Health chief changes benchmarks so no Ariz. business will be shuttered in pandemic

 The state’s top health official acknowledged Friday she has altered the standards governing business operations in the pandemic to the point that none will have to close, no matter how serious the infection rate gets.

The reason, said Dr. Cara Christ, is that she does not believe businesses are a major source of the COVID-19 infections that currently have nearly 4,000 people in Arizona hospitals and the number of intensive care beds available in the state down to 128, just 7% of capacity.

She also said the implications of shutting down a business are greater than those for leaving them open.

Christ said she does not foresee a situation where the spread of infection from businesses will get to a point where she would change her mind.

She acknowledged that she effectively scrapped the “substantial risk of spread” category from the benchmarks she adopted earlier this year.

But now, the business standards are the same for substantial risk as they are for “moderate” risk of spread.

That’s significant because, using Christ’s own standards, certain businesses, including bars, movie theaters and gyms, are not allowed to operate when a county is placed in the substantial-risk category.

That category is based on more than 100 cases per 100,000 residents, more than 10% of tests coming back positive, and more than 10% of people showing up at hospitals having COVID-like illness.

All counties but Greenlee currently have all three indicators above that level, some by quite substantial margins, according to data from Christ’s Arizona Department of Health Services.

In Pima County, for example, the infection rate is 607 per 100,000 residents and 17.9% of tests for the coronavirus are positive.

Pinal and Cochise Counties have comparable positivity rates but with 548 cases per 100,000 in Pinal and 727 in Cochise per 100,000.

And Yavapai County has a positivity rate of 566 per 100,000 with 21% of tests being positive.

But with the change in definition, Christ conceded, there is no longer any risk of any business in any county getting shuttered.

Christ said her decision is justified because those benchmarks were designed to show when businesses that were closed early in the pandemic, because they were in areas of substantial risk of spread, could reopen — specifically, when the virus levels reached moderate levels.

There are now “mitigation strategies” in place to reduce the risk, Christ said, such as requirements for restaurants and bars that operate like restaurants — no dancing, patrons staying at their tables — be limited to 50% occupancy.

Anyway, Christ said these businesses are not a major source of virus cases.

Her department says information from “contact tracing” of people who have come down with the disease found that just 14% said they might have gotten it by attending large group settings outside their homes.

That points “to spread occurring in households and small gatherings,” her department says.

But the numbers may be higher than that.

The most recent contact tracing data from Pima County, for example, finds that 26% of those questioned say they had recently been to a bar or restaurant. Christ was not impressed.

“So that would mean than 74% of those individuals that they interviewed did not say they were at a restaurant or bar,” she said.

She said those businesses are supposed to be operating under mitigation strategies enacted this past summer, like requiring everyone to wear masks when not eating and drinking, and limiting indoor seating.

“We also have to take a look at the whole health of the community,” she said. “Housing and food access and health insurance and access to a job all play a role in the overall health and long-term outcome of our community.”

“Losing a house or income has a significant impact on (a person’s) overall health,” she said. “So we are taking all that into account.”

Christ said there are ripple effects.

“If I close down a restaurant, these are individuals that are now going to find a job somewhere else because they have to work,” she said. She said that’s potentially more harmful.

Christ was asked if there is any percentage or number of cases that would persuade her to rethink the idea that she won’t close any business.

“I can’t say that there’s not a number,” she responded. “But there are other strategies that would come in before that, before we would recommend closing.”

https://tucson.com/news/local/health-chief-changes-benchmarks-so-no-arizona-business-will-be-shuttered-in-pandemic/article_588f8876-60e5-5436-9340-0839b6ca196a.html

WHO (Finally) Admits PCR Tests Create False Positives

 Warnings concerning high CT value of tests are months too late…so why are they appearing now? The potential explanation is shockingly cynical...

The World Health Organization released a guidance memo on December 14th, warning that high cycle thresholds on PCR tests will result in false positives.

While this information is accurate, it has also been available for months, so we must ask: why are they reporting it now? Is it to make it appear the vaccine works?

The “gold standard” Sars-Cov-2 tests are based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR works by taking nucleotides – tiny fragments of DNA or RNA – and replicating them until they become something large enough to identify. The replication is done in cycles, with each cycle doubling the amount of genetic material. The number of cycles it takes to produce something identifiable is known as the “cycle threshold” or “CT value”. The higher the CT value, the less likely you are to be detecting anything significant.

This new WHO memo states that using a high CT value to test for the presence of Sars-Cov-2 will result in false-positive results.

To quote their own words [our emphasis]:

Users of RT-PCR reagents should read the IFU carefully to determine if manual adjustment of the PCR positivity threshold is necessary to account for any background noise which may lead to a specimen with a high cycle threshold (Ct) value result being interpreted as a positive result.

They go on to explain [again, our emphasis]:

The design principle of RT-PCR means that for patients with high levels of circulating virus (viral load), relatively few cycles will be needed to detect virus and so the Ct value will be low. Conversely, when specimens return a high Ct value, it means that many cycles were required to detect virus. In some circumstances, the distinction between background noise and actual presence of the target virus is difficult to ascertain.

Of course, none of this is news to anyone who has been paying attention. That PCR tests were easily manipulated and potentially highly inaccurate has been one of the oft-repeated battle cries of those of us opposing the “pandemic” narrative, and the policies it’s being used to sell.

Many articles have been written about it, by many experts in the field, medical journalists and other researchers. It’s been commonly available knowledge, for months now, that any test using a CT value over 35 is potentially meaningless.

Dr Kary Mullis, who won the Nobel Prize for inventing the PCR process, was clear that it wasn’t meant as a diagnostic tool, saying:

with PCR, if you do it well, you can find almost anything in anybody.”

And, commenting on cycle thresholds, once said:

If you have to go more than 40 cycles to amplify a single-copy gene, there is something seriously wrong with your PCR.”

The MIQE guidelines for PCR use state:

Cq values higher than 40 are suspect because of the implied low efficiency and generally should not be reported,”

This has all been public knowledge since the beginning of the lockdown. The Australian government’s own website admitted the tests were flawed, and a court in Portugal ruled they were not fit for purpose.

Even Dr Anthony Fauci has publicly admitted that a cycle threshold over 35 is going to be detecting “dead nucleotides”, not a living virus.

Despite all this, it is known that many labs around the world have been using PCR tests with CT values over 35, even into the low 40s.

So why has the WHO finally decided to say this is wrong? What reason could they have for finally choosing to recognise this simple reality?

The answer to that is potentially shockingly cynical: We have a vaccine now. We don’t need false positives anymore.

Notionally, the system has produced its miracle cure.

So, after everyone has been vaccinated, all the PCR tests being done will be done “under the new WHO guidelines”, and running only 25-30 cycles instead of 35+.

Lo and behold, the number of “positive cases” will plummet, and we’ll have confirmation that our miracle vaccine works.

After months of flooding the data pool with false positives, miscounting deaths “by accident”, adding “Covid19 related death” to every other death certificate…they can stop. The create-a-pandemic machine can be turned down to zero again.

…as long as we all do as we’re told. Any signs of dissent – masses of people refusing the vaccine, for example – and the CT value can start to climb again, and they bring back their magical disease.

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/who-finally-admits-pcr-tests-create-false-positives

CDC Issues New Guidelines, Starts Probe As 1000s Negatively Affected After COVID-19 Vax

 Thousands of people have been unable to work or perform daily activities, or required care from a healthcare professional, after getting the new COVID-19 vaccine, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As of Dec. 18, 3,150 people reported what the agency terms “Health Impact Events” after getting vaccinated.

The definition of the term is: “unable to perform normal daily activities, unable to work, required care from doctor or health care professional.”

As The Epoch Times' Zachary Stieber reports, the people reporting the negative effects reported them through V-safe, a smartphone application. The tool uses text messages and web surveys to provide personalized health check-ins and allows users to quickly tell the CDC if they are experiencing side effects.

The CDC and Pfizer, which produces the vaccine with BioNTech, didn’t respond to request for comments.

The information was presented by Dr. Thomas Clark, a CDC epidemiologist, to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an independent panel that provides recommendations to the agency, on Saturday.

The CDC said that 272,001 doses of the vaccine were administered as of Dec. 19. That means most people who were vaccinated did not experience negative effects.

The CDC has identified six case reports of anaphylaxis, or severe allergic reaction, that occurred following vaccination with the new vaccine, Clark reported. Other case reports were reviewed and determined not to be of anaphylaxis.

In an update on Friday, the agency stressed that anyone who has ever had a severe allergic reaction to any ingredient in a COVID-19 vaccine should not get that vaccine. People with severe allergic reactions to other vaccines should consult their doctor about getting the new vaccine while those with a history of anaphylaxis not related to vaccines “may still get vaccinated.”

“CDC recommends that people with a history of severe allergic reactions not related to vaccines or injectable medications - such as allergies to food, pet, venom, environmental, or latex - may still get vaccinated," the CDC said.

"People with a history of allergies to oral medications or a family history of severe allergic reactions, or who might have a milder allergy to vaccines (no anaphylaxis) - may also still get vaccinated.”

Anyone who experiences anaphylaxis after getting the first vaccine should not get the second shot, the CDC said. COVID-19 vaccines are meant to be given across two doses, spaced about three weeks apart.

At least five healthcare workers in Alaska experienced adverse reactions after getting the Pfizer vaccine, the Anchorage Daily News reported. One of two experiencing adverse reactions at the Bartlett Regional Hospital required treatment at the hospital for at least two nights.

An Illinois hospital halted vaccinations after four workers suffered adverse reactions.

Dr. Peter Marks, the director of Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told reporters in a call on Thursday night that the agency is working with the CDC, and colleagues in the United Kingdom, on probing the allergic reactions.

“We’ll be looking at all of the data we can from each of these reactions to sort out exactly what happened. And we’ll also be looking to try to understand which components of the vaccine might be helping to produce them,” he said.

Noting that he was speculating, Marks said it’s known that polyethylene glycol - a component present in both the Pfizer vaccine and one from Moderna that regulators approved earlier in the day - can be associated, uncommonly, with allergic reactions.

“So that could be a culprit here. And that’s why we’ll be watching very closely,” he said. “But we just don’t know at this point.”

Both vaccines have “systemic side effects,” which are “generally mild,” Marks said.

They go away after a day. According to the FDA website, the most commonly reported side effects include tiredness, headache, muscle pain, and chills. The agency said they go away after several days.

One volunteer in Pfizer’s late-stage clinical trial experienced an allergic reaction. Two people in Moderna’s phase 3 clinical trial experienced anaphylactic reactions, the company said during a meeting on Thursday. But the data showed the benefits outweigh the risk, FDA officials said, as they granted emergency use authorization to the vaccines about seven days apart.

People who get a COVID-19 vaccine should be monitored for at least 15 minutes after getting vaccinated, according to the CDC.

If someone experiences a severe allergic reaction against getting a COVID-19 vaccine, vaccination providers are supposed to provide rapid care and call for emergency medical services. The person should continue to be monitored in a medical facility for at least several hours.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/cdc-issues-new-guidelines-launches-probe-after-1000s-negatively-affected-following-covid 

3rd COVID-19 vaccine could come next month: HHS' Giroir

 A third vaccine to stave off COVID-19 could get U.S. approval as early as next month, a top U.S. health official said on Sunday as the second vaccine began shipping out nationwide..

Admiral Brett Giroir, an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, told ABC News that data was yet to be released on the novel coronavirus vaccine from Johnson & Johnson and Janssen, but that if approved it would give the United States its third vaccine following ones from Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc.

https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-usa-giroir/top-u-s-health-official-says-third-covid-19-vaccine-could-come-next-month-idUSKBN28U0IF

Tougher UK coronavirus curbs may last some time: health minister

 London and southeast England may stay under tighter coronavirus curbs for some time, Britain’s health minister suggested on Sunday, adding that a fast-spreading new strain forced the government to drop plans to ease restrictions for Christmas.

The government faced criticism for imposing an effective lockdown on more than 16 million people just days before Christmas, but Matt Hancock said Saturday’s decision was taken speedily after new evidence showed the new strain was responsible for spiralling COVID-19 cases.

The variant, which officials say is up to 70% more transmissible than the original, also prompted concerns about a wider spread. Several European countries, including Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands, said they were taking measures to prevent people arriving from Britain, including bans on flights and trains.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson abruptly tore up plans to allow three households to mix indoors for five days over the festive period, and imposed new Tier 4 level curbs - similar to a national lockdown in March - on London and southeast England.

Hancock suggested the tougher measures - which require about a third of the population of England to stay at home except for essential reasons such as work - might remain in place until vaccinations become more widely available.

“We’ve got a long way to go to sort this,” Hancock told Sky News.

“Essentially we’ve got to get that vaccine rolled out to keep people safe. Given how much faster this new variant spreads, it’s going to be very difficult to keep it under control until we have the vaccine rolled out.”

Britain began inoculating people using the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech earlier this month.

https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-britain/tougher-uk-coronavirus-curbs-may-last-some-time-health-minister-suggests-idUSKBN28U0EJ

Glaxo closing in on two major drug deals

 

• Capping a spate of recent deals worth £100M ($135M), GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) is set to ink two major drug deals this week on either side of the Atlantic, The Mail on Sunday reports.
• The potential targets include a US biotech developing treatments for neurological disorders and a UK firm with a promising early-stage treatment for immune disorders affecting millions globally.
• With shares losing more than a fifth in value during the year, the company appears to have lost out to frontrunners in the COVID-19 vaccine race, underperforming Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX), and AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN).
• This month, GSK and its partner in COVID-19 vaccine development, Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) were forced to delay their program when Phase 1/2 interim results showed an insufficient immune response in people over 60.
• https://seekingalpha.com/news/3646028-gsk-is-closing-in-on-two-major-drug-deals-report

Congress poised to vote on coronavirus stimulus after resolving Fed dispute

 

• Following many months of negotiations, Congress is set to finally green light on a $900B coronavirus stimulus package after senators struck a late-night compromise to a dispute over the Fed's emergency lending powers.
• The central bank wouldn't be able to replicate programs identical to the ones it started at the beginning of the pandemic without congressional approval, but that wouldn't prevent it from starting other similar programs.
• "If things continue on this path and nothing gets in the way, we'll be able to vote tomorrow," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Saturday night, while a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spokesman added: "We can begin closing out the rest of the package to deliver much-needed relief to families, workers, and businesses."
• The legislation includes $600 in direct payments to individuals and $300 per week enhanced unemployment benefits, as well as funding for schools, healthcare providers, vaccine distribution and small businesses.
• The package will be attached to a $1.4T spending bill funding federal programs through September 2021 after Congress passed a two-day spending bill on Friday in a bid to avert a government shutdown.
• https://seekingalpha.com/news/3646031-congress-poised-to-vote-on-coronavirus-stimulus-after-resolving-fed-dispute