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. 

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. 

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. 

Common COVIDiocy: Data Proves that COVID Deaths are PRIMARILY among the Unvaxxed

AP did an article back in June about May 2021 data from CDC, and shows that virtually ALL reported deaths of COVID are from the unvaxxed. 

Only 150 of the 18000 COVID deaths in May are fully vaccinated. 0.8%

And the number of COVID hospitalizations that are fully vaccinated: 107K, or 1.1%. 

Do keep in mind that not all states record breakthrough infections or sought accurate reports, so the numbers are likely underreported, but unlike to sway the numbers by a large quantity.

And the numbers are going to be even WORSE for the unvaxxed soon, with omicron variant, because several of the monoclonal antibody treatment such as Regeneron shows little to no effect on omicron. So far, in lab tests only 3 antibodies treatment are effective against omicron, and only one of the three is based in the US. 

Given that Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine are placebos at best, the only thing they WOULD accept and are actually effective are these monoclonal antibodies. And now that most of them are worthless against omicron, the unvaxxed basically has little to no choice: get vaxxed now, or wait for COVID to catch them and pray it doesn't kill them, while clogging up ICU beds and whatnot. All in the name of "freedom". 

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.