Free Republic

Background: During Late 2022, the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.5 sublineages accounted for most of the sequenced viral genomes worldwide. Bivalent mRNA vaccines contain an ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain component plus an updated component of the Omicron BA.4/BA.5. Since September 2022, a single bivalent booster dose has been recommended for adults who have completed a primary vaccination series and are at high risk for severe Covid-19 disease. Evidence regarding the effectiveness of the bivalent vaccine in reducing hospitalizations and death due to Covid-19 is warranted.Methods: This retrospective cohort study included all members of Clalit Health Services, aged ≥65, eligible for a bivalent booster....

JERUSALEM, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The Omicron-adapted COVID-19 vaccine booster developed by Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) sharply reduced hospitalizations among older patients, Israeli researchers said on Monday, in some of the first evidence of the jab's real-world effectiveness. It found an 81% reduction in hospitalizations among people aged 65 and older who had received the booster against those who had previously received at least two COVID vaccinations, but not the Omicron-adapted shot. The study was carried out from the end of September until mid-December and looked at 622,701 people aged 65 and over who were eligible for...

LONDON—A father who claimed he was trying to protect his family when he stabbed a social worker who was conducting welfare checks at his home, has admitted to a jury he had kept his three children indoors for “over a year” because of his fears of COVID-19. Sulai Man, 34, denies attempting to murder Themba Nkomo, 61, who was attacked in the hallway outside the family’s flat in Wood Green, north London, on Aug. 6, 2021. Man also denies wounding police constables David Turpin and Luke Smith with intent, when they went to the aid of Nkomo, who was stabbed...

Sunetra Gupta became my whisperer early in the pandemic due to her comprehensive understanding of the relationship between society and infectious disease. When I met her in October 2020, and in several interviews since, she highlighted an overlooked feature of the pandemic response: its nationalism. Every government pretended as if its pandemic response would be juridically efficacious based on borders. Since when have viruses paid any attention to lines on a map? The whole thing is ridiculous but it had to be this way the minute that states decided that they were going to set out to control the pathogen...

Professor of clinical psychology at Ghent University Mattias Desmet is the world’s leading expert in the phenomenon known as “mass formation,” which is a type of hypnotic state that occurs when people are isolated from one another and free-floating anxiety is prevalent, as in during the COVID-19 pandemic. Desmet believes the world is now seeing a new form of totalitarianism, spawned in the last couple of decades and fostered by mass formation during the pandemic. “What you’re dealing with now is not a communist or not fascist authoritarianism. It is the emergence, I think, of technocratic totalitarianism,” Desmet said during...

As students return to the classroom Monday morning in the Philadelphia public school district, they will now have the option of wearing face masks instead of being mandated to. According to 6ABC, face masks are now optional but strongly encouraged where the district only required masks for the first 10 days of the school year. But according to the news outlet, district leaders are saying the mask mandate will return if the COVID-19 Community Level reaches the high level based on CDC standards. Masking may also be required in certain instances, like a school or classroom outbreak or after extended...

A year after attending a Pennsylvania school board meeting about requiring students to wear COVID-19 masks, three people are still in court trying to get the charges dropped for alleged criminal defiant trespass. The charge is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. Their cases could have statewide legal implications, potentially giving school boards more power over the public. Katherine Detwiler, Elaine Barnhart, and Gary Krum of Columbia County attended the Southern Columbia Area School District board meeting on Sept. 13, 2021. The meeting was held in the school library, and the board was discussing...

Just to restate what we've written about many times before, mask mandates don't work -- and they're especially needless and ineffective in schools. It's worse than that, actually. Forced masking can have an affirmatively harmful effect on some young children, rendering continued requirements not only anti-science, but almost abusive. We have known the facts about kids and COVID for at least two years at this point, and yet, as the 2022-2023 academic year is getting underway, a number of districts across the country are imposing this data-defying insanity upon students yet again. Philadelphia is one of the most science-hostile jurisdictions...

Mask Up, Berkeley StudentsI was trying to avoid writing more stuff on masks, but this is unbelievable. UC Berkeley, that bastion of California higher education, is now requiring masks -both indoors and outdoors, if one is not vaccinated against… influenza! And, as a virologist and vaccinologist, the use of the slang “flu” makes me cringe. There are no “flu” vaccines. There are a variety of vaccines for reducing Influenza A and Influenza B virus infection and disease. None of them work particularly well. And just as with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the vast majority of deaths from Influenza A and B...

Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are in decline. People are traveling, socializing and returning to workplaces in greater numbers. But a group of people are still keeping mostly to themselves and taking other measures to minimize infection risks. Compromised immune systems and the risks of long Covid are among reasons they say they are maintaining caution.

As students in Philadelphia make their way back to school, not only will they need to bring the usual school supplies such as books, pencils and notebooks, but they’ll also need to bring along their masks, as well. According to 6ABC, face coverings will now be required in the School District of Philadelphia for the first 10 days of the school year and it’s all because of a precautionary tactic that’ll combat against group gatherings over the break. During a news conference detailing plans earlier this month, it turns out district officials said the precaution is due to summer gatherings....

Ahead of the 2022-2023 school year, several colleges and universities have announced that masks will be required on campus to combat the spread of COVID-19. Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. announced this week that students will be required to wear masks and be vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 in order to attend classes in person. The mask mandate applies to classrooms and does not apply to gathering spaces, such as libraries and study rooms. Students will be required to wear a mask on school-sponsored transportation, The New York Post noted. Unless they have approved medical or religious exemptions, all students,...

Charles Eisenstein is the author of “The Coronation,” a collection of essays that explore the paradigms, dynamics, ideologies, and mythologies that predispose people toward accepting narratives around safety and social control, especially during times of crisis. He argues that governments around the world were able to exploit the need to fit in and feel safe during the pandemic. “Human beings are exquisitely attuned to reading the mood of the mob. It’s a survival mechanism. In order to fit in, we instinctively adopt the correct opinions and profess those opinions, we signal the appropriate virtues, we respect the appropriate taboos that...

White House COVID-19 czar Ashish Jha on Tuesday admitted that the six-foot social distancing rule that was implemented in early 2020 isn’t actually effective. Over the past several years, “a lot of time” was spent “talking about six feet of distance, 15 minutes of being together. We realize that’s actually not the right way to think about this,” he said during a White House briefing on COVID-19. “That’s not the most accurate way to think about this,” Jha said, adding that it is about “the quality of air you’re breathing around you.” In a crowded indoor area with poor ventilation,...

First Lady Jill Biden tested positive for COVID-19, coming about a month after President Joe Biden initially tested positive for the virus. “After testing negative for COVID-19 on Monday during her regular testing cadence, the First Lady began to develop cold-like symptoms late in the evening,” Elizabeth Alexander, the first lady’s communications director, said on Tuesday in a statement. Alexander added that the first lady 71, “tested negative again on a rapid antigen test, but a PCR test came back positive.” The spokeswoman said she was given a course of Pfizer-made Paxlovid, which is known to cause a rebound of...

A lingering disorder that can last for months or years is affecting an increasing proportion of the workforce. The symptoms that contribute to Long COVID could be a result of pandemic measures and masking in particular. Increased exposure to microplastics, nanoparticles, chemicals in masks, and nasopharyngeal tests parallel many of the symptoms that define Long COVID. Surveys among thousands of people suggest 7 percent to 30 percent of people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 virus experienced one or more symptoms for a period longer than 12 weeks. Some people who got COVID-19 early in the pandemic still haven’t recovered. The...

he School District of Philadelphia is requiring all students and staff to wear masks for the first 10 days of the upcoming school year, officials announced on Friday. After that, everyone is allowed to go mask-optional, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status, unless the community transmission level is high. “For the first 10 days of the new school year—from Aug. 29 through Sept. 9—all students and staff will be required to wear masks while in school, regardless of the COVID-19 Community Level,” according to an announcement on the district’s website. “This is an extra precaution for everyone’s health and well-being since...

A top epidemiologist voiced his concerns about a new study published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that alleges there is an increased risk for post-COVID-19 conditions for children and teenagers who are seeking medical care. In the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on Aug. 5, researchers say that children aged 17 and younger with previous bouts of COVID-19 had higher rates of uncommon conditions such as myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, renal failure, type 1 diabetes, and other conditions. The study cited specific disease codes between March 2020 and January 2022. In conclusion, the agency said...

Health officials have been making headlines in the news for their recent comments that seem to be reversing previous COVID-19 public health messages. Both Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and former White House COVID-19 advisor Dr. Deborah Birx, admitted that the COVID-19 vaccines are not particularly capable at preventing infection, reversing previous COVID-19 narratives that asserted the vaccine prevented disease acquisition and transmission. Birx said on Fox News July 22, that she “knew these vaccines were not going to protect against infection…I think we overplayed the vaccines.” This is a significant...

Rayne Barton, 62, didn’t expect that her first visit to the doctor in months would end in arrest, but there she was on July 22, in the waiting room with her wrists handcuffed behind her back. She would not be seeing the doctor that day. Barton, of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, would not leave as requested after she refused to wear a COVID-19 face mask, which is required at Hypertension and Kidney Specialists in Lancaster. Hypertension and Kidney Specialists is an independent practice with an office on the Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Suburban Pavilion property. At the request of the office...