What does MPP Randy Hillier and a disgraced virologist have in common? Mental health issues and the false promise of herd immunity for COVID-19.
A major threat to public health: Herd mentality.
Herd mentality, mob mentality and pack mentality, also lesser known as gang mentality, describes how people can be influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors on a largely emotional, rather than rational, basis.
The bandwagon effect is a psychological phenomenon in which people do something primarily because other people are doing it, regardless of their own beliefs, which they may ignore or override. This tendency of people to align their beliefs and behaviors with those of a group is also called a herd mentality.
Bullying, Social Psychology, and Mob Mentality
https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/Kim-Social-Psychology-and-Mob-Mentality
https://www.quora.com/How-are-bullying-and-mob-mentality-related
Three Faces of Bullying: Workplace bullying, children bullying, and mobbing are not the same.
It is important to understand the psychological and social factors that differentiate bullying from mobbing. Bullying is a form of interpersonal aggression in which one person, who may or may not be in a position of influence or power, abuses one or a few individuals. Mobbing involves a group of people, acting under the influence of someone in a position of organizational leadership, who become increasingly aggressive and increase in number until the targeted worker is removed from the group or completely disempowered. Importantly, once mobbing commences, the instigator almost always retreats, confident that the aggression of the group will be sufficiently destructive, while removing him or herself from responsibility for the aggression.
Mobbing is not the same as being disliked by a lot of people. Mobbing starts when someone in a position of organizational leadership communicates to the workforce that they want a particular worker gone. When this happens, the workforce will be encouraged to report the unwanted worker for any infraction, real or rumored, and they quickly learn that any adversarial action taken against the worker is acceptable. They will also quickly mobilize to protect their own interests, align with management, and recast the worker as a trouble maker who must be removed from the workplace—but most will do so under the genuine perception that it is the targeted worker who is the problem, and not the instigating aggressor.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beyond-bullying/201303/three-faces-bullying
MPP Randy Hillier encourages shaming people who wear masks..
https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/10340090-mpp-randy-hillier-encourages-shaming-people-who-wear-masks/
Shaming is an ugly practice that is born out of individuals’ desires to punish others through vigilante or mob justice.
It is designed to cause damage to people’s self-image or sense of self-worth. And it has not been shown to be effective in creating true behavioral change in either the target of the practice or bystanders.
Shaming should not be tolerated as acceptable behavior in a healthy community nor should it be used as a means of guiding the direction of a community.
https://www.historyhit.com/hitlers-bullyboys-the-role-of-the-sa-in-nazi-germany/
https://github.community/t/shaming-and-why-it-is-inappropriate/10229
WHY DO THE LOCKDOWNS KEEP HAPPENING? BECAUSE STUPID WON'T WEAR A MASK. CAUSE AND EFFECT.
‘A slap in the face to small businesses’: No More Lockdowns event to be hosted at Kemptville restaurant April 8
UPDATE: North Grenville Mayor Nancy Peckford and Council have issued a statement regarding the event.
https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/10368453--a-slap-in-the-face-to-small-businesses-no-more-lockdowns-event-to-be-hosted-at-kemptville-restaurant-april-8/
https://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-kravetz-herd-mentality-1011-20201011-bkvxarhaxvbz7i64wrf64ltyky-story.html
https://www.bestvalueschools.com/faq/what-is-crowd-psychology/
https://ylhsthewrangler.com/14811/features/herd-mentality-related-to-bullying/
https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/mob-mentality-fuels-culture-of-bullying/1274757/
https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/Kim-Social-Psychology-and-Mob-Mentality
https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/5c1259dd374161001bf11137/bullying-mob-mentality-assessment
ANTI-MASKERS IN 1918 HAD ALL THE SAME IRRATIONAL WORRIES, FEARS AND CONCERNS TODAY'S ANTI-MASKERS HAVE AND ALL THOSE WORRIES, FEARS AND CONCERNS PROVED TO BE UNFOUNDED, COMPLETELY UNJUSTIFIED AND TOTALLY WRONG... (see more below)
ONTARIO: MPP Randy Hillier defies COVID-19 guidelines once again, despite stay-at-home order
https://www.orilliamatters.com/around-ontario/ontario-mpp-randy-hillier-defies-covid-19-guidelines-once-again-despite-stay-at-home-order-3362712
https://westernstandardonline.com/2021/02/end-the-lockdown-caucus-gaining-steam/
https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/timmins-grad-student-designs-covid-info-site-to-dispel-misinformation-1.5304849
Randy Hillier issues statement on controversial tweet about minister's experience with racism, doesn't apologize
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/randy-hillier-issues-statement-on-controversial-tweet-about-minister-s-experience-with-racism-doesn-t-apologize-1.4969440
I think the government has the right to mandate masks as it effects everyone not just the anti-maskers.
We don't allow indoor public smoking because of the potential health impact to non-smokers and no one but maybe a few smokers have ever had a problem with that..
The Integrity Commissioner is an Officer of the Ontario Legislative Assembly who is independent of government and political parties.
The Office of the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario was established in 1988 to encourage high standards of ethical conduct for Members of Provincial Parliament. The Office has established itself as an independent ethics leader, working to encourage and support high ethical standards that strengthen trust and confidence in the Ontario government.
http://www.oico.on.ca/
Anti-maskers then and now: The 2020 COVID pandemic vs. the 1918 Spanish Flu
https://kulturehub.com/anti-maskers-2020-1918/
The Mask Slackers of 1918.. As the influenza pandemic swept across the United States in 1918 and 1919, masks took a role in political and cultural wars.
https://www.history.com/news/1918-spanish-flu-mask-wearing-resistance
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/us/mask-protests-1918.html
'Mask slackers' existed during the 1918 flu pandemic, too
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/mask-slackers-existed-during-the-1918-flu-pandemic-too-1.5066330
Protesting During A Pandemic Isn’t New: Meet The Anti-Mask League Of 1918...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasmith/2020/04/29/protesting-during-a-pandemic-isnt-new-meet-the-anti-mask-league/?sh=56bb482a12f9
https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/local/2020/07/19/what-can-we-learn-from-1918-spanish-flu-and-last-centuryrsquos-anti-maskers/42231329/
https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/08/03/anti-mask-sentiment-goes-back-100-years-to-spanish-flu-pandemic/
https://theconversation.com/mask-resistance-during-a-pandemic-isnt-new-in-1918-many-americans-were-slackers-141687
As the world of the 21st century struggles to rein in the COVID-19 pandemic, many public health officials are looking back at other pandemics for insights that could help shorten and mitigate this crisis. Although there have been many pandemics including the Black Death, HIV, and cholera, the one that historians most often point to is the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.
Both the SARS-CoV-2 and the H1N1 viruses were new to human populations which means that there was no natural immunity to them. This partially explains why the fatality rates of both diseases were significantly higher than seasonal influenza and coronavirus outbreaks.
Like the current pandemic, the 1918 flu had multiple waves—although the current situation is still developing, it is likely to mimic other pandemics. The 1918 pandemic appeared almost simultaneously in the U.S., Europe and Asia before sweeping through the global population. This initial wave in the spring of 1918 was mild with most people recovering from infection.
A second wave followed in the fall of the same year, but with far more lethality. Instead of recovering, many of the infected this time died within hours or days. The most common cause of death was fluid filling the lungs due to secondary infections like pneumonia.
Many researchers believe that a similar mechanism is at work in COVID-19 patients. Like the 1918 flu, COVID-19 produces a massive release of immune proteins called cytokines. This “cytokine storm” primarily targets lung tissue which dies as a result. The resulting condition is pneumonia often followed by oxygen deprivation and death.
There are also some similarities between influenza and COVID-19, including their nearly identical symptoms: fever, coughing, night sweats, body aches, tiredness, and nausea and diarrhea in the most severe cases.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-one-remarkable-difference-between-covid-19-and-the-1918-spanish-flu-2020-07-07
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/940788
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-and-the-spanish-flu-comparing-two-lethal-pandemics-separated-by-a-century-1.4937256
South Frontenac council votes to denounce Randy Hillier over COVID-19 rhetoric...
At a council meeting on March 16, South Frontenac councilors voted unanimously to denounce the independent MPP, who has spent the last year railing against COVID-19 policies in Ontario.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7739701/randy-hillier-holocaust-tweet-covid-19/
https://youtu.be/E8snuey09wc
https://globalnews.ca/news/7713978/south-frontenac-denounce-randy-hillier-covid-19/
MPP Randy Hillier encourages shaming people who wear masks..
https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/10340090-mpp-randy-hillier-encourages-shaming-people-who-wear-masks/
Shaming is an ugly practice that is born out of individuals’ desires to punish others through vigilante or mob justice.
It is designed to cause damage to people’s self-image or sense of self-worth. And it has not been shown to be effective in creating true behavioral change in either the target of the practice or bystanders.
Shaming should not be tolerated as acceptable behavior in a healthy community nor should it be used as a means of guiding the direction of a community.
https://www.historyhit.com/hitlers-bullyboys-the-role-of-the-sa-in-nazi-germany/
https://github.community/t/shaming-and-why-it-is-inappropriate/10229
'Reckless and irresponsible:' Smiths Falls council condemns MPP Randy Hillier's conduct surrounding COVID-19
Censure of how Hillier has handled the pandemic comes as COVID-19 cases spike
https://ottawa.citynews.ca/valley-news/town-of-smiths-falls-votes-to-condemn-covid-19-rule-breaking-by-area-mpp-3574460
Group of doctors signs open letter to MPP Randy Hillier denouncing COVID-19 misinformation..
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/group-of-doctors-signs-open-letter-to-mpp-randy-hillier-denouncing-covid-19-misinformation-1.5239500
Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston's lunatic MPP Randy Hillier is renting out a Kemptville restaurant to host a public "No More Lockdowns Canada" event on Thursday, April 8.
The South Branch Bistro will be the location of a video shoot for a No More Lockdowns commercial featuring Hillier.
The event details were shared by No More Lockdowns Canada on April 7, describing Premier Doug Ford’s third lockdown as “harmful and unlawful.”
“During the province’s lockdowns, we have seen businesses forced to shut their doors for good, with some barely hanging on,” states the press release. “We support any business who has the courage to open against these harmful lockdowns to help support their families and the people under their employ. We hope to see many at the rally in support.”
The organization says it is committed to ending lockdowns, and that “many more rallies” will be hosted at these businesses.
South Branch Bistro owner Shelley Stinson says all regular health and safety protocols will be followed within and outside of the restaurant during the event, while customers are encouraged to enjoy takeout on the patio and live music by Ken Armstrong.
“I’m trying to take a stand to say I’m sorry, but I don’t trust you anymore,” Stinson said of public health directives. “They can’t push us around anymore. We have the right to make a living.”
Stinson says the province’s most recent lockdown announcement, taking effect Thursday, April 8 at 12:01 a.m., is “like a slap in the face to small businesses” — especially the restaurants that have had no cases, where health protocols have been followed since day one.
“We feel that it’s time to take a stand. We want to be here for another five years, but that won’t be possible if we keep getting shut down.”
Stinson says her staff members have families to feed, and that they have carefully followed all public health directives over the past year to keep customers safe.
https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/10368453--a-slap-in-the-face-to-small-businesses-no-more-lockdowns-event-to-be-hosted-at-kemptville-restaurant-april-8/
What does MPP Randy Hillier and a disgraced virologist have in common? Mental health issues...
The false promise of herd immunity for COVID-19.
Why proposals to largely let the virus run its course — embraced by Donald Trump’s administration and others — could bring “untold death and suffering”.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02948-4
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00728-2
"Surrendering to the virus” is not a defensible plan, says Kristian Andersen, an immunologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Such an approach would lead to a catastrophic loss of human lives without necessarily speeding up society’s return to normal, he says. “We have never successfully been able to do it before, and it will lead to unacceptable and unnecessary untold human death and suffering.”
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/12/17/natural-herd-immunity-should-not-be-used-as-a-means-of-pandemic-control/
https://www.path.org/articles/understanding-journey-herd-immunity/
Debunking the Myth of Non-Vaccine Herd Immunity in COVID-19
https://intermountainhealthcare.org/blogs/topics/covid-19/2020/11/debunking-the-myth-of-non-vaccine-herd-immunity-in-covid-19/
A disgraced scientist and a viral video: how a Covid conspiracy theory started..
In Plandemic Dr Judy Mikovits blames coronavirus outbreak on a ‘circular cabal’ led by Bill Gates, accuses Dr Fauci of burying her research and says wearing a mask ‘activates your own virus’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/coronavirus-viral-video-plandemic-judy-mikovits-conspiracy-theories
Fact-checking Judy Mikovits, the controversial virologist attacking Anthony Fauci in a viral conspiracy video.
In a video that has exploded on social media in the past few days, virologist Judy Mikovits claims the new coronavirus is being wrongly blamed for many deaths. She makes head-scratching assertions about the virus—for instance, that it is “activated” by face masks.
Mikovits also accuses Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a prominent member of the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force, of being responsible for the deaths of millions during the early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The video claims Mikovits was part of the team that discovered HIV, revolutionized HIV treatment, and was jailed without charges for her scientific positions.
Science fact-checked the video. None of these claims are true. The video is an excerpt from a forthcoming movie Plandemic, which promises to “expose the scientific and political elite who run the scam that is our global health system.” YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms have taken down the video because of inaccuracies. It keeps resurfacing, including on the Plandemic website, which, in “an effort to bypass the gatekeepers of free speech,” invites people to download the video and repost it.
But first, who is Judy Mikovits?
Mikovits started her career as a lab technician at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1988. She became a scientist and obtained a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from George Washington University in 1991. By 2009, she was research director at the Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI), a private research center in Reno, Nevada, but she remained largely unknown to the scientific community. That year, however, she co-authored a paper in Science that suggested an obscure agent named xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) caused chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
The cause of CFS, also called myalgic encephalomyelitis, had long remained elusive, and the disease had been neglected by science. The study created hope that CFS might become treatable with antivirals. Some patients even began to take antiretroviral drugs used by HIV-infected people. But the paper also created worries that XMRV might spread via the blood supply.
Other researchers soon questioned the findings, and over the next 2 years, the paper’s claims fell apart. Researchers showed that XMRV was created accidentally in the lab during mouse experiments; it may never have infected any humans. The authors first retracted two figures and a table from the paper in October 2011. Around the same time, a study by several labs, including WPI itself, showed the findings couldn’t be replicated.
Two months later, the entire Science paper was retracted. Mikovits refused to sign the retraction notice, but she took part in another major replication effort. That $2.3 million study, led by Ian Lipkin of Columbia University and funded by the National Institutes of Health, was “the definitive answer,” Mikovits said at a September 2012 press conference where the results were announced. The rigorous study looked for XMRV in blinded blood samples from nearly 300 people, half of whom had the disease, and none had the virus. “There is no evidence that XMRV is a human pathogen,” Mikovits conceded.
Science’s news department, which works independently from its editorial side, followed the saga closely and published a detailed reconstruction of the fiasco in September 2011. (The story won a Communications Award from the American Society for Microbiology.)
Around the same time, Mikovits had an explosive breakup with WPI. The institute filed suit against her in November 2011 for allegedly removing laboratory notebooks and keeping other proprietary information on her laptop, on flash drives, and in a personal email account. She was arrested in California on felony charges that she was a fugitive from justice and jailed for several days. Prosecutors in Washoe county, Nevada, eventually dropped criminal charges against her in June 2012.
Mikovits has not published anything in the scientific literature since 2012. But she soon began to promote the XMRV hypothesis again, and attack the Lipkin study that she agreed had put the issue to rest. She has weighed in on the autism debate with controversial theories about causes and treatments. Her discredited work and her legal travails have made her a martyr in the eyes of some.
Now comes a new book she co-authored, Plague of Corruption: Restoring Faith in the Promise of Science—billed as “a behind the scenes look at the issues and egos which will determine the future health of humanity”—and the viral video, which is an extended interview with Mikovits.
Science asked Mikovits for an interview for this article. She responded by sending an empty email with, as attachments, a copy of her new book and a PowerPoint of a 2019 presentation titled “Persecution and Coverup.”
Below are some of the video’s main claims and allegations, along with the facts.
Interviewer: Dr. Judy Mikovits has been called one of the most accomplished scientists of her generation.
Mikovits had authored 40 scientific papers and wasn’t widely known in the scientific community before she published the 2009 Science paper claiming a link between a new retrovirus and CFS. The paper was later proven erroneous and retracted.
Interviewer: Her 1991 doctoral thesis revolutionized the treatment of HIV/AIDS.
Mikovits’s Ph.D. thesis, “Negative Regulation of HIV Expression in Monocytes,” had no discernible impact on the treatment of HIV/AIDS.
Interviewer: At the height of her career, Dr. Mikovits published a blockbuster article in the journal Science. The controversial article sent shock waves through the scientific community, as it revealed that the common use of animal and human fetal tissues was unleashing devastating plagues of chronic diseases.
The paper revealed nothing of the sort; it only claimed to show a link between one condition, CFS, and a mouse retrovirus.
Mikovits: I was held in jail, with no charges.
The district attorney in Washoe county, Nevada, filed a criminal complaint against Mikovits that charged her with illegally taking computer data and related property from WPI. The charges were dropped, in part because of legal troubles faced by her former employer.
Mikovits: Heads of our entire HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] colluded and destroyed my reputation and the Department of Justice and the [Federal Bureau of Investigation] sat on it, and kept that case under seal.
Mikovits has presented no direct evidence that HHS heads colluded against her.
Mikovits: [Fauci] directed the cover-up. And in fact, everybody else was paid off, and paid off big time, millions of dollars in funding from Tony Fauci and … the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. These investigators that committed the fraud, continue to this day to be paid big time by the NIAID.
It’s not clear which fraud and what cover-up Mikovits is talking about exactly. There is no evidence that Fauci was involved in a cover-up or that anyone was paid off with funding from him or his institute. No one has been charged with fraud in relation to Mikovits’s allegations.
Mikovits: It started really when I was 25 years old, and I was part of the team that isolated HIV from the saliva and blood of the patients from France where [virologist Luc] Montagnier had originally isolated the virus. … Fauci holds up the publication of the paper for several months while Robert Gallo writes his own paper and takes all the credit, and of course patents are involved. This delay of the confirmation, you know, literally led to spreading the virus around, you know, killing millions.
At the time of HIV’s discovery, Mikovits was a lab technician in Francis Ruscetti’s lab at NCI and had yet to receive her Ph.D. There is no evidence that she was part of the team that first isolated the virus. Her first published paper, co-authored with Ruscetti, was on HIV and published in May 1986, 2 years after Science published four landmark papers that linked HIV (then called HTLV-III by Gallo’s lab) to AIDS. Ruscetti’s first paper on HIV appeared in August 1985. There is no evidence that Fauci held up any publications or that this led to the death of millions.
Interviewer: If we activate mandatory vaccines globally, I imagine these people stand to make hundreds of billions of dollars that own the vaccines.
Mikovits: And they’ll kill millions, as they already have with their vaccines. There is no vaccine currently on the schedule for any RNA virus that works.
Vaccines have not killed millions; they have saved millions of lives. Many vaccines that work against RNA viruses are on the market, including for influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, rabies, yellow fever, and Ebola.
Interviewer: So, I have to ask you, are you antivaccine?
Mikovits: Oh, absolutely not. In fact vaccine is immune therapy, just like interferon alpha is immune therapy, so I’m not antivaccine. My job is to develop immune therapies. That’s what vaccines are.
In another recent video, Mikovits is wearing a hat that says VAXXED II, which is a sequel to a film that links the mumps, measles, and rubella vaccine to autism, a debunked theory. She also repeats several claims made by people who are leading the antivaccine movement. In the PowerPoint presentation she sent to Science, she calls for an “immediate moratorium” on all vaccines.
Interviewer: Do you believe that this virus [SARS-CoV-2] was created in the laboratory?
Mikovits: I wouldn’t use the word created. But you can’t say naturally occurring if it was by way of the laboratory. So it’s very clear this virus was manipulated. This family of viruses was manipulated and studied in a laboratory where the animals were taken into the laboratory, and this is what was released, whether deliberate or not. That cannot be naturally occurring. Somebody didn’t go to a market, get a bat, the virus didn’t jump directly to humans. That’s not how it works. That’s accelerated viral evolution. If it was a natural occurrence, it would take up to 800 years to occur.
Scientific estimates suggest the closest virus to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is a bat coronavirus identified by the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Its “distance” in evolutionary time to SARS-CoV-2 is about 20 to 80 years. There is no evidence this bat virus was manipulated.
Interviewer: And do you have any ideas of where this occurred?
Mikovits: Oh yeah, I’m sure it occurred between the North Carolina laboratories, Fort Detrick, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, and the Wuhan laboratory.
There is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 originated at WIV. NIAID’s funding of a U.S. group that works with the Wuhan lab has been stopped, which outraged many scientists.
Mikovits: Italy has a very old population. They’re very sick with inflammatory disorders. They got at the beginning of 2019 an untested new form of influenza vaccine that had four different strains of influenza, including the highly pathogenic H1N1. That vaccine was grown in a cell line, a dog cell line. Dogs have lots of coronaviruses.
There is no evidence that links any influenza vaccine, or a dog coronavirus, to Italy’s COVID-19 epidemic.
Mikovits: Wearing the mask literally activates your own virus. You’re getting sick from your own reactivated coronavirus expressions, and if it happens to be SARS-CoV-2, then you’ve got a big problem.
It’s not clear what Mikovits means by “coronavirus expressions.” There is no evidence that wearing a mask can activate viruses and make people sick.
Mikovits: Why would you close the beach? You’ve got sequences in the soil, in the sand. You’ve got healing microbes in the ocean in the salt water. That’s insanity.
It’s not clear what Mikovits means by sand or soil “sequences.” There is no evidence that microbes in the ocean can heal COVID-19 patients.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/fact-checking-judy-mikovits-controversial-virologist-attacking-anthony-fauci-viral
Point-by-Point 'Plandemic' Smackdown — "Dr. Mike" dissects the viral video.
Following is a rough transcript of his video rebuttal of the documentary "Plandemic," by filmmaker Mikki Willis and featuring controversial virologist Judy Mikovits. Owing to its length and MedPage Today staff constraints, this transcript has not been edited or proofed.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/86487
https://findadoctor.atlantichealth.org/provider/Mikhail+Varshavski/639510?unified=Mikhail%20Varshavski%2C%20DO&sort=networks%2Crelevance
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/08/plandemic-judy-mikovits-coronavirus/
How a Bizarre Claim About Masks Has Lived on for Months
Why the wrong idea that wearing a mask can harm your health has lived on through multiple debunking's.
When i first waded into the latest mask conspiracy theory, I was literally wading.
About a month ago, I was in my local pool when I overheard a middle-aged woman in the next lane whisper it to her friend, in the way you vaguely assert something that you’re pretty sure is true but don’t fully understand. “Masks don’t even do anything,” she said. “In fact, they can make you sicker. Because you’re breathing in all the ... stuff ... you breathe out.”
“OK Boomer,” I thought. I dismissed her as a random neighborhood conspiracist and swam my laps.
But then I started to see this false notion appear more frequently on Facebook. It wasn’t the typical argument anti-maskers use, that mask mandates infringe on people’s freedoms. It was that the masks themselves are causing illness. The horror of the idea was apparent even to me: the feds, in their hall-monitor stupidity, forcing you to do something that’s actually bad for you.
Most recently, this surfaced in the form of “copypasta”—a post copied and pasted by many people onto social media, rather than shared as a link—from a purported “OSHA Inspector.” “I have worked in a clean room for 23 years and 10 years on submarines before that,” it reads. The inspector, supposedly from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, goes on to debunk each type of mask. N95s won’t “filter your air on the way out,” so they don’t reduce the risk of catching COVID-19 from someone who has it. Surgical masks, the post claims, are rendered useless by the moisture from your breath and the “amount of particles” on them. Cloth masks, meanwhile, trap carbon dioxide, risking the health of the wearer. “I know, facts suck,” it concludes. “They throw a wrench into the perfectly (seeming) packaged pill you are willingly swallowing.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/10/can-masks-make-you-sicker/616641/
IF YOU'RE YOUNG, PERFECTLY HEALTHY AND HAVE ACCESS TO MODERN DRUGS AND ABUNDANT MEDICAL CARE, HOW DEADLY IS COVID 19 TO YOU? NOT VERY... But patients with underlying conditions were 12 times as likely to die of covid-19 as otherwise healthy people, CDC finds
People with underlying medical conditions such as heart disease and diabetes were hospitalized six times as often as otherwise healthy individuals infected with the novel coronavirus during the first four months of the pandemic, and they died 12 times as often, according to a federal health report Monday.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/06/15/patients-with-underlying-conditions-were-12-times-more-likely-die-covid-19-than-otherwise-healthy-people-cdc-finds/
COVID-19 is a new disease. Currently there are limited data and information about the impact of many underlying medical conditions on the risk for severe illness from COVID-19. Based on what we know at this time, adults of any age with the following conditions might be at an increased risk for severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19:
Asthma (moderate-to-severe)
Cerebrovascular disease (affects blood vessels and blood supply to the brain)
Cystic fibrosis
Hypertension or high blood pressure
Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from blood or bone marrow transplant, immune deficiencies, HIV, use of corticosteroids, or use of other immune weakening medicines
Neurologic conditions, such as dementia
Liver disease
Overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m2, but < 30 kg/m2)
Pulmonary fibrosis (having damaged or scarred lung tissues)
Thalassemia (a type of blood disorder)
Type 1 diabetes mellitus
What we know about COVID-19 and the brain:
Emerging data shows that people who have had a stroke are three times more likely to die from the virus than patients with no underlying conditions.
Many of the risk factors associated with increased risk for stroke are also associated with increased risk of poorer outcomes with COVID-19, including age, high blood pressure and diabetes.5
Stroke survivors who experience swallowing difficulties are at increased risk of food going into the lungs and causing infection (aspiration pneumonia). These people are at higher risk of poorer outcomes with COVID-19.
People living with stroke and vascular cognitive impairment (including dementia) may be especially challenged during this time as they often depend on others to help with their daily needs. People with vascular cognitive impairment are at increased risk of social isolation, and caregivers may also experience increased difficulties.
What we know about COVID-19, smoking and vaping:
If ever there was a time to quit smoking and vaping, it is now.
Any kind of tobacco smoking is harmful to the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.16 People with COVID-19 who have pre-existing cardiovascular and respiratory issues due to tobacco use or otherwise have poorer outcomes.
Smoking is most likely associated with a negative progression and adverse outcomes for COVID-19 patients.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html
2021: New COVID ‘Super Strains’ Could Disrupt Life Again.
Jan. 6, 2021 -- After 10 months of masks, social distancing, virtual school, fear for vulnerable loved ones, and loneliness, this is the news no one wanted to hear: The virus that causes COVID-19 has changed -- once again -- in ways that make it more contagious.
At least one new “super strain” of the virus is already in the U.S. Another highly contagious strain from South Africa could be on its way. As bad as things are now, experts believe these new strains are not responsible for the spike in cases seen in many states as people fall ill after holiday travel.
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210107/new-covid-super-strains-could-disrupt-life-again
Covid variant first found in the U.K. appears to be 64% more deadly than earlier strains, study finds.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/11/covid-variant-in-the-uk-appears-to-be-64percent-more-deadly-than-other-strains-study-finds.html
2020: The pandemic virus is slowly mutating. But is it getting more dangerous? By Kai KupferschmidtJul. 14, 2020 , 5:45 PM
2021: U.K. Coronavirus Variant More Deadly, New Study Confirms.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-10/u-k-coronavirus-variant-more-deadly-new-study-confirms
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-02-15/uk-covid-variant-may-be-more-lethal-and-could-become-dominant-us-strain-by-march
Covid-19 news: UK scientists warn cases are rising in children.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2237475-covid-19-news-uk-scientists-warn-cases-are-rising-in-children/
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/03/experts-3-foot-rule-schools-problematic-light-covid-variants
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/transmission_k_12_schools.html
Virus variant races through Italy, especially among children
Italian health officials say the variant of the coronavirus discovered in Britain is prevalent among the country's infected schoolchildren and warn that the curve of contagion is showing signs of “robust” uptick
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/virus-variant-races-italy-children-76210149
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/us/kids-schools-coronavirus-variant.html
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/02/14/world/covid-19-coronavirus
2021: COVID-19 cases, new syndrome on the rise among children, especially Latino children
https://calmatters.org/health/coronavirus/2021/01/covid-new-syndrome-children/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/02/23/newborn-child-covid-variant-viral-load/
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned lawmakers that the British COVID variant spreading through Germany is more dangerous for young people and children.
"The British mutation ... is proven to be more dangerous in children and young people so we need to put the protection of schools more front and center than with the original virus," she told lawmakers.
Merkel also reversed a plan on Wednesday for an extended Easter holiday shutdown to try to stem a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic after it triggered a fierce backlash.
https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-digest-british-variant-more-dangerous-for-children/a-56966798
What’s the risk of dying from a fast-spreading COVID-19 variant?
Deaths linked to the B.1.1.7 variant are rising, but questions remain about what is causing them.
The news is sobering, but complicated. Scientists have released the data behind a British government warning last week that the fast-spreading SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7 increases the risk of dying from COVID-19 compared with previous variants. But some scientists caution that the latest study — like the government warning — is preliminary and still does not indicate whether the variant is more deadly or is just spreading faster and so reaching greater numbers of vulnerable people.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00299-2
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coronavirus-variant-may-be-more-deadly-1.5884190
COVID-19: What the data shows: Here’s what we know so far about the virus and its impact on the heart and brain.
There is an increased risk of more serious complications from
COVID-19 for people who:
• Have an underlying medical condition such as a heart condition, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, chronic lung disease, or a compromised immune system
• Have risk factors such as pregnancy, smoking or vaping,5 or poor diet
• Are aged 65 and over.
People in an assisted-living facility, long-term care home or retirement home may be at increased risk for developing COVID-19-related complications.
Currently, nearly half of COVID-19 related deaths in Canada are related to outbreaks in long term care homes. Residents of long-term care facilities are particularly vulnerable due to communal living spaces, shared healthcare providers, external visitors and transfers from other healthcare facilities.
Read more : https://www.heartandstroke.ca/articles/covid-19-what-the-data-shows
COVID-19 and coronavirus in people living with HIV..
https://www.aidsmap.com/about-hiv/covid-19-and-coronavirus-people-living-hiv
We are learning more about COVID-19 every day. The below list of underlying medical conditions is not exhaustive and only includes conditions with sufficient evidence to draw conclusions.
Summary of Recent Changes
Revisions were made on December 23, 2020 to reflect recent data supporting increased risk of severe illness among persons with Down syndrome from the virus that causes COVID-19. Revisions also include addition of sickle cell disease and chronic kidney disease to the conditions that might increase the risk of severe illness among children.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html
https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/estimating-mortality-from-covid-19#:~:text=The%20severity%20of%20COVID%2D,also%20independent%20risk%20factors.
COVID-19: Who's at higher risk?
Other health conditions, such as heart or lung disease, can increase your risk of developing dangerous symptoms if you become infected with coronavirus disease 2019
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-who-is-at-risk/art-20483301
These pre-existing conditions could triple your risk of dying from COVID-19.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/pre-existing-conditions-risk-death-covid19-coronavirus/
Fact check: Not all COVID-19 victims had underlying health conditions; new coronavirus is not ‘just another flu’
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-not-all-covid19-victims-had-idUSKBN28A2QE
What factors put you at risk from coronavirus besides anti-maskers?
https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/news/coronavirus-and-your-health/what-makes-you-at-risk-from-coronavirus
Why more transmissible variants of COVID-19 can be as worrisome as more deadly ones.
More contagious variants in California could mean more deaths, this interactive graphic shows why.
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/graphics/2021/03/18/covid-new-variants-deadly/4251191001/
Science's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.
It’s only a tiny change. At some point early in the pandemic, one of the 30,000 letters in the genome of SARS-CoV-2 changed from an A to a G. Today, that mutation, at position 23,403, has spread around the world. It is found in the vast majority of newly sequenced viruses and has become the center of a burning scientific question: Has the mutation become so common because it helps the virus spread faster? Or is it just coincidence?
More than 6 months into the pandemic, the virus’ potential to evolve in a nastier direction—or, if we’re lucky, become more benign—is unclear. In part that’s because it changes more slowly than most other viruses, giving virologists fewer mutations to study. But some virologists also raise an intriguing possibility: that SARS-CoV-2 was already well adapted to humans when it burst onto the world stage at the end of 2019, having quietly honed its ability to infect people beforehand.
On average, the coronavirus accumulates about two changes per month in its genome. Sequencing SARS-CoV-2 genomes helps researchers follow how the virus spreads. Most of the changes don’t affect how the virus behaves, but a few may change the disease’s transmissibility or severity.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/pandemic-virus-slowly-mutating-it-getting-more-dangerous
FAQ: How viruses mutate.
https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/viruses-and-evolution
COVID-19 Will Mutate — What That Means for a Vaccine
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/what-to-know-about-mutation-and-covid-19
WITH MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO EVOLVE THE MORE LIKELY IT IS FOR VIRUSES TO MUTATE INTO SOMETHING EVEN DEADLIER..
Why do viruses mutate?
Here we explore the reasons why viruses mutate, how they do it, and what impact their environment plays in their ability to cause pandemics.
More than 100 people have died in Mexico as a result of an outbreak of swine flu, a strain of the influenza virus that normally targets pigs but has occasionally mutated enough to infect and spread in humans.
This ability to mutate from one host to the next, or one species to the next, is one of the traits that has given the influenza virus a long life and made it both nearly impossible to eradicate and potentially dangerous to animals and humans alike.
To survive: unlike plants, animals and other organisms, the only way a virus can reproduce is through a host cell, which it does by attaching its surface proteins to the cell's membrane and injecting its genetic material into the cell. This genetic material, either DNA or RNA, then carries with it the instructions to the cell's machinery to make more viruses. These new viruses then leave the cell and spread to other parts of the host organism.
But host organisms are not passive observers to this process, and over time a human's or pig's immune system can learn from these encounters and develop strategies to prevent reinfection. The next time the same virus comes to a host cell, it may find that it is no longer able to attach to the cell's surface membrane. So to survive, viruses must adapt or evolve, changing its surface proteins enough to trick the host cell into allowing it to attach.
What makes one virus mutate quickly while others change more slowly?
The genetic material inside the virus plays an enormous role in how quickly a virus mutates, which in turn can impact how the illness can spread in the population.
Viruses that replicate through DNA use the same mechanisms the host cell uses to create its own DNA, a process that includes a kind of "proof-reading" of the genetic material being copied. This means mutations occur more slowly.
Examples of DNA viruses such as smallpox. These viruses spread through human populations and were often fatal. But once vaccinations were developed viruses like smallpox were contained and all but eradicated. RNA viruses, on the other hand, replicate without a similar proofreading activity, and as a result, errors in the genetic coding occur. Its these errors that allow RNA viruses, such as influenza and HIV, to mutate rapidly from host cell to host cell, and make it difficult for vaccines and natural immunities to keep up and prepare for new strains of the virus.
How does a virus travel from an animal like a pig to a human?
Viruses spread from one animal to another through close contact, in whatever manner it normally spreads, such as coughing or sneezing in the case of a respiratory virus. Normally, these infections have no impact on the new host since they were not built to infect them. But when one host is infected by two or more strains of a virus like influenza, new combinations can result.
Influenza, for example, has eight distinct segments to its genome, increasing its ability to form new combinations that can include elements of avian flu, swine flu and human flu. It's these recombined versions of the flu that have the potential to cross over and actually spread through a new host.
Pigs are a particularly good incubator as they have receptors for influenza from all three species, said University of Guelph agriculture professor David Waltner-Toews, author of The Chickens Fight Back: Pandemic Panics and Deadly Diseases that Jump from Animals to People.
"So, if they happen to be around people or birds that have influenza, they will pick them up, and the viruses will mix up inside them."
And as the flu spreads, its list of available hosts spreads as well. Until five years ago, for example, dogs were not susceptible to influenza, said Dr. Earl Brown, a professor of microbiology at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine. But the flu has since spread to canines through horses.
What role does the environment play in mutation?
One of the big factors in the mutation rate of viruses is population density, said Brown.
"When you have high density conditions and overcrowding, like you would see in a pig farm, then the mutation occurs much more quickly as it passes from one snout to the next," he said. The kind of virus likely to thrive is also a function of its environment, he said.
A virus that quickly kills its host as it spreads is more likely to thrive in densely populated areas where it can out-compete other viruses, but would die out when the supply of new hosts is in short supply, he said. Conversely, a virus that incubates in the host for weeks and spreads slowly is more likely to thrive in animals like migratory birds, he said.
How much do farming practices contribute?
Human populations have grown over the past few centuries, and in recent decades, the demand for pork and chicken has soared. That has led to the proliferation of large, dense farms with thousands of animals. Waltner-Toews said those result in a number of factors that boost transmission of viruses such as influenza:
Many genetically similar animals are kept in one place, and their similarity leaves them susceptible to the same diseases.
The stress of crowded conditions increases the chance that infected animals will show disease symptoms that help the disease spread, such as coughing and sneezing.
The animals are shipped all over the world.
People are traveling all over the world, including migrant farm workers brought in from other countries as cheap agricultural labour.
Waltner-Toews suggested that two changes would reduce the spread of new strains of influenza:
Having larger number of smaller farms instead of a small number of large farms.
Reducing the reliance of agriculture on global trade.
Bird flu vs. swine flu
Almost all human diseases originate from other animals and then adapt to human hosts, says University of Guelph agriculture professor David Waltner-Toews, author of The Chickens Fight Back: Pandemic Panics and Deadly Diseases that Jump from Animals to People.
With influenza, different strains of the virus affect people, birds and pigs. Naturally, human influenza is the easiest for humans to get and to transmit to other humans. Humans can also get bird influenza and pig influenza, but it typically requires very close contact with the animals, Waltner-Toews said .
Bird or avian influenza is particularly hard to get, but humans who do get it experience very severe symptoms. That is why people were worried about a deadly pandemic if avian influenza were to mutate in such a way as to become easily transmissible between humans. Swine influenza is somewhat easier to transmit to humans but its symptoms tend to be milder than bird influenza.
Most flus contracted by humans are made up of predominately human influenza, but contain small pieces of avian or swine influenza. Swine flu is unusual because it is made up mostly of swine influenza but contains small amounts of avian and human influenza.
The movement of a virus between species opens up more opportunities for mutations in the virus, said Dr. Ruben Donis, head of the molecular genetics branch of the influenza division at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
The mutations would not necessarily make the virus cause more severe disease, but it cannot be ruled out, Donis said.
Mutations could also perhaps make the virus stronger at beating the immune system or resistant to drugs, said Stephen Drews, a clinical microbiologist at Ontario's Public Health Laboratories.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/faq-how-viruses-mutate-1.780051
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/a-new-strain-of-coronavirus-what-you-should-know
Why Some People Choose Not to Wear a Mask and Gamble with the Lives of your Loved Ones..
FACT CHECKERS VS FACT DENIERS AND CONSPIRACY THEORISTS.
From feeling uncool to believing masks are an exercise in compliance, there are many reasons why a minority of people oppose masks while a respiratory virus kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide
:::
YOUR CHANCES OF DYING ARE REALLY LOW AND THE DEATH REPORTS ARE INFATED BY FAKE NEWS..
The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit reported a new death from COVID-19 on Tuesday, the region’s 54th fatality since the pandemic began.
The victim was elderly with underlying medical conditions, according to the local health unit, which wouldn’t say where she or he lived, citing privacy concerns.
https://www.recorder.ca/news/new-covid-death-is-regions-54th
Most people wear a mask as part of their pandemic-altered routine. That’s 83% of Canadians and 67% of Americans by recent estimates. But there is a minority of people who don’t, and their voices and protestations are getting louder. Pushback against the simple face covering often hides many bones of contention.
The people against masks and their mandates make up a varied group. Studies in different countries are highlighting interesting trends within this movement. In Canada, it was people who supported the Bloc Québécois, a federal political party dedicated to promoting Quebec nationalism and sovereignty, who initially lagged behind the adoption of masks at the beginning of the pandemic, but it is now supporters of the Conservative party who, on average, tend to leave masks behind in larger numbers as time goes on. In the United States, imperfect surveys report that people who lean Democrat tend to favour the wearing of masks much more so than those who lean Republican. Researchers observing shoppers in the state of Wisconsin coming and going out of stores noticed that, on average, shoppers who looked like women and those who looked like older adults were more likely to be seen wearing a mask, but this imbalance disappeared when a mask mandate was enacted. Are women and older adults, in general, more likely to adopt protective measures during a pandemic? The literature on the SARS and H1N1 outbreaks is not conclusive on the subject, but many studies did indeed notice a trend, with elderly people, women, more educated individuals, and non-Whites being more likely to wear a mask and wash their hands. Again, these are trends: some women do not wear masks and many conservatives do.
For those who want to delve deeper into “Fact-checking specific claims made about masks", click here
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/
DURING THE WAR, MASK-WEARING WAS PATRIOTIC
By 1918, the use of masks in medical settings was widespread as more doctors subscribed to germ theory and saw the need to maintain sterile conditions in operating rooms, according to Navarro.
At the time, health officials were aware that influenza was a respiratory disease spread through droplets, so masks were seen as a useful tool to contain the virus. Their use was widely recommended and made mandatory in some cities.
The safest masks were made out of several plies of surgical gauze, a material that wasn't easily accessible to the general population as World War I was unfolding, Navarro told CNN.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/mask-slackers-existed-during-the-1918-flu-pandemic-too-1.5066330
That anti-vaccine utopia? We've been there, and it's a nightmare.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-vaccines-carlsbad-documentary-letters-20140723-story.html
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