Please do not waste space here discussing Joe Rogan.

Bjornulf



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-01-30 08:28 by bv.

Charges: Nurses made $1.5 million off fake vaccination cards

COVID19

AMITYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Two nurses on Long Island are accused of forging COVID-19 vaccination cards and pocketing more than $1.5 million from the scheme, prosecutors and police said. Julie DeVuono, the owner of Wild Child Pediatric Healthcare in Amityville, and her employee, Marissa Urraro, are both charged with felony forgery, and DeVuono also is charged with offering a false instrument for filing. Both were arraigned Friday. Urraro’s lawyer, Michael Alber, urged people not to rush to judgment about the allegations and said his client is a well-respected nurse. “We look forward to highlighting the legal impediments and defects of the investigation,” he said Saturday. “It’s our hope that an accusation definitely doesn’t overshadow the good work Miss Urraro’s done for children and adults in the medical field.”A messages seeking comment was left with DeVuono’s attorney.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said DeVuono and Urraro handed out fake vaccination cards, charging $220 for adults and $85 for children. DeVuono, a nurse practitioner, and Urraro, a licensed practical nurse, entered the false information into the state’s immunization database, he said. Prosecutors said the nurses forged a fake card showing a vaccine was given to an undercover detective but never administered the vaccine to the detective. Law enforcement officers searched DeVuono’s home and said they seized about $900,000 in cash and a ledger showing profits of more than $1.5 million from the scheme, which began in November 2021.
“I hope this sends a message to others who are considering gaming the system that they will get caught and that we will enforce the law to the fullest extent,” Tierney said in a statement with other officials. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison added, “As nurses, these two individuals should understand the importance of legitimate vaccination cards as we all work together to protect public health.”

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

“In December, compared to fully vaccinated persons in each group shown below, the monthly rates of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations were:
16X Higher in Unvaccinated Adults Ages 18 Years and Older”
[covid.cdc.gov]

Especially after understanding the above facts, logic would lead most to believe being vaccinated would make Covid symptoms more mild. If you’re young and healthy, chances are Covid won’t kill you regardless of vaccination status. That doesn’t mean the vaccine won’t make Covid more mild if you are vaccinated than if you are aren’t.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-01-30 21:13 by NashvilleBlues.

Quote
NashvilleBlues
“In December, compared to fully vaccinated persons in each group shown below, the monthly rates of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations were:
16X Higher in Unvaccinated Adults Ages 18 Years and Older”
[covid.cdc.gov]

Thanks for that, backing up my point (though I wasn't concerned about it because this is pretty widely known).

What bothers me is this evidence 'skates by' deniers, and yet they'll trumpet anything they can find on youtube that supports their notion.

When this thing is finally over...and that may possibly coming soon, they'll say, "see, we told you this thing would blow over, and I didn't even get vaccinated!".

As long as they're not one of the millions dead, they just can't quite grasp it.

I had it twice. Once before vaccines, once this month. This month was a minor cold, unvaxxed I was lucky not to die. I take my personal experience as being more applicable. It also corresponds with statistics. The dead people and those in ICUs are more likely to be unvaccinated. Those who don't believe in math and science don't believe vaccines work.

Quote
daspyknows
I had it twice. Once before vaccines, once this month. This month was a minor cold, unvaxxed I was lucky not to die. I take my personal experience as being more applicable. It also corresponds with statistics. The dead people and those in ICUs are more likely to be unvaccinated. Those who don't believe in math and science don't believe vaccines work.

My family doctor was intubated for a month, and survived. This was before the vaccines were even available.

I had a high school friend, unvaxxed, die. I know of other people with bad outcomes but these are the two I'm most directly connected to. I'm triple vaxxed now and my jurisdiction I believe has 94% over the age of 12 double vaxxed, or something close to that number.

I do think were it not for the vaccine not only would we be in total lockdown, but that I would know great numbers of people that didn't make it, or had long COVID.

Chaos in the Netherlands ....
The other day a new record (75.000) number of positives were reported, but the GGD (governmental test centers organisation) is about 125.000 behind with reporting to the RIVM (Goverment Institute of Public Health)!!!
So what do those data say???
If something similar is the case in other countries, heavens, we can talk of a pen-pendamic going on ...

I'm a GHOST living in a ghost town

Quote
treaclefingers

Quote
daspyknows
I had it twice. Once before vaccines, once this month. This month was a minor cold, unvaxxed I was lucky not to die. I take my personal experience as being more applicable. It also corresponds with statistics. The dead people and those in ICUs are more likely to be unvaccinated. Those who don't believe in math and science don't believe vaccines work.

My family doctor was intubated for a month, and survived. This was before the vaccines were even available.

I had a high school friend, unvaxxed, die. I know of other people with bad outcomes but these are the two I'm most directly connected to. I'm triple vaxxed now and my jurisdiction I believe has 94% over the age of 12 double vaxxed, or something close to that number.

I do think were it not for the vaccine not only would we be in total lockdown, but that I would know great numbers of people that didn't make it, or had long COVID.

Agreed. Since the vaccines became available I know of lots of folks and their acquaintances who caught it. Only one person I know of who was vaccinated had to go to the hospital for a night. She has asthma and other health issues. I know quite a few deaths and long hospitalizations. The only thing in common was they were all unvaccinated. No most, ALL. The ages ranged from late 20's on up. Some left young children behind. That's the sad thing.

Robert F Kennedy Jr: America's most famous political dynasty has given rise to one of its leading COVID anti-vaxxers - and his message reaches millions

COVID19

Robert F Kennedy Jr is one of America's leading anti-vaccine activists, and his popularity is soaring.
It comes as the Biden administration pleads with people to get vaccinated against COVID, with the US having been hit hard by the Omicron variant

Robert F Kennedy Jr is part of America's most famous political dynasty and regularly appears on stage as a keynote speaker, commanding an audience in a way his uncle, JFK, or his father, Bobby Kennedy, once might have.
But his message is far more problematic. Mr Kennedy is one of America's leading anti-vaccine activists, and his popularity is soaring. As the Biden administration pleads with people to get vaccinated against COVID, particularly in states where less than half the population is double-jabbed, Mr Kennedy is spearheading the resistance. The US has been hard hit by the Omicron variant and there are around 145,000 people hospitalised with COVID nationwide this week, slightly down from last week but still higher than any prior surge. Advertisement Experts believe one factor in why the US is still seeing record numbers of hospitalisations and deaths may be patchy vaccination rates. Misinformation around vaccines is infecting certain populations, and it's spreading online.

Mr Kennedy claims CDC 'manipulates data' on COVID jabs

In a rare interview with mainstream media, Mr Kennedy told Sky News that the CDC, the official US health protection agency, is a "sock puppet for Moderna and Pfizer" which "manipulates data" on COVID vaccines. Similar falsehoods can be found on the website for Mr Kennedy's non-profit, Children's Health Defense. Visits to the website have skyrocketed, from 150,000 per month before the pandemic to a peak of 4.7 million in August, although Kennedy claims that figure is now closer to six million a month. The website casts doubt on the effectiveness of the vaccine and amplifies rare instances of so-called "vaccine injury" while simultaneously claiming the CDC is manipulating real-world data which indicates the vaccine is safe.

Posts from Mr Kennedy's charity 'shared more often than news sources'

Research from Indiana University's Observatory on Social Media, which tracks vaccine-related content on Twitter, shows that posts from the Children's Health Defense website are now being shared more often on the platform than mainstream news sources. Analysis of tweets using the word "vaccine" shows more shares to the Children's Health Defense website than any other site in the last week. It has twice as many shares than the CDC, indicating the scale of the problem for those trying to combat misinformation around the COVID vaccine. "Robert F Kennedy Jr is probably the most notorious and leading anti-vaxxer in the United States right now," Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, told Sky News. "He's really rocketed up the league table because he's taken advantage of that Kennedy name to draw in people from both sides of the political aisle of the political spectrum. "And what he's been able to do is soften the messaging, bring some sophistication to the messaging, which is just old-fashioned nonsense that vaccines harm you, or they cause other diseases."

Growing donations to Mr Kennedy's charity

Donations to Children's Health Defense have increased exponentially, too. Filings with charity regulators show revenue more than doubled in 2020, to $6.8m (£5m). According to tax filings, Kennedy's was paid $255,000 (£212,000) by Children's Health Defense in 2019 and $345,561 (£257,775) in 2020, an increase of more than $90,000 (about £67,000). Asked by Sky News if he was profiting from a public health crisis, Mr Kennedy said: "If you're worried about somebody profiting from a public health crisis, you should be getting Pfizer or you should be investigating Moderna and the Silicon Valley billionaires. "I've given all of my book profits to the charity, so this has cost me, it is the opposite of profits for me personally. "I've given almost a million dollars in profits to the charity, so I have a dramatic net loss."

Mr Kennedy says he is 'saving lives'

When asked if he was putting lives at risk by amplifying misinformation around the COVID vaccine, Mr Kennedy bristled and said: "I know we are saving people's lives, and we're saving democracy because children should not be getting this vaccine." He also said he did not believe that in some hospital COVID wards, up to 99% of patients were unvaccinated. At a rally in Washington DC this month opposing vaccine mandates, Mr Kennedy Jr compared COVID-19 vaccine requirements in the US to conditions in Nazi Germany and said people living under Nazi rule "could hide in an attic, like Anne Frank did". He later apologised for his comments and his wife, the actress Cheryl Hines, condemned the comparison.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Quote
Hairball
At a rally in Washington DC this month opposing vaccine mandates, Mr Kennedy Jr compared COVID-19 vaccine requirements in the US to conditions in Nazi Germany and said people living under Nazi rule "could hide in an attic, like Anne Frank did". He later apologised for his comments and his wife, the actress Cheryl Hines, condemned the comparison.

Very sad to see the Kennedy name besmirched in this way. Even his own wife disavows him with those comments.

Quote
daspyknows

Quote
treaclefingers

Quote
daspyknows
I had it twice. Once before vaccines, once this month. This month was a minor cold, unvaxxed I was lucky not to die. I take my personal experience as being more applicable. It also corresponds with statistics. The dead people and those in ICUs are more likely to be unvaccinated. Those who don't believe in math and science don't believe vaccines work.

My family doctor was intubated for a month, and survived. This was before the vaccines were even available.

I had a high school friend, unvaxxed, die. I know of other people with bad outcomes but these are the two I'm most directly connected to. I'm triple vaxxed now and my jurisdiction I believe has 94% over the age of 12 double vaxxed, or something close to that number.

I do think were it not for the vaccine not only would we be in total lockdown, but that I would know great numbers of people that didn't make it, or had long COVID.

Agreed. Since the vaccines became available I know of lots of folks and their acquaintances who caught it. Only one person I know of who was vaccinated had to go to the hospital for a night. She has asthma and other health issues. I know quite a few deaths and long hospitalizations. The only thing in common was they were all unvaccinated. No most, ALL. The ages ranged from late 20's on up. Some left young children behind. That's the sad thing.

I think it's pretty clear the differences in our experiences are probably do to our proximity to the percentage of people remaining unvaxxed. And regarding children, I've always thought that was the worst, children being negatively impacted by the ignorance of their caretakers.

THE AUSTRALIAN --- 31 January 2022



ROCKMAN

Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau has now tested positive, after being in isolation since Thursday after one of his kids tested positive.

What We Can Learn From How the 1918 Pandemic Ended (New York Times Jan 31, 2022)

Most histories of the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed at least 50 million people worldwide say it ended in the summer of 1919 when a third wave of the respiratory contagion finally subsided.

Yet the virus continued to kill. A variant that emerged in 1920 was lethal enough that it should have counted as a fourth wave. In some cities, among them Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Kansas City, Mo., deaths exceeded even those in the second wave, responsible for most of the pandemic’s deaths in the United States. This occurred despite the fact that the U.S. population had plenty of natural immunity from the influenza virus after two years of several waves of infection and after viral lethality in the third wave had already decreased.

Nearly all cities in the United States imposed restrictions during the pandemic’s virulent second wave, which peaked in the fall of 1918. That winter, some cities reimposed controls when a third, though less deadly wave struck. But virtually no city responded in 1920. People were weary of influenza, and so were public officials. Newspapers were filled with frightening news about the virus, but no one cared. People at the time ignored this fourth wave; so did historians. The virus mutated into ordinary seasonal influenza in 1921, but the world had moved on well before.

Bjornulf

What Would Happen if Rich Countries Gave Away Half Their COVID-19 Vaccines?

COVID19

New research gives a stark warning to richer nations that have been hoarding their supplies of COVID-19 vaccines: Doing so only has a short-term local benefit, and in the longer term leaves everyone more vulnerable to infection. Across a five-year model, scientists found that when rich countries gave away 46 percent of their COVID-19 vaccine supply to low and middle-income countries (LMICs), it not only reduced the death rate in those countries but also reduced the risk of new virus strains appearing. In addition, the sharing of vaccines also limited the number of waves of the pandemic, according to the modeling. Right now, high-income countries (HICs) have access to most of the available vaccine supply, and are looking to prioritize getting their own populations vaccinated – but as the Delta and Omicron variants have shown, no-one is safe until everyone is safe. "Our results show that vaccine inequity provides only limited and short-term benefits to HICs," the researchers write in their paper ( Research). "Sharper disparities in vaccine allocation between HICs and LMICs lead to earlier and larger outbreaks of new waves. Equitable vaccine allocation strategies, in contrast, substantially curb the spread of new strains."

The researchers looked at data including the global movement of people, vaccine efficacy, and viral evolutionary dynamics to see how different vaccine distribution patterns would work – including examining scenarios where vaccines were hoarded compared against when they were shared. While HICs initially see a positive trend from hoarding – in terms of reducing the prevalence of COVID-19 infections and the cumulative mortality rate – the delay in vaccinations in other countries simply prolongs the pandemic. As well as leading to more deaths in LMICs, this means more time for reinfection, a greater possibility of future waves, and more time for the SARS-CoV-2 virus to develop new strains and reinfect already vaccinated populations. High-income countries can't protect themselves from those problems crossing their borders, even with a highly vaccinated population. In the end, not sharing vaccines ends up costing more in terms of fighting infections and keeping people healthy. "Many researchers and public health experts have warned of the negative consequences of global vaccine inequity," the researchers explain. "Pandemics know no borders, and the public health and economic costs of inequitable vaccine allocation will be borne by all countries in the end."

If people need even more convincing, we've already seen from studies carried out with influenza spread that when vaccines are shared between countries, everybody involved benefits from reduced infection rates. By the end of 2021, 31 different vaccines had been approved by at least one country worldwide, with some 9 billion doses administered (that's around 116 doses for every 100 people on the planet). It's been shown that a strong vaccine response to COVID-19 is possible – but it has to apply everywhere. Inevitably there is some educated guesswork in modeling like this – it's hard to predict how quickly countries will get people vaccinated, or how stable the supply of drugs will be – but the figures are clear that recovering from the pandemic needs to be a global, cooperative effort from this point on. "Vaccine donations by high income countries could protect both high income and low income countries," the researchers conclude. "It is in high income countries' rational self-interests to share vaccines with low income countries before vaccinating their entire population."

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Quote
bv
What We Can Learn From How the 1918 Pandemic Ended (New York Times Jan 31, 2022)

Most histories of the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed at least 50 million people worldwide say it ended in the summer of 1919 when a third wave of the respiratory contagion finally subsided.

Yet the virus continued to kill. A variant that emerged in 1920 was lethal enough that it should have counted as a fourth wave. In some cities, among them Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Kansas City, Mo., deaths exceeded even those in the second wave, responsible for most of the pandemic’s deaths in the United States. This occurred despite the fact that the U.S. population had plenty of natural immunity from the influenza virus after two years of several waves of infection and after viral lethality in the third wave had already decreased.

Nearly all cities in the United States imposed restrictions during the pandemic’s virulent second wave, which peaked in the fall of 1918. That winter, some cities reimposed controls when a third, though less deadly wave struck. But virtually no city responded in 1920. People were weary of influenza, and so were public officials. Newspapers were filled with frightening news about the virus, but no one cared. People at the time ignored this fourth wave; so did historians. The virus mutated into ordinary seasonal influenza in 1921, but the world had moved on well before.

This explanation says it all. For instance, “at least 50 million” and “ignored this fourth wave”. It’s about the survival of the human race and nothing more. All our individual opinions (whether emotional, hate-filled, scientifically valid, etc.) don’t really matter. As an individual you have many options to stay “safe” (washing hands, wearing masks, keeping distance, isolate, etc.), but when your body is bound to get destroyed by a virus or bacteria it will happen eventually. So in the end the strong survive as does the human race. Thanks to vaccins even somewhat less strong people can also survive, indirectly it adds up to weakening of that same human race over a longer period of time allowing a next pandemic to surface. And everything starts again “from scratch”.
So the only thing the human race as a whole needs to worry about is how to protect itself from the dangers coming out of space, really. There is our fate. Yours and mine are only important to you and me as long as we are around.



I'm a GHOST living in a ghost town

We are not that much worried about the virus anymore, but the Norwegian medal candidates on their way to the olympics in Beijing China yesterday took every possible precaution in order to avoid a positive covid-19 test result. Wearing masks and googles or glasses, the nation rely on the stars arriving safe and sound for the competitions.

KLÆBO OG IVERSEN BESKYTTET SEG MED BRILLER FØR OL-AVREISE (VG Feb 1, 2022)

English:

Monday evening, a charter aircraft took off from Gardermoen/Oslo, where, among others, Norwegian cross-country skiers, alpinists, combined skijump<7crosscountry, and ski jumpers were on board the aircraft.

The men's national team in cross-country skiing is among those who travel, where Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is the biggest star. Inside the airport, he and Emil Iversen were both photographed with glasses, where especially the glasses of Høsflot Klæbo covered large parts of the face.



Bjornulf



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2022-02-01 13:55 by bv.

So, an unvaxxed athlete suffers cardiac arrest and the vaccine is blamed for it. Utter nonsense.


How the falsehood of athletes dying from covid vaccines spread
Glenn Kessler
,
The Washington Post
Feb. 1, 2022

[www.sfgate.com]

Quote
daspyknows
So, an unvaxxed athlete suffers cardiac arrest and the vaccine is blamed for it. Utter nonsense.


How the falsehood of athletes dying from covid vaccines spread
Glenn Kessler
,
The Washington Post
Feb. 1, 2022

[www.sfgate.com]

With 'freedom of speech' seems to come 'freedom to completely lie'.

I don't appreciate this freedom 'side effect' but not sure how you can address it appropriately. It's frankly pretty disgusting, particularly as people taken in by the lies can end up dying.

It reminds me of the fraud perpetrated on the elderly. At least there are laws against this...not sure why they can't figure out how to address this.

Covid vaccine refusal removes Boston patient from heart transplant waitlist. As it should. (NBC News Jan 31, 2022)

Hospitals rightly place considerable importance on which recipients are likely to live longer and better.

D.J. Ferguson, a 31-year-old father of two children with a third on the way, was lying near death at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston last week. He was waiting for a heart transplant, and his failing heart put him high on the transplant eligibility list. But then the hospital removed him from the list because he is not vaccinated against Covid-19. As tragic as this is likely to be for Ferguson and his family, we think the hospital made the right decision.

Organs are always in very short supply, forcing hospitals and transplant teams to decide who gets them. Hospitals rightly place considerable importance on which recipients are likely to live longer and better, preventing the waste of a precious resource and building trust that transplantation processes are consistent, reasonable and fair. The likelihood of transplant success is based, in part, on transplant candidates’ susceptibility to infections — an important cause of death after heart transplants. Ferguson’s decision not to get vaccinated against Covid makes him more susceptible to such infections.

Bjornulf

Quote
daspyknows
So, an unvaxxed athlete suffers cardiac arrest and the vaccine is blamed for it. Utter nonsense.


How the falsehood of athletes dying from covid vaccines spread
Glenn Kessler
,
The Washington Post
Feb. 1, 2022

[www.sfgate.com]

Anyone using VAERS or quoting VAERS is not to be believed.

That article is astounding! In this era of information it's stupefying how misinformation is king.

Hospitals refused to treat toddler because his parents were unvaccinated

COVID19

ATHENS — The case of a 3-year-old boy from Cyprus who was initially denied treatment in foreign hospitals because his parents were unvaccinated has raised concerns about whether doctors should be allowed to turn away patients. After three countries refused to treat the boy, he is now in Greece awaiting surgery. The boy, who has not been named, was hospitalized with serious heart disease. As Cypriot hospitals were unable to perform the necessary procedure, the health ministry arranged for the boy to be taken by air ambulance to Germany last Thursday. However, the day before the transfer was supposed to take place, the hospital in Frankfurt informed the Cypriot authorities that it would not be going ahead because the boy's parents had not had the COVID-19 vaccine. Cyprus suggested that the child could be accompanied by a legal guardian instead of his parents but this suggestion was turned down.

A German health ministry official confirmed there is no rule that says hospitals cannot treat unvaccinated people, let alone children whose parents are not vaccinated. However, the official added that each hospital has its own restrictions and makes its own arrangements with patients.“Health policies — including vaccination policies — and their concrete implementation are the responsibility of the member states, not the Commission,” said a spokesperson for the European Commission's health department. The Cypriot authorities tried to get specialized health centers in the United Kingdom and Israel to perform the operation but were turned down for the same reason given by Germany. However, the child was airlifted to neighboring Greece on Saturday and will get the operation at a private hospital in Athens, according to the Cypriot health ministry’s director general, Christina Yiannaki.

The parents were both vaccinated on Thursday, but they would still have to wait six weeks before being accepted by the foreign hospitals and the child has to be operated upon immediately. "I know that unvaccinated patients are admitted to hospitals in Germany,” said the boy's father, Alexey Matveev, a Russian national living in Cyprus. “I didn't know that I had to be vaccinated for my child being to be operated on in that hospital. If I knew it of course I would have done it ... I am healthy and did not want to be vaccinated. I find it inappropriate for someone who is healthy to be vaccinated." Yiannaki said the parents had been informed ahead of time of the need for vaccination. Cypriot officials said they had suggested the parents get the single dose J&J vaccine, to speed up the process, but they refused. Matveev rejected that claim, and said they had received the Pfizer vaccine on the advice of the German medical center. The child had another operation in the summer, but only a PCR test was then required for the parents to accompany him, according to Avraam Elia, director of the pediatrics clinic in Makarios hospital, where the child was hospitalized. Cypriot authorities have said they warned the parents that the rules could change and that vaccination might be required.

The case of the toddler highlights the ethical issue of whether doctors should turn away unvaccinated patients or, in this case, unvaccinated parents. A hospital in Boston in the U.S. rejected a 31-year-old patient for a heart transplant at least in part because he is not vaccinated against coronavirus, his father said. Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston took DJ Ferguson off their transplant list, saying in a statement to the BBC that because of a shortage of available organs, they have to do everything they can “to ensure that a patient who receives a transplanted organ has the greatest chance of survival.”

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Norway are removing most of the covid-19 rules and regulations as of today Tuesday Feb 1 at 11pm.

Bjornulf

This thread was started almost two years ago, on February 28, 2020. I have spent hours every day moderating covid-19 related posts here and in other threads on IORR ever since. Now it is time to move on.

Vaccine is available to people. It is saving lives. Most people will get the Omicron variant within 2-6 months. In Norway they say as many as 60% to 80% of the population might get Omicron by summertime.

Omicron is not as fatal as earlier covid-19 variants. Life will go back to more normal during the next month or so. Large concerts with 50,000+ crowds will be allowed more and more places in Europe.

Thanks to everyone who posted here over the past two years.

This thread is now closed.

Bjornulf