Crazy COVIDiocy: People organizing "COVID Parties" to build immunity, died instead

According to Newsweek, an Austrian man,has died of COVID, after attending a "COVID party" in Italy to build resistance to COVID. Many countries in Europe are suffering from antivax COVIDiocy, with people deliberately trying to catch COVID, surviving it, and thus, gaining the "green pass" and be able to move around without being vaccinated. 

In Italy (and most of Europe), Green Pass can be obtained if you are vaccinated, or have recovered from COVID within the past 6 months. 

The idea of a COVID party is utter lunacy with a disease that kills 1 in 62, well over 1 percent in the US, and probably more worldwide. But the idea itself is not new. It came from "pox party", organized by parents who believe childhood diseases are inevitable, and it is better that all the children in the neighborhood suffer together with mutual support. So they encouraged children to party with a sick child so "they can get it over with". It originally started with chickenpox, but later was also done with measles and flu, until childhood vaccines became available. 

However, antivaxxers continued the practice, believing the vaccines to be more harmful than the disease. (Vaccines are proven safe, not that antivaxxers care about science or proof.)

And now the lunacy is repeating with COVID, which in the US killed 1 in 62 cases. 

Keep in mind that childhood diseases like chickenpox are rarely fatal, even before vaccines. According to CDC, before chicken pox vaccine, varicella (chicken pox) kills over 100 and hospitalize over 10000 every year. Fatality can vary from 1 in 100000 to 21 per 100000 depending on age group (adults are more vulnerable).  Let's say 10 per 100000, or 1 in 10000 is the "average" fatality (it's probably a lot less). 

Compare that to 1 in 62 as the death rate of COVID. 

All that just to avoid the shot. 

WTF...  It's no COVIDiocy... It's sheer lunacy. 

Remember, it's the unvaccinated that's creating all these scary variants, that's forcing us back into lockdown due to another surge. 

It's the unvaccinated prolonging the crisis. They would rather be dead than admit they were wrong. 

And who knows how many victims will they drag along in their quest to prolong the crisis. 

Don't be a COVIDiot like them. 

Dumb Product Manual: Where's the command to switch the language?

Most electronics are now made in China, and while English is the most widely used language, Chinese is not far behind. So it'd make sense for Bluetooth headsets with verbal status messages to have both Chinese and English audio prompts. 

But when the manual did not include how to switch between them, that's a problem. 

I have a pair of Dacom BoneBudz, a bone conduction headset that does not rely on a spring-band to force them onto your temples. So it is not limited by the band size, unlike all the other versions out there. And trust me, I've tried many different ones, even the "adjustable" ones. 

It had always operated in English, so the other day, when I had somehow accidentally switched it into Chinese mode, I was surprised. Now, I speak Chinese fluently, so this is not a problem, but I prefer my electronics to operate in English, so I want it switched back. 

So I went about looking for the manual... I can't find the paper version... I somehow did not put it back in the box. ARGH! 

So Google to the rescue, and a manual scan is available on the FCC website. So I download a copy and read it. Except it made NO mention of language switching. The manual itself is available in four languages, but I don't read Japanese or Russian. And neither the Chinese or English manual mentioned language switching. ARGH!!!!

I went to the Chinese website and clicked on support, and was able to dig up additional instructions in Chinese that are NOT in the manual. 

While in pairing mode, fast-tap MFB (multi-function button) twice to toggle between English and Chinese

While in pairing mode, fast-tap MFB three times to reset device, which will switch off. 

Tried switching language several times, I heard two beeps, but the language didn't change. 

So I tried the reset. Did it a couple times, until it finally turned off. Turned it back on, voila, English! 

So if you own a pair of Dacom BoneBudz, and you need to switch languages, now you know how. 

Science COVIDiocy: How Antivaxxers Got the Science Backwards To Discredit the COVID Vaccine (Updated)

One of the frequent arguments used by antivaxxers against the COVID vaccine is "It doesn't prevent transmission! Therefore vaccine creates deadlier variants!"

They actually got the science backwards, because they are mixing up bacteria and virus, but to explain all that, we have to explain how virus "evolves", and this can get a bit science-y. 

As usual in most antivax myths, there is *some* truth in what they are saying, but they are misapplied. They think they can apply natural selection to virus. It doesn't really work that way. 

Natural Selection And Breeding Stronger Bacteria

Darwin's theory of evolution has natural selection as a primary mechanism. In all species there are variations, and due to the natural environment, some of these variations will more suited for survival, while some will be less suited. In time, the more suited versions will proliferate, and the less suited versions will die out. Thus the species evolves. 

This is happening with the new antibiotic-resistant bacteria and fungi. New variations are caused by natural mutations, and some may be more resistant to drugs designed to kill them, and those will survive, while others do not, thus resulting in newer strains that are more resistant to drugs. 

So it may make sense for people who don't understand science to believe that vaccines, like drugs, are "selecting" virus that can resist the vaccines for proliferation. Except, virus are not bacteria or fungi. A virus doesn't multiply that way. And while vaccines *can* have a selection effect, NOT having a vaccine actually generates far more variants. 

How Virus and Vaccine Works

A virus is not "alive" and cannot multiply by itself, unlike fungi or bacteria. A virus must infect a cell, and borrow its facilities to make copies of itself. Every once in a long while, the copying process goes wonky, creating variants. Most variants don't work, but every once in a long-while, they work better than the original.  

Vaccine helps the body create the right antibodies to bind to the virus, preventing them from getting into your cells and copying themselves, which decreases the chance of creating mutations and variants. Weaker vaccines don't generate enough antibodies so some viruses will get through, but the reduced amount means you get weaker symptoms if any at all. 

We have variants of COVID because we had almost a YEAR where we had no vaccine and infections ran rampant, giving the COVID viruses plenty of chances to multiply and mutate. 

The way we can use a vaccine to stamp out a disease is to vaccinate as many people as fast as possible, so the virus does not infect enough people to create a viable mutation. We don't have that because we are playing catch-up with the virus, which had a ten-month start, and we can't wait for a "perfect" vaccine that can do both prevention AND stop transmission.  The more we delay, the more variants we will see. The virus already mutated into several variants while we were creating the vaccine, so we are STILL playing catch-up. 

Why Vaccine Does NOT Select Virus The Way You Think

I can already hear the antivaxxers howling: but COVID vaccines do not stop transmission! 

Ah, but it does REDUCE transmission. You are less sick, if you do get sick at all, with COVID vaccine. The less sick you are, the less virus you can pass on to others. Add a mask or stay home, and you are unlikely to pass it on to anyone anyway. 

After all, airbags and seatbelts don't prevent auto deaths. We still have them mandated, right? 

But think about it... Bacteria and fungi live outside of human bodies independently. They live, die, and mutate there. Human body is just another part of their environment. If we use a lot of anti-bacterial stuff around us, it'd affect their environment, but they are mutating independent of us. We merely selected them.  

Virus do NOT live outside human bodies (or animal bodies) for very long (hours, maybe days) and they can't multiply that way. They need a cell to survive and multiply, and mutate. Human body *is* their environment. By vaccinating, we minimize the chances of the virus gaining a foothold in our bodies, and thus, minimize their chance of mutating and surviving onto infecting someone else, esp. when combined with mask and social isolation. 

But the antivaxxers are not completely mistaken. They're doing Chicken Little thinking every nightmare scenario will happen, and for vaccine, the nightmare scenario is ADE. 

Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE)

Your body's immune system, upon detecting a virus, will generate antibodies. But antibodies are specific to proteins that are on the virus exterior. Some antibodies can block these proteins which allow the virus to infiltrate cells (thus infect them). But sometimes, these antibodies end up doing the opposite: making it EASIER for the virus to infiltrate the cells. This is called ADE. 

So how do we tell if the vaccine-caused antibodies are causing ADE instead of helping the immune system? You watch the body for how it reacts to infection by the virus. There are three possible outcomes. 

1) Mild or no symptoms -- the body has fought off the virus, vaccine worked.

2) Breakthrough infection -- the body is overwhelmed, either the immune system was compromised or the vaccine didn't work

3) ADE -- the person got even SICKER than normal and developed symptoms faster than without the vaccine. The vaccine actually made things worse. 

So far, no COVID vaccine ADE has been observed. 

Booster Shots and Vaccine Resistance

Now the antivaxxers are probably screaming: "But you need booster shots! That proves vaccines didn't work!"

Actually, that proves that we have learned that you need booster shots to make sure we generate enough antibodies to minimize the virus in the body long enough for everyone to get vaccinated, thus leaving no unvaccinated groups that can carry the virus around, where it can mutate into new strains, and to reinfect others. 

Also keep in mind that there are like 30 different COVID vaccines approved around the world. China and Russia have their own, all based on different technologies and methods. They work differently on different strains of COVID, and scientists are still tweaking the formulas for the booster shots. If COVID developed resistance to one type of vaccine, we can switch to a different type. 

Where Do Variants Come From?

Generally speaking variants are probably generated within an immunocompromised who received various treatments to help him/her survive, yet suffered lingering symptoms for a long time, thus allowing the virus time to mutate, yet not cleared up. But it can also happen within a person who spent a LOT of time in the hospital suffering from COVID. 

Conclusion

It doesn't really matter if the vaccine can stop transmission altogether. As long as it reduces the severity, it will reduce transmission, and thus, reduce the chances of creating viable variants. 

So please get vaccinated, including the booster, as soon as you can. You will reduce the chances of new variants from being created. 

Addendum

Just came across this science paper, which is in pre-print (not peer-reviewed) but it points out that vaccines are actually suppressing variants. Tests show that the unvaxxed folks actually show far more variants than the vaxxed people. This is preliminary only and does not constitute proof, but it's very interesting information indeed (and far more useful than some Chicken Little predictions). 

Ironic COVIDiocy: Seven Antivax Doctors Contracted COVID after Attending Antivax Event in Florida

Seven antivax doctors attended an Ocala, Florida "summit" about alternative treatments for COVID, and caught COVID there, yet the organizer denied that the event was a superspreader event, according to The Guardian. 

One of those was Dr. Bruce Boros, 71. He claimed to be taking and prescribing Ivermectin for 16 months, and condemned his own 97-year-old father for getting vaccinated, as well as calling Dr. Fauci a fraud. When interviewed, he claimed he just wanted to help people. 

Remember, folks. Ivermectin is a weak nerve toxin to kill parasites. It has an extremely weak effect on COVID virus. If you take enough to affect the COVID virus, you'd die of IMV overdose first. 

No idea where did these doctors get the idea that Ivermectin is "working all around the world". The only study that showed definite results was withdrawn after people spotted falsified data. 

Don't be a COVIDiot. Just get vaccinated. 

COVIDiocy Conspiracy: No, the new Pfizer Drug Paxlovid is NOT a variation of Ivermectin

Pfizer and other drug makers have been working on a drug to treat COVID and Pfizer just announced Paxlovid is 89% effective in preventing hospitalization if taken soon after COVID symptoms during phase 2/3 trials. It worked so wonderfully, they stopped testing and petitioned the FDA for emergency authorization use. 

This immediately got the antivaxxers up in arms, claiming that Paxlovid is just Ivermectin in a different packaging at 20X the price because both are protease inhibitors. 

I am not going to screenshot the tweets and such, because they are rather silly. But then, it may take some ability to Google (tm) and knowing how drugs REALLY work to understand such comparisons are silly. 

Let me give you an analogy: comparing Ivermectin to Paxlovid is like comparing these two vehicles, but probably not in the way you think:

Yellow: Caterpillar 797F  360 ton truck
White: Chevy Suburban 2.5 ton truck

Now that's how much IVM you have to take in the yellow truck
to equate one dose of Paxlovid (in the Suburban)

It's pretty clear you would never drive the yellow truck on a public road, it'd never fit! 

Yet that's how much Ivermectin you have to give to the patient so enough of it gets to the blood in order to have enough effect on the COVID virus in you, when compared to Paxlovid (with the Suburban acting as a stand-in). 

I am not going to get into the details as to what makes up Paxlovid, the scientific names, and so on. If you want, you can read the better explanation by Orac on his blog Respectful Insolence. This is my summary of it. 

A drug when taken orally has to be able to be digested and absorbed by the body. This is called "bio-availability". 

A protease inhibitor blocks a virus' ability to reproduce using the host's own cells. This protease inhibitor must block as few protease as possible, as not to interfere with host body's own functions, such as digesting protein, yet block the virus' ability to reproduce. With me so far? 

(Side topic: Immune system and vaccines, as well as the monoclonal antibodies treatment, floods the blood with antibodies, which attaches to the proteins of the virus they match to, which prevents the virus from reaching the cells, attaching themselves, and burrowing inside to multiply.)

Pfizer, had actually identified this compound, called PF-07321332, back in the 2000's as part of its effort to find a drug that works on SARS, which is itself derived from another PF-series compound which I won't list, as it's too technical. Read Orac's blogpost if you want the details.  

Ivermectin was discovered in a Japanese pond (on a golf course) by two Pfizer scientists around 1970's.

The two are not related. The only thing they have in common is they are both protease inhibitors, just as both vehicles above are considered "automobiles". They don't even affect the same protein!  

So what's the problem? Bioavailability. Ivermectin, abbreviated IVM from here on, has a safe range of blood concentration of about 20-80 ng/ml. That's nanograms per milliliter. What antivaxxers don't understand about IVM is it's technically a nerve poison. That is how it kills parasites. In the safe range noted above, the human body tolerates it well. If you overdose on IVM, you can suffer "confusion, drowsiness, visual hallucinations, tachypnea (rapid breathing), and tremors", "disoriented and had difficulty answering questions and following commands" (as documented from actual cases of IVM overdose). 

The original study that potentially identified IVM as having an effect on the COVID virus noted that the effect was only achieved with the concentration of the drug in a petri dish in the milligram range. It's 10-20 times HIGHER than it's possible to achieve safely in human blood due to poor bio-availability and side effects. 

Or as one doctor puts it? 

Re: Ivermectin inhibits the same protease Pfizer's Paxlovid does:

Paxlovid works at 3.11nM, IVM at 21uM. 6-12mg IVM gets you ~26nM. Assuming linearity, you need ~6,000-12,000mg IVM to get ~21uM. Thats over the LD50 of 15mg/kg (avg wt), which is over 15 full tubes of horse paste. https://t.co/iAeZrTEfDF

— Avi Bitterman, MD (@AviBittMD) November 20, 2021

That's right, one dose (two pills), vs 15 tubes of horse paste (which will likely KILL you). That's how much IVM you need to take to have the same effect of Paxlovid on the COVID virus. 

Don't be a COVIDiot and believe that Ivermectin is all you need. 

Get vaccinated. 

COVIDiocy Propaganda: How to see through anti-vaxxer attempts to mislead you

Recently someone posted this graph, claiming Ivermectin has stopped the spread of COVID in Japan, so much so they stopped using vaccines altogether. 

COVID-19 in Tokyo - Japan 
Sharp drop after ivermectin recommendation? Really? 

Note that this is a multi-layered lie, and we have to take it apart layer by layer. 

First, is this graph real? 

Answer: Yes, the data seems to be real, and seems to match the official Tokyo Metropolitan Government website's COVID page. 

Did "Tokyo Medical Association" recommend use of Ivermectin? 

Answer: Yes, its chairman Haruo Ozaki did conduct a press conference lobbying for the official Japanese government guidance to include Ivermectin. However, they do NOT represent the Japanese government or even the Tokyo Metropolitan government. They are merely one of the lobbying groups, and a sub-group within the Japan Medical Association, also a lobbying group.

What does the Japanese government say about Ivermectin? 

The official guidance from the Japanese Ministry of Health on Ivermectin, according to AFP, states that "compared to standard treatment and placebo, ivermectin did not reduce deaths, shorten the hospitalization period and improve time of virus disappearance."

The health minister stated in August that they need to see proven effect before any update to the guidance will be issued. 

What about claims that Japan had stopped rollout of COVID vaccine? 

False. Japan continues to use three types of COVID vaccines. 68 percent of Japanese population has had two doses. 

So what caused the drop? 

Tokyo and major cities declared a state of emergency, targeting alcohol sales and crowd sizes at large events. People are voluntarily masking up and businesses adopted anti-infection methods. The emergency measures were not lifted until October 2021. 

It is the lockdown, masking, and vaccination, that caused the drop of COVID cases. 

Who started the lie?

The lie appears to have originated from a conspiracy theorist-oriented "Hal Turner Radio Show" website, which had been fact-checked before by AFP for spreading misinformation. Turner had previously claimed that 50K Chinese soldiers had invaded Maine from Canada in December 2020 and were killed, but US covered it up as an earthquake. Yes, it's as stupidly crazy as it sounds. 

Turner was previously convicted of threatening to assault three federal appeals court judges in 2010 and was banned from radio for 3 years. 

So it was just a big coincidence? 

As they say on CSI, "correlation is not causation". Japan never adopted Ivermectin as treatment, so it can't be the cause of lower COVID cases. And TALKING about ivermectin has no therapeutic effect. 

So there you go. Don't fall for COVIDiot propaganda. 

Sad COVIDiocy: Couple set to marry are instead dead of COVID due to vaccine hesitancy

Chicago couple Luis Suarez and Norma Franco had been together for years, and planned to get married just after Thanksgiving, and get vaccinated so they can visit their folks. However, they would never get married now, as COVID claimed both of their lives before they can even tie the knot. 

Their surviving son hoped that by publicizing their story, they can save lives. He said, "People are worried about the side effects. The side effects of losing a family member are terrible, and that's what happens if you don't get vaccinated."

They cannot even be together in the hospital because they are not married yet. They had to be admitted separately to the hospital and unable to get information or communicate with each other. Both were eventually put on life support and died a week apart. 

Don't be a COVIDiot... get vaccinated ASAP.  COVID may come for you sooner than you think.