’re vaccinated.”
CMSD refused to go on camera but did send a statement that said, in part: “families might lack a regular (medical) provider…” or “fail to submit documentation.”
The data shows Akron also saw concerning rates even before the pandemic. Akron did not go on camera either, but said, in part: “…if a student’s vaccine series is ‘in progress’ [sic] the student can…attend classes.”
News 5
Our investigation found what percent of students at these Akron schools are missing at least one required vaccine.
The data shows, though, only some families claim they are in process, and religious or health exemptions are very rare.
“We’re certainly concerned that immunizations are lower than they have been previously,” said Dr. David Karas, who is a pediatrician with Akron Children’s Hospital. “We really want to have those conversations with families to reassure them that vaccines are safe and important,” Dr. Karas told us.
The Ohio Department of Education said it doesn’t enforce the vaccination requirements. The Ohio Department of Health told us it doesn’t either, but that it’s up to the school districts’ nurses and administrators to impose the rules on vaccinations.
News 5/ODH/Ohio DOE
Relevant text from ODH and Ohio DOE policies showing neither agency is responsible for enforcing the vaccine requirements or penalizing students who attend school without the required vaccinations.
“When I saw [our vaccination data] I thought, ‘Wow! This is clearly a health and safety issue that we need to… another one of the health and safety issues that we need to work through,’” said Ralph E. Johnson, the CEO of BreakThrough Public Schools. He took on that role about five months ago.
The ODH data shows the BreakThrough system has also struggled with vaccinations despite state requirements.
“That probably is what the letter of the law says,” said Johnson. “I think having a Kindergartner that needs to go to school not be in school is not a good thing.”
Prioritizing student education was a common theme among school officials who spoke about vaccination requirements.
“Our mission is to educate children first and foremost,” said Natalee Long, the Sr. VP of Operations at Accel Schools, which has buildings in Cleveland, Lorain, Parma and more. “We’re going to do that and we’re not going to allow anything to get in the way.”
She told us vaccination rates depend on nurses getting the correct data to ODH, parents’ involvement with their children and consistent staffing. She said despite high rates of children who are not fully vaccinated in some of its schools, Accel won’t keep kids out of class.
We asked what she would say to parents who might be worried about unvaccinated kids being allowed in the classroom.
“I would say that is a direct result of free and appropriate public education,” said Long. “We can’t prohibit a child from attending despite their vaccination status.”
Doctors and the Ohio Department of Health told us nurses and administrators actually can prevent students who are not fully vaccinated from attending class.
“What fascinated me about that is that the school nurses allowed them to go to school,” Senders said.
The protection the vaccines provide is important. For three years just before COVID (2017-2019), ODH reported our state saw 167 cases of mumps, over 1,300 cases of chickenpox, and nearly 2,500 patients with whooping cough.
News 5
How many cases Ohio has seen of several of the diseases for which vaccines are required for students attending school.
Weiss pleaded with fellow parents to do what’s required now for her son’s sake and for all students.
“Please get your kids vaccinated,” said Weiss. “It’s for their health.”
However, one thing we found is that there’s no real oversight on the vaccination requirements, no consequences that are enacted.
The good news is that because of what school districts learned through the COVID pandemic and how they were able to help get vaccines to students, those processes will may be beneficial to help increase the other vaccines as well.
Where does your child’s school stand now? Below is a searchable database showing the percent of Kindergarten students missing at least one vaccination at every school in Ohio, based on the most recent available data from the 2020-2021 school year.
Here’s the statement from CMSD:
The reasons for our immunization rates can vary.
Besides the exceptions permitted by state law, families might lack a regular provider or “medical home,” be wary of vaccines or fail to submit documentation.
In addition, if students are homeless, federal law allows families to enroll without providing medical records. Once the students are enrolled we work to connect their families to services.
CMSD, with help from community partners, is taking steps to ensure that all students’ needs for immunization and other aspects of health care are met. These include:
· Offering comprehensive mental and physical health services, including immunizations, in schools. With support from the Cleveland and George Gund foundations and Say Yes to Education, we are piloting the model at four buildings and hope to expand it across the district. Under this model, a single consent form gives students access to a range of providers at little or no cost to their families.
· Hosting MetroHealth mobile clinics that make scheduled rounds to 13 schools. Personnel who staff the clinics can administer immunizations with parental consent.
· Assigning a healthcare professional to every building, effective this school year. Besides tending to immediate needs, these school nurses and LPNs can provide healthcare education, help families navigate the healthcare system and assist them in finding a medical home.
· Working with Say Yes to Education to place a Say Yes family support specialist in every building for SY2022-23. The specialists, who are licensed social workers, help families and students get the services they need to overcome barriers to success.
A statement from Akron Public Schools is below, along with their answers to questions we asked a district spokesperson via email:
The Ohio Department of Health added additional vaccine requirements beyond the original standard enrollment that occurs at the Kindergarten level enrollment. Additional new vaccines or boosters for standard vaccines needed for enrollment were added for students in grades 7-12 depending on the type of vaccine. Instructing families of these additional requirements has been a challenge that we have taken on through informational outreach in conjunction our school health providers; local county health professionals and direct mail announcements.
There are also students that must be serve per law, such as unaccompanied minors, that public schools district are required to enroll upon arrival to the district. The district has a number of homeless students that are very mobile within the region and the Akron area services a number of immigrant populations that enroll upon entry into the USA/local community (APS currently has 1,400 students that are considered ESL learners) that come from countries that have wide variance with vaccination requirements.
Per the instructions provided by the Ohio Department of Health, if a student’s vaccine series is “in progress” the student can be enrolled or attend classes. A delay in completing the series in the prescribed manner can be a challenge. APS and school health team members continue to outreach to families to remind of that their vaccines must be updated.
All families receive a direct mailing of the Immunization Requirements annually at the beginning of each school year. This information is also available on the district’s website; each school works with families to provide them information on where vaccination are available and our local school health providers have also set up school clinics that are open to the any student that needs to receive a vaccine to make opportunity for vaccine administration as close to their residence as possible.
We understand the pandemic played a significant role as families just didn’t take their children to doctors’ appointments out of fear of catching COVID.
Q: Can you help us understand how compliance is handled within the district? If a child doesn’t have all the shots, what does APS do?
APS sends directed information to the parent/guardian of the student informing them of non-compliance and every effort is to provide vaccination locations information within the community that offer the correct services to become compliant. Continued outreach and follow up by APS staff is ongoing until standards are met.
There are state requirements to follow when it comes to these kinds of vaccines.
Q: You mentioned efforts have been renewed. What are those efforts?
Children’s Hospital’s Mary Schatz told me Ohio is back working on compliance with public health departments, just as it was pre-COVID. This is correct.
Q: How will the numbers improve in your estimation?
The goal is to have every student be compliant unless there is a justified medical reason provided by the attending physician of a student not to meet this requirement going forward.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — The Yankees and Mets’ lack of concern about New York City’s private-sector vaccine mandate proved to be warranted.
Vaccinated or not, they will all be able to play at home once the season begins in two weeks.
Mayor Eric Adams is set to announce on Thursday the easing of the workplace vaccine mandate, The Post confirmed, allowing an exemption for professional athletes and performers in local venues.
Had the mandate not changed ahead of April 7 in The Bronx or April 15 in Queens, multiple unvaccinated Yankees and Mets could have been at risk of missing home games — as Nets star Kyrie Irving has during the NBA season.
The exact number of unvaccinated Yankees and Mets is not publicly known, but a number of stars had recently declined to reveal their vaccination status as concern grew over Adams insisting his decisions would not be dictated by the baseball schedule. The list of players who declined to say whether they were vaccinated included Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo and Joey Gallo on the Yankees and Jacob deGrom, Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, Dominic Smith and J.D. Davis on the Mets.
Buck Showalter and Aaron BooneCorey Sipkin; N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg
When asked about the mandate being lifted, Judge said: “I’m happy Kyrie can play some home games.”
He added he hadn’t been overly concerned about it impacting the Yankees.
“Like I told you guys, I wasn’t too worried about it,” Judge said. “I’ve got a lot of things to do here at the field. If the mandate’s not there, good for Kyrie and help the Nets out a little bit.”
Aaron Boone didn’t want to address the issue until it becomes official.
“We’ll see,’’ Boone said. “I don’t want to comment on any speculation. Hopefully it’s not an issue for us.”
Since the news of the vaccine mandate applying to the Yankees and Mets first broke last week, both teams took a wait-and-see approach, hoping that the rules would change by Opening Day. The Yankees also had team president Randy Levine working with City Hall and other officials on the matter.
“We’ll deal with it as it comes,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said Tuesday night when asked about the mandate. “There’s people that are being asked in our city to do a certain thing and we don’t expect any — when it checks out and they tell us what to do, we’ll make the adjustments. I understand why we are where we are and we’re very respectful of those things that they’re trying to put in place to protect people.”
COVID-19 cases have been rising slightly in recent days in New York City, but not nearly to the extent that they were during the winter.
Last season, when the NYC private-sector mandate was not yet in place, the Yankees had more than 85 percent of their Tier 1 personnel (which includes players, coaches and other staff with access to players) vaccinated. The Mets had a 77 percent vaccination rate among Tier 1 personnel, The Post previously reported, but only about 55 percent of the players were vaccinated at one point last season.
The Yankees could still be at risk of missing unvaccinated players for their nine games in Toronto this season, barring the reversal of Canadian border restrictions. Manager Aaron Boone said last week “a few guys at least” were still unvaccinated and that the Toronto situation was a “concern.”
Under the current restrictions, Major League Baseball players who are unvaccinated would not be allowed to play in Toronto. The expectation is that teams would instead place those players on the restricted list, using the authorization vested in the new collective bargaining agreement to dock pay and service time.
The Supreme Court on Friday shot down an appeal from a group of New York City school teachers who sought to block a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, arguing it violated their religious freedom.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected the emergency appeal on Friday, the same day as the deadline for city employees to comply with the mandate or face losing their jobs.
Sotomayor did not offer an explanation, which is the court’s usual procedure.
The appeal was filed Tuesday by 15 Department of Education workers, who claimed the city was violating their religious freedoms by not accepting their exemption claims.
The city requires that religious exemption requests must be backed up by religious leaders. For example, the teachers said the city would not accept an exemption from Catholics because Pope Francis had urged his flock to get their shots.
The Supreme Court made the decision to not block the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for New York City teachers seeking religious exemption.AP
The appeal came after numerous objections to former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vaccination mandate for teachers had been struck down. The city did bow to the teacher’s union to allow exemptions for medical or religious reasons.
Mayor Eric Adams said this week he would go ahead with terminating nearly 4,000 of the city’s roughly 400,000 municipal employees who had not been inoculated against the coronavirus.
The teachers were rejected by the Supreme Court during an emergency appeal that took place on the same day as the deadline for city employees to comply with the mandate.AP
Natural immunity from COVID-19 is broad and durable. The lowest risk group for COVID complications should get vaccines — and boosters, for those authorized — regardless of their health.
These statements came out of the CDC two days apart, illustrating the agency’s mixed messaging as ongoing research fails to show a meaningful effect on viral transmission from COVID interventions, especially in children.
They have also exposed a potential rift between the agency’s researchers and its social media team, which proclaim the gospel of vaccines and boosters even for research that is more circumspect.
The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report last week found that COVID recovery became more protective against reinfection and hospitalization than “recent” vaccination alone once the Delta variant became dominant.
“The report finally acknowledges what many have suspected for a long time — that surviving COVID-19 provides excellent natural immunity not only [to] repeat infection but also to hospitalization and death for the delta variant of COVID-19,” University of Southern California clinical medical professor Jeffrey Klausner and UCLA Health senior resident Noah Kojima wrote this week in The Hill.
“The pattern of improved protection after natural infection makes sense,” they explain, because natural infection exposes the body to “all parts of the virus” while vaccines target COVID’s spike protein.
This feds’ recognition means “it is time to update vaccination policies and school or work-entry requirements across federal and state or county governments,” they wrote.
The study’s findings undercut another agency’s social media team. The FDA recently tweeted a slick in-house video featuring Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director Peter Marks, who claimed that people who recovered from COVID and then got vaccinated are still vulnerable without boosters.
‘Really misleading’ tweet
The CDC’s portrayal of a severe pediatric COVID study led by one of its Atlanta-based researchers is “really misleading,” a Stanford Medical School professor told Just the News.
Before COVID vaccines were “approved for most children, nearly 1 in 3 of 2,200+ children hospitalized w/ COVID-19 were admitted to the ICU or put on a ventilator,” the agency tweeted Jan. 31, recommending vaccines for children 5 and up and boosters for 12 and up.
It shared a link to a study in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ journal, “Risk Factors for Severe COVID-19 in Children,” which reviewed 14 months of data from the start of the pandemic from the COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network.
Most of it is hidden behind a $25 paywall, including the percentage of kids on ventilators, but the abstract only specifically identifies “children at potentially higher risk” as beneficiaries of vaccines.
The CDC’s tweet drew immediate criticism on Twitter for mischaracterizing the study, which is about a hospitalized subset with “extremely high existing risk ratios,” according to Matt Shapiro, an occasional writer for National Review. The biggest COVID risk factors it identified included chronic lung disease, neurological disorders and “airway abnormality.”
Stanford Med’s Jay Bhattacharya, a coauthor of the anti-lockdown Great Barrington Declaration, shared a copy of the full study with Just the News. It shows the “invasive mechanical ventilation” percentage of hospitalized children in the study is 5.3%, or 122, and the death rate 0.5%, or 12.
Bhattacharya emphasized the study analyzed “the alpha wave” of COVID and its purpose is to “identify correlates of bad outcomes among these hospitalized kids.” Those with “severe pre-existing conditions,” more than half the study population, are more likely to suffer ICU admission, ventilation or death.
The CDC’s tweet falsely leads parents to think “1/3rd of all kids who get COVID before the vax … will be hospitalized and have severe disease,” he wrote in an email. “The randomized trials in kids did not establish that vax prevents severe disease in children. The CDC’s assertion that it does is not based on the randomized trial evidence.”
Asked to respond to criticism of its portrayal of the severe pediatric COVID study, a CDC spokesperson referred Just the News to another spokesperson who has not responded. The lead author of the study, CDC researcher Rebecca Woodruff, referred Just the News to media relations but has not answered whether she was banned from talking to reporters.
This wasn’t the first time the CDC’s tweets have been faulted by highly credentialed medical experts.
Harvard Medical School’s former dean, among others, challenged its purported finding of a COVID-diabetes link in children, which the agency used to promote masking and vaccines despite several study limitations disclosed by the CDC’s COVID and diabetes researchers.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has shown similar seesawing, sometimes undermining COVID conventional wisdom while also promoting disputed research.
Months before she took over the agency, Walenksy questioned the purpose of PCR testing for recovered individuals in a Health Affairs essay promoting less sensitive rapid antigen tests.
She asked “what possible prevention purpose” PCR tests could serve by returning positives in those who “pose no risk of further transmission” and flagging “non-infectious individuals as candidates for isolation and quarantine.” They routinely send up “false alarms” and risk “undermining public confidence” in testing.
Under fire in December for cutting in half the recommended isolation and quarantine time for infected people, Walensky warned that PCR tests can register positives for up to 12 weeks after an infection clears. The FDA told Just the News that PCR tests for COVID nonetheless remain the “gold standard.”
But Walensky also repeatedly promoted a study that found schools without mask mandates were 3.5 times more likely to have COVID outbreaks. Critics noted it failed to control for vaccination status or even use the same time period for different schools.
Spotify’s share price climbed back up Monday after Joe Rogan addressed the controversy surrounding his views on the COVID-19 vaccine late Sunday night, as fans call for Taylor Swift to follow Neil Young and Joni Mitchell by pulling her music from the streaming service.
Spotify shares were going for $197.1 in after-hours trading Monday evening, after falling to about $165.2 on Friday following the blowback from several musicians.
Last week, Young told Spotify in an open letter that he wanted his music off the streaming service because Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, ‘is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them.’
Spotify complied and began pulling the singer-songwriter’s catalogue from the service on Wednesday. On Friday, Joni Mitchell also demanded that her music be removed.
The Joe Rogan Experience is Spotify’s highest-rated show, with each episode bringing over 10 million listeners. The streaming service cut a deal believed to be worth over $100 million in late 2020 for the exclusive rights to host the former Fear Factor host’s podcast.
Meanwhile, Swift fans are calling for the pop star, 32, to remove her music from the service in solidarity with Young and Mitchell.
‘The fact is that Taylor Swift could probably end Joe Rogan with one tweet to Spotify,’ one fan tweeted on Sunday to more than 6,700 likes.
Swift owns the master recordings of her last three studio albums, but not of the first six albums that made her a bona fide sensation. Without rights to the official recordings, it is unclear if Swift could order those albums taken down.
Fans are calling for Taylor Swift to remove her music from the Swedish streaming giant
Singer-songwriters Neil Young (left) and Joni Mitchell pulled their music from the streaming service in protest of Joe Rogan’s spread of what they deem to be COVID ‘misinformation’
Much of the controversy was sparked by two recent episodes of the podcast in which Rogan spoke with an acclaimed cardiologist and expert virologist, both of whom were critical of the way in which the pandemic has been handled in the US
Share prices began rising on Monday after Rogan promised to ‘balance things out’ in an Instagram video posted late Sunday night (above)
Spotify stock prices have recovered, rising above what they were last Monday, when Young published an open letter asking Spotify to remove his music
Swift has more than 53 million monthly listeners on the platform, compared with Mitchell’s 3.7 million and Young’s 6 million.
Fans are calling on Swift to use her popularity to take on Rogan and Spotify
Some have suggested that Swift’s popularity would force Spotify to take more action against Rogan.
‘The way Taylor Swift could end Joe Rogan with a single tweet at Spotify… what is the hold up,’ tweeted journalist Carlos Maza.
An account by the handle @CallToActivism tweeted: ‘Who else thinks it would be AMAZING for Taylor Swift to punish Spotify by DITCHING them for choosing Joe Rogan’s Covid lies over Neil Young’s music? RT so @taylorswift13 hears you!’
Swift has not publicly commented on the blazing row that started between Spotify and Young.
Even so, she doesn’t own the master recordings for her first six albums: Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation.
Swift decided to re-record the albums after negotiations fell through with her previous record label, Big Machine. Red (Taylor’s Version) was released in November to critical acclaim.
Owning the official master recordings of a song allows an artists the right to license it and collect royalties on it. Because Swift only owns the rights to three original albums and two re-recorded albums, it is unclear how much impact a Swift boycott would have on Spotify.
Young and Mitchell removed their music from the streaming giant to protest its spread of what Young described as ‘deadly misinformation about Covid’.
Spotify shares were trading at $193.6 each last Monday, when Young’s letter briefly appeared on his website before it was deleted.
Spotify’s market value dropped more than $2 billion in the days following Young’s announcement, with shares tumbling by around 12 percent.
Share prices began rising on Monday after Rogan promised to ‘balance things out’ in an Instagram video posted late Sunday night. They are now higher than they were last Monday, coming in at 197.1 each in after-hours trading Monday evening.
Swift, above in New York City on November 12, has more than 53 million monthly listeners on the platform, compared with Mitchell’s 3.7 million and Young’s 6 million
‘I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform … They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,’ Young said in his letter on Monday
Spotify stocks rose on Monday (above) after Rogan addressed the controversy himself
On Sunday, Rogan said: ‘It’s a strange responsibility to have this many viewers and listeners. It’s nothing that I’ve prepared for. I’m going to do my best to balance things out.
‘I’m just a person who sits down and talks to people and has conversations with them. I’m interested in telling the truth and finding out what the truth is.
‘I’m very sorry that [Neil Young and Joni Mitchell] feel that way. I most certainly don’t want that.’
Rogan spoke hours after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were in touch with Spotify to express their concerns the outlet could be spreading ‘pandemic-related misinformation’.
Spotify, meanwhile, says it plans to add an advisory content warning to any episodes concerning Covid, which will link to a hub providing ‘easy access to data-driven facts, up-to-date information as shared by scientists, physicians, academics and public health authorities around the world, as well as links to trusted sources,’ the company in a statement.
‘We will also begin testing ways to highlight our Platform Rules in our creator and publisher tools to raise awareness around what’s acceptable and help creators understand their accountability for the content they post on our platform.’
Critics say that’s not enough to combat the hours of vaccine-skeptical content on the streaming service.
‘This is mere cosmetic dusting,’ tweeted Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist, health economist and senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists.
‘I’m deleting Spotify,’ he tweeted Thursday. ‘You should too. Vaccine disinformation is not cool.’
Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek (pictured) says the streaming giant is making changes in response to the criticism it has faced in recent weeks aimed at star podcaster Joe Rogan
The statement was released shortly after it was revealed that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had ‘concerns’ over the misinformation being shared
Spotify agreed to remove Young’s music on Wednesday.
‘We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators,’ a representative told Variety.
‘We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon.’
In a now-deleted letter that Young posted online Monday, he specifically took aim at comedian and podcaster Rogan, who signed a $100 million deal with Spotify in May 2020, giving them exclusive rights to his show The Joe Rogan Experience.
‘With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE [Joe Rogan Experience], which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence,’ he writes.
‘Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.’
‘I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform … They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,’ continued Young, who is married to Blade Runner actress Daryl Hannah, 61.
Rogan has accused the government of deliberately holding back or discouraging the use of alternative treatments for Covid, such as monoclonal antibodies, and selectively preventing some people from accessing the treatments (pictured: a vial of the Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, March 2021)
‘I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them.
‘Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule,’ he adds.
Much of the controversy was sparked by two recent episodes of the podcast in which Rogan spoke with an acclaimed cardiologist and expert virologist, both of whom were critical of the way in which the pandemic has been handled in the US.
But Rogan, 54, has criticized the American government and the CDC’s approach to the pandemic since late 2020, speaking out against vaccine mandates, vaccine passes and enforced mask wearing, while cautioning healthy young people under pressure to get jabbed.
He has also been vocal about the government’s reluctance to discuss any other potential treatments of Covid-19 besides the vaccine, and questioned why public health organizations have been so quick to encourage vaccine uptake without extolling the benefits of improving one’s baseline health.
The podcaster’s detractors have long decried what they perceive to be an ‘anti-vaccine’ stance, accusing the podcaster of discouraging people from following government guidelines around Covid.
YouTube has removed Joe Rogan’s (left) interview with the scientist who helped invent mRNA vaccines Dr Robert Malone (right) and who claimed that the US is now like Nazi Germany with society ‘hypnotized’ to believe in vaccines and extreme pandemic measures
The 61-year-old doctor’s account was suspended a day before the release of the podcast, with Twitter citing a violation of the platform’s rules. Clips from the podcast were also subsequently pulled off of YouTube
Others meanwhile have pointed out that Rogan’s words are often taken out of context and that he is simply giving people access to views and opinions – often expressed by experts – that question the official narrative of the US government. Many have also argued that the media’s attempts to discredit Rogan are tantamount to censorship.
Rogan is unvaccinated, but says he is simply against vaccine mandates, not the vaccines themselves.
In podcast #1642 with comedian Andrew Santino, Rogan said: ‘I’m not an anti-vaxx person. I said I believe they’re safe and I encourage many people to take them.
‘My parents were vaccinated. I just said that if you’re a young, healthy person that you don’t need it.’
His comments came days after a podcast with comedian Dave Smith in which Rogan said he would not advise healthy people aged 21 to get the vaccine.
‘If you’re like 21 years old, and you say to me, should I get vaccinated? I’ll go no.
‘If you’re a healthy person, and you’re exercising all the time, and you’re young, and you’re eating well, like, I don’t think you need to worry about this.’
Rogan has criticized big tech for its de-platforming of reputable individuals who presented viewpoints alternative to the official narrative, pointing to Malone’s Twitter ban as an example.
‘They removed [Malone] for not going along with whatever the tech narrative is because tech clearly has a censorship agenda when it comes to Covid in terms of treatment, in terms of whether or not you are promoting what they would call ‘vaccine hesitancy’ – they can ban you for that’ Rogan said.
Malone, whose Twitter account with over 500,000 followers was suspended one day before the podcast’s release, is the owner of several patents related to mRNA vaccine technology and has been involved in the development of vaccines and repurposing of drugs for several viruses.
The podcast quickly went viral as the doctor, whose career has been inextricably linked to the creation and promotion of vaccines, ripped into the way in which they have been rolled out in the US.
‘I’m personally offended by watching my discipline get destroyed for no good reason at all except, apparently, financial incentives, and – I don’t know – political a**-covering.
‘Our government is out of control. They completely disregard bioethics. They completely disregard the federal common rule.’
What does Joe Rogan say about vaccines and is it that outrageous?
Joe Rogan has decried the American government and the CDC’s approach to the pandemic since late 2020, speaking out against vaccine mandates, vaccine passes, and cautioning healthy young people about the possible side effects of the vaccine.
He has also been vocal about the government’s reluctance to discuss any other potential treatments of Covid-19 besides the vaccine, and has pointed to several doctors’ use of treatments such as monoclonal antibodies and ivermectin to help combat the virus.
Rogan has repeatedly stated that he is not an anti-vaxxer, but is critical of the way in which the pandemic has been handled and is suspicious of why public health bodies have pushed the jab before encouraging people to improve their baseline health.
Despite criticism from many media outlets and Biden’s chief medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci, the comedian’s views have garnered considerable support and in many cases have held up to further inspection.
These are some of the key sentiments Rogan has expressed on the pandemic amid the long-running debate over the comedian and his Spotify-hosted podcast The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE):
Rogan says big tech is censoring alternative views on vaccines and the pandemic – December 31, 2021: JRE #1757 with Dr Robert Malone
Rogan accused big tech of censoring reputable individuals who presented viewpoints alternative to the official narrative, using Malone’s Twitter ban as an example.
‘They removed you for not going along with whatever the tech narrative is because tech clearly has a censorship agenda when it comes to Covid in terms of treatment, in terms of whether or not you are promoting what they would call ‘vaccine hesitancy’ – they can ban you for that’ Rogan said.
YouTube has removed Joe Rogan’s (left) interview with the scientist who helped invent mRNA vaccines Dr Robert Malone (right) and who claimed that the US is now like Nazi Germany with society ‘hypnotized’ to believe in vaccines and extreme pandemic measures
Rogan questions the refusal to promote alternative treatments – December 15, 2021: JRE #1747 with Dr. Peter A. McCullough
Rogan accused the government of deliberately holding back or discouraging the use of alternative treatments for Covid, such as monoclonal antibodies, and selectively preventing some people from accessing the treatments.
‘There’s an unlimited supply or a very large supply, more than adequate for the entire population, of monoclonal antibodies. So what is stopping the distribution of them? Because not only have they made it difficult to get in Texas, they actually put these parameters on who gets it and who doesn’t.’
Rogan also hit out at the FDA and CDC’s refusal to include Ivermectin as a Covid treatment, citing the anti-parasitic drug’s widespread safe usage around the world and pointing out that his own doctor prescribed Ivermectin with positive results.
Rogan says vaccine mandates are anti-American in Instagram clip showing images of the Holocaust – September 27, 2021
At the end of September, Rogan posted a video to his 13 million Instagram followers in which images and videos of the Holocaust were played over clips from his podcast criticizing the US’ handling of the pandemic.
‘As soon as you give politicians power, any kind of power that didn’t exist previously, if they can figure out a way to force you into carrying something that lets you enter businesses or lets you do this or lets businesses open, historically, they are not gonna give that power up,’ Rogan warns.
‘It is the literal structure that allows this country to be so f***ing amazing. Anything that comes along that can inhibit your freedom is, by definition, anti-American.’
Rogan does not mention the Holocaust or Nazis directly in the clip, but the images are overlaid with a clear warning for people to protect their freedoms.
Rogan declares alternative treatments to the vaccine, including Ivermectin, are effective in Instagram video and calls out CNN for false reporting – September 2021
Rogan took to Instagram on September 1 to inform his followers that he had contracted Covid, but had beaten the virus quickly.
The unvaccinated Rogan said he had taken a multitude of treatments, including anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin, monoclonal antibodies (antibodies created in a lab to fight a specific infection) and NAD drips (a type of intravenous treatment that can stimulate cell regeneration in your body).
But news broadcaster CNN reported that Rogan had taken ‘horse dewormer’ as a treatment for Covid instead of getting vaccinated.
He claims the medical cocktail helped him recover and joked that he might ‘sue CNN’ for slamming his use and promotion of Ivermectin.
‘They’re making s*** up. They keep saying I’m taking horse dewormer. I literally got it from a doctor. It’s an American company. They must know that’s a lie.’
‘It’s a lie on a news network… and it’s a lie that they’re conscious of. It’s not a mistake. They’re unfavorably framing it as veterinary medicine.’
‘Why would you say that when you’re talking about a drug that’s been given out to billions and billions of people?’
Rogan slammed CNN for ‘lying’ by saying he took ‘horse dewormer’ even though his Ivermectin treatment, used widely around the world, was prescribed by a doctor
Rogan holds Biden administration’s chief medical advisor Dr Anthony Fauci to account over mixed messaging on Covid measures – August 17, 2021: JRE #1696 with Lex Fridman
In an August podcast with MIT research scientist and artificial intelligence researcher Lex Fridman, Rogan ripped into Fauci for a lack of transparency and mixed messaging over Covid measures.
‘There’s a problem with people like [Fauci] where they make these statements that you’re led to believe they have an understanding of the situation… But then it turns out they’re 100 percent wrong.
‘But then they come up with a new statement and you’re supposed to believe that.’
‘When they don’t know, they never say ”We don’t know,” Rogan added. ‘They don’t say ”this is very confusing and we’re trying to figure it out as we go along.”‘
Fauci initially told Americans not to worry about wearing face masks early in the pandemic, before later becoming a huge supporter of public masking and blaming his previous advice on a need to conserve then-tight PPE supplies for medical staff.
Fauci has also faced criticism for initially steering conversation away from claims that Covid may have leaked from the Wuhan virus lab, despite a considerable amount of evidence in support of the theory.
Rogan said Fauci has lost public trust after not being transparent about so called ‘gain-of-function’ research at the Wuhan Institute (pictured)
Rogan says that introducing vaccine passports is moving one step closer to dictatorship and blasts lockdowns – August 6, 2021: JRE #1693 with Evin Hafer
Rogan blasted vaccine passports in an August episode of his podcast with Black Rifle Coffee CEO and former green beret Evin Hafer.
‘When you give people freedom, you let people do whatever the f*** they want to do, they actually find ways to succeed and grow and thrive,’ Rogan said.
‘But as soon as you put the boots to them, as soon as you tell them, ”You have to do this, or you can’t do that. You have to listen to me,” now you have a mini dictator.
‘You have one step away from a king. One step closer. You’re moving one step closer to dictatorship.
‘That’s what the f*** is happening.’
Rogan days earlier blasted enforced lockdowns and criticized Australia in particular for its heavy handed approach.
‘They have full on government lockdowns, where the government is flying helicopters over streets saying, ”Go back indoors, you’re not allowed to be outside”, which is crazy.
‘This disease doesn’t even transmit well outside. It doesn’t make any sense. Being outside and getting vitamin D from the sun is probably one of the best things you can do.
Several studies have suggested that vitamin D deficiency may increase the risk of Covid-19 infection and the likelihood of severe disease.
Rogan says he is not an anti-vaxxer but discourages young, healthy people from getting the vaccine – April 2021
In podcast #1642 with comedian Andrew Santino, Rogan said: ‘I’m not an anti-vaxx person. I said I believe they’re safe and I encourage many people to take them.
‘My parents were vaccinated. I just said that if you’re a young, healthy person that you don’t need it.’
His comments came days after a podcast with comedian Dave Smith in which Rogan said he would not advise healthy people aged 21 to get the vaccine.
‘If you’re like 21 years old, and you say to me, should I get vaccinated? I’ll go no.
‘If you’re a healthy person, and you’re exercising all the time, and you’re young, and you’re eating well, like, I don’t think you need to worry about this.’
Two months after scientists in South Africa alerted the world to the new, highly transmissible Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, the global surge in infections resulting from the variant is finally subsiding.
To be clear, exhausted health-care workers in overcrowded hospitals are still fighting to save lives. But many epidemiologists are beginning to look ahead to a post-Omicron world.
The pandemic experts The Daily Beast spoke to were unanimous. Omicron is not the end. New variants–“lineages” is the scientific term–are coming. Worse, a host of entirely new coronaviruses lurk in animal populations and could make the leap to human beings at any time, seeding a whole new pandemic after or on top of COVID-19.
A new vaccine that works equally well against all lineages of SARS-CoV-2, as well as any future coronavirus, could blunt both. A “pan-coronavirus” vaccine is the holy grail of public health. Dozens of labs all over the world, including several in the U.S., are working overtime to develop one.
Scientists hope universal vaccines will hugely simplify global efforts to end the current pandemic and prevent the next one. Some insist it’s a better approach than trying to tailor vaccines for particular lineages. An Omicron-specific jab, for instance.
“We are going to have to come up with long-term vaccine solutions that don’t necessitate chasing the latest variant,” James Lawler, an infectious disease expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, told The Daily Beast.
A pan-COVID vaccine gets ahead of the pathogen. Lineage-specific vaccines chase after it. Barton Haynes, an immunologist with Duke University’s Human Vaccine Institute, called the latter approach “whack-a-mole.” “Wait until something happens, then do something about it.”
The solution, Haynes told The Daily Beast, is “greater uptake of the vaccines we have and good use in the future of the vaccines being developed in the second generation of COVID vaccines–i.e., pan-coronavirus vaccines.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in late 2019, the priority was developing a vaccine for COVID-19. In one of most impressive feats of pharmaceutical development in world history, in roughly a year the world had access to several highly effective vaccines, including two using new messenger-RNA technology.
But uneven vaccine distribution, and entrenched anti-vax minorities in countries with easy access to the jabs, gave SARS-CoV-2 room to evolve. The vaccines softened COVID’s impact until the new, more lethal Delta lineage evolved in mid-2021. Booster shots helped blunt Delta–and then, late last year, Omicron evolved.
Omicron with its dozens of mutations somewhat reduces the effectiveness of the vaccines, motivating some of the leading pharmas to develop new versions of their jabs that attack Omicron where it’s weakest—hopefully restoring the vaccines’ previous levels of effectiveness. Both Pfizer and Moderna expect their Omicron-specific vaccines to be ready in March.
But Omicron, which is highly transmissible but often less severe than Delta, surged fast and faded with equal speed. Cases peaked in the worst-hit countries over the past couple weeks and are now dropping fast. In the U.S., new infections peaked at around 800,000 a day last week before declining to 700,000 a day a few days later.
It’s increasingly likely that, by the time the Omicron-specific jabs are ready, Omicron won’t be the main problem any more. “I don’t think we’re going to get an Omicron vaccine in time to affect this initial Omicron wave,” Lawler said. And some new lineage will almost certainly take its place, Lawler added.
Meanwhile, totally different coronaviruses loom. They all have two things in common—the distinctive spike protein that helps them grab onto our cells, and a tendency to cause respiratory infections in people.
Scientists have named 46 coronaviruses so far. Most reside in animal populations; bats, pangolins, tropical cat-like animals called civets. Any one of these animal viruses could leap to the human species–and a bunch already have. Humanity has suffered through outbreaks of SARS-CoV-1, MERS and now SARS-CoV-2. “Why wouldn’t there be a SARS-CoV-3?” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told The Daily Beast.
Experts stress that ongoing deforestation and the growing trade in wildlife could mean increasing human exposure to coronaviruses in coming years and decades. Changchuan Yin, a University of Illinois at Chicago scientist, assessed–in a study that hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed–dozens of coronaviruses and identified several, including SZ3 in civets and the bat coronavirus HKU9-1, that seem to pose a high risk to the human population should they ever jump from their host species to us.
The increasing speed of SARS-CoV-2’s evolution–from the baseline virus to Delta to Omicron–undercuts the case for boutique jabs and underscores the rationale for pan-COVID shots. The growing threat from new coronaviruses only further makes that case.
A team of scientists at Duke, led by Haynes and his colleague Kevin Saunders, was one of the first to get to work on a universal vaccine, back in the spring of 2020. After months of work, they found an especially powerful antibody in a sample from someone who had recovered from a SARS-CoV-1 infection back in 2003.
That antibody, DH1047, targets the spike protein. Haynes, Saunders and their team immunized macaque monkeys and mice with DH1047, then exposed the animals to a menu of pathogens including SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses.
“It worked wonderfully well,” Haynes said. One experiment produced a titer—a measure of antibody concentration—of 47,000. That’s six times higher than the typical titer resulting from one of the mRNA vaccines for COVID-19.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded the Duke team funding to begin manufacturing the antibody. Not only could it form the basis of a powerful, pan-COVID vaccine–it could also be the key ingredient in a new, post-infection therapy for COVID-19 and other coronavirus infections.
A team led by Kayvon Modjarrad at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland is working on its own universal vaccine–and has also shown promising results. Modjarrad’s team isolated a fragment of a coronavirus spike protein called a “spike-ferritin nanoparticle” and exposed it to monkeys then human subjects starting last spring.
The results, so far, are encouraging. “This vaccine stands out,” Modjarrad said in a statement. The spike-ferritin nanoparticle “may stimulate immunity in such a way as to translate into significantly broader protection.” The goal, Modjarrad explained, is “safe, effective and durable protection against multiple coronavirus strains and species.”
If there’s a downside, it’s that a pan-COVID vaccine might be slightly less effective than, say, the current mRNA vaccines were against the earliest SARS-CoV-2 lineages. The mRNA vaccines peaked at 90-percent or greater effectiveness, but have slowly lost effectiveness as newer lineages evolve to evade them.
The promise of a universal vaccine is that, while potentially less effective overall, it won’t lose effectiveness even as the various coronaviruses it combats mutate in an effort to thwart it.
A universal vaccine could also hugely simplify the logistics of immunizing large populations. You get one vaccine for a whole bunch of different viruses and lineages. You might eventually need a booster, sure–but if the jab works as advertised, you wouldn’t need to follow up with a different shot each time some new lineage pops up.
There’s still a lot of work to do to turn these promising antibodies and nanoparticles into robust vaccines, test them on large human populations and get them past government regulators.
Haynes stressed his team is trying to get to large-scale human trials “as quickly as possible.” But in the worst-case scenario, it could take years to develop, test and deploy a pan-COVID vaccine, warned Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is working on his own universal jab.
But we’re already in year three of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and there’s no end in sight. We’re going to be living with this virus, and possibly other coronaviruses, for a while. It’s time to think long-term about vaccines that can get ahead of the viruses.
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ROME, Italy (ChurchMilitant.com) – On December 15, in the Italian-language section of the Corrispondenza Romana website, an article was published by pediatrician Gwyneth A. Spaeder which intended to refute my statements about the COVID “vaccine” in the letter which I sent to the American bishops and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on October 23, 2021.
Dr. Citro Della Riva, M.D.
debunks Dr. Spaeder’s polemic
I believe that those who are familiar with my writings and read them regularly know that I do not usually make rash statements, nor do I take positions on controversial topics without taking great care to check the facts. This is required by the seriousness of an impartial critique and by the authority of my role as Archbishop, as well as by respect for those to whom I speak. Whether I make pronouncements on questions of strict doctrinal or moral relevance, or if I address topics only indirectly tied to Religion, I believe I have never shrunk from facing criticism or from having a healthy discussion, precisely because I am persuaded that the truth does not belong to any one person, but rather it can manifest itself — and at times appears even more evident — by means of an honest confrontation with those who have different ideas. The scholastic disputatio teaches us this — something that significantly disappeared after the Council — as proof of the wisdom of the Church.
In the specific case of the psycho-pandemic farce and the vaccine campaign for COVID, I have had the opportunity to inform myself, to consult authoritative doctors and scientists, to read and to investigate those aspects which, understandably, are not the immediate competence of those who are not familiar with the subject. Once I formed an idea on the subject, I felt it my duty as a Shepherd and Successor of the Apostles to send a letter to my brother bishops in the United States and to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), in which I highlighted the serious problems of the experimental gene serum in terms of effectiveness as well as safety, and also its moral liceity.
Dr. Spaeder’s article has not in any way refuted my arguments, since it limits itself to repeating the script that Big Pharma kindly provides to its retailers, on the model of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) that every company makes available to its customers.
The involvement of Dr. Spaeder, at least in relation to her relatives, reveals an ideological closeness with clearly identifiable political circles.
For this reason, considering that the attempted refutation came from a doctor, I thought it would be appropriate to step aside, consulting Dr. Massimo Citro Della Riva, a talented doctor who is the author of various publications about the pandemic, one of which, entitled Apocalisse [Apocalypse], is about to be published. It will therefore fall to Dr. Citro Della Riva to respond to Dr. Spaeder on the merits of her argument, employing the competence and knowledge of the facts of one who is certainly more qualified than I am in the discipline of medicine. I would like to clarify that on December 21, I forwarded Dr. Citro Della Riva’s letter to Corrispondenza Romana, but as of today it has not published it, as was requested and as it ought to have done. This is why I wanted to share Dr. Citro Della Riva’s letter with Church Militant, allowing readers to evaluate its contents for themselves, and, in light of this response, also to evaluate the gaps and inaccuracies in Dr. Spaeder’s article.
I am sorry to see — and I say this with regret as someone who knew the Director of Corrispondenza Romana in times when he was appreciated as an authoritative conservative Catholic intellectual — that Prof. Roberto De Mattei has ventured into a minefield, offering himself to give media support to the pandemic narrative and to the supposed effectiveness, safety, non-dangerousness and moral liceity of the gene serum. And I am even more sorry that, in doing this, Prof. De Mattei has relied on the pen of Gwyneth A. Spaeder, a person who does not exactly appear to be impartial, but who instead presents multiple conflicts of interest both because of her professional formation and also because of her connections with Johns Hopkins University and IQVIA, where her husband Dr. Jeffrey Spaeder works. I will leave it to journalists to investigate the role of her father, George Weigel, a famous neo-conservative who is the biographer of John Paul II and a signer of PNAC, the Project for the New American Century, along with, among others, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Jeb Bush.
It seems to me that the involvement of Dr. Spaeder, at least in relation to her relatives, reveals an ideological closeness with clearly identifiable political circles. I do not know how Prof. De Mattei, whose Fondazione Lepanto has an office in Washington, may be related to them. It would be the case that the Director of Corrispondenza Romana and the President of the Fondazione Lepanto, who on many occasions has invited me not to concern myself with political and medical questions, has clarified his position and was the first, as a practicing Catholic, to give an example of transparency and consistency, avoiding strange political connections.
Having said this, I leave it to Dr. Citro to refute Dr. Spaeder’s arguments.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
24 December 2021 The Vigil of Most Holy Christmas
Dear Colleague,
Dr. Jeffrey Spaeder is linked to Big Pharma
I have read your response to the letter of Abp. Carlo M. Viganò. I am also a doctor who has spent more than a year and a half treating those who are infected with SARS-CoV-2, and I do not agree with your affirmations; therefore, in order to continue on the path of mutual constructive criticism, I feel I should respond.
When Abp. Viganò writes about gene serums, he does not necessarily intend to allude to a product that integrates itself into our genome, but rather to a messenger RNA that is itself a gene molecule, since it is a ribonucleic acid. These serums cannot be called vaccines, since a vaccine is a pathogen or a part of a pathogen, either attenuated or inactivated, which is capable of inducing immunity. In contrast, the serums are experimental molecules (already used to treat various oncological pulmonary pathologies, such as cystic fibrosis and other diseases, but never until now experimented with to treat a viral infection) that do not induce immunity but rather produce spikes, which in turn must induce antibodies. The spikes are the toxic and poisonous part of this virus and also the most subject to mutation.
In any case, the reverse transcription of viral RNA is also possible,[1] as occurs with other RNA viruses, which is then capable of triggering long-term chronic diseases.[2] The reverse transcription of the vaccine mRNA is for now only hypothetical, just as it is for the DNA of the adenovirus vector: It is, however, plausible due to the presence of retrotransposons. It is known for certain that protein N of SARS-CoV-2 is transcribed into our DNA.[3] The vaccine mRNAs remain potentially oncogenic by integration or by genetic (epigenetic) interference. It has recently been discovered that the spike is located in the nucleus and inhibits the repair of DNA damage, preventing adaptive immunity.[4] Therefore, I would not be so sure that the vaccine mRNA cannot reverse transcribe itself into our DNA.
I am happy that you mentioned that vaccines always carry a component of risk, and so they should only be used when the benefit outweights the risk. But this is not the case with COVID-19, where the benefit is almost zero and the risks are high. We are talking about an infection that is perfectly treatable, with a lethality of less than 1%; thus there is no need for vaccination. Furthermore, the lack of efficacy is there for all to see: these serums do not interrupt transmission; they do not prevent infection; indeed, most of the time infection follows vaccination. Furthermore, those who are vaccinated are contagious and continue to infect people, thereby increasing the epidemic. These serums induce variants which, as you know, are mutations by which the virus escapes the vaccine. The low efficacy of these vaccines is evident from observing the situation in Israel, where there is a worrisome increase in hospitalizations, above all among people between 40 and 50 years old who are fully vaccinated.[5]
Those who are vaccinated are contagious and continue to infect people, thereby increasing the epidemic.
An investigation in hospitals in Israel has documented that almost 100% of those hospitalized had previously been vaccinated,[6] and they are already considering giving a fourth dose of the vaccine in the nation that was the first to inoculate its inhabitants with the third dose.[7] In Norway, where the majority of the population is vaccinated, the number and percentage of hospitalizations related to COVID-19 is increasing among vaccinated patients, and vaccination has not reduced the probability of death in the hospital.[8] Waterford is the county in Ireland with the highest rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection, even though 99.7% of its residents are vaccinated.[9] Gibraltar is the place in the world with the highest percent of vaccinated people (119% [This includes the 19% who travel from abroad to the island]) and the absence of those who are not vaccinated, and yet is recording a continual exponential increase in COVID-19 infections.[10] The number of neutralizing antibodies present after vaccination is lower than in uninfected controls.[11]
There is no difference in viral loads between the vaccinated and the non-vaccinated, and if the vaccinated are infected by the delta variant, they can be a course of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to others.[12] In the case of the delta variant, the neutralizing antibodies have a reduced affinity for the spike protein.[13] There is no difference in the viral load between the vaccinated and the non-vaccinated who are infected by the delta variant.[14] There is a very poor response to the vaccines among those who have the delta variant.[15] In almost 70 nations the number of COVID-19 is increasing despite all the vaccinations.[16] Here in Italy, the population continues to be infected and the hospitals are full, despite the fact that 85% of the population is vaccinated. These serums are proving to be completely ineffective as well as useless.
It is said the serums help people contract a milder form of infection, but I want to remind you that this infection always begins in a mild form and that before it evolves (in a small number of cases) into a more severe form, several days pass during which it is perfectly treatable. If properly treated right away, people get well. None of my patients who have been treated as soon as they become infected have ever been hospitalized, and the thousands of Italian doctors who treat patients immediately report a rate of hospitalization that is less than 1%.[17] The same holds true for colleagues from other European nations with whom I am in contact.
The treatments you call “alternative” are not at all alternative, and they have existed since the very first case of SARS (I wish to remind you that the current virus is actually the second SARS, that the virus is almost identical to SARS-CoV-1 and so are its clinical manifestations), as can be found in literature beginning in 2003. The fact that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) can inhibit coronaviruses is found in literature beginning right after SARS; one cannot say this was not known. In SARS-CoVs generally, HCQ increases the endosomal pH and interferes with the terminal glycosylation of the cell receptor (ACE2).[18] Chloroquine inhibits SARS-CoV replication.[19] HCQ is an effective inhibitor of the replication of SARS-CoV both in vitro and also in vivo: SARS-CoV-1 (viral replication reduced by 99% after three days), MERS-CoV, HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43.[20] In mice, chloroquine transmitted to newborns protects it from the lethal challenge of human HCoV-OC43.[21]
Archbishop Viganò is perfectly correct in recalling the danger and mortality of these serums.
COVID-19 is perfectly treatable, but it must be treated immediately, without wasting time, preferably within the first two days. HCQ also has an anti-viral action: Hydroxychloroquine (400 mg per day) and azythromicin (500 mg per day) for at least five days, up to 10 days.[23] In China, HCQ has even been found to be useful in treating COVID-19 pneumonia, and it is recommended “to include it in the next guidelines for the treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia.[24]
Hydroxychloroquine has all the characteristics to be confirmed as the drug of choice in the prophylaxis of early-stage coronavirus complications, and derivatives from China are being studied by the U.S. FDA as a treatment for COVID-19.[25] As much as 37% of the 6,227 doctors from 30 different nations who have cast an international vote consider HCQ to be the most effective treatment for COVID-19.[26] Colyer and Hinthorn call it “a first-line treatment,” especially when combined with azythromicin.[27] A German research group has invented hydroxychloroquine in an aerosol form and experimented with excellent results: Instead of receiving 400 mg in a systemic way, the patient receives 2-4 mg through inhalation, without toxicity.[28]
Neo-con George Weigel, father of Dr. Gwyneth Spaeder
Ivermectin, alone or in association, is an anthelmintic with anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-tumoral activity, which acts on flaviviruses, HIV, Ebola and Zika,[29] blocks the RNA virus of respiratory diseases in pigs[30] and neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 in 48 hours in vitro.[31] Quercetin is also effective in the first phase of the disease,[32] acting as a powerful viral inhibitor against SARS-CoV-2, of which it blocks the 3CL (3-chymotrypsin-like) proteases, also called Mpro, which are essential in the replication cycle,[33] and this was divulged by a printed communication of the CNR Institute of Nanotechnology,[34] completely ignored by health institutions.
Quercetin has a synergic action with vitamin C in the prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2.[35] Cortisone (dexamethasone and betamethasone) also acts on the same proteases.[36] Another SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease inhibitor is ebselen,[37] “an organic selenium compound with anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and cyto-protective properties, studied for the treatment of bipolar disorders and hearing loss, with very low toxicity and with a strong clinical potential for the treatment of coronaviruses.”[38] Confirmation of ebselen’s action against SARS-CoV-2 comes from the Milan Politecnico [Clinic],[39] with a confirmatory study describing its mechanism of action.[40] Ebselen is a powerful inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2.[41]
Another inhibitor of these proteases is cinanserin: Already in 2005 the European Commission certified that the treatment for SARS-CoV had been found, since cinanserin inhibits the SARS coronavirus in a significant way and is a ready-to-use drug for treating SARS.[42] This is in an official document of the European Commission. We recall that 3CL, or Mpro, is the main protease present in coronaviruses.[43] The strong inhibition of cinanserin on the replication of SARS-CoV is in [medical] literature: “The binding of cinanserin and its hydrochloride to bacterially expressed 3CLpro of SARS-CoV and of the relative human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E) has been demonstrated by resonance technology of the surface plasmon. It is specific for the 3CL coronaviruses,”[44] and these proteases are present in SARS-CoV-2. “The design and development of specific antiviral drugs with direct anti-SARS-CoV-2 action can be made possible by targeting conserved enzymes such as the 3C protease.”[45] Cinanserin inhibits SARS-CoV-2.[46] A virtual screening confirmed the inhibitory activity of cinanserin and ebselen on the SARS-CoV-2 substrate Mpro.[47]
Since thromboembolisms are among the worst complications, the anti-coagulant action of low-molecular-weight heparin (enoxaparin) is needed.[48] Furthermore, the spike-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 interacts with heparin.[49] When it opens to meet the ACE-2s (which are electronegative), the spike takes on a strong positive charge that allows it to connect.[50] Heparin is a mixture of mucopolysaccharides whose N-sulfate groups give it the highest electronegative charge of any known biomolecules, including ACE-2 receptors.[51] Thus heparin and spike attract one another like a magnet, taking the virus away from our receptors. Early use of heparin reduces the risk of serious development [of the coronavirus]. Hydroxyxchloroquine exercises a safe anti-thrombotic action,[52] and works in synergy with low-molecular-weight heparin.[53] Most importantly: The coagulative complications of coronavirus were in literature ever since SARS and MERS,[54] and have been covered up. Why was the grave danger of thromboembolisms not immediately divulged to all medical personnel? And why instead was it stubbornly concealed? We could have avoided thousands of deaths. As for cortisone, it is known to be the drug of choice for treating the cytokine storm and has been confirmed by clinical practice and a vast literature.
This pandemic is a true massacre, a second holocaust.
In support of treatment there are cholecalciferol (always associated with menaquinone), ascorbic acid and zinc. In 2020, 300 different works were published about the benefits of cholecalciferol in COVID-19.[55] The D3 is important in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19,[56] it can reduce the risk of this infection,[57] it inhibits the IL-17 mediated response,[58] it has a role in the cytokine storm and in COVID-19 mortality.[59] Its deficiency increases the risk of infection and aggravates ARDS[60] and COVID-19 patients need higher doses of vitamin D3.[61] It protects and prevents ARDS.[62] It is recommended in at-risk patients.[63] It helps to prevent infection from SARS-CoV-2 to inhibit the cytokine storm by suppressing NFkB, IL-6 and TNF, and to prevent the loss of neurosensation by stimulating neurotrophins such as NGF.[64] Compared to the untreated, high doses of D3 reduce fibrinogen and negativize viral RNA.[65]
Vaccine-pushing traditionalist Catholic Prof. Roberto De Mattei
Deficiency of D3 increases the possibility of contracting the severe form, with a more intense inflammatory response, increased morbidity and mortality.[66] Elevated doses reduce the need for intensive therapy and the gravity of COVID-19.[67] D3 reduces the risk of this infection and of severe illness: Its integration is recommended.[68] Its regular intake is associated with a less serious form [of the illness] and with a greater survival rate among the frail elderly.[69] In a letter to the Medical Community, urgent D3 supplementation is urged in high-risk patients.[70] From research of nine published studies, seven demonstrate that prognosis and mortality from COVID-19 are related to vitamin D3.[71] A study of 99 COVID-19 patients confirms the potential benefit of vitamin D3 in the 400,000-IU dose in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.[72]
By improving mucociliar cleareance, zinc removes pathogens from the respiratory pathways,[73] inhibits the “RNA polymerase RNA dependent” enzyme[74] that replicates viruses to RNA, and reduces the activity of ACE-2 receptors.[75] Low levels of zinc are associated with the worsening of COVID-19 patients.[76] Zinc supplements are recommended in COVID-19 patients and the increase of mucociliar clearance is confirmed, epithelial integrity is strengthened, viral replication is inhibited, anti-viral activity is increased, the risks of hyper-inflammation are attenuated and pulmonary damage is reduced as well as the risk of secondary infections.[77] In COVID-19 zinc is just as effective as treatment, above all if it is combined with hydroxychloroquine and azithromyhcin.[78] The hydroxychloroquine-azithromycin-zinc combination is valid.[79] Chloroquine acts as a zinc ionophore, facilitating entry into the cell.[80]
Ascorbic acid is among the most powerful anti-infectives and anti-virals,[81] as confirmed in the previous SARS outbreak[82]; it promotes phagocytosis and protects epithelial barriers.[83] A double-blind, randomized study of those hospitalized with acute respiratory infections found that vitamin C improves the course of the infection.[84, 85] In COVID-19, doses of 2–8 g per day orally prevent respiratory infections and 6–24 g per day intravenously reduces mortality in its severe pulmonary forms.[86] The sick hospitalized through COVID-19 in China have been treated with high doses (even tens of grams) intravenously.[87] In Shanghai, dozens of moderate and serious patients have been treated with high doses of vitamin C intravenously.[88] Intravenous vitamin C has been given in severe cases of COVID-19 with sepsis.[89] Timely high doses of vitamin C improve COVID-19 pneumonia.[90] Two research groups, in Shanghai and Guangszhou, recommend high doses of intravenous ascorbate for the treatment of ARDS, with other supportive treatments, including vitamin D3 and zinc.[91] Intravenous ascorbate along with steroids and vitamin D3 resolve sepsis in critical patients.[92] Vitamin C prevents complications and reduces alveolar fluid by inhibiting the activation of neutrophils and reducing alveolar damage.[93]
Dr. Spaeder’s article has not in any way refuted my arguments, since it limits itself to repeating the script that Big Pharma kindly provides to its retailers.
Prevention is helpful with the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulating glycoprotein lactoferrin, which has an anti-viral action of ample spectrum, including against coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2, and is helpful also in treatment.[94] It inhibits the entrys of SARS-CoV-2 in cells by blocking the heparin sulfate, a co-receptor of ACE-2. This glucoprotein restores iron homeostasis and reduces oxidative stress and inflammation.[95]
Archbishop Viganò is perfectly correct when he writes that these drugs have been systematically boycotted by the WHO and regulatory agencies. And I would add: These drugs have been unjustly maligned. It is enough to think of hydroxycholoroquine. Two completely made-up studies in The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine claimed to potray this drug as toxic[96]: They were discovered and withdrawn, but they served to make HCQ to be withdrawn almost worldwide. An obvious boycott! All studies adverse to HCQ are financed by the pharmaceutical industry or by agencies tied to Mr. William Henry Gates III or have conflicts of interest, therefore they have zero credibility. Beginning with the three who argued that the cardiotoxicity of HCQ (usually estimated to be less than 1%) was 10%[97], or 19%[98] or even 33%.[99] All of these studies are worthless, and the list goes on and on.
COVID-19 protests have rocked the world
The effectivness of hyperimmune plasma has been well known ever since the first SARS,[100] and it is also well known during this second outbreak.[101] But perhaps plasma was uncomfortable for someone who has more interest in making space for monoclonals. Therefore, Dr. Spaeder, don’t say that there are not treatments, because this makes us co-responsible for millions of deaths of people who have not been treated precisely because, although there were treatments, these treatments were denied them. This pandemic is a true massacre, a second holocaust.
Let us ask ourselves why traditional vaccines with attenuated SARS-CoV-2 have not been prepared. And why did they target the spike and not the M and N proteases, which are not toxic and do not mutate (and thus we would not have had the variants of the vaccine)? Other authors are asking the same thing.[102] Instead, with these serums that produce trillions of spikes, we have obtained dangerous and deadly effects and continuous variations that extend the pandemic. I remind you of them. In addition to the well-known high risk of ADE[103] and of auto-immunity,[104] the spike can behave like a prion,[105] therefore it is neurotoxic,[106] it is cardiotoxic [107] and above all it is harmful to the endothelium, provoking endothelitis with hypercoagulation and thromboembolism.[108]
I remind you it has been demonstrated that the spike is sufficient, apart from the virus, precisely as a product of these serums, to harm the organism and to produce damage to the lungs, the arteries and the endothelium in general.[109] Even the S1 subunit of the spike is sufficient.[110] These two studies demonstrate that, once the replicating capacity of the virus is removed, cells are damaged by the spike, only and exclusively by the spike. And it is precisely this that is produced inside the bodies of those who are vaccinated. Another study confirms that the S1 subunit of the spike significantly increases the pro-inflamatory cytokines (αTNF, IL6, IL1β, IL8) through the activation of the inflammasomes NFkB, p38 MAPK and NLRP3, and confirms that the pre-treatment with cortisone reducese the release of cytokines.[111]
Therefore, Abp. Viganò is perfectly correct in recalling the danger and mortality of these serums. The medical-scientific literature says so, and not only the sites which you cited and called “anti-vaccine propaganda.” Look at the European data reported by EudraVigilance, which certainly cannot be called no-vax.[112] Instead, many now see it is pro-vaccine propaganda, supported and directed by supra-national sovereign groups that have other purposes than the health of the population, propaganda based only on private studies that are worthless because they collude with the industry. Among many other examples, the example of the first study on the Pfizer vaccine applies, which claims the vaccine has a 95% rate of effectiveness and the absence of any toxicity, which is financed by Pfizer and BioNTech.[113, 114] The same applies to the recent study on the vaccination for children from 5 to 11 years, which is called safe and effective, also financed by Pfizer and BioNTech. It has zero scientific value. Or the study done by Moderna, which was financed by Moderna, NIAID and the pharmaceutical industries.[115] All this is not science. It is a criminal scam.
In closing, I would like to remind you, my esteemed Colleague, that we are doctors, and we have the duty to protect our patients, to work for their good and not for the good of those who pursue their own interests, contrary to medicine and the life of the population. We ought to think for ourselves and not robotically repeat the anti-scientific slogans of the mainstream and the oligarchic system illegitimately governing the planet. We have sworn by Asclepius, not by multinationals. I thank Abp. Viganò for his precious contribution to the search for truth, the thing we scientists ought to always do. Apparently, the Archbishop is more of a scientist than us.
Massimo Citro Della Riva, M.D.
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Embattled Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared her support for President Biden’s workforce vaccine mandate, flipping her previous stance on the issue.
The Michigan Democrat said during a Wednesday Zoom roundtable with reporters that she believes the COVID-19 omicron variant is the harbinger of “tough” times and praised the president’s vaccine mandate for large companies.
Whitmer said the Michigan state government was preparing to comply with Biden’s mandate, which the governor says is “about saving lives” and “getting more people vaccinated.”
MICHIGAN’S WHITMER FACES ACCUSATIONS OF ‘ILLEGAL’ CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS
Gov. Whitmer said earlier this month that the president’s vaccine mandate would be a “problem” for the Great Lake State’s workforce. (AP Photo/Al Goldis, File)
“If we’re successful on those fronts, it’s going to be to everyone’s benefit,” Whitmer said.
Whitmer’s stance on Biden’s mandate is a new one, however — the governor said earlier this month that the president’s vaccine mandate would be a “problem” for the Great Lake State’s workforce.
“I know if that mandate happens, we’re going to lose state employees,” the governor said. “That’s why I haven’t proposed a [state] mandate. We have a lot of the same concerns … it’s going to be a problem for all of us.”
President Biden talks on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Former Detroit police chief and Michigan gubernatorial candidate James Craig told Fox News in a Thursday statement that he is completely against the president’s business vaccine mandate that Whitmer has now thrown her weight behind.
“I’ve been vaccinated and encouraged people to listen to medical professionals when making their own decision,” Craig said. “My position is clear and consistent — I am 100% against Biden’s vaccine mandate, which Whitmer now supports.”
James Craig announced his retirement after eight years as Detroit’s police chief and 44 years in law enforcement.
Whitmer has been hit hard with scandals and controversies throughout her first term in office.
In October, the governor amassed nearly $4 million in excess campaign contributions for her 2022 reelection bid, reports showed late Monday.
Normal state contribution limits permit individuals and political action committees (PACs) to donate up to $7,150 per candidate during an election cycle.
But Whitmer has accepted donations from at least 40 individuals who gave more than the traditionally permitted amount – including Timothy Light of Kalamazoo and William Parfet of Hickory Corners, who each contributed more than $50,000 over the last three months, as first reported The Detroit News.
DETROIT, MI – OCTOBER 31: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks during a drive-in campaign rally with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama at Belle Isle on October 31, 2020 in Detroit, Michigan. Biden is campaigning with Obama on Saturday in Michigan, a battleground state that President Donald Trump narrowly won in 2016. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) (Drew Angerer)
The Republican Governors Association (RGA) slammed Whitmer in a Thursday afternoon email to Fox News Digital, saying Whitmer is “fully embracing Joe Biden’s job-killing vaccine mandate.”
“After months of dodging, followed by opposition, Gretchen Whitmer’s latest flip-flop has her fully embracing Joe Biden’s job-killing vaccine mandate,” said RGA spokesperson Chris Gustafson. “While Michigan families struggle to keep up with runaway inflation, the last thing they need is more anti-small businesses policies that will only worsen Michigan’s already worst in the region unemployment rate.”
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Whitmer’s office emailed a statement to Fox News Digital early Thursday afternoon, pushing back on the notion that Whitmer is flipping her stance, saying Whitmer has been a “sympathetic partner to businesses” in Michigan and that she will be “disbursing” $500 million “in funding to help businesses weather the pandemic.”
“Since the safe and effective vaccines became widely available, Governor Whitmer has been working to support the goal of increasing our state’s vaccination numbers, so that we can protect more Michiganders and finally end this pandemic,” Whitmer’s office wrote. “While our approach in Michigan has not included any sort of mandate or restriction, the courts have allowed the federal government’s vaccine rule to move forward, which means employers across the country, including the state government in Michigan, will need to draft a plan to keep employees safe at work.”
“As an employer of nearly 50,000 State of Michigan employees, the governor has been a sympathetic partner to businesses while we try to understand how the federal vaccine rule will work for our employees,” her office continued. “To help alleviate some of that stress, the governor signed into law, and will be disbursing, $500 million in funding to help businesses weather the pandemic as we all work to figure out the logistics and implementation process to be in compliance with the federal government’s new rule.”
Jason Hitch‘s death has shocked “90 Day Fiance” fans and his family members, who want something positive to come out of their loss … and that’s convincing doubters to wake up and get the COVID-19 jab.
Jason’s sister, Shannon Speagle, tells TMZ … she’s beyond devastated following her brother’s tragic death from the coronavirus. She says he wasn’t vaccinated and wants Jason to be a cautionary tale for others.
The way she sees it, Jason dying should highlight the importance of getting vaccinated and taking every preventative measure you can against COVID, even if you think you’re healthy.
Shannon, who’s vaccinated, says she’d argue with Jason about getting the vaccine … as he was an anti-vaxxer — at least for COVID — and sent her misinformation about the vaccine not being effective.
She says her brother — who was on season 2 of ’90 Day’ and married to Cássia Tavares — just figured he was a healthy 45-year-old man, and if he did get COVID, he was certain he’d be fine … like the majority of people.
During their final convo, Shannon urged him to get vaccinated because he was planning to visit her and her children. She says Jason ultimately refused, and didn’t visit them.
Here’s the really sad part … when Jason got COVID, Shannon says she didn’t want to call him because she thought it’d come off as her rubbing it in his face. It wasn’t until Jason was hospitalized that she understood the severity of his condition, and flew out to see him.
By the time she flew out to see him, she says he was sedated and on a ventilator, and it was the worst sight she had ever seen. She was by his bedside when he passed away last week.
Shannon says it’s the worst “I told you so” imaginable. Politics and frustrations aside, Shannon loved her brother deeply … and doesn’t want anyone else to experience what she and her family are going through.
