New big data study of 145 countries show COVID vaccines makes things worse (cases and deaths)

The next time you see you county health officer, President Biden, or Boris Johnson why not ask them if they can find a mistake in this study by Kyle A. Beattie entitled Worldwide Bayesian Causal Impact Analysis of Vaccine Administration on Deaths and Cases Associated with COVID-19: A BigData Analysis of 145 Countries (the PDF version is here).

The study found that the COVID vaccines cause more COVID cases per million (+38% in US) and more deaths per million associated with COVID (+31% in US).

The statistically significant and overwhelmingly positive causal impact after vaccine deployment on the dependent variables total deaths and total cases per million should be highly worrisome for policy makers. They indicate a marked increase in both COVID-19 related cases and death due directly to a vaccine deployment that was originally sold to the public as the “key to gain back our freedoms.” The effect of vaccines on total cases per million and its low positive association with total vaccinations per hundred signifies a limited impact of vaccines on lowering COVID-19 associated cases.

These results should encourage local policy makers to make policy decisions based on data, not narrative, and based on local conditions, not global or national mandates. These results should also encourage policy makers to begin looking for other avenues out of the pandemic aside from mass vaccination campaigns.

The vaccines are making this worse, not better. This is why we are not getting ourselves out of the hole. Mandating vaccines are making this

This is hardly the first study to reach those conclusions. These studies, all done independently, found the same thing—the more you vaccinate, the worse things get…

EU Warns Repeat Boosters Could Weaken Immune System:

ByIrina Anghel: January 11, 2022, 9:10 AM PSTCorrectedJanuary 12, 2022, 9:27 AM PST

European Union regulators warned that frequent Covid-19 booster shots could adversely affect the immune response and may not be feasible.

Repeat booster doses every four months could eventually weaken the immune response and tire out people, according to the European Medicines Agency. Instead, countries should leave more time between booster programs and tie them to the onset of the cold season in each hemisphere, following the blueprint set out by influenza vaccination strategies, the agency said.

The advice comes as some countries consider the possibility of offering people second booster shots in a bid to provide further protection against surging omicron infections. Earlier this month Israel became the first nation to start administering a second booster, or fourth shot, to those over 60. The U.K. has said that boosters are providing good levels of protection and there is no need for a second booster shot at the moment, but will review data as it evolves.

Boosters “can be done once, or maybe twice, but it’s not something that we can think should be repeated constantly,” Marco Cavaleri, the EMA head of biological health threats and vaccines strategy, said at a press briefing on Tuesday. “We need to think about how we can transition from the current pandemic setting to a more endemic setting.”

The EU regulator also said at the briefing that oral and intravenous antivirals, such as Paxlovid and Remdesivir, maintain their efficacy against omicron. The agency said that April is the soonest it could approve a new vaccine targeting a specific variant, as the process takes about three to four months. Some of the world’s largest vaccine-makers have said they are looking at producing vaccines that could target new variants.

— With assistance by April Roach

Europe Slowly Starts to Consider Treating Covid Like the Flu
New metrics are needed as Covid becomes endemic, Spain PM says
Hospitalization rates remain manageable despite surging cases

WATCH: A study by Imperial College found that high-levels of protective immune cells that fight some common colds can also make people less likely to contract Covid-19. Source: Bloomberg

Spain is calling for Covid-19 to be treated as an endemic disease, like the flu, becoming the first major European nation to explicitly suggest that people live with it.

The idea has gradually been gaining traction and could prompt a re-evaluation of government strategies on dealing with the virus. British Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi on Sunday told the BBC that the U.K. is “on a path towards transitioning from pandemic to endemic.”

The omicron variant’s lower hospitalization and death rates despite record infections prompted Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to hold out the tantalizing prospect of Europe moving beyond pandemic-style restrictions on normal life.

“We have to evaluate the evolution of Covid from pandemic to an endemic illness,” Sanchez said in a radio interview Monday, adding that European governments may need to assess the disease with different parameters than ones used so far.

In places like France, Germany, Italy and Romania — all of which are recording the highest average daily case levels of the entire pandemic — it may be a bit early for such talk. Also, the World Health Organization said Tuesday that at the current clip, more than half of the people in Europe are on track to contract the omicron variant in the next two months.

But as governments work on keeping schools open and economies functioning as normally as possible, lower hospitalizations may prompt a review of strategies.

Read more: Poland Marks 100,000 Covid-Related Deaths as Omicron Wave Nears

For now, France and Germany are continuing to tighten restrictions, especially on the unvaccinated. French President Emmanuel Macron has said he wants to make life for the unvaccinated as difficult as possible, and is seeking to put a vaccine pass in place to access bars and restaurants, or even to travel by train.

The Netherlands has maintained one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe, with restaurants and bars closed. In Italy, Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government has mandated vaccines for those over 50 years old.

“Most of the problems we have today stem from the fact that there are people who are not vaccinated,” Draghi said at a news conference in Rome on Monday.

But while vaccinations have been central to keeping most people with omicron out of the hospital, the shots have been less effective at halting the spread of the variant. This leaves politicians trying to figure out how to contain the spread, particularly as vocal groups in their countries become increasingly opposed to limits on restaurants, bars and other activities.

Record Infections
New daily coronavirus cases (7-day figures per 100,000)

Source: Johns Hopkins

Despite having some of the highest Covid rates in Europe, Ireland will maintain a system of voluntary vaccination, according to Prime Minister Micheal Martin. The Belgian government wants to give people a “free choice,” Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said.

Many countries are shortening quarantine periods as they try to keep essential services operating. The latest is the Czech Republic, which as of Tuesday is requiring Covid-positive people to isolate for five days, down from two weeks.

Travel restrictions have also shown their limits. The U.K. was the first country to ban flights from southern Africa, where omicron was first identified. Yet it was the first place in Europe to suffer an omicron wave. Similarly, France overtook the U.K.’s case rate despite slapping limits on travel from Britain.

The Spanish government has been working on a new monitoring approach in the last weeks, and Health Minister Carolina Darias has brought the matter up with her European counterparts, Sanchez said.

The effort came as Spain reported almost 692,000 new cases in the last seven days, with 13.4% of hospital beds used for Covid patients, according to Health Ministry data. That compares with 13.8% a year earlier, when the number of recorded weekly cases was just above 115,000.

If European countries manage to relax restrictions in the coming weeks, last year’s experiences will remain a cautionary tale. Denmark removed all Covid restrictions last fall, while the Netherlands dropped all masking requirements. Both countries currently have some of Europe’s highest case rates and have reimposed restrictions.

— With assistance by Alessandro Speciale, Katharina Rosskopf, Thomas Gualtieri, Peter Laca, and Eric Pfanner

Omicron May Infect Half of Europeans Within Weeks, WHO Says
Europe faces a ‘west-to-east tidal wave,’ WHO official says
Covid nowhere near endemic phase amid fast-evolving virus: WHO

WATCH: Over 50% of Europe’s population may be infected with omicron within weeks, the WHO says.Source: Bloomberg
ByCorinne Gretler
January 11, 2022, 3:07 AM PST

More than half of Europe’s population may be infected with omicron within weeks at current transmission rates, a World Health Organization official said.

The fast-spreading variant represents a “west-to-east tidal wave sweeping across the region,” said Hans Kluge, the regional director of the WHO for Europe at a briefing Tuesday. He cited forecasts by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation that the majority of Europeans could catch it in the next six to eight weeks.

https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/AVTFDYKNH4k/irina-anghel

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