When Unreasonable Intuition Takes The Initiative

"We've launched a massive testing and research effort that's going to involved hundreds of scientists from around the world."

"By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we'll be able to eliminate those exposures."

"Our food system, our water, our air, different ways of parenting, all the kind of changes that may have triggered this epidemic."

"We are going to look at vaccines, but we are going to look at everything. Everything is on the table."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services 

 

"It would be a great disservice to our families if, despite plentiful and robust evidence to the contrary, the administration announces vaccines cause autism, declares the case closed and stops funding critically needed autism research that is providing valuable information about the true causes." 

Alison Singer, president, Autism Science Foundation 

"There's got to be something artificial out there that's doing this."

"If you can come up with that answer where you stop taking something, you stop eating something, or maybe it's a shot, but something is causing it."

U.S. President Donald Trump

A former top federal vaccine official spoke on the danger of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. giving “false hope” to people as the Health and Human Services secretary recently promised to identify the “cause” of autism by September.  Rolling Stone

 

Autism is a complex human condition, a spectrum of disorders inhibiting language and communication, affecting behaviour, that has been studied by scientists for decades. Autism, it is generally held, is caused by genetics and environmental factors even prior to birth; parents for example, conceiving children past reproduction prime; exposure to chemicals during pregnancy -- each contributing to the condition.  Crucial questions abound without answers. Which genes are involved, and how environmental exposure can influence the condition.

 

The Autism Society's response to the stated certainty of these deep scientific biological mysteries suddenly being revealed in several months' time is as skeptical as the premise deserves to be regarded: "We are deeply concerned by the lack of transparency around this effort -- who is leading it, what methods are being used and whether it will meet established scientific standards", stated Christopher Banks, president and chief executive of the organization. 

What do the experts, the scientific community, the parents of children with autism, and the specialized charitable organizations formed to represent their interests know, after all? Surely all it takes is an individual with an ingrained sense of entitlement and a belief in his own intuition fortified by theories outside the scientific realm of medicine, fuelled by suspicion of vaccines meant to save lives which a segment of the population prefers to believe threatens lives -- to arrive at an answer.

 

One that might conclude with a public announcement that repeats that old hyperbolic message of smug "I told  you so!" It is an investigative query of a conclusion searching for validation. Even health officials nominated by Donald Trump as advisers note that the deadline for conclusive resolution of the mystery is overblown rhetoric in which there can be little confidence. The reference of September is a reflection of the research process reaching finalization, and certainly not the analysis and conclusion finalization. 

A multi-million-dollar research program meant to examine the spike in autism diagnoses is underway but yet still in its early stages under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health. Over $300 million has been spent annually in the funding of autism research. Studies examining the roles of genetics and environmental influences have been factored into the study along with the manner in which the condition is diagnosed.

 

Given Mr. Kennedy's previous statements certifying his belief in the role of vaccines in producing autism, and other health theories he subscribes to beyond the pale of real science, medical researchers have sound reason to be concerned that the statements by this man have the purpose of legitimizing the debunked claims of vaccines causing autism, reflecting Mr. Kennedy 'sstanding by the claims for years past.

 

In his confirmation hearings for the post of Secretary of Health, he would not disavow those claims. Worse, under his leadership, David Geier, a discredited researcher and robust proponent of a connection between autism and immunization was hired to conduct a government study on their purported connection. Mr. Kennedy latterly gave short shrift to research that denies a causal link.  

 President Trump is right behind his Secretary of Health, fully in support of his intuitive theory, urging Kennedy and his research team to investigate autism's causes. The mass layoffs under this administration at the Centers of Disease Control which will have a deleterious impact on health research for the nation, did not extend to the autism program at the gutted agency.

 

"It's like saying 'by September we are going to know the cause of cancer'."

"Autism is every bit as complicated as cancer, and that's how it needs to be addressed."

Peter Hotez, pediatrician, author, Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism

"It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies."

"There’s no scientific evidence ruling out genetics [as a cause of autism]."

"There is data that had been published that say that genetics may contribute to autism. There are, obviously, data that… suggest that perhaps environmental factors may. But one has to be incredibly careful, incredibly careful about making associations between environmental factors and autism."

"Autism is an incredibly complicated issue. So, we have the issue of diagnosis bias. We don’t know how many of those cases are true, how much of this is true growth of autism, how much of this is just that we now have diagnostic criteria and we diagnose it more often."

Dr. Peter Marks, former head of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research

The CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta, Ga, USA. Photograph: MIguel Martinez/AP

Nature's Cull

"There are enough red flags that we're beholden to prepare."

"If the virus spills over into new species, it always gains an opportunity to mutate and adapt even further."

"So this is really an unprecedented level of viral activity for H5N1."

Dr.Samira Mubareka, infectious disease specialist, clinician scientist, Sunnybrook Research Institute/University of Toronto

 

"The spillover of these viruses from wild birds to mammals could cause a potentially devastating pandemic if the H5N1 viruses mutate into forms that can spread efficiently among the mammalian species."

Research study, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, published in Emerging Microbes & Infections journal

There have been fewer than a dozen Asian influenza cases confirmed among humans identified globally since 2020. Even among those no instances have been identified of H5N1 passing from human to human. Public health agencies are involved in closely watching how the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 is evolving, a heightened level of alertness, the impetus of which can be traced to the still-and-ever-presence of the previous SARS-CoV-2 pathogen that upended the world community in a massive infection and fatality rate.

First identified in 1996, H5N1 had manifested itself in 2020 with a new type that was detected in late 2021 in North America. Since that date, the virus has decimated huge flocks of both wild and domesticated birds, the result of which has been millions of poultry deaths in Canada alone, from infection and from preventive culls. Dr. Mubareka advised that what has partially captured the attention of scientists is the range of species being infected by the virus.

The first Canadian case was identified in a pet dog earlier this month, among the hundreds of confirmed cases in wild skunks, foxes, mink and other mammals dating to the beginning of 2021. Farmers in Ontario and Quebec have been bracing for a potential wave of cases with the return of migratory birds (bringing the infectious virus with them). Public health agencies throughout Europe, Canada and the United States feel for the time being that risk to humans of contagion is low. There is no risk associated with consumption of cooked birds.

 

 

Scientists with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency working at a laboratory in Winnipeg where cases of H5N1 are confirmed and genetically sequenced, studied cases in 40 different wild mammals, the researchers finding the virus had undergone some "critical mutations". The critical mutations referred to by the researchers involved that part of the virus that allowed it to replicate; similar findings were reported globally.The scientists found in 17 percent of the cases changes advantaging the virus  to replicate in humans.

On the other hand, the researchers also found that the virus had not developed a preference to lock on to receptors in a human nose, mouth and throat -- the target of an influenza virus, key to human infection. Multiple surveillance networks set to monitor and track the influenza virus have been installed by the Public Health Agency of Canada, which claims to take the situation "very seriously". Its recent experience with COVID-19 aided it in building H5N1-specific plans across government departments.

The 27 member states of the European Union agreed to implement a bird flu vaccine strategy, with Mexico, Egypt and China on a list of countries inoculating chickens against H5N1. Targeted vaccination could help to prevent poultry losses and reduce the spread of the virus, advised Shayan Sharif, professor and acting dean at the Ontario Veterinary College, concerned at the possibility that the virus may mutate to become more dangerous to humans and eventually transmit human-to-human.

Slanderous Defamation of a Medical-Science Idiot

"[The damages sought by the two physicians in their suit was] a considerable sum by any calculation and of understandably great concern [to the people they sued]."

"Although the individual ... plaintiffs are not substantial corporations or institutions, they are educated persons who were represented by counsel throughout."

"[If the suit proceeded] its chilling effects would have an impact well beyond the parties in this case."

"Dr. Gill herself is the most obvious cause of damage to her reputation."

Justice Elizabeth Stewart, Ontario Court

Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill, above in her clinic in Brampton in 2017, said a vaccine was not needed against the virus, that most people had natural immunity to COVID-19 and there was no scientific rationale for keeping people at home to short-circuit its spread. Photo by Michael Peake/Postmedia/File

Drs. Kulvinder Kaur Gill, a pediatrician practising in Brampton, Ontario just outside Toronto, and a colleague, Dr. Asvinder Kaur took it upon themselves to serve their ire over criticism from their professional peers and news media sources for defaming them by launching a lawsuit against them. A group of 23 representing, doctors, academics and journalists who had found reason to criticize their COVID vaccine rejecting recommendations to her patients were being sued to the tune of $12-million in a libel suit.

Dr. Gill, counter-sued, was charged with accusing her detractors of representing a "pack of hyenas" determined to destroy her reputation. This week, Justice Elizabeth Stewart ordered Dr. Gill to pay the defendants $1.1 million in legal costs when her lawsuit was struck down in February as representing a potential curb on vital public debate. Dr. Gill is appealing the decision on costs along with the February ruling dismissing her lawsuit.

Dr. Gill had been cautioned last year with respect to some of her COVID statements by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons, advising her that she must appear on similar charges in front of a disciplinary tribunal. Should a guilty verdict come down, her license to practise could be revoked. One of the plaintiffs that Dr.Gill sought to sue is a family physician who hits back against bogus health-care products and practices, welcoming the cost ruling.

Dr. Terry Polevoy paid his lawyer to defend him in the suit out of his own savings since he no longer actively practices medicine. His bills exceeded $51,000. "It's a lot of stress, a lot of pent-up frustration at the legal system", he explained. The suit against the 23 different individuals came complete with separate allegations against each defendant.

"You have to mount a very serious defence. While it's an unprecedented cost award, it's also an unprecedented lawsuit", explained an individual involved in the case, unable to give his name since the case remains before the courts. Most professionally related legal costs for doctors are covered by the Canadian Medical Protection Association.

The lawsuit filed by Dr. Gill in December 2020 accused doctors, a former president of the Ontario Medical Association, university professors, media outlets and newspaper journalists of libeling her. Comments made on Twitter in response to her rejection of the science around COVID-19 were all cited as fodder for her lawsuit. 

Dr. Gill claimed that a vaccine was unneeded to counter the virus, since most people naturally had COVID immunity and no scientific rationale exists for mandating that people remain at home to curtail the spread of the virus. The 23 defendants responded to her lawsuit by filing an anti-SLAPP motion, a manoeuvre designed legally to halt early in the proceedings, lawsuits curbing discussion in the public interest.

 

Justice Stewart, ruling in their favour, rejected the plaintiffs' arguments of excessive costs award against them. However, Justice Stewart pointed out that everyone named in the suit was forced to argue their case based on separate facts, the issues being of "great importance" to them. As the case continues to roll forward, University of Ottawa health law professor Amir Attaran is being sued by Dr.Gill for $7 million in reference to tweets where he named her an idiot.

 

                           

The Pestilence Threatening Us

"Even just based on waning immunity the time since the average person had their last infection or their last booster, a wave was expected. As usual, it's hard to say, will this be a big wave? Will it be a small wave. For sure it's a wave of some kind."

"[Science magazine warned one or more of several highly immune strains of SARS-CoV-2 -- BA.2.785/2. BQ.1.1, BF.7] may well cause big, new COVID-19 waves this fall and winter."

"It's [natural selection] increasing evidence that they [variants] are doing something, and what that something is, is probably to evade immunity. So they're even better at reinfecting people."

"I don't want to underplay what this virus has been putting us through -- it clearly is able to evolve in all kinds of different directions and surprise us. Bit it's encouraging that we are seeing the same mutations, repeatedly. Which suggests, at least for now, a limited supply of adapted mutations." 

"My crystal ball is my fantastic other colleagues with CoVaRR-Net [Canada's national Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network]. All credit to all these people who are sharing data and analyzing it."

"If you are a few months from your past infection or past vaccine, go get your booster. The more immunity we can get in the population, the less bad this wave will be in terms of overall transmissions and hospitalizations, and bad outcomes we want to avoid."

Jesse Shapiro, genomic evolutionary biologist, McGill University

A recent spike in cases and hospitalizations in the U.K., and a recent rise of the virus in wastewater levels in Ontario and Saskatchewan have scientists bracing for potential fall and winter waves. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

"They are basically less easily recognized by the antibodies that are in the majority of people right now."

"It's kind of saying that the virus is constrained. It's hobbled a little bit."

"Here in British Columbia, it's estimated we're under-reporting cases by 100-fold."

"COVID now, for almost all of us in Canada, is a disease our immune system recognizes."

"So when we get infected, if we don't have antibodies in our bloodstream currently, we have memory cells that remember this virus, that remember SARS-CoV-2, and kick into action."

"The bad news is that COVID is still rampant at the moment. So that first wave of protection -- having antibodies that recognize and prevent you from getting infected in the first place -- is still the one you want to go for."

Sarah Otto, evolutionary biologist, University of British Columbia 

Virologists are concerned new Omicron subvariants could potentially drive future COVID waves, especially given their concerning mutations. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

Throughout Canada, the state of public immunity has not reached the peak that health scientists would prefer it to be, leading the country's public health agency to appeal to the public to get "up to date" with their vaccines, now that new bivalent shots targeting the original SARS-CoV-2 strain along with the original BA.1 strain of Omicron are being made available. Bivalent vaccines that target the BA.4 and BA.5 strains currently along with BA. 2 the most prominent circulating strains in Canada have not yet been approved by Health Canada.

Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia are currently seeing infections and hospitalizations rising in a system already strained past the capacity of hospitals to absorb, and health care workers to manage. A gradual increase is being seen in cases in Ontario with the number of tests checking positive rising in the past two weeks. A new wave of COVID-19 is not only in the works, it's started. The pathogenic virus persists at a high rate of infection across the entire country. 

A vast convergence of evolution is transpiring, explained Dr. Shapiro an associate professor in McGill's department of microbiology and immunology. The same mutations or combinations of mutations are appearing in many of the variants and subvariants on key sites of the viral genome, allowing them to spread more rapidly, despite circulating within a highly immunized population. It is biology's natural selection that favours the same mutations repeatedly. New lineages or subvariants emerging from Omicron, a deep branch of the biogenetic tree of SARS-CoV-2.

Although none of the new variants are circulating at high levels in Canada, there is some concern that BQ.1.7, with a striking constellation of mutations increasing the capacity of the virus to evade antibodies, might sweep through populations as though no one has any immunity: "I don't think that's going to be the case, based on what I've seen so far. It's just helping the virus spread a little bit, not game-changer amounts. But it's too early to know for sure", hazarded Dr. Otto.

Omicron continues to mutate and produce new strains that have been shown to better evade immunity with the potential to drive new COVID waves. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

"Practicing the Truth in Jesus Through Medicine"

"Once you're injected, the life-saving vaccination process has already begun. You can't unring a bell. It's just not physically possible."

"The transaction process for the mRNA vaccine is fairly quick. Basically, by the time you get out to your car, sorry, the magic has already started."

"I think it is actually a good sign that these 'How to undo your vaccine' videos are taking off. It suggests that a lot of those people who previously were saying 'vaccines are terrible and I will never do it' are, actually, doing it."

Angela Rasmussen, virologist, adjunct professor, University of Saskatchewan

A bath may help you relax after getting vaccinated but it's not going to "undo" the effects of the Covid-19 vaccine. Plus, why would you want to undo the effects? (Photo: Getty)

What does an osteopath know that a medical practitioner specializing in virology doesn't know? Well, for starters, how to "detoxx the vaxx". And Georgia-based osteopathic doctor Carrie Madej proceeded to gift her knowledge through a viral video on TikTok claiming a bath with certain 'non-harmful' ingredients will do the trick and 'detoxx the vaxx' for anyone unfortunate enough to have relented under mandates and received an anti-COVID vaccine. 

Anti-vaxxer strategists are skilled in persuading the gullible of the inherent dangers of vaccines, and in their self-assured remedies in vaccine avoidance promote the dangers of flying in the face of science to avoid inoculation, thus placing themselves and the community around them at risk. Speak with enough confidence and any number of people uncertain of how they should react to unusual circumstances will flock to hear and to breathe a sigh of relief that someone knowledgeable, a credible source, has solved your uncertainty for you.

Taking a bath of baking soda and Epsom salts is the thing to do, according to Madej's formula expressed on her website. For the simple expedient of that critical bath will provide  'radiation detox' extracting radiation actively within the vaccine. Bentonite clay to remove the 'poison' and borax the cleaning agent will 'take the nanotechnology out of you'. Simple, effectively dangerously wrong, bordering on the criminal, yet leavened with comicality.

Osteopath Madej is giving her profession a bad name. Yet her website states that she is 'practising the truth in Jesus through medicine'. What could possibly go wrong with Christ on the case? A link to a religious exemption form for the vaccine is downloadable from her website for the further convenience of the convinced. After all, she confirmed, COVID-19 injections represent a medical plot, a subterfuge to 'transhumanism'. Presumably on a flat earth.

This woman who speaks with the confidence of the self-assured ignorant is one of many who gain attention and followers because of their anti-vaccination stance.Validating the suspicion that many people hold dear, and offering alternative pathways to infection with COVID. People are uncomfortable with the impression that they are being tunnelled into a no-escape funnel with vaccination at the other end.

Misinformation running amok on social media has given viral headaches to scientists in the field of medicine and illness-avoidance. Most are supportive of vaccine mandates leading to a protected public. And they are averse to recommendations of cupping therapy as a remedial alternative to vaccination. It occurred to Dr.Rasmussen that she would speak from the pulpit of her profession to encourage people to think a little more deeply and then reject the kind of advice that those like osteopath Carrie Madej dispense.

There was a small protest in South Africa a week after a Covid-19 vaccine trial started in Johannesburg   AFP

Bolstering COVID-10 Protection

"If authorized by the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] we may soon have pills that treat the virus in those who become infected."

"The therapy would be another tool in our took box to protect people from the worst outcomes of COVID."

U.S. President Joe Biden

 

"It makes the landscape a lot more promising because what these antivirals represent is more evidence of the ability to tame the virus."

"It gives us a big toolbox, makes it a more treatable infection. It brings it down from the level of being a five-alarm fire."

"I think that when you have oral antivirals that can decrease complications and decrease hospitalizations, that makes Covid-19 a much more manageable respiratory infection, and that's always been the goal."

Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security

 

"Effective, early, oral medicines will be fundamental to ending Covid-19."

"[Health agency Unitaid] welcome[s] additional small molecule antivirals -- supported by evidence -- and with meaningful commitments to access in all countries, including low and middle income countries." 

Herve Verhoosel, spokesperson, World Health Organization affiliate Unitaid

Pfizer's experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 has great potential to drive down mass hospitalizations and reduce death, says infectious diseases specialist Dr. Zain Chagla. 'There is a lot of optimism,' he said. (Bebeto Matthews/The Associated Press)

 

In the interim, on the strength of Pfizer's trial results suggesting that its oral drug with the brand name Paxlovid was proven in trials to slash the risk of severe COVID-19 by 89 percent, the American government has pre-ordered millions of doses of the Pfizer drug. Giving a strong indication that the FDA will be giving its approval for the drug's use in the United States. Once that happens, other countries will appraise the results of the study -- cut short because of the volume of its positive results -- guaranteeing it will be in wide use as a COVID prevention therapy.

It is no small thing to produce an anti-viral medication whose results have demonstrated the chances of hospitalization or death for adults at risk of developing severe disease, would be cut by 89 percent. Merck's pill molnupiravir, introduced a month earlier, was shown to cut risk of dying or hospitalization for COVID-19 patients at high risk of serious illness by 50 percent.

The pill is meant to be taken alongside an older anti-viral called ritonavir. Therapeutic treatment consists of three pills taken twice daily. The treatment price tag would approximate that of Merck's product whose U.S. contract price is approximately $700 each five-day course. Experts point out that despite the potential seen by these anti-viral pills, COVID-19 infection prevention will remain based on the broad use of vaccines.

Inoculation is recognized as a superior overall protection against the pandemic that has killed over five million people worldwide, as far as infection disease experts are concerned, to the present time. Over seven billion vaccine doses have thus far been administered globally, and even at that only about half the world's population has been covered. Over 400,000 new cases are reported daily across the globe.  And 50 countries are seeing rising infection rates.

 

58 percent of Americans are now fully vaccinated. It is Pfizer's intention to submit interim trial results for its anti-viral pill before the U.S. November 25 Thanksgiving holiday, to the Food and Drug Administration. 180,000 treatment courses are expected to be available by the end of 2021, with another 40,000 million courses by next year's end -- with 21 million in the first half of 2022 available. Pfizer has revealed it has been in discussions with 90 countries to date.

In Pfizer's study 1,219 patients wee analyzed  through examination of hospitalizations or deaths among people who had been diagnosed with mild to moderate COVID-19 with at least one risk factor for the development of severe disease (such as obesity or age). Within three days of symptom onset, the pill lowered chances of hospitalization or death for adults at risk of developing severe COVID-19 by 89 percent in comparison with patients receiving a placebo.

For patients treated within five days of symptoms, rates were similar; one percent of the treatment group was hospitalized, compared to 5.7 percent for the placebo group, including ten deaths. Those numbers work out to 85 percent effectiveness in the prevention of hospitalization or death. No side effects were detailed by Pfizer, adding that adverse events occurred in roughly20 percent of both treatment and placebo patients; likely in the form of nausea and diarrhea.

"I see them as a one-two punch. Vaccines are prevention. These antivirals are early treatment. Both have utility," 

"Neither one is a substitute for the other."

Dr. William Schaffner, professor of medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Getty Images

Long-Term COVID Vaccine Effects? Unlikely

"These are some of the most remarkably safe and effective drugs in medicine today."

"I can't think of even an obliquely plausible mechanism [whereby long-term effects of the vaccines might surface in the future]."

"[However], there is simply no reason to suspect that, after a year, or five, or 10, that there is going to be some long-term consequences."

"I'm not even aware of a vaccine in current use that has long-term side effects."

"If there was something that was going to manifest in a delayed fashion it would be manifesting now, and it's not."

Dr.David Juurlink, head, division of clinical pharmacology and toxicology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto

"What it all comes down to is our tolerance for risk."

"And the human brain is sort of programmed to think that doing nothing is safer than doing something. That is not always an accurate assessment of risk."

"There's never been a case of a vaccine or immune response turning foul after that time point [about eight weeks after causing an immune response] fully and completely developed."

"The vaccine ingredients are long gone; it's the immune response that remains. And that immune response is only directed toward one thing [the spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus]."

Dawn Bowdish, Canada Research Chair, aging and immunity, professor, McMaster University

Photo: MU Health Care

 

When Dr. Juurlink is asked to examine patients with rare side effects occasioned from drugs "Very often that's a delayed reaction", when an individual might be prescribed an antibiotic for a skin condition. Six weeks after, they might be admitted to hospital suffering damage to a major organ, such as kidney or lung. Dr. Juurlink has spent 35 years of his professional life in the study of drugs and side effects, witnessing the "weirdest of the weird". And he has no hesitation based on his experience, in drawing the conclusion that COVID-19 vaccines will have no long-term consequences.

Quite simply, in his experience and based on his professional expertise in that specific area, no convincing reason exists to believe those vaccines could pose long-term risks of any kind in the future. There are times when new drugs emerge on the market with side effects that manifest a presence after widespread use. In the case of COVID-19 vaccines there have been such complications; the blood-clotting syndrome linked with the viral vector vaccines AstaZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Rare, but higher-than-expected rates of heart inflammation associated with both Moderna and Pfizer's mRNA vaccines. In particular among young males and generally speaking, occurring following their second dose of vaccine. Unexpected side effects occur within days or weeks of inoculation. Sde effects from drugs can include cumulative toxicity when prescribed for daily use; months or even years, but vaccines are taken once. They have been used for close to a year, now.

 

Photo: Boston Review

 

The most frequently reported adverse reactions, according to Health Canada data include tingling and pricking sensations, pain at the site of the injection, headache, fatigue, hives, dizziness, numbness, fever and joint pain. There were 97 reports of Guillain-Barre syndrome, 594 of Bell's palsy, and 1, 111 reports of heart involvement within the 59 million doses administered up to October 22. A total of 208 reports of death following vaccination with a COVID-19 vaccine have been registered, "not necessarily related to the vaccine".

A U.S. database that tracks adverse vaccine reactions found the majority of reports over a six-month period involved side effects deemed "mild and short in duration", out of the more than 298 million doses of mRNA vaccines given. The report based on side effects cited 4,472 reports of death certificates or autopsy reports. Heart disease was the main cause of death, followed by COVID-19. Up to 42 days following vaccination, deaths were 15 to 50 times less frequent than the expected background rates of death from all causes per million vaccinated people.

Of 20,818 individual reports (representing 0.0365 percent of all doses administered), 5,394  were considered serious, representing 0.009 percent. Both in Canada and the United States (along with other countries) more women than men report side effects from COVID doses. Women account for the majority -- 74.8 percent -- of adverse event reports. It is unclear whether this is "due in part to health- care seeking behaviour" (women commonly likelier to report side effects to doctors) or to biological factors.

A noticeably higher risk of a brain blood clot known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis was noted in a research letter recently published, compared to pre-COVID levels in women vaccinated with the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, particularly in the 30- to 59-year-old female group. Absolute risk, however was deemed to be a "whisper higher", based on raw numbers. Women, it was found, tend to experience more robust antibody responses to vaccines, according to experts.

The Ministry of Education said it intends to implement a vaccination status disclosure policy for publicly funded school board employees, as well as staff in private schools and licensed child-care settings. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

Inoculating Children Against COVID : Closing the Gap

"We are eager to extend the protection afforded by the vaccine to this younger population, subject to regulatory authorization, especially as we track the spread of the Delta variant and the substantial threat it poses to children."

Albert Bouria, chairman, CEO, Pfizer Inc.

 

"This is a good-news story. This is great news, in the right direction, but there are still multiple extra steps before we see the vaccine in kids' arms."

"It is going to take many weeks to review [Pfizer-BioNTech data], but probably not months."

"This will require rigorous review. That might take some time to ensure it is done with the highest standards. But obviously we are all anxious."

Dr.Anne PhamHuy, infectious-disease specialist, chair, Immunize Canada

"I think it would be a huge deal for quelling some of the anxieties of parents. When it comes to keeping outbreaks out of schools, I think it would help enormously. And it gets us closer to having the herd-immunity conversation."

"It is not clear whether herd immunity is possible. But, if it is, it can't be achieved without kids."

Dr.Raywat Deonandan, epidemiologist, University of Ottawa

An Israeli youth receives a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the central Israeli city of Rishon LeZion, Sunday, June 6, 2021. Israel started vaccinating children from 12 to 15 on Sunday. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

 

Pfizer-BioNTech have announced that according to their clinical trials involving children of the ages between five and 11 their COVID-19 vaccine is safe, producing a robust immune response. Children in that age demographic were given a lower dose of vaccine -- one-third of the dosage given to older children and adults, and successfully produced antibodies to COVID, the signal measure of efficacy; with none suffering adverse effects.

The next step for the company is to apply for authorization from federal health agencies to enable the vaccine to be used for children in that age range in Canada, the United States, Europe and other places globally, wasting the least amount of time possible in a race against COVID.The announcement signalled the first indication that the vaccines should be available shortly for children. A reality of significant relief for both parents and the medical community.

That children under 12 years of age lacked an authorized vaccine is considered to represent a vacuum in an otherwise-well-covered area of safe and effective protection against the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19, where the universal goal is to achieve herd immunity with the hopes of eventually moving away and out of the pandemic. As elsewhere, federal authorization must be achieved before young children can be inoculated.

 

Only kids 12 and older are eligible — so far — to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the U.S. But the shots could be available for younger children as soon as this fall, say researchers studying the vaccine in that age group.  Chris O'Meara/AP

Health Canada, speculates Dr.Pham-Huy, would likely receive Pfizer's application by late September or early October before a review of its data on safety and efficacy in children can move forward. Since the dosage for younger children is smaller than that for adolescents, it may take longer for the review to be completed.

The results from a Phase 2 and 3 trial indicated in participants from five to eleven years of age that the low-dose vaccine was "safe, well tolerated and showed robust neutralizing antibody responses", though the data has not yet been made public. As Dr.Deonandan explained the matter, Pfizer relies on antibody response in children in the trial as evidence of the vaccine's efficacy since there was insufficient data to calculate vaccine success.

In the tests conducted for adults the measure of success in vaccine efficacy was determined by how many test subjects among vaccinated and unvaccinated people become ill with the virus. An insufficient number of children contracted the virus in the Pfizer study to enable calculations to flow from data. Substituting that measurement of success with showing robust antibody levels in vaccinated children resulted in a "favourable safety profile".

The Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine is "safe, well tolerated" and produces a "robust" antibody immune response in children aged five to 11, according to the findings of a US trial.  Getty Images

Opening The U.K. To 'Normal'

"[The British people must learn to live with COVID and] reconcile ourselves, sadly, to more deaths."

"I don't want people to get demob-happy [to go] berserk [over opening up the U.K. but if not now then when?]" 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

"We have to be honest with people about the fact that we cannot eliminate COVID."

"We are going to have to learn to accept the existence of COVID and find ways to cope with it -- just as we already do with flu."

British Health Secretary Sajid Javid

"You need to tell people' We're going to get a lot of cases."

"And that's part of the plan -- we have to let it go."

Dale Fisher, head, National Infection Prevention and Control Committee, Singapore Health Ministry

"With flu pandemic, you're into your third or fourth year before pandemic influenza becomes seasonal influenza. COVID is harder than that, but it's like that."

"I think the consensus opinion is that the Brits are crazy -- that it's too early to think we can get back to normal."

"I think Canadians will feel that the price of going back to normal right now is too high."

"There is a bunch of things we can do, without being nearly as disruptive as we were in lockdowns, that I think we can hope will be enough."

Dr.Allison McGeer, infectious diseases specialist, microbiologist, Sinai Health, Toronto

"The flip side, the counter-arguments to that is, we just don't know enough about the long-term consequences of the mild infections."

"I think it's important for us to try to minimize the cases and not just minimize the severe outcomes."

"It's [breakthrough infections; fully immunized people contracting COVID] definitely within what we're expecting."

Dr.Jeff Kwong, epidemiologist University of Toronto

Runners make their way to the start line for the ASICS London 10K on July 25. English people are celebrating their renewed freedoms after restrictions were lifted. (Hollie Adams/Getty)

 

COVID; the Delta variant and all others that may surface as the original SARS-CoV-2 virus mutates and variant strains emerge, appears to be here to stay. And the world's population is being informed that there is little option but to accept that fact; COVID as yet another circulating eventually seasonal virus. Certainly we're not as panicked, frightened and confused as we once were when the pandemic was new and raw; we've gained confidence that we will survive and we must adapt and learn how best to live with its presence among a panoply of other threats to human health and longevity.

Britain has, as it were, taken the bull by the horns. Even though the government health minister has himself -- though fully inoculated -- contracted COVID and his close contacts -- including Boris Johnson must self-isolate, Britain is fully committed to opening up, and it has shifted gears to that state of acceptance and adjustment. Most laws mandating face coverings, social distancing and work-from-home orders have been lifted. And Brits are celebrating. For the most part.

Israel, like Britain, has experienced its hills and valleys; a large percentage of the population inoculated with the Pfizer vaccine, but yet Delta has thrown the country back to emerging daily cases after it too had spurned masks and social distancing, fully opening its businesses and resuming normalcy. It has shifted gears, toward a "soft suppression" strategy, foregoing daily case counts focusing only on severe disease. Singapore has reached a similar conclusion in its surprise repeat of the contagion.

It had lifted its COVID safety rules and then a karaoke cluster sent it back to the drawing board ("heightened alert"), suspending indoor dining and social gatherings capped once again to 'two'. Britain has its skeptics, those who feel that "learning to live" with COVID is a reckless and premature choice; the game plan released by the U.K. will invariably lead to hundreds of thousands of new infections, and possibly it will. Others are confused about just what "living with COVID" means in practical terms.

Bars and clubs are packed as COVID-19 cases continue to fall. (Rob Pinney/Getty)

Yet the knowledge and belief that COVID isn't prepared to burn itself out of existence is plain to be seen. American epidemiologist Dr.Michael Osterholm is confident that the SARS-CoV-2 virus plans to become a permanent resident on Planet Earth. And COVID will be recognized as a permanent seasonal contagious respiratory risk. In Canada, 80 percent of the eligible population has been vaccinated with one dose, while close to 60 percent have been double-dosed; one of the most-vaccinated countries globally.

What's next is uncertain. In acknowledgement of Delta's high reproduction rate "we're going to need extremely high vaccine coverage -- up in the 90 percent range -- for this pandemic to peter out in more locales", advised Dr.David Naylor, co-chair of Canada's COVID-19 immunity task force. In the U.K. the general consensus is that numbers of cases are not as relevant as the number of serious cases requiring hospitalization. And to date Delta, now the leading infection, while proving to be heavily contagious fails to deliver serious cases in contrast to the original strain of COVID.

 

Confirmed cases are seen to be rebounding in the U.S. and in Israel. While in Israel with 61 percent of its population fully vaccinated, even as weekly hospitalizations are now a mere fraction of their peak in January with the original COVID. The good news is that the vaccines are effective even in the face of COVID's evolutionary trajectory, an unknown yet, to reveal itself at some future date. The  Pfizer vaccine is able to prevent infections by 64 percent and symptoms by the same percentage, with two doses protective at 93 percent in preventing serious illness.

 

Sport is also back, with crowds gathering at Old Trafford to watch the cricket. (PA Images via Getty Images

 

Only "modest differences" were found in vaccine effectiveness against Delta compared to Alpha, the once-dominant 'U.K. strain, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Two Pfizer doses gave 88 percent protection against symptomatic disease with Delta, and two shots of AstraZeneca provided 67 percent protection. Up to the present, breakthrough infection numbers are not alarming. The elderly and health-compromised remain most at risk.

"We are slowly transitioning to a better place. This is why living with this virus makes absolute biological sense -- it's not going anywhere as long as it can jump into new humans."

"All sorts of people are saying 'Oh it's going to get less pathogenic.' Some people are saying more, or it's going to be resistant to all the vaccines. We don't know that. We absolutely don't know."

"[As Canadians begin travelling once again] we will all get exposed to one of the variants. And if you do get infected the most likely scenario is the symptoms will be like a bad cold, or, in the worst case, like flu."

Dr. Marc-Andre Langlois, virologist, University of Ottawa; head, Canada's Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network

"[Exhaustion is driving the] 'learn to live with COVID' [narrative]. And the realities of Western society, that, economically, we cannot carry on like this. I just don't think we can go on much longer with lockdowns."

"Opening nightclubs [in Britain], I mean, wow. Really? It's great everyone is having fun, but when you look at the age cohort, the vaccination rate of that cohort, the fact that it's indoors, that fact that there are no rules and there's alcohol -- I have nothing against partying by the way. But when you load all those things together that sounds like giving up to me."

"[The situation is] awful [in other part of the globe; sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America]. And if it's awful out there, we've got risk."

"I can't see it getting better globally for quite some time because we're not doing much about it."

"But there's much less anxiety. People are a lot more relaxed. I think there's kind of an acceptance that this is the way it's going to be, an element that this is the best we can do. And we have to move on."

Dr.Kerry Bowman, bioethicist, conservationist, University of Toronto

No End to the Complexities of SARS-CoV-2

"It's certainly much higher than what we would expect."

"[However, in the case of COVID-19], we are dealing with an inflammatory process that is secondary to infection."

"You would have to assume that if you got COVID and then three days later, you start to get symptoms of ATM, that the link is there."

"[In general, those who suffered severe ATM [acute transverse myelitis] may never recover fully."

"The short answer is we don't know [whether the vaccines could -- via a mechanism called molecular mimicry whee the injected foreign substances may resemble something in the body -- trigger an immune reaction damaging the body's cells]."

"One case per million people who received the vaccine, that would be a normal situation, but here, three cases in 22,000 people [test group in the vaccine trials] is too much."

Dr.Gustavo Roman, neurology expert, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas

Researchers linked covid-19 to a rare spinal disorder called acute transverse myelitis. Photo by Getty Images

The existence of a link between COVID-19 and a rare spinal disorder capable of causing paralysis and quadriplegia has been suggested in a new scientific review. Adults and a few children in several countries have been affected by that disorder where researchers in the United States and in Panama discovered 43 cases of acute transverse myelitis (ATM) among a global total of 86 million COVID-19 cases in 21 countries they are convinced is linked to a previous COVID-19 infection.

Getty Images

Of those cases three were found in trials to test the AstraZeneca vaccine. One of those three cases, researchers feel, may be directly linked to the vaccine itself. After reviewing all previously published scientific literature on ATM with the use of search terms to find mention of the neurological condition, with any conceivable connection to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the researchers felt convinced that one exists. 

An inflammation of the spinal cord, which is what acute transverse myelitis is, is a rare condition; in any year it normally occurs in about 1.36 to 4.6 cases for every million people. Between March 2020 and January 2021, however 43 reported cases of ATM linked to COVID-19 infection, were found to have occurred in a diverse range of countries; the United States, Belgium, India, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Spain, Turkey, Indonesia, Panama, Moldova and Switzerland.

 

Iran had the highest incidence rate at seven cases among all nations, followed by Italy and the United States, each reporting six cases. When the search ended in January of this year, close to 86 million cases of COVID-19 had been assessed globally and scientists used that number to calculate the rate at which the condition occurred among COVID-19 patients to be a minimum of 0.5 cases per 1 million people. A rate that could be higherm taking into account the number of ATM/COVID-linked cases that might be unreported.

The condition can develop from a host of factors, from infections, external or internal trauma, internal blockages, a family history of neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis, reactions within the body's immune system, and in some instances, even vaccines. the condition could be caused by the virus directly attacking the spinal cord or by mimicking components of the body's own immune system gone amok to trigger a self-attack, the review posits.

The 43 cases reported in the review represented 23 men and 20 women, ranging from three to 73 years of age. The condition appeared between ten days to six weeks following the observation of COVID symptoms in 68 percent of the cases. This, according to the review, could indicate "post neurological complications mediated by the host's response to the virus." Diagnosed with ATM, patients can experience symptoms like body pain, sensitivity, muscle weakness, loss of bladder control and in severe cases, partial or total paralysis.

The review highlighted 58 percent of the patients showing tetraparesis, where an individual's four limbs suffer muscle weakness, along with total paralysis of the arms and legs. Predicting whether ATM could develop in someone who has COVID-19, is difficult: "Probably a predisposition in your genes [where] you tend to respond to or attack the nervous system in your body because of whatever your genes are", offered Dr. Roman.

Three of the 43 cases reported in the review had been found through vaccine trials testing efficacy and safety in Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom, of the AstraZeneca vaccine, leaving researchers to suspect the vaccine may have been the cause of ATM development in at least one of the cases, while the other two were dismissed once one was found in a person given a different vaccine, part of a control group. The other was of a person with an undiagnosed history of multiple sclerosis.

While the review and its conclusion results are uncommon, there have been a number of vaccines that have on occasion induced ATM and they were vaccines for polio, influenza, rabies, measles, hepatitis B, and rubella. The AstraZeneca vaccine incorporates a chimpanzee adenovirus carrying the COVID-19 antigen into the body's immune system which "may induce immune mechanisms leading to the myelitis", states the review int he online journal Frontiers in Immunology.

AstraZeneca offices in Cambridge, England. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)

Shopping for Preferred Vaccines

"Literally, people are shopping for vaccine. It makes doctors feel like we're used car salesmen. I have never encountered anything like this before."

"It's like buying tickets to a rock concert. People keep trying to get better seats."

"There are anti-vaxxers, but this is a different thing. No one had ever asked me before about the manufacturer of a vaccine."

"This is people taking misinformation and using it as an excuse to shop around. People are being entitled and privileged. The right thing to do is to take whatever is offered to  you. It's boomers being privileged."

"Let people who have no other options take the Pfizer. You take the AstraZeneca. They are both proven to prevent severe illness from COVID."

"People think they can pick and choose. They're just doing what suits them. It's demoralizing."

Dr.Nili Kaplan-Myrth, family practise, Glebe, Ottawa, Ontario

 

"People have looked a the risks, but not the benefits. This [AstraZeneca] vaccine gives 100 percent protection against severe disease and death."

"One hundred percent I would recommend this vaccine."

"This is the time to step up and be super-clear that we have to do this now."

Dr.Elizabeth Muggah, president, Ontario College of Family Physicians

The Province of Ontario is in deep trouble, deeply engulfed in a full-scale, third-phase epidemic of massive numbers of daily new COVID cases, each day the numbers creeping higher with no signs on the horizon of relief. Experts are suggesting that those numbers will continue to rise and then escalate. No longer is there hope for control as the medical community and the provincial government work to inoculate as much of the population as is possible in the face of vaccine supply uncertainties and the growing incidence of more infectious mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Throw in a growing hesitation of people willing to be vaccinated even while area hospitals are being overburdened with daily new hospitalizations and serious cases requiring intensive care have swamped the ability of hospital authorities to find room for them, with lack of beds and attending medical personnel shortages. Yet, even in the face of this dire and steadily worsening situation, people fail to appear for their scheduled vaccination appointments and vaccines, already in short supply, are going to waste.

"I've heard about this. It's a big deal. In the short term, it's holding us back in terms of vaccine coverage. Longer term, it's not going to be an issue, as we will have increasing amounts of mRNA vaccine", commented David Fisman, professor of epidemiology at Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. In the meanwhile, until partial-to-full vaccine coverage can be achieved, people are falling ill, people are dying, Ontario finds itself in the unenviable position of overtaking the U.S. in terms of COVID cases per million population.

Dr.Kaplan-Myrth is beside herself with frustration. In her practise she was able to procure 200 doses of Astra-Zeneca vaccine, gearing up to begin administering it to her patients, but those patients have been reluctant to take the vaccine. Some say outright they have no intention of taking the vaccine they don't want. AstraZeneca's 'reputation' has suffered in the wake of reports of rare blood clotting events. These are patients willing to wait until Pfizer's vaccine becomes available. Of the 200 doses, she was able only to book 39 doses, having personally called patients, and finally opening the offer to the general public on Twitter.

"To best protect yourself and others, we agree that the best COVID-19 vaccine is the one that reaches your arm first", the Ontario College of Family Physicians posted message reads, in an effort to persuade the public not to wait for a "preferred" vaccine, with the warning that waiting increases the risk of being infected with COVID-19. The Bruyere Family Health Team of which Dr.Muggah is a member, received 600 doses of AstraZeneca, sent out email alerts to patients. Appointments were booked and they plan to administer the vaccines in the hope that people will actually show up.

Matthew Chow has reached out personally by phone to 200 people on a client list, working as a pharmacist in the emergency department of Toronto General Hospital, volunteering to administer vaccines. Of the 200 people he reached on the list, only a dozen agreed to book an appointment for AsraZeneca's vaccine. "And some required a bit of prodding", he said. He notes that his brother, also a pharmacist but in Scarborough, a less affluent area and a COVID hotspot, has been able to fill slots for the AstraZeneca vaccine with no problem, characterizing it as a socioeconomic divide.

A Quebec woman over 55 had developed clots following the Covishield vaccine dose she received, produced by the Serum Institute of India on contract with AstraZeneca for a biologically identical version. She is now recovering at home. Dr.Supriya Sharma, Health Canada chief medical adviser speaks of an extremely low risk of developing blood clots for some patients, while at the same time,     COVID-19 risks for clots are far more significant. "Get whatever vaccine is available to you. It's that simple", she advised. 

"My friends, we are losing the battle between the variant and the vaccine", a worried Premier Doug Ford advised. "Our hospitals can no longer function normally. They are bursting at the seams. We are setting up field hospitals. Our children's hospitals are admitting adults. This has never happened in Ontario before. It's never happened in Canada before", explained Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of Ontario's COVID-19 science advisory table, reflecting on the number of ICU patients flooding hospitals.

Ontario's hospital intensive care units had 421 patients critically ill with COVID-19 as of Tuesday, more than at the worst point of the pandemic's second wave. (Sam Nar/CBC)