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. 

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. 

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. 

Child COVIDiocy: Latest Data Shows 10% of CHILDREN with COVID become "Long Haulers" (i.e. "long COVID")

One of the most common refrains from antivaxxers about vaccinating children is "children don't need COVID jabs, because they don't get very sick even if they caught COVID". Take a look at JuliaHB1's tweet here just last week. She's a pretty famous talk show host in the UK. 

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

But latest round of science shows very worrying prospects for children who was infected with COVID: 10% of them became sufferers of "long COVID" that lasts months, even years, with symptoms such as rashes, heart palpitations, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, memory struggles, headaches... and more. And the numbers may be conservative. Numbers from Israel indicate 11.2%, and numbers from UK range from 12% to 15% depending on age group. Some doctors are estimating up to 20% of children infected by COVID may be suffering long COVID. 

The worst part about this is the long COVID symptoms typically start 30-days to 6 weeks AFTER the child recovers from mild COVID symptoms. And this data is PRE-OMICRON. We simply don't have enough data on how Omicron is affecting kids... other than hospitalization... and omicron in children accounted for 22% of all COVID hospitalizations in the US for the week ending Feb 10th. 

There is also the question of MIS-C, which is another rare but very serious post-COVID condition, with almost 7000 cases reported in the US, and killed 59, but so far we have not seen a corresponding increase due to omicron. 

CDC had also warned that post-COVID child is more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, based on pre-Omicron data. 

While symptoms seem worse in older children, experts warn that younger children lack the ability to express nuanced distress or comfort. 

And you have "conservative" hosts denying that children need COVID vaccinations because symptoms are "mild". As a parent, would you not want your children to have EVERY layer of protection you can get, including vaccinations and masks? 

Don't be a COVIDiot. 

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. 

Propaganda COVIDiocy: Care To Guess Who ELSE Had Been Reporting Pfizer COVID Vaccine Killing People? The Russians, Of Course

One of the often-repeated refrains from antivaxxers is Pfizer COVID vaccine (Cominarty) had killed thousands, though the same claims were also levied against all the other Western COVID vaccines such as the AstroZeneca vaccine and J&J vaccine as well. 

Care to guess who's the loudest "news outlet" (besides Fox News, and I don't mean Tucker Carlson?) that claimed so? 

The Russian RT News, of course, with clickbait titles such as "Health authorities on alert after nurse DIES follow vaccination with Pfizer's Covid-19 shot in Portugal"

RT news as screencap'ed by FirstDraft News
https://firstdraftnews.org/articles/rt-fringe-undermine-covid-vaccinations/

Of course, nobody cares about the rebuttal from the Portuguese Government stating that there is no link between her death and the vaccine. 

Keep in mind that RT is a Russian propaganda website spreading plenty of fake news along real news. It has amplified fake news such as harm of 5G, including "5G caused COVID". 

The disinformation is so bad that Germany has officially banned RT German only a few days ago. 

So if you are repeating antivax propaganda, consider your sources carefully. You may be helping the Russians spreading fake news. And I mean fake as in "not real", not Trumpian fake news, which is any news he didn't like. 

Legal COVIDiocy Denied: Anti-Masker Got His Day In Court. Got Glorious Federal Judge Smackdown

There is a saying, "a lawyer who represents himself in court has a fool for a client". So when a civilian (read: non-lawyer), probably goaded on by antivaxxers, decided to sue Whole Foods for enforcing a local (Dedham, Massachusetts) mask mandate on January 4th, 2021 and going in "pro se" (without a lawyer, only as himself), you know things will get ugly... for the civilian. But let's lay out the case. 

Ryan Manning went to Whole Foods in Dedham, Massachusetts on Jan 4, 2021, without a mask. He was stopped by staff who asked him to mask up, and he refused. It was escalated to both the manager and head manager, both of whom told him he needs to mask up. Instead of complying, he left the premises  to call the police, alleged that his civil rights were being violated, then returned to the store with the police. The manager tried to offer him compromises, like doing the shopping for him, or giving him a health screening and a temperature check. Manning refused both. (It's obvious he's looking for a fight.) Why he won't wear a mask? He believes masks are used for satanic rituals so he won't wear one, and he refuses to "slowly commit suicide by lowering his immune system and depriving himself of oxygen". He eventually left. He filed the lawsuit in May 2021, with no less than EIGHT alleged violations of law:

1) Violated his first amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion (42 USC 1983)

2) Violated 18 USC 242 

3) Discriminated against him in public and violated 42 USC 2000a in two instances (counts as 2)

4) Conspiracy to interfere with his civil rights violating 42 USC 1985

5) Engaged in "unauthorized practice of medicine" against MA general laws CH 112 / 6

6) Harassed him

7) Falsely imprisoned him. 

Let's just say the judge eviscerated him in every count. 

Sad COVIDiocy: Triple World Champion Kickboxer Frederick "The Undertaker" Sinistra, and antivaxxer, has died from COVID

We are sad but not surprised to report that Frederick Sinistra has died of COVID. He was 41. 

Triple World Champion Kick Boxer Frederick Sinistra, Anti-Science, Anti-Mask, Anti-Vax, dead from Covidiot infection. pic.twitter.com/AVKrvCE3qp

— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) December 21, 2021

What's tragic was Fred was in TOTAL denial over COVID. Months ago he discharged himself from the hospital, claiming to be treating the disease himself at home. He called COVID "the hair flu" and railed against the Belgian government's attempt to control it. Belgium has a 90+% vaccination rate. 

In November, when he got worse, his coach finally got him to go back to the hospital. Fred posted the picture included in the Tweet above, with him hooked up to oxygen. But he posted on social media that "little virus" will not stop him. 

He apparently went home later and was posted as late as December 13th that he's doing fine at home. 

The three-time world champion died on December 15th, before the government added the latest lockdown procedure in order to slow the spread of omicron variant. 

It is a common misconception of antivaxxers who believe their "natural immunity" will save them. But as we have seen many times before, including triathlete John Ayers, when COVID comes for you, it does not care who you are or how fit you are. The best chance of NOT catching COVID is with the COVID vaccines, now supplemented by boosters. 

Don't be a COVIDiot. 

Strange COVIDiocy: the "Fauci lied" narrative

Recently ran into an antivaxxers who asserted repeatedly that Dr. Fauci lied and is a criminal and variations thereof, among his various antivax viewpoints. 

So I asked him what exactly did Fauci lied about. 

He gave only one answer: early in the pandemic, Fauci asked people not to mask up. He later changed his stance on that. According to this anti-vaxxer, this constitutes lying, and since he's a public official, this constitutes deceiving the public and should be arrested and charged with... something. 

Let's get a little context on this. 

Back on March 8 2020, Fauci did say "there's no reason to be walking around with a mask". This was only a few months after the discovery of COVID and nobody has any idea how bad the pandemic would spread. At that point, even WHO believed COVID to NOT be airborne. No one knew how bad the asymptomatic spread would be, and there was a genuine fear that health facilities may run out of masks due to panic buying by the public. 

CDC changed its stance on masks on April 3, 2020, recommending people mask up in public settings, esp. when social distancing will be difficult, and they recommended cloth masks, not the genuine 3M medical masks that people sought. Even since, Fauci have repeatedly stated in public that people should mask up, and even wore a mask to a July 2020 Senate hearing. 

Not to mention asymptomatic spread is a serious problem, much more serious than we ever suspected. It's believed that 30-40% of COVID spread is from asymptomatic people, and the way to stop spread is to ask everyone to wear a mask since one does not know if one has any symptoms. 

So I pointed out to the antivaxxers that he's being unreasonable. He expects government officials to NEVER admit their mistake if they made one. Isn't that even MORE dangerous than lying? Basically double-down and make the problem worse? 

"All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes." -- Winston Churchill

He's not backing down though, kept calling Fauci an incompetent fool and a lying SOB, as we as being old and senile. 

Guess he won't be learning from his own mistakes any time soon. 

Antivax COVIDiocy: How Antivaxxers Argue By Bullshitting with Disinformation

The way antivaxxers argue is by flooding you with disinformation trying to convince you are wrong or you don't know what you're talking about. Don't be fooled. Here's my recent engagement with one such. 

I was replying to The Real Truther who was commenting on some idiotic tweet by Daniel Kotzin about how to get out of the pandemic is to surrender and refuse vaccines. I said it will flood the hospitals like the earliest days of COVID where Wuhan, China ended up a ghost city. 

Then comes Farmer J who claimed natural immunity will be fine, and vaccines are too stupid to handle variants. Which is simply not true, at least not completely true. (Pfizer said 2 shots + booster will handle Omicron, while Moderna said they need another shot)  So I clapped back with facts and logic. 

Farmer J isn't receptive to the truth though, as he replied with irrelevant mentions and derision, continuing to claim "natural immunity" is superior to vaccines. He also claimed some wild time-traveling stuff about Moderna had worked on Omicron for MONTHS when it was discovered in late November (only a few weeks ago)  I replied with facts and citation vaccine immunity is STRONGER than disease-derived immunity. Actual studies say so. 

His reply was somewhat surprising... He claims the study was discredited. Not that he produced any evidence of such. But he goofed, as he just revealed that he is not backed by any facts. He actually used debunked misinformation... that PCR test was ending. It's not. So I called him out on it with proof. 

He had not continued any response to this tweet chain in the past 24 hours. 

From what I can tell, he seems to reside north of the border. Guess he got tired of commenting on snow and such so he replied to stuff he didn't like with lies, backed by even more lies, and just act haughty "lol" every tweet pretending to know more than he does. 

He had used multiple tactics of top bullshitters. He acted arrogantly confident, pointed at his supposed successes ("my natural immunity"), and claimed esoteric knowledge ("this one is mocked") , hoping we wouldn't challenge him. 

It's basically one antivax talking point after another. And if you are not versed in this sort of tactics, and/or be quick on Google and/or understand science, you may be snookered by all that disinformation. 

Don't be a COVIDiot and believe antivaxxer bullshit. 

Sad COVIDiocy: The story of John Eyers, Triathlete, Fitness Fanatic, COVID casualty

John Eyers was the epitome of fitness. He ran triathlons. He is a bodybuilder and a mountain climber. He's got a six-pack and much more. But not even his family can change his mind about "no COVID vaccine for me". And he died of COVID in July 2021. 

In June 2021 he met with his family to celebrate his nephew's 10th birthday (son of his twin sister Jenny McCann) and he started spouting some nonsense about "people are getting COVID jab to get free McDonald's" or "it's got formaldehyde". Naturally, his family fact-checked him, but he won't change his mind. He kept saying "I won't be a guinea pig."  The subject was eventually dropped. Later they went to a health club, and John refused to put his mask on, but eventually did. And the weekend ended with no other incident. 

It was to be the last time they ever see each other. 

John tested positive for COVID on June 29th. By July 3rd he's so sick his girlfriend had to force him to call for paramedics to transport him to the hospital. Next day, he was vomiting blood. A week later he's on a ventilator, unable to breath himself. COVID first attacked his lungs, causing blood clots, as his body's immune system started attacking the lung tissues AND COVID. Doctors tried to put him on ventilator and use steroids to control the immune response, but that caused other illnesses to take hold, such as a lung infection, which cascaded to other organs. Doctors helped with dialysis, but lungs are not recovering. His body used all its reserves, fighting the virus and the complications. It was not enough. 

On July 27th, he lost the battle with COVID before his family can don PPE to spend the final moments with him. He was 42, in prime physical condition before COVID got him. 

John told the doctors before he was put on the ventilator, that he regretted not getting the vaccine. 

John's funeral was August 16, 2021. His family chose to share his story... John was a COVIDiot, and they don't want anyone else to share John's fate... or their fate of losing one of their own to something that could have been easily prevented. 

Don't be a COVIDiot like John, or one of the dozens all over the world like John. COVID can come for you no matter how healthy you are. And if you are not doing everything to prevent it, such as masks and vaccines, you are a part of the problem.  

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 Collateral Damage: Heartbreaking Story from Summer Brennan on Twitter

 You can read the original tweets here: https://twitter.com/summerbrennan/status/1442806675325476867?s=20

But I will just summarize it for you. 

Her father, in his 80's, is living fine in rural New Mexico, alone, healthy, and active. And yes, he is vaccinated against COVID. 

Then he fell, and had to be hospitalized for about a week, in the physical rehab area, not ICU. 

But during the stay, he picked up viral pneumonia that wasn't noticed by the staff, who were too busy treating the unvaxxed folks, now infected with COVID, in the ICU. 

He fell in his room and was not found for six hours, and almost died. He had to be put on a ventilator... and put in a storage room, because there is no room in ICU. 

He woke up in 24 hours... But the hospital had to put him on ventilator AGAIN, because they don't have the staff to check up on him, give him tests, or get consulting pulmonologists or cardiologists. Again, full of unvaxxed COVID patients. And there, his condition deteriorated. 

And the hospital did not even try to transfer him to a larger hospital because ALL nearby hospitals are full. In fact, the entire state's ICUs are full. And the doctor said they also tried ICUs in Colorado, Arizona, Texas, Utah, and California. No luck. 

In short, her father will DIE without a cardiac ICU bed, maybe within 24 hours. Confirmed by both nurse and doctor. So she got on the phone and called basically EVERY hospital in a few hundred miles, for FIVE HOURS continuously. And she finally found a cardiac ICU bed in Albuquerque, still within the state. 

And the transfer is made. And according to the doctor there, it was a VERY close call. But her father is now stable. Her father spent 10 days there, slowly healing his heart, but he was on ventilator all the time. They tried to wean him off of it, but his lungs are too weak. 

They have to perform a tracheostomy, to open a hole in his windpipe, and give his lungs a chance to heal. 

And it was VERY VERY CLEAR that if the hospitals were NOT clogged up by the "vaccine-hesitant" he would have NEVER gotten this bad. 

But he seems to be recovering for now. 

----

Her father was collateral damage to all the vaccine hesitants' decisions to NOT vaccinate for COVID. 

To the vaccine-hesitant... your actions have far-reaching consequences than your own body. We've already seen sad story about a man turned away by 43 hospitals, and so on. 

Don't be a vaccine-hesitant entitled selfish COVIDiot. 

Sad COVIDiocy: Irish Man Died From COVID After Antivaxxers Encouraged Him to Release Himself From Hospital

Irishman Joe McCarron, age 75, passed away at Letterkenny University Hospital on 24-SEP-2021 from COVID. He attracted media attention when a bunch of anti-medicine anti-vax pro-COVID protesters encouraged him to check himself out of the hospital on 12-SEP-2021, even though his doctors told him he needed treatment for his very serious COVID complications. 

Protesters heckled hospital staff both inside and outside the hospital, and convinced McCarron to leave the hospital, by telling him lies like "you'll die if you stay here" and "you don't need the ICU". He was released, despite pleas from his doctors, while yelled at by the protesters. 

A far-right protester Antonio Murredu, aka Antonion Graveliu, a Freeman, among the protesters, claimed "We are saving Joe's Life! Today is a winning day for Ireland!"  Murredu also thanked Dr Dolores Cahill, a famous Irish Antivaxxer, who was dismissed from her teaching position recently. 

McCarron was brought to a hospital a few days after his release and was immediately put on a ventilator. But despite best efforts, he expired. 

His family apologized to the hospital and slammed the "friends". 

Encouraging sick COVID patient to leave the hospital? Can they be charged with manslaughter? 

Don't be a COVIDiot or have COVIDiot friends. They can LITERALLY kill you with their "kindness". 

Crazy COVIDiocy: Man Punches Nurse in Pharmacy Because Wife Vaccinated Without His Permission?!

Sherbrooke Police of Quebec Canada is looking for a man who punched a nurse multiple times, knocking her to the ground, while screaming that his wife did not have his permission to be vaccinated for COVID. 

On September 20th, 2021, a man walked into Brunet Pharmacy in Sherbrooke at 9:15 AM, and was super-rude and aggressive to the nurse, who is in her 40s, accusing her of vaccinating his wife without his consent. Then immediately punched her in the face multiple times. Then the perpetrator ran out of the pharmacy. The nurse was sent to the hospital, and due to her being the only nurse in the pharmacy, the vaccination program had to be suspended. 

Unfortunately, there was no surveillance camera. Sherbrooke police is asking any witnesses with information to come forward. 

And there certainly is no need to ask a husband for permission to be vaccinated. And the guy was too mad to mention his name or his wife's name. And since the pharmacy typically vaccinates 15 people a day, there's really no way to narrow down the suspect. 

MORE COVIDiocy: You Get What You Wished For!

Seems an alt-right COVID denier had caught COVID. 

A far-right conspiracy theorist by the name of Laura Loomer, who also happens to be anti-Muslim and anti-vax, did not believe in COVID, calling it "less serious than food poisoning", and actively posted that she wanted to catch it to prove it wasn't bad. 

In a screenshot of her post on Parlor (alt-right Twitter clone) from last December (2020), she wrote:

I hope I get COVID just so I can prove to people I've had bouts of food poisoning that are more serious and life threantening than a hyped up virus. // Have you ever eaten bad fajitas? // That will kill you faster than COVID. 

Last week, she announced on GETTR, i.e. another Twitter clone for Alt-Right, that she took a self-administered COVID test and it's positive, and she's suffering, but she's going to take medicine that's proven NOT to help COVID (i.e. azithromycin, an antibiotic, and hydroxychloroquine, an anti-parasite drug), as well as some sort of nutritional supplement. 

In another message, she wrote 

I am in so much pain. This is honestly the worst part about it.

Well, it seems Laura, you got your wish. So tell me, is it really better or worse than food poisoning? 

That is, of course, assuming you survive. And I wish you the best. 

Don't be a COVIDiot like Laura. Get #vaxxed and avoid "so much pain". 

More COVIDiocy: Nicki Minaj the Twitter Liar?

 Nicki Minaj made news when she posted why she's "doing my own research" regarding COVID vaccines and chose not to attend the Met gala because it requires all celebrities to be vaccinated. Then she really stepped in it when she tweeted that her cousin's friend had swollen balls from vaccine and his fiance called off the wedding. 

COVID experts all over the world replied "no way", and "my cousin's friend" became the latest meme to hit the Internet. 

Now even her home country (Trinidad) Health Minister came out to refute the story. Yes, they spent a whole day trying to run the story down. It's global news. It even got a hashtag #ballgate

https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1438194219269689352?s=20

Strike one. 

Then Nicki Minaj posted that the White House invited her to have a chat. 

Which was immediately debunked by CNN... Apparently White House offered her a chance to talk to one of their doctors to explain COVID and the COVID vaccine. 

https://twitter.com/donlemon/status/1438296212172640257?s=20

Strike two. 

Now, Nicki claims that she can't Tweet anymore because Twitter had blocked her. A screenshot of what appears to be Instagram was shared. 

There has been no verification from Twitter. However, Vulture reported that a spokesperson for Twitter said "Twitter did not take any enforcement action on the account referenced". 

https://twitter.com/vulture/status/1438291904307806209?s=20

Oh-oh... Strike three. 

What's far more likely is her manager and agent, seeing what sort of PR disaster she had gotten herself into, took away her account access, but that's just a theory. 

Anyone who got on Tucker Carlson Show, without checking what sort of person Tucker Carlson is, is not someone I would follow or respect. Carlson is famous for using his show to tell people "CDC is lying to you" mainly by dumpster-diving VAERS. And guess who got invited to the Carlson show? Yep, Nicki Minaj. The two aligned only because of their COVID vaccine denialism. 

Let's not forget that Carlson believed that #blacklivesmatter was NOT about black lives, but rather an excuse to come after your rights... It lead to such a backlash that a dozen advertising sponsors quit. Carlson was one of the few people who believed that the January 6th Insurrection was a false-flag operation by the FBI. He's basically Alex Jones with half the craziness. Not to mention he believed just about every conspiracy theory that hurts the GOP in some way or makes the Dems look good, of which there are way too many to list. 

But that's enough ranting about two people I don't give a flying f*** about. 

Don't be a COVIDiot, like these two.