Bad and Unethical "Science" that Took YEARS to Correct

Recently, the paper that claimed hydroxychloroquin was an effective treatment for COVID-19 was FINALLY retracted, 4.5 years AFTER its publication in a supposedly professional science journal published by Elsevier. It was supposedly peer-reviewed... only 36 hours after submission. And who's the owner of the journal? The author of the paper himself, Jean-Marc Lorain. The paper was IMMEDIATELY questioned after its publication, as its timeline made no sense. For the timeline to work, the author must have started the study BEFORE its ethics rules had been approved!  Further more, a study only a year later got the exact opposite result: Use of HCQ lead to INCREASED mortality. Yet the paper remain published with no retraction. In fact, one of the co-authors (the rest requested their names to be removed from the paper) tried to sue the critic. That is, until 4.5 years later... when it was FINALLY retracted. 

This paper was cited by bajillion COVID deniers claiming government were withholding "vital medicine" from the public, which also included horse dewormer ivermectin. People were so desperate for ivermectin (which also had NO effect on COVID-19) they were robbing pet stores and veterinary clinics. What they don't tell you is these COVID denier doctors are actually selling Ivermectric and Hydroxychloroquin on the side and making BIG BUCKS... until exposed by a hacker. 

The only bad and unethical science in recent memory that surpassed this was Andrew Wakefield's bogus vaccine link to autism study. Not only was the data unethically sourced, Wakefield did not disclose he was developing a vaccine himself. THAT paper in the Lancet took a DECADE to be retracted. 

Just because it's published in a journal doesn't mean it's reliable and good science. 

COVIDiocy Victim: Her Co-Morbidity was Belief in Conspiracy Theories

A family grieves after their matriarch has died from COVID. But she didn't have to die. She died because she believed in various conspiracy theories, such as "COVID is a hoax". 

While 75, she is otherwise a healthy individual that have plenty of years left... Her name was Stephanie, and this is her story. 

No doubt, COVID deniers like her will claim that "COVID isn't dangerous to healthy people", and she paid the price while the pundits deny her existence by claiming she had co-morbidities. 

She refused TWO treatments that could have saved her because she heard that the treatments will kill her. 

Her husband, who was infected by her, took all the treatments. He was out of the hospital after just five days. She never left. 

Her co-morbidity is her belief in conspiracy theories. 

The COVIDiot Terrorist: A Train Engineer Who Crashed a Train Believing He's Revealing a Conspiracy

Back in March 2020, the first wave of COVID just hit the US, and things were looking dire. So dire, that US Navy called in its 2 hospital ships, USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort, to Los Angeles and New York respectively, "just in case". Each ship can provide up to 1000 beds for non-COVID patients, leaving the local hospitals to handle COVID. 

USNS Mercy, hospital ship, photo courtesy of MayorOfLA Tweet

USNS Mercy arrived on March 27, 2020, and admitted its first patient on March 29, 2020. It would keep doing so until May 15th, 2020, serving 7 weeks, before returning to its homeport of San Diego, having only treated about 80 patients around Los Angeles. 

But some did not believe the stated mission of the ships. Someone believed the ships have a sinister purpose, either COVID-related or it's some sort of government takeover. That would be Eduardo Moreno, a train engineer for a small port freight line that services the Port of Los Angeles. And he believed if he cause a serious incident, he can bring media attention to reveal the conspiracy. 

On March 31st, 2020, Eduardo Moreno derailed a freight train by intentionally ramming it through the end stops, multiple walls, and a parking lot. He ended up about 250 yards from the ship. When CHP officer confronted him, he freely admitted to the deed. 

The crash caused a diesel spill, in addition to about 700000 in damages done to the locomotive and surrounding structures. There were no injuries. 

So whatever he believed, it's... definitely COVIDiocy. And he's being charged as a terrorist by FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force. 

After being put in jail and under further interviews, it was revealed that he was a Qanon believer, and allegedly suffered a psychosis helped by way too much caffeine. He bought into the conspiracy that USNS Mercy is an extermination ship for "open-minded healthy people". After psychiatric treatment, he is believed to have recovered from his COVIDiocy episode, had disavowed Qanon, and is taking medication for his condition. 

Eduardo Moreno was recently sentenced to 3 years in prison and ordered to pay 755880 in restitution. 

Don't be a COVIDiot. 

COVIDiocy Origin: The Nirvana Fallacy

Much of the COVIDiocy and the anti-vax ideology can be traced to the nirvana fallacy or black-and-white-ism. 

The people believing in the nirvana fallacy generally imply that "if it's not perfect I don't want it". This leads to COVID vaccine denial, often with the justification: "it's not a vaccine because it doesn't work 100%!"  (We can get into what's sterilizing vaccine and what's not, but that's a different topic) 

But you can apply ANY justification to their denial. Some of the justifications I've seen include:

• The government lied about the effectiveness of the vaccine! (Relevance? Science can't change?)
• Government can't dictate what I do! (Except for everything else they regulate...)
• COVID is not that serious (despite it killing 1 million Americans?)
• COVID is not that serious to healthy people (you sure about that?)
• I survived COVID just fine! (Are you sure you don't have long COVID and other stuff?)
• There is no long COVID! (whatever floats your boat, dear)
• I'll make up right now something that sounds reasonable! (on why diabetes risks rose after COVID infection... it's because of the lockdown, not COVID!) 
• Vaccine's useless against omicron! (with a booster it works fine)
• Fully vaccinated people get infected anyway! (Are they boosted?)
• My triple-vaxxed "cousin" got infected anyway! (sorry to hear that. Relevance?)
• And I didn't! I'm anti-vax! (so you're lucky. Relevance?) 
• Lockdown did more harm than COVID! (uh, we were talking vaccines?)
• COVID is a con! (next...) 
• With COVID or of COVID?! (great, a COVID denialist)
• Public Health is just a big con by Big Pharma! (okay, that's enough)
• and so on and so forth

But fundamentally, any of these reasons are ad hoc. What they don't really want was the vaccine, and it's a knee-jerk reaction. They are in denial of COVID. Even two years into the pandemic, they refuse to believe it's a lethal disease that had already taken 1 million lives (or almost there). They want to bargain with you (it's only lethal to old people, it's only lethal to those with co-morbidities, it doesn't harm normal people), and from there they claim that all the government had done was for NOTHING, never mind what the government had done so far, yet we still have more COVID deaths than even China. 

Similar thinking exists about masking. That's why the anti-mask-mandate reasons are so ridiculous: 

• Why are you muzzling our kids? (to protect them from airborne pathogen)
• Why are you making it easier for child predators? (what are you saying about school security?)
• Why are you depriving them of oxygen? (mask doesn't do that)
• Why are you forcing them to breathe in their own funk? (that's not harmful) 
• and similar other hilarities. 

The problem with Nirvana fallacy is you won't be able to convince anyone with that sort of attitude toward facts. It's simply NOT reasonable. And it's very easy to see through because the rest of your supposed evidence in support of your reasoning is just as flimsy. 

For some people are just reacting out of fear. 

Vox, back in August 2020, had an article trying to get at the motivation of the anti-mask-ers, and one of them is a grandma who kept visiting anti-vax websites, trying to share them on Facebook, kept getting flagged by other users and got frustrated enough to believe FB was trying to censor her. She is so fearful that she refused to go to the ER after hurting her hand, because...

"...She’s 65 and believes she’d automatically be given a positive Covid-19 test and placed on a ventilator to likely die..."  -- Anti-maskers explain themselves -- Vox Aug 7, 2020

This was the sort of attitude anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers are spreading, telling each other what they want to hear: COVID isn't that serious, protective measures are useless, and public health is not to be trusted.  

That is COVIDiocy. And it is NOT victimless. 

People who caught COVID anyway are told they are weak, they have co-morbidities and not strong enough, or "you'll survive, no big deal". And when they don't, they are to be ignored. Those that survive COVID and suffer from long COVID are told there is no such thing as long COVID. 

While those who survive COVID, seemingly without lingering symptoms are touting their survival as the "proof" that "COVID isn't serious". 

Never mind the survival is greatly enhanced due to vaccines and boosters. 

Even today, two-plus years into the pandemic, there are MANY people still disbelieving the seriousness of COVID, and more clamoring for a "return to normal", even as BA.2 subvariant took over from the Omicron variant and became the dominant strain. 

Antivax COVIDiocy: Now there's proof that COVID vaccine reduces risk for long COVID

One of the least understood risks of COVID is "long COVID" where patients recovering from even mild bouts of COVID can suffer long debilitating symptoms such as inability to focus, fatigue, headaches, "mind fog", and more. WHY of long COVID is still poorly understood, and several theories are available, from microclots to a hidden reservoir of virus in the body. With the BA.2 variant of omicron on the rise, COVID is not going away. 

While the only sure way to NOT get long COVID is to not get COVID in the first place (which means masking and getting fully vaccinated with booster shot), there's growing evidence that getting vaccinated will substantially reduce the chance of developing long COVID, and/or reduces the symptoms of long COVID.

UK has assessed 15 studies around the globe on this topic, and the meta-analysis is consistent: COVID vaccine reduces the chance of getting long COVID. The benefits of getting vaccinated after diagnosis of long COVID, however, are less clear, as some people got better, but some people got worse. 

All the more reason to get vaccinated for COVID, despite antivaxxer rhetoric such as "crime against humanity". But I am guessing if you STILL haven't, you will never do so, still believing that COVID "is like the flu". 

If so, you're still the COVIDiot. 

Stop COVIDiocy: Seattle Students Walked Out of School, Demand Mask Mandates to Be Reinstated

From The Seattle Times:

More than 100 Seattle Public Schools students walked out of class Monday morning to protest the district’s decision to end the requirement that students and staff wear masks. 

Many of those students rallied at district headquarters, the John Stanford Center, to ask Superintendent Brent Jones to reinstate the mask mandate districtwide. Mask requirements for Seattle and most other districts in the state ended a week ago.

And the teachers are pushing back as well. Teachers did not like the unilateral decision reached by the school district superintendent. In fact, the superintendent ended the mask mandate without bargaining with the teacher's union, as required by a prior memo of understanding. 

The school district, of course, blames the governor for lifting the mask mandate. They are merely "aligning" with the changing policy from the state department of Health and Public Health. 

But it's clear that the students and the teachers are on one side, with the district on the other. 

But which side are the parents on? 

Dumb COVIDiocy: Podcaster Self-Pwns With Idiotic Tweet Comparing Self to Dog

Before today, I have never heard of Cari Kelemen. She was apparently some podcaster and media "star". Unfortunately, her tweet demonstrated that her scientific education is severely lacking, and in comparing herself to a dog, probably should have thought about it first... But here's the tweet:

You may think this does sound kinda odd, but there are a couple assumptions that you failed to question. 

1) Are medicine treated same as vaccines in dogs? She's assuming they do.

2) Do dogs get different vaccine dosage based on their weight? After all, a dog could vary from a tiny chihuahua or a small terrier to a huge 100+ pound mastiff. She's assuming yes from 1). 

3) Should you treat a human the way you treat a dog? Of course not...

I am a skeptic, and let's answer these questions:

Do dogs get different vaccine dosage based on their weight? 

No they do NOT. They all get the same vaccine dose (about 1cc). Bodyweight is irrelevant when it comes to vaccines. Skepvet answered this in 2016:

There’s a common misconception out there about vaccines that small animals should have lower “doses” of a vaccine than larger animals. This is a natural assumption stemming, most likely, from our familiarity with how medicines are dosed. However, while there are some differences in the amount of a vaccine given in different species, it is far less of a difference than would be expected if vaccines worked like drugs.

Basically, a vaccine only needs to be enough to trigger an immune response from the immune system. And immune system response threshold is NOT volume- or weight-based. Once the response is initiated, the immune system itself will generate the antibodies and the rest to populate the entire body. If you use a lower dose, you may not trigger the immune response. 

Medicine works differently. Medicine has to get into the body and travel throughout the body via the circulatory system. So the dosage is affected by how big the body is. The body is not triggered by it to help out. Got that? 

So medicine in dogs is NOT the same as vaccine in dogs. 

Guess that blows Q1 and Q2 out of the water. 

 

Do we really need to cover Q3? Why would she compare herself to her dog anyway? 

Don't be a COVIDiot like her. 

COVIDiocy Busted: Latest and Largest Ivermectin Trial Shows It Has NO Effect Over Placebo

The test was done in Malaysia where 490 COVID patients with mild or moderate symptoms were randomly given either IVM or placebo between May and October 2021 for five days. So what's the outcome? No discernible difference. IVM did NOTHING, as we've told you all along. All those IVM pimps had been lying to you about how "effective" IVM had been. It never was. 

In this study, out of 490 patients, 241 ended up in IVM group, and 249 in placebo control group. 52 in the IVM group and 43 in the control group have their conditions worsened to "severe disease", which defined as blood oxygen saturation falling below 95% without use of supplemental oxygen. Other outcomes, such as requiring ICU, mechanical ventilation, or mortality and adverse events, are also nearly identical. 

And these are the most vulnerable, 50+ years old, with some co-morbidity conditions. I.e. the ones that most need the drug to work. 

And IVM did nothing. 

Younger people who are more likely to survive COVID definitely don't need IVM. 

At least two other trials in 2021 (in Colombia and Argentina) ALSO confirmed that IVM did nothing. 

What else did the trial show? Vaccinated patients have a significantly lower rate of severe disease. And IVM reported 60% of all adverse events, including severe diarrhea. 

The conclusion is undeniable. 

IVM did not reduce risk of COVID progressing to severe status. 

IVM did not reduce risk of hospitalization from COVID. 

IVM did not improve survival rate of COVID. 

This trial is using 0.4 mg/kg of body weight for 5 days. This is actually VERY high, but they can do so because all the patients are staying in the hospital for close monitoring. AND they already suffer from high rate of adverse events. 

Imagine COVIDiots self-dosing at home, under- or over-dosing, and getting the runs (loose bowels). 

All for nothing. 

It does not pay to be a COVIDiot. 

Levels of COVIDiocy: the trio of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (MDM)

Recently there is a bit of question on what are the differences among misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, and where COVID deniers and antivaxxers fall. 

But first, let's be clear on the differences. I've personally classified them as:

Misinformation: false information, but the speaker believed it to be true, no ill intent

Example: "COVID is for children is mild like the flu. OMG, a thousand kids have DIED from COVID? I... I didn't know."

Disinformation: false information, but speaker knew to be false, yet without ill intent

Example: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

Malinformation: false information, speaker knew to be false, with ill intent 

Example: Catfishing (romance scams), put up a Craigslist posting of your enemy's address stating "moving out, please take EVERYTHING" causing a mob to ransack the place, SWATing, etc. 

Now that we have gotten definitions out of the way... where do COVID deniers and antivaxxers fall on the scale? 

My personal opinion is they are between misinformation and disinformation. IMHO, most of them have no ill intent (unless they're really Russian or other foreign cyber-op trying to foment trouble) and believe stuff that's not true, or fail to understand proportionality, and tries to maximize the potential harm and minimize the actual benefits of the vaccine, while doing the reverse to the disease: minimize the harm of the disease. 

In terms of COVID, they take the following forms:

* OMG myocarditis risk from vaccines!  (maximize potential harm, refuse to recognize myocarditis risk from the disease itself is worse)

* You can still catch COVID after being 2-jabbed AND boosted (minimize actual benefits, such as minimal chance of hospitalization, and lesser risk of long COVID)

* COVID is mild in children like the flu (minimize disease harm, even though COVID has killed over 1000 kids in 2 years, while flu rarely kills over 200 a year)

However, someone pointed me to a government website that has a somewhat different, and IMHO, more confusing definition: 

Misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation make up what CISA defines as “information activities”. When this type of content is released by foreign actors, it can be referred to as foreign influence. Definitions for each are below.

Misinformation is false, but not created or shared with the intention of causing harm.

Disinformation is deliberately created to mislead, harm, or manipulate a person, social group, organization, or country.

Malinformation is based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.

Foreign and domestic threat actors use MDM campaigns to cause chaos, confusion, and division. These malign actors are seeking to interfere with and undermine our democratic institutions and national cohesiveness.

From https://www.cisa.gov/mdm#

There is a bit of a problem as there's little if any difference between disinformation and malinformation. The definition seems to imply that disinformation is completely "made up" while malinformation is not, but a good disinformation should be based on SOME facts to be believable.  

I am not sure which definitions I will use at this time, but the finer details does not matter. One needs to point out falsehoods where one sees it. The intention is difficult to infer and mostly irrelevant. 

Twitter COVIDiocy: Spamming is not Winning

A while back, someone made a remark "I don't know of anyone with vaccine injury" on Twitter.

I replied that "ever notice it's usually antivaxxer's friends or family that have those alleged vaccine injuries?"

Then an antivaxxer dropped a Snopes-verified bogus entry "Pfizer victim" and claim "people don't start antivax, we start because we saw our loved ones suffer"

You saw a BOGUS suffering that NO ONE can verify, eh? 

So I pointed out his bogosity and linked to Snopes debunking the one he linked. 

Guess what he did next? 

He spammed 20+ more other alleged vaccine injuries, while claiming "only fully vaxxed have problems". 

Edit: Make that 37. 

The only treatment you'll get is "mute". I'm not going to debate you and waste my time when you don't give a **** about evidence and science, by leading off with a bogus vaccine death. 

Leading off with a snopes-verified bogus entry. Really smart you are (not), antivaxxer. 

Oh, AND you're getting reported. 

Normalcy COVIDiocy: Who is "Urgency of Normal" and Why Are They In So Much Hurry to Repeal Pandemic Protective Measures?

In the past two or three months, you may have seen a new hashtag online #urgencyofnormal. They are a vocal minority group of doctors and scientists calling for repeal of as many pandemic protective measures as soon as possible, preferably immediately. Their reasoning is the measures are doing more harm than the pandemic itself. They are going as far as claiming that existing measures are just "panic porn". One such spokesperson for this group is Dr. Lucy McBride. 

Dr. Lucy McBride, on CNN, "Doctor says 'panic porn' is hurting her patients"

Are they making any sense? Is the attempt to contain COVID, i.e. masks and vaccines and boosters (there's no lockdown now) doing more harm than good? 

What exactly is the "harm" of these protective measures? 

According to urgencyofnormal.com/our-statement, pandemic and/or its protective measures have caused "youth depression, suspected suicide attempts, drug overdose deaths, and obesity". In their "toolkit", they have also cited polls as evidence of these increases, and dropping grades in 2020 vs 2019. 

What I find interesting is they can only cite an increase in suicide attempts in girls... so boys are not affected?

UrgencyOfNormal Toolkit claims pandemic and/or protective measures have caused harm... to girls? 

Also, just how do you separate harm from the pandemic itself vs. the protective measures designed to combat the pandemic? 

You can't. 

Yet their solution is to stop all the protective measures for children! No masking! Vax or not just go back to school! Pretend there is no pandemic! 

Maintain in-person learning regardless of case counts and vaccination rates. 

So why are they against masking in schools? First they told us that masking is NOT proven to work (i.e. any benefits are not statistically significant). But does it really?

Does the Georgia study really say mask use was not statistically significant? Yes, but... 

They helpfully included a link to the study in the footnotes, and this is where the cracks started to show in their "logic". I will quote from the study's page 5

The 21% lower incidence in schools that required mask use among students was not statistically significant compared with schools where mask use was optional. This finding might be attributed to higher effectiveness of masks among adults, who are at higher risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection but might also result from differences in mask-wearing behavior among students in schools with optional requirements. Mask use requirements were limited in this sample; 65.1% of schools required teacher and staff member mask use and approximately one half (51.5%) required student mask use. Because universal and correct use of masks can reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission (6) and is a relatively low-cost and easily implemented strategy, findings in this report suggest universal and correct mask use is an important COVID-19 prevention strategy in schools as part of a multicomponent approach

(bold and italics added by me)

The UrgencyOfNormal folks took one sentence they liked, and ignored the REAL finding of the study. What the study said was they have no data from the mask "optional" schools. They have no idea what percentage of people are actually wearing or NOT wearing the masks. So it cannot act as a proper control group against "mask required". 

But the UrgencyofNormal folks read it as if it said "masks did not do anything". 

I have not checked the rest of the other studies they cited, but it would not surprise me if they used similar leaps in logic and cherry-picking. 

And based on this, UrgencyOfNormal is calling for an end to ALL school masking. 

But there are a couple other problems with their suppositions... They are basing their numbers on Delta, and omicron, while supposedly milder, is FAR more contagious. 

UrgencyOfNormal claims are based on Delta numbers. Omicron turned out to be FAR FAR WORSE

Let's look at some REAL numbers... CDC mortality of 0-17 year olds as of now, which is over 2 years. Remember to divide by 25.7 (1.7 months into 2022) then times 12 for rough yearly numbers. 

One also wonders where did they get their flu numbers, which seems to be a bit... exaggerated. 

According to CDC, 2019-20 flu season had 188 pediatric flu death (0-17 yrs of age), which tied the record set during 2017-18. So why does their graph show death in the 500's? Can they be... massaging the numbers? Oh, but also look at the 2012-2013 bar... over 1200 deaths? Why does the CDC say only 170 pediatric deaths? Where did they even find these numbers? 

Flu does NOT kill at the rate of two dozen PER WEEK non-stop. 

Another 23 children died from Covid last week according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Parents need to understand that Covid can be quite serious and children can be safely protected through vaccination. #VaccinesSaveLives pic.twitter.com/cwBXiSC8vL

— EMK (@eveamk) February 22, 2022

Oh, and they also claimed that children don't get long COVID. You did read that on the slide, right? The latest results say something very different... AT LEAST 10% of all kids infected with COVID get long COVID. The number can be as high as 20%. And these numbers are based on PRE-OMICRON numbers. The current numbers could be worse, FAR WORSE, and we won't see the results for at least a MONTH after the infection. 

By now, it's clear that UrgencyOfNormal is not based on data as they claimed, but potentially deliberate misinterpretation and/or outright fabrication of data. 

The harm they claimed is based on polls, not science. The comparisons they made are unscientific and based on inflated and possibly fabricated numbers, and out-of-date numbers. And their anti-mask justification is based on deliberate cherry-picking of study results. They also claim the danger is minimal, by minimizing numbers, using outdated numbers, or outright FABRICATING pediatric flu deaths in prior years. 

But let us be absolutely clear:

What UrgencyOfNormal proposed is to get our children back into school without ANY protection, and roll the odds, ASSUMING the vast majority of them will survive, instead of doing EVERYTHING we can to make sure they do.

That is not epidemiology. 

That's playing roulette with someone else's children. 

That's COVIDiot thinking. 

Commentator COVIDiocy: British Columnist / Talk Show Host With No Facts Accuse Others of Not Dealing With Facts

Julia Hartley-Brewer, a British TV/Youtube talkshow host / interviewer, and a known conservative, claimed that a fellow show host (MSNBC/Al Jazeera TV) Mehdi Hasan was not dealing with facts. 

Children don't need Covid jabs, let alone boosters. And there's not a single study showing mask wearing in the real world has any effect at all. You used to be a journalist who looked at facts rather than virtue signalling to get approval. What happened to you?

— Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) February 12, 2022

One does wonder what happened to JHB herself, as NOTHING she claimed is actually true. Let's examine the issues one at a time: a) children don't need COVID jabs, b) children don't need boosters, c) mask-wearing does not work. 

Do Children Need COVID Vaccinations and Boosters? (a,b)

One of the frequent antivaxxer claims is "because Omicron doesn't show heavy symptoms in children, children don't need to be vaccinated against Omicron COVID."

A similar claim is "COVID is no worse than the flu when it comes to children."

Indeed, Daily Mail, a known gossip rag from the UK that occasionally covers real news, claimed that "no healthy child has died from COVID in the UK" as of September 2021. However, that's simply untrue, as fact-checked by FullFacts.org.  Daily Mail also claimed that only 300 or so children were hospitalized for COVID in UK and all but 20 have underlying health conditions, when in truth, the real numbers are over 23x larger... 7050 hospital admissions and 3181 with no underlying health conditions. And this is PRE-Omicron. 

In the US the numbers are not that different. According to CNN, citing CDC data, average of 672 children were admitted to hospital EVER DAY in the final week of January 2022. And this is with US starting offering vaccinations to ages 5+ in September 2021. Though it's clear that vaccinations do little to protect something against Omicron. One needs boosters, and those are not available to children yet. Indeed, that seems why CDC has refrained from recommending vaccinations to under 5 at this time. 

According to CDC as of Mid January 2022,1045 children under 18 have died from COVID. 

Flu kills maybe 5-6 children a year at most. 

Clearly, COVID is much deadlier than the flu, due to its ease of spread, is putting more kids into hospitals despite "lighter" symptoms. 

Evidence is clear: children need COVID vaccinations and boosters as soon as they can get them, but ones that work against Omicron. 

Does Mask-Wearing Help in Reducing COVID? (c)

Logically, mask-wearing makes perfect sense. Don't breathe the COVID virus in, don't breath the COVID virus out if you're infected. But what does the science say? Is what JWB said true, there has been NO study that proves mask-wearing works in the real world? 

There have been SEVERAL studies on this matter, actually. Some even involve kids. 

"An Evidence Review of face masks against COVID-19" by Howard, Huang, Li, et. al published by PNAS concludes "Our review of the literature offers evidence in favor of widespread mask use as source control to reduce community transmission..."

The US CDC data shows that "people who reported always wearing a mask in indoor public settings were less likely to test positive for COVID than people who didn't", and N95/KN95 masks offer significantly lower odds compared to surgical masks or cloth masks. 

And finally, "Association of Child Masking with COVID-19 Related Closures in US Childcare Programs" Published on JAMA Network Open (Jan 2022) concludes: "This survey study of childcare professionals suggests that masking young children is associated with fewer childcare program closures, enabling in-person education. "

The evidence is clear... There were PLENTY studies showing the efficacy of masks, even on children, in the real world, such as childcare facilities. 

Conclusion

Even minor Googling (tm) shows that it is JWB who is not dealing with facts, while JWB accused a fellow talk show host of not dealing with facts. 

Antivax COVIDiocy: WHO Says Unvaxed Breeding More Variants

Bloomberg's Emma Barnett has just interviewed WHO's chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, and they discussed a lot of stuff about COVID. One of the subjects raised was how fast the variants such as Delta and Omicron spread. Dr. Swaminathan believed that we may not have seen such rapid rise of COVID variants, had we been less selfish. 

"If those hundreds of millions of doses we had in 2021 had been distributed equitably that the WHO had laid out the framework; let's protect all the vulnerable people around the world first, doesn't matter where they live, so we can reduce deaths, then we can start vaccinating the other age groups coming down to adults and adolescents and so on. Then maybe we would not be seeing new variants."

"Do you think the West, the richer countries hogging vaccines has led to the variants?" @Emmabarnett asks.

“Yes, I think we can say that,” @WHO's Chief Scientist @doctorsoumya says https://t.co/FwpoxCQlSG pic.twitter.com/2r8yRx5DHn

— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) February 11, 2022

So what does this have to do with antivaxxers, you ask? 

Let us consider the fact that Delta variant was first detected in India, and Omicron Variant first detected in South Africa. These are far from the only variants observed but these two are "variants of concern". 

Dr. Swaminathan is basically saying that due to the countries not sharing their vaccines so we can vaccinate as many of the most vulnerable we can, we let COVID run wild among the unvaxxed, and that produced more variants.

The point is the more unvaxxed (or effectively unvaxxed) people there are, the more variants we will see, because more of them get sick, and thus, more COVID virus produced, more mutations occurs, and more chances of variants.

Thus, the obvious answer is to PREVENT them from getting sick through vaccinations, so less COVID virus, less mutation, less variants.  

The people in India and South Africa are involuntarily unvaxxed because they lack the vaccines and/or the infrastructure to deliver them. 

Yet we have people in the US (and everywhere in the world, aka the antivaxxers) INTENTIONALLY avoiding vaccines and boosters, and thus, helping to generate more variants. And they are fighting vaccine mandates at every level, with no more reason than "I say government cannot jab me! Freedom!"

The antivaxxers are the ones preventing us from getting over COVID, as I've pointed out last September. We could have saved tens of billions in hospital costs, and tens of thousands of lives, had we all gotten vaccinated and boosted. And we may have gotten over COVID already. 

Instead, we are suffering the most COVID casualties of any nation, including China and Russia, and it's not letting up, and some so-called "lawmakers" are trying to pass laws to let us kill ourselves by OUTLAWing mask and vaccine mandates, even for children. 

Don't be a COVIDiot. Or you may be helping breed the next variant of COVID, and it may be more virulent than omicron. 

Medical COVIDiocy: Surrendering to COVID Risks Heart Problems for Up to a Year

 Among some so-called health commentators, some of them with a peripherally relevant medical degree, are calling for "return to normalcy", which basically means "we should cut any mandates as early as possible", which includes both vaccine AND mask mandates, for ANY age group. This is sheer madness. 

Denmark has voted to cut ALL COVID restrictions as of Feb 11, 2022, despite surging COVID cases since last November. Denmark has a COVID vaccination rate of about 80% and booster rate of about 75%. 

(Some antivaxxers will use this to argue "vaccination didn't work". Vaccination did work... it just did not work well enough. And it's well known that simple two doses were not enough to protect against omicron.)

It is obvious that vaccinations alone will not stop omicron. Not even boosters. It's vaccinations AND boosters AND masks that will slow omicron, and hopefully, nothing more deadly or virulent comes along, like how Omicron usurped Delta. 

Yet here are these health commentators claiming "we just need to live with COVID, it's becoming endemic like the flu". 

Except flu did not kill a million Americans in 2 years, or a thousand children. 

THEN there's the problem of long COVID... even for those with only mild COVID symptoms. Lingering blood clots can exacerbate all sorts of conditions as well as increase irregular heart rhythms, such as myocarditis, once thought to be a danger of COVID vaccines. Turns out, NOT getting the vaccine is MORE dangerous. 

Yes, you MAY still catch COVID even if you are vaxed and boosted. That's why you also wear an N95 mask. So you don't get infected in the first place. Why take chances when you can layer protection? 

And whoever wants to end all that because it's "inconvenient" is basically advocating for more COVID death and COVID suffering. 

Don't be a COVIDiot and argue for normalcy. We are still in pandemic times. Ignoring the problem does not make the problem go away. It only KILLS people. 

Qanon COVIDiocy: How Qanon Carried On Without Trump by Merging with the Antivax Movement

Qanon started as some nameless droppers of info promising new revealing information about a conspiracy... and somehow Trump was battling some sort of "deep state" conspiracy full of child traffickers led by notable Democrats such as former first lady Hilary Clinton. Enough of them stuck around for the January 6th insurrection, and enough of them remain to discredit and undermine the Biden government now. And one of the most obvious targets was the vaccine and mask mandates. 

Before January 2022 came about, there were plenty of doomsday predictions from Qanon fodders claiming that when 5G activates all you COVID vaccine lovers will be turned into mind-controlled zombies. They don't realize they've been repeating an old debunked story when someone uploaded a guitar effect pedal circuit diagram and claimed it's a "5G mind control chip" embedded into COVID vaccine nanotech. 

Then of course Bill Gates gets dragged into it because he's rich. And fearmonger mockumentaries such as Plandemic II made false claims about Bill Gates, among many other egregious factual problems. 

Then there are Qanon fodders who decided to martyr themselves for news. Cirsten Weldon was known for sprouting Qanon beliefs on YT, Facebook, Telegram, and Telegram, still refers to Trump as president, and claiming arrests of enemies are already happening. She also called people who got COVID vaccines "idiots". In December she fell sick of COVID, but chose to use the term "bacterial pneumonia", a common term among Qanon fodder as a euphemism for COVID. In hospital she refused antiviral treatment, and died in January 2022. Apparently her followers harassed the staff of the hospital, some even called for death of hospital staff for contributing to Weldom's death. 

But the weirdest and craziest Qanon fodders actually killed people. Troy Burke killed his wife Jessica after being told by Qanon members that his wife is a transgender offspring of President Biden and is working for the CIA as a child trafficker. So he shot her in the head 3 times. 

And he's not the only one. Another Qanon fodder lighted a pipe bomb and blew up his RV killing himself and injuring 3 others. Another tried to kill his family ahead of Biden's inauguration day because he was convinced the "great revelation" will be horrible. Another tried to kill his own children with a spear gun because he believed they had DNA from lizard people and would "grow up to be monsters". They all are Qanon fodder egged on by other Qanon to do evil. 

Burke was declared not guilty by reason of insanity and will likely spend his life in an institution. 

If you are antivax or on the fence, consider the strange bedfellows you're keeping, They may be insane, or they are egging on unstable people to actually go insane. 

Maybe they are egging you on... 

Foreign Influence COVIDiocy: Foreign Agitators Started the Occupy LA Movement

The Occupy Canada convoy shows no signs of ending, and their boldness has encouraged foreign agitators to stir up similar movement in the US, and the antivaxxers have swallowed the bait. 

Facebook has confirmed that foreign actors are controlling several trucker convoy Facebook groups. Various groups are being run by IP addresses traced to Romania, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and other countries. Many of them used to be MAGA or Trump-related Facebook groups. Facebook have removed several that are confirmed to be run by foreign IPs, but the astroturfing has caught American attention, and even RFKjr's website has settled on a March 5th "convoy" targeting Los Angeles. 

Some have tried to organize groups to disrupt the traffic in Los Angeles to target the Superbowl this weekend, but they simply did not have enough time. 

It's clear that antivaxxers no longer cared if they've been led through the nose by foreign actors. They are willing to gather in tight quarters because they prefer to care about themselves and their "freedom" to spread COVID rather than care about keeping everyone safe. 

Vaccines prevent hospitalization, and masks prevent infection. That is the science of COVID. 

Such a "convoy" will pull in agitators of every sort, from Jan 6 insurrectionists to antivaxxers to free-dumbers to Maga dreamers who still believe the election was stolen from Trump even though all evidence shows Trump tried to steal the election, not to mention anarchists who just want to see some chaos, and whichever foreign actors with their own agendas. 

I hope CHP, LAPD, and Governor Newsome have contingency plans. If they don't start making some now. This can get VERY ugly. 

And if you join up, you're a COVIDiot sheeple who don't care if you've been used by foreign actors. 

Public COVIDiocy: Coroner Admits He Did Not Declare a SINGLE person Dead of COVID in 2021

The following quote is from USA Today:

In Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, coroner Wavis Jordan said his office “doesn’t do COVID deaths.” Jordan does not investigate deaths himself. He requires families to provide proof of a positive coronavirus test before including it on a death certificate.

In 2021, he hasn’t pronounced a single person dead from COVID-19 in the 80,000-person county.

This sort of underreporting is most prevalent in the heavily Red (Republican) areas such as the South. 

Experts estimate that the current US Death Statistics are probably off by as much as 20%. 

At this moment, it's at 871K. If it's under by 20%, it'd be already over a MILLION deaths in two years. 

Which makes the death rate at 1.385%, instead of 1.2% as it stands right now. 

That makes it time to point out the raw number of deaths vs death rate. 

Right now, the state with the most COVID deaths is California, followed by Texas and Florida. 

However, that's raw numbers. What about deaths per population?  

FWIW, the worst death rate is Mississippi (360 per 100K), followed by Arizona (352) and New Jersey (346). 

California at 199 is well below Florida (297) and Texas (269). 

Best? Hawaii, at 81. But remember, Hawaii requires either a negative test within 72 hours of arrival or spending 5 days in self-quarantine. And they can do that because they can check everybody at the airport. And if you choose to break quarantine anyway? You'd be subject to arrest. 

Do you see any anti-vaxxers screaming about their "freedom" in Hawaii?

School COVIDiocy: Are School Reopening Based on Garbage Data Entered By Antivaxxers?

School opening, mask mandate in schools, and vaccine mandate are the current hot topics, and while the path forward is obvious: mask those who can't get vaccinated yet, and vaccinate everyone who can be vaccinated like we did for most childhood diseases, many states are attempting to OUTLAWING vaccine mandates... Even for schools. 

Then there are parents who complain... It's easier to show you the tweet.  

STOP TESTING YOUR CHILDREN WITH MILD COLD SYMPTOMS. Every time you do, you lock other perfectly healthy children out of the classroom in blue areas. My kids need school. I work, I need them in school. Testing and notifying the school makes you an ASSHOLE, not a hero.

— Jenny Erikson (@JennyErikson) January 26, 2022

Translation: How DARE you care about your children's symptoms and care about your community and report possible signs of COVID! My going back to work is more important than the community! It's must be the mild sniffles even though I've never seen your child and I'm definitely not a doctor! 

So who'd advocate for going back to school? One Dr. Tracy Hoeg, who sometimes presents herself as a researcher at UC Davis. She claims that COVID vaccines actually hurt more kids than it helped due to myocarditis side effect with a paper written back in 2021. 

Unfortunately, the paper is a demonstration of VAERS dumpster diving which we've previously discussed. it's so bad, I'm going to let SkepticalRaptor explain it in more detail than I could. 

It should also be noted that Dr. Tracy Hoeg has done no work in epidemiology UNTIL COVID, despite a PhD degree in epidemiology from the University of Copenhagen. Her residency is in sports medicine and physical therapy. 

This is a clarification from the UC Davis PA office:

Please keep in mind that VAERS is not the only system monitoring vaccine safety. As pointed out by SkepticalRaptor, VSD (vaccine safety datalink) did not show myocarditis incidence rates like VAERS. As an MD, surely Hoeg and her co-writers have access to VSD data. So why did they choose to cite VAERS alone, when they know the numbers in there cannot be relied upon for cause and effect? 

Some cherry-picking indeed. 

But there's something else you did not know. VAERS data was probably polluted by TENS OF THOUSANDS of false submissions. 

Here's example of VAERS bullcrap

CDC saw 23,713 reports of Myocarditis in kids

A team of CDC Physicians and Pediatric Cardiologists investigated every one

Only 303 were valid. The other 23,410 were FALSE REPORTS

6792 came from same IP addresshttps://t.co/PN7SRpRjxO

— Patti Cakes, DNSc, MSN, RN, PhD, CRNP (@PLHartungRN) January 17, 2022

Yep, you read it right. Out of 23713 reports of myocarditis in kids, only 303 are real and verified. In later tweets, she replied that many of these reports did not even include proper information such as COVID symptoms, what grade is the child in, or what ethnicity the child is. 

We tried to ask Patti Cakes how did she know 6792 came from the same IP address, she later replied that Pfizer's IT team went through the log with CDC and determined that. Unfortunately, we have no log to inspect ourselves, but I don't really have any reason to doubt her. 

So basically, Hoeg was testifying to Congress something based on bogus information... entered by probably antivaxxers. (who else would make up myocarditis kids and submit them to VAERS?) Given that as an MD, she should know about double-checking VAERS unreliable data with VSD and other sources, one wonders whether she's complicit in the bogosity, or simply turning a blind eye and enjoying her time in the limelight. 

To put it frankly, it is VERY likely that any rationale to get kids back into school is based on flawed and bad data. 

And sending the children back WITHOUT masks or vaccine is frankly, gambling with public lives, betting "symptoms will be mild and manageable", never mind the Hippocratic Oath... "do no harm".

Don't be a COVIDiot... or worse, an entitled COVIDiot. 

School Meeting COVIDiocy: Viriginia Woman Threatened to "bring every single gun loaded and ready" To School Over Mask Mandate

While knowing she was being recorded, Amelia King, in front of Luray, Virginia school board told everyone that she would "bring every single gun loaded and ready" on Monday with her maskless child. Then she was cut off as her 3 minutes were up. She left with "I will see you all Monday". 

As you can guess, she's upset that the school would DARE mandate that everyone mask up. But threaten to bring guns, really? 

WTF... 

Police did not think this was a joke. Local police charged her with making an oral threat on school property, and Ms. King was released on $5000 bond. According to the police chief, she was remorseful as she realized what she had said after leaving and was very apologetic. 

Police, with help of county Sheriff's Office, will provide extra patrols for the schools coming Monday, as a precaution. 

The situation is NOT helped by Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, who had issued an executive order ("executive order number two") on his first day in office, supposedly giving parents the authority to ignore school mask mandates, and it will go into effect on January 24th. 

But many schools and school districts said they are NOT going to accept any opt-outs by parents. They claim that state law (Virginia Senate Bill 1303) says they have to follow CDC guidelines, and CDC guidelines say indoor masking should be done. And thus, the governor has no power to order them to ignore state law. 

More than a dozen parents are suing the governor over "executive order number two", and the Virginia Attorney General has already asked the state Supreme Court to dismiss the lawsuit as it "affirm(s) that parents matter". 

Astroturfing COVIDiocy: Seems Antivaxxers Submitted 23410 FAKE cases of Myocarditis from COVID vaccines in kids to VAERS

As of December 31st, 2021, there were supposedly 23713 reports of myocarditis in children / young adult after Pfizer vaccines were reported to VAERS. It's interesting that in a majority of cases, no race or ethnicity was listed. 

So a team of pediatricians both in and out of CDC checked every single case. 

Turns out only 303 are real (265 12-15yr old) out of over 27 MILLION doses given out to those age groups during that time. 

Basically, there is no risk at all. Myocarditis occurs at or above this rate without COVID or vaccination. 

You can read their report here: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2022-01-05/02-COVID-Su-508.pdf

Which sort of begs the question... who, besides anti-vaxxers, have time to flood VAERS with 23410 FAKE reports of myocarditis in kids as a side effect of COVID vaccine? 

And did they really think that real doctors would not want to follow up, if there are indeed that many reported problems? 

Who did they think they were fooling?