COVID-19 ... how we cope :)

[Brad Thomson]

Bullshit, the vaccines are useless against the delta variant and furthermore do not have longitudinal safety data to warrant coercion, that goes against international law for an experimental therapy.

There is no coercion at all, anyone is free to decline the vaccination, and this is as it should be. But no one is free to place others in unnecessary jeopardy, and this too is as it should be.

[Sid Belzberg]

Interesting discussion...

Well, as an ER physician in BC , I am seeing about 2 COVID patients a shift during this 4th (delta) wave...I've seen a total of 2 COVID pts who were unvaccinated, neither were very sick (they came in with unvaccinated family members who were quite sick). I've seen people on ivermectin and HCQ - i suppose it might help a little bit but haven't really noticed much...everyone is taking vit D and Zn, but TBH we don't have any great treatments for any respiratory viruses (for example influenza drugs also aren't great for treating influenza). Steroids help some people. I haven't seen any real vaccine reactions with the mRNA vaccines, aside from the usual flu like symptoms for a day or two after in some people, definitely haven't seen worse COVID in patients who have had the vaccine at this point.

As a chess player with a strong libertarian streak, I do agree vaccines are a personal choice, but the consequences of being unvaccinated do affect others. Mostly in the expense of caring for these patients in the ICU and the cancelling of elective procedures (which can include cancer surgeries and other hi risk procedures as there are no ICU beds) I imagine in the US the insurance companies will raise premiums for the unvaccinated in the future, but obviously that won't happen in Canada...

I think we are gradually coming to the end of the pandemic as people get vaccinated or acquire immunity through getting the illness. COVID will of course always be around but should be able to approach it much like influenza - I suspect we'll get covid shots for the elderly and health care workers and hi risk people on a yearly or bi yearly basis. ...

Ibut TBH we don't have any great treatments for any respiratory viruses (for example influenza

That does not sound honest at all, many great treatment protocols for early outpatient treatment COVID that in fact have saved tens of millions of lives. This is a paper on this published and peer-reviewed in The American Journal of Medicine.
https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002...673-2/fulltext


Your rationale for justifying the vaccine is nonsense, the vaccine now has close to zero efficacy for the Delta variant that has for the most part replaced the original SarsCOv2 virus entirely.

For a Dr. your ignorance of COVID is remarkable.

COVID is not a viral pneumonia it is a viral vascular endothelitis

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/l...937-5/fulltext
https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/a...2/3038/5901158
https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/1...embr.202152744

COVID-19 is not just a respiratory disease — it can precipitate multiple organ failure, including hypoxic and inflammatory damage to various vital organs, such as the brain, heart, liver, pancreas, kidneys, and intestines:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01693-6
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/...-2020100821133
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-020-0390-x
https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/1...mbj.2020106230
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...rticle/2776538
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32921216/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41575-021-00426-4
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32553666/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23886-3
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34081912/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41581-021-00452-0
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7438210/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-92740-9

Some of the most common laboratory findings in COVID-19:
https://www.uptodate.com/contents/co...nical-features

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7426219/

COVID-19 can present as almost anything:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0968-3

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles...020.00526/full


COVID-19 is more severe in those with conditions that involve endothelial dysfunction, such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes:
https://www.dovepress.com/obesity-re...xt-article-JIR


https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...rticle/2772071
https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/ce...s-10-00933.pdf

The vast majority of COVID-19 cases are mild and do not cause significant disease:
https://www.webmd.com/lung/covid-recovery-overview#1
https://academic.oup.com/ofid/articl...faa286/5875595
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33289900/

In those who have critical COVID-19-induced sepsis, hypoxia, coagulopathy, and ARDS, the most common treatments are intubation, injected corticosteroids, and blood thinners like heparin, which often precipitate harmful hemorrhages:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7548860/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7448713/
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2103417

The majority of people who go on a ventilator are dying due to COVID-19 mimicking the physiology of ischemia-reperfusion injury with prolonged transient hypoxia and ischemia, leading directly to the formation of damaging reactive oxygen species:

https://www.journalofsurgicalresearc...176-0/fulltext
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13909
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4625011/

https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full....201401-0168CP

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18974366/
The correct treatment for severe COVID-19 related sepsis is non-invasive ventilation, steroids, and antioxidant infusions:

https://covid19criticalcare.com/covi...plus-protocol/

https://journals.lww.com/ccmjournal/...stemic.25.aspx
https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/me...6-00619-v2.pdf

Most of the drugs repurposed for COVID-19 that show any benefit whatsoever in rescuing critically-ill COVID-19 patients are antioxidants. N-acetylcysteine, melatonin, fluvoxamine, budesonide, famotidine, cimetidine, and ranitidine are all antioxidants:

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2018/6581970/
https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/62672
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6708076/
https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/88623
https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...18L?via%3Dihub

[Sid Belzberg]

What do your sources say about a modified vaccine tweaked towards Delta and possible future mutations? It might become similar to flu shots in the fall.

Great question! Completely different technology, "tweaking" a Mrna experimental injection is far more complex and would need rigorous safety tests. With a traditional vaccine, one can isolate the new virus and basically inject dead attenuated viruses. Here it requires massive analysis to understand which part of the mRNA needs to be modified to obtain the desired result.
Hence the booster shots are still the same obsolete vaccine.

[Sid Belzberg]

There is no coercion at all, anyone is free to decline the vaccination, and this is as it should be. But no one is free to place others in unnecessary jeopardy, and this too is as it should be.

There is no coercion at all, anyone is free to decline the vaccination, and this is as it should be.

People being told to get vaxxed or lose their jobs is coercion...that is one simple example

But no one is free to place others in unnecessary jeopardy

As explained that is a false statement. The vaccine no longer prevents progression to a more severe form of the disease. They never have stopped infection or transmission
Given that and their horrendous safety profile and the fact that for healthy people under 70 they are a totally unnecessary intervention, especially for the COVID recovered you are talking gibberish.

[Aris Marghetis]

A fascinating short article on cognitive machinations during pandemics:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...7nKMqrR_pHk2i0

[Sid Belzberg]

A fascinating short article on cognitive machinations during pandemics:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...7nKMqrR_pHk2i0

Here is a fascinating very short educational video that refutes the claims in this article.
https://videopress.com/v/p8r7ebPy

[Brad Thomson]

Sid, let me first say that I am something of a conspiracy theorist myself. For example, I do not believe the "official" story on 9/11, I think it was an inside job. I do not believe that man went to the moon, I think that that was another American lie. And of course Oswald did not shoot Kennedy. Now, how do you explain the fact that in Alberta and Saskatchewan, two provinces where far fewer people have been vaccinated, far more cases of COVID-19 are appearing? Or do you disupute this "fact", and argue that the doctors, health officials and politicians are all part of a grand conspiracy and that they are all telling lies on behalf of big-pharma?

[Sid Belzberg]

The 'conspiracy theorist' slur much in vogue these days is simply an attempt to deflect legitimate scrutiny of corrupt behavior. Alberta is a perfect poster child of this type of corruption.
Since you insist that I go through this tedious exercise of explaining what is happening in some low population provinces with corrupted politicians and their sycophantic corrupted bureaucrats I have a request for you.
Explain to me why the State of Uttar Pradesh with a population of 250,000,000 with less than 5% of the population vaccinated has now been declared a
COVID free zone.
Far more relevant to the topic
https://www.thedesertreview.com/opin...43582647b.html

As for Alberta, the main explanation is that these provinces have excluded those with only one shot, or vaccinated within 14 days with both shots as "vaccinated". Secondly the Alberta Health Minister CEO has indeed been caught lying about ICU capacity and hospital admissions. Specifically are the following claims by the CEO of Alberta Health Services Dr Yiu was stated at a press conference September 23
1) "310 patients are in ICU and AHS has never had that may patients in it's entire history" The fact is AHS’ own data showing that the province consistently has had more patients in ICU on average year-to-year even before COVID was a public health threat.
2) despite Dr. Yiu saying that Alberta currently has 310 patients in ICU the actual number of ICU beds listed during late August by AHS day-to-day is only 190 while 1,491 beds have been funded since April 2020.
3) Beds coming available while Albertans are being told we are nearly out of beds constantly is incredibly dishonest, especially when Premier Jason Kenney is passing new restrictions based on AHS claiming they are in a crisis.

As per the Alberta Governments' statistics here are the facts Bottom line you are being fed bullshit and regurgitating it back out. Here is a nice video of the infamous press conference with Dr. Yiu overlaid with what the Alberta Healthcare Statistics show.

Data Talks-Bulldshit walks! Press conference overlaid with facts below.

.

[Brad Thomson]

Thank you, Sid, for your careful response. I try to go with the evidence, this is why I believe that 9/11 was an inside job, and that man did not go to the moon. I do not believe what I am spoon fed by the media, I believe what the evidence and my assessment of it leads me to believe. I fully agree with your statement to the effect that the terminology "conspiracy theorist" is used as "an attempt to deflect legitimate scrutiny of corrupt behavior." The ironic fact about 9/11 is that the "official" story is itself a conspiracy theory insofar as it suggests that a man in a cave with bad kidneys and almost no communication with the outside world "conspired" with a small number of men with boxcutters and that they thwarted the entire defence system of the United States of America. But I digress. You use the example of Uttar Pradesh to support your position. Is it not possible that the people making this claim are as dishonest as you suggest those making claims in Canada are? Again, I do not think any of us know what to believe, there are simply too many lies, too much disinformation, and above all else far too much stupidity. When reason fails I trust my guts, there is nothing else to go on.

[Dilip Panjwani]

Explain to me why the State of Uttar Pradesh with a population of 250,000,000 with less than 5% of the population vaccinated has now been declared a
COVID free zone.
Far more relevant to the topic
https://www.thedesertreview.com/opin...43582647b.html

Thanks, Sid! Let us see what happens over the next few months in Uttar Pradesh, before drawing firm conclusions....

[Sid Belzberg]

You use the example of Uttar Pradesh to support your position. Is it not possible that the people making this claim are as dishonest as you suggest those making claims in Canada are?

Just as I did with the Alberta example you brought up, I went directly to the data source from the Govt for Uttar Pradesh and matched the raw data with said claims in the story. Hence people make a claim that I then verify. So, in this case, the scenario you present is not possible. Often the Govt lies but the left-hand does not know what the right hand is doing so the data does not match with the claims.

I prefer this methodology rather than relying on my "gut feeling" when i sm up against a media machine that panders to people's "gut feelings".

[Bob Gillanders]

A fascinating short article on cognitive machinations during pandemics:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...7nKMqrR_pHk2i0

Great article Aris. Thanks.
I googled the book mentioned, The Psychology of Pandemics, by Dr. Steven Taylor.
I found this great video interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8bC...el=TEDxGateway

[Aris Marghetis]

Great article Aris. Thanks.
I googled the book mentioned, The Psychology of Pandemics, by Dr. Steven Taylor.
I found this great video interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8bC...el=TEDxGateway

You're welcome man. It's also telling how quickly/thoroughly some people try to discredit it?!

[Brad Thomson]

I prefer this methodology rather than relying on my "gut feeling" when i sm up against a media machine that panders to people's "gut feelings".

Well, to each their own. My guts tell me to stay away from people to the greatest extent possible until this pandemic passes. I miss going to hockey games, the symphony and getting together with friends, but I would rather be safe than sorry.

[Sid Belzberg]

You're welcome man. It's also telling how quickly/thoroughly some people try to discredit it?!

Not "try' what I posted "Does thoroughly discredit it" starting with 700,000 Americans died of COVID, 85% of them were murdered by denying them treatments until too late and then sending them to the hospital plowing them with toxic Remdesevir and exacerbating the problem with ventilators 97.5% over 65 die with this "protocol".
You sit here and arrogantly pontificate and cite pharma-sponsored articles that call COVID dissidents crazy.
Rarely do you argue facts because at the risk of being repetitive you and you're buddies have very big mouths for people that do not know the first thing about the subject!
Get off your high horse!