Botox patients panicking over news that COVID vax weakens wrinkle reducer

 Botoxed beauty queens, beware.

A recent study has found that neuromodulator injections like Botox may be less effective in people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine — striking panic in the hearts, and foreheads, of some users.

“Either higher doses or more frequent treatment intervals will be needed, costing more money or requiring more doctor visits yearly” said New York City dermatologist, Dr. Jason Emer.

Researchers found that, after receiving the Pfizer mRNA vaccine, the average time before patients need a touch-up of the wrinkle-reducer is significantly shortened.

Dr. Emer summarized the study, published last fall in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, for The Post: “In this instance, Botox, which typically lasts two to four months in most standard dose cases, may last less time now due to an increased immune response — making the Botox less effective in the body.”

The study looked at the main botulinum toxin injectables known as BTAs, which include

four brands on the market: Botox, Dysport, Xeomin, and Jeuveaum. Botox is, by far, the most widely used of the bunch in the US.

Dr. Jason Emer has been recommending Daxxify, a new “super Botox” that lasts longer.

Emmy Park for NY Post

Asked if he has noticed BTA treatments like Botox wearing off more quickly than usual in patients at his practice, which include posh offices in New York City, Beverly Hills, and Boca Raton, Florida, Emer decisively said, “Yes, I have seen this.”

There is one possible fix doctors are hopeful about. Daxxify, a new brand of “super Botox” that wasn’t on the market at the time of the study, so doctors don’t know if it will also degrade quickly in patients who’ve had the vaccine. But they’re hypothesizing that it won’t matter as much, because Daxxify’s beefed-up formulation already makes it last significantly longer than any other neuromodulator on the scene.

“Daxxify may be the modulator of choice, ” said Dr. Emer. “It tends to last a longer period of time making it more valuable for those who metabolize the products more quickly.”

Dr. Emer said that Botox seems to wear off even faster in men who have been vaccinated than women.

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Other beauty-based businesses in New York have high hopes for Daxxify too. Mark
Greenspan, founder and CEO of BeautyFix Med Spa, said the spa’s injectionists underwent special training to become one of only eight med-spas in New York City
to carry the coveted new solution.

“BeautyFix MedSpa is now injecting clients who come in sharing that their wrinkle injections are wearing off — possibly due to the vaccine — with Daxxify … because the peptide in Daxxify extends the longevity of wrinkle treatments. Sometimes up to six months,” Greenspan told The Post.

BeautyFix client Brandon Sansone jumped at the chance to try it.

“Either higher doses or more frequent treatment intervals will be needed” for Covid-vaccinated patients using Botox, said Dr. Emer.

Emmy Park for NY Post

“My Botox has been wearing off quicker since receiving the vaccine. I read up on this
and saw the studies,” said the New York City resident. “When [an injectionist] shared it could last up to six months instead of three or fewer, I decided to try it.”

While some doctors find the data compelling enough to make changes like encouraging more frequent visits or switching to Daxxify, not everyone is convinced that the recent study is definitive enough to hold the vaccine responsible for weaker Botox results.

Dr. Dendy Engelman MD, FACMS, FAAD and Director of Dermatology at Shafer Clinic
in Manhattan, also pointed out that it’s not just vaccines that may decrease BTA longetivity — nothing that “increased exercise, sweating, saunas, steam rooms, hot yoga and [certain] medications” could all cause neuromodulators to wear off more rapidly.

It’s not just the Covid vaccine that can weaken Botox. “Increased exercise, sweating, saunas, steam rooms, hot yoga and [certain] medications” could all cause neuromodulators to wear off more rapidly.

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“It is more noticeable in men, who typically already require higher doses and more frequent treatments — as well as those who exercise a lot, have a rapid metabolism, or use medications that increase the metabolism to lose weight, or [people who take] Adderall,” said Dr. Emer.

And while some doctors recommend using skincare products with EGF, peptides and Retinol/Retinoids, as well as sunscreen and zinc, Dr. Emer has doubts: “Unfortunately, there is nothing they can take or do to increase the ability for the toxin to last longer.”

https://nypost.com/2023/01/23/patients-panicking-over-study-saying-covid-vax-weakens-botox/

7 dead after shootings at two California farms, suspect in custody

 Seven people were fatally shot at a farm and another business in California’s Half Moon Bay Monday — and a suspect later turned himself in to authorities, according to reports.

The victims were killed in the shootings at Mountain Mushroom Farm and Rice Trucking-Soil Farm, a landscaping supply company, in the small city along the Golden State’s coast, NBC Bay Area reported.

It wasn’t immediately clear if both shootings were connected.

Police arrested suspect Zhao Chunli, 67, for the shooting in Half Moon Bay, California.

fox5sandiego.com

Seven people are dead, according to reports.

FOX 10 Phoenix

A suspect was taken into custody, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet. The sheriff’s office also stressed there is no longer a threat to the community.

The suspect has been identified as 67-year-old Zhao Chunli, according to reports.

He drove himself to a sheriff’s substation and surrendered to law enforcement, CBS Bay Area reported, citing sources. A man wearing a white baseball cap was seen being led away in handcuffs, the television station reported.

California State Sen. Josh Becker said his thoughts are with the all those affected.

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The suspect turned himself into authorities.

The shootings took place at Mountain Mushroom Farm and Rice Trucking-Soil Farm.

FOX 10 Phoenix

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It was not immediately clear if both shootings were connected.

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“Gun violence has come to our district today and I will do whatever I can to support the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department and Half Moon Bay city officials during this tragic event. We will continue to monitor this situation,” Becker said in a tweet. “My thoughts go out to all affected.”

https://nypost.com/2023/01/23/7-dead-in-half-moon-bay-shootings-suspect-arrested-reports/

Suspect in custody after shooting incident with multiple victims in Half Moon Bay, Cal.

 A suspect is in custody after a shooting incident with multiple victims in the city of Half Moon Bay, California, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said.

“Suspect is in custody. There is no ongoing threat to the community at this time,” the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet.

The office did not give more details on the incident after tweeting earlier Monday that law enforcement officials were responding to the shooting.

“The Sheriff’s Office is responding to a shooting incident with multiple victims in the area of HWY 92 and the HMB City limits,” the tweet said.

Half Moon Bay is approximately 28 miles south of San Francisco and lies within the westernmost portion of San Mateo County, according to information on the city’s website.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/23/us/half-moon-bay-california-shooting-incident/index.html

Biden Administration Still Pushing For Forced Masking

 by Ian Miller via The Brownstone Institute,

The Biden Administration recently reinforced their commitment to retaining authority to impose endless COVID mandates on the American people...

In April 2022, a federal judge in Florida ruled that the CDC had overstepped its authority by requiring airlines to mandate masks on domestic flights.

Essentially every company almost immediately moved to make masks optional. Many even allowed passengers, in flight, to remove their masks, to mass celebrations.

It was also a dramatic win for science, as years of data have proven that masks are entirely ineffective at preventing the spread of COVID.

The unfortunate trend of in-flight arguments and fights also dropped dramatically after the court overturned the mandate.

In February 2022, the rate of unruly passenger incidents on domestic flights was 6.4 per 10,000 travelers. Following the end of the mandate, that number dropped to 1.7 per 10,000. 

So, not only do masks not work, they actually likely cause significant, potentially dangerous disagreements.

Experts warned that it would lead to a surge in flight cancellations within a few weeks. Naturally, cancellation data showed that the exact opposite situation unfolded.

Additionally, in the nearly nine months since the policy ended, cases in the US have remained low. While the winter of 2021-2022 saw a massive surge of infections with the mandate in place, no such surge materialized through the end of 2022.

But none of that’s stopped the Biden administration from appealing the ruling.

While this might not necessarily mean the immediate return of mandates on planes, it would allow the CDC to retain that authority.

Will Mask Mandates Return?

Oral arguments in the case were scheduled for Tuesday, with no indication yet how the appeal will go. But previous statements by the Justice Department show how committed they are to masking.

Despite the inarguable reality that masks do not work to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses, the attorney arguing the case said that they should have the authority to reimpose mandates for future pandemics.

“You can imagine the next pandemic, there was an outbreak of measles or SARS and the CDC would want to and need to take swift action in order to control such a pandemic in the future,” the attorney for the Justice Department said.

“I think the important thing here is that the potential collateral estoppel effect of the district court’s ruling could tie up future CDC actions.”

It’s extremely concerning that the Justice Department apparently believes that masks on planes would be able to “control such a pandemic,” especially measles. 

It’s equally concerning that they believe the CDC is competent enough to “control such a pandemic.”

They utterly failed to “control” this one with masks on public transit. On top of their recommendations that politicians enact some of the most draconian restrictions on normal life ever enacted in the United States.

But their lockdowns, masks, vaccine passports and other recommended policies were entirely unable to prevent the spread of a highly infectious respiratory virus.

Yet Biden and his administration are arguing they be allowed to exercise similar, near unlimited control over the freedoms of American citizens regardless.

Thankfully, a lawyer defending the end of the mandate pointed out the obvious; this has nothing to do with public health. He explained that the appeal’s timing shows how little connection it bears to Americans’ health.

“This appeal is not about an urgent matter of public health. If the mask order had been such an urgent matter of public health, you would have expected CDC to have applied for a stay to the district court’s ruling,” said the attorney representing the Health Freedom Defense Fund.

Of course, he’s entirely right. This appeal is about politics, not science.

Biden and his team want the ability to enforce mandates at their choosing, even after everyone paying attention has seen how pointless and ineffective they are.

So while it’s hard to say for certain if they would bring back mandates, it’s certainly fair to say that they might.

Lawyer Jenin Younes explained in several Twitter threads how the circle of authority leads to endless masking.

The CDC creates terrible, poorly conducted research and studies claiming to show that masks work. Judges defer to their research to avoid deciding scientific questions, leading them to side with the CDC. Despite the CDC’s demonstrable ineffectiveness and incompetence. 

They refuse to admit they were wrong, and so instead of learning from their overreach and repeated failures, they’re desperately clawing to retain powers they never had.

Given that their utterly ridiculous recommendations on masking persist into 2023, it wouldn’t be hard to believe they’d bring them back at the first sign of a “surge.”

To them, it doesn’t matter how often they’re wrong, it matters that they’re able to tell you what to do.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-administration-still-pushing-forced-masking

Study comparing early interventions for sepsis shows patients have identical outcomes

 Vanderbilt University Medical Center had a leading role in a large national study designed to compare two early interventions in the treatment of patients with sepsis, the body's severe response to an uncontrolled infection.

Sepsis can cause dangerously low blood pressure, which is typically treated with intravenous (IV) fluids and/or a vasopressor, a drug that causes constriction of the blood vessels. Whether treatment of sepsis-induced low pressure should primarily be treated with IV fluids or vasopressors has been debated for decades with no clear answer.

In the Crystalloid Liberal or Vasopressors Early Resuscitation in Sepsis (CLOVERS) trial, investigators compared these two approaches for treating sepsis. Trial results, which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrated that both a resuscitation strategy that relied on large volume fluid administration and one that relied on lower fluid volumes with greater use of vasopressors led to nearly identical survival.

"Sepsis is one of the most common causes of death worldwide," said Wesley H. Self, MD, MPH, Senior Vice President for Clinical Research at VUMC and senior author of the study. "There have never been good data to inform us on what volume of fluid we should be giving to our sickest septic patients and when we should be starting vasopressors," he said.

"The CLOVERS trial results are important because they provide strong data showing that supporting blood pressure with either IV fluids or vasopressors can result in similar outcomes," Self said. "To me, these results emphasize that rapidly achieving a normal blood pressure and systemic perfusion may be more important than the method used to achieve that normal blood pressure."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 1.7 million adults in the U.S. develop sepsis each year, and at least 350,000 die of the illness. Approximately one in three people who die in U.S. hospitals have sepsis.

The CLOVERS trial enrolled 1,563 adults with septic shock at 60 medical centers across the United States over about three years. The trial was designed and conducted by investigators as part of the Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL) Clinical Trials Network.

In addition to Self, key VUMC investigators who helped design and run the trial were Matthew Semler, MD, MSc, and Todd Rice, MD, MSc, both in the Department of Medicine's Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

"Prior to this study, clinicians debated about whether prioritizing fluid for resuscitation or initiating vasopressor therapy earlier was best for patients with septic shock," Rice said. "This trial demonstrates that both are acceptable treatment options and result in similar clinical outcomes. The CLOVERS trial represents the first trial to address this question in patients with septic shock, and the results are highly informative for clinicians caring for these patients," he said.

"The two approaches that we compared in the study are common in current clinical practice, but if you had two physicians treating a patient, they might not agree on the best approach," Semler said. "The trial aimed to determine if one of the approaches produced better outcomes than the other.

"It's difficult to make progress in the treatment of sepsis. Studies over the past 30 years have evaluated new drugs to treat sepsis, but none have worked. We think optimizing the use of treatments we already have may be a key to improving outcomes for patients with sepsis.

"VUMC's Center for Learning Healthcare and others are pushing researchers to not just look at potential new drugs, but to compare existing treatments to understand how to best use them."

Semler said there are still many unanswered questions about the treatment of patients with sepsis, including:

• Is it possible to personalize the amount of IV fluid given to each patient? Could it be that some patients need more and some need less?
• There are different types of fluids. Which should be used?
• What vasopressor should be used and when should it be started?
• What is the target blood pressure that should be achieved?
• Which antibiotics result in the best outcomes?

Semler said that questions like these are the focus of the Center for Learning Healthcare, which brings together clinicians, health system operations leaders and researchers to generate evidence in the course of health care delivery to continuously improve the quality, value and safety of health care offered to patients.

"Sepsis is just one of hundreds of acute illnesses. We should be doing the same type of research for gastrointestinal bleeds and acute respiratory failure and trauma, and not just in the hospital but in the clinic," Semler said. "We can't recommend and prescribe treatments without knowing for certain how well they work. We have to compare them to see which is best."

More information: Wesley H. Self et al, Early Restrictive or Liberal Fluid Management for Sepsis-Induced Hypotension, New England Journal of Medicine (2023). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2212663

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-01-early-interventions-sepsis-patients-identical.html