Covid-19 Diary : Thursday 18 November, 2021

Scandals, scandals, scandals.  Have we got scandals.

This article claims that the approval and use of remdesivir is the greatest scandal of the pandemic.  That’s a powerful claim to make, because there are so many other contenders for that title, but it is a powerful article to support the claim.

Certainly, remdesivir’s puzzling approval should be placed on the shortlist of scandals, along with the unavoidable twin to this – not only was remdesivir approved on the basis of thin, ambiguous, and controversial evidence (and subsequent growing links of bad and even fatal side effects), but the continued refusal to approve ivermectin – well, that for me is probably going to remain my number one pick.

Talking about which, here’s another scandal contender.  A woman who was dying of Covid, and unsuccessfully petitioned a court to compel the hospital she was in to give her ivermectin, has now died.

Even if what the linked article says is correct (and it is most definitely not correct) – ie, there has been a “lack of study proving (ivermectin’s) effectiveness” and the FDA saying “it hasn’t proved effective in pre-clinical trials” let’s consider what is also universally accepted by everyone, even the FDA, about ivermectin.  It is safe.  It is as safe as taking an aspirin.  Billions of doses have been dispensed, with almost no problems, everywhere in the world.  It is low cost and low impact – a few dollars for a dose, and simply swallow the pill.  If it weren’t for the doctors and pharmacists and their monopolistic approach to dispensing medicines in this country, it would be an over-the-counter drug along with pain relievers, antacids, and so on.

So, with a woman dying, and nothing else working, what person with a shred of humanity would refuse her a literally dying request for ivermectin.  What is the worst that can happen?  The best that might happen is she gets better, even perhaps only from the “placebo effect” of being given the medicine she was desperate for.  But, the worst?  She is dying, there is no “worst case scenario” that applies.

The refusal to give this woman – and all the others like her – ivermectin has to be one of the greatest scandals of the pandemic.

But, wait, let’s look at just one more scandal.  A vaccine scandal – and which part of the vaccine story should we focus on.  How about this – a Georgetown medical professor/immunologist predicting that by the spring, there’ll be a fully vaccine resistant Covid variant.

Let’s make a list of all the other vaccine resistant viruses out there.  None.  This article, for example, considers the issue and says it is very hard to find viruses that might have developed vaccine resistance.  The article was written before Covid…..

How much more harm will we inflict on the world before we finally admit that the “vaccines” being mandated for everyone to take are not vaccines and don’t work as promised, and not only have downsides in terms of our health, but further downsides in terms of accelerating the development of new super-strains of Covid?

Surely that too is a contender for the greatest scandal of the pandemic.

Current Numbers

The most vaxxed country in the world, with everyone vaccinated and 41% of the population having already received a booster dose, ie Gibraltar, suffered an extraordinary 13,421 new cases per million people in the last week.  Only the Cayman Islands (83% fully vaccinated, no data on booster dose numbers) had a higher rate of new cases last week.  As a result, Gibraltar moved up the minor country list, as did Lithuania and Estonia.

No changes of position in the major country list.  No changes of position in the death rate list.

The list of most affected countries last week dramatically shows how the virus has (highly vaccinated) Europe so tightly in its grip.  The above table is interesting.  The highest vaccinated continent – Europe – has the highest rate of new Covid cases.  The two lowest vaccinated continents (Asia and Africa) have the lowest rates of new cases.

Europe saw its cases rise 13% during the week.  Denmark had the largest rise (57%), followed by Switzerland at 55%, Spain at 54% and Portugal at 51%.  The Netherlands were at 46%, France at 43% and Germany at 35%.  At the other end of the scale, Romania’s former surge in cases is abating as rapidly as it built up, with a 45% drop off in cases over the last week.  Bulgaria saw a 30% drop, and Estonia a 29% drop.

It is worth commenting, again, about the really strange way that virus numbers suddenly skyrocket, then just as suddenly, fall again.  Intuitively you’d expect a much slower/gentler rate of change.  This is one of the enormous mysteries of the virus which deserves and demands some attention and understanding (as I’ve said before).

The UK rose a moderate 15%, to a level of 4,030 cases per million.

Contrast the case rate numbers in Europe with those here in the US, were we had a 13% rise in cases, and 1,854 new cases per million people over the last week.  A shame about the rising case numbers again, but with case rates five times lower than Austria, perhaps we can see our glass as half full.  Canada had a gentle 4% drop (to a mere 441 cases/million) and Mexico enjoyed a 20% drop down to 124 cases per million (Mexico’s vaccination rate is much lower than Canada’s or the US’s).

The world as a whole had a 7% rise in cases.  60% of all cases in the entire world came from Europe in the last week.

Top Case Rates Minor Countries (cases per million)

Top Case Rates Major Countries (cases per million)

Top Death Rate Major Countries (deaths per million)

Top Rates in New Cases Reported in the Last Week (new cases per million) for Countries over one million population

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Items below include another look at mask wearing, and some of the inconsistencies about the subject, a new Covid treatment finally starts to be recognized (and the possible reason why), hurrying on to the fourth vaccine dose in Britain, a look at recent case numbers in the US and wondering about the future, Christmas Markets, will TSA screeners be fired next week, who benefits from beef price increases, another really strange thing to be in short supply, and why do zoo animals get vaccines but not family pets.

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Please stay happy and healthy; all going well, I’ll be back again on Sunday.

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